(EurActiv) — All 27 European Commissioners have agreed from next month to accept a 25% salary cut “as a gesture of solidarity with our weakened economies”, a spokesman for Commission President José Manuel Barroso announced today (1 April). EurActiv understands that the bid to show compassion for ordinary EU citizens was instigated by Barroso, who [...]
EU Commissioners Accept 25% ‘Solidarity’ Salary Cut
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Iranian Actress Asal Badiyi Dies In Hospital At Age 36
Iranian actress Asal Badiyi died of heart failure today at Tehran’s Loghman Hospital at the age of 36. According to Iranian media, Badiyi was being treated in the hospital’s intensive care unit since yesterday for “severe medical drug poisoning”. Mohammad Ahmadi, an Iranian film producer, reported that Badiyi’s body is being harvested for donor organs [...]
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Saudi Prince Bader Bin Abdul Aziz Dies
The Saudi Royal Court announced on Monday that Prince Bader Bin Abdul Aziz has died. “The funeral prayers will be held on Tuesday at the Imam Turki Mosque in Riyadh,” the court said in a brief statement, according to the Saudi Press Agency. The prince was 81 years old and the 20th son of King [...]
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Iraq Suicide Bomber Kills 9, Including 7 Policemen In Tikrit
At least 9 people have been killed after a suicide bomber drove a fuel truck laden with explosives into a government compound in Tikrit, Iraq. The attacker blew up the oil tanker at a building housing government administration offices, according to Reuters news agency. The bomb exploded at 8:40 local time (5:40 GMT) in the [...]
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White House Not Seeing Large-Scale Mobilizations By North Korea
The United States takes seriously North Korea’s war threats but has not seen any sort of large-scale mobilization of troops or positioning of forces by Pyongyang, the White House said on Monday. “We haven’t seen actions to back up the rhetoric,” White House spokesman Jay Carney told reporters. North Korea said last week it is [...]
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South Korea Vows ‘Strong Response’ To Attack From North; US Boosts Military Presence Off Peninsula
South Korea has changed its rules of engagement ordering its troops to immediately respond to provocations from the North. Following the deployment of F-22 stealth fighters, the US has now sent a destroyer into Korean coastal waters. On Monday, the South Korean president warned that the country’s military has been ordered to strike back without [...]
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US Soldiers Training To Invade Syria – Al Jazeera
According to Al Jazeera, US special forces are training for an operation to neutralize the chemical warfare stockpiles amassed by the Assad regime in Syria. Al Jazeera has learned that the United Nations is now considering all options, including a peacekeeping force, as part of its plan if Syria’s government falls. The UN always anticipated [...]
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Afghan Officials Say Opium Cultivation Rising
(RFE/RL) — Afghan officials say illegal opium cultivation in the country has increased this year despite efforts to target traffickers, and provide farmers with alternative livelihoods. Qayum Samir, a spokesman for Afghanistan’s Ministry of Counternarcotics told RFE/RL’s Radio Free Afghanistan on April 1 that an estimated 157,000 hectares of land are being illegally used for [...]
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Important Questions For Obama Nominees – OpEd
Interior, Energy and EPA nominees raise serious questions that need to be addressed By Craig Rucker In his second inaugural address, President Obama pledged to address “the threat of climate change” because no one can avoid “the devastating impact of raging fires, crippling droughts and more powerful storms.” The President had said nothing about climate [...]
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Should Egyptian TV Satirist Run For Office? – OpEd
By Linda Heard SINCE the early 20th century, the Arab world’s most populous country has been led by a succession of authoritarian ex-military figures and an engineer rooted in the Muslim Brotherhood. None were successful in delivering their nation from poverty and corruption and, arguably, given that the population is currently ideologically divided and teetering [...]
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US: Connecticut Passes Tough Post-Newtown Gun Regulations
Connecticut has passed a series of new gun regulations following the December massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary. After weeks of negotiations, the state will enact a new registry for high-capacity magazines, as well as background checks for gun purchases. According to state Senator Donald Williams, Jr., the negotiations led to the “strongest and most comprehensive [...]
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Venezuela Presidential Campaigning Set To Begin Tuesday
Venezuela is to launch Tuesday the country’s political campaigning before the early presidential elections which became necessary after the death of President Hugo Chavez on March 5th. The National Electoral Council designated polling day to be April 14th and limited campaigning to take place from the 2nd to the 11th of April. Interim president Nicolas [...]
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After The US, Karzai Gets Tough With Pakistan – Analysis
Fresh from the success of his “rant” diplomacy against the U.S., Afghan President Hamid Karzai now has Pakistan in his firing line. The provocation came on March 25, when a top Pakistani Foreign Ministry official was quoted by the media as saying, “Right now, Karzai is the biggest impediment to the (Afghan) peace process. In [...]
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When Workers Foot The Bill For Bailouts – OpEd
By Sam Pizzigati Peter Drucker, the analyst who founded modern management science, died in 2005 at age 95. When he died, business leaders worldwide hailed this Austrian-born American for his enormous contribution to enterprise efficiency and effectiveness. But Peter Drucker also cared deeply about enterprise morality. In his later years, he watched — and despaired [...]
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Successful Once, Protesters May Hesitate To Return To Streets
By Michael Hotchkiss As the long-term impact of the Arab Spring continues to take shape, research from political scientists at Princeton University and New York University warns that the protests that swept across the Middle East and North Africa could mark more of an isolated occurrence than a permanent rise of people power in the [...]
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Morocco: Trial Of Sahrawi Civilians Tainted, Says HRW
A Moroccan military court has sentenced 25 Sahrawis to prison, including nine to life sentences, without looking into their allegations that their confessions were extracted under torture and other forms of coercion. The defendants include several advocates of human rights and independence for Western Sahara. The confessions were apparently the primary, if not the only, [...]
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Eritrea: Scenarios For Future Transition
Change is in the air in Eritrea, a highly authoritarian state, but any political transition will require internal political inclusion and channels for external dialogue if it is to preserve stability and improve Eritrean life. Concerned Western partners, neighbours and other governments with special relations with Asmara need urgently to pay more attention to the [...]
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Look At The World From Behind The Wall – OpEd
By William A. Cook “Put yourself in their shoes. Look at the world through their eyes. It is not fair that a Palestinian child cannot grow up in a state of their own. Living their entire lives with the presence of a foreign army that controls the movements not just of those young people but [...]
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Jerusalem Agreement ‘To Thwart Israel Plans’
President Mahmoud Abbas signed a deal confirming Jordan’s role as custodian of Jerusalem holy sites in response to leaked reports that Israel planned to end Amman’s responsibility for the Al-Aqsa mosque, a Palestinian official said Monday. Abbas signed the agreement on Sunday during a brief visit to King Abdullah in Amman. “In this historic agreement, [...]
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Ten Years On, Iraqis Despondent About Future
By Laith Hammoudi “I never expected to say it, but I really yearn for the days of Saddam,” Alaa Naim said. What the 42-year-old Baghdad resident misses about life under the old regime is a basic sense of safety at a day-to-day level. Since 2003, his father and his uncle have both kidnapped in separate [...]
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