Army chief’s dismissal splits Nepal

Army chief’s dismissal splits Nepal

By Prateek Pradhan in Katmandu and Amy Kazmin in New Delhi

Published: May 3 2009 12:46 | Last updated: May 3 2009 18:52

Nepal’s ruling Maoists sacked the country’s army chief for insubordination on Sunday, splitting the fragile ruling coalition and jeopardising a 2006 peace deal that ended the country’s decade-long civil war.

The removal of Gen Rook Mangud Katawal, who was four months away from retirement, follows weeks of tension between the general and the government led by Prime Minister Puspa Kamal Dahal, the former Maoist guerrilla leader, better known by his nom de guerre Prachanda.

The premier’s Unified Communist Party of Nepal (Maoists) accused the army chief of disobeying their instructions not to recruit 2,800 fresh troops, amid a dispute about the integration of 19,000 former Maoist combatants – now being held in United Nations camps – into the security forces.

Nepal’s 100,000-man army is highly suspicious of its former adversaries, the Maoist rebels, while the Maoists accuse the army of refusing to accept the supremacy of the civilian government.

However, both the Maoists’ political allies and their opponents, as well as foreign countries backing the peace process, had warned that to sack the army chief could precipitate a return to hostilities by the former adversaries.

President Ram Baran Yadav, who has links to the opposition Nepali Congress Party, refused to approve the sacking, or to recognise the man named by the Maoists as the new army chief, Gen Kul Bahadur Khadka, who was Gen Katawal’s second-in-command.

Rajendra Dahal, the president’s press adviser, said President Yadav had sent a letter to the government stating the sacking is illegal. Gen Katawal is also expected to appeal to the Supreme Court.

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Aleppo Hit by Crime Wave

Spate of murders and armed robberies are linked to economic downturn.

By an IWPR-trained reporter (23-Apr-09)
Serious crime is on the rise in Syria's industrial capital, Aleppo, against a backdrop of soaring unemployment resulting from the global financial crisis.

Residents are calling for the authorities to tackle increased job losses and inner-city deprivation - factors they say are behind the crime wave.

Since the beginning of the year, local armed gangs have committed a series of high-profile crimes - most of them in broad daylight - in the northern city's fashionable and upper class neighbourhoods.

Twenty-seven people have been murdered since January 1, according to a March 26 report in the pro-government newspaper Al-Watan.

Around 20 armed robberies occurred in the heart of the city in the first three months of the year, reported the pro-government website Syrian Days.

In February, armed men raided a popular downtown market, shooting and killing a local merchant. That same month, burglars robbed a local factory, and a 15-year-old boy shot and killed five members of his family in their home before taking money and gold from the house.

In March, two armed men raided a store selling gold trinkets, killing one customer and injuring another. Also in March, a former member of parliament and his wife were shot to death in their upmarket home by robbers.

Most of the perpetrators of these crimes have been arrested, according to local media reports.

Meanwhile, public officials and news organisations have called on law enforcement agencies to step up security and have also urged city officials to find ways to fight growing unemployment.

They believe job losses are stirring local anger and unrest, driving some to commit crimes just to make ends meet, a police officer told Al-Watan on March 26.

An Aleppo-based political analyst, who preferred not to be named, said the increase in crime has its roots in larger social and economic problems.

"The city of Aleppo is surrounded by some of the poorest slums in the country, which has always been a breeding ground for crime," he said.

"The difference now is that the crimes have become more violent and brazen."

As well as rising crime, local media have reported an increase in suicides among young people.

"The suicides are also a new development and could be closely tied to depression among those who have recently lost their jobs," said the analyst.

On the surface, Aleppo seems calm with tourists and youngsters crowding popular restaurants and coffee shops. However, reports of increased violence appear to have made some locals wary.

"My friends and I used to stay out until three or four in the morning, but now we try to get home earlier," said an engineering student at the University of Aleppo.

Locals say the increased police presence in the city centre does not do much to reassure them.

"Rather than looking for armed criminals, many officers will hang outside popular night spots and threaten to arrest us for drinking if we don't pay them off," said the engineering student.

Several other men and women who enjoy the Aleppo nightlife shared similar stories with IWPR.

"Although some officers work hard to combat these violent crimes, the Aleppo police system as a whole is riddled with corruption," said a local lawyer.

While there are no official unemployment statistics for Aleppo, local media reports note that more than 80 textile factories with headquarters in the city have been shut down while many others are close to bankruptcy.

"Some large factories fired hundreds of workers at a time," a local merchant said. "The problem extends from the big factories to the smaller ones."

People used to come to the city seeking work and now there are no longer any opportunities, the political analyst said.

"Many of these problems [with crime] have always existed, but the financial crisis and rising unemployment has brought everything to the surface," said a taxi driver who lives in one Aleppo's poor neighbourhoods.

"If no serious steps are taken to improve the situation - not just by finding jobs, but by combating poor living conditions in the slums and corruption among law enforcement - things will only get worse."

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Israel Will Accept Palestinian State, Rejects Syria Peace Talks
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By Gwen Ackerman and Jonathan Ferziger

May 4 (Bloomberg) -- The new Israeli government of Benjamin Netanyahu gave the strongest signal yet that it would accept a Palestinian state, while rejecting peace negotiations with Syria.

“We do want to see peace and do understand that long-term peace and stability will entail a two-state solution,” Deputy Foreign Minister Daniel Ayalon said in an interview.

Israel will honor the previous government’s commitments and accept the internationally backed 2002 peace plan, or road map, which calls for the creation of a Palestinian state, Ayalon said, in the most explicit acceptance of Palestinian statehood since Netanyahu formed a government in March.

In an interview yesterday in his Jerusalem office, Ayalon, 53, said Iran is “vulnerable” and called for stronger sanctions against the country to halt its nuclear program. Iran’s links to Syria are “very, very worrisome,” he said.

“Under the present circumstances I think it would be ill- advised,” for Israel to hold talks with Syria, Ayalon said. “We would like to have assurances that at the end of the day the Syrians will stop supporting terror and also, no less importantly, the very radical regime in Tehran.”

Israel and Syria held Turkish-mediated, indirect talks last year that broke down after Israel launched a 22-day offensive in the Gaza Strip. Talks in 2000 collapsed over terms under which Israel would return the Golan Heights, a strategic plateau it captured from Syria in the 1967 Middle East war.

Iran is “trying to derail” any progress toward peace, Ayalon said, by supporting the Gaza Strip-based Islamic militant Hamas movement and the Shiite Hezbollah movement in Lebanon.

Netanyahu Skeptical

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas said yesterday that the resumption of peace talks with Israel is dependent on its acceptance of a two-state solution.

“Our conditions and requests are within the context of a two state-solution, the halt of settlements and the demolition of homes,” Abbas said in a statement after meeting Jordan’s King Abdullah. Abbas will travel to Egypt and some Arab countries before visiting the U.S. for talks on May 28.

Netanyahu has so far stopped short of endorsing Palestinian statehood. He was skeptical of peace talks held with the Palestinians by his predecessor Ehud Olmert and has said he will focus on improving the Palestinian economy in the West Bank.

U.S. President Barack Obama has stepped up pressure on Israel and the Palestinians to accelerate the peace process and last month invited leaders of both sides and Egypt to separate talks in Washington. President Shimon Peres is scheduled to meet with Obama on May 5 and Netanyahu will visit Washington later this month.

Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman is starting a four-day trip to Italy, France, the Czech Republic and Germany this week.

Public Relations Stunt

Ayalon’s comments about a two-state solution may be aimed at “laying the groundwork for Lieberman to have more pleasant conversations and preempt pressure on Netanyahu,” said Mark Heller, a principal research associate at the Institute for National Security Studies at Tel Aviv University.

“The major objective is to make sure Israel is not held responsible for a failure to get a peace agreement,” he added.

Mahdi Abdul Hadi, head of the Palestinian Academic Society for the Study of International Affairs, a Jerusalem-based research center, called the acceptance of the two-state solution a public relations stunt. “People should look at the real story on the ground and not be influenced by the public relations campaigns going on,” he said.

Israeli leaders travelling to Europe and Washington this month will focus as much on Iran as on the Palestinians. European Union governments are set to back Obama’s bid to engage Iran in dialogue, a draft EU statement said April 27.

‘Iran is Vulnerable’

Talks with Iran “shouldn’t be open-ended,” said Ayalon, a former Israeli ambassador to the U.S. “The time should be measured by months and not years.”

Iran has defied three sets of United Nations sanctions against its nuclear-enrichment activities, denying Western suspicions that it’s seeking weapons capability. Iran says its nuclear program is meant to produce electricity.

“Iran, with all due respect, is a very vulnerable country, vulnerable economically, vulnerable socially, vulnerable politically,” Ayalon said. “So far they have been able to show their intransigence because they were not presented with a dilemma.

“Once a price is exacted from Iran for their intransigence and flagrant violations of all their obligations I believe that could change their mind.”

Ayalon, a member of Lieberman’s Yisrael Beitenu party, says the Moldovan-born foreign minister could play a role in getting Russia to impose restrictions on Iran. “If Russia is on board, China will not stay behind,” he said.

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Thieves Targeting Charity Shops In Recession

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Charity shop donations are being stolen from doorsteps at a "record rate" as the price of textiles soars and thieves look to make money during the recession. Skip related content
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Many charities have seen takings leap as shoppers look for a cheaper alternative to high street stores but donations have also plummeted, with theft contributing as a factor.

The Children's Society estimates one in 10 filled donation bags are being swiped by crooks from doorsteps before charity workers can collect them.

The PDSA said the number of bags stolen from doorsteps had "more than doubled" in the last six months compared to the same time last year and the British Heart Foundation (BHF) said theft was at a "record level".

Ken Blair, chief executive of BHF Shops, said: "We believe this is the tip of the iceberg.

"For every call reported we believe there are another 20 that go unreported. If that were the case then we estimate that we would be losing around 1,000 tons of donated goods per annum valued at around £2.5m.

"There has been an increased number of reports of bogus van collectors operating in the UK. These collectors are working for commercial gain, with none of the proceeds going to charity.

"Household appeals are a vital source of income for our BHF Shops. Taking bags that have been left out for our charity is akin to robbing people with heart conditions of a better quality of life."

Mr Blair said the charity was receiving between five and 10 calls a week regarding donation bag theft compared to one or two a month at the same time last year.

PDSA director of business services Andrew Holl said every bag stolen was taking "vital funds" away from pets in need of vets.

He said: "The charity has seen a drop of 6,000 bags collected since January - a portion of this is undoubtedly down to theft.

"Bogus collectors are a real problem, as they are depriving the charity of thousands of pounds.

"It's also deeply distressing for our supporters when they realise that the charity they have elected to support loses out. The number of shops reporting bag theft is at a record high."

Charities are urging the public to contact them directly if they wanted to make donations securely or take them directly to their shops. The public can also ask collectors for identification.

------------------------------
1,500 Farmers Commit Mass Suicide in India

* The Belfast Telegraph - Ireland, April 15, 2009
Straight to the Source

Web Note: This is an ongoing problem in India. Vandana Shiva, one of OCA's Policy Board Members, and Raj Patel have spoken out about the root causes of the crisis of debt, dependency & ecological destruction facing Indian farmers. A few more OCA articles on the subject can be found here, here and here.

Over 1,500 farmers in an Indian state committed suicide after being driven to debt by crop failure, it was reported today.

The agricultural state of Chattisgarh was hit by falling water levels.

"The water level has gone down below 250 feet here. It used to be at 40 feet a few years ago," Shatrughan Sahu, a villager in one of the districts, told Down To Earth magazine

"Most of the farmers here are indebted and only God can save the ones who do not have a bore well."

Mr Sahu lives in a district that recorded 206 farmer suicides last year. Police records for the district add that many deaths occur due to debt and economic distress.

In another village nearby, Beturam Sahu, who owned two acres of land was among those who committed suicide. His crop is yet to be harvested, but his son Lakhnu left to take up a job as a manual labourer.

His family must repay a debt of £400 and the crop this year is poor.

"The crop is so bad this year that we will not even be able to save any seeds," said Lakhnu's friend Santosh. "There were no rains at all."

"That's why Lakhnu left even before harvesting the crop. There is nothing left to harvest in his land this time. He is worried how he will repay these loans."

Bharatendu Prakash, from the Organic Farming Association of India, told the Press Association: "Farmers' suicides are increasing due to a vicious circle created by money lenders. They lure farmers to take money but when the crops fail, they are left with no option other than death."

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Monsanto's Herbicide Roundup Linked to Birth Defects

* Herbicide Used in Argentina Could Cause Birth Defects
Latin American Herald Tribune, Posted April 16, 2009
Straight to the Source

BUENOS AIRES - The herbicide used on genetically modified soy - Argentina's main crop - could cause brain, intestinal and heart defects in fetuses, according to the results of a scientific investigation released Monday.

Although the study "used amphibian embryos," the results "are completely comparable to what would happen in the development of a human embryo," embryology professor Andres Carrasco, one of the study's authors, told Efe.

"The noteworthy thing is that there are no studies of embryos on the world level and none where glyphosate is injected into embryos," said the researcher with the National Council for Scientific and Technical Research and director of the Molecular Embryology Laboratory.

The doses of herbicide used in the study "were much lower than the levels used in the fumigations," and so the situation "is much more serious" that the study suggests because "glyphosate does not degrade," Carrasco warned.

In Argentina, farmers each year use between 180 and 200 million liters of glyphosate, which was developed by the multinational Monsanto and sold in the United States under the brand name Roundup.

Carrasco said that the research found that "pure glyphosate, in doses lower than those used in fumigation, causes defects ... (and) could be interfering in some normal embryonic development mechanism having to do with the way in which cells divide and die."

"The companies say that drinking a glass of glyphosate is healthier than drinking a glass of milk, but the fact is that they've used us as guinea pigs," he said.

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Monsanto Sues Germany Over GM Corn Ban

* GM Watch, April 22, 2009
Straight to the Source

1.Monsanto seeks end to German GMO maize ban for '09 crop
2.German Minister Pushed to Ban GM Potatoes, Suedddeutsche Says

NOTE: The German Government's GM maize ban has not just popular support, but political support across party lines, and the support of most commentators. Monsanto has its lawyers.

1.Monsanto seeks end to German GMO maize ban for '09 crop
By MichaeL Hogan
Reuters, April 22 2009
http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/feedarticle/8467513

*Legal action to get GMO ban lifted for German 2009 harvest
*Says Germany presents no new data to justify GMO ban

HAMBURG - Monsanto, the world's biggest seed company, said on Wednesday it hoped legal action to end Germany's ban on growing its genetically modified (GMO) maize would allow the variety to be sown for the 2009 harvest.

On Tuesday, Monsanto said it had started legal action against the decision on April 14 by German Agriculture Minister Ilse Aigner to ban cultivation and sale of Monanto's MON 810 GMO maize which stopped it being sown for this year's harvest.

Monsanto hoped a court decision would be available by mid-May which would permit the maize to be sown for this year's harvest, a Monsanto spokesman said.

An application for an urgent hearing had been made in a German district court. German maize is planted in April and May. The company would contest the ban because it believed the decision damaged its legal rights as the European Union had approved the maize as safe, he said.

Aigner had said she decided to issue the ban as information showed there was a justifiable reason to believe GMO maize presented a danger to the environment. Such decisions must be based on new scientific information, the Monsanto spokesman said.

"The explanation that we received from the BVL (German federal food safety agency) last Friday contains no new scientific findings and the study that the BVL puts forward has already been examined by the European Food Safety Authority and other agencies," he said.

The EFSA is the EU risk assessment agency for food and animal feed safety.

A spokesperson for Germany's Agriculture Ministry said: "We have taken note of this lawsuit, which is not a surprise." The ministry would not make detailed comment on legal cases.

The ban put Germany alongside France, Austria, Hungary, Greece and Luxembourg, which also banned MON 810 maize despite its approval by the EU as safe for commercial use in the bloc.

The EU Commission, the bloc's executive arm, has tried without success to get the bans in other countries lifted.

German farmers have registered intentions to cultivate some 3,300 hectares of maize for the 2009 harvest, up from 3,100 hectares in 2008.

But the total is an insignificant part of Germany's annual maize crop of around 1.8 to 2.0 million hectares. (Reporting by Michael Hogan; Editing by Peter Blackburn)

2.German Minister Pushed to Ban GM Potatoes, Suedddeutsche Says
Suedddeutsche
By Jeremy van Loon
Bloomberg, April 22 2009
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601100&sid=aG9BW_W1SEEo&refer=germany

German Agriculture Minister Ilse Aigner is under pressure from her Christian Social Union party to ban planting of genetically modified potatoes, Sueddeutsche Zeitung reported, citing unidentified people.

A ban would put Aigner and the CSU in conflict with Chancellor Angela Merkel, who heads the Christian Democratic Union, and Annette Schavan, the country's research minister, the newspaper said. Both Merkel and Schavan favor allowing planting genetically modified potatoes.

Earlier this month, Aigner outlawed the planting of a strain of corn made by Monsanto Co., joining a widening European ban on GM crops that threatens to trigger U.S. trade retaliation.

--------------------------
The Tragedy of Farmers Suicides in India

* By Mallika Chopra
The Huffington Post, April 22, 2009
Straight to the Source

Last week, a blog I wrote entitled 1500 Farmers Commit Suicide: A Wake Up Call for Humanity was virally shared online, and was the featured story on the home page of Huffington Post. Referencing a story from The Independent that was vague on details and called them "mass" suicides, undoubtedly, I participated in the sensationalization of this story. But, for this I do not apologize.

According to the National Crime Records Bureau of India, 182,936 Indian farmers have committed suicide between 1997 -2007. It estimates 46 Indian farmers kill themselves every day - that is, roughly one suicide every 30 minutes. An estimated 16,625 farmers across India killed themselves in 2007, the last year that was reported. The numbers are horrifying, and they indicate the sense of despair that the poorest people in the world are facing today.

The current fate of farmers in India is a tangled hierarchy that involves politics, agro-business, multinationals, trade liberalization, global subsidies, the environment, water, ethics, and human rights. Activists point out the role of agrochemicals, particularly genetically engineered seeds, that have been aggressively marketed to Indian farmers by companies like Monsanto--an American multinational agricultural biotechnology corporation that also wields a powerful influence on the farming practices in America.

Companies like Monsanto promise farmers that these genetically modified (GM) seeds, which cost significantly more than traditional seeds, require less pesticide and will potentially produce higher yields than traditional, renewable seeds. However, farmers are usually not told that GM seeds also require more water, making crops more susceptible to drought, irrigation and lower water levels. These genetically modified seeds also do not produce viable seeds of their own to be saved for the next season's harvest, which means that farmers are forced to buy the patented seeds and fertilizer again and again every year.

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Monopoly Patents & GMOs: Bad News for Farmers

* GM Watch, April 26, 2009
Straight to the Source

1.GM crops and the Gene Giants: Bad news for farmers
2.New report - The Future of Seeds and Food under the growing threat of patents and market concentration

1.GM crops and the Gene Giants: Bad news for farmers
Kathy Jo Wetter and Hope Shand
SciDevNet, 15 April 2009
http://www.scidev.net/en/opinions/gm-crops-and-the-gene-giants-bad-news-for- farmers.html

*Unproven and patented GM fixes will not help farmers in the South adapt to climate change, say Kathy Jo Wetter and Hope Shand.

The global North's super-sized carbon footprint has already trampled the South's farmers, most recently in the form of energy crop plantations, which have been directly responsible for deforestation and farmer evictions in some developing countries, including Indonesia and Tanzania.

Now the world's largest seed and agrochemical corporations are stockpiling hundreds of monopoly patents on genes in crops genetically engineered to withstand the environmental stresses associated with climate change, such as drought, heat, cold, floods and saline soils.

In 2008 the Action Group on Erosion, Technology and Concentration reported that the largest of these companies, including BASF, Bayer, DuPont, Monsanto and Syngenta, had already filed 532 patent documents on so-called 'climate ready' genes at patent offices around the world.

Beyond Europe and the United States, patent offices in major food-producing countries - including Argentina, Brazil, China, Mexico and South Africa - are also being swamped. Since last year's count, the 'Gene Giants' have filed at least 65 more patent documents related to the ability of plants to tolerate environmental stresses, as opposed to biological stresses such as pests or weeds. Monsanto, the world's largest seed company, and BASF, the world's largest chemical firm, have forged a colossal US$1.5 billion partnership to develop such crops, suggesting that the number of patent filings to date is just the beginning.

Bad news

But the huge number of patent filings does not mean that these companies have found the key to unlocking how plants withstand environmental stresses - though they may be knocking on the right door. We do not yet know how these plants will perform in the field. What is clear is that their appearance in the marketplace will increase the concentration of corporate power, drive up costs, inhibit independent research, and, most alarmingly, undermine the rights of farmers to save and exchange seeds.

There is a further danger that, as the climate crisis deepens, governments may strong-arm farmers into planting prescribed biotech seeds with traits deemed essential for adaptation. This is already happening in the United States - the government's Federal Crop Insurance Corporation gives a discount to farmers planting Monsanto's biotech maize seed because, according to data submitted by Monsanto, there is reduced risk of low yields compared to other varieties. It is common for US policies to serve as templates for developing countries, so we shouldn't be surprised to see other governments following suit.

Biotech companies insist they don't want to hamper farmers in developing countries who are struggling to eke out a living, nor do they want to take food out of the mouths of hungry people. They point to projects like the Water Efficient Maize for Africa collaboration as evidence. This brings together Monsanto and BASF among others with US$47 million in funding from charitable foundations to develop drought-resistant maize which they will give, royalty-free, to farmers in Kenya, South Africa, Tanzania and Uganda.

While such projects provide good publicity for the companies involved, suspicion is warranted. At the same time that companies appear to be engaging in no-strings-attached philanthropy, industry groups such as CropLife International are campaigning hard for governments in the South to enact tougher intellectual property laws to ensure that farmers pay royalties on proprietary seeds.

Kenya, for example, recently adopted the 'Anti-Counterfeit Act', which applies to "any intellectual property right subsisting in Kenya or elsewhere in respect of protected goods". Uganda and Tanzania are following Kenya's lead to draft their own anti-counterfeiting legislation. Kenya's law explicitly criminalizes violators of plant breeders' rights. Even more recently, Kenya passed a biosafety law to allow production of GM crops. The influx of costly, proprietary seeds in the marketplace and stricter intellectual property laws are no help to farmers racing to adapt crops to changing climatic conditions.

Beyond biotech

Biotech proselytizers have been preaching that only genetic engineering can beget crops that will survive climate change. On the contrary, the genetic diversity of plants and animals and the diverse knowledge and practices of farming communities are the most important resources for adapting local agriculture to a changing climate.

Farmer-led strategies for adapting to climate change - such as efforts to diversify crops and bring them to the marketplace - must be recognized, strengthened and protected by society as a whole and by governments in particular. Farming communities must be directly involved in setting priorities and strategies for adaptation. Where appropriate, scientists can work with farmers to improve conservation technologies, strengthen local breeding strategies, and assist in identifying and accessing seeds held in banks.

This may involve strengthening and expanding farmer-to-farmer networks for exchanging and enhancing crops through organizations such as La Via Campesina. It may also involve facilitating access to new sources of genetic material for farmers to experiment with breeding, and implementing Farmers' Rights under the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture.

Kathy Jo Wetter is a programme manager at ETC Group (Action Group on Erosion, Technology and Concentration) and Hope Shand is its research director.

2.Who do baby food, beer and trees belong to?
No Patents on Seeds, 24 April 2009
http://www.no-patents-on-seeds.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=blogcategory&id=3&Itemid=28

*New report shows dramatic scale on which patents are currently being granted

Lucerne/Munich - The European Patent Office is, despite growing protests, granting further property rights on foodstuffs, plants and seed which have been conventionally grown. This emerges from a report being presented today in Lucerne in Switzerland by Greenpeace, No Patents on Life, the Berne Declaration, Swissaid, the Development Fund and Misereor. Besides maize and lettuce, trees, baby food and beer are claimed in the 500 patent applications researched by the No Patents on Life organization and in roughly 70 patents already issued. The organizations involved are calling for the flood of patents to be stopped by clear political guidelines. Only last week Greenpeace and Misereor filed an opposition to the breeding of pigs at the EPO.

"Some agricultural corporations want global monopolies on human food," says Christoph Then, a consultant to Greenpeace and one of the authors of the report. "In this way just ten corporations now control two-thirds of the global seed market. These patents are theft of what farmers' achievements in breeding. We need clear legal regulations prohibiting patents on seed and farm animals."

The report, 'The future of seeds and food under the growing threat of patents and market con­cen­t­ration', gives a comprehensive overview of the scale of the patenting of seed, plants and food in Europe. While patent applications for genetically modified plants have been on the decrease in the last few years, applications for plants that are conventionally grown are now booming. Should this practice be supported in an imminent decision by the EPO's Enlarged Board of Appeal, it is to be expected that farmers will be hugely impeded in their work in breeding in the future and will become more heavily dependent.

"Such patents make food more expensive and can be a new cause of global food crises," says Tina Goethe at Swissaid. "They affect farmers and consumers in the industrialized world just as much as people in developing countries."

The organizations have founded a global alliance, to which over 50 agricultural associations belong (http://www.no-patents-on-seeds.org/ ), to see their demands met. In the political arena, too, a reform of patent laws is on the agenda again. The state governments of Hesse and Bavaria have already declared they want to support a ban on the patenting of plants and animals.

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Vandana Shiva: From Seeds of Suicide to Seeds of Hope: Why Are Indian Farmers Committing Suicide and How Can We Stop This Tragedy?

* By Vadana Shiva
The Huffington Post, April 28, 2009
Straight to the Source

In a land where reincarnation is a commonly held belief, where the balance sheet of life is sorted out over lifetimes, where resilience and recovery has been the characteristic of the "kisan," the peasant cultivation, why are Indian farmers committing suicide on a mass scale?

200,000 farmers have ended their lives since 1997.

Farmers' suicides are the most tragic and dramatic symptom of the crisis of survival faced by Indian peasants.

Rapid increase in indebtedness is at the root of farmers' taking their lives. Debt is a reflection of a negative economy. Two factors have transformed agriculture from a positive economy into a negative economy for peasants: the rising of costs of production and the falling prices of farm commodities. Both these factors are rooted in the policies of trade liberalization and corporate globalization.

In 1998, the World Bank's structural adjustment policies forced India to open up its seed sector to global corporations like Cargill, Monsanto and Syngenta. The global corporations changed the input economy overnight. Farm saved seeds were replaced by corporate seeds, which need fertilizers and pesticides and cannot be saved.

Corporations prevent seed savings through patents and by engineering seeds with non-renewable traits. As a result, poor peasants have to buy new seeds for every planting season and what was traditionally a free resource, available by putting aside a small portion of the crop, becomes a commodity. This new expense increases poverty and leads to indebtness.

The shift from saved seed to corporate monopoly of the seed supply also represents a shift from biodiversity to monoculture in agriculture. The district of Warangal in Andhra Pradesh used to grow diverse legumes, millets, and oilseeds. Now the imposition of cotton monocultures has led to the loss of the wealth of farmer's breeding and nature's evolution.

Monocultures and uniformity increase the risk of crop failure, as diverse seeds adapted to diverse to eco-systems are replaced by the rushed introduction of uniform and often untested seeds into the market. When Monsanto first introduced Bt Cotton in 2002, the farmers lost 1 billion rupees due to crop failure. Instead of 1,500 kilos per acre as promised by the company, the harvest was as low as 200 kilos per acre. Instead of incomes of 10,000 rupees an acre, farmers ran into losses of 6,400 rupees an acre. In the state of Bihar, when farm-saved corn seed was displaced by Monsanto's hybrid corn, the entire crop failed, creating 4 billion rupees in losses and increased poverty for desperately poor farmers. Poor peasants of the South cannot survive seed monopolies. The crisis of suicides shows how the survival of small farmers is incompatible with the seed monopolies of global corporations.

The second pressure Indian farmers are facing is the dramatic fall in prices of farm produce as a result of the WTO's free trade policies. The WTO rules for trade in agriculture are, in essence, rules for dumping. They have allowed wealthy countries to increase agribusiness subsidies while preventing other countries from protecting their farmers from artificially cheap imported produce. Four hundred billion dollars in subsidies combined with the forced removal of import restriction is a ready-made recipe for farmer suicide. Global wheat prices have dropped from $216 a ton in 1995 to $133 a ton in 2001; cotton prices from $98.2 a ton in 1995 to $49.1 a ton in 2001; Soya bean prices from $273 a ton in 1995 to $178 a ton. This reduction is due not to a change in productivity, but to an increase in subsidies and an increase in market monopolies controlled by a handful of agribusiness corporations.

The region in India with the highest level of farmers suicides is the Vidharbha region in Maharashtra -- 4000 suicides per year, 10 per day. This is also the region with the highest acreage of Monsanto's GMO Bt cotton. Monsanto's GM seeds create a suicide economy by transforming seed from a renewable resource to a non-renewable input which must be bought every year at high prices. Cotton seed used to cost Rs 7/kg. Bt-cotton seeds were sold at Rs 17,000/kg. Indigenous cotton varieties can be intercropped with food crops. Bt-cotton can only be grown as a monoculture. Indigenous cotton is rain fed. Bt-cotton needs irrigation. Indigenous varieties are pest resistant. Bt-cotton, even though promoted as resistant to the boll worm, has created new pests, and to control these new pests, farmers are using 13 times more pesticides then they were using prior to introduction of Bt-cotton. And finally, Monsanto sells its GMO seeds on fraudulent claims of yields of 1500/kg/year when farmers harvest 300-400 kg/year on an average. High costs and unreliable output make for a debt trap, and a suicide economy.

While Monsanto pushes the costs of cultivation up, agribusiness subsidies drive down the price farmers get for their produce.

Cotton producers in the US are given a subsidy of $4 billion annually. This has artificially brought down cotton prices, allowing the US to capture world markets previously accessible to poor African countries such as Burkina Faso, Benin, and Mali. This subsidy of $230 per acre in the US is untenable for the African farmers. African cotton farmers are losing $250 million every year. That is why small African countries walked out of the Cancun negotiations, leading to the collapse of the WTO ministerial.

The rigged prices of globally traded agriculture commodities steal from poor peasants of the South. A study carried out by the Research Foundation for Science, Technology and Ecology (RFSTE) shows that due to falling farm prices, Indian peasants are losing $26 billion annually. This is a burden their poverty does not allow them t bear. As debts increase -- unpayable from farm proceeds -- farmers are compelled to sell a kidney or even commit suicide. Seed saving gives farmers life. Seed monopolies rob farmers of life.

Farmers suicides in the state of Chattisgarh have recently been before in the news. 1593 farmers committed suicide in Chattisgarh in 2007. Before 2000 no farmers suicides are reported in the state.

Chattisgarh is the Centre of Diversity of the indice varieties of rice. More than 200,000 rices used to grow in India. This is where eminent rice scientists Dr. Richaria did his collections and showed that tribals had bred many rices with higher yields than the green Revolution varieties.

Today the rice farming of Chattisgarh is under assault. When indigenous rice is replaced with green Revolution varieties, irrigation becomes necessary. Under globalization pressures, rice is anyway a lower priority than exotic vegetables. The farmers are sold hybrid seeds, the seeds need heavy inputs of fertilizers and pesticides, as well as intensive irrigation. And crop failure is frequent. This pushes farmers into debt and suicide.

Chattisgarh is also a prime target for growing of Jatropha for biofuel. Tribals farms are being forcefully appropriated for Jatropha plantations, aggravating the food and livelihood crisis in Chattisgarh. The diesel demand of the automobile industry is given a priority above the food needs of the poor.

The suicide economy of industrialized, globalised agriculture is suicidal at 3 levels - it is suicidal for farmers, it is suicidal for the poor who are derived food, and it is suicidal at the level of the human species as we destroy the natural capital of seed, biodiversity, soil and water on which our biological survival depends.

The suicide economy is not an inevitability. Navdanya has started a Seeds of Hope campaign to stop farmers suicides. The transition from seeds of suicide to seeds of hope includes :

· a shift from GMO and non renewable seeds to organic, open pollinated seed varieties which farmers can save and share.

· a shift from chemical farming to organic farming.

· a shift from unfair trade based on false prices to fair trade based on real and just prices.

The farmers who have made this shift are earning 10 times more than the farmers growing Monsanto's Bt-cotton.

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15:40 GMT, Friday, 1 May 2009 16:40 UK
Russian army scraps new uniforms
By Steven Eke
BBC Russian affairs analyst

Russian soldiers rehearse for Victory Day (24 April 2009)

A plan to replace Soviet-era Russian military uniforms with ones by a leading fashion designer has been abandoned because of a lack of money.

The plan to bring in the new uniforms, designed by Valentin Yudashkin, was supported by Russian PM Vladimir Putin.

There is now only enough money to pay for uniforms for soldiers taking part in the forthcoming Victory Day parade.

Everyone else, it seems, will remain in the rather drab olive shades Russia inherited from the former Soviet Union.

'Less frumpy'

On Friday, Senator Viktor Ozerov, chairman of Russian Federation Council committee on defence and security, told the radio station Ekho Moskvy that the army knew what to spend money on - and that new uniforms were not a priority.

Valentin Yudashkin shows off his uniform designs (23 April 2008)

"I think that the uniforms which servicemen now wear make it possible to distinguish them from civilians," he said.

The new designs for the army uniforms come from Russia's leading fashion designer, Valentin Yudashkin.

They build on the uniforms of imperial Russia, with strong emphasis on red and blue colours, together with polished brass adornments for parade dress.

They are decidedly less frumpy than the oversized fur hats and foot wraps that still form part of the standard kit.

Prime Minister Putin was an admirer of Yudashkin's proposals and took a personal involvement in them while president.

The report that the new uniforms have fallen victim to Russia's own credit crunch suggests financial difficulties greater than those publicly acknowledged.

Russian defence spending has grown very quickly over recent years.

Before the global financial crisis hit, Russia's government had planned to spend more than $100bn (£67bn) on modernisation and re-armament projects.

The idea was to move away from a bloated, inefficient, often poorly trained military, and to focus on advanced technology, in military aviation and Russia's strategic nuclear rocket forces.

There is now a huge question mark over the project, with recent announcements of swingeing cuts in the officer corps and general staff.

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Burns: King Abdullah met with Israeli President


US Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs gives no details of meeting between Peres, Saudi King.


By Habib Trabelsi - PARIS

A meeting between King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia and Israeli president Shimon Peres that took place on the margins of a UN Interfaith Dialogue Conference organised last November in New York, has been revealed by William Burns, US Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs, overseeing the Middle East.

"The king spoke with Israeli President (Shimon) Peres, the first such exchange between Saudi and Israeli leaders," said Burns during a meeting on Saudi-American relations in Washington that began on Monday.

Israel, who holds no official diplomatic ties with Saudi Arabia, had been invited on King Abdullah’s initiative to participate in the Conference running from 12-13th November.

The Saudi sovereign also sponsored an international conference in July 2008 where key leaders from the three monotheist religions (Islam, Christianity and Judaism) assembled in Madrid.

Burns gave no details on the circumstances of the meeting between the Saudi monarch and the head of the Jewish state.

Earlier on Tuesday a Washington-based Saudi journalist, Ali Al-Ahmad, highlighted on his website “Saudi Information Agency - Independent Saudi News” that the official Israeli delegation had stayed at the Waldorf Astoria hotel, one of the places of residence frequented by members of the Saudi royal family.

The UN Interfaith conference of last November had denounced the use of religion in justifying the murder of innocent people and acts of terrorism.

Prior to the conference, the Saudi daily Al Watan revealed that the Israeli president had been “informed by some UN leaders that he should not try to shake the hand of the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques, neither before, nor after the [royal] speech.”

After the conference, the official Saudi press bragged about the fact that no handshakes had been exchanged between King Abdullah and the Israeli president.

“The Saudi Kingdom can point to its credit the fact to have been the first in offering a hand to Israel”, wrote Al Watan.

“But no handshakes were exchanged between the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques (in Mecca and Medina) and the Israeli President Shimon Peres”, the newspaper argued, while noting that during the dinner attended by the two leaders, at the invitation of the UN chief, they were not seated at the same table.

“The Kingdom wants to signal in this way, that there will be no direct encounter or exchange of handshakes (between the leaders of the two countries) until Israel ceases violating the rights of Palestinians and takes a serious step towards the path of peace. The ball is therefore in their court” concluded Al Watan’s columnist.

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15:09 GMT, Friday, 1 May 2009 16:09 UK
Saudi Arabia rebuke over US claim

Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah. File photo

Saudi Arabia has demanded that the US retract a claim that King Abdullah met Israeli President Shimon Peres in 2008, in a rare rebuke towards its ally.

An unnamed Saudi official said the claim by US Under Secretary at the State Department, William Burns, was "completely false and fabricated".

Mr Burns said this week King Abdullah and Mr Peres met at a UN interfaith conference in New York last November.

Saudi Arabia and Israel do not have diplomatic relations.

The unnamed Saudi official was quoted by Saudi Arabia's state-run SPA news agency.

The official said that the US state department had to "deny the claim and provide clarification for the reasons behind such fabrication that does not serve the relations between the two friendly countries".

Riyadh has always denied media reports of meetings between Saudi and Israeli officials, which some analysts say could damage the kingdom's credibility in the Arab world.

In 2002, Saudi Arabia proposed a peace initiative which offered Israel full diplomatic recognition if the Jewish state returned Arabs lands it seized in 1967.

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低質石炭から代替ガス、経産省が技術開発

　経済産業省は低質な石炭である「褐炭」からクリーンエネルギーをつくる技術開発に乗り出す。褐炭から代替天然ガスをつくり出し、ガス化の際に排出される二酸化炭素（ＣＯ2）は回収する。褐炭はオーストラリアやインドネシアなどに多く埋蔵するが、低質でこれまでほとんど輸出されていない。経産省は日本の有力な次世代エネルギーになるとみて、実用化を目指す。

　褐炭は石炭資源の約2割を占めるとされる。ただ水分が多く利用しにくいため、主に産炭地域周辺での発電利用にとどまるのが現状だ。 (17:41)

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End to Europe’s recession ‘in sight’

By Ralph Atkins in Frankfurt

Published: May 4 2009 11:51 | Last updated: May 4 2009 11:51

The end of Europe’s severe recession is in sight, the European Commission has declared, but it still expects job cuts in the next two years to almost wipe out employment gains since 2006.

In a cautiously upbeat forecast for the European Union’s 27 economies, the region’s Brussels-based executive arm said an economic recovery would be in place by next year.

However the Commission warned of a “sharp deterioration” in government finances – especially in the UK, where the public sector deficit is expected to hit almost 14 per cent of gross domestic product in 2010.

It also forecast a total of 8.5m jobs would be lost in the EU this year and next – compared with the roughly 9.5m jobs created in the 2006-2008 period.

“The European economy is in the midst of its deepest and most widespread recession in the post war era,” said Joaquin Almunia, the EU’s economic and monetary affairs commissioner. “But the ambitious measures taken by governments and central banks in these exceptional circumstances are expected to put a floor under the fall in economic activity this year and enable a recovery next year.”

Mr Almunia warned his relative optimism assumed significant progress in restoring the health of the European banking system. “We need to proceed rapidly with the cleaning-up of the impaired assets on bank balance sheets and recapitalise banks where appropriate,” he said.

The Commission’s forecasts set a still-gloomy backdrop for this week’s interest-rate setting meeting of the European Central Bank. A cut in its main policy interest rate from 1.25 per cent to 1 per cent is highly likely. But members of the ECB’s 22-strong governing council appear divided on whether further cuts are possible. Jean-Claude Trichet, ECB president, has not said where he sees the floor for official interest rates – but has all-but ruled out cutting rates to zero.

GDP in both the EU and in the 16-country eurozone will contract by 4 per cent this year and by 0.1 per cent in 2010, according to the Commission’s forecasts. For the eurozone, that is slightly more optimistic than forecast by the International Monetary Fund last month. Eurozone inflation is expected to average 0.4 per cent this year and 1.2 per cent in 2010 –undershooting by a large margin the ECB’s target of an annual rate “below but close” to 2 per cent.

EU budget deficits are expected to rise from 2.3 per cent of GDP last year to 7.3 per cent in 2010. Only Ireland, at 15.6 per cent in 2010, is expected to see larger deficit next year than the UK.

The EU unemployment rate is expected to rise from 7.5 per cent last year to 11.5 per cent in 2010.

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Berlusconi's wife to divorce him
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Ms Lario is the PM's second wife

The wife of Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi has confirmed that she will file for divorce.

Veronica Lario reportedly said she could not be with a man who "consorted with minors" after her husband attended a female friend's 18th birthday party.

She had also clashed with her husband over his party's plan to choose certain female election candidates.

The 72-year-old billionaire prime minister said it was a personal matter that saddened him, without elaborating.

Ms Lario is Mr Berlusconi's second wife and a former actress. The couple, who have been married for 19 years, have three children, all in their 20s.

'Shameless rubbish'

La Repubblica, a leading Italian newspaper, said Ms Lario's decision came after reading about the 18th birthday party in Naples.

"That's enough, I cannot remain with a man who consorts with minors", she was quoted as saying.

Another newspaper, La Stampa, quoted Ms Lario as saying she had been "forced to take this step".

What's happening today [in Italy] behind a front of bodily curves and female beauty is grave
Veronica Lario

"This really surprised me, because he never came to any 18th birthday party for his children, despite being invited," the paper quoted her as saying earlier.

Mr Berlusconi was reported to have bought the woman a golden necklace studded with diamonds as a present.

Following his wife's reaction, Mr Berlusconi was quoted as saying he was sorry his wife "had let herself be fooled by left-wing newspapers".

Relations with her husband were already said to be frayed after Ms Lario had criticised her husband's choice of young and attractive female candidates with little political experience to represent his Freedom Party in the forthcoming European elections.

In an e-mail to an Italian news agency, she said the plan amounted to "shameless rubbish" being put on "for the entertainment of the emperor".

"What's happening today [in Italy] behind a front of bodily curves and female beauty is grave," she wrote.

Flirting

Mr Berlusconi said his centre-right party was aiming to select female candidates because "we want to renew our political class with people who are cultured and well prepared".

Candidates standing for the party would be unlike the "malodorous and badly dressed people who represent certain parties in parliament", Mr Berlusconi added.

SILVIO BERLUSCONI
Won third term as prime minister in 2008
Fought off a series of corruption and fraud charges
Private fortune estimated at $6.5bn (£4.4bn)
Owner of AC Milan football club

Profile: Silvio Berlusconi

It was later announced that Barbara Matera - an actress, TV announcer and former Miss Italy contestant - was the only one of the candidates to have made the final list.

In a brief statement about the reports of divorce, Mr Berlusconi said: "This is a personal matter that saddens me, that is private, and it seems appropriate not to talk about it."

Mr Berlusconi courted Ms Lario in 1980 after watching her perform topless in a play. They married ten years later.

Two years ago he issued a public apology to his wife for flirting with young starlets, among them Mara Carfagna, who he later appointed as equal opportunities minister.

She said her husband had told the women: "If I wasn't already married I would marry you right away".

In 2003 Berlusconi acknowledged during a press conference rumours linking his wife to a left-wing philosophy professor and mayor, Massimo Cacciari.

Ms Lario has occasionally taken political positions at odds with her husband's, such as her backing for protesters demonstrating against the war in Iraq, which Mr Berlusconi supported.

Mr Berlusconi has two elder children from a previous marriage who now hold senior positions in his media empire.

The Italian prime minister's private fortune is estimated by Forbes magazine at $6.5bn (£4.4bn).

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Wife of the Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi sues for divorce
Veronica Lario and Silvio Berlusconi
Richard Owen, Anne Hanley

She stood by him when he phoned adult sex lines. She remained by his side after he employed a topless model in his Cabinet. She even forgave the relentless flirting with women a third his age. Now, however, after nearly 20 years of marriage, Veronica Lario, the long-suffering wife of Silvio Berlusconi, the Italian Prime Minister, has had enough.

Ms Lario, 52, lamented yesterday at having “been forced to take this step”, but said that she wanted an amicable agreement, telling an Italian newspaper: “I want to bring down the curtain but I want to do it properly and without any fuss.”

Ms Lario, who met Mr Berlusconi nearly 30 years ago, attacked last week his plans to field young attractive showgirls in the European Parliament elections next month as “shameless rubbish to entertain the Emperor”.

Her fury was fuelled by the revelation that her husband had attended the 18th birthday party of Noemi Letizia, a friend’s daughter, and had given her a diamond and gold necklace. Ms Lario said that he had never attended his own children’s 18th birthday parties.
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In January 2007 Ms Lario published an open letter in La Repubblica demanding a public apology from her husband after he flirted with showgirls at a television awards ceremony and praised the beauty of Mara Carfagna, a former topless model who is now his Minister for Equal Opportunities. This came a year after he phoned nine adult sex lines to conduct an impromptu pre-election opinion poll.

Now it appears that Ms Lario has finally reached her limit. “I am going to ask for a divorce,” she said yesterday. “I cannot stay with a man who surrounds himself with minors.”

She came to the decision even after being told by her lawyer: “You must understand that it will not be easy and you will have to endure heavy attacks.” Mr Berlusconi’s media empire controls much of the news and entertainment in Italy.

The Italian Prime Minister met Ms Lario — whose real name is Miriam Bartolini — in 1980 when she was appearing topless in a play in Milan called The Magnificent Cuckold.

At the time Mr Berlusconi was married to his first wife, Carla Elvira Dall’Oglio, with whom he has two children, Marina and Pier Silvio. Both are senior executives in his empire.

His first child by Ms Lario, Barbara, 24, was born while he was still married to his first wife, whom he divorced in 1985. He then had two more children with Ms Lario, Eleonora, 22, and Luigi, 19, before the couple married in 1990.

Ms Lario said yesterday of her divorce: “I want to do this like an ordinary, upright person. I don’t want a fight.” Mr Berlusconi said in a statement: “This is a painful personal affair, and is part of my private life. Obviously, I won’t be talking about it.”

Mr Berlusconi reportedly wants to leave half of his empire to his older childen and the other half to the younger ones. Ms Lario, however, is said to be pressing for 20 per cent of the estate to be left to each child, giving her offspring the majority stake.

--------------------------------
伊首相に「恥知らず！」…夫人、もう我慢できない離婚決意
ベルルスコーニ伊首相（右）とベロニカ夫人＝ロイター

　【ローマ＝松浦一樹】ＡＮＳＡ通信などは３日、イタリアのベルルスコーニ首相夫人であるベロニカさん（５２）が、離婚する決意を固めたと報じた。

　夫人は、若い女性との醜聞が絶えない首相への不満を漏らしてきたが、ついに堪忍袋の緒が切れたようだ。

　報道によると、夫人はすでに別居・離婚手続きを開始しており、首相は同日、「心が痛む」とのコメントを発表した。

　夫人は先月末、首相を「恥知らず」と非難する書簡をメディアに公開した。欧州議会選挙に美人女性候補ばかり抜てきしたり、１８歳女性とのいかがわしい関係を取りざたされたりと、首相が品行を一向に改めないことを責める内容で、離婚は時間の問題と見られていた。

　首相は１９８５年に前妻と離婚し、元女優のベロニカさんと９０年１２月に再婚。２人の間には娘２人と息子１人がいる。

-------------------------
Jobs in balance in £1bn Eurofighter order

By Sylvia Pfeifer and Alex Barker in London and Gerrit Wiesmann in Frankfurt

Published: May 3 2009 23:37 | Last updated: May 3 2009 23:39

Ministers are grappling with the potential costs to jobs and the UK defence industrial base if the government abandons a planned £1bn order of Eurofighter Typhoon jets, as a decision on whether to pull out of the contract nears.

Doubts over the order going ahead dominated a cross-departmental meeting last week between the Treasury, the Ministry of Defence and department for business.

The MoD and business department have warned that cancelling the third production run of the aircraft would deliver a blow to the defence industry, at a time of rising unemployment. The programme is estimated to employ and sustain more than 40,000 jobs in the UK, including workers at BAE Systems and hundreds of smaller suppliers.

Agreement on a third production run of 236 aircraft between the four partner nations on the programme – the UK, Germany, Italy and Spain – has been held up as the MoD and the Treasury have tried to agree a deal over funding.

There is widespread scepticism – both in and out of the MoD – over whether the programme is cost-effective or serving the future interests of the armed forces.

Many senior defence figures would prefer the money spent on other defence priorities, more aligned with the demands of fighting in Afghanistan. But penalty clauses mean the UK will still suffer financially if it scales back its commitment to Eurofighter.

Even taking into account orders from Oman and Saudi Arabia, the government still faces a bill of about €1.6bn for the 16 aircraft it would have to buy

Officials in Germany said the UK would have to compensate all partners on the programme; they estimate that it could owe Germany alone about €1bn (£890m).

Under the terms of the contract the UK is obliged to buy 88 aircraft from the third run. Production plans have already been scaled back, after a German proposal to split the run into two separate tranches to avoid having to pay everything in one go.

In a further concession to the UK it is being allowed to count export orders to Saudi Arabia and possibly Oman towards its total. However, even taking into account those orders, the government still faces a bill of about €1.6bn for the 16 aircraft it would have to buy.

The MoD declined to comment, saying negotiations were ongoing and that “further discussion is required before nations are able to make an announcement on the way ahead”.

Ministers are expected to meet to finalise the issue in the next two weeks.

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Why eastern diplomacy requires a careful tailor

By Tony Barber in Brussels

Published: May 4 2009 03:00 | Last updated: May 4 2009 03:00

One of the European Union's great strengths is its ability, as a prosperous, democratic community of like-minded states, to export political and economic stability to its neighbours. This strength will be put to the test on Thursday when the EU launches its "Eastern Partnership", an initiative to forge closer ties with six ex-Soviet states between the bloc's eastern border and Russia.

The Eastern Partnership, conceived by Poland and Sweden in 2007, covers Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine. It is an improvement on the EU's redundant "European Neighbourhood Policy", a 2004 project that absurdly grouped eastern European neighbours with places such as Libya, Syria and the Palestinian Authority.

Nonetheless, the Eastern Partnership is a vessel rocking from side to side even before it starts its voyage. It appears unlikely that Alexander Lukashenko and Vladimir Voronin, presidents of Belarus and Moldova respectively, will bother to show up in Prague for the launch. Nor, it seems, will this week's summit be graced with the presence of all 27 EU national leaders.

Russia, the ghost at the feast, poses another problem. All six ex-Soviet states were under the Kremlin's thumb for most of the 20th century. No sooner had the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991 than foreign policy theorists in Moscow dubbed the area Russia's "near abroad".

In the age of Vladimir Putin and Dmitry Medvedev, Russia's prime minister and president, the preferred concept is that of a "privileged sphere of influence". In other words, Russia, like a Siberian guard dog, sees the Eastern Partnership as an attempt by some 27-headed terrier to encroach on its patch.

A third issue concerns what is on offer for the six eastern states. On the face of things, it is not money. Under current proposals, the programme will raise EU assistance to the region to a meagre €600m ($796m, £534m) from a previously agreed €250m in 2010-13.

However, this criticism is misplaced. Through the International Monetary Fund, the EU is helping to arrange emergency loans for countries such as Armenia, Belarus and Ukraine to survive the global financial crisis and recession. From the recipients' point of view, of course, this may reinforce the perception that the IMF, not the Eastern Partnership, is where the action is.

Far more damaging to the EU's image in the six states are the bloc's travel policies - what Tomas Valasek, an analyst at the London-based Centre for European Reform think-tank, calls "the expensive and gratuitously complicated visa application process". When the European Commission suggested in December that EU governments should aim to remove all visa requirements, protests came from Germany and other western European countries.

As a result, EU leaders dropped the idea in March, replacing it with an almost meaningless offer of simplified visa procedures, on a case-by-case basis and as a long-term goal.

The Germans and others take the view that it is inconceivable to extend visa-free travel to countries such as Ukraine or Moldova as long as they are significant sources of prostitution, drug traffickers and illegal workers and migrants. This attitude offends Belarus, which believes it has a good record on suppressing illegal migration.

One alleged weakness of this partnership is that it makes no promises - even vague promises - that the six states will one day be welcome to join the EU. It is a tempting argument, but there is a risk of over-simplification.

For example, Ukraine sees its future clearly in the EU, but the governments of Azerbaijan or Belarus do not. Each of the six states presents distinctive challenges. The best course for the EU is to draw them all as close as possible by means of free trade and visa-free travel, and - in the sole case of Ukraine - to make an explicit promise of eventual EU membership.

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Cairo pig farmers clash with police on cull

By Heba Saleh and agencies in Cairo

Published: May 3 2009 19:19 | Last updated: May 3 2009 19:19

Police in Cairo clashed on Sunday with angry pig farmers who hurled stones and bottles to try to stop their animals from being forcibly taken away to be slaughtered as a precautionary measure against the virus that causes swine flu in humans.

Egypt has not recorded a single case of the H1N1 virus and its pig herds are free from swine flu, but the government last week decreed a cull of all the estimated 300,000 pigs in the country.

The security forces used tear gas and riot bullets to disperse protesters in the Cairo district of Manchiet Nasser where thousands of the city’s garbage collectors live and raise pigs, feeding them on the organic waste that remains after the rubbish is sorted.

The confrontation is likely to place further strains on sectarian relations in a country where there are periodic flare-ups of violence between members of the Muslim majority and the Coptic Christian minority.

Pigs are raised and consumed mainly by Christians. Muslims are not allowed to eat pork, and most Egyptians regard the pigs raised on rubbish as unclean.

Reports say at least seven policemen where lightly injured and eight demonstrators were hurt. There were similar scuffles in the district of Khanka, north of Cairo.

The authorities have long seen the animals that live in close proximity to their owners and their families on the edges of the densely-populated city as a health hazard.

However, the government’s decision to opt for such a drastic course of action when the virus does not even exist in Egypt, is fuelling the sentiment among some Christians that they are being picked on.

The decision to cull the pigs has been described by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation as a “real mistake”.

Egyptian officials now say the pig cull is a general health measure and pig raising will be allowed in two years, though it will be in proper farms far from population centres.

In an apparent effort to pre-empt confrontations such as Sunday’s, Coptic Church leaders have also come down on the side of the government.

Analysts believe the decision to destroy the country’s pig herds is motivated by the authorities experience with bird flu. Officials here have been stung by criticism that they did not do enough to prevent the threat from bird flu.

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三菱樹脂、プラスチック加工世界最大手と資本提携

2009年5月4日19時12分

　三菱樹脂は４日、世界最大手の高機能プラスチック加工会社、クオドラント社（本社・スイス）と資本提携すると発表した。自動車の軽量化などのため、金属の代わりに使われる高機能プラスチックの需要が増えており、ク社との提携で海外展開を進める。

　三菱樹脂とク社の創業者が折半出資して１日付で持ち株会社を設立。この持ち株会社がク社の完全子会社化を目指し、今月下旬から株式公開買い付け（ＴＯＢ）を実施する。ク社の経営陣はＴＯＢに賛同しているという。買収額は１億６２００万スイスフラン（約１４６億円）の見通し。プラスチックは高機能と汎用に分類され、ク社は高機能で世界市場の３０％を占める。