EU-DIGEST

USAToday: Historic health care bill clears Senate hurdle - by David Espo

2009-11-22T08:39:00.000+01:00

For the complete report from USATODAY.com click on this link

nvoking the memory of Edward M. Kennedy, Democrats united Saturday night to push historic health care legislation past a key Senate hurdle over the opposition of Republicans eager to inflict a punishing defeat on President Barack Obama. There was not a vote to spare. The 60-39 vote cleared the way for a bruising, full-scale debate beginning after Thanksgiving on the legislation, which is designed to extend coverage to roughly 31 million who lack it, crack down on insurance company practices that deny or dilute benefits and curtail the growth of spending on medical care nationally.

Telegraph.co: Van Rompuy wants the EU to run on CO2 - by Christopher Booker

2009-11-21T21:58:00.000+01:00

For the complete report from the Telegraph click on this link

Van Rompuy wants the EU to run on CO2 - by Christopher Booker

It would be wrong to underestimate Herman Van Rompuy, the first permament president of the European Council. This Belgian economist is a clever and ruthless political operator. Once, to win a political battle, he changed the locks to prevent his opponents entering a crucial meeting. (For details of his character, see the Brussels Journal blog by one of his former colleagues, Paul Belien.) And the reason why he was very much the preferred candidate of the European Commission is that the one thing for which President Van Rompuy can be relied on is a determination to use all his crafty skills to further the power of our new government in Brussels.

Chicagonow: Affordable Beaujolais Nouveau a great way to travel to France through your glass

2009-11-21T21:41:00.000+01:00

For the complete report from the Chicago now click on this link

Under French law, Beaujolais Nouveau cannot officially be released until the third Thursday of November. Hence, the global glass-clinking that breaks out at countless restaurants and special events on this same day, from Cannes to Cape Town to Chicago.

Avstop: Air France A380 Makes First Transatlantic Flight from Paris to New York

2009-11-21T20:22:00.001+01:00

For the complete report from Avstop click on this link

Friday morning, at 11:39 am, Air France's Airbus A380 departed from Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport, operating flight AF 380, made the first transatlantic flight between Europe. The aircraft, registration F-GHJA, landed at New York-Kennedy airport at 1:07 PM. Among the 538 passengers were the 380 winning bidders for seats on the inaugural Paris-New York - Paris flights. This auction raised proceeds of 300,000 euros which will finance five different humanitarian projects by charities chosen by the Air France Foundation. The proceeds of this auction of seats on the two inaugural Paris-New York-Paris flights finally reached 300,000 euros, more than expected. The amount will thus finance 5 humanitarian projects for children in need instead of the three initially planned. The benefits of the auction for the inaugural Paris-New York-Paris flights will go to several projects in aid of humanitarian associations for children in need all over the world.

Businessweek: Greece looks to drag economy from 'intensive care' -

2009-11-21T11:25:00.000+01:00

For the complete report from BusinessWeek click on this link

Greece's new center-left government pledged to pull the economy out of "intensive care," but conceded Friday that public debt would continue to surge, reaching a massive 120 percent of annual national output next year. The Socialist party's draft 2010 state budget aims to trim government spending and cut the deficit to 9.1 percent of gross domestic product -- amid fierce pressure from the European Union to improve public finances. While still three times the EU deficit ceiling of three percent of GDP, the target is significantly lower than the 12.7 percent figure forecast for 2009. The draft budget foresees the economy starting to expand again towards the end of 2010 -- when it will shrink by 0.3 percent -- after a 1.2 percent contraction this year.

Bonne chance Cathy and Herman - by Rick Morren

2009-11-21T10:27:00.005+01:00

EU-Digest

In the EU it's all a question of balance of power and the use of technocrats over politicians to manage the taxpayers money properly and honestly. Mr. Van Rompuy and Lady Ashton might be considered dull in the sense that they don't have the charisma of President Obama, but when it comes to experience, management skills and intelligence they are well qualified and stack up favorably against all the present "world" leaders.

One should also not try to compare the EU with any other political federal system in the world. There is no comparison. The EU is an ongoing democratic experiment of 27 nations with half a billion people and is probably the most daring human political endeavor ever attempted. Regardless of all the mistakes that have and are being made, the EU's economic, scientific, cultural, social, and political achievements far outweigh its failures. Maybe one of it's most important achievements so far has been that this Union of European Nations has ended the past ravaging wars between countries on the European continent which hampered any real form of progress for its people.

As Mr. Van Rompuy and Lady Ashton take on their new tasks we all hope they will make sure that the future development of the EU always remains in the hands of its citizens, even more so than it does today. In this context it is also important they guard against foreign influences or pressures, be it economic, social, cultural or political, getting a foothold on the European continent. Bonne chance Cathy and Herman !

CS Monitor:Censorship - Obama interview in China paper partly cut

2009-11-20T23:53:00.000+01:00

For the complete report from csmonitor.com click on this link

Before US President Barack Obama left China on Wednesday, he gave a brief exclusive interview to “Southern Weekend,” one of the bolder voices on the Chinese press scene. But when the paper arrived in subscribers’ mailboxes in Beijing on Thursday, it was missing the front and back pages. That meant that the interview, printed on the inside front page of copies freely available on newsstands, was missing too. Since Mr. Obama had made a point earlier in the week – at a meeting with students in Shanghai – of attacking censorship, “it would be ironic if his own interview was being censored,” US Embassy press secretary Susan Stevenson pointed out. It would also add fuel to the fire of criticism from some quarters that the Chinese authorities had done their best to keep Obama from public view during his three-day trip, wary of his populist appeal and of what he might say.

VOA: Election of Van Rompuy as New EU President Draws Mixed reactions

2009-11-20T17:57:00.000+01:00

For the complete report from the VOA click on this link

Europeans woke up Friday to news they had their first full time European Union president - a man most of them had never heard of. Belgian Prime Minister Herman Van Rompuy is a low-key politician with a reputation for conciliation. The choice of Belgian Prime Minister Herman Van Rompuy as European Union president has drawn mixed reaction. The Obama administration saluted his appointment, saying it would make the European Union a stronger partner. But others are deeply disappointed that European leaders failed to choose a more forceful and high profile personality to represent the regional bloc on the world stage. The same sentiment was expressed about the EU's new foreign policy chief, Catherine Ashton, the British trade commissioner to the European Union, who is little known outside her country.As EU chief, Mr. Van Rompuy said he would remain discrete. When asked Thursday night about whether he supported Turkey's accession to the European Union, he did not answer. Mr. Van Rompuy is said to be against Turkish membership. He instead talked about working together.

Alternet: Reagan Didn't End the Cold War -- Leftist Intellectuals Did - by Stephen Zunes

2009-11-20T17:30:00.000+01:00

For the complete report from AlterNet click on this link

Reagan was inspirational, but to claim he defeated Communism is a disservice to the millions of Eastern Europeans who struggled against great odds for their freedom. These movements were largely led by democratic socialists who mobilized workers, church people, intellectuals, and others to face down the tanks with their bare hands. Yet here in the United States, we are told that it was a result of President Reagan's militarism and the supposed inherent superiority of capitalism. It is this false narrative that has played such a major role in shifting discourse to the right in subsequent decades and has been used to discredit those struggling for a more just and egalitarian economic system and a more sane and less imperialistic foreign policy.

EU - together - substance over glamour: Herman Van Rompuy - First European President and Catherine Ashton - First EU Foreign Chief

2009-11-20T10:21:00.001+01:00

Herman Van Rompuy and Catherine Ashton - together - substance over glamour

EU-Digest

Herman Van Rompuy - First European President

The leaders of the 27 member states European Union elected their first full time President and Foreign Policy Chief, in a Vatican style election process last night. The choice was definitely substance over glamour and a break with EU politicians like Blair, Balkenende and others, who had supported the US Bush administrations' military campaigns around the world. Based on these premises, a broad experience and strong leadership qualities, Prime Minister Herman Van Rompuy was chosen as EU's first full-time president. Born in October 1947 in Brussels, Van Rompuy was educated at the Jesuit Sint-Jan Berchmans College in central Brussels, then studied philosophy and economics at the Catholic University of Leuven. Before entering politics, Van Rompuy worked at the Belgian central bank from 1972 to 1975. He served as deputy prime minister and minister of budget from 1993 to 1999. He won high reputation for his work on dramatically driving down the country's pubic debt. After his party's defeat in the 1999 Belgian general election, he became a member of the Chamber of Representatives. In 2004, he was designated Minister of State. As a senior member of the Christian Democratic and Flemish (CD&V, previously called CVP), Van Rompuy was elected as the president of the Chamber of Representatives in July 2007. In December 2008, he was appointed prime minister of Belgium, succeeding Yves Leterme. Since taking office last year, the prime minister has showed great skills in resolving conflicts and brought political stability to the linguistically divided country.

Catherine Ashton - First EU Foreign Chief

During the same special EU summit, EU Trade Commissioner Catherine Ashton from Britain was chosen as EU Foreign Policy Chief. Ashton was born on March 20, 1956 in Upholland in Lancashire, from where she takes her title, Baroness Ashton of Upholland. From 1983-89 she was Director of Business in the Community, and established the Employers' Forum on Disability, Opportunity Now, and the Windsor Fellowship. She chaired the Health Authority in Hertfordshire from 1998 to 2001, and became a Vice President of the National Council for One Parent Families. In 1999, she became a life peer. She was made Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State in the Department for Education and Skills in 2001, and then Parliamentary Under-Secretary in the Department for Constitutional Affairs and subsequently Ministry of Justice with responsibilities for human rights, freedom of information and equalities. She became a Privy Councilor in May 2006. She was appointed Leader of the House of Lords and Lord President of the Council in Gordon Brown's first Cabinet in June 2007. As well as Leader of the Lords, she took responsibility in the House of Lords for equalities issues. In October, 2008, she was nominated to replace Peter Mandelson as the Britain's European Commissioner in Brussels, and was approved by the European Parliament.

gulfnews : American helps Airbus upstage old rival

2009-11-19T20:57:00.000+01:00

For the complete report from gulfnews click on this link

Airbus has upstaged Boeing in this edition of the Dubai Air Show by securing commitments and firm orders worth $5.3 billion for 33 aircraft. Although many industry analysts attribute this to Airbus's wider product offerings, many give credit to one man — John Leahy, the chief operating officer. "Boeing changed the world in the 20th century, but Airbus aircraft are new and designed for the 21st century. The past belonged to Boeing, the future belongs to Airbus," said a top Airbus salesman. "We are currently offering better aircraft, with better fuel economy and lower noise. Both A380s and A350s are changing the global aviation industry. These are game-changing aircraft that are taking the global aviation industry to the next level."

Leahy, 59, ironically, is an American selling a European product. He joined Airbus North America in January 1985, becoming head of sales soon after.

Guardian.uk: EU Leaders in last-minute attempt to decide top European Council roles

2009-11-19T20:29:00.000+01:00

For the complete report from the guardian.co.uk click on this link

The leaders of Europe's main political tribes conferred in Brussels this afternoon in an attempt to hammer out a last-minute consensus on who should be the top two people running the EU's new Lisbon regime, ahead of a crucial Brussels summit. While Christian democratic government leaders, including the German chancellor, Angela Merkel, and France's president, Nicolas Sarkozy, gathered in Brussels, Gordon Brown found himself isolated at a session of the seven centre-left leaders ahead of this evening's summit. The center-left leaders, grouped in the Party of European Socialists (PES), hope to secure the new post of European foreign minister, with Italian Massimo D'Alema and Spain's Miguel Angel Moratinos as their front-runners.Germany's ambassador to Belgium, Reinhard Bettzuege, broke ranks with the policy of silence on the presidency by stating Berlin's support for Van Rompuy. "Chancellor Merkel and her government are behind Van Rompuy for this job," he told a Belgian newspaper, De Morgen.

Note EU-Digest: regardless of the negatives brought up against Van Rompuy, he could turn out to be the "glue" who pastes together the loose ends of the Lisbon Treaty.

European Voice: Climate Deal - Result to be fought for in Copenhagen -

2009-11-19T19:26:00.000+01:00

For the complete report from the European Voice click on this link

This may be remembered as the moment when Barack Obama said: “No, we can't.” With just 22 days to go before the climate-change summit in Copenhagen, the US president, at a meeting of Asia-Pacific leaders, signaled that it would be unrealistic to expect a legally binding treaty to emerge from the talks. Copenhagen would be a “staging-post” on the way to a global deal, not the place to nail down the details, he said. But this cold shower from Singapore does not mean that Copenhagen is a lost cause, or that the European Union has nothing to fight for. <

Scientists and green campaigners are right, though, to be worried. Lurking in the background is the chilling precedent of the Doha round of world trade talks. After failure at Cancún in 2003, negotiators are still going round and round. The stakes on climate change are far higher: the climate will not wait for negotiators to fine-tune the legal niceties, or for the US Senate to pass a cap-and-trade bill.

Note EU-Digest: Europe can "force"" these talks in the good direction by coupling the level of results of the Copenhagen climate change talks to favorable or unfavorable bi-lateral trade agreements with the EU.

NYT: US Economy - U.S. Economic Indicators Weaker Than Expected

2009-11-19T17:43:00.000+01:00

For the complete report from the NYTimes.com click on this link

A private forecast of economic activity over the next six months edged up less than expected in October, signaling slow growth next year. The Conference Board says its index of leading economic indicators rose 0.3 percent last month. Economists polled by Thomson Reuters had expected a gain of 0.5 percent. The index climbed 1 percent in September. The Conference Board forecasts economic activity by measuring claims for jobless benefits, stock prices, consumer expectations, building permits for private homes, the money supply and other data. On the jobs front, the number of newly laid-off workers seeking unemployment insurance was unchanged last week, while those continuing to claim benefits declined.

EU-Digest:/AFP: The Netherlands - Amsterdam grapples with integration since filmmaker's murder

2009-11-19T08:29:00.000+01:00

For the complete report from AFP click on this link

Five years after Dutch filmmaker Theo van Gogh was murdered by a Muslim extremist in Amsterdam, where half the population is of immigrant origin, the city is grappling with social integration. Mohammed Bouyeri who shot, stabbed and cut the throat of virulent Islam critic Van Gogh on November 2, 2004, had been a resident of Slotervaart. Though of Moroccan origin, he was born and bred in the Netherlands. Bouyeri was jailed for life for the murder that stoked ethnic tensions in the Netherlands and raised fears of homegrown terrorism.

During his trial, Bouyeri said that "the law compels me to chop off the head of anyone who insults Allah and the prophet". "Muslims are afraid of losing their identity, and Dutch society is afraid of them," said the mayor of Amsterdam who encouraged the building of a western-style mosque in his neighbourhood where sermons are in Dutch and men and women pray together.

Note EU-Digest: Jean Tillie, a professor at the University of Amsterdam who specializes in migration and ethnic studies says his work shows that people are driven to embrace radicalism when they feel socially isolated. He says Language in the Netherlands underlines the nature of the problem. In Dutch, the word autochtoon means a native (usually white) Dutch person, whereas an allochtoon is a first- or second-generation immigrant. The terms are used by everyone, from academics to people in the street, mainstream politicians to those on the far right. What they often signify is: us and them. In America there is a similar situation, where the so called "Green Card" immigrants receive to work and stay in the USA before becoming a citizen identifies them as Alien. Today the Amsterdam municipality is encouraging teachers, youth workers and others to signal concerns about the 2 per cent of young Muslims seen as at risk to radicalization, the city has sought contact with mosques and religious organizations and tried to foster "social networks".

nrc.nl - Integration in the Netherlands 'largely successful'

2009-11-19T07:54:00.000+01:00

For the complete report from the nrc.nl click on this link

The heated Dutch debate about ethnic minorities and their integration could leave the impression that immigration in the Netherlands has been a complete failure. But a government report released this week says some progress has been made in the past ten years.Several statistics in the annual report point to improved integration of young Turks and Moroccans in the job market and education. The number of Turkish- and Moroccan-Dutch youngsters going on to higher education has doubled over the past ten years to 40 percent. During the same period the number of Turkish and Moroccan Dutch in the job market went up 10 percent to 55 percent. The number of unemployed has almost halved from more than 20 percent to 11 percent.
Home ownership too is up among Turkish and Moroccans Dutch: 14 percent of Moroccans now own their own home, and 26 percent of Turkish. Among native Dutch home ownership is 60 percent.

On the downside, youngsters from a non-Western background are still twice as likely to be unemployed as native Dutch. Youngsters from the Antilles and Morocco are still overrepresented in the crime statistics.

EU-Digest/The National: Corporate US gets to know Muslims - by Sharmila Devi

2009-11-19T00:52:00.001+01:00

The oldest US Mosque dedicated Feb.1934 in Cedar Rapids, Iowa

For the complete report from The National click on this link

Getting corporate America to recognise the purchasing power of Muslims, rather than running scared because of stereotypes, was difficult but not impossible, said Michael Hastings-Black, the co-founder of the Desedo Advertising Agency, which specializes in minority markets. Addressing more than 200 delegates at the American Muslim Consumer Conference recently, he recounted a tale illustrating the high passions generated by a television advert last year by Dunkin’ Donuts, which did not even specifically address Muslims.

The American Muslim Consumer Conference, held at a conference hall at Rutgers University in New Jersey, was billed as the first of its kind by its volunteer organizers, a group of US Muslim professionals. Their aim was to educate non-Muslim businesses about the demand for Islamic products and encourage Muslims to exert their market power.

Note EU-Digest: There are between 6 and 7 million Muslims in America today. Muslims outnumber some Christian denominations and are equal to the number of Jews. America now has about 1,209 mosques, most of which were constructed very recently. Thirty percent of these mosques were built in the 1990s, and 32% were built in the 1980s. Other statistics show that in 1994, the total number of mosques in America was 962; in 2000, there was a 25% increase in this number. Islam is said to be the US's fastest-growing religion, fueled by immigration, high birth rates and widespread conversion. One expert estimates that 25,000 people a year become Muslims in the US.

BBC - Will the EU flunk its big moment? - by Gavin Hewitt

2009-11-18T23:08:00.000+01:00

For the complete report from the BBC click on this link

The dinner hour approaches when the EU must decide who will be its face on the world stage. It's a big credibility moment but with the clock ticking away there is, at the moment, only confusion, rumor and disagreement. In the meantime the British are still fighting for Tony Blair. Gordon Brown is likely to argue that the most important part of the Lisbon Treaty was the plan to give Europe a much stronger position on the world stage. Europe, in his view, needs a politician with an international name and, without doubt, Tony Blair is the best known. Poland seeks EU jobs transparency. Poland says rivals for the new top jobs of EU president and foreign affairs chief should "present their visions" to EU leaders.

Bloomberg.com: Main Street Tells Wall Street, ‘Get a Real Job’ ( "we want these swine's prosecuted") - by Susan Antilla

2009-11-18T12:16:00.000+01:00

Fofr the complete report from Bloomberg.com click on this link

Wall Street, meet Eric W. Haugaard, a civil engineer who designs water and sewer-line systems for the North Carolina Department of Transportation. Haugaard says he had tears in his eyes as he watched Barack Obama’s acceptance speech, hopeful that politics would get more constructive and the economic crisis would get fixed. Today, he is disgusted when he thinks about “what Wall Street has done to average, honest, tax-paying, no-loopholes citizens,” and says it makes him ill when he considers that Congress is letting taxpayer-assisted financial outfits get rich “without producing anything of real value to our society.” Haugaard, one of dozens of readers who e-mailed me in response to a Nov. 3 column titled “Wall Street Cries ‘Feed Me’ or World Will End,” is despondent that, even after the economic horror of the past year, people in finance are unrepentant. “I want these swine prosecuted,” wrote Robert Carlini of Richmond, Michigan, an auto-industry executive who says he is a “staunch conservative.”

“If the Obama administration really wanted to create policy and push agendas helpful to consumers, it would not have a Treasury Department populated by Goldmanites and other Wall Street alums,” wrote Melissa Huelsman, a lawyer in Seattle.Terry Bailey of Auburn, Nebraska, an office assistant at a local college, says the financial industry is out of touch with the public and weighed down with an inflated view of its value.

Globe and mail: Bargain Fares to Europe

2009-11-18T11:36:00.001+01:00

For the complete report from The Globe and Mail

Fewer people fly to Europe during the fall and winter months, prompting airlines to offer good deals to stimulate sales. British Airways has launched a seat sale to London and select other destinations in Europe, Africa, India, Middle East and Asia if you book by midnight Eastern time tomorrow, Nov. 19. Economy round-trip airfares to London begin at $386 from Toronto, $365 from Montreal, $596 from Calgary and $620 from Vancouver. Well-priced packages with three nights hotel in London are also offered. Sale fares are also available to a variety of other destinations: Paris, Madrid, Milan, Rome, Istanbul, Tel Aviv, Dubai, Cairo, Johannesburg, Nairobi, Mauritius, the Maldives, Hong Kong, Entebbe, Delhi and Mumbai. The sale is valid for flights through March 28, excluding Dec. 21 to 23. Taxes, fees and surcharges are not included – which would add almost $400 on a Toronto-London return flight in late November. There is also a weekend (Thursday to Sunday) surcharge of $30 each way.

NYT - Lobbying Effort Backfires for Hedge Funds - by Paul Taylor

2009-11-18T10:09:00.000+01:00

For the complete report from the NYTimes.com click on this link

The hedge fund industry has incurred a backlash by lobbying aggressively against proposed European Union rules and now faces possible pay curbs that were not envisaged in the original legislation. Attacks by some London-based hedge funds and British politicians have had the effect of softening European Commission proposals to regulate alternative investment companies. But the lobbyists have misjudged the tide of public opinion. They have goaded the E.U.’s presidency, now held by Sweden, into adding new rules that would defer fund managers’ bonuses and ban “golden handcuff” payments to retain star performers.

“There is a danger that this lobbying is backfiring against the industry,” said Karel Lannoo, chief executive of the Center for European Policy Studies in Brussels and an expert on financial regulation. He supports the aims of the directive.

HarvardBusiness.org: The Digital Economy's Coming Subprime Crisis (And What You Can Learn From It) - Umair Haque

2009-11-18T09:51:00.000+01:00

For the complete report from the HarvardBusiness.org click on this link

Are crises predictable? That's what most economists are thinking about these days. The great Hyman Minsky spent a lifetime building a model of macroeconomic crisis, striving to do exactly that. Our subject? Why media just might be the new Wall Street. Wall Street's subprime crisis was built on toxic financial instruments. The mediascape's subprime crisis is being built on toxic communications. Social gaming — Facebook's Farmville, for example — is the hot growth area for VCs, advertisers, and publishers alike. But last week, TechCrunch blew the lid off it: much revenue in this nascent market is derived from scams masquerading as "ads." To me, there are striking echoes of CDOs — a hot new growth market for Wall Street, later revealed to be a house of cards. Financial capital was misallocated on a historic scale by toxic financial instruments. So venture capital is being misallocated on a tremendous scale by toxic media. Investors are rushing into markets that look appealing today, like minigames. But let's face it: minigames aren't going to be durably, wold-changingly profitable (sans dubious tactics). The world has bigger problems, and there's significantly higher returns to be generated by taking on those problems.

The great challenge of the 21st century isn't churning out more toxic junk - it's learning to make stuff that's not toxic junk. Whether strip-malls, SUVs, or FarmVille.

Law.com - Unexpected Uses for China's New Antitrust Law - by Anthony Lin

2009-11-18T09:18:00.000+01:00

For the complete report from the Law.com click on this link

China's anti-monopoly law came into effect a little more than a year ago. Since then, many observers in the West have been primarily concerned with how the Chinese government will use the law to scrutinize global mergers and acquisition activity. But Peter Yuen, a Hong Kong partner at Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, has been tracking a number of cases in which individual Chinese lawyers, many of them active in consumer rights issues, have used an article of the new law to bring private actions against large Chinese companies, including China Mobile, Baidu and China Netcom. Yuen thinks the proliferation of such cases may eventually require the Supreme People's Court to issue an interpretation of the anti-monopoly law. Though China does not have a common law system, Supreme Court interpretations are essentially binding on lower Chinese courts.

If individual private antitrust cases are permitted in China, Yuen figures the next step will be for lawyers to target major multinationals operating in China.

Daily Finance: China/US - Obama's leverage in China negotiations limited by massive U.S. debt

2009-11-17T21:18:00.000+01:00

For the complete report from the DailyFinance click on this link

With that level of U.S. debt in its hands, China holds most of the cards. If China started dumping that debt, the value of the U.S. dollar would fall dramatically. China knows it's in the stronger position, as evidenced by its recent decision to ignore the IMF as it continues its stimulus programs. So no matter who was sitting at the table representing the U.S., they wouldn't have much ability to move the Chinese. China flexed its muscles almost as soon as President Obama arrived. Obama held a town hall meeting for more than 400 Chinese university students, which was supposed to have been televised. But at the last minute, China pulled the plug and the event was not carried on state television. Further, to make the statement that it's not interested in discussing human rights, China rounded up dissidents before Obama's arrival. Clearly, China is sending the signal that human rights will not be one of the issues to be negotiated.

For the Chinese, the biggest issue on the table will be the U.S. deficit and their biggest question will be how President Obama plans to get it under control. China has a big stick it can wield if it doesn't like the answers. If China stops buying U.S. debt, most of President Obama's plans -- such as health care reform -- would have to be shelved until the U.S. finds another lender.

Note EU-Digest: The EU should look at this visit by Obama to China as a "case history" and not make the same mistakes as the US in dealing with China.

NYTimes: Airbus - A Cool Pilot, but the Plane Was Cooler - by Dwight Garner

2009-11-17T20:01:00.000+01:00

For the complete report from the NYTimes.com click on this link

In the 1970s and ’80s, working for Airbus, Mr. Ziegler and his colleagues perfected a revolutionary system known as “fly-by-wire control,” marrying electrical circuits and digital computers to make almost perfect flying machines. “Within the limits of physics and structural science,” Mr. Langewiesche writes, “Ziegler and his colleagues identified the wrinkles of conventional handling and mostly ironed them out.” The airplanes that resulted — including the Airbus A320 — are not only easy to fly and filled with redundancies that make mechanical backup systems unnecessary, but they will also not let pilots make certain mistakes. The airplane “will intervene to keep people alive,” Mr. Langewiesche writes.

Because these rare interventions cannot be overridden, they are not popular with all pilots. The fly-by-wire system wasn’t designed to protect passengers from people like Sully, Mr. Langewiesche writes, but from “people at the low end of the scale, who occasionally will be at the controls of any airplane that is widely sold and flown.