As part of British Prime Minister David Cameron’s plans to crack down on online pornography, a government adviser has urged the Church of England to consider pulling its shares out of Google to pressure it to block child pornography. …read more
Source: The Christian Post
In light of British Prime Minister David Cameron’s actions on Internet pornography, here’s why I think we ought to care about digital porn. There’s a situation in counseling I come across all too often: a couple will typically tell me first about how stressful their lives are. Maybe he’s lost his job. Perhaps she’s working two. Maybe their children are rowdy or the house is chaotic. But usually, if we talk long enough about their fracturing marriage, there is a sense that something else is afoot. …read more
Source: The Christian Post
By Jens Meiners
A Bentley SUV will go on sale in 2016, but it likely won’t look like this early design proposal of the EXP 9 F concept.
It’s official: the Bentley SUV will happen. Today, Volkswagen Group chief Martin Winterkorn declared that the long-rumored off-roader—previewed by the unfortunately styled EXP 9 F concept at the 2012 Geneva auto show—will go on sale from 2016. British Prime Minister David Cameron’s presence added a political dimension to the announcement, highlighting Bentley’s investment of more than £800 million, roughly $1.2 billion, which will see the SUV built in Crewe and generate 1000 jobs in the U.K.
No further details were provided, but Bentley did say, however, that the new model “will be a thoroughbred Bentley” and “the most luxurious and most powerful SUV in the market.” The SUV moving to production will be a late triumph for Wolfgang Dürheimer, the recently dismissed head of Audi’s R&D program, who was Bentley’s CEO when work on the SUV model commenced.
Echoing Dürheimer’s remarks of last summer, Bentley maintains that the reaction of customers to a Bentley SUV has been “extremely positive.” Nevertheless, the vehicle will receive a complete makeover; design chief Luc Donckerwolke is in charge of a comprehensive restyling that will address some of the concerns about the model’s design.
What we know is that the Bentley SUV will be based on the Volkswagen Group’s MLB architecture, originally designed by Audi and to be shared with the next generation of Audi Q7, Volkswagen Touareg, and Porsche Cayenne. It will be available with a range of powertrain options that will include a hybrid, a V-8 diesel, and a twin-turbo W-12. Competition will come from the likes of Range Rover, an upcoming Jaguar SUV, and top-drawer versions of the Porsche Cayenne and the Audi Q7. Perhaps most interesting will be the dynamic between Bentley and Lamborghini, as Audi CEO Rupert Stadler announced that the Italians’ Urus SUV project will arrive on showroom floors roughly at the same time as Bentley’s SUV. Just how the VW Group plans to position two similar models with such historic badges and astronomical sticker prices will be fascinating to say the least.
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Car & Driver
British police are investigating claims that one of the two chief suspects in a brutal suspected Islamist attack, against a British soldier on a London street, was assaulted in prison.
British media reported that Michael Adebolajo, 28, had his two front teeth knocked out during Wednesday’s alleged fracas.
“The police are investigating an incident that took place at HMP Belmarsh on 17 July,” said a Prison Service spokesman.
“It would be inappropriate to comment while the investigation was ongoing.”
Adebolajo and co-accused, Michael Adebowale, 22, are due to face trial in November over the horrific knife attack that claimed the life of Fusilier Lee Rigby in Woolwich on May 22.
Rigby was hacked to death in broad daylight before Adebolajo delivered an Islamist tirade to passers-by.
British Prime Minister David Cameron joined thousands of mourners last week at the soldier’s funeral.
Cameron gathered with some 800 of Rigby’s family members and colleagues for the private military funeral at a church in Bury, near Manchester in northwest England.
Thousands of members of the public lined the surrounding streets.
The killing stunned Britain and sparked a rise in community tensions. Several mosques have been attacked while the far-right British National Party and English Defence league have held a string of anti-Islamic rallies.
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Fox World News
President Barack Obama’s renewed push to close the Guantanamo Bay prison for terrorism suspects has given a glimmer of hope to foreign governments that he will fulfill that promise and triggered diplomatic maneuvering from U.S. allies eager to bring home long-held detainees.
Kuwait has hired lobbyists to help bring its two remaining prisoners home. British Prime Minister David Cameron personally pressed Obama at the Group of 8 summit last month to release the United Kingdom’s final detainee. And the fate of Afghans being held at the U.S. military prison in Cuba has been at the forefront of peace talks between the U.S., Taliban and Afghanistan.
The indefinite captivity has created tension with some important U.S. allies, particularly in the Arab world, the native home of many of the 166 remaining detainees. Tunisia, Egypt and Yemen are among those countries that have pressed the U.S. to turn over their nationals.
The Obama administration is in the midst of determining which detainees present the lowest risk for terrorist activity if released — considering both their personal histories and security in the countries to which they will be returned.
More than 100 of the detainees have participated in a hunger strike to protest their indefinite confinement, with several dozen having been force fed through a nasal tube to keep them from starving, although the military reported Friday that most have resumed eating.
David Cynamon, an American lawyer based in the Middle East who is working with Kuwait on getting their detainees back, said in recent months they are finally having meaningful negotiations after years of “radio silence.”
“You would think with a close ally like Kuwait they would at least get a hearing, but they kept getting the brush off,” Cynamon said.
Cynamon said that’s even though the Kuwaiti government built a rehabilitation center for former Guantanamo detainees at the request of Bush administration officials, after another former detainee carried out a suicide bombing that killed at least seven people in Iraq. The center, a section of the Kuwaiti central prison designed for medical and psychological treatment and religious counseling to ensure the detainees will peacefully reintegrate into society, has not been used.
Kuwait hired The Potomac Square Group, a Washington lobbying firm, to help spur talks for the transfer of Faiz al-Kandari and Fawzi al-Odah.
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Fox US News
A Dubai court has sentenced three British tourists to four years in prison on drug charges in a case that drew international scrutiny over claims of abuses in custody.
The allegations of torture brought a statement of concern from British Prime Minister David Cameron, but Dubai authorities have denied any wrongdoing.
The trio, identified as Suneet Jeerh, Grant Cameron and Karl Williams, were arrested last July with what police said was the synthetic drug known as Spice. The men deny the charges. They claimed they faced abuse by police, including electric shocks and beatings.
Monday’s conviction and sentence can be appealed within 15 days. The court also ordered the men deported after they complete their sentences.
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Fox World News
By The Huffington Post News Editors
* Former officials guilty of passing information to papers
* Four now convicted since launch of phone-hacking inquiry
By Michael Holden
LONDON, March 27 (Reuters) – Two former policemen and an ex-prison officer were jailed on Wednesday for selling stories to Rupert Murdoch‘s tabloid the Sun, Britain’s top-selling newspaper.
The three men were convicted as part of a wide-ranging police investigation begun two years ago into claims journalists from Murdoch’s now-defunct News of the World newspaper had hacked into mobile phone voicemail messages.
That inquiry has led to dozens of arrests of current and former staff at News International, the British newspaper arm of Murdoch’s News Corp., and has been widened to examine claims of illegal payments to public officials.
The long-running scandal forced the closure of the News of the World and has called into question the judgment of British Prime Minister David Cameron, who was friends with several of Murdoch’s senior executives.
Richard Trunkfield, 31, who worked at a high-security prison in central England, gave information to the Sun about Jon Venables, who was aged 10 when he and another child killed a toddler in 1993 in one of the most infamous murders in Britain in recent times.
The prison officer, who had contact with a Sun journalist between 10 and 15 times, receiving 3,500 pounds ($5,300)in the process, was handed a 16-month jail sentence at London‘s Southwark Crown Court.
“It is most assuredly not for individual prison officers to take it upon themselves to contact the press to reveal information about a defendant in circumstances such as those before the court today, still less to enrich themselves in the process,” said the judge, Justice Adrian Fulford.
Alan Tierney, 40, an ex-police constable based in Surrey to the south of London, was paid 1,250 pounds for details of the arrest of former England soccer captain John Terry‘s mother on suspicion of shoplifting, and the arrest of Rolling Stones star Ronnie Wood, …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Huffington Post
British Army experts defused a car bomb Saturday that had been abandoned on a rural roadside in Northern Ireland, a threat that is raising concerns about the region’s hosting of the G8 summit later this year.
The Police Service of Northern Ireland said the car contained a beer keg packed with about 60 kilograms (130 pounds) of homemade explosives. Metal kegs often have been used in the construction of Irish Republican Army-style bombs because they are easily portable and produce showers of shrapnel when detonated.
Police District Commander Pauline Shields said detectives suspected that an IRA splinter group planned to blast the nearby police base in the County Fermanagh border town of Lisnaskea, but may have been forced by a police patrol to abandon the bomb short of its target.
It would be the third foiled IRA attack on police installations this month, following two attempted mortar attacks on police stations in Northern Ireland‘s two major cities, Londonderry on March 3 and Belfast on March 15.
The car bomb was left before dawn Friday on a bridge near the Fermanagh village of Derrylin 4 miles (6 kilometers) from Northern Ireland‘s border with the Republic of Ireland.
Police shut the main road connecting the Fermanagh town of Enniskillen with the Irish capital, Dublin, and evacuated several homes for two days as bomb disposal technicians worked slowly in heavy snow and mindful that the bomb could have been placed to lure soldiers and police into the area for an ambush.
Troublingly for Northern Ireland‘s security and political chiefs, the bomb was left just 13 miles (18 kilometers) down the road from the planned venue for the June 17-18 summit of the world’s Group of Eight leaders, including U.S. President Barack Obama and Russian President Vladimir Putin.
British Prime Minister David Cameron, who also is to attend the summit, picked Northern Ireland as host to showcase the British region’s broadly successful peace process — a triumph undercut, in part, by the unrelenting violence of IRA die-hards rooted in the province’s Irish Catholic minority.
“Those responsible (for the car bomb) have neither mandate nor legitimacy. They are totally out of touch with what the vast majority of people in Northern Ireland want,” said Cameron’s senior official in Northern Ireland, Secretary of State Theresa Villiers.
The long-dominant …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Fox World News
By The Huffington Post News Editors
By Andrew Osborn
LONDON, March 21 (Reuters) – Media mogul Rupert Murdoch sharply criticised British Prime Minister David Cameron on Thursday for agreeing tougher press regulation, saying the new system was a “holy mess” and that Cameron had disappointed his supporters.
Cameron struck a surprise deal on Monday with his junior coalition partners, the Liberal Democrats, and the opposition Labour party, that will allow a new regulator to be set up with the powers to levy large fines on newspapers and oblige them to print prominent apologies where appropriate.
“UK holy mess with Internet unworkably included,” Murdoch wrote on social media site Twitter on Thursday. “Cameron showing true colors shocking many supporters.”
The Sun newspaper, which is owned by News Corp, of which Murdoch is the chairman and chief executive officer, also delivered a front-page critique on Thursday of the government‘s annual budget.
“Budget coverage as approved by the Ministry of Truth,” it quipped, referring to the fictional Ministry of Truth in George Orwell’s “1984” novel about a totalitarian state.
Cameron acted to strengthen regulation of the press following public anger over phone hacking by some tabloid newspapers, including Murdoch’s now defunct News of the World, and after a judge-led inquiry showed how widespread it was.
He had previously said he didn’t think it was necessary to enshrine the new system of self-regulation in law, but agreed to allow parliament to approve two amendments as part of a compromise, which he said strengthened the new system, but which press critics said undermined freedom of expression.
The system will be voluntary, but there will be strong financial incentives to encourage news media to opt into it.
Politicians from across the political spectrum backed it as did a group representing victims of newspaper phone hacking.
But some of the country’s biggest press groups have signalled they are unhappy and are still considering how to respond, with some talking of a boycott, a legal challenge, or …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Huffington Post
Argentine President Cristina Fernandez says she has asked Pope Francis to help defuse the long-running dispute between Argentina and Britain over the Falkland Islands.
Fernandez told journalists after she met with the new, Argentine-born pope Monday at the Vatican that she has asked for his intercession to “facilitate dialogue” over the islands, which Argentina claims and calls the Malvinas.
Just last week, British Prime Minister David Cameron said he doesn’t agree with Francis’ views on the Falklands. When Francis was archbishop of Buenos Aires, he had been quoted as saying that Britain “usurped” the remote islands.
Argentina and Britain fought a 1982 war over the islands. Earlier this month, the islanders voted overwhelmingly to remain a British Overseas Territory.
It was not immediately known how Francis responded to Fernandez’ request.
The pope may be infallible to his followers, but not to British Prime Minister David Cameron.
Pope Francis — the Argentine cardinal elected as the new pontiff earlier this week — has been quoted as describing the Falkland Islands as Argentine soil that was “usurped” by Britain.
The islands in the South Atlantic have been British territory since 1833 but are also claimed by Argentina, which calls them the Malvinas.
Islanders last week voted overwhelmingly “yes” in a referendum to remaining a British Overseas Territory.
Cameron on Friday urged the pope to respect that vote, saying “the white smoke over the Falklands was pretty clear.”
When asked about the pope’s views on the Falklands at a Brussels news conference, Cameron said he doesn’t agree with the pontiff, “respectfully, obviously.”
World leaders sent in their congratulations and Catholics around the world were celebrating Wednesday after the Vatican announced the election of Argentine Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio to the papacy — making him the first pontiff from the Americas.
As bells tolled and crowds cheered across Latin America, President Barack Obama offered warm wishes to Pope Francis and said the selection speaks to the strength and vitality of the New World.
“I offer our warm wishes to His Holiness Pope Francis,” Obama said. “As a champion of the poor and the most vulnerable among us, he carries forth the message of love and compassion that has inspired the world for more than 2,000 years.”
In Europe, British Prime Minister David Cameron, French President Francois Hollande, and German Chancellor Angela Merkel also issued statements of congratulations.
Wednesday was “a momentous day for the 1.2 billion Catholics around the world,” Cameron said in a message posted to Twitter, while Merkel, the daughter of a Lutheran pastor, said millions of Catholics and non-Catholics alike would be looking to the new pope for guidance not just in questions of faith but in matters of peace, justice and protecting creation.
Merkel said she was particularly happy for Christians in Latin America, who now had one of their own called to be pope for the first time. Francis was elected after German-born Pope Benedict XVI stepped down last month, saying he lacked the strength to continue in the job.
U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said he looked forward to cooperation with the Holy See under Pope Francis‘ “wise leadership,” while European Union leaders Herman Van Rompuy and Jose Manuel Barroso wished the new Catholic leader “a long and blessed pontificate.”
The atmosphere across Latin America brimmed with excitement and surprise, with people bursting into tears and cheers on streets from Buenos Aires to Caracas, Venezuela.
“It’s incredible!” said Martha Ruiz, 60, who was weeping tears of emotion in the Argentine capital. She said she had been in many meetings with the cardinal and said, “He is a man who transmits great serenity.”
At the St. Francis of Assisi church in the colonial Old San Juan district in Puerto Rico, church secretary Antonia Veloz exchanged jubilant high-fives with Jose Antonio Cruz, a Franciscan friar.
“It’s a huge gift for all of Latin America. We waited 20 centuries. It was worth the wait,” said Cruz, wearing the brown cassock tied with a rope that is the signature of the Franciscan order.
Arcilia Litchfield, a 57-year-old tourist from Albuquerque, New Mexico, was walking down the cobblestone streets when they glanced at a TV and saw that a new pope had been chosen. She and her husband then went to the San Juan Cathedral, where the remains of Spanish conquistador Juan Ponce de Leon are buried.
“It’s historic. It’s the first time a pope has been chosen from this part of the world,” she said. “It hasn’t sunk in yet.”
Even in Communist Cuba, there was pride as church bells rang to celebrate the news. Elsewhere on the continent, people traded stories about the new pontiff.
“You …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Fox World News
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry has kicked off his first official overseas trip by meeting with British leaders in London on the first leg of a hectic nine-day dash through Europe and the Middle East.
Kerry’s maiden diplomatic meeting abroad was on Monday with British Prime Minister David Cameron for talks expected to focus on the crisis in Syria and Iran‘s nuclear program. Later, he will see Foreign Secretary William Hague before flying to Germany for meetings in Berlin.
Kerry arrived on London late Sunday as the Obama administration launched a frantic effort to try to salvage a Syrian opposition conference that Kerry plans to attend this week in Rome. Some members of the sharply divided Syrian Opposition Council are threatening to boycott the meeting.
(Reuters) – Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) is to lay off staff in India as a part of its plan to wind down its retail and commercial operations in the country, it said in a statement, without specifying how many employees would be affected. The announcement comes after British Prime Minister David Cameron last week said that he wants the state-controlled bank to speed its restructuring, making it clear he is keen to return it to private ownership as soon as possible. …
British Defense Secretary Philip Hammond has made an unannounced visit to southern Afghanistan to visit U.K. troops.
The Ministry of Defense said Hammond was returning home on Thursday after stops in Kabul and in Helmand province to visit British personnel. No further details were immediately available.
Hammond’s visit comes after British Prime Minister David Cameron hosted Afghanistan‘s President Hamid Karzai and Pakistan’s President Asif Zardari for trilateral talks on Afghanistan‘s floundering peace and reconciliation process.
Attempts at peace have faltered even as international forces prepare to withdraw from the country in 2014.
British troops form the second-largest NATO contingent fighting to stop the Taliban insurgency ahead of the planned withdrawal date.
The morning high-speed train from Brussels pulled into the lonely train station of the provincial French city of Strasbourg. As the doors opened, the chaotic scramble for cabs, cars and buses heralded an extraordinary phenomenon of international politics: the European Union‘s “traveling circus” was back in town.
Hundreds of EU parliamentarians and their staff were completing their monthly 435-kilometer (270-mile) legislative migration, one that takes them from their own parliament in Brussels to, well, their own parliament in Strasbourg — for just four days.
The cost to the EU taxpayer: an estimated €180 million ($245 million) a year.
All at a time when the EU, which opens a contentious budget summit on Thursday, is desperately trying to find ways to cut spending to overcome its financial crisis.
The EU set up two parliaments, one at headquarters in Brussels, the other in Strasbourg, as part of a complex diplomatic dance in which France and Germany, the chief architects of the European project, were eager to find an emblem for their postwar reconciliation. Critics say that such lofty symbolism is an absurd luxury at a time when austerity measures are threatening pensioners, slashing health budgets and causing unemployment to balloon.
For legislators it’s simply a monumental hassle.
“I cannot stand the traveling back and forth anymore,” said Germany‘s European Parliament vice-president, Alexander Alvaro.
EU leaders are hoping to use their two-day summit to trim more out of a €1 trillion ($1.35 trillion) seven-year budget. Scrapping the expensive commute, many critics say, could come in very handy. British Prime Minister David Cameron, leader of a famously euroskeptic nation, is poised to lead the campaign to snuff out EU waste.
The head of Cameron’s Conservative party at the EU Parliament was clear on where he would look for savings: “We cannot stand here in Strasbourg at our second seat — this icon of EU profligacy — and say that there is no money that can be saved,” Martin Callanan told his fellow legislators Wednesday.
The scenes at the Brussels end point to what makes the dual legislature something of a movable beast.
On the eve of the great migration, big boxes are lined up all along the offices of the 754 legislators, ready for the reams of paperwork, background notes, extra bottles of water, even winter boots, that are to be loaded onto trucks on Friday evening to be driven in convoys to Strasbourg and unloaded at offices the lawmakers’ use for the four-day session.
“It can happen that you would be sitting there and say, ‘wow,’ I miss this crucial document because we didn’t think about putting it in the box,” Alvaro said.
And spare a thought for the lobbyists, most of whom do not enjoy EU parliamentarians’ elite perks, such as high-speed travel and generous wining and dining budgets.
Shut out of the parliamentary Thalys train service, environmental lobbyist Saskia Richartz was forced to take the slow one into Strasbourg, a 5-hour, 15-minute commute without even coffee service on board.
A half-hour after arriving, she was still standing in a long line waiting for a cab, dragging a huge mock cod in one hand and a mackerel in the other, for a Greenpeace demonstration later in the week. “It would be so much better to have it all in Brussels,” said Richartz, one of the 6,000 to 8,000 people to make the commute.
From her office at city hall across a rainy and wind-swept town, Catherine Trautmann could not disagree more.
A former Strasbourg mayor and current EU parliamentarian, the Frenchwoman has a unique, if slanted, perspective: “The calling of a European parliamentarian is to move around,” she said. “That we travel is only logical.”
Trautmann did acknowledge the severe limitations of Strasbourg’s regional airport with its few direct flights to any European capitals. And she promised new connections to places like London and Rome within the coming months.
Strasbourg may not be a transport hub, but — a stylish city with one of Europe‘s best Gothic cathedrals — it more than makes up for that in historic significance, Trautmann argues.
Often fiercely fought over by Germany and France in century of fighting, Strasbourg has both Gallic and Teutonic influences, from its street signs to its gastronomic specialties. Tucked on the French side of the Rhine river, it became an emblem of the warm ties France and Germany had nurtured since World War II. For France, the Strasbourg parliament also evolved into a symbol of its status as a European heavyweight, and a boon for the local economy.
In the 21st century, and the worst financial crisis since the start of the EU over half a century ago, many Europeans say changes have to be made.
“The outside world looks on with amazement that all of these years after the Second World War we are still perpetuating this anachronistic homage to the Franco-German reconciliation,” said British MEP Edward McMillan-Scott.
In France, it’s a different story.
On Tuesday, French President Francois Hollande, after conveniently flying in from Paris, celebrated Strasbourg’s role.
“I defend Strasbourg, the capital of Europe, because it is history that teaches us the role Strasbourg has to play,” Hollande told EU legislators. “Strasbourg is both the history and the future of Europe.”
The parliamentary sessions have become a tremendous boost for the city. When two sessions had to be canceled in 2008 because the roof of the plenary had partly collapsed, the cost to the city of 275,000 people was €7.5 million ($10.2 million).
France also said that all EU nations, including Britain, formally agreed on the dual parliament in 1992. And since any change requires unanimity, France remains in full control of Strasbourg’s destiny.
Parliamentarians may hope the EU summit will raise the issue on Thursday in the frantic search for budget cuts, although Hollande has dashed any expectation of change.
Some see offering Strasbourg other EU institutions to host may be a solution.
“Of course we understand that the French have a veto,” said McMillan-Scott. “But I am absolutely convinced that if France were offered some credible and dignified alternative to the European parliament, then Strasbourg would accept that.”
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Fox World News
Afghanistan‘s President Hamid Karzai says security in southern Helmand province was better before the arrival of British troops.
Karzai is in London Monday for meetings with British Prime Minister David Cameron and Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari to discuss prospects for peace talks with the Taliban.
He said in an interview with The Guardian and ITV News that it’s possible western forces are being drawn down in Afghanistan because international leaders realized “they were fighting in the wrong place” and that he expects fighting to diminish once NATO forces withdraw.
Karzai said Helmand province — where the U.S-led coalition has lost more soldiers than anywhere else — was more peaceful before British troops arrived in 2006. He says the greatest threat to his country’s prospects is foreign meddling.
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Fox World News
The leaders of Afghanistan and Pakistan are due to hold talks with British Prime Minister David Cameron in London on the Afghan peace process.
Cameron initiated the meetings with Afghan President Hamid Karzai and Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari last year, aiming to boost cooperation between the countries and promote regional stability.
The talks are expected to focus on preventing a Taliban resurgence in Afghanistan when British and other NATO troops withdraw from the country next year.
Cameron plans to dine with Karzai and Zardari at his country residence Chequers later Sunday, before holding formal talks with both leaders and their top officials early Monday.
Downing Street says the trilateral meeting will include Afghan and Pakistani army and intelligence chiefs for the first time.
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Fox World News
By Mark Fidelman, Contributor The trouble with the World Economic Forum and its annual conference in Davos Switzerland, is that they do a poor job of summarizing the main trends, conversations and sentiment about its attendees. Instead they rely on the press and individual observers to convey their own individual accounts. More often than not, they are subjects that most of us don’t care about or misrepresent the majority opinion. What a wasted opportunity. Because of that, I turned to KPMG International and their World Economic Forum Live Twitter aggregation and data visualization service to provide us the key trends and insights from the conference’s world leaders, celebrities and CEOs. Here are the top 5 insights: 1. A lack of women (17% of the total) at the conference caused a stir but were able to have their voice heard anyway. Almost 35% of the social media conversations involved women. 2. “Young Global Leaders” #ygl were the subject of many conversations. In fact much was made of the ability for young leaders to connect and work with each other to cause positive change. 3. British Prime Minister David Cameron caused an uproar with his speech on how the European Union must change or the UK may return to an island state. 4. Global economy appears to be in recovery – delegates optimistic. At least that was the sentiment of delegates at the conference. But George Soros was a notable pessimist. 5. Delegates discussed how to adapt to social technologies and finally seem to recognize its importance in world affairs. While the media delegation to Davos averaged three retweets for every tweet they posted (1,936 tweets to 5,629 retweets), ‘Public figures’ averaged 17.5 retweets for every tweet they posted (433 tweets to 7,591 retweets), including Mario Monti (78 retweets, 16 replies), Christine Lagarde (89 retweets, 95 replies) and David Cameron (79 retweets, 47 replies) — demonstrating the power of social media to enable the public and political leaders to engage more directly. David Green, Global Head of Digital Marketing, KPMG International summarized it this way: “this data shows the power of social media to enable the public and political leaders to engage more directly. There is now greatly transparency around, and public engagement with, important events such as Davos. Business and individuals alike have a chance to air their views on the issues that matter, as the discussions happen.” So, yes, Davos delegates are out of the mainstream. But there’s no doubting the importance of the attending leaders and their conversations. These are the business and government kingpins that are making big decisions that impact the rest of us. So it was refreshing to see how active some of these leaders were on Twitter because we could tune in from afar. Indeed, transparency is a good thing. Let’s hope the rest of them get the message.
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Forbes Latest
The Dutch government says European countries should be allowed to exit important European institutions after joining them, including the European Union, the eurozone and the Schengen free travel zone.
In a letter to parliament Thursday, Prime Minister Mark Rutte said achieving that possibility will itself require treaty changes, because the Maastricht Treaty that established the euro and Schengen Agreement don’t allow for exits.
The statement echoes remarks that Rutte made at the World Economic Forum earlier in January, when he said the EU shouldn’t be like the “Hotel California” described in the song by rock band The Eagles as where “you can check out any time you like — but you can never leave.”
Rutte’s remarks follow British Prime Minister David Cameron‘s call for a 2017 referendum on EU membership.
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Fox World News
