European Union

The European Commission has just announced an agreement whereby English will be the official language of the European Union rather than German, which was the other possibility.

As part of the negotiations, the British Government conceded that English spelling had some room for improvement and has accepted a 5- year phase-in plan that would become known as "Euro-English".

In the first year, "s" will replace the soft "c". Sertainly, this will make the sivil servants jump with joy. The hard "c" will be dropped in favour of "k". This should klear up konfusion, and keyboards kan have one less letter. There will be growing publik enthusiasm in the sekond year when the troublesome "ph" will be replaced with "f". This will make words like fotograf 20% shorter.

From The Times
March 8, 2010

Cyberwar declared as China hunts for the West’s intelligence secrets

Urgent warnings have been circulated throughout Nato and the European Union for secret intelligence material to be protected from a recent surge in cyberwar attacks originating in China.

The attacks have also hit government and military institutions in the United States, where analysts said that the West had no effective response and that EU systems were especially vulnerable because most cyber security efforts were left to member states.

Hi, I am from Slovak Republic (EU) but live in United Kingdom since 2005 (I am not a British citizen yet). My friend is working in Qatar (not Qatar citizen) and I would like to visit him for a week. I will apply for tourist visa at the Qatar embassy here in London. How big are my chances to get visa if I provide the embassy with all the info they require for visa application: passport photos, application form, passport, copy of the passport where the picture is, 3 months bank statement, even the copy of my payslip (not required by the embassy), confirmation letter from my employer here in London (not required by the embassy)? I will stay at my friends place not in a hotel. Many thanks.

Again today there is a note in newspapers regarding this issue. One day, maybe it will be real.

Or not, Im not sure if this countries, even if they have so big markets are prepared to control their own currencies.

But honestly, I dont understand anything in economy.
Germany and EU in general says that they are going to spend money to help Greece, what means that more euros will be circulating over there and normally it would mean that EUR interest rate are going to be maintained low... but EUR goes up against USD???

This is crazy.
BTW, if I can ask. What currency you are more confident in? What are your savings? EUR, USD, QAR, philipino pesos?

An earthquake measuring 7.3 on the Richter scale struck Haiti on Tuesday. It hit the capital Port-au-Prince and other areas of the country. The earthquake was also felt in other countries in the region. The most affected area is Haiti's West Province with a population of 2.2 million. The most urgent needs at this time... are search and rescue, field hospitals, emergency health, water purification, emergency shelter, logistics and telecommunications. A group of experts in disaster response, health in emergency and logistics will arrive in Haiti later today to support the Haitian Red Cross in the relief efforts and to begin to coordinate international assistance from members of the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement as well as other organizations.

I've hijacked this from Tigasin's Facebook. :)

UK Muslims are Europe’s most patriotic

Levels of patriotism are higher among second-generation Muslims, the report found

Chris Gourlay

Muslims in Britain are the most patriotic in Europe — but more than a quarter in some parts of the country still do not feel British, according to a new study.

The report, funded by George Soros, the billionaire philanthropist, found that on average 78% of Muslims identified themselves as British, although this dropped by six points in east London.

This compares with 49% of Muslims who consider themselves French and just 23% who feel German.

Not sure what I think of this article....

In Switzerland, towers of fear
A country says no to more than minarets

By Anne Applebaum
Tuesday, December 8, 2009

A few weeks ago, I found myself walking through a Swiss village -- okay, it was really a Geneva suburb -- called Nyon. Still, it looked like a village: There was a castle on the hill, and I could see some Roman ruins. There were a few shops and a nice view of the lake. There was no mosque to be seen. There were no women wearing burqas in the carefully landscaped city park.
This Story

The European Commission has just announced an agreement whereby English will be the official language of the European Union rather than German, which was the other possibility.

As part of the negotiations, the British Government conceded that English spelling had some room for improvement and has accepted a 5- year phase-in plan that would become known as 'Euro-English' .

In the first year, 's' will replace the soft 'c'. This will sertainly make the sivil servants jump with joy.

The hard 'c' will be dropped in favour of 'k'. This should klear up konfusion and keyboards kan have one less letter.

There will be growing publik enthusiasm in the sekond year when the troublesome 'ph' will be replaced with 'f'. This will make words like fotograf 20% shorter.

The European Union will present proposals in September on reforming its immigration policy, Sweden said Monday, amid a rising wave of people risking their lives to cross the Mediterranean to Europe.
The proposals concern a so-called "relocation" policy, whereby refugees who land on the shores of Europe's Mediterranean countries would be transferred to other EU member states, as well as a more efficient asylum policy.