Bilderberg.org

[marektysis]

THIS DAMN COUNTRY IS NOT HELPING GOOD GUYS TO HELP THEM TO GET OUT POVERTY- IT S A PÏTY.
I SHARE THE SOROWNESS OF SO GOOOOOD BILL GATES
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**It's the last day of Warren Buffett, Bill and Melinda Gates' visit to India. The Gates' and Buffett held a dinner meeting in New Delhi with 70 business people, including Wipro Chairman Azim Premji and discussed a wide range of issues related to philanthropy.

In an interview with CNBC's Becky Quick, the trio spoke about what they made of the India visit, especially their meeting with the wealthiest people of India.

Below is a verbatim transcript. Also watch the accompanying video.

Q: What did you make of last night's event?


Buffett: It was really an extraordinary event. Much like both in China and in the United States, once people started talking here, they get very personal. They talk about their own activities, they talk about their family, they may talk about their businesses. It is remarkable to me that they would open up the way they do. We spent several hours hearing stories from people and they almost couldn’t stand up fast enough after we got going. It was very interesting.

Q: I know this trip that the three of you have made was not to ask people to pledge but to really have exchange of ideas and what was the most interesting take you heard on philanthropy?

Melinda Gates: One of the people who is doing a lot of philanthropy talked little bit about how he thinks about it from his corporate side of philanthropy where they were investing in education but they were doing it in an Urban setting, around where his corporation was.

But then he and his wife on the personal side, they wanted to give back in education but they were really doing in a rural setting and so to hear how they think about those two because in India right now, there is a lot of corporate social responsibility but what we are trying to stimulate is more individual philanthropic dollars going and so he really had a good model for that. I think that stimulated a lot of discussion in the room and that was particularly interesting to me.

Q: Rest of the thing that you heard, other places or kind of specific to India?

Melinda Gates: They were talking about much more specific to India.

Q: When we were coming back from China, you mentioned that there were some specific challenges in China, particularly the lack of non -governmental organizations. Are there specific challenges that you noticed that are different to India?

Bill Gates: The tax system here probably doesn't encourage philanthropy as much as it does in the United States. In all countries there is a certain shyness about talking about your giving and that holds things back. If you don't see other people sharing their success story, knowing you could partner with them then it makes other people more reluctant to get involved.

That's probably why a get together like we had is catalytic because people realize there are more people doing smart things than I have realized. They are having some of the same challenges I am having, I can go and collaborate with them. So I think it will change, I think people will want to be more open. But that's the difficulty.
http://www.moneycontrol.com/news/business/indias-tax-system-doesnt-encourage-charity-much-gates_532064.html
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Marek Tysis
disgusted by indians fiscal reactions.Beurk !!

[marektysis]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/africaandindianocean/libya/8407047/Libyan-rebel-commander-admits-his-fighters-have-al-Qaeda-links.html

Libyan rebel commander admits his fighters have al-Qaeda links

Abdel-Hakim al-Hasidi, the Libyan rebel leader, has said jihadists who
fought against allied troops in Iraq are on the front lines of the
battle against Muammar Gaddafi's regime.
Abdel-Hakim al-Hasidi, the Libyan rebel leader, has said jihadists who
fought against allied troops in Iraq are on the front lines of the
battle against Muammar Gaddafi's regime.
Mr al-Hasidi admitted he had earlier fought against 'the foreign
invasion' in Afghanistan Photo: AFP
Praveen Swami
By Praveen Swami, Nick Squires and Duncan Gardham 5:00PM GMT 25 Mar 2011

In an interview with the Italian newspaper Il Sole 24 Ore, Mr
al-Hasidi admitted that he had recruited "around 25" men from the
Derna area in eastern Libya to fight against coalition troops in Iraq.
Some of them, he said, are "today are on the front lines in Adjabiya".

Mr al-Hasidi insisted his fighters "are patriots and good Muslims, not
terrorists," but added that the "members of al-Qaeda are also good
Muslims and are fighting against the invader".

His revelations came even as Idriss Deby Itno, Chad's president, said
al-Qaeda had managed to pillage military arsenals in the Libyan rebel
zone and acquired arms, "including surface-to-air missiles, which were
then smuggled into their sanctuaries".

Mr al-Hasidi admitted he had earlier fought against "the foreign
invasion" in Afghanistan, before being "captured in 2002 in Peshwar,
in Pakistan". He was later handed over to the US, and then held in
Libya before being released in 2008.

US and British government sources said Mr al-Hasidi was a member of
the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group, or LIFG, which killed dozens of
Libyan troops in guerrilla attacks around Derna and Benghazi in 1995
and 1996.

Even though the LIFG is not part of the al-Qaeda organisation, the
United States military's West Point academy has said the two share an
"increasingly co-operative relationship". In 2007, documents captured
by allied forces from the town of Sinjar, showed LIFG emmbers made up
the second-largest cohort of foreign fighters in Iraq, after Saudi
Arabia.

Earlier this month, al-Qaeda issued a call for supporters to back the
Libyan rebellion, which it said would lead to the imposition of "the
stage of Islam" in the country.

British Islamists have also backed the rebellion, with the former head
of the banned al-Muhajiroun proclaiming that the call for "Islam, the
Shariah and jihad from Libya" had "shaken the enemies of Islam and the
Muslims more than the tsunami that Allah sent against their friends,
the Japanese"

MAREK TYSIS
PS; all that is confirming the clown in the white House is not so white he says...

[marektysis]

PARIS (Reuters) - The Japanese earthquake is seen costing AXA , Europe's second-biggest insurer, at least 100 million euros ($140.8 million) before tax, Chief Executive Henri de Castries told French television on Sunday.

AXA has not yet fully pinned down its risk exposure to the catastrophe -- which has killed more than 10,000 people so far -- because the death toll may rise further, he added.

"We estimate it should cost us slightly more than 100 million euros before tax, where losses of life and injuries are concerned, and in the tens of millions in terms of industrial risk," de Castries said in an interview with LCI television.

The earthquake struck Japan on March 11 and triggered a powerful tsunami that devastated the country's northeast.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/yourmoney/sns-rt-business-us-axatre72q25f-20110327,0,4697814.story

[marektysis]

Tony Blair's priest fixed papal knighthoods for cash: Senior Catholic took up to £50k donations for honours
By Ian Gallagher
Last updated at 4:39 AM on 27th March 2011
Comments (33) Add to My Stories
Senior Catholic Fr Michael Seed admits soliciting charity donations of up to £50,000 for prestigious honours
Franciscan Friars ‘appalled’ by MoS disclosures... as Seed admits his actions could be ‘morally wrong’
Suspended: Father Michael Seed's superiors are said to be 'appalled'
One of Britain’s most high-profile Catholic priests has admitted arranging papal knighthoods for wealthy businessmen for money.
Father Michael Seed, who regularly celebrated Mass for Tony Blair and his family in Downing Street, now faces questions from his religious order after an investigation by The Mail on Sunday.
The most damaging evidence concerns his attempted cultivation of an Israeli arms dealer, Hezi Bezalel, who was seeking business opportunities in the Balkans.
It shows that Fr Seed, a former ecumenical adviser to the Archbishop of Westminster, had ‘agreed’ a papal knighthood for Mr Bezalel before approaching him. In return for a £45,000 donation to charity, Fr Seed said he could also introduce Mr Bezalel to influential Balkan politicians ‘and the man who looks after all arms for the region’. Mr Bezalel declined the offer, saying he did not give to charity ‘under instruction’.
Papal knighthoods are awarded to lay men and women for conspicuous service to the church and society. They are among the highest honours the Pope can bestow.
Tonight a source close to Fr Seed’s order, the Franciscan Friars of the Atonement, said his superiors were ‘appalled’. Although he failed to solicit funds from Mr Bezalel, at least four wealthy Britons were impressed by his overtures. Fr Seed admitted they made donations to an Archbishop friend’s charity in Serbia to become papal knights.
It was unclear last night if the four, who are each understood to have contributed between £25,000 and £50,000, had done anything else to merit their honour.
Our inquiries also reveal that:
Fr Seed gave a £34,000 cheque drawn from his order’s charity bank account to a friend, Chinese businesswoman Xuelin Black, who later paid the money into his personal account. Last night the order said it was auditing accounts over the disclosure. Ms Black, 47, who was made a papal dame by Pope Benedict XVI, is a Tory donor and adviser to the Government’s Big Society project.
Fr Seed is on indefinite leave from his order after claims that he marked the 25th anniversary of his ordination in January with a champagne party at a racy club, with entertainment provided by men dressed as nuns.
He lives rent-free in a flat owned by one of his wealthy papal knights in exclusive Dolphin Square in Pimlico, Central London.
Fr Seed, who has taken a vow of poverty, denied profiting from any of the deals. But he agreed that trying to solicit funds from Mr Bezalel could be seen as ‘morally wrong’.
Asked if he thought many would see the deal as an abuse of the papal honours system, he said: ‘Of course I do.’
Fr Seed is honorary chaplain to the International Committee on Human Dignity, based at the European Parliament in Brussels. But it was as unofficial Catholic envoy to Parliament that he acquired many well-connected friends. He was praised by Cherie Blair for turning ‘the great into the good’ and helped to convert Tony Blair, Ann Widdecombe, John Gummer and the Duchess of Kent.
Admission: Father Seed is facing questions from his religious order
When he approached Mr Bezalel in November 2008, he had recently left his post as ecumenical adviser to Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O’Connor, then Catholic Primate of England and Wales.
The Mail on Sunday can reveal that Fr Seed and his go-between, American corporate strategist Kalman Sporn, 39, constructed a careful plan to try to win over Mr Bezalel.
Central to their strategy was Archbishop Eugenio Sbarbaro, the Vatican’s ambassador to Serbia, who had the power to nominate people for papal knighthoods. He has been a close friend of Fr Seed for nearly 30 years and Fr Seed was soliciting funds for the Archbishop’s Belgrade charity, The Path to Peace in the Balkans Foundation.


Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1370323/Tony-Blairs-priest-fixed-papal-knighthoods-cash.html#ixzz1Hpsupjli

[marektysis]

In exclusive interview with ET Now's George Cherian, Martin Feldstein, Professor, Harvard University and president emeritus of the National Bureau of Economic Research , USA analyses the health of the global economy and the financial consequences of Japan's natural disasters, while taking a holistic view on the direction Asian markets are likely headed to.

If we just look at the events in the Middle East, we have found that severe tensions in the Middle East have historically led to oil price hikes which in turn have led to at least 3 of other recessions that we have seen in the past out of the 5 big oil price spikes that we have seen. To the extent that the global economy is still just about coming into recovery mode, do you believe a severe shock on the oil price front can actually take us back into recession?

Martin Feldstein : It certainly could happen and increases that we have seen already just from last year and this year oil going from roughly $70 to over $100 can have a very severe impact on the US and on Europe. For the US we import about more than 4 billion barrels so that a $120 billion of reduced national income and from a consumers point of view in the US it is about twice that much since we are also using domestically produced oil. So even if prices do not go up any more than they already have it is a significant weakening of the economy.

If we just look at Japan, we have seen the G7 rallying together to ensure that the Yen does not gain too significantly in turn hurting the economy now while at one level we can argue that it was an essential act on the part of the G7 to hold up or rather protect the Japanese economy. On the other hand one can argue against that action to say that action to say that why is the G7 coming in the way of something that the market needs to determine, so is it there something a bit of a conflict over there when you say that on the one hand you have G7 people coming out saying that market needs to decide here you have the G7 deciding?

Martin Feldstein: Well I agree with you not only that it was really not necessary to have the G7 do it, while a country may not be able to stop its currency from falling because it does not have the reserves to intervene. Any country can drive its own currency down so the Japanese did not need the other six members of the G7. If they had simply said we are going to supply the world market with whatever volume of Yen they want to keep the Yen at 82 they would have been able to do that. So it is very surprising that they going through this process of persuading the other 6 to come on board.

Japan according to some people offers itself as a laboratory of the future where it has been at the edge of pretty much everything in terms of asset bubbles, in terms of currency weakness, in terms of a dysfunctional financial systems, so at some level would you say that Japan offers itself as a case study to a lot of other countries in terms of what never to do?

Martin Feldstein : They certainly give a lot of lessons. They handle the financial crisis terribly and they allow their stock market much earlier to get way out of line. It has fallen some 75% from where it was at the peak. They did not fix their banking system so yes they have told us a lot of lessons no what not to do.

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/opinion/interviews/severe-shock-on-oil-price-could-cause-recession-martin-feldstein/articleshow/7791851.cms

[marektysis]

Dear Friends,
I am posting this article because it contains interesting spotlight on new
international law.
Marek
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United Nations Security Council Resolution 1973, which authorizes a no-fly zone over Libya and the protection of civilians by all means necessary, is the culmination of a decade-long effort to radically strengthen the ability of the UN to intervene in sovereign nations through the “Responsibility to Protect” (R2P) doctrine. Behind the initiative are, unsurprisingly, some of the usual suspects: National Security Council adviser Samantha Power and her patron George Soros. Their call to prevent human rights abuses through military intervention masks an agenda to alter drastically the concept of state sovereignty and to allow the United Nations to essentially co-opt the US military.

A 2008 backgrounder produced by The Heritage Foundation on the Responsibility to Protect articulates one of the most dangerous aspects of the doctrine: “R2P would effectively cede U.S. national sovereignty and decision-making power over key components of national security and foreign policy and subject them to the whims of the international community.” What we are seeing unfold in Libya today may very well be a test case for this doctrine: the United Nations has “borrowed” the US military to enforce its idea of Gaddafi’s “responsibilities.” And one question of grave concern is: Might the UN also “borrow” the U.S. and other Western militaries in future to impose its will on member states it feels are not living up to the UN’s nebulous idea of state responsibilities?

Before we examine the ingredients of this potentially catastrophic scenario, a bit of historical background is necessary. The Responsibility to Protect doctrine, which is deliberately nebulous and ill-defined, is not new. In fact, Hitler’s intervention in the Sudetenland was justified by “humanitarian reasons.” Hitler’s propaganda machine created mass hysteria in Germany by falsely accusing Czechoslovakia of carrying out atrocities against ethnic Germans. Hitler negotiated with Neville Chamberlain on the basis that he was only going to intervene to save lives. Chamberlain may not have bought Hitler’s lies, but Munich occurred nonetheless.

The doctrine was applied sporadically for the next 50 years because military intervention of any kind during the Cold War risked nuclear confrontation. Although the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan was justified by Moscow as a “humanitarian” endeavor, there were few other cases.

Once the Soviet Union disappeared, a host of situations occurred in the 1990s that drove debate in the United Nations toward accepting the use of humanitarian intervention to stop governments from killing their own people. The ad hoc nature of these interventions gave an opening to individuals who wished to codify UN intervention into international law. Most of these same people also recognized humanitarian intervention as a means of vastly strengthening the UN, while weakening the sovereignty of nations.

The history of Responsibility to Protect bears this out. The International Commission on Intervention and State Sovereignty (ICISS) was formed out of the UN Millennium Summit in September 2000 with a mandate “to promote a comprehensive debate on the relationship between intervention and sovereignty, with a view to fostering global political consensus on how to move from polemics towards action within the international system.”

The ICISS issued a report in December of 2001 titled “The Responsibility to Protect” that encapsulated “the Commissioners’ views on intervention and state sovereignty and their recommendations for practical action.” The document was sent to the UN for debate and approval.



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At the UN, a firestorm broke out over the R2P concept (now the official name of “humanitarian intervention”), largely divided between the industrialized West and the impoverished South. The former colonies only saw a legal way for Western powers to invade them, while the West — including the United States — viewed R2P as a potent weapon to prevent another Rwanda.

The ICISS was chaired by Gareth Evans, former foreign minister for Australia, whose thoughts about the report and sovereignty in particular bear looking at in detail. Mr. Evans sought to turn the debate on sovereignty “on its head” by “characteriz[ing] it not as an argument about the ‘right’ of states to anything, but rather about their ‘responsibility’ — one to protect people at grave risk.”

That “responsibility” is to be defined by the United Nations. Mr. Evans envisions a world where sovereign nations are hardly “sovereign” as we understand the term. Indeed, Evans is seeking nothing less than a brand new definition of sovereignty — what he calls “a new way of talking about sovereignty itself.” The starting point, he says, is that sovereignty “should now be seen not as ‘control,’ as in the centuries-old Westphalian tradition, but, again, as ‘responsibility.’”

No “rights.” No “control.” At least Mr. Evans is willing to let nations keep their borders — for now — although that may also be under threat from R2P. One can imagine the United Nations taking the US to task for trying to keep millions of illegals from crossing our border: We have no “right” to keep hungry, desperate people from seeking a better life. Might our border policies also violate the R2P doctrine? Indeed, such an argument is already being made.

In 2004, the Secretary General Kofi Annan set up a blue ribbon committee to examine the ICISS findings and issue a report to the United Nations. The Panel on Threats, Challenges, and Change swallowed the “new” definition of sovereignty while recommending R2P be adopted as a matter of policy and law. Their report, “A More Secure World: Our Shared Responsibility,” recommended that it be the responsibility “of every State when it comes to people suffering from avoidable catastrophe, mass murder and rape, ethnic cleansing by forcible expulsion and terror, and deliberate starvation and exposure to disease.”

In other words, “responsibility” has morphed from the 1990s concept–which entailed that it is up to the world community or voluntary coalitions to intervene where necessary to protect innocents–to a set of rules that sovereign nations themselves must satisfy the United Nations or the hammer will fall.

In direct violation of its own charter, the UN has set itself up as the arbiter of where sovereignty begins and ends, tossing aside Article 51′s “inherent right to self-defense” clause. The Office of the Special Adviser for the Prevention of Genocide at the UN makes this clear. The individual state’s idea of sovereignty takes a back seat to the UN’s judgment: “Sovereignty no longer exclusively protects States from foreign interference; it is a charge of responsibility where States are accountable for the welfare of their people.”


http://frontpagemag.com/2011/03/28/libya-and-the-soros-doctrine/?utm_source=FrontPage+Magazine&utm_campaign=ce210120be-RSS_EMAIL_CAMPAIGN&utm_medium=email

[marektysis]

THIS INTERESTING DOCUMENTED TEXT HAD TO BE READ BY YOU
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A CIA commander for the Libyan rebels
28 March 2011
The Libyan National Council, the Benghazi-based group that speaks for the rebel forces fighting the Gaddafi regime, has appointed a long-time CIA collaborator to head its military operations. The selection of Khalifa Hifter, a former colonel in the Libyan army, was reported by McClatchy Newspapers Thursday and the new military chief was interviewed by a correspondent for ABC News on Sunday night.

Hifter’s arrival in Benghazi was first reported by Al Jazeera on March 14, followed by a flattering portrait in the virulently pro-war British tabloid the Daily Mail on March 19. The Daily Mail described Hifter as one of the “two military stars of the revolution” who “had recently returned from exile in America to lend the rebel ground forces some tactical coherence.” The newspaper did not refer to his CIA connections.

McClatchy Newspapers published a profile of Hifter on Sunday. Headlined “New Rebel Leader Spent Much of Past 20 years in Suburban Virginia,” the article notes that he was once a top commander for the Gaddafi regime, until “a disastrous military adventure in Chad in the late 1980s.”

Hifter then went over to the anti-Gaddafi opposition, eventually emigrating to the United States, where he lived until two weeks ago when he returned to Libya to take command in Benghazi.

The McClatchy profile concluded, “Since coming to the United States in the early 1990s, Hifter lived in suburban Virginia outside Washington, DC.” It cited a friend who “said he was unsure exactly what Hifter did to support himself, and that Hifter primarily focused on helping his large family.”

To those who can read between the lines, this profile is a thinly disguised indication of Hifter’s role as a CIA operative. How else does a high-ranking former Libyan military commander enter the United States in the early 1990s, only a few years after the Lockerbie bombing, and then settle near the US capital, except with the permission and active assistance of US intelligence agencies? Hifter actually lived in Vienna, Virginia, about five miles from CIA headquarters in Langley, for two decades.

The agency was very familiar with Hifter’s military and political work. A Washington Post report of March 26, 1996 describes an armed rebellion against Gaddafi in Libya and uses a variant spelling of his name. The article cites witnesses to the rebellion who report that “its leader is Col. Khalifa Haftar, of a contra-style group based in the United States called the Libyan National Army.”

The comparison is to the “contra” terrorist forces financed and armed by the US government in the 1980s against the Sandinista government in Nicaragua. The Iran-Contra scandal, which rocked the Reagan administration in 1986-87, involved the exposure of illegal US arms sales to Iran, with the proceeds used to finance the contras in defiance of a congressional ban. Congressional Democrats covered up the scandal and rejected calls to impeach Reagan for sponsoring the flagrantly illegal activities of a cabal of former intelligence operatives and White House aides.

A 2001 book, Manipulations africaines, published by Le Monde diplomatique, traces the CIA connection even further back, to 1987, reporting that Hifter, then a colonel in Gaddafi’s army, was captured fighting in Chad in a Libyan-backed rebellion against the US-backed government of Hissène Habré. He defected to the Libyan National Salvation Front (LNSF), the principal anti-Gaddafi group, which had the backing of the American CIA. He organized his own militia, which operated in Chad until Habré was overthrown by a French-supported rival, Idriss Déby, in 1990.

According to this book, “the Haftar force, created and financed by the CIA in Chad, vanished into thin air with the help of the CIA shortly after the government was overthrown by Idriss Déby.” The book also cites a Congressional Research Service report of December 19, 1996 that the US government was providing financial and military aid to the LNSF and that a number of LNSF members were relocated to the United States.

This information is available to anyone who conducts even a cursory Internet search, but it has not been reported by the corporate-controlled media in the United States, except in the dispatch from McClatchy, which avoids any reference to the CIA. None of the television networks, busily lauding the “freedom fighters” of eastern Libya, has bothered to report that these forces are now commanded by a longtime collaborator of US intelligence services.

Nor have the liberal and “left” enthusiasts of the US-European intervention in Libya taken note. They are too busy hailing the Obama administration for its multilateral and “consultative” approach to war, supposedly so different from the unilateral and “cowboy” approach of the Bush administration in Iraq. That the result is the same—death and destruction raining down on the population, the trampling of the sovereignty and independence of a former colonial country—means nothing to these apologists for imperialism.

The role of Hifter, aptly described 15 years ago as the leader of a “contra-style group,” demonstrates the real class forces at work in the Libyan tragedy. Whatever genuine popular opposition was expressed in the initial revolt against the corrupt Gaddafi dictatorship, the rebellion has been hijacked by imperialism.

The US and European intervention in Libya is aimed not at bringing “democracy” and “freedom,” but at installing in power stooges of the CIA who will rule just as brutally as Gaddafi, while allowing the imperialist powers to loot the country’s oil resources and use Libya as a base of operations against the popular revolts sweeping the Middle East and North Africa.

Patrick Martin

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2011/mar2011/pers-m28.shtml

[marektysis]

note the presence of the Chinese foreign Affairs Institute: a mark
of globalism...Marek
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Chinese vice premier meets former British PM Blair

English.news.cn 2011-03-28 22:00:08 FeedbackPrintRSS

BEIJING, March 28 (Xinhua) -- Chinese Vice Premier Wang Qishan met here on Monday with former British prime minister Tony Blair.

They exchanged views on issues regarding global economic situation, energy and environmental protection.

Blair is visiting China as guest of the Chinese People's Institute of Foreign Affairs. Earlier on Monday he attended the launch ceremony of a environmental protection program in Beijing, entitled "China Redesign".

The three-year program, launched by the Climate Group, aims to help Chinese cities develop and implement low-carbon growth strategies and meet the emission reduction objectives of China's 12th Five Year Plan. Blair is one of the initiators of the Climate Group.

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english2010/china/2011-03/28/c_13802138.htm

[marektysis]

BRUSSELS—Microsoft founder and philanthropist Bill Gates visits Paris, Strasbourg and Brussels next week in an effort to persuade Europeans not to cut aid budgets in the face of austerity—and in particular not to reduce spending on vaccinations and agriculture.

Mr. Gates starts with a presentation in Paris Monday, moves to Strasbourg where he speaks to European Commissioners, before heading to Berlin Wednesday.

His message will be that spending on vaccinations and agricultural aid, for example improving seed strains, can save millions of lives and, ironically, [note of Marek; notice the adverb 'ironically']
help to reduce population
[ have we to read -depopulation?]
growth, he said in a telephone interview before the trip.

"As people decide about what they want to squeeze how much, the more they know about all the different pieces, the better off they'll be in making those judgments," he said.

In both subsistence agriculture and vaccinations, he said there is market failure because poor people didn't have the resources to drive profits. Hence, foundations such as his and governments have to step in, he said.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704530204576236634102871952.html

[marektysis]

Prince Philippe visits Russia as part of trade mission
31.03.2011
Representative mission of Belgian entrepreneurs led by Belgium’s Prince Philippe will appear in Moscow and Saint Petersburg within the scope of a visit from 3 to 8 April, 2011. The mission comprises officials of 216 companies operating in Belgium, a total of 415 representatives.
The list of companies participating in the mission includes, but non limited to Solvey, Glaverbel, Bekaert, Fluxys, USB, BNP Paribas. Diamond companies based in Antwerp are widely represented being Rosy Blue headed by Dilip Mehta, IGC Group, Diamonds handel, A.Spira, Diamaz, International diamonds trading, Manoy, Vainchtock and Co, Munich gems, Super gems, Antwerp World Diamond Centre (AWDC).
On 5 April Prince Philippe is expected to have a meeting with Russia’s President. The meeting will be attended by Belgium’s Minister for Foreign Affairs Steven Vanackere, Head of the local Government of Brussels Capital region and Head of Government of Vallonia Region.
Belgian businessmen are interested in discussion of prospects of cooperation in chemical and aerospace industry, development of innovative technologies, industrial production, oil & gas industry and infrastructure of sea ports and airports, as well as health service, transport and logistics, tourism and leisure. Most of the meetings scheduled are likely to be devoted to joint projects in diamond industry and luxury products.
With the view of development and implementation of potential joint projects Belgians will be submitted full details on the upcoming large-scale events scheduled in Russia: Student Games 2013 in Kazan city, APEC Summit 2012 in Vladivostok, Winter Olympic Games in Sochi, football World Cup 2018.

Alex Shishlo, Editor of the Rough&Polished European Bureau in Brussels

http://www.rough-polished.com/en/news/49147.html

[marektysis]

PARIS, April 1 (Reuters) - AXA's chief executive Henri de Castries is facing growing questions about the French insurer's push into emerging markets and anaemic share price performance, but the 57-year-old former paratrooper says he is confident his strategy will win through.
Although AXA shares have strongly rebounded this year after a dismal performance in 2010, they trade at among the lowest price-to-book multiples in the sector and are plagued by perceptions that the group is ill-equipped for a post-crisis world.
In an interview with Reuters de Castries blamed the stock's underperformance on exposure to rock-bottom interest rates in Europe and the United States, as well as difficulties closing a long-running deal to buy out its Asia-Pacific operations.

But he said the group's 2015 turnaround plan and the closure of the AXA Asia-Pacific deal would close the valuation gap and prove that there is no need to adjust the strategy.

"It's clear that the sector has not been performing well and last year we have been performing worse than the sector," de Castries said.

"But it is in the process of being corrected because our actions are becoming more visible and because long-term interest rates are not the threat they were seen as being last year."


GROWTH DRIVE

De Castries hit back at critics of the $3.5 billion price tag for AXA Asia-Pacific, or 20 times earnings, saying there was more growth to come from the business.

"Of course 20 is a very high multiple in a mature market but for an operation where revenues have been growing at 32 percent a year compounded over past five years it is not an expensive multiple. And there is a lot of growth to come," he said.

http://www.forexyard.com/en/news/AXA-CEO-insists-strategy-will-pay-off-2011-04-01T173723Z-INTERVIEW-UPDATE-3

[marektysis]

12.04.2011Germany: Queen Beatrix visits Germany
IHA News Agency
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Queen Beatrix's visit to Germany, together with Crown Prince Willem-Alexander
and Crown Princess Máxima, lasts from 12 to 15 April.

- 12.04. BERLIN -
Military Honour; Meeting with German President Wulff and the Chancellor Merkel; Banquette

- 13.04. BERLIN -
Brandenburg Gate; Alexanderplatz; several smaller visits; Concert in the Philharmonie

- 14.04. DRESDEN -
Frauenkirche; Solarwatt Company

- 15.04. RUHR AREA -
the visit of the cities Düsseldorf and Essen is announced


Marek publishing here not interesting articles as this one.

[marektysis]

For the venue of the G8 summit, may 26 & 27, exceptionnal measures of security have been taken by the french government.
the weekly 'Canard enchaîné' has been documented with classified documents ( published on wednesday april 7), a part of the city will be 'sanctuarized' to say the inhabitants will receive a badge from the authorities, helping the security forces to make a distinction with
the groups of expected opponents.The arrested persons would be
jailed in the prisons of Caen et Hâvre. French authorities are awaiting the black blocks. Immatriculations of cars will be scanned and a salle of
the Caen Tribunal will become the center of he judicial coordination center.( salle 006).
The spring will be hot...

Marek

[marektysis]

News - The Karel van Miert/Etienne Davignon prizes for journalists
6/4
2011BRUSSELS: 3rd edition of the Karel van Miert/Etienne Davignon prizes for journalists

The Representation of the European Commission in Belgium and the Belgian section of the Association of European Journalists organise for the third time the Karel Van Miert/Etienne Davignon prizes.

These prizes reward Belgian journalists who deal with European matters. The Etienne Davignon prize targets news items in French and the Karel Van Miert prize news items in Dutch. This year, there are two categories for each prize: one for students in journalism (bachelor students) and one for professional journalists (and master students).

News items can be articles (written or online press), radio or video pieces and can be an individual or a group work. This year's subject: the EU impact of Belgian citizens'life. The first prize for students (bachelor) amounts to 1000 euros and the first prize for professional journalists (and master students) 1500 euros.

Inscriptions: www.aej.org (Media Prizes à Belgium)

Deadline: 9 september 2011 (winners will be known in November).

Do not hesitate to disseminate this information to who might be interested
http://www.fondspascaldecroos.org/en/inhoud/nieuws/karel-miertetienne-davignon-prizes-journalists

i AM INVITING ALL INVESTIGATING REPORTERS TO TAKE PART TO THIS NICE CONTEST!!!

Marek tysis

[marektysis]

You know, the school of young Ghaddafi junior....
http://www.yidio.com/profile-peter-sutherland--chairman-goldman-sachs-international--london-school-of-economics/id/3141314459