Let,s save Europe before it is too late

Plummeting exchange rates, widening trade deficit, formidable foreign currency loans and severe recession, all the ingredients of a typical crisis of the years 1980 and 1990 in a distant third-world choked by debt appear together . Except that the disorder comes from Eastern Europe, many of whom are now members of the European Union (EU). This part of Europe experienced a period of economic euphoria fueled by foreign investment, the desire to catch up with life in the West and hope to soon join the euro zone. Critics argue – not without reason – that some countries of Eastern Europe were not prepared to enter the EU, they have overlooked or botched reforms and they have squandered billions of euros’ loans to artificially support their consumption and development. Read the rest of this entry »

Black tea, green tea, and ovaries are protected

The Swedish research teams continue to surprise us by publishing the results of their monitoring of thousands of people over several years.

Their latest discovery? Tea, green or black, very effectively protects ovarian cancer.

Drinking tea, black or green, very effectively protects ovarian cancer. This is just to show a very large Swedish study which has compiled the records of 61,000 women between 1987 and 2004. It shows that consumption of tea is protective and that this effect is dose-dependent drinking:
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Mugabe still has delusions of grandeur

His country Cree famine, but the president intends to gorging on champagne and caviar on the occasion of his 85th birthday. His supporters are mobilizing to raise the necessary funds.On 21 February, President Mugabe is celebrating its 85th anniversary, and the zealots of the National Union of Zimbabwe African Patriotic Front (ZANU-PF) party, have the firm intention to ensure that the event remains forever in memory of their glorious leader. These days, they went to fish “gifts” from companies Zimbabwean armed with a list of commissions hard to believe in a country where 7 million people survive on international food aid, where 94% of people are unemployed and where cholera wreaked havoc on a population weakened by hunger. Read the rest of this entry »

Days are favourable for Berlusconi

Despite the conviction of the lawyer in a financial matter, the head of government was not worried. He takes his impunity, his control of the media and the weariness of the public.”Tell me a little is David Mills, co-chairman of the Council, which has just been sentenced for corruption, but the opposition leader resigns, what strange country, Italy, ” writes a fellow American journalist. Read the rest of this entry »

When banking secrecy is at risk

Again, errors of the country require UBS to change time [pursued by the justice of the United States for helping U.S. citizens evade taxes, UBS is believed Release case. On 18 February, the Swiss bank had in effect agreed to pay a fine of $ 780 million and deliver the names of 250 customers. But Washington now requires information on secret accounts 52 000]. Having financed its rescue last fall [the bank has lost 13 billion euros in 2008], behold, the sacrifice on behalf of his survival a secret banking Kaspar Villiger, former finance minister and former president of the Swiss Confederation, said he was not negotiable and that the President of the Swiss Bankers introduced in 2004 as “concrete” for fifteen years.  Read the rest of this entry »

A port, Sir

There are many good things to say about the plan. But ultimately, it is not as good as it could be because it is too stingy and too focused on the tax benefits. The rescue of banks is, however, an enigma and at best a political fiasco. If Barack Obama is proving difficult, because there is no popular movement to the left that inspires them to go far beyond what they aspire – even in its ideals. Of course there are intellectuals on the left, as Paul Krugman, who beat the drum for the nationalization of banks and a fund to revive at least 1 000 billion. I am not talking about intellectuals, but capable of movement to shake the electorate and generate a real anger. Instead, what takes the place of popular left is either unable to act, either in the pocket of Obama.  Read the rest of this entry »

The end of a growth model

Triggered by the bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers in September 2008, the financial crisis is now biting, with an unprecedented force, the Japanese economy. The Minister of Economic and Fiscal Policy Kaoru Yosano, who had handled the crisis “bee sting”, has revised its decision at a press conference held on 16 February. “This is the worst crisis that the country has known since the end of the Second World War,” he said. The Toyota case is one example. The automaker was forced to revise downwards its forecasts for annual results three times and recorded an operating loss of 450 billion yen [3.8 million euros] in FY 2008. “We never imagined us in a similar situation,” said one member of management.  Read the rest of this entry »

A year later Kosovo still looking for an identity

Citizenship “Kosovo” is now in various forms and records that we have to fulfill. On 17 February 2009, placards announce everywhere “evenings for independence” and customers flocked to nightclubs to celebrate this national holiday in the Constitution. Parallel to the national jubilation, the series of international recognition of independence [55 States have so far recognized Kosovo] feed the pages of our newspapers and columnists criticize the effort, never enough, diplomats. In 2009, the government will invest 4 million euros in the communication and public relations to speed up the process of recognition.  Read the rest of this entry »

U.S. policy of Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan

Seven years after the fall of the Taliban, an insurgency conducted by them and by other groups is gaining ground on both sides of the Pakistan-Afghanistan border. Four years after the first presidential election in the history of Afghanistan, the government of Hamid Karzai, still contested, lost credibility in his country and abroad. Al-Qaida has found a new refuge in Pakistani tribal areas, where it is defended by a new organization, the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan [Taliban Movement of Pakistan, banned in August 2008]. In Islamabad, the government – plagued by political crises and repeatedly torn between an army traditionally highly autonomous and elected leaders with confidence in themselves but champions of the plot – is unable to maintain control of its territory and of its population. Its services are accused of supporting terrorism in Afghanistan, which in many respects knocked Kashmir as the main theater of the interminable conflict between India and Pakistan.  Read the rest of this entry »

The biological father of modern science

One is struck by the extraordinary ability of Darwin to predict the evolution of biology to the present day and beyond. The “long argument” in The Origin of Species mark the beginnings of the science of biology, and all modern biologists working in his shadow. Many pages are devoted to individual differences, the raw material of evolution. Today, genetics tells us that eggs and sperm produced by the billions of men and women who populated the planet since the beginning of our species are all unique, which was unimaginable at the time of Darwin. Similarly, the scientist never thought it could be a witness to the “survival of the fittest.” Nowadays, with the AIDS virus or longer legs of the toad-buffalo as it developed in Australia, this observation is common.  Read the rest of this entry »