AP Headlines

Cabinet admits Iraq war mistakes

2010-02-09T18:41:00.001+01:00

he cabinet has admitted MPs could have been better informed about security service 'doubts and conjectures' about Iraq's supposed weapons of mass destruction in the run-up to the 2003 invasion.

And, in their formal response to last month's highly critical Davids commission report, ministers say they should have been more open about the US request for assistance prior to the war.

The Netherlands supported the invasion politically on the grounds that Saddam Hussein was breaking UN resolutions but did not send troops.

Read more >> | DutchNews.nl - Cabinet admits Iraq war mistakes

Ex-Lehman trader says EU should crack down on big banks

2010-02-09T13:21:00.001+01:00

nstead of addressing fundamental issues like the role of finance, politicians seem stuck in assuaging public anger, argues Sony Kapoor, a financial adviser to the EU and ex-Lehman Brothers derivates trader, in an interview with EurActiv.

Kapoor, whose think-tank Re-Define has been consulted by the European Parliament and the European Commission on financial regulation, says world leaders have so far shown a lack of vision in reshaping the post-crisis financial system, arguing that it will be up to the EU's competition authorities to clean up.

Outside Brussels, national leaders are missing the bigger picture, says Kapoor, though some have come up with "politically palatable" proposals.

Read more >> | EurActive

Europe loses seat at top table

2010-02-09T10:28:00.002+01:00

n Washington they're not sure who's in charge. In Brussels they're squabbling. Ian Traynor reports on the EU's crisis of confidence

Read more >> | The Guardian

See also >> | Tough snub - ECFR

Iran starts processing nuclear fuel towards weapons-grade strength

2010-02-09T10:20:00.001+01:00

ran today started to enrich its existing nuclear fuel stockpile towards weapons grade strength.

The move caused international alarm and gave new impetus to Western calls for new sanctions on Tehran despite opposition from China, which insists that negotiations could still succeed.

"Today we started to make 20 per cent enriched nuclear fuel... in the presence of IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency) inspectors at Natanz," an unnamed official told Iran's Arabic-language state television, al Alam.

Read more >> | Iran starts processing nuclear fuel towards weapons-grade strength - Times Online

341,956 of blank EU travel documents in criminal hands

2010-02-09T10:11:00.001+01:00

classified Dutch government report has revealed that criminals stole 341,956 passports, identity cards, visa stickers and drivers' licences from European government facilities since 2000.

Read more >> | nrc.nl - International - 341,956 of blank EU travel documents in criminal hands

The Euro’s Final Countdown?

2010-02-09T09:58:00.003+01:00

he introduction of the euro in 1999, it was claimed, would narrow the economic differences between the member countries of the monetary union. Unemployment rates would converge, as would other important macroeconomic variables, such as unit labor costs, productivity, and fiscal deficits and government debt. Ultimately, the differences in wealth, measured in terms of income per capita, would diminish as well.

After the common currency’s first decade, however, increased divergence, rather than rapid convergence, has become the norm within the euro area, and tensions can be expected to increase further.

Read more >> | The Euro’s Final Countdown? - Project Syndicate

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Nato suggests Afghan training role

2010-02-08T10:22:00.001+01:00

hristian Democrat and Labour MPs both support a suggestion by a Nato chief that Dutch soldiers remain in Afghanistan to train local troops, most newspapers report on Monday.

Labour has always been adamant that the Netherlands must start pulling out its forces in August, despite mounting pressure from the US and other allies for the Dutch to stay.

Read more >> | DutchNews.nl - Nato suggests Afghan training role

Hirsi Ali dates professor Ferguson

2010-02-08T10:00:00.003+01:00

ormer Dutch MP, presently exiled in the US, Hirsi Ali is said to have an affair with the internationally celebrated historian and TV presenter Niall Ferguson. He has broken up with his wife after 16 years.
The 45-year-old Harvard professor has left former newspaper editor Susan Douglas, with whom he has three children, for the Somalian-born feminist Ayaan Hirsi Ali.

Ms Hirsi Ali, 40, is a lawyer and former Dutch MP who wrote the script for a controversial film that criticised Islam and resulted in the assassination of its director. She is currently living under police protection in America.

Read more >> | Mail Online

Martens: 'Sarkozy blocked Juncker as EU president'

2010-02-07T17:08:00.002+01:00

ilfried Martens, the chair of the largest European party, sheds light on the secretive appointment of ‘European president’ Herman Van Rompuy.

Wilfried Martens (73) is a powerful man in Brussels. As the chair of the European People’s Party, Europe’s largest political party and the former prime minister of Belgium, he played an important behind-the-scenes role in the appointment of his compatriot Herman Van Rompuy to the newly created office of permanent president of the European Council.

Read more >> | nrc.nl - International - Europe - Martens: 'Sarkozy blocked Juncker as EU president'

New mistake found in UN climate report

2010-02-06T23:54:00.001+01:00

he UN climate change panel IPCC not only wrongly predicted Himalayan glaciers would disappear by 2035, it also put more than half of the Netherlands below sea level.

The Dutch environment minister, Jaqueline Cramer, on Wednesday demanded a thorough investigation into the 2007 report by the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change after a Dutch magazine uncovered it incorrectly states 55 percent of the country lies below sea level. The the Dutch national bureau for environmental analysis has taken responsibility for the incorrect figure cited by the IPCC. Only 26 percent of the Netherlands is really below sea level.

Read more >> | nrc.nl - International - New mistake found in UN climate report

Marry Him!

2010-02-05T18:05:00.002+01:00

y advice is this: Settle! That’s right. Don’t worry about passion or intense connection. Don’t nix a guy based on his annoying habit of yelling “Bravo!” in movie theaters. Overlook his halitosis or abysmal sense of aesthetics. Because if you want to have the infrastructure in place to have a family, settling is the way to go. Based on my observations, in fact, settling will probably make you happier in the long run, since many of those who marry with great expectations become more disillusioned with each passing year.

Muddling Out of Freefall

2010-02-05T17:51:00.005+01:00

bama wanted to bridge the divides among Americans that George W. Bush had opened. But now those divides are wider. His attempts to please everyone, so evident in the last few weeks, are likely to mollify no one.

By Joseph E. Stiglitz

Read more >> | Muddling Out of Freefall - Project Syndicate

Cabinet reaches compromise on Afghanistan

2010-02-05T16:21:00.001+01:00

inisters have reached a compromise on extending the Dutch mission in Afghanistan past the August deadline, magazine Elsevier reports on its website, quoting cabinet sources.

The magazine says the proposal, which involves staying in Afghanistan with a much smaller force, will be discussed by the full cabinet on Friday.

DutchNews.nl - Cabinet reaches compromise on Afghanistan

Investors Fear Europe’s Woes May Extend Global Slump

2010-02-05T11:35:00.002+01:00

ust as America’s recession begins to ebb, trouble is brewing in Europe that may prolong a downturn on the Continent and ricochet through the global economy as it struggles toward a recovery.

Read more >> | The New York Times

Crumbling Europe?

2010-02-05T11:31:00.001+01:00

he worry du jour is the Iberian peninsula — Spain and Portugal. Greece is at least temporarily set aside. Watch for Ireland and Italy to join the list at some point.

The euro block may be solid at the core — France, Germany, the Netherlands — but it is vulnerable at the fringes. These countries are facing huge budget deficits and the difficulty of competing economically without devaluing their currency. If they had not joined the euro, the devaluations would have taken place some time ago. Now they cannot.

Read more >> | The New York Times

Stop perverting Anne Frank’s diary

2010-02-03T18:38:00.002+01:00

anning the diary from schools because she wrote about sex is bizarre. But so are the attempts to turn it into a guide to life.

By Nathalie Rothschild

Read more >> | Spiked - Nathalie Rothschild

US blames Lisbon Treaty for EU summit fiasco

2010-02-03T10:20:00.001+01:00

he US State Department has said that President Barack Obama's decision not to come to an EU summit in Madrid in May is partly due to confusion arising from the Lisbon Treaty.

State department spokesman Philip J. Crowley told press in Washington on Tuesday (2 February) that the treaty has made it unclear who the US leader should meet and when.

"Up until recently, they [summits] would occur on six-month intervals, as I recall, with one meeting in Europe and one meeting here. And that was part of – the foundation of that was the rotating presidency within the EU. Now you have a new structure regarding not only the rotating EU presidency, you've got an EU Council president, you've got a European Commission president," he said.

Read more >> | EUobserver / US blames Lisbon Treaty for EU summit fiasco

Amazon vs. Apple: What Should E-Book Prices Be?

2010-02-03T09:53:00.002+01:00

mazon has backed down from its weekend dispute with Macmillan, agreeing to charge the publisher's higher prices for Kindle editions rather than its preferred $9.99. But the long-term questions about e-book pricing remain.

Read more >> | The Atlantic

No US-EU summit in May

2010-02-03T00:24:00.001+01:00

S dashes Spanish plans for Madrid summit this spring.
The US government has confirmed that President Barack Obama will not meet EU leaders in Madrid this spring as planned by Spain, the current holder of the EU's rotating presidency.

Philip Gordon, the assistant secretary of state in charge of relations with Europe, told reporters in Washington yesterday (1 February) that Obama “never had on his schedule a trip for a spring US-EU summit” and that a summit in Spain “was not on his agenda in the first place”.

Read more >> | No US-EU summit in May | Policies | Foreign affairs | Americas | European Voice

Saab’s new owner has history of unpaid debt

2010-02-02T18:51:00.001+01:00

ictor Muller, the man behind Spyker's acquisition of Swedish car maker Saab deal, has never been shy to put other people’s money to use, sometimes losing it in the process.

Dutch sports car manufacturer Spyker last week bought Saab from its American owner General Motors, saving the Swedish auto maker from certain demise. The deal is considered so important, even the Dutch prime minister felt inclined to comment on it during his weekly press conference on Friday. „A tour de force by Victor Muller”, is how Jan Peter Balkenende called the takeover. “You need guts to pull a move like this,” said the prime minister, a long-time friend of Muller’s and fellow car aficionado.

Read more >> | nrc.nl - International - Saab’s new owner has history of unpaid debt

Deception helps illegal immigrants sneak into EU

2010-02-02T09:35:00.001+01:00

llegal immigrants and Dutch customs officials are caught in a game of cat and mouse. The frontline: Amsterdam's Schiphol airport.

Some of them might suddenly change queues, taking their chances with an official that looks more lenient. Others may come down the escalator as a group, only to split up as soon as they enter the customs officials' line of sight. Sometimes a sloppily done necktie or a pair of white sneakers under a black suit will give them away. Sometimes the question “what is your passport number?” will. If they proceed to rattle it off, they have fallen for it, Erwin Rasterhoff, a customs official at Schiphol airport explained. “Nobody knows their passport number by heart.”

Read more >> | nrc.nl - International - Deception helps illegal immigrants sneak into EU

Debating Defense

2010-02-01T23:35:00.005+01:00

dozen international think tanks are organizing a worldwide on-line debate, to be held from February 4-9, in association with NATO, the European Commission, and several governments. The debate will be open not just to defense experts, but also to non-governmental organizations, development specialists, and anyone with views on where global security thinking should be headed.

The five-day Internet debate will include 10 topics, ranging from human rights to piracy, from crisis preparedness to climate change, and from development to conflict prevention. Discussion will be sparked by on-line appearances by top military, political, and civil-society leaders, who will debate with participants. Anyone interested in taking part can log on from anywhere in the world to pose questions or comment on what is being said, but they need first to sign up at www.securityjam.org.

Read more >> | Project Syndicate - Debating Defense

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EU sticks to 20% climate target

2010-02-01T23:12:00.001+01:00

U decides against unilateral increase in its emissions-reduction target.

The European Union today made a formal declaration to the United Nations that it will stick to its target to cut greenhouse-gas emissions by 20% by 2020.

All big-polluting countries are required to file an emissions-reduction pledge to the United Nations climate secretariat in Bonn by Sunday (31 January) at the latest, a deadline agreed at last month's summit in Copenhagen.

Read more >> | EU sticks to 20% climate target | Policies | Climate change | Politics | European Voice

Trouble in the Euro Zone

2010-02-01T20:04:00.001+01:00

he real action at Davos, I am continually assured, lies in the casual behind-the-scenes meetings. But for those of us not wealthy or famous enough to fly to Switzerland, what Davos means is the large public meetings where wealthy and powerful people get together to make lengthy but uncontroversial statements about the problems facing our little globe. It’s the spoken equivalent of “We Are the World.”

Read more >> | Trouble in the Euro Zone - The Atlantic

Dutch minister: 'Don’t confuse integration with assimilation'

2010-02-01T19:42:00.002+01:00

ntegration should not be confused with assimilation, the Netherlands’ European affairs minister said. “You can ask people to change their attitude according to social requirements, but you cannot ask them to change who they are,” Frans Timmermans said Wednesday, speaking with press at a roundtable meeting in Ankara.

Read more >>| Dutch minister: 'Don’t confuse integration with assimilation' - Hurriyet Daily News and Economic Review