Infinite Unknown

Chancellor Angela Merkel and Finance Minister Peer Steinbrück announcing their plan for Hypo Real Estate in Berlin on Sunday. (Pool photo by Rainer Jensen)

FRANKFURT: As German leaders and bankers worked feverishly to rescue a lender considered too big to fail, the government announced Sunday that it would guarantee all private savings accounts in Germany - worth about €500 billion - in an effort to reinforce increasingly shaky confidence in the financial system.

Officials in Berlin were frantically trying to salvage a €35 billion, or $48 billion, bailout devised just a week ago for Hypo Real Estate, a major German property lender based in Munich and member of the benchmark stock index, after commercial banks withdrew their support, fearing greater losses.

Continue reading »

Tags: Credit Crisis, credit crunch, Economy, Fortis, Germany, Government, Hypo Real Estate, mortgage crisis, Mortgages, Politics, taxpayers

Nicolas Sarkozy (C) flanked by Angela Merkel (L) and Gordon Brown

PARIS (AFP) - The leaders of Europe’s four main economic powers vowed to protect fragile banks in their fight against the global credit crisis as the biggest rescue in German financial history collapsed.

France, Germany, Britain and Italy put on a united front, promising a more coordinated approach to the credit crunch, although Germany’s Chancellor Angela Merkel insisted states would mainly act individually.

Continue reading »

Tags: Angela Merkel, Bank, bank failure, Credit Crisis, credit crunch, Economy, France, Germany, Gordon Brown, Government, Hypo Real Estate, mortgage crisis, Mortgages, Nicolas Sarkozy, Politics, U.K.

In a move seen as the latest fallout from Wednesday morning’s US attack on South Waziristan, the Pakistani government has ordered that supply lines to NATO troops in Afghanistan be immediately severed for an indefinite period of time.

The move comes as thousands of protesters marched through South Waziristan’s capital of Wana chanting “death to America”. Officials cited repeated attacks which had made it difficult to provide security for transportation across the only border crossing, but Pakistani media cited other sources who said the move came as the government feared retaliation from South Waziristan tribesmen if they didn’t respond to the US attack.

Continue reading »

Tags: Afghanistan, George Bush, Germany, Military, NATO, Pakistan, Politics, Russia, U.S., War

British citizens could be convicted in their absence by foreign courts for traffic, credit card or other criminal offences under plans approved in principle by the European Parliament.

The proposals would allow citizens to be extradited automatically under fast-track procedures at the request of another European Union country on the basis of a decision by the foreign court.

The overwhelming adoption by the Parliament of the proposals, which now go to the Council of Ministers, was condemned yesterday as “throwing habeas corpus out of the window”.

Philip Bradbourn, the Conservative justice and home affairs spokesman in the European Parliament, said: “This initiative would enable courts to pass judgments in absentia. It goes against one of the most fundamental corner-stones of British justice - that the accused has a right to defend himself at trial. If other EU countries want to go ahead with this proposal that’s their choice, but the British Government should have no part [of it].”

Continue reading »

Tags: Czech Republic, EU, France, Germany, Government, habeas corpus, law, Politics, Slovakia, Slovenia, Sweden, U.K.

Sept. 2 (Bloomberg) — European Union leaders refused to impose sanctions on Russia over the invasion of Georgia, acknowledging their reliance on Russian oil and gas at a time of faltering economic growth.

EU leaders took the symbolic step yesterday of suspending talks over expanded trade ties with Russia, fearing that tougher measures would expose the energy-dependent bloc to Russian retaliation.

Russia is the 27-nation bloc’s main supplier of oil and gas and third-biggest trading partner, giving it leverage at a time when the European economy threatens to tip into recession. Europe’s determination to maintain business links also undercuts U.S. efforts to line up allies against the reassertive Russia.

Continue reading »

Tags: Agra Europe, Dick Cheney, Economy, EU, France, Georgia, Germany, Gordon Brown, Government, NATO, Nicolas Sarkozy, Politics, Recession, Russia, Sanctions, U.K., U.S., War

The French foreign affairs minister, Bernard Kouchner, said sanctions were ‘being considered’. Photograph: Gerard Cerles/AFP/Getty Images

European Union leaders will discuss sanctions against Russia ahead of an emergency summit meeting, the French foreign minister said today, as western leaders increased diplomatic pressure on Moscow.

When asked what measures the west could take against Russia in the crisis over Georgia, Bernard Kouchner told a press conference in Paris: “Sanctions are being considered.”

Continue reading »

Tags: Abkhazia, Angela Merkel, China, Dmitry Medvedev, EU, France, G8, Gas, Georgia, Germany, Military, Oil, Politics, Russia, South Ossetia

Russia has criticised the US for using naval ships to deliver aid to Georgia

A new Cold War between Russia and the West grew steadily closer yesterday after the Kremlin gave a warning about “direct confrontation” between American and Russian warships in the Black Sea.

Dmitri Peskov, a spokesman for Vladimir Putin, the Prime Minister, declared that Russia was taking “measures of precaution” against American and Nato naval ships. “Let’s hope we do not see any direct confrontation in that,” he said.

Any attempt by countries in the West to isolate Russia would “definitely harm the economic interests of those states”, he said.

Continue reading »

Tags: Abkhazia, Canada, Cold War, Dick Cheney, Dmitry Medvedev, France, G7, Georgia, Germany, Government, Japan, Military, NATO, Politics, Russia, South Ossetia, U.S., Vladimir Putin

Moscow has issued an extraordinary warning to the West that military assistance to Georgia for use against South Ossetia or Abkhazia would be viewed as a “declaration of war” by Russia.

The extreme rhetoric from the Kremlin’s envoy to NATO came as President Dmitry Medvedev stressed he will make a military response to US missile defence installations in eastern Europe, sending new shudders across countries whose people were once blighted by the Iron Curtain.

And Moscow also emphasised it was closely monitoring what it claims is a build-up of NATO firepower in the Black Sea.

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev (right) meets with Prime Minister Vladimir Putin - the ‘real architect’ of the Georgia conflict - and the Security Council (unseen) in Sochi yesterday

The incendiary warning on Western military involvement in Georgia - where NATO nations have long played a role in training and equipping the small state - came in an interview with Dmitry Rogozin, a former nationalist politician who is now ambassador to the North Atlantic Alliance.

“If NATO suddenly takes military actions against Abkhazia and South Ossetia, acting solely in support of Tbilisi, this will mean a declaration of war on Russia,” he stated.

Continue reading »

Tags: Abkhazia, Czech Republic, Dmitry Medvedev, Georgia, Germany, Iran, Mikhail Saakashvili, Military, NATO, Poland, Politics, Russia, South Ossetia, Spain, U.S., Vladimir Putin, War

In the Queen’s speech this autumn Gordon Brown’s government will announce a scheme to institute a database of every telephone call, email, and act of online usage by every resident of the UK. It will propose that this information will be gathered, stored, and “made accessible” to the security and law enforcement agencies, local councils, and “other public bodies”.

This fact should be in equal parts incredible and nauseating. It is certainly enraging and despicable. Not even George Orwell in his most febrile moments could have envisaged a world in which every citizen could be so thoroughly monitored every moment of the day, spied upon, eavesdropped, watched, tracked, followed by CCTV cameras, recorded and scrutinised. Our words and web searches, our messages and intimacies, are to be stored and made available to the police, the spooks, the local council - the local council! - and “other public bodies”.

Continue reading »

Tags: 1984, Big Brother, CCTV, civil liberties, emails, George Orwell, Germany, Gordon Brown, Government, Guantánamo, Home Office, Internet, New Scientist, New World Order, Police State, Politics, Privacy, Siemens, Surveillance, terrorists, U.K., video surveillance

MOSCOW, August 26 (RIA Novosti) - Russia’s president signed decrees on Tuesday recognizing Georgia’s breakaway South Ossetia and Abkhazia as independent states and called on other countries to follow suit.

“This is not an easy decision, but it is the only way to protect people’s lives,”Dmitry Medvedev said in a televised address.

Continue reading »

Tags: Angela Merkel, Dmitry Medvedev, George Bush, Georgia, Germany, Government, Military, Politics, Russia, U.S.