China Fuels Illegal Trade in Timber, Report Finds - by Andrew Jacobs

China's growing appetite for rosewood dining sets, hardwood floors, plywood and printer paper is helping propel a booming trade in illegally harvested timber and spurring the destruction of fragile ecosystems across the globe, a British environmental organization said in a report released on Thursday.

The organization, the Environmental Investigation Agency, said the Chinese government has largely turned a blind eye as wood importers and furniture makers, some of them state-owned enterprises, have profited from a $4 billion industry that harvests wood illegally from Myanmar, Mozambique, Indonesia and other countries with weak law enforcement and widespread corruption. 

“Illegal logging and the trade in stolen timber are among the most destructive environmental crimes occurring today and directly threaten the world’s vital forests,” the report said.

Read more: China Fuels Illegal Trade in Timber, Report Finds - NYTimes.com

Palestine upgraded to UN nonvoting observer status following General Assembly vote

Palestine

Just nine nations voted against the Palestinian Authority's upgrade to nonvoting observer state status, which passed the General Assembly 138-9, with 41 abstentions.

Voting "no" Thursday were Israel, the United States and Canada, joined by the Czech Republic, Panama and several Pacific island nations: Marshall Islands, Micronesia, Nauru and Palau. The Pacific nations typically support the U.S. and Israel at the U.N. on key General Assembly resolutions.

The historic vote recognizes Palestine as a state and gives Palestine the right to join U.N. agencies. It opens the door for Palestine to become a party to the International Criminal Court, allowing them to bring cases against Israel.

Israel and the U.S. argued that the vote is purely symbolic, would change nothing on the ground, would hurt peace talks and could affect U.S. funding.

Most European countries sided with the Palestinians in this historic vote except the Czech Republic.

EU-Digest

Greenland looks to Denmark for rare earth mineral investment

Greenland’s top politician has encouraged Copenhagen to invest in his country ahead of an imminent boom in developing local mineral resources.

Prime Minister Kuupik Kleist made his appeal in the Copenhagen-based Politiken newspaper, saying it would be a shame for Denmark to lose out on investing in the country’s promising mineral industry considering its history and close relationship with Greenland.

Kleist wrote, “The alliance between Denmark and Greenland has been incredibly beneficial for both. Isn’t it about time that we, after 300 years of history openly declare the love and mutual esteem we have for one another?”

Danish Prime Minister Helle Thorning-Schmidt has since responded positively. She told Politiken, “If the Self-Rule administration wants to strengthen the co-operation between Denmark and Greenland in the resources field, the government is naturally open to discuss it.”

The news comes following in-depth negotiations between Nuuk and Chinese investors, who pledged DKK 12 billion (EUR 1.6 billion) toward developing the Greenland’s mineral industry.

Greenland is thought to contain one of the planet’s largest deposits of valuable rare earth minerals outside of China. Rare earth minerals are a key ingredient in the production of electronics and numerous other consumer goods.

Read more: Greenland looks to Denmark for mineral investment | IceNews - Daily News

Pan-European Transport Corridor: Danube fare fight for bridge tolls sends Romania, Bulgaria to court

Plans for a bridge across the Danube have been in the works for decades. In 1994, the EU agreed to develop the so-called Pan-European Transport Corridor IV. The route connects several major eastern European cities, from Dresden to Prague, Bratislava, Budapest and Sofia all the way to Istanbul. Even then, Romania, which opted for a more easterly location, and Bulgaria were locked in a bitter dispute about where exactly to build a new bridge. Construction was finally begun under EU pressure in 2004, between Calafat and Vidin, a town of 50,000 inhabitants.

The bridge was originally scheduled to be finished before 2010 - but there was a delay due to geological characteristics that made a new structural analysis necessary. The official opening was set for Thursday, (29.11.2012), but it's been postponed once more.

Construction of the bridge is essentially finished. A few weeks ago the last 18-meter-long segment on the Romanian side was fit in. Pedestrians could cross the imposing, two-kilometer structure - in theory. Access roads are not quite done and border control posts have yet to be established. Julio Ruis, deputy construction manager, dampened expectations the bridge might open soon after all.

The way things are now, truck drivers will still  have to take the ferry for a while longer - just as they have these past two decades.

In the meantime, there is more political bickering on the horizon: Romania and Bulgaria want to take each other to court over how to share revenue and bridge tolls.

Read more: Danube fare fight sends Romania, Bulgaria to court | Europe | DW.DE | 29.11.2012

US Economy: Temporary fiscal cliff fix only postpones clarity

Richard Fisher, President of the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas, tells DW why he still believes in a unified Europe and why a temporary fix of the fiscal cliff problem in the US isn’t good enough.

DW: Your remark that so called Too-big-to Fail banks should be broken up isn't very popular in financial circles. Do you really believe that this can be put into practice?

Richard Fisher: I do. And I am referencing in particular the financial situation in the United States. We have five institutions that have become even more concentrated in their power than they were before the crisis. And the intention of the legislation we passed, called the Dodd-Frank Act (law on Wall Street reform -the ed.), was to end "too big to fail". Instead the consequence has ensued: the largest banks have become even bigger - "too bigger to fail."

We have as you have in Europe over 6,000 banks, but we have excessive concentration in the hands of a few. It's the least worst outcome to say break up the banks. We provide a taxpayer guarantee on deposits. But starting with a very clever man named Sandy Weill at Citicorp, who took that franchise and was able to expand it through the acquisition of Travelers Insurance and so on, basically transformed it into what banks have become now which is an income-oriented and not a balance sheet oriented institution. That means how do I make as much as possible, taking advantage of the cheap money that was made available subsidized by the American taxpayer deposits.

But what I argue is: The only guarantees that exist are those of deposits. Any other activity beyond what we used to consider the commercial banking functions - safeguarding deposits by the American taxpayers that are at risk - will not be assisted by the government. I think by just making that clear alone we'll assist the process.

For the complete interview click here: Temporary fiscal cliff fix only postpones clarity | Transatlantic Voices | DW.DE | 29.11.2012

Russia wants to feed Europe with organic food

Russia seriously considers an opportunity to take up the role of a supplier of organic products within the scope of the World Trade Organization. Russian lawmakers are working on the bill to support the production of organic agricultural products. This law will help Russian farmers enter the EU market with organic products.

As expected, the bill will be handed over to the Ministry of Agriculture of Russia in December of this year. The law may come into force in 2015.

Organic farmers promised to reduce the cost on their products and use Russia's participation in the WTO to enter the EU market with organic agricultural products. The authors of the new document have provided the following forms of state support: a system of certification of environmentally friendly products, special credits, subsidies, insurance against crop failure and disease and the support of consumer agricultural cooperation. Small and medium-sized businesses that provide services to producers of organic products will also receive assistance from the state.

Read more: Russia wants to feed Europe with organic food - English pravda.ru

Gulf cools towards Muslim Brothers - Alain Gresh

Dubai’s chief of police, General Dahi Khalfan al-Tamim, claims that the Muslim Brotherhood is “a small group that has strayed from the true path.” He also says that the revolution in Egypt “would not have been possible without Iran’s support and is the prelude to a new Sykes-Picot agreement” (1). And that Mohammed Morsi’s election in Egypt was “an unfortunate choice.” Like many leading figures in the Arab world, Al-Tamin uses Twitter, where he has said: “If the Muslim Brotherhood threatens the Gulf’s security, the blood that flows will drown it.”

Throughout this summer, Al-Tamin criticised the Brotherhood, which he calls “a sinful gang whose demise is drawing near”, and called for their assets and bank accounts to be frozen (2). The authorities in the UAE, of which Dubai is a part, have brought around 60 of the Brothers to court, charged with plotting against the regime.

The pan-Arab newspaper Asharq Al-Awsat belongs to Saudi crown prince Salman’s family. Despite its reputation in the West, it has almost no autonomy in matters of Arab politics. The day after Mohammed Morsi’s swearing-in on 30 June, its editor, Abdul Rahman Al-Rashed, asked some questions (really those of the Al-Saud family) (3). Would Egypt’s new head of state fight terrorism and oppose Al-Qaida? Would he continue Egypt’s mediating role over Palestine? Would he genuinely support the Syrian opposition, given his opposition to any foreign military intervention? Would he back Jordan’s king Abdullah against the challenge from the Jordanian branch of the Muslim Brotherhood?

Al-Rashed wrote: “As Iran has long been a strong ally of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, will the new president decide to resume relations with Tehran under the pretext that Iran has embassies and ambassadors in the Gulf states?... Will he remain silent about Iran’s ideological and religious activities that have intensified ever since the ousting of Mubarak, as seen in Tehran’s support for local groups and attempts to spread Shia ideology among some Egyptian circles? This is something Al-Azhar [Sunni Islam’s leading institution based in Cairo] has already criticised, warning that Egypt could be threatened with sectarian conflict.”

These warnings, and many others in the Gulf press, have attracted little attention in the West, perhaps because they run counter to the prevailing view: that there is a broad alliance uniting the emirs of the Gulf and the Islamist movements in their wish to impose strict religious order and sharia, as though a shared conservative vision of Islam supersedes political considerations and diplomatic rivalries, national differences and divergent strategies.

Read more: Gulf cools towards Muslim Brothers - Le Monde diplomatique - English edition

Market Economy: Review of Michael J. Sandel's "What Money Can't Buy": The Moral Limit of Markets :by Deirdre McCloskey

Michael Sandel of Harvard teaches Government and, especially, justice, for which he is internationally known. His book is sweetly written, and offers a good occasion to examine the moral convictions of communitarians, and their distaste for the market.

One cannot but agree with Sandel that the study of markets should be remoralized. We should know why we believe, morally speaking, that bread should be allocated by a market but children should not. It's not enough to simply sneer, from left or right or middle. Even economists need to do the philosophical work. "Markets are not mere mechanisms," Sandel wisely observes.

By international standards the US poverty line of $23,050 corrected for exchange rates is around the average of world income, and is deemed a comfortably middle-class income in India. Why does the fact matter? Sandel says it is because Americans ignore the desperation of people earning $1 a day in Chad, and attend instead to the "unfairness" of charging for Shakespeare tickets of a show in Central Park.

It is a moral failure of communitarianism that it weighs on New Yorkers or Anglinos, our community, so much more above other poor people in the world, ignoring the good for Chadians or Bangladeshis that a commercial and innovative society would do. Sandel does not note that the introduction of free markets in Sahil-grown cotton (as against European and American protection for "our" farmers) or the reception of the First World's garbage (as Lawrence Summers once suggested in vulgar but sound reasoning) would ameliorate a most terrible lack of affordability. That is, Sandel does not face the actual, moral problem—which is poverty, real poverty, the depths. Instead he recommends that we fiddle with prices and create queues for Shakespeare in the Park.

The indirection—fiddling instead of solving—is morally indefensible. Fifty years ago the economists Milton Friedman on the right and James Tobin on the left suggested that we give at least the American poor a minimum income, and stop fiddling with the prices of housing and of bread and the like. It's a good moral idea, which the French have implemented. Poverty (at least State-side) would be alleviated, and markets would be left to do their job of making the social pie as large as possible. Such a separation of a policy about income from a policy about the market is a standard analytic ploy in economics. Sandel's teacher did not get it across to him.

In high theory the separation of welfare from allocation is called the Hicks-Kaldor Criterion, and is, to put it mildly, not above moral criticism. But to stride past the economic analysis is to ignore the actual moral problem—poverty—and its most direct solution. A New Yorker cartoon back in the 1960s showed a parked bank truck, with the guards handing money to people out of big sacks. Said one onlooker to another, "Well, at last the War on Poverty has gotten under way!" Yes. The comparable policy for the $1-a-day wretched of the earth is to allow capitalism to rip, which is what China has been doing since 1978 and India since 1991, with vastly more gain to the poor than from communitarian policies.

Note EU-Digest: extreme and opposite political and economic philosophies somewhat evenly divided in a country like the US is a recipe for disaster without the willingness to compromise. 

Read more at Deirdre McCloskey: editorials

Aircraft Industry: Airbus Ads Jab Boeing With Pinocchio Nose

Airbus A350

Airbus SAS accused Boeing Co. (BA) of making misleading claims about its planes’ performance and ridiculed its competitor with an advertising campaign showing a Boeing jet nose grotesquely elongated to resemble Pinocchio’s.

The ad, which appears this week in trade publications including Aviation Week and Flight, asserts that Boeing is “stretching the truth” in its own campaign to promote its aircraft. Boeing said it stands by its performance claims.

“They crossed a line when they started running specific numbers,” Airbus’s sales chief, John Leahy, said yesterday in an interview. “They’ve blatantly misrepresented the facts.”

Read more: Airbus Ads Jab Boeing With Pinocchio Nose - Bloomberg

Canadians value more vacation over pay hikes survey shows

An international report Wednesday found that Canadian workers would rather get an additional week's paid vacation than be paid more to do their jobs.

The Mercer consultancy report says 20 per cent of Canadians polled said the job perk they would most like to receive from employers is another week's worth of paid vacation.

Canadians were the only country in the survey — which included workers from the U.S., Britain, France, China and Brazil — who said they valued time off over more money.

Read more: Canadians value more vacation over pay hikes - Business - CBC News

Middle East: Israeli "failure" UN part of ongoing political oversight says Tzipi Livni

Israel's expected "failure" at the UN General Assembly on Thursday is the result of ongoing political oversight, The Tzipi Livni Party leader Tzipi Livni said Wednesday, ahead of the Palestinian bid for a status upgrade.

"When Israel does not instigate and lead initiatives, initiatives are forced upon it," she said.

Engaging in a political process with Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas, and striving for an agreement is our interest, that would preserve Israel as a Zionist, Jewish and democratic state, she continued.

"Within two weeks, the world will recognize - because of the failures of Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu's government - a Hamas state in Gaza, and a Palestinian state within the 1967 borders," she added.  

Read more: Jerusalem Post - Breaking News

Netherlands Economy - Seven in 10 older unemployed are jobless for at least a year

In the Netherlands seven out of 10 people aged 55 and over who lose their jobs are unemployed for at least a year, according to job centre figures.

This number of older jobless has gone up by 20% during the past year and now stands at over 81,000.
And while 30% of them will find new work within a year, half of those jobs are only temporary, the job centre figures show.

The government is planning to reduce unemployment benefit entitlement to a maximum of one year, after which jobless people will have to claim welfare or use their savings.

The new administration is also planning to reform redundancy law which unions fear will encourage companies to let go their older workers.

Read more: DutchNews.nl - Seven in 10 older unemployed are jobless for at least a year

Belgium: OECD revises economic outlook for Belgium

The OECD's latest outlook for Belgium puts forward a negative growth of -0.1 percent this year, and a modest growth of 0.5 percent next year. Other organisations have different figures. The European Commission thinks the Belgian economy will shrink 0.2 percent this year, but grow 0.7 percent in 2013.

When drawing up the budget for next year, key ministers counted on a 0.7 percent growth. If this figure is down, Belgium will have to make more cuts.

Read more: flandersnews.be: OECD has revised economic outlook for Belgium

Serbia: Russia officially approved favorable economic loan to Serbia

Russian Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin confirmed to Serbian President Tomislav Nikolic that Russia officially approved a favorable loan to Serbia. Nikolic informed Rogozin that Serbia is very interested in cooperation with the Russian Federation in many areas, and that the South Stream project would soon bring the two countries very close.

Nikolic expressed a wish to advance Serbian-Russian cooperation in other economic fields beyond the energy sector. Among other things, Serbia is prepared to secure huge quantities of agricultural products for the Russian market, said Nikolic. He reminded that Serbia has a policy of military neutrality and therefore it would soon send a parliamentary delegation to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Collective Security Treaty Organization as it already has its representatives in the NATO Parliamentary Assembly.

Rogozin described relations between the two countries as very friendly and used the opportunity to relay greetings from Russian President Vladimir Putin and Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev.

Read more: INTERNATIONAL RADIO SERBIA |

Spain: Gibraltar waters dispute provokes diplomatic incident. between Spain and Britain

The conflict over the waters surrounding Gibraltar flared up again at the end of last week as the British and Spanish governments called in the respective ambassadors to make diplomatic protests in the light of recent incidents.

The British Foreign Office expressed its concerns to Spanish ambassador Federico Trillo at “provocative incursions” into “British Gibraltar Territorial Waters” on Tuesday last week, first by a Spanish naval ship and later by a Spanish customs vessel that “sought to apprehend a Gibraltarian civilian boat forcing the Royal Gibraltar Police to intervene”.

In turn the Spanish government summoned the British ambassador in Madrid to pass on its position regarding the conflict. An embassy official attended the meeting, in the absence of Ambassador Giles Paxman. The Spanish Foreign Minister, José Manuel García-Margallo made it clear that Spanish fishermen would “continue to fish in waters surrounding Gibraltar, where they have always fished, under the protection of the Guardia Civil”.

Spain does not recognise British sovereignty over the waters in question on the grounds that they were not mentioned in the Utrecht Treaty of 1713 when the Rock was ceded to the British Crown.

Read more: Gibraltar waters dispute provokes diplomatic incident. Surinenglish.com

Transportation Industry: Florida marine transportation company opening trade routes to European Ports

Yacht Transportation, a company specialized in boat shipping and yacht shipping announced today that it will open up its trade routes and voyages to various ports in Europe. Some of these ports include Southampton, Rotterdam, Amsterdam, Bremerhaven, and Hamburg. This service addition comes as a direct result of client interest in these areas of the world.

Although Yacht Transportation is one of the newer yacht transport companies in the industry, they have already proven that they are just as capable as the existing competition. In just a short period of time, they have already opened up their trade routes to include most of the most popular cruising destination ports such as the Caribbean, the Mediterranean, and now in Europe. As time goes on, they are expected to continue to open up more routes and eventually have the capability to provide boat transport and yacht transport services worldwide.

Yacht Transportation is an up and coming marine transportation company that provides deluxe boat shipping and yacht shipping services as well as a vast array of logistics services. Some other services the company provides in addition to the marine transport of your boat or yacht are storage and warehousing and inland trailer transportation, just to name a few.

France, Spain to support Palestinian UN status bid, hesitation from Britain

French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said on Tuesday that France will vote in favor of the Palestinian Authority's bid for Palestine to be granted UN "non-member observer status" at the General Assembly later this week.

France said on Tuesday it would vote in favour of Palestinian "non-member observer" status at the United Nations, boosting Palestinian efforts to secure greater international recognition.

French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius told the country's National Assembly that Paris would vote "yes" in this week’s vote on a call for "non-member observer state status" for the Palestinians. Even with non-member status, however, a Palestinian state would still not be a full member of the UN General Assembly.  Fabius told MPs, "We've known for years France's constant position is to recognise the Palestinian state.”

Spain’s foreign minister says Spain will vote in favor of recognition of a Palestinian state at the U.N. General Assembly this week. Jose Manuel Garcia Margallo told parliament Wednesday that Spain would support the Palestinian bid at the U.N. because it feels it is the best way to advance toward peace.

Hesitation is coming from the United Kingdom ahead of the vote, says FRANCE 24’s US correspondent Nathan King, reporting from the UN Headquarters. “They are saying maybe they would vote but they have some conditions. They’re worried about certain Palestinian positions.”

Read more: France to support Palestinian UN status bid - PALESTINIAN TERRITORIES - FRANCE 24

Turkey: Is there a comeback for Kurdish militant leader on the horizon ?

Abdullah Ocalan

Snatched by Turkish commandos in Nairobi, Kurdish rebel chief Abdullah Ocalan looked resigned and bewildered as he was flown back to Ankara, the gallows beckoning. A decade later, on his island prison, he appears to have the ear of a Turkish government eager to end a devastating conflict.

It seems an unlikely comeback. Reviled in most of Turkey but commanding fierce loyalty from Kurdish nationalists, Ocalan has been held in virtual isolation on the barren island of Imrali, 50 km (30 miles) south of Istanbul, since his capture in 1999.  Even his lawyers haven't seen him for 15 months.

But after the bloodiest summer for years in Turkey's conflict with Kurdish militants, and with fears over the spread of Kurdish insurrection in neighboring Syria, Ocalan is emerging from the virtual oblivion of Imrali.

When hundreds of Kurdish militants on hunger strike in jails across Turkey drew close to death this month, Turkish authorities turned to the man reviled by newspapers after his capture as "Butcher" and "Baby Killer".

A message through his brother to call off the strike was immediately obeyed, an apparent sign of the authority generally supposed to have drifted from the man, known by allies as "Apo", over his years on Imrali.

"He proved that he is still the boss, that he has the last word," said Turkish journalist Mehmet Ali Birand, who met Ocalan twice in Lebanon and Syria in the 1980s.

"He is not a fighter or a guerrilla war expert, he is more the thinking man trying to shape the Kurdish problem. He wants to be the leader of all Kurds, that is the image he gives."

Turkish MIT intelligence officials took the ferry to Imrali at least three times over the past two months and their talks with Ocalan paved the way for his appeal, according to the liberal daily Radikal, which did not identify its sources.

Few men stir such hatred in Turkey as Ocalan, who founded the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) rebel group and led the armed struggle for Kurdish home rule for 15 years before his capture, a conflict which burns at the heart of the country.  Many hold him responsible for the deaths of over 40,000 people since the PKK - designated a terrorist group by Turkey, the United States and the European Union - took up arms in 1984.

Erdogan, who publicly refused to negotiate with the hunger strikers and dismissed their protest as blackmail supported by "merchants of death", said no promises had been made to Ocalan in exchange for his intervention.

"There was no such thing," he told reporters on the way back from a trip to Egypt last week.

But the government has also suggested more talks between the intelligence agencies and the PKK were a possibility.

"This is Ocalan's second comeback," said Koray Caliskan, a political scientist at Istanbul's Bosphorus University who also writes for the Radikal.

Read more: Kurdish militant leader wields influence from island prison - Yahoo! News

Russia: Official sees high risks of slower econ growth in Russia early ‘13

Risks of slower economic growth will remain high in Russia at the end of 2012 and the beginning of 2013, Deputy Economic Development Minister Andrei Klepach said on Tuesday.

“A more urgent problem now is the problem of economic growth,” Klepach said when asked about the balance between risks of economic slowdown and inflation.

He also said that a reduction of the refinancing rate by the central bank will not significantly spur growth. In early November, the Central Bank of Russia kept the refinancing rate unchanged at 8.25%.
Inflation risks will also remain in the beginning of 2013. “But so far they are under control (and will remain so) if there is no further growth in world food prices,” Klepach.

For more: Russia: Official sees high risks of slower econ growth in Russia early ‘13

Eurozone: France must face up to reforms

Whether you ask the IMF, OECD, the European Commission or the German government, they're unanimous that France must undertake economic reforms. Is it the next country in the euro zone teetering at the edge?

Rating agency Moody's was the latest to send out a warning. It revoked its top credit rating for France and lowered its forecast to "negative." But the financial markets remained unfazed. "First of all, many countries have lost their triple-A rating. Even the United States no longer has it, and can still refinance itself," said Jörg Krämer, chief economist at Commerzbank. In addition, he noted, the European Central Bank is there to do absolutely everything necessary to keep the euro zone together. "That explains why investors aren't worried," Krämer told Deutsche Welle.

Until now, France - like Germany - has been one of the winners in the euro-zone crisis, and can borrow money at historically low interest rates. Still, said Claire Demesmay, of the German Council on Foreign Relations, the Moody downgrade is a clear signal "that Francois Hollande has his back up against the wall and has no choice but to bring on reforms in the country."

Read more: France must face up to reforms | Europe | DW.DE | 27.11.2012