Terrorism: Jihadi supporters arrested in Spain, Germany

Eight people have been arrested in Spain and a further three in Germany for suspected links with jihadi groups, especially in Iraq and Syria, authorities said Monday.

A Spanish Interior Ministry statement said police detained the eight in Madrid early Monday on suspicion of recruiting jihadi militants for the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, or ISIL.
It said the cell was led by a person who lives in Spain but had previously been jailed in Guantanamo Bay after being arrested in Afghanistan in 2001.

Spain gave no immediate details on the nationalities of the arrested.

In Berlin, prosecutors' spokesman Martin Steltner said police on Saturday arrested a 30-year-old Frenchman suspected of "supporting a terrorist organization" by fighting in Syria for the group.

Steltner said the suspect, who wasn't named because of German privacy laws, was wounded in fighting. He has also allegedly appeared in ISIL propaganda videos.

A court will decide on his extradition to France in the coming weeks.

Read more: Jihadi supporters arrested in Spain, Germany | Boston Herald

U.S. and Iran Signaling New Joint Effort in Iraq Crisis -by R.Gladstone, T Erdbrink and M.R. Gordon

The United States and Iran on Monday signaled increased willingness to work together to arrest the expanding Sunni insurgency in Iraq, with Secretary of State John Kerry openly suggesting such a collaboration would be constructive and another American official saying the subject could come up at talks this week on the Iranian nuclear dispute.

Cooperation between the United States and Iran to contain the Iraqi crisis would represent the first time the two countries — estranged adversaries for more than three decades — have jointly undertaken a common security purpose since they shared military intelligence to counter the Taliban in Afghanistan in the aftermath of the Sept. 11 attacks 13 years ago.

Mr. Kerry, in an interview with Yahoo News, called the advance by insurgents under the banner of the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria over the past week an “existential threat” to Iraq and suggested American airstrikes were one possible answer. Asked if the United States would cooperate with Iran to thwart ISIS, Mr. Kerry said, “I wouldn’t rule out anything that would be constructive.”

Note EU-Digest: Sometimes politics sometimes make strange bedfellows

Read more: U.S. and Iran Signaling New Joint Effort in Iraq Crisis - NYTimes.com

Car Racing - Formula One - Schumacher out of coma, leaves French hospital, spokeswoman says - by Geir Moulson

Formula One great Michael Schumacher is no longer in a coma and has left a French hospital where he had been receiving treatment since a skiing accident in December, his manager said Monday.

Schumacher left the hospital in Grenoble “to continue his long phase of rehabilitation,” manager Sabine Kehm said in a statement. She gave no further details on Schumacher’s condition, and her office refused to elaborate on the statement.

Schumacher is now at the Lausanne University Hospital in neighbouring Switzerland, hospital spokesman Darcy Christen said, without elaborating.

Schumacher, his wife and their two children live in Switzerland. His accident happened on a family vacation as Schumacher was skiing with his 14-year-old son.

Schumacher’s family “would like to explicitly thank all his treating doctors, nurses and therapists in Grenoble as well as the first aiders at the place of the accident, who did an excellent job in those first months,” Kehm’s statement said.

“The family also wishes to thank all the people who have sent Michael all the many good wishes. ... We are sure it helped him,” it added. “For the future we ask for understanding that his further rehabilitation will take place away from the public eye,” it added.

Read more: Schumacher out of coma, leaves French hospital, spokeswoman says - The Globe and Mail

U.S. economy remains fragile despite Wall Street reaching new heights

As the stock market continues to boom, financial experts and economists in the U.S. are grappling with dual realities.  Philly.com reported on June 14 that experts on the economy are saying that the U.S. economy seems fragile, and the labor participation rate is lousy.

“When companies are doing well, stock prices do well, so the economy must steam full ahead,” says Esme Faerber, professor of business at Rosemont College. “But it often doesn’t work that way.”

Experts say that these conflicting realities are confusing. Financial assts are reaching new heights, prompting some market-watchers to wonder whether another crash lurks around the corner. But, stocks buyers are complacent. The so-called fear gauge, the CBOE Volatility Index, is nearing its historic low of 9.89 in January 2007 – just before the world economy and the markets plummeted and launched the Great Recession.

So what to make of these incongruities? The economy is at an inflection point, experts say. “We sometimes see this sort of paradox between economic conditions and the financial markets. The reason is, the stock market reflects sentiment right now, as well as economic fundamentals in the future,” says Joe Davis, global chief economist at Vanguard in Conshohocken.

According to the data service Capital IQ, the biggest buyers of stocks in the first quarter 2014 were the companies of the S&P 500 itself, which cumulatively repurchased $160 billion of their own shares. The S&P 500 has risen 5.4 percent year to date and 22 percent in the last 12 months. However, experts say that as corporate America buys back its own shares and bolsters the markets, they are failing to invest in new business and equipment that could propel the economy.

On the other side of the equation, by keeping interest rates low, the U.S. Federal Reserve is doing everything it can to prevent a feared economic downturn, but at the same time, the central bank recognizes that some financial assets may be overheating.

Read more: U.S. economy remains fragile despite Wall Street reaching new heights | The State Column

NATO: Stubb to be Finland's next PM, backs NATO membership - by Jussi Rosendahl and Sakari Suoninen

Finland's EU minister Alexander Stubb, who wants to cut taxes and take his neutral country into NATO, won the leadership of his ruling conservative party on Saturday, putting him on track to become prime minister later this month.

British and U.S. -educated Stubb, 46, a polyglot sportsman, will take over Finland's five-party governing coalition after Prime Minister Jyrki Katainen steps down, possibly as early as next Thursday. Finland holds a general election in April 2015.

"We have to aim at maximising Finland's national security and being part of decision-making, and that happens best as a NATO member," Stubb told Reuters after delegates at a congress of his National Coalition party elected him as their leader.

"It is absolutely clear that we have to have a comprehensive debate about that," said Stubb. He declined to say whether he favoured a referundum on joining NATO.

Since the Ukraine crisis erupted, Stubb has stepped up his long-standing support for joining the NATO alliance, but opinion polls show only one fifth of Finland's 5.5 million people agree with him.

Read more: Stubb to be Finland's next PM, backs NATO membership - Yahoo News

World Cup Soccer: France vs. Honduras: Final score 3-0, Les Bleus win scrappy contest - by Jack Sargeant

France started their World Cup campaign with a 3-0 victory over an extremely physical Honduras side in Porto Alegre on Sunday. Honduras came into the game looking to make up the deficit in technical quality by brute force, though that strategy backfired when Wilson Palacios was sent off and Les Bleus took the lead on the stroke of halftime before netting two more goals in the second half.

The victors made a surprisingly haphazard start to the match and initially struggled to break down Honduras' robust defensive structure. Luis Fernando Suárez's side was happy to commit tactical fouls and attempt to disrupt Les Bleus' attacking flow, and with the exception of a Blaise Matuidi chance that was tipped onto the crossbar by goalkeeper Noel Valladares, they were rather impotent early on.

Midway through the first half, France rattled the woodwork for a second time when Antoine Griezmann leaped to head Patrice Evra's deep cross against the bar. The team grew ever more frustrated, and midfielder Paul Pogba was especially unimpressed with Honduras' physicality. He kicked out at Palacios after being repeatedly stamped on after 26 minutes, with both players lucky to escape with only yellow cards.

However, their personal feud didn't end there, and was reignited with significant consequences inside the final couple of minutes of the first half. Palacios barged the Frenchman over in the box and earned his second yellow card, as well giving away a penalty kick. Karim Benzema stepped up to stroke the ball into the top corner, giving a relieved France the lead on the stroke of halftime.

Any French fears that Honduras would make the second half as difficult as the first were allayed within three minutes of the restart, when goalline technology awarded its first ever World Cup goal. A close-range Benzema volley rebounded off the post and against the hand of Valladares, with the ball crossing the line before the embarrassed Honduras keeper had time to sweep it to safety.

Read more: France vs. Honduras: Final score 3-0, Les Bleus win scrappy contest - SBNation.com

Britain - Economy: Illegal drugs and prostitution add euro 12.5 bn to UK economy under new EU rules

The sex trade and drug dealers are worth 0.7 per cent of GDP, equal to the value drawn from agriculture, publishers and accommodation services.

The new rules means the Office for National Statistics (ONS) will for the first time include illegal activities into the value of goods and services.

The ONS have estimated based on 2009 figures that prostitution and drugs add £5.3billion and £4.4billion respectively to the British economy.

Between 1997 and 2009 the impact from the activities range from euro 8.78 billion to euro 13.80 billion.

A spokeswoman for women's charity Eaves said: "Eaves is surprised and saddened that illegal activities, crime, abuse, suffering and violence would be considered as part of the GDP.

"Given that the entry routes to prostitution and the barriers to exiting prostitution are known to commonly include childhood sexual violence, domestic violence, neglect, abuse, poverty, destitution, coercion and addiction - it is humiliating and frankly frightening to see such human tragedy financially valued and counted as 'productive'.

"It is just one more way in which human lives, women's lives in particular, are devalued, objectified and commodified and another step on the road to the normalisation of pimps as businessmen."

Read more: Illegal drugs and prostitution add euro 12.5 bn to UK economy under new EU rules | UK | News | Daily Express

Russia and Ukraine's mystery tanks - by Jonathan Marcus

The Russian government has strenuously denied that any of its tanks crossed the border into Ukraine.

But now Nato has released satellite imagery, linked to existing video material, which appears to give added weight to assertions from the Ukrainian authorities that the tanks used by separatist forces that crossed into its country just a few days ago were indeed supplied by the Russians.

There is no doubt that the mystery tanks were on the road inside Ukraine.

Two of them were seen driving through the town of Makiivka, near Donetsk, and another was seen in Snizhne, further east.

Nato has provided two pictures from open-source video that show the T-64 tanks at the two locations.

Read More: BBC News - Russia and Ukraine's mystery tanks

Oil Exploration: Russia plunges into Cuban oil exploration near Florida's shores - by William E. Gibson

Russia has agreed to plunge into the search for oil in deep waters between the shores of Cuba and Florida, renewing fears of a major oil spill and the potential for environmental disaster.

With President Vladimir Putin looking on, Russian companies Rosneft and Zarubezhneft signed an energy agreement with Cuba late last month to explore offshore oil deposits. The agreement also calls for Rosneft to build a base at the Cuban port of Mariel to relay equipment and personnel to offshore rigs, linked by pipelines and a helicopter pad.

The drilling area north of Havana straddles the Gulf Stream, a powerful ocean current that rushes north to the Florida coast. Oceanographers warn that an oil slick caused by a major spill could reach Florida's beaches, reefs and marine sanctuaries in about a week.

"If there's a spill in an area within 50 miles of Key West, the immediate vulnerable land areas are going to be in South Florida," former U.S. Sen. Bob Graham warned in an interview last week. "The largest natural reef in the United States is located right near the area where the drilling would take place.

"If there is an accident, there is zero capability in Cuba today to respond to that accident."
Graham, who served two terms as Florida governor, met with Cuban officials in January and co-chaired a presidential commission on the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

He and energy experts said the Russians have little experience with deep-water drilling and that the U.S. embargo of Cuba prohibits the use of American technology to prevent or respond to a spill.

Read more: Russia plunges into Cuban oil exploration near Florida's shores - Sun Sentinel

Iraq: Obama 'urgently' considering air assault on targets in Syria and Iraq - by Spencer Ackerman

The Obama administration is urgently considering an air assault on Islamic extremists that officials told the Guardian could be directed at targets in Syria as well as Iraq.

President Obama announced on Friday that in the "days ahead" he will decide on a package of military and diplomatic options to halt the rapid advance of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (Isis), as the jihadist army's march from Syria through Sunni Iraq has upended Obama's achievement of extricating the US military from the Iraq conflict.

Obama has ruled out sending US soldiers and marines back to the Iraqi streets they patrolled from 2003 to 2011, but signalled a new, reluctant openness to returning the US to war in Iraq.

Isis "could pose a threat eventually to American interests as well," Obama said in a televised address, but vowed not to be "dragged back into a situation in which, while we're there keeping a lid on things, and after
enormous sacrifices by us, as soon as we're not there, people end up acting in ways that are not conducive to the long-term stability and  prosperity of the country."

Obama 'urgently' considering air assault on targets in Syria and Iraq | World news | The Guardian

France in $14b euro hole after overestimating the haul from that swell 75% millionaire tax

Overly sunny tax revenue predictions are not a problem unique to socialists, but you can see how those who adhere to an ideology that refuses to admit to basic human nature and the economic downsides of ludicrous tax rates might fall more dramatically than most.

Hollande, who endures a public approval rating of 20 percent (!), had first levied the whopping 75 percent tax rate on individuals making over a million euros. This prompted notable protests from actors and soccer teams, as well as the populace at which his populism was aimed. 

Bad news: France in $14b euro hole after overestimating the haul from that swell 75% millionaire tax « Hot Air

World Cup Soccer: Ruthless Dutch rip shell-shocked Spain to shreds - by Neil Maidment

A rampant Netherlands team inflicted a heaviest World Cup defeat on holders Spain in over 60 years with a dazzling 5-1 demolition on Friday that sent shockwaves through the tournament.

The Dutch were nothing but brutal in a tetchy 1-0 final defeat by the Spaniards four years ago, but they set out to disrupt the champions' possession game and blew them away with two goals each from Robin van Persie and Arjen Robben.

Only once before had Spain conceded five times in a World Cup game, in a 6-1 loss to hosts Brazil in 1950. The mauling was also the worst ever start for defending world champions.

"Spain were always going to come at us and we catch them on the counter. My players did it perfectly. It's far better than we ever expected," Dutch coach Louis van Gaal told reporters.

Dutch revenge looked unlikely when Spain, also 2008 and 2012 European champions, went ahead in the Group B clash with a 27th- minute Xabi Alonso penalty after Diego Costa was brought down.

Read more: Ruthless Dutch rip shell-shocked Spain to shreds - Football | The Star Online

Iraq: The Radical Changes Afoot in Iraq Will Send Shockwaves Across the Mideast

The capture of Mosul by Isis means a radical change in the political geography of Iraq and Syria. Moreover, the impact of this event will soon be felt across the Middle East as governments take on board the fact that a Sunni proto-caliphate is spreading across northern Iraq and Syria.

The next few weeks will be crucial in determining the outcome of Isis’s startling success in taking over a city of 1.4 million people, garrisoned by a large Iraqi security force, with as few as 1,300 fighters. Will victory in Mosul be followed by success in other provinces where there is a heavy concentration of Sunni, such as Salahuddin, Anbar and Diyala? Already, the insurgents have captured the important oil refinery town of Baiji with scarcely a shot fired by simply calling ahead by phone to tell the police and army to lay down their weapons and withdraw.

Read more: The Radical Changes Afoot in Iraq Will Send Shockwaves Across the Mideast | Alternet

Middle East: Why Is Jabhat al-Nusra No Longer Useful to Turkey? - by Semih Idiz

Reluctantly perhaps, given the time it took it to do so, Turkey on June 3 finally designated al-Qaeda-affiliated Jabhat al-Nusra a terrorist organization. The decision was seen as further proof of Turkey’s failed Syria policy, which has left the government of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan little choice but to fall in line with the United States with regard to radical groups fighting in that country.

The decision to ban Jabhat al-Nusra also comes tellingly less than a week after President Barack Obama announced that aid to Turkey, as well as Jordan, Lebanon and Iraq, would be increased so that they can “confront terrorists working across Syria’s borders.”

During his May 28 speech to graduating West Point cadets, Obama also said he would work with Congress to “ramp up support for those in the Syrian opposition who offer the best alternative to terrorists and brutal dictators.”

Despite denials by the Erdogan government, Ankara has for some time now been suspected by the West, and openly accused by the opposition in Turkey, of supporting Jabhat al-Nusra and other such groups in Syria.

It is no secret among diplomats in Ankara that this group was initially considered by Erdogan and Foreign Minster Ahmet Davutoglu as the most effective force against the Assad regime that they wanted to see toppled.

Ankara was reportedly annoyed when the United States declared the group a terrorist organization in December 2012, arguing that this was a “hasty” decision, given the headway the group was making against the Syrian army.

There was also speculation that Ankara was using Jabhat al-Nusra against Kurdish groups in Syria aligned with the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), to prevent them from controlling regions adjoining the Turkish border abandoned by Assad’s forces.

Jabhat al-Nusra’s self-declared jihadist ambitions and the brutal tactics it employed against its enemies, however, moved the UN to also blacklist it in May 2013, increasing pressure on Ankara to distance itself from the group.

Ankara continued, however, to equivocate on this matter, which was also apparent in remarks made by Davutoglu to a group of journalists in Istanbul, including Al-Monitor’s Amberin Zaman, a few days after the UN ban.

Read more: Why Is Jabhat al-Nusra No Longer Useful to Turkey? - US News

Is EU Foreign Policy Weak or clever ?: A promise barely noticed- Charlemagne:

America's retreat from the woes of the world is worrying its friends in the Middle East. Jihadists are surging through Iraq; Syria uses chemical weapons without retribution; and the latest American attempt to solve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict has failed. Is it time for Europe to help fill the vacuum?

Europeans always dream of exerting global influence commensurate with their economic weight. The Middle East’s problems have a way of washing up on Europe’s shores, be it boat people landing on the Mediterranean coast, or terrorists returning after being hardened by jihad in one or other civil war. And yet Europeans are struggling to be heard.

Take this week’s visit to Israel by José Manuel Barroso, president of the European Commission. He expanded on what, in another time or place, would be a big promise: if and when the Israelis and Palestinians make peace, the EU stands ready to offer economic integration akin to that enjoyed by Norway and Switzerland. In Ukraine the power of a similar offer precipitated a civil war and geopolitical contest with Russia; in the Holy Land, though, the promise of “special privileged partnerships” was barely noticed. It is striking, that, separately, Israel chose not to vote in March on a UN motion sponsored by the West to condemn Russia’s annexation of Crimea.

If America elicits less respect from Israel these days, Europe is the object of much scorn. Europe is remembered as a Jewish graveyard and, latterly, is regarded as an economic basket-case. Even collectively, it packs far less military punch than America. The French- and British-led intervention that toppled Muammar Qaddafi in Libya has left a violent mess.

The European Union’s 28 member-states are divided between big, small, old and new members and, when it comes to Israel, between the guilt-ridden (Germany) and the disapproving (Sweden).

As with much else, EU foreign-policy positions are finely balanced compromises, so even important moves are lost in woolly formulations. Seeking to keep Israeli-Palestinian peace talks alive after John Kerry, the American secretary of state, declared a “pause” in his mediation, Mr Barroso said the hiatus was “untenable in the long run”; peace with the Palestinians was in Israel’s best security interest.

America is of paramount importance to Israel’s security. But Europe makes several vital contributions. Its sanctions on Iran helped bring the mullahs to the negotiating table; its money keeps the Palestinian Authority alive as a negotiating partner for Israel; and Europe is central in managing the Syrian refugee crisis.

To be heard, Europeans need to speak clearly about what a two-state solution means: the end of Israeli occupation of land captured in 1967 (with agreed land swaps and a deal on Jerusalem), but also the end of further Palestinian claims on the Jewish state created in 1948. Palestinian refugees will, overwhelmingly, return to the new state of Palestine, not their old homes in Israel.

Read more:Charlemagne: A promise barely noticed | The Economist

EU Tax Planning : Fight against ‘aggressive tax planning’ key issue for EU, says Rehn - by Suzanne Lynch

The fight against aggressive tax planning by multinationals will be one of the “key issues” for the European Parliament over the next five years, EU economics and monetary affairs commissioner Olli Rehn has said.

“If there was one unifying message in the European elections, at least based on my campaign trail, . . . [it] is that we have to continue to act intensively against tax fraud, against tax evasion and against aggressive tax planning by multinational corporations.”

While declining to comment on the details of Wednesday’s announcement by the European Commission that it is investigating the Republic, Luxembourg and the Netherlands about tax arrangements entered into with specific companies, Mr Rehn welcomed the move. “I think it is very important that the commission has acted here,” he said.

“In the European Parliament in the next five years this will be one of the key issues and will be one of the key challenges for the commission.”

Speaking at an event hosted by European Movement Ireland and BDO in Brussels yesterday, Mr Rehn, who was elected as an MEP for Finland in last month’s European elections, said the European public had sent a clear message on the issue during the elections.

Read More: Fight against ‘aggressive tax planning’ key issue for EU, says Rehn - Economic News | Ireland & World Economy Headlines |The Irish Times - Fri, Jun 13, 2014

Tanks, of Unknown Origin, Roll Into Ukraine - by Andrew E.Kramer

Ukraine’s interior minister claimed on Thursday that an armored column from Russia had crossed the border into eastern Ukraine overnight and had fought with Ukrainian troops during the day.

Russia did not immediately respond to the minister’s allegation, and there was no independent confirmation that an incursion had taken place.

If it did, the event would signal a significant escalation in the simmering conflict in eastern Ukraine, where pro-Russian separatist militias have seized government buildings in several cities and have resisted government troops sent to restore control.

Russia is widely believed to be supporting and aiding the separatist militias, and significant numbers of men who describe themselves as volunteer fighters have crossed into Ukraine from Russia. But the precise role Russia has played in the violence in the east has been hard to discern.

The Ukrainian interior minister, Arsen Avakov, told reporters in Kiev, the capital, that the armored column included three tanks, as well as armored personnel carriers and armored cars, and had traversed the border at a separatist-controlled crossing.

Read more: Tanks, of Unknown Origin, Roll Into Ukraine - NYTimes.com

World Cup Soccer: Anti-FIFA mood deepens in Brazil as World Cup starts

 Yes to the World Cup, no to FIFA - that sums up the frosty relationship between Brazil and football’s world governing body. But it hasn’t dampened most Brazilians’ enthusiasm for the mega event.

Read more: Anti-FIFA mood deepens in Brazil as World Cup starts | Americas | DW.DE | 12.06.2014

European Aircraft Industry: Emirates scraps order for 70 Airbus A350s

A350 Airbus

Dubai's Emirates airline has delivered a blow to European aerospace group Airbus, cancelling an order for 70 new-generation A350 airliners.

The long-distance aircraft, due to go into service this year, is the Airbus flagship project of the moment to compete with the Boeing 787 which has been flying since 2011.

The size of Wednesday's cancellation is the largest by a prestigious customer for a civil airliner.
Analysts estimate it represents about a tenth of the aircraft maker's 2014 orders.

Airbus said the cancellation followed an order placed by Emirates at the Dubai air show in November for an extra 50 A380 superjumbo planes.

The cancellation decision was made following "ongoing discussions with the airline in light of their fleet requirement review", Airbus said.

The deal was said to be worth $16.5bn (12bn euros) when it was announced in 2007, but the head of Airbus's sales division, John Leahy, said that customers were already interested in taking up the cancelled aircraft.

"It's not good news commercially but it has no impact financially," Leahy said.

Read more: Emirates scraps order for 70 Airbus A350s - Middle East - Al Jazeera English

India: Modi's reforms 'may lift millions out of poverty'

India's new government has pledged to pursue a broad economic reform agenda focused on creating jobs through a mixture of public and private investment. In his address to the Indian parliament on June 9, President Pranab Mukherjee said tackling food inflation and putting the economy back on track were the top priorities for the recently elected BJP-led government.

The president added Prime Minister Narendra Modi's administration would introduce a general sales tax, encourage foreign investment and speed up approvals for major business projects. Asia's third-largest economy has been growing at under five percent for the past two years, while inflation is running close to nine percent.

In a DW interview, Charan Singh, economist and Reserve Bank of India Chair Professor of Economics at the Bangalore-based Indian Institute of Management, says that if properly implemented, the reforms are set to increase economic growth to an annual rate of eight percent or more, potentially lifting millions of people out of poverty.

DW: What are the strong points of Narendra Modi's economic program?

Charan Singh: This is an ideal resolution made by a government which was brought to power with a thumping majority. The recently elected PM - who has been credited with driving Gujarat's economic growth as chief minister - is a man of experience. His no-nonsense attitude to reforms and governance is known to all.

Read more: Modi's reforms 'may lift millions out of poverty' | Asia | DW.DE | 11.06.2014