About 20,000 Thai protesters flooded Bangkok’s streets in pick-up trucks and cars, extending into a second week their pressure on Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva to resign.

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin offered hints he could support the United States on two key issues -- an arms pact and Iran -- after a meeting on Friday with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

Dramatic escalation of dispute as three-day strike begins tomorrow morning

British Airways tonight threatened to suspend co-operation with Britain's largest trade union after last-ditch talks failed to prevent a three-day strike by cabin crew starting today.

In a dramatic escalation of the bitter industrial dispute with Unite, BA warned that it will scrap an agreement that gives shop stewards the use of company offices and time off to represent members – unless a new framework is drawn up.

One industrial relations expert said that ending the arrangement, which stipulates how much work BA employees can do for Unite and what facilities they use, would reduce co-operation to the "bare minimum".

The failure of the peace talks is a bitter blow to Gordon Brown, who was desperate to banish the spectre of large-scale industrial action 46 days before the likely election date.

Tonight an extensive strike-breaking plan moved into gear at BA as the airline prepared to move 65% of its passengers over the next three days with a workforce of 1,000 volunteer cabin crew and 22 chartered jets, including three Ryanair planes complete with no-frills flight attendants.

Millions of Britons face transport disruption in the run-up to Easter, after signallers at Network Rail voted to strike in a move that could see them join a walkout with thousands of maintenance workers over the bank holiday.

BA cabin crew have also called a further, four-day strike from 27 March if there is still no agreement by the end of next week. The first BA cabin crew strike since 1997 begins tomorrow morning after talks between Willie Walsh, BA chief executive, and Tony Woodley, joint general secretary of Unite, collapsed in acrimony this afternoon. The dispute centres on BA's decision to unilaterally cut staffing levels on every flight by at least one crew member.

Citing Walsh's request for a "radical, far-reaching review" of BA's relationship with Unite, Woodley warned that BA was bent on breaking trade unionism's grip on the airline. "BA does not want to negotiate and ultimately wants to go to war with this union," he said. And in a letter to Woodley outlining a formal peace offer, Walsh stepped up the pressure by saying he would scrap the facilities agreement that regulates BA's relationship with Unite if the union does not renegotiate its relationship with the carrier by 18 June.

Marc Meryon, industrial relations partner at Bircham Dyson Bell, said: "It is effectively holding a gun to the union's head and saying, unless you reach a deal on reworking this relationship we are going to walk away from it."

Meryon said BA would struggle to derecognise Unite, which represents 12,000 BA cabin crew, because of its size.

Walsh said: "It is deeply regrettable that a proposal I have tabled to Unite, which I believe is fair and sensible and addresses all the concerns of cabin crew, has not been accepted.The offer remains available, but it will be withdrawn once industrial action commences. Tens of thousands of BA people now stand ready to serve our customers. BA will be flying tomorrow and will continue to fly through these periods of industrial action."

A No 10 spokesman said: "The prime minister believes that this strike is in no one's interest and will cause unacceptable inconvenience to passengers. He urges the strike be called off immediately. He also urges BA's management and workforce to get together without delay to resolve what is a dispute about jobs and wages."

The talks breakdown was pounced on by the Conservative party, which has sought to make political capital out of the funding links between Labour and Unite, one of the party's biggest donors.

"Labour's union paymasters at Unite are determined to inflict travel misery on thousands of families," said Theresa Villiers, the shadow transport secretary.

Preparations were under way tonight to have picket lines at seven points around Heathrow. Under an agreement with BAA, the airport's owner, striking cabin crew will not be allowed to protest directly outside airport terminals.

A BA spokeswoman said the 30,000 daily passengers unable to travel due to the strike – around 45,000 will be able to travel – were almost certain to have made alternative plans. "We don't expect vast numbers of disgruntled people because we put our revised schedule out on Monday. We have also been contacting them proactively through email."

• British Airways
• Trade unions
• Airline industry
• Air transport

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Big increases in minimum wage and reduction of voting age to 16 being considered for party's 'next phase of national renewal'

Labour will pledge an end to the era of extortionate credit in its election manifesto, and is considering big increases in the minimum wage, the introduction of free school meals for all and a reduction in the voting age to 16, Ed Miliband, the cabinet minister responsible for its drafting, reveals today.

In a Guardian interview trailing Labour's manifesto for an unprecedented fourth term, Miliband reveals that the prospectus will be about showing that Labour can lead the country to "the next phase of national renewal" and that the party "will reform both the market and the state".

The manifesto will also set out proposals for a new model of banking built round a People's Bank, drawing on the post office network, and a possible cap on credit interest rates.

Miliband said one aim would be to show that Labour's rights and responsibilities agenda "needs to go all the way to the top". The manifesto would "not promise the earth", but he said: "One of the profound issues in this election is: in a world of tough decisions, in whose interests do you make those decisions? We are going to be very clear about where money comes from in this manifesto."

The energy and climate change secretary likens the introduction of a People's Bank, in the wake of the banking crisis, to the creation of the Sure Start network of children's centres – an institutional reform that meets new demands in society and brings together poor and middle-class people. Built round the 12,000-strong network of post offices, the bank would provide capital for the hundreds of credit unions in the UK, he disclosed.

He argued: "Institutions are the things that define governments. The 1945 government was defined by its relationship with the NHS. The 1997 government was defined around rebuilding the fabric of communities through institutions like Sure Start. I think the idea of the People's Bank ... is one of those ideas."

Ministers are completing talks with the Post Office on the range of banking services to be provided, and the scale of its initial capitalisation.

Miliband said: "Frankly banks have let down low-income consumers. The People's Bank can be a very serious financial institution and a competitor to the conventional private sector. One of the exciting ideas is for the People's Bank to provide the network of credit unions access to funds, but it can also become a banking alternative for a significantly wider group than just the low-income consumers. It is part of a bigger reform we need in the relationship between individuals and financial institutions."

Some consumer groups have warned that a cap on interest rates might see the suppliers of credit refuse to provide it to poor people altogether. But access to an alternative supplier of credit would reduce that risk, making a cap easier to introduce.

Miliband said: "We are looking more widely at a cap on interest rates. There is a real issue about the way in which low- income groups are being ripped off."

A review into credit card companies this month proposed smaller-scale reforms, but government sources said the option of a cap was likely to be in the manifesto. Despite historically low Bank of England base rates, the average interest charged on a credit card has reached 18.8% – the highest level since 1998. Some consumers are now paying more than 40% on the cash they have borrowed.

Miliband has been working on the manifesto for three years, and says it will offer the country a radical response to the banking and political crises.

"What people do not want after these two events is a return to business as usual. They want a sense we have learned lessons from the past. They want the next stage of national renewal," he said. "The task of the manifesto is to show that when it comes to the national renewal we are the people to deliver it, not the Conservatives."

Miliband said he favoured the introduction of votes at 16 to be included as part of a package of constitutional reforms, including changes to the voting system. "Perhaps the opportunity was not there before, but expenses has so brought into focus a sense that politics needs to change and open up. There is a new appetite for political renewal."

He also indicated the possibility of a strengthening of the minimum wage, currently £5.80 an hour, saying that reforms would go beyond tighter enforcement to examining a radical increase in its level.

He also said that, subject to an affordability test, there was "a strong case for universal free school meals. It makes a big difference in terms of nutrition. It makes a big difference in terms of concentration in classrooms."

The manifesto would also contain proposals for a more open state in which the floodgates of government data are opened to the public, so changing the relationship between citizen and state.

In a speech on Monday, Gordon Brown may suggest making one welfare benefit available exclusively online as a way of encouraging Britain's 10 million digitally excluded towards the internet.

Miliband also trailed a more interventionist European industrial policy, including both infrastructure and green investment banks.

"The old view that the conventional private sector on its own would ensure our infrastructure was built, the right sort of companies were supported and people will get the banking services they need has not worked."

He promised the manifesto would offer fresh guarantees for citizens to seek redress if the health service, police or schools let them down. The government has already announced that it will offer a private sector alternative in the case of NHS failure, a parental ballot in the case of a failing school, and a right to a neighbourhood beat meeting in the case of police.

Miliband said: "We need to be stronger in terms of the redress we offer and you will see that in the manifesto, because people have to have a sense that they are meaningful and will give them power."

• Labour
• Manifestos 2010
• Ed Miliband
• General election 2010

Patrick WintourAllegra Strattonguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds

· Mitchell's trip to region back on after concession
· Blair expects resumption of indirect negotiations

The US special envoy to the Middle East, George Mitchell, is due to fly to the region on Sunday to try to secure a resumption of Israeli-Palestinian talks amid optimism about a breakthrough.

Mitchell had been due to visit Israel on Tuesday but his trip was cancelled – a victim of US-Israeli tensions. It was reinstated after Israel's prime minister, Binyamin Netanyahu, bowing to US pressure, phoned the secretary of state, Hillary Clinton, last night to offer concessions.

Mitchell is scheduled to see Netanyahu in Israel and the Palestinian leader, Mahmoud Abbas, in Ramallah.

Tony Blair, envoy of the Middle East Quartet group, made up of the US, the UN, the EU and Russia, predicted that talks between Israel and the Palestinians could start soon. Blair, who was in Moscow today, told Reuters he expected a resumption of proximity talks, indirect negotiations between the Israelis and Palestinians, with the US as a broker.

"I hope very much that in the next few days we will have a package that gives people the sense that, yes, despite all the difficulties of the past few days, it is worth having proximity talks and then those leading to direct negotiations," he said.

The Quartet issued a statement reiterating its hope that the talks between Israelis and Palestinians would lead to a settlement within 24 months and condemning the plan to build 1,600 Jewish homes at Ramat Shlomo in East Jerusalem.

US-Israeli relations deteriorated quickly after Israel's surprise announcement last week about the homes.

Clinton phoned Netanyahu and set out demands including confidence-building measures that could be put in place by Israel. These could include withdrawing roadblocks on the West Bank, releasing Palestinian prisoners and removing soldiers from parts of the West Bank. She also demanded a freeze on new Jewish settlements on Palestinian territory such as that planned for Ramat Shlomo.

Today she told a press conference in Moscow, where she had been attending the Quartet group meeting: "What I heard from the prime minister in response to the requests we made was useful and productive and we are continuing our discussions with him and his government."

Netanyahu's office and the US state department would only say publicly that he had agreed to confidence-building measures, and made no reference to a moratorium on settlements. But diplomats and analysts said that there would also have been private undertakings for such a moratorium, sufficient to allow the Palestinians to agree to resume talks.

Clinton will try to get Netanyahu to commit himself to specific details when the two meet next week in Washington. The White House today declined to confirm whether Barack Obama would meet Netanyahu too.

Daniel Levy, a former Israeli government peace negotiator and now an analyst based in Washington, said he believed Netanyahu would have promised Clinton not to undermine US peace efforts with any more surprise announcements of settlement building. "I think there will almost certainly have been private undertakings by Bibi [Netanyahu] to adhere more rigorously to the embarrassment test, meaning no settlement announcements or developments, evictions or demolitions in both Jerusalem and the West Bank," Levy said.

Hussein Ibish, a senior fellow at Washington's American Task Force on Palestine, thought Netanyahu would have given enough ground to allow the Palestinians back into the talks. "The Obama administration has made its point and extracted pretty significant assurances," Ibish said. "I think it will be enough for the Palestinians to go into the proximity talks. Netanyahu tried to defy Obama and did not get away with it."

Aaron David Miller, an adviser to six secretaries of state on Middle East negotiations, said the call between Clinton and Netanyahu was "an effort to walk the cat back from the heat and fire of the last week". He expected a resumption of indirect talks but was pessimistic about the chances of peace in the long term. "It is hard to see a way to an outcome. They could agree on borders but not Jerusalem and refugees ... the gaps are too long for this Israeli government and I suspect too for the Palestinians," he said.

David Makovsky, director of the Washington Institute for the Near East Project on the Middle East Peace Process, said the peak of the crisis was "clearly behind us". But he suggested there could be more drama on Monday when Clinton is due to address the Israeli lobby group Aipac in Washington. "When you get a crowd of 7,500 people, it is hard to predict that all 7,500 will behave appropriately. The organisation is trying to make it clear she should be received respectfully. The question is whether they can get 100% compliance," Makovsky said.

• Israel
• Binyamin Netanyahu
• Hillary Clinton
• United States
• Palestinian territories
• United Nations
• Russia
• Tony Blair

Ewen MacAskillLuke Hardingguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds

I caught up with Kieran Hannon the other day. He was in the Bay Area for a meeting with the Irish prime minister (he's on the board of Enterprise Ireland) and I realized it had been a good few years since I had last seen him.

He used to be co-managing director of Grey Advertising, then had gone off to Texas to work as VP of Marketing for Radio Shack, and then moved to Santa Monica, in Southern California. He's now working as COO at a promising startup called Sidebar, which has an interesting mobile technology that recommends content based on what people like, very useful for online retailers and others.

Kieran and his family had spent 18 years living in San Francisco, and I was curious what life in Southern California (SoCal) was like.

He said life was good, and that the startup scene was healthy and that there are a lot of media/technology centers there. I often write about how Silicon Valley has become Media Valley, because of all the media companies here (Google, Facebook, Yahoo, Twitter, etc) so it makes sense that SoCal, with its rich media history, would be a fertile breeding ground for media technology startups.

Earlier this week, Mark Suster, a VC based in SoCal, wrote an excellent post about startups in LA. Want to Start a Technology Company in LA?

He makes some great points:

...LA [is] the second largest city in the country with a population if 16 million. We have universities like Caltech, UCLA, USC and many more. We have many seasoned entrepreneurs who have built successful companies here and made a lot of money for investors and themselves. But LA is not Silicon Valley and we don't need to aspire to be so. We will never be Silicon Valley in the way that Toronto will never be Hollywood. But we have a great city for building technology companies.

He goes into details about how LA is not like Silicon Valley.

- Funding is different, there are smaller "A" rounds of around $3m rather than $10m here.

- Recruiting is different. There aren't huge pools of engineers, but it is possible to build 100+ sized teams.

- Commuting isn't as bad as people think it is, most people live close to where they work. And hey, commuting isn't that easy here.

- Lots of content creation skills. This is an interesting point to make because software engineers can be found almost anywhere in the world today, but content creation skills are very culture specific, you can't outsource this work.

- There are now larger numbers of successful entrepreneurs, many are on the their second and third successful company.

Here are a few success stories:

There is a lot of innovation happening in LA from places like Eqal, Deca.TV, DemandMedia's studios, Clicker, Filmaka and other initiatives.
. . .
The whole category of "sponsored search" came from a successful LA company, Overture. (my firm, GRP Partners, was an investor). LA produced Applied Semantics that created AdSense and was bought by Google. We were also an investor in the early local listing company, CitySearch - an LA company. LA was a leader in lead generation (LowerMyBills), comparison shopping (PriceGrabber, Shopzilla), social networking (MySpace ... I know, I know - Facebook won - but it was still a big business). If we extend a bit North up the coast line we have many affiliate marketing innovators including ValueClick, Commission Junction and FastClick. They also produced GoToMeeting and CallWave.
. . .
A great team from MySpace has created Gravity. Gil Elbaz from Applied Semantics has now created Factual. Zorik Gordon is tearing it up at ReachLocal. TechCoast Angels backed GreenDot should be a major IPO this year. Frank Addante has created Rubicon Project. Douglas Merrill, the former CIO of Google, is building his next company in LA. Scott Painter, founder of CarsDirect has created two new generation LA startups (Zag and TrueCar, both backed by GRP Partners). Brett Brewer (ex MySpace) has AdKnowledge, there is Adconian, Legal Zoom and many more. Hautelook, Gogii, Magento - all very high potential companies building in LA.

Mr Suster is one of the organizers of Launchpad LA V2, which was announced today. This is a project aimed at helping first-time entrepreneurs and helping to educate them and guide them in building successful companies.

We will be selecting 10 startup companies to participate. There is no cost but you must physically be based in or move to Los Angeles for the 6 months of the program. Applications are due April 6th, 2010, the form is on the website and the Twitter address is@launchpadlad

A West Coast corridor of innovation...

It won't be long before we have a West Coast corridor of innovation stretching from Silicon Valley to Southern California, and beyond.

In fact, if you fly from San Diego heading north along the coast you pass over tons of innovation centers:

- The communications and biotech industries of San Diego;

- The electronics industries of Orange County;

- The media centers of Hollywood and Santa Monica;

- Then you reach San Francisco/Silicon Valley with its electronics, software, media tech, biotech, cleantech industries;

- Then Portland with its thriving startup scene plus Intel's big presence there;

- Seattle with a thriving tech scene mostly spun out of Microsoft, and Amazon;

- Vancouver and its software industry.

Wow. 1400 miles of innovation. There's no other region like it, hundreds of miles of world-class, industry leading, innovation and creativity.

Interestingly, it's all built on top of one of the most unstable fault lines in the world. A disruptive reality. Is there a connection?

I've always said that innovation has to be disruptive otherwise it's not innovation.

When France's right-of-centre government was humiliated in regional elections in 2004, an ambitious young minister called for heads to roll. Now he's prime minister and facing a similar humiliation

Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's coalition has edged ahead in Iraq's parliamentary elections, according to partial results from election officials.

Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's coalition has edged ahead in Iraq's parliamentary elections, according to partial results from election officials.

Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's coalition has edged ahead in Iraq's parliamentary elections, according to partial results from election officials.

   Les communiqués du Quartet sur le Proche orient sont généralement courts. Et fades. Ils sont le résultat du consensus entre les parties (Etats-Unis, ONU, Union européenne, Russie).
   En général, Washington s’arrangeait pour que le “Quartet” reste dans la ligne.
Mais il semble que les Etats-Unis aient décidé de s’impliquer nettement plus. Les diplomates voient du changement. Si Obama n’arrive pas à faire pression sur Israel, alors Washington cessera de faire rempart aux pressions collectives.

   Le communiqué publié vendredi à Moscou est des plus directs. Cela fait longtemps que l’on n’a pas rappelé certains faits.
   - “The annexation of East Jerusalem is not recognized by the international community”.

   - “Unilateral actions taken by either party cannot prejudge the outcome of negotiations and will not be recognized by the international community. The Quartet urges the government of Israel to freeze all settlement activity, including natural growth, to dismantle outposts erected since March 2001, and to refrain from demolitions and evictions in East Jerusalem”.
 
    Le Quartet veut un réglement dans les deux ans. Et qui comporte un retour aux frontières de 1967…  Et avec une conférence internationale à Moscou !

lire le communiqué :

U.S. DEPARTMENT OF STATE
Office of the Spokesman

For Immediate Release: March 19, 2010
2010/T25-2

MEDIA NOTE

Joint Statement by the Quartet

The Quartet – U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, U.S. Special Envoy for Middle East Peace George Mitchell, and High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy of the European Union Catherine Ashton – met in Moscow on March 19,2010. They were joined by Quartet Representative Tony Blair.

The UK Government continues to push forward the Digital Economy Bill (DEB) that aims to protect copyright holders from online pirates. On 15th March the House of Lords approved the bill and handed it over to the House of Commons.

To the absolute dismay of most outside the music and movie industries, some of the most controversial elements of the Bill are unlikely to receive any major scrutiny and will be dealt with quickly under the so-called “wash-up”, a short period between the announcement of an election and parliament being closed down.

“It’s a deeply unsatisfactory and very worrying development,” a senior executive from an ISP told The Guardian. “The fear is that no one will know what is being cooked-up before it becomes law. It’s legislation on the hoof.”

But this situation suits the BPI just fine. This week a leaked memo from the BPI fell into the hands of Cory Doctorow which showed that the “LibDem amendment” – a proposal under the DEB which would allow for websites to be blocked if, essentially, the BPI didn’t like their activities – was in fact written by the BPI. Very cosy.

But the controversies don’t end there. Doctorow also received an internal document prepared by the BPI’s Director of Public Affairs and prospective Labour parliamentary candidate, Richard Mollet. In the document he admitted that the only reason the DEB had a chance of passing is because MP’s are resigned to voting on it without debate.

“Translation: if MPs got to debate the Bill, they would tear it to unrecognizable pieces as they realized what terrible rubbish it really is,” wrote Doctorow. The scandals go on and on, but we have to stop somewhere.

Nevertheless, UK Music head Feargal Sharkey says that he is confident that the DEB will be passed before the general election, although others are not so sure.

“It will still be nip and tuck to get the Digital Economy Bill onto the statute book before the election so the battle is not won yet,” wrote Shadow Culture Minister, Jeremy Hunt, on his blog this week.

According to Jim Killock at the Open Rights Group, UK citizens aren’t leaving anything to chance with 10,000 of them having written to their MPs in the last three days to demand a debate on the Digital Economy Bill.

“It is outrageous for corporate lobbyists including the BPI, FAST and UK Music to demand that MPs curtail democracy and ram this Bill through Parliament without debate,” says Killock, adding: “The British people did not elect UK Music and the BPI to write our laws.”

Killock says that what is making the 10,000 so angry is the pushing through of the DEB without debate, an act he describes as “undemocratic and dangerous”.

If you’d like to add your dissenting voice, please email your MP, write to your local newspaper, and attend the planned demonstrations.

Article from: TorrentFreak, check out our new blog at FreakBits.

Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva tells the BBC his country is divided, as protests continue in the capital.

Public Enterprises Minister Barbara Hogan has refused to reveal details of Eskom's contracts with foreign companies that contributed to the entity's R9.5 billion loss.

John Sheehan, a former Nato commander, sparks outrage over claims homosexual soldiers weakened the Dutch army

A retired US general's claim that gay Dutch soldiers were partly to blame for allowing the Srebrenica massacre has sparked outrage in the Netherlands.

John Sheehan, a former Nato commander who retired from the military in 1997, told a Senate armed services committee hearing in Washington yesterday that gay soldiers weakened the Dutch army, which failed to prevent Serb forces from massacring some 8,000 Muslim men in the Bosnian enclave of Srebrenica in July 1995.

Dutch caretaker defence minister Eimert van Middelkoop said today the claim was "damaging" and not worthy of a soldier. "I don't want to waste any more words on it," he said.

General Henk van den Breemen, Dutch chief of staff at the time of the Srebrenica massacre, called Sheehan's comments "total nonsense."

The comment shocked some at the Senate committee, where Sheehan was opposing a proposal to allow gay people to serve openly in the US military. The committee chairman, Carl Levin, told Sheehan he was "totally off target".

Sheehan said European militaries deteriorated after the collapse of the Soviet Union and focused on peacekeeping because "they did not believe the Germans were going to attack again or the Soviets were coming back".

Belgium, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and other nations believed there was no longer a need for an active combat capability, he said. "They declared a peace dividend and made a conscious effort to socialise their military that includes the unionisation of their militaries, it includes open homosexuality."

Dutch troops serving as UN peacekeepers and given the task of defending Srebrenica in 1995 were an example of a force that had become ill-equipped for war, he argued.

"The battalion was understrength, poorly led, and the Serbs came into town, handcuffed the soldiers to the telephone poles, marched the Muslims off, and executed them," Sheehan said. "That was the largest massacre in Europe since World War II."

Levin, a Democrat, appeared incredulous: "Did the Dutch leaders tell you [the fall of Srebrenica] was because there were gay soldiers there?"

"Yes," Sheehan said. "They included that as part of the problem." He claimed the former chief of staff of the Dutch army had told him.

Levin said some militaries might have focused on peacekeeping to the detriment of their fighting skills. "But I think that any effort to connect that failure on the part of the Dutch to the fact that they have homosexuals, or did allow homosexuals, I think is totally off target."

Levin supports ending restrictions on gay people serving in the US armed forces.

"The Dutch military, as you point out, were peacekeepers and not peace-enforcers. I agree with that," he said. "But what the heck that has to do with the issue before us is what mystifies me."

• Netherlands
• Nato
• US Congress
• US foreign policy
• US military
• United Nations
• US politics

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Comentaros que a los 100 primeros que entréis el sábado al concierto (como ya sabréis estarán tocando los Ministers del Ronsteady y Potato en el gruta 77 a partir de las 22h) les regalaremos un cd recopilatorio con grupos que han actuado en directo entre los meses de Enero y Julio de 2009. Además, tras el concierto colgaremos en la web dicho recopilatorio para que os lo podais bajar si no habéis sido parte de los 100 afortunados y también colgaremos el segundo volumen que cubrirá las actuaciones en directo desde septiembre hasta diciembre.

The Wire Report reports that Industry Minister Tony Clement has confirmed that the government plans to introduce a new copyright bill before the summer recess.  Clement also commented on ACTA, stating that it is his position that "whatever comes out of ACTA has to be compliant with our laws."

Germany hardened its stance against a European bailout of Greece last night by effectively calling the bluff of its Prime Minister after he suggested that Athens could seek emergency cash from the International Monetary Fund.

Der entlassene Bundeswehr-Generalinspekteur Schneiderhan weist Vorwürfe zurück, er habe Verteidigungsminister zu Guttenberg Berichte über den Kundus-Luftangriff vorenthalten. Der Minister sei ausreichend beraten worden.

As public outrage over ACTA mounts, there have been a series of official responses to questions posed by legislators or raised through access to information requests.  In addition to yesterday's statement from International Trade Minister Peter Van Loan's office confirming Canada's support of release of the ACTA text, recent documents or statements include:

• David Lammy, United Kingdom Minister for Intellectual Property, has confirmed his support for ACTA transparency: “The UK has long been in favour of greater transparency in the ACTA negotiations, so I am very pleased that EU has now agreed that the draft ACTA text should be placed in the public domain as soon as possible. This would allow much more open and informed engagement with citizens, society, and parliaments.”
• Several NZ documents have been released under Access to Information.  They include documents outlining which organizations have been consulted and disclose that the New Zealand government was initially interested in using ACTA to cover traditional knowledge such as Maori culture.
• A European Commission response to MEP Alexander Alvaro's questions on ACTA that focuses on cross-border copyright enforcement.
• A lengthy letter from the Dutch Ministers of Economic Affairs and of Justice to the Dutch Parliament on ACTA, addressing transparency and the legal competence of the EU and its Member States to enter into the agreement.