UK & Euro-Asian News -- Signs of the Times News

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Ethiopian plane 'exploded' after take-off

Agence France Presse
Tue, 09 Feb 2010 17:07 EST

Beirut - An Ethiopian jet which crashed off Lebanon's coast last month exploded after take-off, Lebanon's health minister said on Tuesday in the first such official comment since the mysterious crash.

Remarks by Jawad Khalifeh could not be immediately confirmed by other officials in Beirut and came as Ethiopian Airlines said one of the plane's black boxes has been sent to France for analysis.

"The plane exploded during flight and the cabin, as well as the bodies of those on board were dispersed into the sea, in different locations," Khalifeh said to explain why some corpses were found dismembered.

Associated Press
Tue, 09 Feb 2010 13:25 EST

Dutch police say they have evacuated hundreds of passengers from a train and cleared the station where it was stopped after witnesses reported a man threatened to blow it up.

Spokeswoman Marika Stewart says the man has been taken into custody from the station in Den Bosch, and investigators with dogs are searching the train. So far no explosives have been found.

DPA
Tue, 09 Feb 2010 13:22 EST

All flights to and from Greece will be disrupted Wednesday as civil aviation workers plan to join a civil servants' strike, while the country attempts to tackle a debt crisis that has shaken the entire European Union and single currency. The walkout in protest against the government's austerity measures - which include wage freezes and bonus cuts - will affect state schools, hospitals, tax offices and local government offices.

Greece's financial credibility has taken a battering since October, after the newly-elected Socialist government said its deficit for the year was likely to hit 12.7 per cent of gross domestic product (GDP), rather than the 3.5 per cent predicted earlier.

Kim Willsher
Guardian.co.uk
Mon, 08 Feb 2010 21:13 EST

French children are to be given a "citizen's handbook" to teach them to be better republicans, as part of national identity measures announced by the government today.

Schools will be ordered to fly the French flag and to have a copy of the 1789 Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen in every classroom.

The measures, announced by the French prime minister, François Fillon, are the first to emerge from the country's controversial debate on national identity.

Under new rules, immigrants who come to live in France, who since 2007 have had to sign a contract of welcome and integration, will have to take part in a more solemn ceremony to become French citizens. They will also be expected to demonstrate a better command of the French language and a greater knowledge of the "values of the republic". All candidates will be required to sign a "charter" outlining their rights and responsibilities.

The Ecologist
Fri, 15 Jan 2010 18:59 EST

Survey finds that school children are being exposed to harmful pesticides, but schools claim safer alternatives would be 'uneconomic'

A survey of 206 local authorities in the UK has found that school children may be exposed to four potentially cancer-causing pesticides.

The research, carried out by the Health and Environment Alliance (HEAL) and Pesticides Action Network (PAN), identified the use of carcinogens and pesticides to control rabbits, rats and weeds on school premises.

One substance, glyphosate, is the active ingredient in Monsanto's herbicide RoundUp and is commonly used to kill weeds on hard playgrounds and paths. It has also been linked to lymphoma.

Ambrose Evans-Pritchard
Telegraph
Tue, 02 Feb 2010 18:30 EST

Key members of the European Parliament are drawing up plans to whittle away Britain's power to veto decisions by the EU's new apparatus of financial super regulators, a move that may leave the City of London without defence against threatening proposals.

The Euro-MPs in charge of drafting the rules for oversight bodies covering banking and markets aim to make it much harder for Britain or other states to use an "emergency brake" to block decisions on regulation, and perhaps to strip them of their veto altogether.

France and Russia in Warship Deal

BBC News
Mon, 08 Feb 2010 08:53 EST

France has agreed to sell Russia an advanced warship and is considering a request from Moscow for three others, French defence officials say.

It would be the first arms deal of its kind between Russia and a Nato member.

It remains unclear when or where the 23,000-tonne Mistral-class warship will be built.

The deal, which would increase Russia's capacity to launch amphibious offensives, will alarm ex-Soviet states such as Georgia, analysts say.

Russia and Georgia fought a short war in August 2008.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy had approved the sale of one Mistral, but Moscow naval officials had then asked for a further three ships, said Jacques de Lajugie of the French arms agency DGA.

China's hawks demand cold war on the US

Michael Sheridan
The Sunday Times
Sun, 07 Feb 2010 08:29 EST

More than half of Chinese people questioned in a poll believe China and America are heading for a new "cold war".

The finding came after battles over Taiwan, Tibet, trade, climate change, internet freedom and human rights which have poisoned relations in the three months since President Barack Obama made a fruitless visit to Beijing.

According to diplomatic sources, a rancorous postmortem examination is under way inside the US government, led by officials who think the president was badly advised and was made to appear weak.

In China's eyes, the American response - which includes a pledge by Obama to get tougher on trade - is a reaction against its rising power.

Thomas
MyNews.in
Sun, 07 Feb 2010 05:56 EST

President Dmitry Medvedev has signed his country's new military doctrine which allows preventive nuclear strikes against potential aggressors.

''The President informed the members of Russia's Security Council yesterday that he has approved two documents - the military doctrine and the Fundamentals of the state policy on nuclear deterrence until 2020,'' presidential press secretary Natalia Timakova said.

''Military conflicts will be transient and selective, with a high degree of damage caused to targets, manoeuvrable troops and fire, and with the use of various mobile groups of troops (forces),'' the doctrine, which was published on the Kremlin website, said.

''The seizure of strategic initiative, dominance on the ground, at sea, and in aerospace will be the decisive factors in attaining goals,'' it said.

Jenny Booth
Times Online
Sun, 07 Feb 2010 19:51 EST

Gordon Brown is for the first time to admit that he did strike a deal with Tony Blair to carve up the Labour leadership at Granita restaurant in Islington, it was reported today.

In an interview to be broadcast next weekend, the Prime Minister will tell Piers Morgan that Mr Blair did secretly promise to hand over power to him later, but that the two men later fought bitterly after Mr Blair failed to keep his end of the bargain.

"It is really explosive stuff - neither Brown nor Blair has even gone on the record before about their famous deal which dogged them for years," a source involved in the show told the News of the World.

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