US election: Romney slams Obama over jobs report 08/09

NEWS BULLETIN 1

German court to rule on legality of ESM 12/09

The German Constitutional Court in Karlsruhe holds the destiny of the EU in its hands today.

It is to rule on whether or not the European Stability Mechanism (ESM), to which Germany is the biggest contributor, infringes the German Constitution and should not be allowed.

If the court were to rule against, which observers say is highly unlikely, it would mean the end of bailout funds and a probable run on the euro and market panic.

Chancellor Angela Merkel is expecting a ‘yes’ from the court, although it may hedge its decision by attaching conditions, or even defer it until a later date.

But there are some in her own CDU party who would love the court to strike the ESM down.

“Plainly speaking, the ECB is imposing massive liability risks on the German taxpayers without any democratic legitimacy,” said MP Wolfgang Bosbach.

Protesters have been picketing the court all weekend, agreeing with Bosbach that their sovereignty is being usurped, and calling for the ESM to be stopped in its tracks. And public opinion in this most pro-European of member states is turning negative towards Brussels, too.

Ex-Gaddafi spy chief extradited to Libya 05/09

Libya’s former spy chief Abdullah al-Senussi is being held in Tripoli after being extradited from Mauritania. He was escorted off the plane by Libya’s new military head Yousef Mangoush.

“The office of the prosecutor general has received Senussi and he will undergo a number of medical tests. Soon he will also undergo interrogation for the cases he has been charged with,” said prosecutor general spokesman Taha Ba’ra.

One of the most feared members of former leader Muammar Gaddafi’s regime, Senussi was captured in the West African state of Mauritania in March. That led to a tug of war between Libya, France and the International Criminal Court for his extradition.

“He was extradited to Libya on the basis of guarantees given by Libyan authorities,” a Mauritanian government source told Reuters, without giving details on the guarantees.

A spokesman for the ICC, which has wanted to try Senussi on charges of crimes against humanity including murder and persecution, said it had received no information about a handover to Libyan authorities in Tripoli.

In its warrant for Senussi’s arrest, the Hague-based ICC said he had used his position of command to have attacks carried out against opponents of Gaddafi, who was hunted down and killed by rebels after his ouster in August last year.

France has wanted to try Senussi in connection with a 1989 airliner bombing over Niger in which 54 of its nationals died.

Senussi has also been linked to the 1988 bombing over Lockerbie, Scotland of an American PanAm jet that killed 270 people. Diplomatic sources have said the United States was keen to question him about that attack.

US election: Romney slams Obama over jobs report 08/09

The economy added 96,000 jobs in August, falling well below expectations.

The news pours cold water on Obama’s hopes of a post-convention bounce.

“We know it’s not good enough. We need to create more jobs faster,” Obama said.

“We need to fill the hole left by this recession faster. We need to come out of this crisis stronger then when we went in.”

Obama appealed to Americans for more time to finish his economic agenda, when he accepted his party’s presidential nomination on Thursday.

Presidential challenger, Republican Mitt Romney, pounced on the jobs datato slam his opponent. “There’s almost nothing the president has done in the past three-and-a-half, four years that gives the American people confidence that he knows what he’s doing when it comes to jobs and the economy,” Romney said. “And there’s certainly nothing that he said last night (Thursday) that gives the American people confidence he knows what he would do to create jobs or build a stronger economy,” he continued.

The jobs report could give Romney a boost. He has made his business experience the centrepiece of his campaign.

A poll, carried out before the figures were published, showed Obama taking a narrow election lead of 46 percent to Romney’s 44 percent, among likely voters.

Date: 2015-12-24; view: 789