via BBC News Israel says it will not give in to international pressure to halt plans for 3,000 new settler homes in East Jerusalem and the West Bank. PM Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said Israel would continue to stand by its “vital interests” and would not change its decision. The UK, France, Spain, Denmark and Sweden … Continue reading
via BBC News The UN General Assembly has voted to grant the Palestinians non-member observer state status – a move opposed by Israel and the US. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas told the assembly the vote was the “last chance to save the two-state solution” with Israel. Israel’s ambassador to the UN, Ron Prosor, said the … Continue reading
via The Wall Street Journal French President François Hollande has a bold new plan to tackle social injustice and inequality in France: ban homework. Introducing his proposals for education reform last week at the Sorbonne, the French president declared that work “must be done in the [school] facility rather than in the home if we … Continue reading
via Frank Holmes, Forbes A surprising wealth of information about the world’s most prosperous people can be discovered in two new reports. The Chinese Millionaire Wealth Report 2012, put together by GroupM and the Hurun Report, found that there are now a million millionaires in China. On average, a Chinese millionaire is 39 years old, … Continue reading
via Anthony Faiola, The Washington Post Like so many others in this fiercely independent island nation, Steve Baker, a dashing English engineer, is fed up with the long hand of the European Union in British life. The E.U., he said, has meddled for years in British legal affairs and labor laws. But now the 27-nation … Continue reading
via The Huffington Post For computer users, a few mouse clicks could mean the difference between staying online and losing Internet connections this summer. Unknown to most of them, their problem began when international hackers ran an online advertising scam to take control of infected computers around the world. In a highly unusual response, the … Continue reading
via Michael Moran, Slate The veto by Russia and China of an Arab League plan to prevent Syria’s violence from spiraling into a full-fledged massacre of those demanding to be treated with dignity will be remembered by Syrians of all stripes for a generation. The majority of the country, which has pleaded for pressure from … Continue reading
via Asjylyn Loder and David Evans, Bloomberg In May 2008, a unit of Koch Industries Inc., one of the world’s largest privately held companies, sent Ludmila Egorova-Farines, its newly hired compliance officer and ethics manager, to investigate the management of a subsidiary in Arles in southern France. In less than a week, she discovered that the company … Continue reading
via CNN As fears of a euro meltdown continue apace, a guerrilla war of Post-it note art has broken out in office spaces across corporate Paris. The first shot was fired four months ago, when employees at French computer gaming company Ubisoft – maker of the popular “Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell” and “Ghost Recon” game series – put … Continue reading
President Obama’s proposal for a new tax on millionaires echoes a call in many countries struggling with budget deficits and overwhelming debts to make the wealthy pay more. Britain and France have imposed new taxes on their highest earners — and Italy, Spain, Greece and Japan are considering similar moves, despite some protests. Whether the … Continue reading
The United States, Europe and the Middle East quartet are engaged in a last-ditch effort to set up a fresh round of Israeli-Palestinian peace talks in an attempt to head off a major diplomatic embarrassment over the looming Palestinian request for recognition of statehood at the UN. The US is leading diplomatic pressure on Israeli … Continue reading
