GERMANY - Oskar Lafontaine, the German finance minister who launched the euro, has called for a break-up of the single currency to let southern Europe recover, warning that the current course is "leading to disaster".
UK - The craze for taking something we all think is bad and telling us that it’s good is crazy. There is a brand new fashion in management circles. It doesn’t yet have a name so I’m calling it “White is the new black”, because it involves taking something we all think is bad and telling us that it’s good (or vice versa). Everyone loves this latest fashion. It’s refreshing. It’s counter-intuitive. It’s liberating. And it’s so cool. On LinkedIn and the Harvard Business Review website, readers can’t get their fingers on the “like” button fast enough.
USA - US President Barack Obama - to the graduating class of The Ohio State University on May 5, 2013 in Columbus, Ohio...
“Unfortunately, you've grown up hearing voices that incessantly warn of government as nothing more than some separate, sinister entity that's at the root of all our problems. Some of these same voices also do their best to gum up the works. They'll warn that tyranny is always lurking just around the corner. You should reject these voices. Because what they suggest is that our brave, and creative, and unique experiment in self-rule is somehow just a sham with which we can't be trusted.”
VATICAN CITY- Pope Francis is calling for courageous defense of children to protect them from abuse. Francis made no mention of the church scandals in many countries in which clergy abused children and hierarchy covered up for them.
ISRAEL - Israeli jets devastated Syrian targets near Damascus on Sunday in a heavy overnight air raid that Western and Israeli officials called a new strike on Iranian missiles bound for Lebanon's Hezbollah.
UK - Big Headline – but a very short posting to the links to the official figures just published by Public Health Wales. You will not believe your eyes – so download them and see for yourself. Links to the full official statistics reports below from Public Health Wales.
UK - Two centuries of UK, USA and Australian official death statistics show conclusively and scientifically modern medicine is not responsible for and played little part in substantially improved life expectancy and survival from disease in western economies.
HONG KONG, CHINA - Even for China’s scandal-numbed diners, inured to endless outrages about food hazards, news that the lamb simmering in the pot may actually be rat tested new depths of disgust.
BERLIN, GERMANY - Even as the United States economy displays unanticipated resilience, with a healthy jobs report released on Friday, the outlook for Europe’s economy grows ever dimmer. As it does, the pressure builds on Europe’s most powerful leader, Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany, and her economic team to find a way to get the Continent growing again.
VATICAN - Benedict XVI is experiencing a post-retirement slump and has been depressed since stepping down as Pope in February, Vatican insiders claim. According to an aide, the 86-year-old Pope Emeritus has suffered from the same sense of deflation many busy people feel when they suddenly stop work. His low mood is compounded by failing health, according to Whispers in the Loggia, the Catholic gossip blog written by Vatican observer Rocco Palmo. Benedict returned to Rome yesterday to take up residence in a former convent in the Vatican gardens.
HONOLULU, HAWAII, USA – The world heard two very different conceptions of economics today. In Washington, the Federal Reserve announced that it would “continue purchasing additional agency mortgage-backed securities and longer-term Treasury securities at a pace of $45 billion per month … Taken together, these actions should maintain downward pressure on longer-term interest rates, support mortgage markets, and help to make broader financial conditions more accommodative.”
CHINA - China is emerging as a real force in the drone warfare market, with aerospace firms developing and showcasing unmanned aerial vehicles, UAVs, that rival what’s produced in the United States. The Associated Press reported that Chinese firms have recently unveiled UAVs that are eerily similar to the Predator, Global Hawk and Reaper models used by the CIA and by the US Air Force. Military analysts say Chinese drone technology is still behind America’s and Israel’s — but that it’s catching up quickly.
ISRAEL - Israel has carried out an air strike into Syria, targeting a shipment of missiles bound for Hezbollah guerrillas in neighboring Lebanon, an Israeli official said on Saturday. The Jewish state has made clear it is prepared to resort to force to prevent advanced Syrian weapons, including President Bashar al-Assad's reputed chemical arsenal, reaching his Hezbollah allies or Islamist rebels taking part in a more than two-year-old uprising against his government.
GERMANY - Eventually, there will have to be a breakup of the euro. That’s the only way to restore economic growth. It’s the only way to get people back to work… if the Deutsche Mark were to be returned, that would increase in value and that would help the disparities within the Eurozone which has been created largely by the currency so there needs to be a radical change. Otherwise, unemployment will just keep on going up.
LOS ANGELES, USA - A wildfire raged around a coastal region in Southern California early Friday morning, after flaring up in strong winds a day earlier and cutting a 10-mile path to the Pacific.