Bilderberg.org

[marektysis]

Anne Lauvergeon defended her record as chief executive officer of Areva SA (AREVA) and said the nuclear-fuel manufacturer spied on her and didn’t pay what they owed her after not renewing her contract seven months ago.

“I have been attacked, slandered and spied upon,” Lauvergeon said yesterday at a Paris press conference. “I don’t want a war; I want to turn the page. But I’ve had enough.”

Lauvergeon filed a criminal complaint in Paris against unidentified persons in December after seeing a report by private investigators of her and her husband’s movements and communications. She filed a suit on Jan. 11 against Areva, asking the Paris commercial court to order the state-controlled company to honor a 1.06 million-euro ($1.35 million) departure payment and 440,000 euros for a non-compete clause.

Lauvergeon was denied a third term weeks before her contract expired in June, when the government replaced her with Luc Oursel, Areva’s head of marketing. French authorities are investigating Areva’s $2.5 billion purchase of Canadian uranium mining company UraMin in 2007 after the Paris-based manufacturer forecast an operating loss for 2011 in December because of asset writedowns on mining projects and plant closures in response to the nuclear accident in Japan last year.

Awaiting Auditors’ Report

Areva’s board “decided to suspend the payment as it hadn’t yet received the report of three independent auditors” looking into the UraMin deal, Patricia Marie, a spokeswoman for Areva, said today. That report is expected by the end of February, she said. Areva is cooperating with the investigation into the spying claims, Marie said.

The French company, the world’s biggest supplier of nuclear fuel and services, paid a “normal” price for UraMin (AREVA), Lauvergeon said yesterday. Areva had been searching since 2005 for a company to buy to secure access to uranium.

The acquisition was reviewed by law firms, auditors and the government undertook “a very significant analysis” of the decision as well, Lauvergeon said.

A hearing on Lauvergeon’s complaint regarding her pay is scheduled for Feb. 3.

To contact the reporter on this story: Heather Smith in Paris at hsmith26@bloomberg.net
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-01-17/areva-ex-chief-lauvergeon-says-she-was-slandered-spied-upon-.html

For education purposes only for limited groups.
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What is not reported in this paper is that Atomic Anne let understand
that the French Chief of State, Nicholas Sarkozy was behind the regular attemps every three months during her mandate made to destabilize her in the intention to break Areva in parts to serve the financial interests
of his personal friends ( new readers see the story on page 23).
Doing this and blocking Enders interests ( see a few articles just before this one) Nicholas Sarkozy is trying to help the french non members of
international elite to get some parts of the cake...but to be reelected he 'll need the help of Bank of Paris and Pays-Bas and his personal friend
mr Pebereau, bank that now is bad placed after the S&P coup against france and several European countries, putting Italian bank unicredit at the verge of bankrupcy collapse ...
Vengeance is a cold plate says a chinese proverb...and it is making Sarkozy pretention to be president candidate a past dream.

Marek Tysis

[marektysis]

Jacques Brinon/AP


Internet Wilkipedia founder, Jimmy Wales leaves the Elysee Palace after a lunch opening the e-G8 Forum, in Paris. The two-day gathering is bringing together Internet and media world gurus like Google executive chairman Eric Schmidt, News Corp. Chairman and CEO Rupert Murdoch, and Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg. French President Nicolas Sarkozy said Tuesday that governments need to lay down and enforce rules in the digital world _ even as they need to foster creativity and economic growth with the Internet.

Wikipedia will black out the English language version of its website Wednesday to protest anti-piracy legislation under consideration in Congress, the foundation behind the popular community-based online encyclopedia said in a statement Monday night.

The website will go dark for 24 hours in an unprecedented move that brings added muscle to a growing base of critics of the legislation. Wikipedia is considered one of the Internet's most popular websites, with millions of visitors daily.

"If passed, this legislation will harm the free and open Internet and bring about new tools for censorship of international websites inside the United States," the Wikimedia foundation said.

The Stop Online Piracy Act in the U.S. House of Representatives and the Protect Intellectual Property Act under consideration in the Senate are designed to crack down on sales of pirated U.S. products overseas.

Supporters include the film and music industry, which often sees its products sold illegally. They say the legislation is needed to protect intellectual property and jobs.

Critics say the legislation could hurt the technology industry and infringe on free-speech rights. Among their concerns are provisions that would weaken cyber-security for companies and hinder domain access rights.

The most controversial provision is in the House bill, which would have enabled federal authorities to "blacklist" sites that are alleged to distribute pirated content. That would essentially cut off portions of the Internet to all U.S. users. But congressional leaders appear to be backing off this provision.

Tech companies such as Google, Facebook, Yahoo, Twitter, eBay, AOL and others have spoken out against the legislation and said it threatens the industry's livelihood. Several online communities such as Reddit, Boing Boing and others have announced plans to go dark in protest as well.

The Obama administration also raised concerns about the legislation over the weekend and said it will work with Congress on legislation to help battle piracy and counterfeiting while defending free expression, privacy, security and innovation in the Internet.

Wikipedia's decision to go dark brings the issue into a much brighter spotlight. A group of Wikipedia users have discussed for more than a month whether it should react to the legislation.

Over the past few days, a group of more than 1,800 volunteers who work on the site and other users considered several forms of online protest, including banner ads and a global blackout of the site, the foundation said. Ultimately, the group supported the decision to black out the English version of the site.

Jimmy Wales, the founder of Wikipedia who first announced the move on his Twitter account Monday, said the bills are a threat to the free, open, and secure web.

"The whole thing is just a poorly designed mess," Wales said in an email to The Associated Press.

Wikipedia is also requesting that readers contact members of Congress about the bill during the blackout.

"I am personally asking everyone who cares about freedom and openness on the Internet to contact their Senators and Representative," Wales said. "One of the things we have learned recently during the Arab spring events is that the Internet is a powerfully effective tool for the public to organize and have their voices heard."

Wikipedia will shut down access from midnight Eastern Standard Time on Tuesday night until midnight Wednesday.

This is the first time Wikipedia's English version has gone dark. Its Italian site came down once briefly in protest to an Internet censorship bill put forward by the Berlusconi government; the bill did not advance.

"Wikipedia is about being open," said Jay Walsh, spokesman for the Wikimedia foundation. "We are not about shutting down and protesting. It's not a muscle that is normally flexed.
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/wikipedia-founder-jimmy-wales-announces-blackout-protest-anti-piracy-bills-congress-article-1.1007296?localLinksEnabled=false

[marektysis]

NATO Drills For Nuclear Attack On Iran and Syria

Yesterday I carried a story on a crash between a French Air Force Mirage and a Royal Saudi Air Force F-15. The story confirmed that the Saudi pilot and the two French pilots were safe. Little additional information was available. Today, I am able to report that the two-seat Mirage was in fact either a French Air Force Mirage 2000-D or a 2000-N. Both aircraft, in their later variants are virtually identical and are used for the long-range nuclear strike role by the French Air Force.

This begs the question, is NATO preparing to 'go nuclear' in the coming General Middle East War against Iran and Syria? There are hundreds of allied fighter-bombers available in the Middle East that can hit targets in Iran and Syria. Why bring in the specialized long-range nuclear capable Mirages?

Currently, within the last week or so, the following battle forces have been assembled by NATO in the Middle East. A massive war armada is sitting just south of the Strait of Hormuz, it consists of THREE US Navy super-carrier battle groups: the USS Carl Vinson; the USS John C. Stennis; and the USS Abraham Lincoln. Each battle group generally has four or five Ageis air defense cruisers and destroyers, and usually one to three other destroyers and/or frigates, plus a large support ship and one or two hunter-killer nuclear submarines.

Additionally, there are up to three other large flat-tops, US Navy assault carriers and their battle groups. These include the USS Makin Island with its USMC Harriers and various Marine attack and assault helicopters. The Makin Island has the capability to off load Marine amphibious assault crafts and its battle group is accompanied by the USS New Orleans and the USS Pearl Harbor, both very powerful assault ships capable of launching large numbers of Marine amphibious crafts.

Additionally, the French Navy has brought in its top-of-the-line nuclear carrier the Charles DeGaulle with its battle group. The British Royal Navy has added to its local fleet its most powerful warship the Type 45 Air Defense Destroyer the HMS Daring. The combination of the French carrier and the US super-carriers means that fully one-third of all the nuclear powered aircraft carriers on Earth are now assembled near the Strait of Hormuz!
In addition to all of this, the US Army has rushed into Kuwait THREE combat brigades. Two are powerful mechanized brigades (one from the First Calvary Division; the other from the MN National Guard) and the third is a Army aviation brigade with its vast numbers of attack and assault helicopters.

Thousands of USAF troops were airlifted into Israel along with the most advanced anti-missile technology that America has over the last two weeks.

Both Russia and China have been very vocal in opposing any new war in the Middle East. However, Russian warning have been very clear, stating that any attack on Tehran would be considered an attack on Moscow. To make this point crystal clear, the Russian Strategic Missile Forces have suddenly begun a 'High Alert Drill' according to RiaNovosti this "drill" involves the latest and most dangerous nuclear armed Russian ICBMs. [Russia’s Strategic Missile Forces are holding a series of exercises to practice putting road-mobile missile systems on high alert, SMF spokesman Col. Vadim Koval said.

The exercises involve Topol (SS-25 Sikle), Topol-M (SS-27 Sickle B) and Yars (RS-24) mobile systems stationed in central Russia and Siberia.

“SMF units armed with Topol, Topol-M and Yars road-mobile missile systems will practice patrolling, camouflaging and launch preparation procedures during high alert drills from January 16 to February 3,” Koval told reporters on Monday.]

While the world's attention is on the GOP Presidential race and the Eurozone crisis war clouds are gathering in the Middle East and the entire planet is at risk. A risk that is greater than that it faced almost half a century ago with the Cuban Missile Crisis.
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reported by M.Tysis for a limited group of well educated persons.Keep smiling through, just as you do...the clouds will go away...
I hope so..

[marektysis]

Obama Said Considering Nominating Summers to Lead World Bank
January 18, 2012, 4:26 PM EST

By Hans Nichols


(Updates with comments on Summers in 14th-18th paragraphs.)

Jan. 18 (Bloomberg) -- President Barack Obama is considering nominating Lawrence Summers, his former National Economic Council director, to lead the World Bank when Robert Zoellick’s term expires later this year, according to two people familiar with the matter.

Summers has expressed interest in the job to White House officials and has backers inside the administration, including Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner and current NEC Director Gene Sperling, said one of the people. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is also being considered, along with other candidates, said the other person. Both spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss internal White House deliberations.

Lael Brainard, the Treasury undersecretary for international affairs, is compiling a list of potential candidates to replace Zoellick, who was nominated to a five-year term that began in July 2007 by then-President George W. Bush. By tradition, the U.S. president chooses the leader of the World Bank while the head of the International Monetary Fund is selected by European leaders. The nomination is subject to approval by the World Bank’s executive board.

White House press secretary Jay Carney declined to comment. Summers’ assistant, Julie Shample, said he was unavailable. Philippe Reines, a spokesman for Clinton, also declined to comment.

Scrutiny of Record

A nomination of Summers would bring scrutiny of his previous stints in government, both as former President Bill Clinton’s Treasury secretary and Obama’s NEC director, as well as his tenure as president of Harvard University.

“Larry is controversial,” said Erskine Bowles, who served as Clinton’s chief of staff. “Anything you appoint Larry to, you know there are going to be some people who are going to take shots at him. But you know he’s a brilliant economist, which I think everybody recognizes.”

Bowles said he had no information on the White House deliberations.

“He performed well in some difficult markets,” Bowles said. “I think it’s been a passion of his for a long, long time and I am confident that he will do a good job.”

Summers also may come under fire for some of his previous work at the bank, as well as the commercial relationships he has forged since leaving the White House in December 2010.

In 1991, at the World Bank, he signed off on a memo that argued that less-developed countries might benefit from accepting pollution from wealthy countries.

Return to Harvard

After leaving the Obama administration, Summers, 57, returned to Harvard, where he’s now a professor at the John F. Kennedy School of Government.

Summers earned his doctorate in economics at Harvard in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and at 28 was granted tenure, the youngest age anyone had gained that status at the time. He spent time on the staff of the White House Council of Economic Advisers in the 1980s before joining the World Bank as chief economist.

He was Clinton’s Treasury secretary from 1999 to 2001, after which he became Harvard president. Summers quit that post in 2006 after a series of battles with the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, which teaches most of the undergraduate courses, and following a controversy over comments he made at a conference, in which he suggested women lacked an aptitude for science.

‘Supported Deregulation’

During the Clinton era, Summers argued for the deregulation of the financial industry and clashed with Brooksley Born, then head of the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission, over the regulation of the over-the-counter derivatives market. Those positions, along with his speaking engagements at banks and work at a hedge fund, have made him unpopular with some Democrats.

In the 16 months before joining Obama’s White House, the hedge fund D.E. Shaw & Co. paid Summers more than $5 million, according to a 2009 financial-disclosure form.

“Summers is certainly a very smart economist,” said Dean Baker, who is co-director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research in Washington. “However, his track record in dealing with the U.S. economy has not been very good.”

Baker cited Summers’ support for deregulating the financial industry and said he “ ignored the stock bubble in the ‘90s and the housing bubble in the last decade.”

“And, he seems to have badly underestimated the severity of the downturn,” Baker said.

‘Global’ Experience

Summers’ ascension to the World Bank presidency would be cheered by Wall Street, said Ralph Schlosstein, chief executive officer at Evercore Partners Inc.

“He has a very strong set of global experiences, which are fundamental to being a great head of the World Bank,” Schlosstein said. “I think he has an open-mindedness and creativity that will probably be a tremendous asset in the challenging world we face over the next decade.”

Summers will also have his detractors, Schlosstein said, in part because of his interpersonal skills. “He doesn’t suffer fools graciously,” he said.

Under a longstanding unwritten agreement, the IMF has always been led by a European while the World Bank has been headed by an American. The U.S. in June backed then-French Finance Minister Christine Lagarde to take the head of the IMF. Emerging market leaders such as Brazilian Finance Minister Guido Mantega have questioned the division of leadership posts at the two institutions, saying the choice should be made on the basis of merit, not nationality.

Aid Channel

The World Bank, which was established to rebuild Europe after World War II, made loans worth about $57 billion in the year ended June 30. It offers financial and technical assistance to countries. Pakistan, for example, will receive up to $5.5 billion in grants and loans through mid 2015. The institution also has a private sector arm.

Under Zoellick, shareholders approved a capital increase providing the institution with $5.1 billion in cash to meet demand from countries hit by the global recession that followed the 2008 financial crisis.

The next World Bank president may yet face another increase in loan demand. Yesterday, the bank cut its global growth forecast by the most in three years and told developing countries to “prepare for the worst,” saying that Europe’s debt crisis still has the potential to trigger another global financial crisis.

--With assistance from Sandrine Rastello and Roger Runningen in Washington. Editors: Joe Sobczyk, Mark McQuillan.

To contact the reporter on this story: Hans Nichols in Washington at hnichols2@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Mark Silva at msilva34@bloomberg.net
http://www.businessweek.com/news/2012-01-18/obama-said-considering-nominating-summers-to-lead-world-bank.html

[marektysis]

Video: Romney versus the occupiers
posted at 5:10 pm on January 19, 2012 by Allahpundit

Via Mediaite. It’s a nice moment, but “Reagan-esque”? Questioning the divisiveness of “99 percent” rhetoric is S.O.P. for Republican politicians. Watch the second video below of Gingrich showing how it’s done back in November. Or watch this one, from the same event, of him drawing a contrast between OWS and the tea party. Those were the golden days of the campaign when he was busy dumping on occupiers, not mimicking them.

Speaking of Mitt and and hostile constituencies, how exactly is he going to keep Ron Paul and his fans onboard in November now that he’s decided to go full-metal hawk on foreign policy? There’d better be a lot of rhetoric in the next GOP platform about Fed audits and the Bilderberg Group.

http://hotair.com/archives/2012/01/19/video-romney-versus-the-occupiers/

[marektysis]

Populist Groundswell Frustrates Globalists

January 21, 2012 dave


By Keith Johnson

Amid rising economic turmoil and social unrest, members of the global elite will convene at a ski resort in the peaceful mountains of Davos, Switzerland for the annual World Economic Forum 2012 (WEF) from Jan. 25 to 29. Though not as elusive as the shadowy Bilderberg group,* the central bankers, politicians and corporate leaders who make up this body have shown themselves to be just as enthusiastic about seeing their plan for world government put into motion. However, those who come to participate in this year’s forum may not leave quite so optimistic.

According to the WEF’s Global Risks 2012 report, “The potential of the world economy may not be met due to the interplay between fiscal imbalances and demographic trends.” Citing the Occupy and Arab Spring movements as an example, the report goes on to surmise that the disappointing realities of the global economic crisis are “amplified by a growing sense that wealth and power are becoming more entrenched in the hands of political and financial elites.”

The globalist agenda is certainly on the ropes, and the 469 “experts and industry leaders” who contributed to this report are rather forthright in communicating their frustration. Early on, the authors claim that the “seeds of dystopia” have been sown and foresee a future populated by unemployed youths and a growing number of pensioners bearing down on debt-ridden governments. “It needs immediate political attention,” said WEF managing director Lee Howell, “otherwise the political rhetoric that responds to this social unease will involve nationalism, protectionism and rolling back the globalization process.”

During the five-day forum, 50 global risks will be addressed, which these so-called “experts” predict are likely to occur over the course of the next 10 years. They claim that the “severe income disparity” between rich and poor will pose the greatest danger to the world economy, followed by “chronic fiscal imbalances.” Rising greenhouse emissions and a looming water supply crisis also rank high on the list of concerns. But these much-hyped environmental threats have always been a priority on the globalist’s agenda and serve as their justification for seizing, controlling and taxing every last natural resource on the face of the planet.

The perceived danger of cyber attacks on government facilities and critical infrastructure now ranks as the fourth biggest threat to global security, according to the report. Of course that’s just a cover story for their real concern. The globalists obviously see the World Wide Web as a cog in their machine and intend to taper it down to something manageable. Their rhetoric corresponds with recent overtures by the U.S. government to enact legislation—such as the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA)—that would seek to regulate free speech over the Internet. The authors of the report actually reveal their true intentions in a section they refer to as “x-factors: emerging concerns with unknown consequences,” where they write, “The gatekeepers of the broadcast news era are gone, and the integrity and ethics of mass reporting online are increasingly unknown.”

For nearly four decades, The WEF has been a hub of globalist ideas and strategies. The 2011 forum drew the world’s top leaders including French President Nicholas Sarkozy, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, World Bank Chief Robert Zoellick and UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon. Other regular attendees include former President Bill Clinton and former U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger—still a powerful global player.

Last year, The Telegraph reported that 5,000 soldiers were deployed to reinforce the police presence during the Davos WEF 2011 event. In contrast, only 120 demonstrators braved the freezing temperatures to protest. Though a police spokesman admitted that the demonstration was “largely peaceful,” officers still deemed it necessary to fire rubber bullets and use water hoses to break up the crowd. Demonstrators responded with snowballs and lumps of ice.
——
* The Bilderberg group is a Rothschild-Rockefeller-oriented annual, unofficial, by-invitation-only meeting of approximately 120 to 140 guests, mostly from North America and Europe, most of whom are bankers, politicians and heads of major corporations.
——
Keith Johnson is an independent journalist and the editor of “Revolt of the Plebs,” an alternative news website that can be found at www.revoltoftheplebs.com
http://americanfreepress.net/?p=2401

[marektysis]

A new generation of political Islamists steps forward
By Olivier Roy, Saturday, January 21, 1:45 AM

Olivier Roy is a professor at the European University Institute in Florence and the author of “Holy Ignorance.”

Everywhere, the Muslim Brotherhood is benefiting from a democratization it did not trigger. There is a political vacuum because the liberal vanguard that initiated the Arab Spring did not try, and did not want, to take power. This was a revolution without revolutionaries. Yet the Muslim Brothers are the only organized political force. They are rooted in society, and decades of opposition against authoritarian regimes gave them experience, legitimacy and respect. Their conservative agenda fits a conservative society, which may welcome democracy but did not turn liberal.

Under these circumstances, the ghost of a totalitarian Islamic state is raised, with the specter of imposing sharia and closing the short democratic parenthesis. But such an outcome is unlikely.

The Islamists have, in fact, changed: They are more middle-class “bourgeois,” and they benefited from the liberalization of local economies during the last decades of the 20th century, especially in countries with no oil rent. The Islamists have also drawn lessons from the failure of ideological regimes and from the success of Turkey’s AKP party. They are no longer advocating jihad and understand geostrategic constraints, such as the need to maintain peace, even a cold one, with Israel. Realism is the starting point of political wisdom.

The Islamists have been elected with a clear agenda: stability, good governance and a better economy. If they have been able to reach a larger constituency than the hard-core supporters of sharia, it is precisely because they can combine such a reformist agenda while talking about religion, values, identity and tradition. The Nahda party won the majority of the votes cast at the Tunisian consulate of San Francisco, although Tunisian expatriates in Silicon Valley are not known for their Islamic fundamentalism.

This mix of technocratic modernism and conservative values is their brand, and to turn their back on multipartism and legalism would alienate a large portion of their constituency, at a time when they have no means to confiscate power. They have neither military forces nor oil wealth to bypass the people: They have to negotiate and deliver. Their electorate wants stability and peace, not revolution.

They are stepping into a new political landscape: a democracy, although a fledgling and fragile one. The only way to maintain their legitimacy is through elections. Even if their pristine political culture is not democratic, they are formatted by the democratic landscape, much as the Roman Catholic Church ended up accepting democratic institutions. But it will take time.

Another important change, if we refer to the “revolutionary” period of the 1970s and 1980s, is that the Muslim Brothers do not monopolize Islam in the public sphere. In fact, the religious revival that has engulfed Arab societies led to a diversification and an individualization of the religious field. Religious state institutions such as Al Azhar, so recently discredited, are regaining autonomy after so recently being discredited. Al Azhar’s dean, Sheikh Ahmed Al-Tayyeb, openly spoke in favor of democracy and of separating religious institutions from the state. A new phenomenon is the decision of the Salafis, an ultraconservative Sunni sect, to establish political parties. On the one hand they will push for a more Islamic agenda, trying to outbid the Muslim Brothers on Islam, but this will force the Brotherhood to clarify its own position and to find a way to distance itself from the call for sharia.

To do that, the Muslim Brothers have to turn purely Islamic norms into more universal conservative values — such as limiting the sale and consumption of alcohol in a way that is closer to Utah’s rules than to Saudi laws and promoting “family values” instead of imposing sharia norms on women.

In the coming months the hot issue in Egypt, beyond the status of women, will be religious freedom. Not in the sense that Coptic Christians will have less freedom to practice — there were a lot of limitations under the so-called secular dictatorship of Hosni Mubarak — but in defining religious freedom as not merely a minority right but an individual human right, implying the right to convert from Islam to Christianity.

The issue is institutionalizing democracy, not promoting liberal policies. Democracy could take hold only if it is based in well-established values. Liberalism does not precede democracy; America’s Founding Fathers were not liberal. But once democracy is rooted in institutions and political culture, then the debate on freedom, censorship, social norms and individual rights could be managed through freedom of expression and changes of majorities in parliament. However, there will be no institutionalization of democracy without the Muslim Brothers.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/muslim-brotherhood-other-islamists-have-changed-their-worldview/2012/01/10/gIQAZgjoEQ_story.html

FOR EDUCATION PURPOSES FOR LIMITED GROUPS
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As we may see from the text hereabove is that mr Olivier Roy
isn't has not yet understood the consequences of the so called 'spring revolutions' even if by means of oil, the seller is bound to the buyer.
Never has Saoudia Arabia turned into a real 'democracy' ever after mre than 70 years of commercial contacts with the USA.
All that is a oil packing...
Marek Tysis

[marektysis]

Labour soars in latest poll


January 22, 2012

Another public opinion poll has shown Norway’s Labour Party (Arbeiderpartiet, Ap) jumping way beyond its biggest rival at present, the Conservative Party (Høyre), and dwarfing all the other small parties that now seem to be simply hanging on to win representation in Parliament.

Labour’s gain is also coming at the expense of its government coalition partners, the Socialist Left party (SV) and the Center Party (Sp). The latter, traditionally the biggest advocate of rural districts and farmers, now only has support from 3.9 percent of the voters, below the 4 percent level needed for seats in Parliament. SV has just 4.5 percent. Both declined from last month’s comparable poll conducted by research firm Opinion for newspaper group ANB.

Labour, meanwhile, jumped 4.7 points to claim 38.3 percent of the vote, its highest level in years. The rival Conservative Party (Høyre) fell 2.2 points, to 27.8 percent.

“Labour’s advance can surely reflect that they’ve done a lot of things right recently,” the Conservatives’ leader Erna Solberg told newspaper Dagsavisen in a rare concession late last week. Labour Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg is also extremely popular.

The only opposition party that showed any growth was the Progress Party (Fremskrittspartiet, Frp), which moved up four-tenths of a point to claim 14.3 percent of the vote. That’s still way below the nearly 23 percent the party had after the last election.

The polls results leave the long-struggling Christian Democrats (Kristelig Folkepartiet, Krf) in an interesting and potentially powerful position, courted by both Labour and Høyre to join a prospective government coalition when the next national elections roll around in 2013. Krf had 5.1 percent of the vote, making it the biggest of the small parties but still down from last month
http://www.newsinenglish.no/2012/01/22/labour-soars-in-latest-poll/

[marektysis]

http://ablog.typepad.com/keytrendsinglobalisation/2012/01/the-incredible-shrinking-uk-economy.html

[marektysis]

http://www.theolivepress.es/spain-news/2012/01/23/the-lonely-reina-sofia-of-spain/

[marektysis]

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/23/opinion/keller-bomb-bomb-bomb-bomb-bomb-iran.html?_r=1

[marektysis]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U-VlX6Sw29Q

It seems to be more and more complicate to deny an African is ruling the white house after having a seat in the american senate.Should antique Rome be revived?

keep smiling through...
Marek Tysis

[marektysis]

http://business.time.com/2012/01/24/the-dangers-of-looking-at-the-big-picture/

[marektysis]

http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/01/24/telecomitalia-idUSL5E8CO0RK20120124

[marektysis]

Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte has ruled out a new inquiry into the role played by the late Prince Bernhard, father of Queen Beatrix, in the Lockheed bribery scandal in the 1970s.

Late last year, D66 party leader Alexander Pechtold called for an inquiry by a small group of historians to clear up this issue, following claims by historian Gerard Aalders that Bernhard’s involvement was far greater than previously thought.

Aalders also concluded that the Donner Inquiry, which investigated the bribes Prince Bernhard allegedly received from US aircraft manufacturer Lockheed, had deliberately uncovered as little incriminating evidence as possible.

Prime Minister Rutte said the historian was entitled to his opinion, but both the cabinet and parliament had accepted the inquiry’s findings in 1976.

(imm)

© Radio Netherlands Worldwide

http://www.rnw.nl/english/bulletin/no-new-inquiry-lockheed-and-dutch-prince