Margaret Thatcher, former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, died at 87 on Apr. 8. Whether you agreed with her politics or not, you'll get a kick out of these lesser-known facts about the Iron Lady.
Reblogged from National Post | News:
As North Korea pledges to never abandon its nuclear capabilities, the National Post’s Scott Barber looks at the escalating rhetoric coming from the Hermit Kingdom, and the world’s response.
March 7
The U.S. “is set to light the fuse for nuclear war,” said a spokesman for the North Korean foreign ministry after the UN Security Council passes tougher sanctions against North Korea.
Reblogged from National Post | News:
Japanese Coast Guard vessels fired water cannon to turn away about 40 Taiwan fishing boats and eight Taiwan Coast Guard vessels from waters Japan considers its own on Tuesday in the latest twist to a row between Tokyo and Beijing.
Reblogged from National Post | News:
BRUSSELS — The European Parliament rejected a global agreement against copyright theft on Wednesday, handing a victory to protesters who said the legislation was an international version of the U.S. SOPA legislation that spurred on the Wikipedia blackout protest this January.
The vote marked the culmination of a two-year battle between legislators who supported the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) and its largely young, digitally savvy opponents.
If you're among the throng of citizens outraged by questionable legislation such as SOPA, PIPA, CISPA and ACTA, the White House has a deal for you. On Monday, U.S. Intellectual Property Enforcement Coordinator Victoria Espinel called on all interested parties to submit their comments and suggestions for how the United States should go about combating IP piracy. That's right: clearly having learned a lesson from the backlash its peers in Congress endured recently, the executive branch is trying to open up the process and, presumably, develop an anti-piracy strategy that's actually sane.
Maybe it's the Euro crisis that seems to have turned the brains of the European Union's (probably male) image-makers soft. You can hardly spend all week trying to bail out Greece, hang onto Spain and keep Germany from getting surly (never a good idea) without making a mistake or two somewhere else.
Reblogged from Financial Post | Business:
JERUSALEM, ISRAEL--Last week, Harvard professor Niall Ferguson argued that volatility induced by the Greek elections could cause a "Lehman moment" in Europe, a wave of bank runs that could lead to either the collapse or resurrection of the European Monetary Union.
While the events of this weekend do not seem to have caused this to happen, Feruguson still believes that the climax of pressures on Europe is yet to come.
The European Parliament has been advised to reject a controversial new global anti-piracy trade agreement.
Parliament's influential international trade committee on Thursday voted 19-12 against merely deferring its decision on adopting the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) until the European Court of Justice has decided whether it would violate the EC's fundamental freedoms.
The vote means parliament is more likely to adopt the committee's view against ACTA in its July 4 plenary meeting, regardless of whether the court rules it lawful or not.
Reblogged from Business & Money:
WASHINGTON — The Federal Reserve is extending a program intended to further lower long-term interest rates, noting hiring has weakened, consumer spending is rising more slowly and the economy needs more support.
The Fed will continue Operation Twist through the end of the year. The Fed has been selling $400 billion in short-term Treasurys since September and buying longer-term Treasurys. It says it will shift another $267 billion through December.
Reblogged from Fortune Management & Career Blog:
FORTUNE -- Private equity executives and plumbers. In an obvious shot at Republican presidential candidate and Bain Capital chief Mitt Romney, Vice President Joe Biden said a few weeks back that they're equally prepared to be President -- which is to say not at all.
Reblogged from National Post | News:
French President François Hollande's Socialists won an absolute parliamentary majority on Sunday, strengthening his hand as he presses Germany to support debt-laden euro zone states hit by austerity cuts and ailing banks.
The Socialist bloc secured between 296 and 321 seats in the parliamentary election runoff, according to reliable projections from a partial vote count, comfortably more than the 289 needed for a majority in the 577-seat National Assembly.
Reblogged from Financial Post | Business:
LONDON - Parties committed to Greece’s multi-billion-euro bailout are on course to secure a slim parliamentary majority on Sunday, according to an official vote projection from the interior ministry.
The projection showed New Democracy taking 29.5 percent of the vote, with SYRIZA in second place with 27.1 percent. The Socialist PASOK followed in third place with 12.3 percent.
The result translates into 128 seats for New Democracy and 33 seats for PASOK.
Reblogged from Financial Post | Business:
BERLIN/PARIS - Germany’s Angela Merkel criticized France’s economic performance on Friday in a war of words with its new Socialist president, Francois Hollande, over how to tackle Europe’s deepening debt crisis ahead of a pivotal election in Greece.
Describing her own country as Europe’s “stabilizing anchor and growth engine," the centre-right chancellor told German business leaders that Europe should talk about the growing gap between the bloc’s two biggest economies.
WASHINGTON - Spain should raise taxes and cut government workers' pay to narrow its budget deficit, the International Monetary Fund said Friday.
The international lending group said Spain's deficit is likely to exceed estimates and the government should therefore consider several measures to boost tax revenue.
The IMF suggests the government increase in its value-added tax, or VAT, which is a type of sales tax.
As part of a global effort to school art-world professionals in the recovery of art and other cultural treasures that were looted during the Nazi era, experts from museums, auction houses and government agencies are meeting this week for a six-day conference in Magdeburg, Germany, the Associated Press reports.
The world's central bankers are gearing up to provide liquidity in the event that Greek elections Sunday cause a free fall in markets, Reuters is reporting, and you know, again (and again) after that.
It was only this weekend, of course, that a plan to rescue the Spanish banking system with $125 billion in European funds, news that soothed investors for about five minutes before markets turned back again Spain's government bonds.
Reblogged from National Post | News:
Undeterred by a sudden escalation in the Kremlin’s crackdown on the opposition, tens of thousands of Russians flooded Moscow’s tree-lined boulevards Tuesday in the first mass protest against President Vladimir Putin since his inauguration in May.
In an appearance before the Senate Finance Committee tomorrow, the CEO of Continental Resources will argue for preserving the billions of dollars in tax subsidies the federal government provides to oil companies each year. Given that Continental Resources bills itself as "America's Oil Champion" (after, we assume, a difficult championship battle), the CEO's stance probably comes as no surprise. In fact, it's hard to figure out why the Senate's even bothering to hear from him, when a large blinking sign reading MORE MONEY PLS would be functionally equivalent.
Though Chinese officials are still forbidding Ai Weiwei from leaving the country, the artist nevertheless had an action-packed weekend, taking to YouTube to slam government corruption in a new video that was presented at an event in Basel, Switzerland, where the international art world has gathered for the 43rd edition of the Art Basel fair.
WASHINGTON - Respected Republican Jeb Bush suggested Monday that neither adored conservative icon Ronald Reagan nor his own father, George H.W. Bush, would have enjoyed much success in today's ultra-conservative, intensely partisan Republican party.
"They got a lot of things done with bipartisan support, but right now it's just difficult to imagine,” Bush, brother of the 43rd U.S. president and son of the 41st, said in a round-table discussion with reporters and editors held by Bloomberg View in Manhattan.
Thirty-two-point-six percent of the residents of Philadelphia are obese -- a staggering figure, and a higher percentage than any other large city in America.
To address the issue, the city has committed $900,000 to a program that would expand access to healthful food at small, local convenience stores. (We wrote about Philadelphia's efforts last August.) Selecting some 600 of its 2,500 corner stores to receive funding -- and refrigeration systems -- the city aims to make fresh fruits and vegetables available in communities that are currently labeled…
Reblogged from National Post | News:
ATHENS — A Greek far-right politician who slapped a left-wing politician in the face and threw water at another during a live television talk show sued his victims for defamation on Monday.
Ilias Kasidiaris, spokesman of the far-right Golden Dawn party, said he would also sue private TV station Antenna for wrongful detention after he was locked in a room in the studio following the attack until he broke down the door and escaped.
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