Greece and Ireland are among countries in an “intolerable” economic situation, which may lead to bailouts or even an exit from the euro area by the end of next year, according to Standard Bank Plc. The absence of a mechanism to permit so-called fiscal transfers within the 16-nation region may undermine the exchange-rate system, said Steve Barrow, head of Group of 10 foreign-exchange strategy at the bank in London. Concern some nations will need to be rescued may drive the premium investors demand to hold 10-year Greek debt instead of benchmark German bunds to 400 basis points next year, from 214 basis points today, he said. The Irish premium may also jump, he said. “Countries like Ireland and Greece may not be able to grow out of the current crisis,” Barrow said in a telephone interview today. “With interest-rate cuts, exchange-rate depreciation and significant fiscal support all off limits for these countries, bailouts or even pullouts from EMU may happen next year.” The Irish Finance Ministry called the suggestion it might leave the euro area “uninformed comment,” and Greece said there was no chance it would leave. The widening difference in yield, or spread, between Greek and Irish bonds and German securities may accelerate, increasing the debt burden for these countries, he wrote in a report today. The Irish-German 10-year spread may rise to 300 basis points next year, from about 170 basis points, he said. The spread averaged about 43 basis points in the past five years, with the Greek-German average at 67 basis points in the period. “This suggestion is an example of completely uninformed comment,” the Irish finance ministry said in a statement today. “As the Minister for Finance stated nine months ago, it is akin to stating that Texas will leave the dollar.” Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou said that European Central Bank President Jean-Claude Trichet and Luxembourg Prime Minister Jean-Claude Juncker see “no possibility” of a Greek default. “There is no possibility of a default for Greece,” Papandreou told reporters at a European Union summit in Brussels. He also said there was no possibility of Greece leaving the euro area.
Cyprus ranks first worldwide as regards the installation of solar systems for hot water and it is the sixth best performer among the 27 EU countries as regards installed capacity of photovoltaic systems per capita, with its total installed capacity reaching 3MW, Minister of Commerce, Industry and Tourism Antonis Paschalides has said. Addressing the 2nd Annual General Meeting of the Association of Wind Energy in Cyprus, Paschalides said that progress in renewable energy sources must be the result of consensus and collective action, adding that it is true that the licensing for the operation of wind farms is slow due to the large number of authorities involved. He assured that the Ministry of Commerce is making a systematic and concerted effort to reduce the time required for the full authorisation of such projects. The Minister noted that the contribution of renewable energy sources to energy in Cyprus was quite small until 2005 while with the implementation of measures, initiatives and incentives in 2008 renewable energy sources constituted 4.5% of the total energy consumption in the country. Undoubtedly, he added, wind systems are expected to contribute, in the coming years, the largest percentage of electricity than any other renewable energy technologies in Cyprus.
A leaked Danish document at the U.N. climate conference provoked angry criticism Tuesday from developing countries and activists who feared it would shift more of the burden to curb greenhouse gases on poorer countries. Negotiators, meanwhile, displayed charts of data that said the current decade is on track to be the hottest on record for planet Earth. At the heart of Tuesday's clash — stemming from draft texts attributed to Denmark and China — is the determination by the more impoverished states to bear a lesser burden than wealthy, more industrialized countries in the effort to slow global warming. Diplomats from developing countries and climate activists also complained the Danish hosts had pre-empted the negotiations with their draft proposal, prepared before the two-week conference began. The Danish draft proposal circulating at the 192-nation conference chips away at the wall between what developed and developing nations can be expected to do to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases. The Danish proposal would allow rich countries to cut fewer emissions while poorer nations would face tougher limits on greenhouse gases and more conditions on money available to adapt. A sketchy counterproposal attributed to China would extend the 1997 Kyoto Protocol, which required 37 industrial nations to reduce emissions of carbon dioxide and other gases blamed for global warming by an average 5 percent by 2012, compared with 1990 levels. The Chinese text would incorporate specific new, deeper targets for the industrialized world for a further five to eight years. Developing countries, on the other hand, including China, would be covered by a separate agreement that envisions their taking actions to control emissions, but not in the same legally binding way. No targets would be specified for them. Poorer nations believe the two-track approach would best preserve the principle of "common but differentiated responsibilities" recognized by the Kyoto Protocol. Such draft ideas are usual grist early in such long, difficult international talks. These two proposals were not yet even recorded as official conference documents. Earlier Tuesday, the U.N.'s weather agency boosted the sense of urgency surrounding the conference with data showing this decade is on track to be the hottest since records began in 1850, with 2009 the fifth-warmest year ever. The second warmest decade was the 1990s. The last few decades are the warmest period in at least 400 years and probably 1,000 years, based on evidence from tree rings, retreating glaciers and other scientific methods to track climate before record-keeping, according to a 2006 report by the U.S. National Academy of Sciences. Although temperatures have fluctuated, the causes were natural. The difference now is that they are being driven up by human activity, that modern civilization has many more coastal cities and needs to feed far more people, and that scientists believe humans can head off such dangerous warming. According to the U.S. space agency NASA, the other warmest years since 1850 have been 2005, 1998, 2007 and 2006. NASA says the differences in readings among these years are so small as to be statistically insignificant. The U.N. agency reported that the global combined sea surface and land surface temperature for the January-October 2009 period is estimated at 0.44 degrees C (0.79 degrees F) above the 1961-1990 annual average of 14.00 degrees C (57.2 degrees F), with a margin of error of plus or minus 0.11 degrees C. Final data will be released early in 2010.
NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen says he "welcomes the steps Serbia had recently taken in order to promote its cooperation with NATO". Rasmussen told Belgrade daily Blic that it is "up to the citizens of Serbia to decide whether the country's membership in the Alliance would be useful for Serbia". According to the newspaper, the NATO chief said that he does not see the Declaration of Neutrality, proclaimed by the Serbian Parliament, as an obstacle to the development of cooperation between NATO and Serbia. Many neutral countries, such as Austria and Finland for example, are considerably engaged as NATO's partners, said Rasmussen, adding that Serbia had joined Partnership for Peace Program in late 2006, but that it had "not fully used the program's potential over the past period". "I hope that Serbia will become more active, but it is up to your government to decide whether it wants to do that," said Rasmussen. As for the western military alliance's announcements it would scaled down its presence in Kosovo by 2,500 soldiers, he stated that this was a "gradual transition of KFOR units toward a conflict-deterring force", which comes as a "natural result of increased and sustainable normalization of the security situation on the ground in Kosovo".
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev will meet with NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen on Wednesday, the Kremlin press service said on Monday. Rasmussen arrives in Moscow on Tuesday for a three-day working visit. The NATO head is also expected to meet with Prime Minister Vladimir Putin and Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov. A new pan-European security architecture proposed by Russia is expected to be high on the agenda. Russia published a draft treaty on November 29, sending copies to heads of state and international organizations, including NATO. Although Western nations say they are open to discuss the plan, diplomats have voiced concerns that it is an attempt to replace or weaken NATO, or limit the ability of nations to join the Western alliance without Russia's approval.
The five young Americans accused last week of traveling from Washington to Pakistan to wage jihad cap what appears to be a record year for homegrown terror plots, exposing a dangerous trend that experts say poses the biggest challenge America's security officials have ever faced. Not including the Pakistan case, the Rand Corporation says that of the nearly 30 homegrown terror plots uncovered in the U.S. since Sept. 11, 2001, 10 surfaced in this year alone, including two actual attacks — in Little Rock, Ark. and Fort Hood, Texas. That puts "the level of activity in 2009 much higher than that of previous years," Rand Senior Adviser Brian Jenkins told the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee last month. "There's definitely a rise in jihad recruits and volunteers in the United States, whether they're concerning plots here in the U.S. or whether they involve material support to terror plots overseas," says counterterrorism analyst Steve Emerson, author of "American Jihad: The Terrorists Living Among Us." According to Rand, U.S. policy decisions are another contributing factor. "American foreign policy should not be determined by a handful of shooters and would-be bombers, but we must accept the fact that what America does in the Middle East, Afghanistan, and Pakistan may provoke terrorism in the United States," Jenkins said in his testimony. "Wars are no longer confined geographically." Emerson says it's not the location of the wars, but the way they are perceived. "I can tell you that the one common denominator in almost all of the cases are the views held by the jihadists that we've arrested or identified in terms of their believing that there's a war against Islam," he said. Frank Cilluffo, director of the George Washington University Homeland Security Policy Institute, says American prisons have become a breeding ground for this kind of radicalization. "Just as young people may become radicalized by 'cut-and-paste' versions of the Koran via the Internet, new inmates may gain the same distorted understanding of the faith from gang leaders or other influential inmates," he said. The Internet and those "cut-and-paste" versions of the Koran are the other major factor, he says, in matching the long-held intent for these attacks with the capability to organize them. "The Internet is very significant here, for those who turn to, say, Google for their facts. There's a lot of violent narrative out there ... it has grown exponentially and continues to grow exponentially," he said. "The killer 'application' of the Internet is the people," he added. "Affirmation from like-minded people around the world — it plays that uniting kind of role." "Giving its victims a chance to make their stories heard as well will cast a harsh light on Al Qaeda's actions, helping delegitimize and deglamorize the terrorist narrative. End of story."
Unbelievable but true: the headquarters of the Secretariat for the entry of Turkey into the European Union is a building confiscated from the Orthodox Christian community in the 90s. The building is located in Istanbul, in the well-known area of Ortakoy, under the first bridge over the Bosphorus. Before the seizure, the building was used as a primary school for children of the minority Orthodox in Ortakoy. Here, once lived a thriving Orthodox community, now non-existent because of past purges against minorities, executed by the "secular" Turkish State. Thanks to the policy of purging, the building and many other schools, at one point found themselves without students, unused and then confiscated. The forfeiture rule however prevented foundations - owners of buildings - from allocating them to different uses. The community of Ortakoy appealed to the administrative courts in Istanbul, which have yet to rule on the issue. In case of a ruling to the contrary, the Orthodox intend to apply to the court in Strasbourg. The inauguration of the Secretariat took place in the presence of Prime Minister Erdogan, accompanied by Minister for European Affairs Bajis and by various authorities and European representation. The event has aroused unease in diplomatic circles in Brussels, so much so that on the eve of the inauguration, a senior government official visited Patriarch Bartholomew I to let them know that the courts decision will be respected. The question also arises whether the current Turkish government aware of the building’s history. Meanwhile in Brussels some discomfort is spreading towards politicians who are champions of Turkey’s entry into the EU. Ankara has not yet shown a convincing European orientation, it is believed that the "champions" are tied to the country by economic and financial interests. One suggestion for resolving the issue comes from Lakis Vigas, representative of minorities in Turkey in the General Directorate of Foundations. Interviewed by the newspaper Milliyet on the case of Ortakoy, he says a possible solution would be if the Ortakoy foundation were granted the possibility to lease the building to the Turkish nation. This gesture would have a noble purpose: the entry of Turkey into the EU the "source of our hopes."