The Roma, the Gypsies, are Europe’s largest minority living in over a dozen countries stretching from the Balkans to Central Europe and down to Spain and Italy. They are also not recent arrivals. It is not clear when the Roma first arrived in Europe but they have been in Europe for centuries.

The European Commission and human rights groups say the Roma continue to suffer discrimination and persecution across the continent. Despite measures by the EU to integrate them into mainstream society, the Roma people remain largely excluded from jobs and education. Even in Brussels – home to the EU’s own institutions – the Roma and their children struggle to break out from a vicious cycle of poverty and begging. Nina-Maria Potts reports on how some non-profit groups in Brussels are trying to help the Roma.

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Tonight, the news from Mumbai is grim indeed. Terror affects us all no matter if we are there in Mumbai or half way around the world here in San Francisco. As a Colombian who has twice been to India and who dearly relished every moment I have spent in India, I say with pride that I am an Indian tonight.

My deepest hope is that whoever is behind these brazen attacks is not tied to Pakistan nor Pakistan’s rogue agents of the ISI. If links are established back to Pakistan, the repercussions might lead to all out war. The group that has so far claimed responsibility is a new one, the Deccan Muhajedin. I assume that the Deccan refers to the Deccan region of India that runs down the west coast of India. The other departure from the norm is the attacks were aimed at foreigners. While India has seen much violence and terrorism this year and in the recent past, the targets have been other Indians. My initial read is thus that these attacks may have an Al-Qaeda or a Taliban component. India has been one the major donors to the Karzai government in Afghanistan. Earlier this year, the Indian embassy in Kabul was hit by a car bomb. Indian authorities suspect Pakistani involvement in that attack.

The New York Times is offering continuous updates from Mumbai including reports from Indian bloggers at The Lede Blogs.

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The commander of Thailand’s army, Gen. Anupong Paochinda, bluntly advised Prime Minister Somchai Wongsawat to step down and dissolve Parliament on Wednesday and told protesters who had shut down the main international airport for two days to disperse. The protests against the Thai government have already brought down one Thai Prime Minister and are now threatening to bring down a second. These protests have been on-going now since June.

The full story from the New York Times.

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President-elect Obama announced two more additions to his economic team bringing back old-timer Paul Volcker, the former two-term Fed Chief and bringing on up and coming Austan Goolsbee, an economist of the University of Chicago. Mr. Volcker will head a newly minted Economic Recovery Advisory Board and advise the President on getting the economy moving again. Mr. Volcker is best remembered for taming inflation but now the beast he faces is a monster called deflation. A report from the New York Times:

Paul Volcker, who helped tame runaway inflation in the 1980s during two terms as chairman of the Federal Reserve, has agreed to lead a new White House economic advisory committee, President-elect Barack Obama said on Wednesday. He praised Mr. Volcker as “one of the world’s foremost economic policy experts.”

“Paul has served under both Republicans and Democrats and is held in the highest esteem for his sound and independent judgment,” Mr. Obama said, as the 6-foot 7-inch Mr. Volcker towered nearby. “He has a long and distinguished record of service to our nation, and I am pleased that he has answered the call to serve once again.”

Mr. Obama made the announcement at his third news conference in three days. The public appearances by the president-elect are intended to show Americans that his team is focusing on resolving the financial crisis, which Mr. Obama said Wednesday demands “fresh thinking and bold new ideas from the leading minds across America.”

Mr. Volcker, 81, has been providing Mr. Obama with advice on the economy for months. After briefly considering him for Treasury secretary, Mr. Obama instead asked Mr. Volcker to lead the President’s Economic Recovery Advisory Board, a new panel to be comprised of leading figures from a variety of business sectors. The group is supposed to advise Mr. Obama on how to jump-start the economy and stabilize the financial markets.

Austan Goolsbee, a University of Chicago economist who was a leading economic adviser to the Obama presidential campaign, will lead the staff of the advisory board, the president-elect said, calling him “one of America’s most promising economic minds, known for his path-breaking work on tax policy and industrial organization.”

Mr. Volcker became chairman of the Federal Reserve in August 1979 as President Jimmy Carter was fighting to rein in the inflation caused by the oil shocks of 1973 and 1978. Mr. Volcker, who led the Fed until 1987, often used tactics that were unpopular, like rapid increases in interest rates. Criticized at the time for causing a recession, Mr. Volcker was later praised for the effectiveness of his efforts.

Below the fold a profile of Austan Goolsbee.

(more…)

It has been a rough 2008 in India. No country has seen more turmoil and terrorism this year than India. Today’s coordinated attacks that have left scores dead are just the latest salvo in India’s year of living dangerously at home and abroad. Two hundred are still believed held by terrorists at the upscale Taj Hotel in Mumbai. What makes these attacks different than the rest is that these attacks seem to have been directed at foreigners. Reports stressed that terrorists were looking for those with British or American passports.

More from The Hindu:

ATS chief Hemant Karkare, two senior police officers and 78 others were killed when terrorists struck with impunity in Mumbai on Wednesday in coordinated multiple blasts and gunfire in a dozen areas including at iconic landmarks CST railway station and two five star hotels–Oberoi and Taj.

Karkare(54), who is probing the Malegaon blasts case, was gunned down when he was leading an operation at Hotel Taj against terrorists who had taken 15 people, including seven foreigners, as hostages. He was hit by three bullets in his chest. One MP Krishan Das and 200 people were stranded in Taj hotel.

Another IPS officer Ashok Marutirao Kamte, a 1989 batch IPS officer, was killed while fighting terrorists at Metro Cinema in the city along with encounter specialist Vijay Salaskar who also gunned down as one of the worst terror strikes brought Mumbai to the knees.

Army moved in to assist local police in flushing out terrorists holed up in Taj and Oberoi hotels. 200 NSG commandoes were also rushed to Mumbai.

As indiscriminate firing and explosions at iconic landmarks showed no signs of easing since the first attack at Leopold restaurant in Colaba area at about 9.30 PM, hospitals like GT and Cama where gunfire was reported were also targeted. Police and eyewitnesses said AK-47s, rifles and hand grenades were used at will by an unspecified number of terrorists.

Sixty bodies and over 200 persons injured were brought at St George’s Hospital, hospital sources said. Seven bodies were brought to GT hospital while two bodies were brought to Cooper hospital. Four bodies were brought to Mumbai hospital.

A little known outfit “Deccan Mujahideen” claimed reponsibility for the attacks.

Here are the other major attacks this year in India:

Guwahati, Assam on October 31, 2008 62 Killed in Assam
Imphal on October 22, 2008 17 Killed in Imphal
Delhi on September 14, 2008 20 Killed in Delhi
Ahmedabad, Gujarat on July 27, 2008 40 Killed in Ahmedabad
Jaipur, Rajasthan on May 14, 2008 60 Killed in Jaipur, The Pink City

The New York Times is offering continuous updates from Mumbai including reports from Indian bloggers at The Lede Blogs.

Below the fold some more coverage from the New York Times. (more…)

Jim Martin, Democrat

Senator Saxby Chambliss, Incumbent Republican

National Republican Trust PAC on Behalf of Saxby Chambliss

It would be so nice to win this seat back. I don’t normally call anyone names but with Saxby Chambliss, I will say this, somewhere there is a pond missing its scum. The race is close but the latest Politico/Insider Advantage points to a three point lead for the Republican incumbent. Here’s the latest from the Atlanta Journal-Constitution:

It’s just one week until Georgia voters go to the polls to decide a U.S. Senate runoff that could tilt the balance of power in the Washington. But it’s far from certain if most voters will even bother returning for one more shot of partisan politics.

The nationally watched Dec. 2 Senate runoff between incumbent Republican U.S. Sen. Saxby Chambliss and Democrat Jim Martin takes place the Tuesday after Thanksgiving, smack dab in the middle of the holiday season.

Both campaigns on Monday were predicting a healthy turnout for their side. But both are keenly aware that they are heading into the final week of a bitter campaign with voters focused on family, food and football.

“We’re just going to keep focused on our message,” Martin said Monday.

Chambliss’ camp, meanwhile, was maintaining its strategy of bringing GOP heavyweights to the state to stump for Chambliss. Today, former New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani campaigns for Chambliss, just two days after former Vice President Al Gore came to Atlanta for Martin.

The state Senate race has attracted a long line of political big shots as Democrats push for a 60-vote, filibuster-proof “super majority” in the upper chamber and Republicans pull out all stops to hold Chambliss’ seat.

Democrats now have 58 seats —- only races in Minnesota and Georgia have to be decided.

The national media has focused on the race, but Chambliss and Martin worry that Georgia voters could get distracted by the holidays. Georgians can expect a barrage of televised political attack ads to interrupt their football games in coming days. And they can expect plenty of telephone calls urging them to vote.

Chambliss and Martin are trying to keep voters focused on a race that they know they will win or lose based on turnout, which historically tends to be abysmally low for runoffs.

The last high-profile U.S. Senate runoff in Georgia was in 1992, between incumbent Democratic U.S. Sen. Wyche Fowler and Republican challenger Paul Coverdell. Only about half the voters (55 percent) who cast ballots in the general election that year came back to the polls for the runoff. And that runoff vote took place before the Thanksgiving holiday.

“It will probably be harder to get people back this time,” said University of Georgia political scientist Charles Bullock, author of a book about runoffs.

Bullock said the Thanksgiving holiday will play a role this year, but runoff turnout also could be affected by the fact that 500,000 new voters cast ballots in the Nov. 4 general. First-time voters, he said, are less likely to return for a runoff.

There is also the problem of voter fatigue. Some Georgians will have voted four times by the time the runoff concludes. Democrats already have voted in the Democratic primary, the Democratic U.S. Senate runoff and the Nov. 4 general election.

Both camps continued to step up the rhetoric on Monday. Martin accepted the endorsement of the Veterans & Military Families for Progress, which has about 500 members nationwide but only about a half-dozen in Georgia. Martin took the occasion to blast Chambliss for what he called a “four-day junket to Boca Raton, Florida,” in the days leading up to a key vote in the war in Iraq.

“I would not have done that,” Martin said. “I would have been in Washington.”

Chambliss’ campaign called Martin’s claims “just another attempt to mislead the people of Georgia.”

“Veterans across Georgia and across the country have endorsed Senator Chambliss’ re-election, including two of the largest veterans groups —- Veterans of Foreign Wars and Vets for Freedom,” said Chambliss spokeswoman Michelle Grasso.

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