Spain is grieving for the 153 victims of Madrid's plane crash, as experts begin to look into why the jet crashed and burnt shortly after take-off. The country's prime minister has visited some of the 19 survivors, while King Juan Carlos met relatives of the victims at a makeshift mortuary. Three days of mourning have been declared and flags are at half-mast. Of the survivors of the Spanair flight JK 5022 crash on Wednesday, several remain critically ill.
Spain is grieving for the 153 victims of Madrid's plane crash, as experts begin to look into why the jet crashed and burnt shortly after take-off.
The country's prime minister has visited some of the 19 survivors, while King Juan Carlos met relatives of the victims at a makeshift mortuary.
Three days of mourning have been declared and flags are at half-mast.
Of the survivors of the Spanair flight JK 5022 crash on Wednesday, several remain critically ill.
But in stark contrast to the rival theories about who was responsible for the 2004 bombings, this time, a single would-be culprit is emerging - at least in the eyes of the Spanish media. Spanair and its business troubles are being put under the microscope - from the $81bn losses in the first sixth months of 2008, to the axing of routes, and the proposal to cut up to 1,200 jobs. Just hours before the crash, Spanair representatives of the pilots' union, Sepla, had issued a statement, denouncing "organisation chaos" at Spain's second biggest carrier. Threatening strike action, the pilots alleged that company bosses were forcing cockpit and maintenance staff to work abusively long hours, in order to compensate for "endemic problems" of organisation and structure. Those claims are denied by Spanair executives, together with the suggestion that economic woes were a direct cause of Wednesday's crash.
But in stark contrast to the rival theories about who was responsible for the 2004 bombings, this time, a single would-be culprit is emerging - at least in the eyes of the Spanish media.
Spanair and its business troubles are being put under the microscope - from the $81bn losses in the first sixth months of 2008, to the axing of routes, and the proposal to cut up to 1,200 jobs.
Just hours before the crash, Spanair representatives of the pilots' union, Sepla, had issued a statement, denouncing "organisation chaos" at Spain's second biggest carrier.
Threatening strike action, the pilots alleged that company bosses were forcing cockpit and maintenance staff to work abusively long hours, in order to compensate for "endemic problems" of organisation and structure.
Those claims are denied by Spanair executives, together with the suggestion that economic woes were a direct cause of Wednesday's crash.
INTERVIEW: Air Disaster in Madrid - The investigation - JOSÉ MARÍA VÁZQUEZ President of SEPLA [airline pilots' union] and Spanair pilot "To attribute the accident to the firm's situation is barbaric" by LARA OTERO - Madrid - 22/08/2008 José María Vázquez has been at the helm of the pilots' union SEPLA for 9 months and in Spanair for 20. He has seen the company be born and grow. He is critical of the airline's management but defends its actions on maintenance and safety. He was one of the pilots who flew the relatives of the victims from Las Palmas to Madrid on Wednesday night. He can't (and won't) help getting emotional recalling the personal dramas he was told of during that two-hour flight
"To attribute the accident to the firm's situation is barbaric" by LARA OTERO - Madrid - 22/08/2008
José María Vázquez has been at the helm of the pilots' union SEPLA for 9 months and in Spanair for 20. He has seen the company be born and grow. He is critical of the airline's management but defends its actions on maintenance and safety. He was one of the pilots who flew the relatives of the victims from Las Palmas to Madrid on Wednesday night. He can't (and won't) help getting emotional recalling the personal dramas he was told of during that two-hour flight
Question: is it possible that the gauge was detecting overheating not of the incoming air (incorrect) but of the engine itself, that the maintenance staff failed to notice anything wrong with the engine and so (wrongly) declared the gauge faulty and disabled it? A vivid image of what should exist acts as a surrogate for reality. Pursuit of the image then prevents pursuit of the reality -- John K. Galbraith
The story now is ...
They can't possibly know the triggering event at this stage of the investigation, way too early.
I presume they've collected the 'Black Box' Flight Data Recorder and are doing preliminary analysis of the information. However, that only gives the data the avionic system was passing around and what the pilot, co-pilot, and flight engineer were seeing/saying.
Important Point: the FDR does not give the actual state and condition of the mechanics of the airplane but only what the avionics thought their condition was. That thermometer was doing what a thermometer does: record temperature. WHAT was causing the temperature rise will not be known until the US NSTB and Spanish authorities reassemble the bits and pieces of the plane and conduct a visual inspection and analysis. A doo run-run-run, a doo run-run
The temporary relocation of the European Parliament to Brussels next month from Strasbourg has reignited a row about where it should be based. An EU official has confirmed to the BBC that the building in the French city cannot be used yet because part of its ceiling has collapsed. About 200sq m (2,152sq ft) of the ceiling caved in on 7 August. Nobody was in the chamber at the time. European law obliges the parliament to meet in Strasbourg 12 times a year.
The temporary relocation of the European Parliament to Brussels next month from Strasbourg has reignited a row about where it should be based.
An EU official has confirmed to the BBC that the building in the French city cannot be used yet because part of its ceiling has collapsed.
About 200sq m (2,152sq ft) of the ceiling caved in on 7 August. Nobody was in the chamber at the time.
European law obliges the parliament to meet in Strasbourg 12 times a year.
However, whilst I would prefer a single location on grounds of cost and efficiency, I rather imagine that the co-sited HQ is rather traditional now.
Then, if we agree that, in the modern EU, the Brussels/Strasburg axis is too far to the west, then one or the other should be sacrificed for a more eastern location. Brussels has a lot going for it, but it's a crowded and expensive town with little room for expansion. Strasburg is actually better in these aspects, but is hamstrung by not being a transport hub in the way that Brussels is. So, and it is reluctantly, Brussels gets my nod for the western arm.
But, y'know, if you think I'm just trashing your hometown out of anti-French spite, there's little I can do to persuade you otherwise. keep to the Fen Causeway
But I do note that you pile on on the topic almost each time it's posted in a Salon. I know you're trying to bring a note of rationality to what is just stupid blather by the media, but the effect is to reinforce the notion that it is actually a topic with merit. In the long run, we're all dead. John Maynard Keynes
However, your pardoning is undermined when you note that I "pile on the topic..". Maybe that has a different connotation for you, but I understand it to mean that I press an unfair advantage to give an undeserved kicking. Not quite the same as introducing the "note of sanity", is it ? So you do feel I am demonstrating anti-French bias.
As I said, there's nothing I can do about that, but it's disappointing to say the least.
Would you prefer that I say that the Brussels/Strasburg axis makes excellent sense, that what was true in the 70s remains true now ? When it is so blatantly untrue and the situation is absurd ?
But I can see your so sensitized to the subject that we are unable to discuss it reasonably here, so I'll withdraw. keep to the Fen Causeway
The French barely bother to defend Strasbourg's role, in general. It's the Germans who are the most attached to Strasbourg.
The constant harping on this topic (like the same harping on a caricatured version of expenses) is just anti-European (waste, bureaucracy, corruption, bla, bla, bla). I don't know that it is anti-French, although it might be that too. In the long run, we're all dead. John Maynard Keynes
Put it in Bruxelles and be done with it. This would make the EU more popular, especially in the Netherlands, UK and Nordic nations.
The real estate in Strasbourg could be used to create an European elite technical university, as is often proposed. Peak oil is not an energy crisis. It is a liquid fuel crisis.
Anyway, I'd like to throw in the city of Mariehamn into contention as the home of the EU parliament. "The basis of optimism is sheer terror" - Oscar Wilde
Plus, of course, until recently they travelled by plane where the main waste of time was probably spent hanging around in the terminal shopping on expenses. keep to the Fen Causeway
It doesn't really matter if it exists in the real world or not (does it exist?), as long as it exists in the minds of the public. Peak oil is not an energy crisis. It is a liquid fuel crisis.
The [Espace Léopold] complex is not the official seat of Parliament, which is the Immeuble Louise Weiss in Strasbourg, France, but as most of the other institutions of the European Union are in Brussels, Parliament built the Brussels complex in order to be closer to their activities. A majority of the Parliament's work is now geared to its Brussels site, but it is legally bound to keep Strasbourg as its official home.
The city of Strasbourg (France) is the official seat of the European Parliament. The institution is legally bound to meet there twelve sessions a year lasting about four days each, other work takes place in Brussels and Luxembourg city (see Location of European Union institutions for more information).[5][6]
British security services colluded in the unlawful detention and facilitated the interrogation of a UK resident detained in Pakistan six years ago, the high court ruled today.Two judges found that the foreign secretary had a duty to hand over to Binyam Mohamed's legal team secret information that could support his case that he was tortured in Pakistan and Morocco before being sent to Guantánamo Bay.Lord Justice Thomas and Mr Justice Lloyd Jones found that the British security service "facilitated interviews by or on behalf of the United States incommunicado and without access to a lawyer in Pakistan" (pdf) in 2002. The detention was unlawful under Pakistani law, the judges said.
British security services colluded in the unlawful detention and facilitated the interrogation of a UK resident detained in Pakistan six years ago, the high court ruled today.
Two judges found that the foreign secretary had a duty to hand over to Binyam Mohamed's legal team secret information that could support his case that he was tortured in Pakistan and Morocco before being sent to Guantánamo Bay.
Lord Justice Thomas and Mr Justice Lloyd Jones found that the British security service "facilitated interviews by or on behalf of the United States incommunicado and without access to a lawyer in Pakistan" (pdf) in 2002.
The detention was unlawful under Pakistani law, the judges said.
Where were your scruples when this was going on ? When we knew it was happening and scumtrash Straw was denying, denying, denying in the House of Commons ? (Why isn't it illegal to lie in the HoC ?).
No, this does not prove the britain is a country of law, it demonstrates the complete opposite, the use of law for political convenience. One day you can torture and frame and it doesn't matter, then the wind changes and we'd better tidy up the mess so that it looks good to the fools fed on Murdoch and Daily Mail bs about forever middle class england of warm beer and cricket on village greens. keep to the Fen Causeway
Economic growth has shown scant sign of returning to the eurozone in August with private sector output contracting for the third consecutive month, an influential survey revealed on Thursday. Purchasing managers' indices suggested the 15-country zone remained on the brink of recession, with the performances of Germany and France deteriorating noticeably in August. However, improvements in Spain and Italy led to a modest improvement in the region's composite index, covering industry and services, from 47.8 in July to 48 this month.
Economic growth has shown scant sign of returning to the eurozone in August with private sector output contracting for the third consecutive month, an influential survey revealed on Thursday.
Purchasing managers' indices suggested the 15-country zone remained on the brink of recession, with the performances of Germany and France deteriorating noticeably in August. However, improvements in Spain and Italy led to a modest improvement in the region's composite index, covering industry and services, from 47.8 in July to 48 this month.
Forty years ago this Thursday, the Soviet Union ended the so-called Prague Spring with a massive invasion of troops and tanks. Intelligence files from that era show that the largest military operation in Europe since 1945 took the West by surprise. When it was over, Western officers, awkwardly, seemed surprised. Against their will they had to admit the camouflage hiding the march of Warsaw Pact troops into Prague had been "good," and the speed of their divisions "impressive." The way the Kremlin led units out of the western part of the Soviet Union "unnoticed" was also noteworthy. The enemy, in short, had scored a "tactical victory."
Forty years ago this Thursday, the Soviet Union ended the so-called Prague Spring with a massive invasion of troops and tanks. Intelligence files from that era show that the largest military operation in Europe since 1945 took the West by surprise.
When it was over, Western officers, awkwardly, seemed surprised. Against their will they had to admit the camouflage hiding the march of Warsaw Pact troops into Prague had been "good," and the speed of their divisions "impressive." The way the Kremlin led units out of the western part of the Soviet Union "unnoticed" was also noteworthy. The enemy, in short, had scored a "tactical victory."
The museum of Communism in Prague had some interesting displays on this topic. Ad astra per aspera
The European Union has announced it will boost its financial aid to the Palestinian Authority by €40 million in a bid to secure salaries for government workers. "This extra package is a clear indication that we are continuing and reinforcing our commitment to the Palestinian people," EU's external affairs commissioner Benita Ferrero Waldner said in a statement on Wednesday (20 August). EU has decided to add extra €40 million on its aid cheque for Palestinians The financial injection comes on top of €256 million provided so far by the EU this year by other instruments. It follows an international conference last December where various donors pledged €5.2 billion in aid to the Palestinians over three years. But most of the package was earmarked for long-term projects while many Arab donors have not met their commitments, leaving the Palestinian government struggling to pay public employees over recent months.
The European Union has announced it will boost its financial aid to the Palestinian Authority by €40 million in a bid to secure salaries for government workers.
"This extra package is a clear indication that we are continuing and reinforcing our commitment to the Palestinian people," EU's external affairs commissioner Benita Ferrero Waldner said in a statement on Wednesday (20 August).
EU has decided to add extra €40 million on its aid cheque for Palestinians
The financial injection comes on top of €256 million provided so far by the EU this year by other instruments. It follows an international conference last December where various donors pledged €5.2 billion in aid to the Palestinians over three years.
But most of the package was earmarked for long-term projects while many Arab donors have not met their commitments, leaving the Palestinian government struggling to pay public employees over recent months.
EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - Belarus on Wednesday (20 August) pardoned two more dissidents, Syarhei Parsyukevich and Andrei Kim, clearing its jails of major political prisoners in a bid to improve relations with the EU. Mr Parsyukevich and Mr Kim had been serving two-and-a-half and one-and-a-half year sentences, respectively, after taking part in street protests in January. Street protests in Minsk are a risky business Their release comes just two days after Minsk freed opposition leader Alexander Kazulin, with no more long-term prisoners of conscience now left behind bars, despite some concern over a US lawyer, Emanuel Zeltser, arrested in March. The latest move comes as Belarus heads toward parliamentary elections on 28 September, in which a handful of pro-democracy opposition figures are expected to gain seats in the legislature for the first time.
EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - Belarus on Wednesday (20 August) pardoned two more dissidents, Syarhei Parsyukevich and Andrei Kim, clearing its jails of major political prisoners in a bid to improve relations with the EU.
Mr Parsyukevich and Mr Kim had been serving two-and-a-half and one-and-a-half year sentences, respectively, after taking part in street protests in January.
Street protests in Minsk are a risky business
Their release comes just two days after Minsk freed opposition leader Alexander Kazulin, with no more long-term prisoners of conscience now left behind bars, despite some concern over a US lawyer, Emanuel Zeltser, arrested in March.
The latest move comes as Belarus heads toward parliamentary elections on 28 September, in which a handful of pro-democracy opposition figures are expected to gain seats in the legislature for the first time.
By Eric J. Lyman ROME (Hollywood Reporter) - Television programs with medical and hospital themes get so many details wrong, according to a leading Italian medical group, that Italy's main broadcasters should refrain from airing them. Annalisa Silvestro, president of the National Federation of Medical Colleges, said that offending programs include imported fare such as "ER," "House," "Grey's Anatomy" and "Scrubs," along with a host of Italian-made productions, several of which are scheduled to premiere with state broadcaster RAI or Silvio Berlusconi's Mediaset when new schedules start in September.
By Eric J. Lyman
ROME (Hollywood Reporter) - Television programs with medical and hospital themes get so many details wrong, according to a leading Italian medical group, that Italy's main broadcasters should refrain from airing them.
Annalisa Silvestro, president of the National Federation of Medical Colleges, said that offending programs include imported fare such as "ER," "House," "Grey's Anatomy" and "Scrubs," along with a host of Italian-made productions, several of which are scheduled to premiere with state broadcaster RAI or Silvio Berlusconi's Mediaset when new schedules start in September.
A deeper shade of blue Tories are now drawing on a radical conservative past that foretold flaws in Thatcher's market dogma When economic paradigms shift, ideology follows. Just as the Keynesian model broke down in the 1970s and ushered in the rise of Thatcherism, so the present crisis of neoliberal economics is precipitating a philosophical change in the Conservative party. The Tories are now speaking of sharing the benefits of growth and wealth, and the need for markets to generate fair outcomes. Moreover, they are distancing themselves from the current socioeconomic settlement because they recognise that it produces inequality and reinforces class barriers. They know that the community culture they want to resurrect was not only destroyed by the socialist state, but by the capitalist market. Say it softly, but the Tories could be poised to finally break with Thatcherism and its winner-takes-all monopoly capitalism. (...) the much-derided new civic philosophy of conservatism is actually key to reversing all the malign consequences of the Thatcher-Blair years. A genuinely local economy requires not just freedom from the target-driven, ethos-destroying logic of the state, but also liberation from the corporate business model. Corporate norms have obliterated owner-occupiers of small businesses and have created clone towns where every high street is the same, or ghost towns where the economies of scale kill off local enterprises. A revived localism inspires a diverse ecology of agriculture, industry and innovation, and a renewed sense of regional identity, reversing an economic monoculture predicated on finance and the City. There are signs, therefore, that this localism is becoming the fulcrum around which conservatism could change. One example is Cameron's frustration at Policy Exchange's recent report that, in a disturbing echo of the rightwing "mobility of labour" argument, called for the abandonment of northern cities for the job-rich south. Likewise, the Conservative campaign against post office closures and the "disappearing Britain" campaign to save local shops all suggest a new distaste for the homogenising consequences of neoliberalism.
When economic paradigms shift, ideology follows. Just as the Keynesian model broke down in the 1970s and ushered in the rise of Thatcherism, so the present crisis of neoliberal economics is precipitating a philosophical change in the Conservative party. The Tories are now speaking of sharing the benefits of growth and wealth, and the need for markets to generate fair outcomes. Moreover, they are distancing themselves from the current socioeconomic settlement because they recognise that it produces inequality and reinforces class barriers. They know that the community culture they want to resurrect was not only destroyed by the socialist state, but by the capitalist market. Say it softly, but the Tories could be poised to finally break with Thatcherism and its winner-takes-all monopoly capitalism.
(...)
the much-derided new civic philosophy of conservatism is actually key to reversing all the malign consequences of the Thatcher-Blair years. A genuinely local economy requires not just freedom from the target-driven, ethos-destroying logic of the state, but also liberation from the corporate business model. Corporate norms have obliterated owner-occupiers of small businesses and have created clone towns where every high street is the same, or ghost towns where the economies of scale kill off local enterprises. A revived localism inspires a diverse ecology of agriculture, industry and innovation, and a renewed sense of regional identity, reversing an economic monoculture predicated on finance and the City.
There are signs, therefore, that this localism is becoming the fulcrum around which conservatism could change. One example is Cameron's frustration at Policy Exchange's recent report that, in a disturbing echo of the rightwing "mobility of labour" argument, called for the abandonment of northern cities for the job-rich south. Likewise, the Conservative campaign against post office closures and the "disappearing Britain" campaign to save local shops all suggest a new distaste for the homogenising consequences of neoliberalism.
Interesting - and worrying for the left. Should I front page this tomorrow? In the long run, we're all dead. John Maynard Keynes
Gets my vote. There was a time when Tories held that there were things that needed to be conserved. Could they add provincial economies, towns, industries, jobs, homes and families to Queen and Church they might establish the basis for a renewal of Labor. If sanity be culturally normative, then by the norms of this culture I claim insanity.
The main worry is that they'll claim these are Tory innovations, but personally I don't care how they're tagged as long as there's some move away from corporate piracy towards a more manageable culture.
If this were honest - which it probably isn't - it would be the biggest philosophical shift in UK politics since the end of the 70s.
you are the media you consume.
Front page by all means. A doo run-run-run, a doo run-run
FT.com: London's calling (August 21 2008)
As a global city and leading international financial centre, London is at the heart of Britain's economic success. So the victory of the Conservative candidate in the capital's mayoral election in May was widely seen as an augury of success for the UK opposition at the next general election. However, Boris Johnson's first few weeks in City Hall have raised disturbing questions about the fitness of the Tories for office.
They're not wrong. But do they think anyone is fit to lead?
In the past, these methods have led to appalling exaggerations of the numbers of people killed in conflict. In the Kosovo war of 1999, Human Rights Watch stated categorically that the number of people killed unlawfully by the Serbs was "certainly" more than 4,300. This was the number of bodies which had by then been exhumed. Moreover, Human Rights Watch claimed to have itself documented 3,453 killings, based on interviews. But the legal indictment against Slobodan Milosevic, the former president of Yugoslavia, refers to 564 killed, not thousands. ...Some of the evidence is clearly unreliable. One report quotes a man saying, "They blindfolded us ... and then they put us in Landcruisers with shaded windows." But how could he know the make of the car, or the colour of the windows, if he was blindfolded? The same man claims to have escaped alive from a mass grave, a story I have heard too many times in Kosovo to find easy to believe.
A poster in a thread several below wondered about Human Rights Watch and their pronouncements on the conflict. I believe HRW speculated that there were something like fifty dead in Tshinvali. Today they are talking about unexploded cluster bombs in Gori.
Sterling tumbled on Friday as official figures showed UK economic growth ground to a halt in the second quarter of this year, strengthening fears the economy is already contracting. The Office for National Statistics revised its first estimate of second quarter growth by more than expected as it said output had been flat quarter on quarter, the lowest figure since the second quarter of 1992.Gross domestic product was 1.4 per cent higher than in the second quarter of 2007, the lowest year-on-year growth rate since the end of 1992.
The Office for National Statistics revised its first estimate of second quarter growth by more than expected as it said output had been flat quarter on quarter, the lowest figure since the second quarter of 1992.
Gross domestic product was 1.4 per cent higher than in the second quarter of 2007, the lowest year-on-year growth rate since the end of 1992.
The pressure on household finances increased on Thursday when Scottish and Southern Energy and Eon became the latest energy suppliers to raise bills, by averages of 25 per cent and 22 per cent respectively, following steep rises in wholesale gas and electricity prices.The moves follow similar increases from EDF Energy and Centrica, owner of British Gas, late last month and will contribute to a further increase in the rate of inflation, which is expected by many economists to hit 5 per cent by the end of the year.Consumer groups said the rises would push more people into fuel poverty. A household buying its gas and electricity from SSE will now pay an average of £105 a month, up from £73 a month at the beginning of the year - a 44 per cent increase.
The moves follow similar increases from EDF Energy and Centrica, owner of British Gas, late last month and will contribute to a further increase in the rate of inflation, which is expected by many economists to hit 5 per cent by the end of the year.
Consumer groups said the rises would push more people into fuel poverty. A household buying its gas and electricity from SSE will now pay an average of £105 a month, up from £73 a month at the beginning of the year - a 44 per cent increase.
Investors pulled their money out of Russia in the wake of the Georgia conflict at the fastest rate since the 1998 rouble crisis, new figures showed on Thursday.Russian debt and equity markets have also suffered sharp falls since the conflict began on August 8, with yields on domestic rouble bonds increasing by up to 150 basis points in the last month.The moves come as President Dmitry Medvedev faces pressure from business leaders concerned that the impact of the global credit crisis is starting to be felt in Russia.Credit conditions are to be discussed at next month's "summit of oligarchs", the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs meeting that former President Vladimir Putin held annually to discuss economic issues.
Russian debt and equity markets have also suffered sharp falls since the conflict began on August 8, with yields on domestic rouble bonds increasing by up to 150 basis points in the last month.
The moves come as President Dmitry Medvedev faces pressure from business leaders concerned that the impact of the global credit crisis is starting to be felt in Russia.
Credit conditions are to be discussed at next month's "summit of oligarchs", the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs meeting that former President Vladimir Putin held annually to discuss economic issues.
Police officers were on Friday morning beginning an investigation into how and why a data stick containing confidential data on up to 130,000 offenders and prisoners was lost earlier this week. The Conservatives warned that taxpayers could foot a large compensation bill if any of the thousands of criminals affected by the blunder decided to sue the government.The loss was a "massive failure of duty", said Dominic Gieve, shadow home secretary. "The British taxpayer will be absolutely outraged if they are made to pick up the bill for compensation to serious criminals," he said. The names, addresses and expected release dates of all 84,000 prisoners in England and Wales were on the computer memory stick lost by PA Consulting, a contractor working for the Home Office.
The Conservatives warned that taxpayers could foot a large compensation bill if any of the thousands of criminals affected by the blunder decided to sue the government.
The loss was a "massive failure of duty", said Dominic Gieve, shadow home secretary. "The British taxpayer will be absolutely outraged if they are made to pick up the bill for compensation to serious criminals," he said.
The names, addresses and expected release dates of all 84,000 prisoners in England and Wales were on the computer memory stick lost by PA Consulting, a contractor working for the Home Office.
Areva reactor project given all-clear Areva's troublesome EPR reactor project in Finland on Wednesday received a clean bill of health after welding work overseen by Bouygues, the French nuclear group's subcontractor, was last week called into question. Petteri Tiippana, assistant director of STUK, the Finnish nuclear safety authority, said that a government-commissioned inquiry into quality and safety allegations made by the environmental lobby group Greenpeace had found no evidence of transgressions.
Areva's troublesome EPR reactor project in Finland on Wednesday received a clean bill of health after welding work overseen by Bouygues, the French nuclear group's subcontractor, was last week called into question.
Petteri Tiippana, assistant director of STUK, the Finnish nuclear safety authority, said that a government-commissioned inquiry into quality and safety allegations made by the environmental lobby group Greenpeace had found no evidence of transgressions.
The number of eastern and central Europeans registering to work in the UK has fallen to the lowest level since their countries joined the European Union four years ago, according to Home Office figures published on Thursday.The fall in the value of the pound and improved job prospects in their home countries appears to be reducing the appeal of the UK to migrant workers from the so-called A8 accession countries - the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Slovakia and Slovenia.The number of A8 migrants registering to work in the UK fell by more than 27 per cent to just under 38,000 in the second quarter of this year, compared with the same period last year. It was the biggest year-on-year fall since the UK opened its borders to the new EU members.More than 875,000 eastern and central Europeans, two-thirds of them from Poland, have registered to work in the UK since May 2004.
The fall in the value of the pound and improved job prospects in their home countries appears to be reducing the appeal of the UK to migrant workers from the so-called A8 accession countries - the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Slovakia and Slovenia.
The number of A8 migrants registering to work in the UK fell by more than 27 per cent to just under 38,000 in the second quarter of this year, compared with the same period last year. It was the biggest year-on-year fall since the UK opened its borders to the new EU members.
More than 875,000 eastern and central Europeans, two-thirds of them from Poland, have registered to work in the UK since May 2004.
