The Thursday, June, 12th, 2008 edition of events and interesting reads that are making news from around the world.
Secret al-Qaida report found on London train–Official Suspended
Highly classified intelligence documents relating to two of the most sensitive issues involving Britain’s security interests – al-Qaida in Pakistan and the situation in Iraq – were found on a train near London. A Whitehall official, unnamed, has been suspended. The Daily Mail has the story.
The New Scramble for Africa
Last year, by one estimate, the government of Mozambique received bids from foreign investors to buy a remarkable 110,000 square kilometres of land, more than an eighth of the entire country. More than a century after the last “scramble for Africa”, when European imperial powers fought to colonise the continent, the global boom in biofuels is causing a stampede into one of the world’s biggest areas of uncultivated terrain. The Financial Times reports on how the mad dash for bio-fuels is affecting Mozambique and Tanzania.
Japanese PM Fukuda Survives Censure Motion
On Wednesday, the opposition-controlled upper house adopted the first – non-binding – censure against a prime minister since World War II. However, Japan’s lower house has backed a confidence motion in Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda, a day after the upper house passed a censure against him. The ruling coalition used its majority in the more powerful lower house to support its beleaguered leader. The BBC. In separate news, Japan will start a trial system for carbon emissions trade in the autumn, Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda said Monday, unveiling a new climate change policy that set a goal for cutting greenhouse gas emissions for 2050 – but not for 2020, as some environmental advocates had been proposing. Japan, the world’s fifth-largest emitter, estimates that it can cut greenhouse gas emissions by 14 percent by 2020 from current levels. This story from the International Herald Tribune. And finally to put all Japan news in one place, ABC Australia reports that a Japanese business has bought the company that holds the development rights for the Bald Hills wind farm project in South Gippsland in South Australia.
Germany To Implement Test for New Citizens
Anyone who wants to become a German citizen will have to pass a citizenship test from September, with the questions to test applicants’ knowledge of the country’s history, politics and society. Germany’s Der Spiegel has the details. Take The Quiz se if you have what it takes to become German. I got six of seven right but my father is German.
A Boom in Romania
Romania has been growing at a rate of around 6% per year nonstop since 1999. So — on paper at least — its economy has nearly doubled in size since then, not bad for a decade. And you can see it. Bucharest bustles with traffic and new construction. People on the streets are visibly dressed better than just a few years ago. A large and growing middle class is serviced by European hypermarkets and superstores, including several Carrefours and an Ikea. More from Fistful of Euros, those lucky souls.