French President Emmanuel Macron has ruled out dropping his plan for a single points-based pension system, but is “willing to improve” it in the face of fierce union resistance, an official in the presidency said Wednesday.

“The president will not abandon the project nor water it down, though he is willing to improve it,” said the official, speaking on condition of anonymity.

“An improvement is possible concerning the pivot age” of 64 at which a worker would qualify for a full pension — a particular target of union ire that has sparked two weeks of massive public transport strikes, the official added.

Macron’s office also said the government was talking with unions to get a break in transport strikes for Christmas holidays.

Earlier on Tuesday, French Prime Minister Edouard Philippe said the government was determined to implement its planned one-size-fits-all model for the pension system, even though the nationwide strike in protest at the policy plan has crippled the country.

“Democratic and union opposition to our project is perfectly legitimate. But we have stated clearly what our project was and my government is totally determined to reform the pensions system and to balance the pension system’s budget,” Philippe told parliament.

Unions say the new system will introduce a “points system” for retirement, which will have a significant impact on both the public and private sectors and will force them to work well beyond the official retirement age of 62.

However, President Macron, whose government has been under constant pressure by weekly Yellow Vest protest rallies over the past year, insists that the reform plan will make for a fairer system and help erase pension system deficits forecast to reach as much as 17 billion euros (19 billion dollars) by 2025.

In central Paris on Tuesday, police fired tear gas canisters at protesters, who responded by throwing projectiles at lines of police officers.

Also on Tuesday, clashes occurred between riot police and protesters in the western city of Nantes. During the past months, the city has been the scene of frequent clashes between police and far-left radical groups. The plan has also sparked a crippling strike in the transport sector.

Source: Presstv

Estonia apologised to Finland on Monday after Estonia’s interior minister mocked Finland’s new prime minister — the world’s youngest-serving government leader — as “a sales girl” and questioned her ability to run the Nordic country.

Mart Helme, 70, Estonian interior minister and leader of the populist far-right party Ekre, on Sunday ridiculed Finnish Prime Minister Sanna Marin, 34, and her government, in which four out of five coalition leaders are women under 35.

“Now we see how one sales girl has become a prime minister and how some other street activists and non-educated people have also joined the cabinet,” Helme said on his party’s radio talk show.

His comments prompted the opposition to call for his resignation, while Estonian President Kersti Kaljulaid asked Finland’s President Sauli Niinisto to pass on her apologies to Marin and her government.

Social Democrat Marin, who has spoken about growing up in a disadvantaged family, worked as a cashier before studying at university and embarking on a political career.

“I’m extremely proud of Finland. Here a poor family’s child can educate themselves and achieve their goals in life. A cashier can become even a prime minister,” Marin wrote on Twitter.

Helme, a former Estonian ambassador to Russia, is known for outspoken statements that regularly embarrass Prime Minister Juri Ratas and his Centre Party, Ekre’s coalition partner.

Ekre was accepted for the first time into a government coalition in April, after Ratas lost parliamentary elections but clinched a deal with Ekre to stay in power.

Estonian opposition leader Kaja Kallas said on Monday the opposition would organise a no-confidence vote in parliament if Helme does not resign after his comments about Finland’s new leaders. Previous such attempts have failed.

“The interior minister has offended the Finnish government and personally attacked the newly-appointed Finnish prime minister,” she said in a statement.

(REUTERS)

France’s general strike reached its eight day, and appears stronger than ever.

Yesterday the administration of President Emmanuel Macron finally revealed the details of their globally-unprecedented, one-size-fits-all pension plan – which includes a 2 year hike to the retirement age.

The reception was near-universal rejection, with even conservative unions vowing to finally join the strikes.

Nationwide protests were immediately called, and day eight saw more of the same public transport chaos, energy shortages, school closings, worker shutdowns, grounded airplanes and now blockades of key maritime ports.

Businesses in urban centers are down 15-30%, but it’s the small businessman who has been the most hurt. Many believe that Macron will only compromise if a general strike reduces the profits of the owner class and high finance.

Many want the pension rollback totally withdrawn, now that the unpopular, right-wing details are finally known, and few understand why the system must be scrapped entirely.

The rollback is not being openly forced by Brussels, unlike many similar austerity policies, but in a rare comment today Macron admitted he was ‘advancing our European agenda’.

The slogan of the general strike has become ‘(Choose) A few weeks of chaos or years of misery’. A key rail workers union has declared, ‘There will be no truce for Christmas,’ meaning that France’s General Strike will almost certainly reach the level of 1995’s massive labor victory.

Source: Presstv

Day six of France’s largest general strike since 1995 saw massive union-led protests nationwide for the second time in a week. 

Public transport continues to run at only around 10% capacity and both public and private sector workers waked off the job in huge numbers yet again.

Nearly one million protesters rallied nationwide which is especially impressive given the lack of union solidarity. 

Tomorrow the government will finally unveil the details of the pension reform, which they have delayed to avoid further inflaming public opinion. The nation’s largest union has not joined the strike, but they will make their crucial decision once the unprecedented system is finally revealed. 

However, the nation’s prime minister announced that nobody should expect him to say anything which would immediately stop the protests; that’s another indication of President Emmanuel Macron’s infamous reluctance to negotiate or compromise. 

The one-size-fits-all pension system touted by Macron would be a world’s first. When it is finally clear how it plans to work, it seems highly unlikely that citizens will get larger pensions instead of smaller ones. The plan will include a backdoor two-year high to the retirement age. 

New polls show 70% of the nation supports the strikers, making them as popularly supported as the Yellow Vest anti-government movement. A majority of France says the general strike is about the ensemble of Macron’s policies, which have drastically increased economic inequality and societal instability.

For many December 9th was the true start of France’s general strike. The strike began on December 5th, but the country had expected for unprecedented shutdowns through the weekend.

Many waited to see if the strikes would continue when the new work week started, and the answer it is in: it was Black Monday.

Record morning traffic jams were caused by heavy rains, as commuters couldn’t walk or bicycle to work. Nearly 90% of trains continue to be shut down, buses were at half capacity and 20% of flights were cancelled.

President Emmanuel Macron held a crisis cabinet meeting Sunday night to devise ways to undermine the strikers.

The last general strike, in 1995, was also against pension reform, but this time the right-wing government wants to change the entire system, and to a globally-unprecedented one-size-fits-all model.

Polls show that nearly 70% of France does not trust Macron to change something as important as the pension system. However, the man known as the “president of the rich” has shown that he’s not just willing to ignore democratic public opinion, but also willing to brutally represent dissenters.

Many private sector workers are striking, but public sector workers are leading the way, because they have more legal protection from getting fired just for going on strike. Transportation workers are so committed to the strike because they usually work outside in the elements, or underground, and surrounded by polluted air – few could stay healthy doing such difficult work until the age of 64, as Macron is demanding. Rail workers announced they will keep striking until at least Friday.

December 10th will see a second day of nationwide union-led protests, with more than a million people expected on the streets for the second time in less than a week. 

Source: Presstv

A volcano erupted in New Zealand on Monday, spewing a plume of ash thousands of feet into the air, with Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern saying tourists were among several people unaccounted for as emergency services mounted a rescue operation.

As many as 100 people were in the vicinity when the eruption began about 2:11 pm (0111 GMT) on White Island, about 50 kilometers (30 miles) from the east coast of North Island, authorities said, sending up smoke visible from the mainland.

“We believe 100 people were on or around the island,” Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern told a news conference, adding that a rescue operation had begun, although it was too early to confirm any injuries or deaths.

“A number of people are reportedly injured and are now being transported to shore,” she added. “It does appear to be a very significant issue…particularly the scale of people affected, at this stage.”

Many of those affected could be tourists, she said.

“I’m not sure if these people were on the island or near it, but there was definitely one group out there and they definitely needed medical care,” said Judy Turner, the mayor of the coastal town of Whakatane, near White Island. “There were some injuries and the focus is on getting these injured people back safely and to get them to a hospital.”

There seemed to be no danger for people in coastal areas farther away, she added.

The island’s immediate surroundings were hazardous because of the eruption, the National Emergency Management Agency said in an statement, adding that falling ash might affect some areas.

The “short-lived eruption” threw an ash plume about 12,000 ft (3,658 m) high, New Zealand’s geoscience agency GNS Science said in a statement, but added there were no current signs of an escalation.

The White Island volcano is one of New Zealand’s most active.

(Source: Reuters)

Investigators in Germany on Thursday offered a half-a-million-euro reward for information about the spectacular heist in which robbers snatched priceless diamonds from a state museum in Dresden.

Police said the reward ($550,000) was being offered to anyone providing information “which could lead… to the capture of the perpetrators or the recovery of the stolen items”.

Police across eastern Germany are continuing their search for the thieves who launched a brazen raid on the Green Vault museum in Dresden’s Royal Palace on Monday.

Having initiated a partial power cut and broken in through a window, the thieves stole priceless 18th-century jewellery from the collection of the Saxon ruler August the Strong.

They stole objects encrusted with hundreds of diamonds, including the famous 49-carat Dresden white, the museum said on Wednesday.

Police are hunting four suspects in the theft and have released dramatic CCTV footage which showed one of them breaking into a display case with an axe.

Aside from a burnt out car that they identified as the initial escape vehicle, investigators are yet to find a significant trace of the thieves.

Dresden police said they were also in contact with colleagues in Berlin to explore possible connections to a similar heist in the capital two years ago.

In 2017, a 100-kilogramme (220-pound), 24-karat giant gold coin was stolen from Berlin’s Bode Museum.

Four men with links to a notorious Berlin gang were later arrested and put on trial.

On Thursday, police said the Dresden investigations were now being led by the state prosecutor’s department for organised crime.

The special commission set up to investigate the theft has also doubled in size to involve a staff of 40. “We will leave no stone unturned to solve this case,” said regional police president Horst Kretzschmar.

Source:  AFP

A crowded boat filled with migrants capsized in wind-whipped seas near a tiny Mediterranean island on Saturday, sending them tumbling into the water, said the Italian coastguard, which pulled 149 of them to safety.

There were fears at least two people or perhaps many more were missing.

The coastguard said the rescue, before sunset, involving four of its motorboats and two of its specialized rescue divers, took place about one nautical mile from the beach of Isola di Conigli, an uninhabited islet just off Lampedusa, an Italian island south of Sicily.

It said those rescued, who included three children and 13 women, were brought to the port of Lampedusa, a vacation and fishing island.

At portside, two of those rescued, a Libyan and an Ethiopian, told authorities that their wives weren’t among them, prompting fears the two women were missing offshore, according to Italian news agency ANSA.

Later, ANSA said migrants told authorities that there were 169 passengers when their boat set out.

That meant as many as 20 migrants might be missing.

Rescue efforts were launched after a private citizen signaled that a 10-meter-long boat was foundering about a mile from Lampedusa, the coastguard said, adding that the distressed vessel had neither requested help nor signaled its position to the coastguard.

The coastguard said no bodies were spotted at sea during the rescue.

Risking their lives, migrants set out in unseaworthy boats launched by Libya-based human traffickers.

(Source: Reuters)

Maltese police on Friday re-arrested a tycoon in connection with the murder of investigative journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia, just hours after releasing him on bail, police said.

Yorgen Fenech had been detained on his yacht at dawn Wednesday after attempting to sail away from Malta, the day after Prime Minister Joseph Muscat promised to pardon an alleged middleman if he named the person who ordered the attack.

Investigators have described him as “a person of interest” in the 2017 murder of the blogger, who reported on corruption, including alleging links between high-level politicians and a company that it later transpired was owned by Fenech.

Under Maltese law, police had 48 hours to interrogate and then charge or release him. He was released on bail late Thursday then re-arrested Friday, a police source told AFP.

Caruana Galizia, described by supporters as a “one-woman WikiLeaks”, was blown up in a car bombing at the age of 53 near her home in the small village of Bidnija in northern Malta.

Her family welcomed Fenech’s arrest, but said Muscat’s office was implicated in the case and that he should distance himself from the investigation.

– Rushed arrest –

Muscat told reporters that police would initially have liked more time to probe new leads, but had been rushed into arresting Fenech after he attempted to leave the tiny Mediterranean island on his sleek blue and white yacht.

Friday’s re-arrest buys them another 48 hours.

Fenech, who is from a wealthy family with a sprawling business empire from energy to hotels, was also being questioned Friday over possible links to money laundering and drugs, the police source said.

A leaked Malta Financial Intelligence Analysis Unit (FIAU) report identified Fenech as the owner of a company in Dubai called 17 Black.

Caruana Galizia had written in her blog about 17 Black some eight months before her death, alleging it had connections to Maltese politicians.

Leaked emails revealed in court appeared to show that Panama companies owned by then-energy minister Konrad Mizzi and the prime minister’s chief of staff Keith Schembri stood to receive payments from 17 Black.

– ‘No place near investigation’ –

Fenech’s arrest prompted calls for Muscat’s resignation over the long-running case, which sparked outrage around the world and has raised questions about the rule of law in Malta.

Civil society groups and Maltese journalists on Friday slammed the lack of police press conferences and Muscat’s decision to “shoulder the responsibility” for informing the public on updates in the case.

“The arrest of Yorgen Fenech is an important and overdue development in the investigation into our wife and mother’s assassination,” the Caruana Galizia family said in a statement.

But it added that the prime minister had “no place near the investigation”, and it was “prepared to use all legal means at our disposal to ensure that the investigation is independent and impartial, and that it runs its full course”.

The alleged middleman in the case, taxi driver and loan shark Melvin Theuma, who was arrested last week, was hospitalised Friday for an unknown medical complaint but his condition was not serious, Muscat said.

Security was tightened at the hospital after the 41-year old was admitted, he said.

Source: AFP