Tolerance—the Cornerstone of Human Relations

November 21, 2014, 1:17 pm

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Scientology Churches celebrate International Day of Tolerance November 16 through human rights activism.

(PRWEB) November 21, 2014

Try asking 20 people on the street “What are human rights?” You will probably find most of them don’t have a clue. And why is this important? Because, to a very large degree, these rights determine the quality of life.

An essential aspect of human rights is tolerance, a quality Scientology Founder L. Ron Hubbard described as “the cornerstone of human relations.”

In his annual International Day of Tolerance message November 16, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said, “We live in an era of rising and violent extremism, radicalism and widening conflicts that are characterized by a fundamental disregard for human life.” Tolerance for the ethnic, cultural and religious differences between people makes it possible for them to live together in peace.

To promote tolerance and raise awareness on human rights, Scientologists carried out International Day of Tolerance activities, including:·     A human rights open house at the Church of Scientology of London;
·     Plymouth Scientologists distributed copies of the What are Human Rights booklets in center of their city;
·     Belgian Scientologists set up a human rights information booth near Brussels’ Grand Place;
·     In Geneva, the home of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, the Church helped organize a Tolerance Day Conference on behalf of Youth for Human Rights;
·     In Italy, Scientology Churches in Padua and Brescia hosted International Day of Tolerance conferences;
·     Members of the Association for Human Rights and Tolerance of Italy, a non-profit organization that works in coordination with the

Church of Scientology of Milan, spent the International Day of Tolerance delivering human rights education training to 600 teachers in Lome, the capital of the West African country of Togo;·     In Hungary, volunteers distributed What are Human Rights booklets in the town of Szeged;
·     Mexican Scientologists organized a human rights petition “sign-a-thon,” calling for the government to enforce human rights standards laid out in the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights;
·     And in Taiwan, Scientologists reached out to the next generation of human rights advocates with human rights classes and assemblies in Kaohsiung and Taichung schools.

In his 2014 message for the day, the Director General of UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization) said, “tolerance requires active vigilance, renewed each day, against xenophobia, discrimination and hatred.” This is a challenge and mission embraced by the Church of Scientology and the many Scientologists who promote human rights awareness throughout the year.

For more than 40 years, Churches of Scientology and their members, through their own activities and partnerships with human rights organizations and government bodies, have worked to raise popular awareness and implementation of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

The Church of Scientology supports United for Human Rights(UHR) and its program for young people, Youth for Human Rights. United for Human Rights has provided educational materials in 17 languages to more than 150 nations. Some 21,000 schools have used its human rights materials.

To make United for Human Rights and other humanitarian initiatives and social betterment programs more broadly available, the Church of Scientology has published a new brochure, Voice for Humanity—Real Help, Real Results.

Inspired by the words of L. Ron Hubbard, Founder of the Scientology religion, that “a being is only as valuable as he can serve others,” Scientologists wholeheartedly support these programs. Participation and collaboration in these initiatives is invited and welcomed from all who seek to improve conditions for themselves and others.

For more information, visit the Scientology website at http://www.Scientology.org/how-we-help/voice-for-humanity. Reported by PRWeb 13 hours ago.

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Lockheed, Pentagon Ink $4.7 Billion Deal For Eighth Batch Of F-35 Fighters

November 21, 2014, 3:40 pm

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WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Pentagon said on Friday it had awarded Lockheed Martin Corp a contract valued at $4.7 billion for an eighth batch of F-35 fighter jets, marking a drop in cost per plane of 3.5 percent from the last contract, and a 57 percent reduction from the first batch.

The Pentagon's F-35 program office said the deal includes 29 jets for the United States and 14 for five other countries: Israel, Japan, Norway, Britain and Italy.

Once production of those jets is completed, more than 200 F-35s will be in operation by eight countries, according to the office that runs the $399 billion F-35 program for the Pentagon.

The Pentagon has signed a separate contract valued at $1.05 billion for an eighth batch of engines built by Pratt & Whitney, a unit of United Technologies Corp , to power the jets.

The program office said the new contract reduced the cost of the A-model airframe built for the Air Force, without the engine, to $94.8 million.

The cost of the F-35 B-model, which can take off from shorter runways and lands like a helicopter, would be $102 million, without an engine, while the Navy's C-model or carrier variant would be $115.7 million, it said.

The Pentagon does not provide detailed cost breakdowns for Pratt's F135 engine, given the company's concerns about proprietary data, but U.S. officials have said they expect the cost of the aircraft, with an engine, to drop to about $80 million to $85 million by 2019.

Lockheed's F-35 program manager, Lorraine Martin, said the latest contract showed the company was making steady progress in reducing the cost of the most advanced U.S. warplane.

(Reporting by Andrea Shalal; Editing by Mohammad Zargham)

Join the conversation about this story » Reported by Business Insider 11 hours ago.

The Green Industrial Revolution: Here Now

November 21, 2014, 3:25 pm

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*Co-authored with Grant Cooke*

The First Industrial Revolution that arose in England in the late 18th century was a turning point in human history. Until then, draft animals had been the major economic power source. Then James Watt, an English mechanical engineer, changed everything when he redesigned and improved the steam engine. Watt's creative insight, allowed Great Britain to led the revolution in machine-based manufacturing.

The Second Industrial Revolution started in the U.S. around the end of the 19th century. America developed the beginnings of a domestic oil industry and coupled that volatile fuel with the tremendous power of the internal combustion engine. Together they powered a previously unimaginable world of machines and personal transportation. Thomas Edison with his electricity and then Alexander Graham Bell with the telephone revolutionized the daily lives of ordinary people and led to telecommunication centers, huge data server farms and complex electrical networks, all of which required vast amounts of energy.

Since the First Industrial Revolution, the planet has been getting hotter and smokier, and more crowded, creating severe environmental consequences. Each day, precious resources get scarcer. Today there are 7 billion people living on the planet, and by 2053, the UN predicts that there will be 10 billion people. Compounding the problems is the rise of a middle class in developing nations. People in emerging nations want to get out of poverty. They want the things that developed nations have--nice clothes, nutritious food (including animal protein for their children), and large, air-conditioned, electrified homes as well as education and a future for themselves and their children. They also want the things that most citizens of developed nations take for granted: washing machines, cell phones, refrigerators, televisions, and cars.

Add it up, and the world will soon be resource-constricted, particularly since the planet is running out of fossil fuels. We are reaching a tipping point with our fragile planet, and how the world responds, or does not respond, to climate change will have an unprecedented impact on the course of human history. This is exactly what prompted the agreement between US President Obama and PRC (China) President XI in mid-November to "collaborate" and work together on reducing each countries carbon emissions.

With China's emissions and pollution now making it the top nation (over-taking
the US) as the world leader in greenhouse gases (GHG), the impact on the health of every person in China, especially the nation's Capital, Beijing, was both remarkable and costly in terms of human health and the environment. The rapid building there and around the country, over the last decade, moved China into recognizing the need to stop GHG as well as revising pollution. The cost in health, lives and the environment forced a difference in the PRC National Government which took office and then implemented plans with funds and financing in 2012.

The issue is that there is a cost to reducing GHG as it also means stopping the nation and local dependence on fossil fuels. For China that means moving off of its historical dependence on coal to other lower emission fossil fuels and even nuclear power. Unfortunately, that change in energy resources mean that China would need to get natural gas from Russia (a major problem for them for economic, security and infrastructure reasons such as pipelines) and also Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) sent by ships primarily from Australia. But fortunately, there is global evidence that a new era driven by sustainable green energy generation, innovative smart green technologies, and public sensitivity toward the environment has emerged. It started in Asia in the 1980s and then the Nordic Countries in the 1990s as well as then with Germany leading at the turn of the 21st Century.

We are calling this new industrial and hence economic era the Green Industrial Revolution, or GIR for short. The GIR has already proven to be viable, economic and successful in Japan, Korea and the Nordic countries where it has gone well beyond the First Industrial Revolution in the 18th century, the Second Industrial Revolution of the 20th century and what some call the Third Industrial Revolution at the turn of the 21st Century. The Green Industrial Revolution has replaced the carbon-generated and even nuclear power infrastructures with renewable energy, storage system technologies, and smart green on-site distributed grids.

Prompted by the Arab Oil Embargo of the 1970s, the Green Industrial Revolution started to emerge at the end of the 20th century. Initially proclaimed as occurring in northern Europe, it actually began in Japan and South Korea before it emerged in Europe.

As a small and densely populated island nation of 130 million people, Japan has a tradition for the need of energy, but with "no waste" that dates back to the Middle Ages. By the 1980s, Japan and South Korea were concerned with the need to become energy independent and secure. As a result, they developed national policies and programs to reduce their growing dependency on foreign fuels. By the beginning of the 21st century, China had leapfrogged the USA into this new era, driven by unprecedented economic growth and development, urbanization and infrastructure needs.

In northern Europe, the Green Industrial Revolution received a big push from Germany's Energiewende and its feed-in-tariff (FiT) program. Germany became the number one producer and installer of solar panels for homes, offices, and large open areas from 2006-09. In 2010, Italy then took the FiT concept into its economic and culture so that it held the distinction of world leader in solar panel installation. China took the lead in 2011 and continues as the number one solar panel and photovoltaic manufacturer and installer. Japan is now leading in auto manufacturing, jumping ahead of the competition with its hybrids.

The Green Industrial Revolution, with its extraordinary new technologies and promise of thousands of new green jobs, is trying to come to America. It is hampered by the lack of a national energy policy, and a political process that is beholden to the fossil fuel industry. Big Oil and now Natural Gas, which calls itself "clean energy", have been America's "elephant-in-the room" for over a hundred years, exploiting the nation's resources, pushing the country into a dependence on foreign oil producers who are politically destabilizing, and not aligned with our national interests.

The natural gas industry sees the rise and commercialization of hydrogen fuel cell cars from all the auto manufacturers around the world as its future. The industry anticipates being "selected" as the primarily source for hydrogen to refuel the thousands of hydrogen-powered cars predicted to be on the roads, starting with California and other areas of the US in 2015. A recent biding process in California awarded 20 out of 25 hydrogen refueling stations to one natural gas company. And Yes. There are ethical and conflict of interest issues in this process and the one company selected. These companies have "influenced" decisions made on the refueling stations as they know that these stations will need to be paid for over decades and make the consumers of all transportation systems dependent upon them: drilling, processing, pumping (pipelines and trains) as well as reforming into hydrogen energy for vehicles.

A new era of sustainability and carbonless energy generation is here now. The push , public policy, economics and technologies for renewable energy with a carbonless lifestyle will become history's largest social and economic megatrend. The potential of extraordinary benefits in the form of economic revival, innovation, emerging technologies, and significant job growth for those nations capable of fast entry is here today. Developing nations know this. Developed ones, like the US are still trapped in the Second and Third Industrial Revolutions. Indeed, the world has changed. Reported by Huffington Post 11 hours ago.

When bombings menaced a North Beach church

November 21, 2014, 3:42 pm

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Hundreds of neighbors in their nightclothes rushed to the scene, along with every available police officer. A police officer was stationed at the church, but was taken by surprise and was unable to catch the bombers as they drove away. The mysterious bombers had terrorized the church, and the police seemed helpless to stop them. Nationalists disliked the church because it had opposed Italian reunification, while radicals and anarchists saw organized religion as an opiate of the masses. A number of North Beach Italians were sovversivi, or subversives, who subscribed to radical publications like L’Asino (the Donkey), an anticlerical satirical review founded in Rome that had a circulation in Italy of more than 100,000. The Idealism of the Sovversivi in the United States, 1890-1940, one issue of L’Asino featured an open letter addressed to “Dear Madonna del Carmine, c/o Eternal Father — Heaven,” questioning her miraculous powers and asking sarcastically if she was the best and most powerful of all Madonnas. After the fourth bombing, San Francisco police, led by Detective Louis De Matei — a cousin of a priest at the church — devised a plan to catch the culprits. Thirteen undercover police officers were stationed inside and outside the church from 11 p.m. to 5 a.m., linked by an elaborate system of phone and buzzers. Some policemen were disguised as women, while others were smuggled into the building in laundry and bread baskets. The first man laid his package against the building, struck a match and lit a fuse. The police opened fire, killing him instantly, and put out the fuse. The watchman tried to flee across Washington Square, but De Matei ran after him and opened fire, wounding the man. Catholic Action, Anti-Catholicism and National Security Politics in World War II San Francisco, Eklund was “a well-known figure in the community of single men who lived in boardinghouses and residential hotels in the South of Market neighborhood, the area Jack London made famous as a hotbed of radicalism in his 1909 short story 'South of the Slot.’” Eklund was a sidewalk preacher and rabble-rouser who had been arrested by the Seattle police during a demonstration held by supporters of the International Workers of the World. The IWW, with its slogan “one big union,” had significant support in San Francisco, but there is no evidence that Eklund was a member, and the IWW did not call for blowing up churches. Galleanisti carried out a number of bombings in the U.S., including an attack that killed 10 Milwaukee police officers and a 1920 Wall Street bombing that killed 38 people and injured 400. Gary Kamiya is the author of the best-selling book “Cool Gray City of Love: 49 Views of San Francisco,” awarded the 2013 Northern California Book Award in creative nonfiction. Every Saturday, Gary Kamiya’s Portals of the Past will tell one of those lost stories, using a specific location to illuminate San Francisco’s extraordinary history — from the days when giant mammoths wandered through what is now North Beach, to the Gold Rush delirium, the dot-com madness and beyond. Reported by SFGate 11 hours ago.

Minnesota Wild: Marco Scandella's love of hockey fuels success

November 21, 2014, 5:05 pm

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TAMPA, Fla. -- During the summer, Wild defenseman Marco Scandella returns to Montreal, where he lives downstairs in his parents' modest triplex, their home since Scandella, 24, was a child. His oldest brother, Giulio, 31, who plays hockey in Italy, lives upstairs during the offseason. Reported by TwinCities.com 9 hours ago.

Blighted harvest could drive up olive oil prices

November 21, 2014, 5:03 pm

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BEJA, Portugal — If your favorite bottle of Mediterranean olive oil starts costing more, blame unseasonable European weather — and tiny insects. High spring temperatures, a cool summer and abundant rain are taking a big bite out of the olive harvest in some key regions of Italy, Spain, France and Portugal. The shortfall could translate into higher prices for some olive oils and is dealing another blow to southern Europe’s bruised economies as they limp out of a protracted financial crisis. In Spain, the world’s biggest producer, the young farmers association Asaja says 2014 is “another disaster” after a calamitous harvest two years ago. Consumers are already paying 1 euro a liter more for their olive oil, Asaja president Luis Carlos Valero says, though he doesn’t anticipate a hefty price jump. The flies have long been a problem for olive oil producers, but the scale this year has astonished farmers. In Beja, 110 miles southeast of the Portuguese capital Lisbon, producers deploy satellite technology on their high-tech farms these days but after generations they are still fighting age-old enemies: the olive fly and a fruit fungus that turns olives brown and makes them shrivel like prunes. Portuguese growers are doing what the French have done: harvesting earlier and faster than usual before any more is lost. Since mid-October, a month earlier than usual, crews have been hurrying through the long ranks of olive trees that stretch to the horizon. Reported by SFGate 10 hours ago.

The Need To Escape Collapsing Empires

November 21, 2014, 5:16 pm

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Submitted by Jeff Thomas via Doug Casey's International Man blog,

We recently spoke with Ron Holland, an American expatriate living in *Canada*. Ron has had a successful and varied career in finance and is a prolific writer. He also supports global marijuana legalization and has served as a director of two cannabis startup companies.

Critically,* Ron has for a longtime debamboozled himself from the government’s propaganda and, I believe, has an accurate perspective on the state of the world today*. He is a strong believer in international diversification and the issues we frequently discuss.

The discussion is below; I think you will find it insightful.

*  *  *

*Jeff Thomas:* What is your present residential/citizenship situation worldwide?

*Ron Holland:* I’m an American citizen, living, working, and playing in Canada and elsewhere.

*Jeff:* What countries have you previously lived or spent significant time in?

*Ron:* I’m adopted, but I think I was born in North Carolina. I’ve lived in several countries: *Switzerland*; the US; and now Canada, plus I spent a lot of time in *Colombia*, Austria, and *Italy*. My favorite state is South Carolina, where I graduated from the University of South Carolina in banking and finance. Later I headed up a trust department and decades later retired to Hilton Head Island before getting bored and taking a position as CEO with a firm in Canada in 2011.

South Carolina has quite an independent spirit and has been a nation not once but twice, seceding first from the British Empire then later from the US following the election of Lincoln. As we all know, this didn’t work out too well, and one Washington supporter said, “South Carolina is too small to be a nation and too large to be a lunatic asylum.”

He was wrong. South Carolina is about the same size as Switzerland, which constantly ranks as one of the top nations in the world to live in. Small countries are the most prosperous in the world—consider the nations of *Singapore*, Liechtenstein, *Qatar*, *Luxemburg*, *Brunei*, San Marino, and of course *Grand Cayman* and Bermuda, which are not quite countries.

I believe aggressive empires with bloated bureaucracies, unsustainable debt loads, and chronic military overreach cannot compete against the now capitalist, relatively free-market Asia. Europe would also be attractive if it weren’t for the top-down, unelected EU monstrosity. The truth is Asia is rising and the debt-ridden Western democracies are failing.

*Jeff:* What prompted you to seek another country as an alternative to your existing country?

*Ron:* For a start, the corrupt American legal system and the lawsuit and asset seizure threat to honest wealth, property, and savings helped motivate me to take a job in Canada. I’d had enough of the US’s closed, two-party monopoly system, where voting and every election has become a government sacrament celebrating our own enslavement without any chance by the citizens to impact government domestic, economic, or foreign policy.

In America, we have a rapidly increasing militarized police force often so corrupt and out of control that recently the government of Canada warned Canadians to limit the amount of cash they take to the States. We have lost our patriot vision and now operate more like an incompetent banana republic than a constitutional republic under the rule of law.

We have a foreign policy glorifying military aggression and occupation that makes money for large multinationals, while we waste the blood, treasure, and lives of our soldiers for oil and pipelines. I also have to mention the hundreds of thousands of foreign civilians killed, wounded, and maimed for life by military aggression, drone attacks, and our destruction of nations throughout Africa and the Middle East. Finally, I must mention drug laws aimed mostly at minorities and the poor and a prison lobby that has turned the US into the world’s largest prison state with the highest per-capita prison population on the entire planet.

Frankly, I grew up in the greatest country the world has ever known, and it is no longer that country. It has been taken over and destroyed by an elite and special interests, and I’m sad when I spend too much time there. This is why I live in Canada.

*Jeff:* Was your original intention to acquire a *second passport*, or to move entirely?

*Ron: *I just wanted to live and work in Canada. We enjoyed living in Switzerland years ago and wanted to give our youngest daughter an opportunity to live and go to school in another country. I wasn’t specifically seeking a second passport at the time.

I was just bored of being retired and living on the beach in South Carolina. I don’t plan on ever retiring again… I will work until I drop, although I’m not so driven as I was when I was younger.

*Jeff:* What were the primary positives you were seeking—monetary, governmental, social, etc.?

*Ron:* We desired all of the above. I wanted to live in a country where my taxes go to benefit me and help others, instead of pillaging the world. A government friendly toward business with low corporate taxes as well as a kinder, gentler state like the United States was when I was younger.

*Jeff:* What destinations did you research as possibilities, and what made you reject each one?

*Ron:* I’ve traveled a lot and spent quite a bit of time in Europe and South America, and for us and our daughter, Canada did not present any language barriers to her time in high school. She graduates this coming June, and we may spend part of the year when she is in university living and working in South or Central America—we’re still undecided at this time.

*Jeff:* What made you choose Canada in the end?

*Ron:* Actually, nothing exciting or earth-shattering—just a job offer and a great private school opportunity for our daughter. Canada is a wonderful country, and I even get a little emotional singing O Canada at sports events.

I’m especially attracted to Doug Casey’s *La Estancia de Cafayate*, and I urge all readers interested in a second home or relocating offshore to take a look at this unique community. I’m also leading a due-diligence effort with Anthony Wile, looking into the feasibility of an exciting new lifestyle community in Colombia near an international airport, shopping, and hospital. It’s located at an elevation over 6,000 feet, where neither air conditioning nor heat is required and there are very few insects.

Most people think of me as an alternative financial consultant, but after selling my investment firm and retiring for the first time back in 2000, I sold resort real estate and was marketing VP for a 5,000-acre mountain resort. My passion is actually real estate development and marketing second homes.

*Jeff:* What problems did you experience in your new country that you didn’t anticipate?

*Ron:* Absolutely none, as Canada is just like the United States used to be before the American Dream turned into an absolute nightmare. Here the cops are nicer and more professional, the bureaucrats are friendly and usually helpful, and even the government health insurance works far better than what you have in the United States. It is like the US 40 years ago and a wonderful place.

*Jeff:* What pleasant surprises have you experienced as a result of your internationalization?

*Ron:* I’ve learned that most people everywhere just want a good life for themselves and an opportunity to raise children and be left alone. I’m especially excited about Asia and somewhat worried about the US foreign policy that has pushed *China* and *Russia* together—this will probably rush the decline and fall of the US dollar as the world’s reserve currency.

*Jeff:* Have you changed the way in which you make a living?

*Ron:* I’m partially retired now, but I do like to write and promote ideas and products I believe in. As you know, once you are self-employed, it’s pretty easy to never look back at the conventional corporate world. The future is entrepreneurship, as countries, corporations, and foundations too large and bureaucratic will be eclipsed by new competitive alternatives.

*Jeff:* People sometimes say that they can’t afford to internationalize themselves, as they assume it’s only for the rich. Has that been your experience?

*Ron:* Well, Canada is not that expensive, but living in a big city like Toronto is expensive and on par with living in Zurich or Geneva. However, there are countries in Central and South America where you can retire and live on less than $2,000 a month. So yes, maybe the rich have more need to internationalize, but it is definitely doable for the middle class as well.

I think the biggest difficulty to moving or living outside of the country of your birth are family considerations. What about your aging parents, kids, or grandchildren? These are the things you need to think through.

*Jeff:* If you had it to do over again, are there things you’d do differently?

*Ron:* If I had it to do all over again, I would have retired earlier from investments and finance and been a history or political science teacher. But I have always searched for truth in history, and all history and current event news is just pure crowd control and propaganda supporting those in power. So I guess that would have been a short-lived and dead-end career after all. All I really want for my family and myself is freedom and liberty from those who rule over and oppress productive people around the world.

I also have to say that I also wish I had worked and lived earlier offshore and spent even more time living in more places internationally. Even with global cable news shows, it is so enlightening to watch TV news outside the United States. Sadly there is such a different view watching Canadian TV than back home in the US, and I find the channels like FOX News (the fake conservative channel) even worse than the acknowledged democrat socialist channels like CNN, MSNBC, and of course, financial news on CNBC.

I urge your readers to start watching offshore English channels like the BBC, RT—the first Russian 24/7 English-language news—France 24, and Aljazeera if they want to get a more international outlook on the world and the US. Now this is not to say that each of these channels do not have their own bias for or against certain countries and ideas, but please educate yourself by reviewing alternative news sites in the US as well as informative global options outside the narrow establishment propaganda outlets in the US.

So yes, I am glad I now live and work predominantly outside the US, but I still love my country. But I wish I had left sooner, and I fear many of your readers will live to regret staying in the US with so much at risk.

The world is an interesting place, and the American Dream still lives—just not so much in the United States any longer. *But countries can change for the better; tyrannies are overthrown, and the Internet reformation is a big advantage for people desiring freedom and honest information around the world.*

Don’t fence yourself in. Be willing to move and safeguard your assets to build life again for your children and grandchildren in a better environment. *America was built as the land of opportunity at a time when the American Dream actually existed. Should we not create our own opportunity as well?* Reported by Zero Hedge 9 hours ago.

RBS admits European stress test blunder

November 21, 2014, 7:45 pm

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London (AFP) - The Royal Bank of Scotland has accepted that it got its sums wrong over the European Banking Authority stress tests last month.

Revised figures revealed Friday showed that instead of passing the test easily as initial results from the exercise showed, the state-owned RBS had narrowly scraped through and was the weakest performer among Britain's banks.

The crunch audit was aimed at preventing a repeat of the crisis that nearly led to the euro's collapse.

The stress tests ran the banks through two different economic scenarios to see whether their balance sheets were healthy enough to withstand further economic shocks.

Under a baseline scenario, a bank's core capital ratio, a measurement of financial strength, must not fall below 8.0 percent. In the adverse scenario, it must not fall below 5.5 percent.

RBS's initial calculations initially resulted in a level of 6.7 percent being reported.

However, the Edinburgh-based bank has now admitted that part of its modelling had been wrong and this should have been 5.7 percent -- barely above the minimum.

The error related to a 4.2 billion euro ($3.3 billion) overstatement of its capital strength under the scenario. Shares fell nearly one percent on Friday following the disclosure.

The worst results from the stress tests were concentrated in Italy, where some nine banks failed, as well as Greece and Cyprus with three each.

The RBS revelation came the day after British financial regulators fined the bank a combined £56 million ($87.6 million, 70 million euros) for a series of IT failures that left customers unable to access services.

The bank is about 80-percent owned by the British government after it was rescued with £45.5 billion of taxpayers' cash during the global financial crisis, making it the world's biggest-ever banking bailout.

Join the conversation about this story » Reported by Business Insider 7 hours ago.

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Defence key against Springboks - Italy coach

November 21, 2014, 9:40 pm

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By Afp Published: 03:25 GMT, 22 November 2014 | Updated: 03:25 GMT, 22 November 2014 Reported by CapitalBay 5 hours ago.

After the Fall, Restored to Grace

November 21, 2014, 9:32 pm

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Tullio Lombardo’s masterpiece ‘Adam’ shattered into hundreds of pieces. Now restored, it stands on view at the Met as an example of how this pioneering sculptor cultivated Hellenistic taste in Italy. Reported by Wall Street Journal 5 hours ago.

Obama extends US combat role in Afghanistan: report

November 21, 2014, 9:34 pm

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Washington (AFP) - Barack Obama has extended the combat role for US troops in Afghanistan for another year, in a classified order he signed in recent weeks, the New York Times reported Friday.

Previously, the president had said US-led NATO combat operations would finish at the end of this year.

The NATO follow up mission, to take over on January 1 with 9,800 US troops and about 3,000 soldiers from Germany, Italy and other member nations, was to focus on supporting Afghan forces as they take on the Taliban, in parallel with US counter-terrorism operations.

But in a strategic shift, the New York Times said, Obama signed an order authorizing US troops through 2015 to carry out missions against militant groups, including the Taliban, that threaten them or the Afghan government.

The new order also allows for air support -- from US jets, bombers and drones -- for Afghan combat missions.

The newspaper said civilian advisors argued against the broader mission for 2015, objecting to putting American lives in danger in the fight against the Taliban and recommending a narrower, counter-terrorism focus against Al-Qaeda.

"There was a school of thought that wanted the mission to be very limited, focused solely on Al-Qaeda," one American official told the paper.

But, the official said, "the military pretty much got what it wanted."

However, a senior official told the Times that US forces next year would not carry out regular patrols against the Taliban.

"We will no longer target belligerents solely because they are members of the Taliban," the official said. 

"To the extent that Taliban members directly threaten the United States and coalition forces in Afghanistan or provide direct support to Al Qaeda, however, we will take appropriate measures to keep Americans safe."

The newspaper said the change was in part related to the rapid advance of jihadist Islamic State militants in Iraq, which has sparked criticism that Obama pulled troops out without a fully-prepared Iraqi military in place.

it also said that new Afghan president Ashraf Ghani was more open to accepting a wide-ranging US military mission than his predecessor Hamid Karzai.

Earlier this month, US defense officials had said commanders were weighing a delay in withdrawing American troops from Afghanistan after the country's protracted election set back preparations for the transition.

The new head of the NATO-led force in Afghanistan, General John Campbell, and other senior officers were reviewing whether a larger force needs to stay in place longer than initially planned, officials said.

At its peak, the US force rose to more than 100,000 in Afghanistan, and there are now 27,000 troops deployed.

Join the conversation about this story » Reported by Business Insider 5 hours ago.

Karen Salicath Jamali Exhibition of Paintings at New Faust Harrison Pianos Showroom in Fairfield, Connecticut

November 22, 2014, 12:07 am

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The Danish-American painter and sculptor, Karen Salicath Jamali, will debut new paintings and music in an exhibition entitled Event Horizon – 7 Tones From Heaven, opening on Thursday, December 4th, 2014, 6:00-8:30 pm, at the new showroom of Faust Harrison Pianos in Fairfield, Connecticut

New York, NY (PRWEB) November 22, 2014

In her most comprehensive exhibition to date in the U.S. that runs through February, Karen will present an extraordinary body of work including 50 new paintings from her Event Horizon series, plus her piano compositions, 7 Tones From Heaven.

“This exhibition, Event Horizon – 7 Tones From Heaven, started four years ago when I began to paint the Event Horizon pieces," said Karen. "Event horizon is the place in the universe where the laws of physics cease and another reality begins. Sometime later I had an accident and I partially lost touch with reality. I could not see light, hear sound, and had difficulty speaking for two and a half years. Last Christmas, music began to come to me and I discovered I could play piano. I had to buy a Steinway from Faust Harrison and the music came together. I am thrilled to have been invited by Erica Feidner of Faust Harrison Pianos to present my artwork and music in their new showroom.”

“Faust Harrison Pianos regularly showcases the artwork of prominent local artists, and we’re excited to present the latest paintings and music by Karen Salicath Jamali at our new showroom in Fairfield,” said Irving Faust, Managing Director of Faust Harrison. Their newest showroom, in a beautifully renovated building in Fairfield, Connecticut, was designed to build upon the Faust Harrison tradition of pianos and art. “Large, open spaces, fine lighting and terrific acoustics make it an ideal new home for music and the arts. This is a new cultural treasure in Fairfield County to be enjoyed by everyone,” said Irving. To make a reservation for the opening, please email Erica Feidner at Erica(at)FaustHarrisonPianos(dot)com.

About Karen Salicath Jamali
Karen Salicath Jamali is an American, Danish-born artist living and working in New York City. She graduated from the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Art, School of Design in Copenhagen, Denmark in 1991, and has been working as a painter, sculptor and photographer for the past 25 years. She has participated in over 100 solo and group exhibitions throughout the world, including the Louvre Museum in Paris, Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art in Monreale, Italy, and the Kume Museum in Tokyo. She has received a number of honors and awards from the international art community. Her built works include several permanent public sculptures, and is represented in more than 600 private collections. Karen’s inspiration comes from the human form, Christian, Greek and Nordic mythology, as well as particle physics. She is known for her graceful and monumental figurative sculptures in bronze and glass that evoke the universality of the human condition. As a painter she works with natural pigments and archival substrates including cork, and is particularly known for her mythic portraiture and abstractions. She is permanently represented by the Jamali Gallery in New York City. Located in the heart of Soho at 413 West Broadway between Spring and Prince streets, it is open daily from 10 AM to 7 PM. To learn more please visit kjamali.com or JamaliNYCGallery.com.

About Faust Harrison Pianos
Faust Harrison Pianos is America’s largest independent retailer of fully rebuilt vintage Steinway and Mason & Hamlin pianos, and a leading dealer of new pianos by Yamaha, Mason & Hamlin, and Bechstein. They operate showrooms in Manhattan, White Plains, Huntington, and their newest showroom at 322 Black Rock Turnpike in Fairfield is open Tuesday-Saturday from 10 to 6. To learn more, please visit faustharrisonpianos.com or call 203-333-8400. Reported by PRWeb 2 hours ago.

Here's The Play-By-Play Of A Soyuz Capsule Docking At The International Space Station This Morning

November 24, 2014, 9:44 am

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A Russian capsule carrying three astronauts from Russia, the United States and Italy has arrived at the International Space Station.  

The Soyuz capsule arrived just after 3 a.m. Monday (2100 GMT Sunday) from the Russian manned space facility in Baikonur, Kazakhstan. Aboard the capsule are Russian Anton Shkaplerov, NASA's Terry Virts and European Space Agency astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti of Italy.

Produced by Devan Joseph. Video courtesy of Associated Press.

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Join the conversation about this story » Reported by Business Insider 17 hours ago.

Best Party Proseccos For Celebrating This Year

November 24, 2014, 10:14 am

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In the year 2013 Prosecco outperformed Champagne---beating the King of Bubblies in sales for the first time in history. Fresh, vibrant and uncomplicated, Prosecco, which comes from northern Italy, rides a tide of popularity due in large part to its affordable price tag. Most Proseccos will set you back $15 [...] Reported by Forbes.com 17 hours ago.

First Female Italian Astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti Arrives At The Space Station

November 24, 2014, 10:15 am

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Italy’s first female astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti was welcomed aboard the International Space Station with smiles and hugs today. Reported by Forbes.com 17 hours ago.

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Podenomics vs. Podemology, or Reality vs. Economic Illusions

November 24, 2014, 9:57 am

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Societies have an absolute desire for change. Although not everyone sees this the same way, it does seem clear that we have brought about a widespread desire to change the current state of affairs. The problem lies in the identification of the change required, which is largely determined by our ability to imagine alternatives. This imagination has been over-enthusiastically pruned back in the last few years.

The partisanship in which Spanish society currently lives does not allow us to perceive the real nature of change, crushing us under a discouraging "this is what has to be done." We must escape from this partisan framework, and focus on the immediate problems and the solutions proposed for them. Podemos, the new party that surprised Spain in recent European elections, is suffering precisely from this. It is new, and this novelty brings the uncertainty associated with the unknown. This encourages some, but causes others to keep their distance. Traditional political parties unfairly use this uncertainty to attack Podemos' economic proposals. However the attack does not come because economic proposals are unrealistic, but because they are based on different economic frameworks.

It is not true to say that Podemos' economic program has intrinsic weaknesses. That would be tantamount to saying that the proposals of the Partido Popular (PP, the centre-right party currently in power) are more "realistic." Some say that the economic proposals that have been put forward over recent decades by heterodox economist are fantasies, and that should perhaps be called 'Podemology'. In this article, we argue the contrary: that those heterodox proposals are not astrological conceptions, but instead economically justified independent approaches, based upon different ways of thinking about, and applying, economics. A better term could be be 'Podenomics' -- understood in the same sense as Clintonomics, Reagonomics or Abenomics.

Faced with the deterioration of the situation in which we live, it is necessary to find monetary and fiscal policies, and structural reforms, which are different to those applied so far. It is necessary to use the public sector for economic stimulus. And we must see a new way to address economic, social and political problems. Our thesis is: we possess a solid economic foundation with which to face up to these changes, although the official thinking insists on ignoring this, and on making us believe that there are no alternatives.

Consider an especially important case (noting that this reasoning can be extended to all aspects of the economy): sovereign debt. The solvency of a country is basically guaranteed by future primary surpluses being greater than the difference between long-term nominal interest rates minus the growth rate, multiplied by the debt/GDP ratio. In other words, public sector income minus expenditures have to be sufficient to pay existing debt plus any new debt generated. This calculation shows the level of primary surplus we have to generate to stabilize the debt/GDP ratio. It shows that if we had wanted to stabilize Spanish debt/GDP ratio in 2013, we should have generated a primary surplus of six percent in 2014!

It goes without saying that we did not even get close. The debt/GDP ratio will continue to increase in Spain (and it is already at 100 percent). To this analysis we must also add some factors that worsen the scenario. For instance, we have assumed constant long term nominal interest rates. We used the previous average of the last five years' long-term (10 years) Spanish bond yields, implied that it will stay at that level for the next five years. This risks ignoring the Eurozone's situation and excess liquidity created by the ECB (which shows signs of increasing) which keeps the risk premium under control, but is also generating a financial assets bubble.

Stock indexes are hitting record historical highs, even though none of the European peripheral countries' "fundamentals" have improved since 2007. Quite the opposite, the reduction European peripheral countries' risk premiums is only being sustained by the ECB's resolve to do "whatever it takes" to save the Euro. This has translated into the provision of huge quantities of liquidity, with probable increases in the near future via quantitative easing. This is a fragile equilibrium which can be disturbed at any time, with the additional problem that the macroeconomic framework is significantly worse today than it was five years ago.

A second element that aggravates the situation is that in the formula cited above, we have assumed a constant growth rate (the average of the prior five years). However, the current situation does not provide grounds for optimism regarding the future growth rate. The monetary policy of the ECB, always lagging the needs of the Eurozone, has been combined with an over restrictive fiscal policy by the austerity enthusiast governments of the Eurozone's peripheral countries. This has generated an unprecedented destruction of productive capacity in these countries. The best unemployment rate that Spain has produced (during periods of democracy) was eight percent (in 2007). But the growth that allowed this outlier was due to the real estate bubble that absorbed 3 million of workers, financed by a rampant inflation of real estate prices.

In this moment there is neither productive capacity to capable of employing 25 percent of unemployed workers, nor industry sectors with any possibility of creating such capacity. The rate of destruction of industrial employment continues, and long-term unemployment has reached an alarming 13 percent of the active population. A recent national statistics report shows a continued decline in Spanish industrial manufacturing production, with a slight increase in some service sectors. In Spain the service sector has a smaller knock-on effect on the economy than manufacturing, is highly seasonal, and is characterized by an atomization of market structures. A minor increase in some of its activities is not, and cannot be interpreted as, the path to the recovery of the jobs lost in recent years.

Since Spain has a much-reduced productive capacity, and since we have decimated internal demand, our only hope is that Eurozone demand will enhance our exports. However, according to Mario Draghi (the ECB's president), the Eurozone is currently in a deflationary process with France, Italy and Germany close to economic cardiac arrest, with no capacity to generate the demand that would allow Spain to produce enough growth to stabilize its public debt. Christine Lagarde (the IMF's president), always optimistic, called this situation a "new era of mediocre growth."

This analysis illustrates that economic growth is not in the horizon. Even in the more optimistic scenario represented by IMF and Spanish government projections -- with growth rates near one percent -- our calculation shows that growth will be not enough to stabilize the debt/GDP ratio. Furthermore, according to Draghi, if austerity measures do not stop immediately, the ratio might accelerate upwards due to the deflationary process in which we find ourselves.

This economic reasoning demonstrates that there are only two solutions for overcoming deflation and this stabilize Spain's debt/GDP ratio. On the one hand, the government can implement budgets cuts which generate a brutal surplus of, at least, six percent in 2015. Taking into account that the official government projection for 2015 is a deficit of 4.2 percent of GDP, this option would literally collapse the entire economy. This is not the solution to anything. On the other hand, we have the possibility of restructuring the debt. The extent of the restructuring must be enough to reduce, or even eliminate, the need to produce such a large primary surplus.

Those asserting that such a scenario would produce a financial catastrophe and economic collapse are dissimulating, since the question is not if a restructuring will take place, but rather, under which conditions it will happen. For example, the debt restructuring in Greece in 2012 did not stabilize the debt/GDP ratio. On the contrary, it provoked an increase up to an unsustainable 174 percent. This is not Podemology, it is Podenomics. To avoid this, the principles that should guide this process are:
1. The write-down must be large enough to produce the necessary fiscal space to allow the implementation of an independent economic policy. The further off that day is, the greater the write-down must be, and also the costs. In the case of Greece, current estimations of the required write-down are around 200 billion Euros. The real irresponsibility is that, knowing all the data, the process is being delayed until debt payments turn out to be unsustainable, and so, facing default, sovereign states' margin for maneuver reduced to simply agreeing to Troika conditions.
4. It must be implemented with democratic controls. Since the reduction affects debtors and creditors, there must be a mechanism to match their negotiation powers so as the result will not be a social catastrophe for the former, and an unbearable financial burden for the latter. The technical term for this is a 'democratic audit.'
7. Different measures must be combined. This is not the place for describing all the available tools, but there are a collection of measures that implemented together minimize the costs and maximize the gains. Debt sustainability does not depend only on the interests rates, it crucially depends on GDP growth. The generation of moderated and controlled inflation would reduce debt burden for governments, which in turn, would increase their disposable incomes. On the other hand, the reduction in the real value of their mortgages would increase disposable income of families.
The continuous repetition of "TINA" (There Is No Alternative) is not a symptom of weakness of Podenomics. It is the unmistakable sign that conservative recipes hide always behind the supposed technical asepsis of economics. Progressive and conservative economic projects do not diverge in how "truthful" they are. They are different because they are based on different political frameworks. Podemos opens up a political space for the application of economic proposals that have been developed by the heterodox economists of the last decades. The science of economics is also experiencing a period of change. It is possible to confront those radical changes without the fear of the abyss. We have a strong economic argument based on years of development of a critical approach. The case of debt restructuring is an important example: it is not a taboo, nor irrational nor impossible to confront it. But it will become more difficult to handle if it is not rapidly dealt with via a radical modification of the policy instruments that are currently being implemented. Reported by Huffington Post 17 hours ago.

Mafia - State Negotiation: Italy's Original Sin

November 24, 2014, 10:14 am

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"I have to remember to get it fixed!," says Piero as he struggles with the broken door. I can't help but smile. Piero has been meaning to fix it for the past 11 years. "The usual, right Christina?," my friend asks.

"Piero, you know I have to say the words myself. It's not the same if I don't!," I reply kiddingly. "Ok, ok, go ahead, say it!" He drags a stool up to the counter: "Cappuccino e bombolone perfavore!" (Cappuccino and bombolone, please!) It's become a ritual. Nothing can lift a demoralized spirit like a cappuccino with a luscious cream-filled, deep-fried pastry covered with icing sugar on the side... followed by a fast-paced, hour-long walk to burn off the calories! Piero whistles a tune and breakfast is ready!

The scent of fresh ground coffee beans fills the small bar. I scroll down my cell phone. The morning news keeps me company while every morsel of sweetness regenerates my soul.

A headline catches my attention: Mafia, source reveals: 'Explosive for Di Matteo is in Palermo.' High state of alert around courthouse.

Every time I read about Magistrates whose lives are being threatened by the mafia I ask myself the same rhetorical question: what kind of a country is this? Twenty-two years have passed since Judge Paolo Borsellino was blown to pieces in front of his mother's home in Palermo. Countless others preceded him. Twenty-two years without justice, without truth, and what's worse? Nothing has changed.

Judge Nino Di Matteo is head prosecutor of the State-mafia negotiation trial taking place in Palermo. Like most of us, every morning he leaves his wife and children to go to work. Unlike most of us, for the Di Matteo family it's like saying goodbye to one another forever. Will their father, will her husband still be alive at the end of the day?

It's the end of October, beginning of November. A mafia boss sentenced to a Prison Administration Act that in Italy is known as Article 41- bis (also called hard prison regime) asks to speak to Judge Di Matteo. The bosses' name is Vito Galatolo, 41 years old, son of don Vincenzo of the Acquasanta mafia family, loyal to Toto Riina who is serving a life sentence for numerous homicides and massacres. Galatolo needs to "take a burden off his conscience." Di Matteo listens as the man explains how the explosive intended to assassinate him is scattered all over Palermo, held in trust by Cosa nostra. The boss reveals that forces outside the mafia are apparently involved in the plan to eliminate the Judge. Galatolo has only recently become a turncoat. Anti - mafia intelligence has always considered him a 'diehard' man of organized crime. His decision to collaborate leaves them wondering. Is there someone behind Galatolo or does he truly need to relieve his conscience? The interview between Judge Di Matteo and the boss continues. Other important details are revealed.

Investigators try to keep Galatolo's name secret. The man has a family, and the mafia doesn't forgive. A leak ruins the plan. Police search all over Palermo for the explosive. Nothing is found. Perhaps, the material has been hidden or moved to a different location following Galatolo's statements.

Last year, in a prison recording, while speaking to another inmate, mafia boss Toto Riina said "I'm going to make sure that Di Matteo ends up worse than Falcone ." Following a series of threats made by the old but still powerful mafia boss, a formal request was forwarded to the government asking that vehicles used by Di Matteo and his body guards be equipped with a device known as a "bomb jammer." Despite promises made by Minister Angelino Alfano, the bomb jammer was never assigned. The device is important because it detects and neutralizes explosive equipment. It could literally save Judge Di Matteo's life.

Meanwhile last Saturday, all over Italy, citizens gathered and organized sit-ins to express solidarity to Judge Di Matteo, and to all Magistrates who risk their lives in the name of freedom and equality.

Judge Paolo Borsellino once said that mafia was the first problem Italy needed to resolve in order to become a truly democratic and civil country. If we take into consideration the economic, political, social and moral downfall the country faces today, it is hard to disagree. We live the consequences of mafia culture. Whether it be unemployment, inadequate health care, the degeneration of the school system or environmental catastrophes, the common denominator is one, Italy's "original sin": mafia. Reported by Huffington Post 17 hours ago.

Internet access considered human right; multi-stakeholder governance of online world favoured: CIGI-Ipsos global survey

November 24, 2014, 10:10 am

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A survey of Internet users in 24 countries has found that 83% believe affordable access to the Internet should be a basic human right, according to the “CIGI-Ipsos Global Survey on Internet Security and Trust.”

(PRWEB) November 24, 2014

A survey of Internet users in 24 countries has found that 83% believe affordable access to the Internet should be a basic human right, according to the “CIGI-Ipsos Global Survey on Internet Security and Trust.”

The results of the new survey, commissioned by the Centre for International Governance Innovation (CIGI) and conducted by global research company Ipsos, were presented today in Ottawa, Canada.

According to responses, two thirds of Internet users are more concerned today about online privacy than they were compared to one year ago (64%). When given a choice of various governance sources for the Internet, the majority (57%) chose multi-stakeholder model “of technology companies, engineers, non-governmental organizations and institutions that represent the interests and will of ordinary citizens, and governments.”

The survey of 23,326 users was carried out between October 7 and November 12, 2014 in: Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, Egypt, France, Germany, Great Britain, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Kenya, Mexico, Nigeria, Pakistan, Poland, South Africa, South Korea, Sweden, Tunisia, Turkey and the United States.

Among the top areas of concern for Internet users, criminal hacking into personal bank accounts (78%) ranks highest followed by stolen personal information, such as private messages and photos, through hacking (77%), and further followed by private companies monitoring the activities of Internet users and then selling that information for commercial purposes without explicit consent (74%).

“The remarkable findings of this survey of global attitudes dramatically underscore that fears about human security have moved from the physical world to now include the virtual world. There is a gaping trust deficit in the Internet as people around the globe increasingly worry that their online identities and communications will be compromised or stolen by those who operate in the dark recesses of the Internet,” says Fen Hampson, Director of CIGI’s Global Security & Politics Program. “Unless trust is restored in the Internet through creative governance innovations its real potential to promote human development and global prosperity will be severely compromised.”

Other concerns focused on governments and institutions with a full majority of Internet users worried about important institutions in their country being cyber attacked by a foreign government or terrorist organization. Two-thirds of Internet users are concerned about governments censoring the Internet and government agencies from other countries secretly monitoring their online activities.

“Overwhelming global public support for the idea that access to the Internet should be a human right also shows just how important the Internet has come to freedom of expression, freedom of association, social communication, the generation of new knowledge, and economic opportunity and growth,” says Hampson. “Right now, one third of the world's population is online but two-thirds of the world's population is not. Unless they are brought online, a world of Internet ‘have and have-nots’ will not only contribute to income inequality, but also stifle the world's full potential for prosperity and innovation.”

When it comes to governance, Internet users prefer the broadest form of representation through a multi-stakeholder model that represents the interests and will of ordinary citizens as well as governments. Only 48% of Internet users believe their government does a very good job of making sure the Internet in their country is safe and secure, which underlines the wariness of the role of governments in Internet governance.

The CIGI-Ipsos Global Survey on Internet Security and Trust will be presented on November 25 to the Global Commission on Internet Governance (GCIG). The GCIC, an initiative by CIGI and Chatham House, is meeting from November 24 to 25 in Ottawa, to articulate and advance a strategic vision for the future of Internet governance.

QUICK FACTS ON ATTITUDES OF INTERNET USERS

On access:· 83% believe affordable access to the Internet should be a basic human right.
· 81% say the Internet is important for their own economic future and livelihood.

On privacy and monitoring:· 64% are concerned about their online privacy compared to one year ago.
· 36% believe private information on the Internet is very secure.
· 74% are concerned about private companies monitoring online activities and selling that information for commercial purposes without explicit consent.
· 62% are concerned about government agencies from other countries secretly monitoring their online activity
· 61% are concerned about their government agencies secretly monitoring their online activity

On cyber attacks and censorship:· 72% are concerned about important institutions in their country being cyber-attacked by a foreign government or terrorist organization.
· 78% are concerned about a criminal hacking into their personal bank accounts.
· 77% are concerned about someone hacking into their online accounts and stealing personal information like photos and private messages.
· 64% are concerned about governments censoring the Internet.

On governance:· 57% would trust a combined body of technology companies, engineers, non-governmental organizations and institutions that represent the interests and will or ordinary citizens and governments to play an important role in running the Internet.
· 47% would trust their own government to play an important role in running the Internet.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION:
For more information and to see additional data collected as part of the CIGI-Ipsos Global Survey on Internet Security and Trust, please visit: http://www.cigionline.org/internet-security.

MEDIA CONTACT:
Kevin Dias, Communications Specialist, CIGI
Tel: 519.497.9112 Email: kdias(at)cigionline(dot)org

Tammy Bender, Communications Manager, CIGI
Tel: 519.885.2444, ext. 7356 Email: tbender(at)cigionline(dot)org

The Centre for International Governance Innovation (CIGI) is an independent, non-partisan think tank on international governance. Led by experienced practitioners and distinguished academics, CIGI supports research, forms networks, advances policy debate and generates ideas for multilateral governance improvements. Conducting an active agenda of research, events and publications, CIGI’s interdisciplinary work includes collaboration with policy, business and academic communities around the world. CIGI was founded in 2001 by Jim Balsillie, then co-CEO of Research In Motion (BlackBerry), and collaborates with and gratefully acknowledges support from a number of strategic partners, in particular the Government of Canada and the Government of Ontario. For more information, please visit http://www.cigionline.org. Reported by PRWeb 17 hours ago.

EU Won't Seek More Cuts From France, Italy

November 24, 2014, 12:11 pm

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EU authorities won’t formally seek more deficit trimming from France and Italy in preliminary reviews of eurozone budgets this week, officials say, though they are expected to warn that their budget plans risk veering off track. Reported by Wall Street Journal 15 hours ago.

Pope canonizes 6 new saints from India, Italy

November 24, 2014, 12:01 pm

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Pope Francis canonized six new saints Sunday, including a priest and a nun from the Indian state of Kerala, in a packed ceremony in St. Peter's Square. Reported by nola.com 15 hours ago.