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POPSGermany’s Green Party Elects First Ethnic Turk as Leader With a conservative party’s choice of Angela Merkel to run as chancellor in 2005 — a successful gambit — and now an ethnic Turk at the helm of an influential party, it appears that German society is slowly breaking with the past, when women were inconspicuous and immigrants’ voices were seldom heard.
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POPSThe Black Moon On the picture above we see the elliptic orbit of the Moon and the (illusionary) elliptic orbit of the Sun around the Earth. The Black Lights are mathematically calculated points and are deducted from the position and distance of the Moon and Sun towards the Earth.
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POPSEconomic New World Order Emerges from Crisis Taxpayers lose as governments nationalize and intervene in banks to prevent collapse. This seems all too convenient an arrangement. They have always wanted a economic new world order and now, they say, is the time to do it. This financial crisis and the reaction of governments will go down as a major historical event that changed the world. Meanwhile, while the financial sectors are in throws, gas prices for consumers are dropping and there is still credit and loans to be obtained at good interest rates despite all their propaganda to scare up support for these interventions by governments.
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POPSSarkozy Calls Crisis EU Summit on Georgia, Russia German Chancellor Angela Merkel seems to supportive of this view. In a telephone conversation with the French President, she suggested that the EU convene a regional conference to address Georgia's reconstruction and wider stability issues in the region. But the conference would not include Russia, according to Merkel, who will explain her views in an article to be published in Der Spiegel on Monday. Earlier, while on a visit to Tbilisi on 17 August, the German Chancellor had lent her support to Georgia's NATO membership, moving away from a previously more cautious stance about the countries' affiliation to the North Atlantic military alliance. US officials have warned that the conflict in Georgia could affect Russia's membership of international organisations such as the Group of Eight industrialised nations and could undermine its bid to join the World Trade Organisation (WTO).
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POPSGerman Chancellor Says That Georgia Can Join NATO Any Time It Wants Pounding Georgia, with a small military that isn’t set up for battle with a larger adversary, into submission is one thing. Trying to bluff NATO with a second rate military (and despite its size, it’s not a top shelf force) won’t be so easy. The Russians, of course, were steaming over Georgia’s desire to join NATO in the first place: Moscow is furious at Georgia’s attempt to join NATO. The Western military alliance is divided over how fast to accept Georgia, but has indicated that membership is a matter of when, not if. Hoo, boy, are they gonna hit the roof over this one.
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POPSRussians Defy Cease-Fire: Troops In Georgia Digging In
Elsewhere in Georgia, it appeared very clear that Russian troops were staying put, building ramparts around tanks and posting sentries on a hill near Igoeti, a central Georgia town only 30 miles (50 kilometers) west of Tbilisi. Russian troops still effectively control the main artery running through the western half of Georgia because they surround the strategic central city of Gori and additionally the city and air base of Senaki in the west. Both cities are on the main east-west highway that slices through two Georgian mountain ranges. Russia also confirmed Sunday that it had taken over a major power plant in western Georgia. Rice noted that the text of the cease-fire, negotiated by French President Nicolas Sarkozy, the current leader of the European Union, outlined a very limited mandate for the soldiers that Russia calls peacekeepers who were in Georgia when hostilities escalated. She said these soldiers can go on limited patrols within the two separatist areas but in Georgia
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POPSPolish President Criticizes France, Germany For Being Too Soft On Moscow President Kaczynski accused them of being too soft on Moscow due to their commercial ties with Russia. The statement on the president's Web site also said Kaczynski assured Saakashvili that he would continue to "support Georgia's integration in Euro-Atlantic structures" — a reference to Georgia's NATO aspirations. Poland and the ex-Soviet republics of Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia , all new EU members, have sharply condemned Russia for its military incursion into Georgia amid the conflict in South Ossetia. After the fighting broke out, the presidents of the four countries issued a joint statement calling Russia's policy "imperialist and revisionist" and urging NATO and the European Union to stand up to Moscow. Leaders from those four nations followed that up with a trip in recent days to Tbilisi, joined by Ukraine's President Viktor Yushchenko, to show their support to Georgia. Germany and France have been less critical of Russia. Sarkozy holds the EU's rotating preside
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POPSPresident for Internationalization of Peacemaking Process in Georgia Speaking about scheduled meeting of the leaders in Tbilisi Presiden stressed that its aim is forming basis for talks with regard to all the conditions and positions of the sides. “It is clear that for Georgia a question of territorial integrity is very topical”, - he added. Another question important for Georgia, as President Yushchenko noted, is participation of peacemakers with good reputation in the process of regulation of the conflict. “It is clear that the peacekeepers who started shooting people do not deserve confidence. Today we must internationalize the peacemaking format and to make it open for other countries … I am sure that such countries as Ukraine could send their peacemakers within the framework of international mandate to demonstrate clear-cut guarantees of the obligations that may appear in the nearest future”, - he said.
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POPSEurope's Governments Immune To Obama-Fever BERLIN (Reuters) - European fans will cheer on U.S. presidential candidate Barack Obama as he visits Berlin, Paris and London this week, but governments wary of his inexperience and evolving policies fear the euphoria is overdone. Largely an unknown quantity in Europe, the Democratic contender is due to land here on Thursday, kicking off the second part of a foreign tour that began in the Middle East with a speech on trans-Atlantic relations in the German capital.
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POPSMiddle East Minefield For Barack Obama But Israeli officials - with whom he's reportedly meeting on Tuesday - will press him to define his policies about nuclear power and Iran, experts said. "The Israelis are going to have real questions about Iran, and about how he views taking out nuclear facilities there - if they haven't done it already themselves by the time Bush leaves," said Larry Sabato, director of the University of Virginia's Center for Politics. "That topic will come up, on both sides. He'll get asked about it," said former State Department Mideast analyst Graeme Bannerman. "He's got to remember he's speaking to Americans - he's in a campaign, after all - even if that means he has to say things that make the locals very nervous."
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POPSIch Bin Ein Beginner....er,.....Berliner German leader casts doubt over Obama's grand Berlin entrance "It is unusual to do electioneering abroad," spokesman Thomas Steg said. "It is unusual to hold election rallies abroad. No German candidate for high office would even think of using the National Mall (in Washington) or Red Square in Moscow for a rally because it would not be seen as appropriate." Speaking from Japan, where Mrs Merkel is taking part in the G8 meeting, Mr Steg said it was up to Senator Obama to decide what was "in good taste" but added that the Chancellor found the idea "a bit odd".
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POPSCourt Moves To Charge Sudanese President al-Bashir With Genocide "The solution to problems and the current situation in Darfur is not completely independent from the work of the International Criminal Court." The German chancellor said she and Ban also discussed instability in Zimbabwe and the challenge of supporting Africa as food and fuel prices skyrocket. Merkel said that Germany had pledged €600 million (US$954 million) in emergency aid to African nations struggling to deal with rising prices. "Naturally, Germany is strongly committed to development aid." Ban was in Germany for a two-day visit that will also take him to Bonn, where several U.N. programs have their headquarters.
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POPSObama's Berlin Speech At Brandenburg Gate Controversy Obama, a first term Illinois senator, is planning a trip to Europe and the Mideast this summer to bolster his foreign policy credentials -- one of the strong points of his Republican opponent, John McCain, in the November election. The German government has denied that Washington put pressure on Merkel to block the proposed Obama speech. German newspapers reported Bush administration officials had signaled their reservations about Obama speaking at the landmark. A focal point of Cold War tensions, West Berlin was kept free during a Soviet blockade six decades ago by a U.S.-led Air Lift. Since then, American leaders from John Kennedy to Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton have delivered major speeches in Berlin.
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POPSBerlin: Obama ante portas Geschichtsträchtiger Ort Nach dem Fall der Mauer schloss der damalige US-Präsident Bill Clinton 1994 vor dem Brandenburger Tor eine Rede mit den deutschen Worten: "Berlin ist frei." Geschichtsträchtiger war die Rede des früheren US-Präsidenten Ronald Reagan, der 1987 von einem Podium auf der Westseite des Tors direkt an der Mauer ausgerufen: "Herr Gorbatschow, öffnen Sie dieses Tor! Herr Gorbatschow, reißen Sie diese Mauer nieder!" 1963 hatte sich US-Präsident John F. Kennedy mit dem deutschen Satz "Ich bin ein Berliner" in die Geschichtsbücher gebracht. Kennedy sprach auf dem Balkon des Schöneberger Rathauses, dem Domizil des Senats während der Teilung. ZDF heute
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POPSEurope's New Pro-American Direction Europe’s new political configuration has already partially manifested itself in NATO’s decision in Bucharest to support deployment of U.S. missile defense assets in Poland and the Czech Republic. Even the Bucharest Summit, however, reveals continuing problems, such as Europe’s reluctance to start Ukraine and Georgia on the path toward ultimate NATO membership. For both America and Europe’s leading nations, therefore, the diplomatic chances of preventing Iran from achieving its objectives are rapidly diminishing. Although tough sanctions are at this point almost certainly too late, they would at least demonstrate that Italy and other Europeans are preparing for the even more difficult step that may be required, namely changing the regime in Tehran, or, as a last resort, the targeted use of military force against Iran’s nuclear program.
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POPSBundeskanzlerin Angela Merkels Rede vor der Knesset (im Wortlaut) Merkel stressed that the German government supports the Annapolis peace process . "Germany stands firmly behind the vision of two states within secure borders and living in peace, for both the Jewish people in Israel and the Palestinian people in Palestine." Germany, Merkel said, would "never abandon Israel, but instead will remain a loyal partner and friend." As in the past, Merkel's speech contained only homeopathic doses of criticism of Israel's occupation policy and its hesitation to commit itself to the peace process. "One must also have the strength to make painful concessions," the chancellor hinted, only to quickly dilute what had sounded like the beginnings of a rebuke. "In order to be a realist you must believe in miracles," she said, quoting David Ben Gurion, the founder and first prime minister of the State of Israel. spiegel.de
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