Archive for the ‘Europe’ Category
- In: Europe | first-quarter | GDP | Germany | in | Reuters | shines | stuns
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(Reuters) – Stunning German growth and a surge in France produced a defiantly healthy showing from Europe when estimates of economic growth for the first three months of 2008 were published on Thursday.
Economists said that may be the end of it as Europe succumbs to an international downturn, but the news showed that, thanks to business investment, the region started the year in much better form than the almost stagnating U.S. economy.
“Germany is doing quite well, and we should raise a glass of the fizzy stuff to celebrate it. But it is not quite a new ‘wunder’,” said Bank of America economist Holger Schmieding.
There were worry signs behind the headline results from both Germany and France, notably weak consumer demand as commodity price inflation pushed up the cost of fuel, food and the cost of living generally.
The attention-grabber though was that German gross domestic product rose 1.5 percent compared with the final three months of 2007 — twice the pace anticipated by economists, several of whom called the news as sensational, amazing or miraculous, on the face of it at least.
- In: Announced | Australia | Bundle | Europe | Grand Theft Auto | GTA | GTA IV | PlayStation 3 | Sony
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The GTA IV bundle box art (Source: SCEE)
Sony announces PlayStation 3 packed with Grand Theft Auto IV
Along with Metal Gear Solid 4, Grand Theft Auto IV is one of the biggest titles yet for PlayStation 3 – the only difference with MGS4, of course, is that GTA IV isn’t a platform exclusive. But that’s not going to stop Sony from treating GTA IV as one of its very own, and creating a new system bundle around the highly-anticipated title.
Announced today by both Sony Computer Entertainment Europe and Australia is an official Grand Theft Auto IV bundle that will pack the game in along with the 40GB PlayStation 3 model. “We are delighted to offer the millions of PS3 and GTA fans the ultimate gaming package,” said David Reeves, president of Sony Computer Entertainment Europe.
Unfortunately for those hoping to get the latest DualShock 3 controller model with the new bundle, Sony indicated that the GTA IV bundle will include the outgoing SIXAXIS controller only. Such news may be the most disappointing for Australian gamers, who will have to purchase the DualShock 3 controller separately for a mindboggling AUD$99 (USD$92) when it releases this week. Gamers in Europe have yet to hear of an official launch date for their rumbling controllers.
The Grand Theft Auto IV PlayStation 3 bundle will retail in Europe at €439 (USD$696) and in Australia for AUD$749.95 (USD$715).
Why Italy’s women are out of work
Posted on: April 19, 2008
- In: domestic | economy | Europe | family | girls | Italy | out of work | women
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The economy is one of the big issues in the forthcoming General Election in Italy.
Some are questioning why in particular the country has one of the lowest rates of women’s employment in the European Union.
Why is there so much female unemployment in one of Europe’s most developed countries?
Italy has almost the lowest rate of female employment in the European Union – just 46 percent of Italian women have jobs, and the figure is even lower in the south of the country.
Italy’s minister for European affairs Emma Bonino believes that getting women into work would help revive the country’s economy.
“We have six million women, more or less, who do not have access to a job or are not looking for one anymore,” she told BBC World Service’s Analysis programme.
“In any country, if you had six million men out of the job market it would be an emergency. In Italy you have six million women and, apparently, it is thought to be normal.”
Demand
The state of the economy is likely to be one of the key issues in the election in a few days’ time.
And Italian economist Fiorella Kostoris says that the current state of insufficient growth means many more women are needed in the economy.
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  It is important that women understand what is happening to them, and take the strength publicly to say it is unacceptable  European affairs minister Emma Bonino
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She says the jobs are available, but the demand is not effective because women are not seen as good candidates.
“Provided there was a fight against discrimination towards women – in particular in the south – there would be a demand for them,” she added.
“And there would be a supply, because of the female unemployment.”
Family
In order to work out how to get these women into the job market it is important to understand why they are unemployed.
Traditionally, women are absent from the workforce in order to have children – but Italy has an exceptionally low birthrate too.
“In Italy, family and domestic responsibility fall almost completely on women’s shoulders,” RAI news Mariella Zezza, who broadcasts a programme about the role of Italian women in society.
There are calls for Italy’s media to show more than glamour girls
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Because “family” in Italy refers to extended family, even women without children might give up looking for work to look after elderly relatives.
“We need to offer tax incentives to women, and the state should think about what mothers who work need. They should build more nurseries, for example.”
- In: controversial | Dailymotion | Dutch | Europe | film | Fitna | Internet | Islam | lawmaker | LiveLeak | Muslims | Portable Video | response | YouTube
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Officials braced for protests as a lawmaker posted on the Internet a controversial video about what he sees as the threat of Islam to Europe. Some Muslims say they expected worse.
PARIS — A young Muslim girl in a head scarf calls Jews “apes and pigs.” A nonbeliever is beheaded and another is shot. Verses of the Koran are juxtaposed with horrific images, implying that one begets the other.
The new film by right-wing Dutch legislator Geert Wilders, first posted on the Internet late Thursday, had everyone from the Dutch prime minister to soldiers in Afghanistan braced for angry reactions from offended Muslims. Even before the film was released, there were protests this month by 15,000 people in Afghanistan, with many burning the Dutch flag.
And a spokesman for the Amsterdam police said Friday that the force was on alert and that extra officers would be on the streets in Muslim neighborhoods this weekend.
Before Friday’s midday call to prayer, police were busy contacting imams to gauge reaction at the city’s 50 mosques. But as of late Friday, reaction there appeared muted.
“They were all disgusted by the film, but so far there isn’t a big explosion,” said police spokesman Arnold Aben. “In fact, it’s quieter than usual here today. Sort of like a holiday.”
The 17-minute film, “Fitna,” the Arabic word for strife, was first posted late Thursday on Wilder’s Freedom Party website. The site crashed immediately with heavy traffic, but within minutes the film was available in Dutch and English on the British-based website LiveLeak, which also froze up briefly. By Friday, the film was all over the Internet — on YouTube, Dailymotion and other shared-video sites. LiveLeak later took down the video, saying its staff had received “threats of a very serious nature.”
Wilders has said he made the film to call attention to what he sees as the Islamic threat to Europe — which he compares to the fascism that led to World War II.
Not everyone was impressed.
“It is not very original,” Yusuf Altuntas, deputy chairman of a Muslim umbrella group based in The Hague, said in a phone interview. “We have seen many of these images before. There was no shock so we don’t think there will be problems in Holland. I can’t speak for in the Middle East.”
Altuntas had worried the film would set off riots around the world after Wilders hinted that it included images of the Koran being torn. There is the sound of paper tearing at the end of the film that a viewer might conclude is the Koran, but the text explains it is not pages from the Muslim holy book but rather from a phone book.
“It is not up to me but up to the Muslims to tear the spiteful verses from the Koran,” the text reads.
Wilders, who has full-time police protection because of assassination threats from Islamic extremists, has built a political career fighting what he calls the “Islamization” of the West.
Although his party gets less than 15% support, he is known for stirring emotion in a highly tolerant country with one of Europe’s fastest-growing immigrant populations from Muslim countries.
On Friday, Wilders, 44, told reporters that he was happy there hadn’t been violence after the film’s release. “My intention was not to provoke riots,” he said, according to Agence France-Presse. “On the contrary, I want to encourage debate.”
The new video was met with several counter-videos on the Internet on Friday morning, and the blogosphere was crowded with back-and-forth. On YouTube, a man from Pakistan had put up his own video saying that “Muslims love Jesus Christ, Moses and all prophets of all religions. . . . They respect all scriptures.”
Dutch Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende said in a statement that “the vast majority of Muslims reject extremism and violence.”
“In fact, the victims are often also Muslims. We therefore regret that Mr. Wilders has released this film. We believe it serves no purpose other than to cause offense.”
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