STORMS STRAND NORTH AMERICA LATELY

STORMS HURRICANES-TORNADOES

LUKE 21:25-26
25 And there shall be signs in the sun, and in the moon, and in the stars; and upon the earth distress of nations, with perplexity;(MASS CONFUSION) the sea and the waves roaring;(FIERCE WINDS)
26 Men’s hearts failing them for fear, and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth: for the powers of heaven shall be shaken.

Massive storm snarls holiday travel in US by Mira Oberman – DEC 24,09

CHICAGO (AFP) – A massive winter storm snarled holiday travel across the central United States as freezing rain and heavy snow caused traffic chaos and threatened to ground more flights.There's just a humongous storm moving across the center of the country, basically from the Canadian border to Texas and spreading from west Colorado to Illinois,said National Weather Service (NWS) spokesman Pat Slattery.

Christmas travel is going to be very difficult.The northern parts of the storm were expected to drop up to two feet (61 centimetres) of snow while flood warnings were issued further south.A powerful tornado late Wednesday on the storm's southern flank slammed the town of Longview in eastern Texas, ripping the roof off a house and toppling trees, the local KLTV station reported.We would recommend that people if at all possible postpone their travel plans just to be on the safe side,Slattery said in a telephone interview.This is not a storm to be messed with.Freezing rain would make driving extremely dangerous -- especially after dark when the rain turns to ice -- and high winds would dramatically reduce visibility, Slattery warned.If they can wait a couple days, the snow will be there but it won't be blowing sideways anymore.More than 260 flights were cancelled at Chicago airports Wednesday due to icy conditions and heavy, wet snow and sleet.Train service was also interrupted for three hours at New York's Penn Station due to a power outage that disrupted travel from Washington to Niagara Falls on the Canadian border.Teacher Elana Hiller managed to get home to Chicago from Minneapolis, but only after heading into the airport eight hours early to switch to a morning flight.

The airports were crazy,she told AFP.The lineups at security were going all the way down from one end of the terminal to another.United Airlines said it is doing its best to make sure people manage to get home for the holidays.We're trying to stay ahead of the storm rather than behind it,spokeswoman Sarah Massier said.We knew it's a holiday and it's very important for these customers to be home for the holidays.
The airline -- like most of its competitors -- automatically rebooks passengers on the next available flight following a cancellation and tries to get in touch by phone or e-mail to help people plan ahead. But with flights already heavily booked for one of the busiest travel days of the year, painful delays and disappointment appear inevitable. A NWS winter storm warning issued early Thursday for South Dakota, and echoed in alerts for neighboring states, said the event was a life threatening system.It warned that any travel from Wednesday night into Friday night will be treacherous. The governor of South Dakota, Mike Rounds, who had declared a state of emergency before the storm's arrival, urging residents to stay off the roads. If you can't (leave before the storm hits) it's better to be safe than stranded somewhere. The best gift to give your loved ones is to be safe,he said. It is the second major weather system to sweep the United States in recent days, after the massive snowstorm that slammed the eastern seaboard at the weekend. That first storm creating travel chaos and cut short sales on what were traditionally major shopping days ahead of Christmas. The record-breaking blizzard closed train and bus service, paralyzed air traffic and left hundreds of thousands of residents without power. A final Senate vote on landmark health care reform was pushed up to daybreak Thursday to give lawmakers and staff a chance to make it home for the holidays in the face of the massive Midwest storm.

Five Years After Tsunami, Many Still Without Shelter Amantha Perera, Inter Press Service – Wed Dec 23, 11:59 pm ET

KALMUNAI, Sri Lanka, Dec 23 (IPS) - We have been here for almost five years. So many promises have been made, but very few have been kept,complains Mohideen Nafia, 22, one of the survivors of the 2004 Asian tsunami still living in a temporary facility in the coastal town of Kalmunai, located 300 kilometres east of the capital, Colombo. Newly married Nafia would have preferred a house of her own with her husband. But at the moment she has to make do with what amounts to a shelter, a one-room unit in a government-provided disaster camp, which the couple shares with Nafia's family of five and is located about one kilometre from the beach. Nafia hails from the Sainathimaruthu village in Kalmunai, a major domestic fishing hub that bore the brunt of what has been touted as one of the deadliest natural disasters in recorded history. Three of its villages facing the sea -- Maradamunai, Sainathimaruthu and Karathivu -- suffered the heaviest damage at the time of the tsunami. When the Asian tsunami, triggered by a 9.3-magnitude earthquake, hit the coasts of countries bordering the Indian Ocean on Dec. 26, 2004, hundreds of thousands of people across Asia were washed away at sea. According to the International Federation of Red Cross some 226,000 people in 13 countries were killed in the aftermath of the tsunami. One of the hardest hit was Sri Lanka, along with India, Indonesia, and Thailand. In the South Asian island state more than 35,000 people died, over 1 million were displaced, and some 100,000 houses were either damaged or destroyed by the tsunami. At least one-third of the deaths, or some 10,000, were reported from the Ampara district that comprises Kalmunai, according to official government data. In the same district, approximately 27,000 houses were destroyed by the tsunami, the bulk of which were in Kalmunai. Villagers estimate that some 8,500 lives were lost in the densely packed beach at the height of the disaster.

Overall, the unprecedented disaster left a reconstruction bill of 330 billion rupees (3.2 billion U.S. dollars). The reconstruction effort was spearheaded by a government agency set up soon after the tsunami and which received the support of dozens of United Nations and other international agencies. Sri Lanka's Reconstruction and Development Agency has since wound down as has the massive reconstruction effort. Still many are without homes they could call their own. Getting land for the new houses has been a big problem; we have to first locate the land. If it is privately owned, (we) buy it,says Ismail Thawfiek, the additional government agent for Sainathimaruthu village in Kalmunai, where Nafia hails from. Most of the available lands are paddy or rice fields, which he says puts more pressure on otherwise limited public funds, as they need to be filled. The biggest delay (in rebuilding the affected houses) has been in finding land and preparing it so that we can build the houses,Thawfiek says. The lack of land has been exacerbated by the government's imposition of the no-build buffer zone along the Kalmunai coast. The then Sri Lankan government initially imposed a limit of 200 metres from the sea soon after the tragedy. Owing to pressure from the homeless survivors, it was later reduced to 65 metres at Kalmunai and 100 metres elsewhere in the tsunami-affected parts of the country, according to government officials With just three days away from the fifth anniversary of the 2004 Asian tsunami, some 1,300 families, including Nafia's, are still waiting for their houses to be built, since the government imposed a no-construction buffer zone along the beach soon after the tsunami. Even after five years since the tsunami, there are still problems, there are still issues,admits Thawfiek. Nafia's grief is understandable. The sense of despair gripping her is matched only by her deplorable living conditions. Tin roofs are rusting, dirty water stagnates near the front door step and large pools of rainwater and garbage rot behind the tents. Chickens raised by families roam the compound, where small children play marbles. Look at this, Nafia says, as she points to her squalid surroundings. It is like living in hell. When it rains, it is all water, if it does not, it is all flies, she says while waving her hands to chase away the flies.

She adds that none of the international relief agencies that poured aid into the tsunami-hit areas like Kalmunai helped her build her house while others are still waiting for government promises to be fulfilled, notably the reconstruction of their tsunami-destroyed homes. The life we knew before the tsunami is like a dream. I don't know why this happened to us.We will give them houses very soon next year, Thawfiek assures, arguing that the construction of new houses is moving according to plan once land has been located. At least 5,000 houses damaged by the tsunami in Kalmunai have either been reconstructed or repaired. To date, there are at least 13 disaster camps -- with at least 1,000 shelters out of an original 18,000 in the Ampara district -- still spread through the coastal town while hundreds more that were displaced by the tsunami are still living with relatives. Quite apart from Nafia's complaint, the Kalmunai beach appears to have returned to what it was before the deadly tsunami waves left a path of destruction. It is now is a hive of activity -- fishermen tend to their nets on the beach while others attend to the large multi-day trawlers anchored just offshore. We have returned to what (our lives were) before the waves struck, maybe even better, says Mohideen Ajimal, one of the first fish wholesalers to return to the beach after the tsunami. Ajimal lost an infant son and a daughter to the disaster. Pointing to the large boat repair yard that has been erected near his business premises, he says that it would never have been built if there was reconstruction effort after the tsunami.We lost so much, but life has to go on, and it is better if life goes on better than before, he tells IPS. Next to the new fishermen's society building is a tall red tower with loud-hailers pointing in all directions to warn the residents of any tsunami threat. That helps too, says Ajimal as his eyes darted toward the tower. Among the houses that have been rebuilt since the 2004 tsunami disaster are swanky new structures, painted in bright colours that stand out amid the dull sun-baked cement facades of others. They have been rebuilt by owners who could afford to finance them. New schools have also been constructed, replacing the damaged ones. Yet, there are still remnants of the huge Asian tsunami waves' deadly foray inland in this predominantly Muslim town. In place of wall-to-wall houses that used to stand next to the beach before the tsunami struck are large, empty sandy patches. Wooden poles sticking out of mounds mark off the spots where thousands were buried. On the side of the road that runs alongside the beach are the occasional houses or fishing huts that have been deserted by owners after the tsunami. They are bereft of roofs and window frames, having been washed away, decayed or carted away by thieves. Here goats seek shelter when the sun is too hot. We had a good house near the sea, but I lost two children and I don't want to go back, says Abdul Mannas, who has since moved to a new housing site about two kilometres from the sea. But at least the 35-year-old father of three is happy. He now lives in a new housing complex just outside Kalmunai town. This house is smaller (than I had expected), but we are happier,he says. We can build two-story houses or extensions if we want to.The houses at the French Friendship Village, where he lives, were built with the support of the French government.

Mannas says the he and others gladly vacated the protective zone. It is death zone on the coast,he says. I don't want to live there.But for those living in small tin-roofed sheds like Nafia, where three or so families share the dimly lit units in the camp near the Jumma Mosque, the nightmare never ends, not since the tsunami struck the Indian Ocean.We have waited long enough; five years is a long time,she rues.

3 dead as dust storm, snow blast Arizona By MARK CARLSON, Associated Press Writer – Tue Dec 22, 10:33 pm ET

PHOENIX – A strong winter storm wreaked havoc in Arizona on Tuesday, leaving at least three people dead and six injured in a series of fiery crashes caused by thick, blowing dust on Interstate 10 and shutting down I-40 for hours with slick conditions. One of the dead was a 25-year-old man whose vehicle was rear-ended by his father's truck.The midday I-10 wrecks, about 40 miles south of Phoenix near Casa Grande, left the eastbound lanes littered with the smoldering remains of several big rigs, passenger cars and vans. Both directions of the freeway connecting Tucson to Phoenix were closed for hours as crews freed the injured and dead from the tangled wreckage.Along 1-40 west of Flagstaff, dozens of cars and trucks were involved in collisions or slid off the highway as snow began falling Tuesday afternoon. A stretch of the highway between Williams and Ash Fork was closed intermittently. Snowy and slippery conditions were also reported on I-17 north of Sedona.The crashes near Casa Grande and a second set a dozen miles further south near Pichaco were triggered by dust kicked up from nearby farm fields. Dust and thick gray smoke from burning vehicles billowed across the flat sprawl of farms and desert.In all, 22 vehicles were involved in the crashes, including nine commercial trucks. Authorities said seven people — including three children — were taken to Phoenix hospitals but six were treated and released by Tuesday night. A 69-year-old Casa Grande man remained hospitalized with undisclosed injuries. His condition was not released.
Edgar Ivan Medina Vargas of Iowa City, Iowa, was among those killed. He slowed suddenly because of the dust storm, and his pickup truck was struck from behind by his father's large commercial truck, said Arizona Department of Public Safety spokesman Bart Graves.Also killed were a brother and sister in a Jeep, Mark and Katie Eide of Casa Grande. He was 14 and she was 17, Graves said. Authorities say the siblings were headed to a restaurant at Picacho Peak.The westbound lanes of I-10 were reopened by mid-afternoon, and the eastbound lanes were reopened by 8 p.m. — about eight hours after the crashes.

Storm-walloped East Coast returns to work — slowly By LARRY NEUMEISTER, Associated Press Writer – Mon Dec 21, 2:04 pm ET

NEW YORK – Millions of East Coast commuters returned to work Monday over slick roads and icy sidewalks after a weekend winter storm dropped record snowfall, interrupted holiday shopping and stranded travelers.The storm crept up the coast on Saturday and Sunday, walloping states from the mid-Atlantic to New England, causing hundreds of delayed or canceled flights, widespread power outages and treacherous driving conditions. The weather was blamed for at least seven deaths, including a snowmobile driver who crashed head-on into a horse-drawn buggy in Pennsylvania's Amish country.

Meanwhile, airports in the Northeast that were jammed up this weekend were working their way back to normal. On Monday, the Federal Aviation Administration was reporting that all major airports on the East Coast had average flight delays of less than 15 minutes.Still, three major airports in the New York City area were expecting an unusually busy holiday travel week as many who were stranded by the cancellation of 1,200 flights over the weekend try to make it to their destinations.

Despite the storm's powerful punch, many took solace in the fact that the timing could have been worse, even if it left people trapped in their homes all weekend.
Thomas Standers, of New Rochelle, N.Y., was feeding dozens of Christmas cards into a mailbox at the train station in Pelham early Monday.If we hadn't been stuck inside all weekend, these would never have gotten done, he said.Now we have a fighting chance they'll get there by Christmas.Many schools and offices were closed Monday, making traffic a little lighter on slow-moving roads and lessening the strain on beleaguered transit systems. Highways were largely clear, but secondary roads remained treacherous.In Washington, federal agencies were closed Monday and bus service was running behind schedule, but the Metro finally was able to open all 86 of its rail stations. Subways had been limited to underground stations for two days.

Joy Ricasa, 59, a bookkeeper, said she drove from her home in Upper Marlboro, Md., to the Largo Metro station early Monday to commute into Washington. The roads were coated with ice,she said.I was very careful. I don't want to have an accident, Ricasa said.In New York City, the Long Island Rail Road urged its riders to allow extra time; several passengers said the ride itself was fine, but getting to the train was a problem.The roads are a mess, loan officer Sophia White, 42, said Monday morning after she took the train from Queens to Manhattan, enroute to Jersey City, N.J.The plow truck came through but it's very icy still.J. Silhan worked an overnight shift at the Gurney's Inn oceanfront resort in Montauk, N.Y., after spending all day Sunday plowing and digging out people's houses with his father-in-law.I've been up 24 hours, Silhan said Monday morning. I'm going to go crash — hastily emphasizing that he meant sleep.Commuters also found it slow going in Philadelphia, where many residential streets were still snow-covered and the Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority suspended service on some bus routes.Even as some workers returned to the job Monday, their children were being given the day off.Philadelphia's public and Roman Catholic schools were closed to give the city another day to clear streets and sidewalks. Schools also were closed Monday in Baltimore, Roanoke, Va., most of Washington's suburbs and many Long Island towns, among other areas. Washington, D.C., public schools were already scheduled to be on winter break Monday. On the rails, Amtrak canceled some trains in the East on Monday because of the storm and warned that long-distance trains to the South and West faced substantial delays. Power outages remained an issue. More than 130,000 people were without power in West Virginia and Virginia as of Monday morning. The storm came on the last weekend before Christmas, and merchants feared they'd take a hit as the storm blew through, shutting people indoors. Crowds were unusually light Sunday morning at the Providence Place mall in downtown Providence, where Reuben Tillman III, a salesman at Champs Sports, said he had made only one sale in his first couple of hours at work. But I do have a theory: Everybody who's here has a SUV,he said.This is happy truck day.Tillman predicted that business would be booming closer to Christmas, with people who opted to stay home on Sunday doing last-minute shopping on Tuesday and Wednesday.

The storm yielded record snowfall totals at several locations. The 16 inches recorded Saturday at Reagan National Airport outside Washington was the most ever for a December day. Philadelphia, which recorded 23.2 inches, had its second-largest snowfall since it began keeping records in 1884. The storm began wreaking misery Friday in South Florida, where it caused flooding and knocked out electricity in the Carolinas before turning to snow as it moved north. Four people were killed in accidents on snow-covered roads in Ohio, Virginia and West Virginia. Another death in Virginia is believed to have been caused by exposure, and authorities there said the weather may have contributed to another traffic death. In Pennsylvania, a 20-year-old man was killed Saturday afternoon when the snowmobile he was driving crashed head-on into a horse-drawn buggy. The two people in the buggy were unhurt. In western North Carolina, a man was killed when his car slid down an embankment. A plow truck driver was found dead in his truck with the motor running Sunday on New York's Long Island, but it was unclear whether his death was related to the storm, police said. Black ice will be a concern Monday night after sunshine and a little bit of melting,said Richard Castro, of the Weather Service in Upton, N.Y. Associated Press writers Eric Tucker in Providence, R.I.; Jim Fitzgerald in Pelham, N.Y.; Kiley Armstrong, Deepti Hajela and Ula Ilnytzky in New York City; and Nafeesa Syeed in Washington contributed to this report.

Gatwick, Luton airports re-open after heavy snow
Fri Dec 18, 9:05 am ET

LONDON (AFP) – Two London airports closed by heavy snowfall were reopened on Friday, but forecasters warned of a repeat of the bad weather that caused traffic chaos and closed schools across the southeast.In the busy run-up to Christmas and the New Year, the runways at Gatwick and Luton were closed overnight after they were covered in a blanket of snow. Flights were operating again by mid-morning.Heathrow Airport, the world's busiest international aviation hub, remained open.Hundreds of schools were closed on the last day of term, giving pupils an early start to their Christmas holidays, as between five and 15 centimetres of snow fell in some areas.The Queen's Sandringham Estate in Norfolk where she arrived on Wednesday for the annual Christmas celebrations with the rest of the royal family, was also hit by heavy snowfall.Hundreds of drivers had to spend the night in their cars in Kent, while police in neighbouring Essex reported 180 accidents overnight.Police in the worst-hit areas warned people to stay off the roads unless absolutely necessary, as forecasters predicted further heavy snow showers across the southeast on Friday.

Bookmakers William Hill have lowered the odds on London being covered in snow on Christmas Day next Friday to 9/4, from 8/1 just 10 days ago.

EARTH DESTROYED WITH THE EARTH

GENESIS 6:11-13
11 The earth also was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence.(WORLD TERRORISM,MURDERS)(HAMAS IN HEBREW IS VIOLENCE)
12 And God looked upon the earth, and, behold, it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted his way upon the earth.
13 And God said unto Noah, The end of all flesh is come before me; for the earth is filled with violence (TERRORISM)(HAMAS) through them; and, behold, I will destroy them with the earth.

EARTHQUAKES

MATTHEW 24:7-8
7 For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in divers places.
8 All these are the beginning of sorrows.

MARK 13:8
8 For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom:(ETHNIC GROUP AGAINST ETHNIC GROUP) and there shall be earthquakes in divers places, and there shall be famines and troubles: these are the beginnings of sorrows.

LUKE 21:11
11 And great earthquakes shall be in divers places, and famines, and pestilences; and fearful sights and great signs shall there be from heaven.

Underground tremors caused by moon, sun, Berkeley study finds
By Matt Krupnick Contra Costa Times Updated: 12/23/2009 10:03:46 PM PST

Rumbles deep underground are caused by water being controlled by the sun and moon, UC Berkeley seismologists have found in a new study that could lead to a better understanding of earthquakes.The study of a portion of the San Andreas fault revealed that underground fluids move like the tides, the scientists wrote in an article published Wednesday in the journal Nature. Geologists had long wondered what caused the frequent rumbling 15 miles below the surface, said co-author Roland Burgmann, a Berkeley professor of earth and planetary science.People had looked for those kinds of relationships for decades, said Burgmann, who wrote the paper with seismologist Robert Nadeau and doctoral student Amanda Thomas.Now, with these tremors, there's a very strong relationship.Highly pressurized water essentially lubricates certain faults, including the San Andreas in California, far below the portion of the fault that causes measurable earthquakes, scientists found. Geologists previously were not sure whether water existed at that depth, Nadeau said.

The relationship between the deep tremors and earthquakes remains unclear, he said. Scientists have measured a burst of the tremors before at least one quake, Nadeau said, although it is not clear whether such measurements can be used to predict earthquakes.The discovery will help scientists better understand faults, Nadeau said.
People didn't know how to look for (tremors) before, he said, calling the discovery a Rosetta stone that will help translate the rumbling into more useful data.Among the next questions: Are the tremors increasing stress on a locked portion of the San Andreas north of San Juan Bautista? Seismologists believe that stretch of the fault may be overdue for a large earthquake.

The group measured the tremors near the seismically active town of Parkfield, where seismologists have spent years tracking the movement of the San Andreas. The deep, low-frequency shaking does not register a magnitude on seismographs, and the signals showing up on the measuring devices long were thought to be background noise — such as ocean waves or traffic.Though scientists noted that a major 2002 Alaska earthquake set off deep tremors on other parts of the planet, it was not previously known that the much more minute forces of the sun and moon could have a similar effect, said Kenneth Creager, a professor of earth sciences at the University of Washington.Seeing that (underground water) is sensitive to even smaller stresses is significant, he said, adding that he's curious to find out how the phenomenon is related to earthquakes.They could trigger (temblors), or they could help us predict an earthquake.Matt Krupnick covers higher education. Reach him at 925-943-8246.

DANIEL 7:23-24
23 Thus he said, The fourth beast(THE EU,REVIVED ROME) shall be the fourth kingdom upon earth,(7TH WORLD EMPIRE) which shall be diverse from all kingdoms, and shall devour the whole earth, and shall tread it down, and break it in pieces.(TRADE BLOCKS)
24 And the ten horns out of this kingdom are ten kings that shall arise:(10 NATIONS) and another shall rise after them;(#11 SPAIN) and he shall be diverse from the first, and he shall subdue three kings.(BE HEAD OF 3 KINGS OR NATIONS).

Swedish EU presidency marked by Nordic efficiency Filling the EU's new top jobs was a bit like solving a Rubik's cube, Swedish PM Fredrik Reinfeldt said (Photo: Gunnar Seijbold/Swedish government )VALENTINA POP 23.12.2009 @ 17:20 CET

EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS – Cool-tempered and efficient, Swedish officials in the past six months managed to steer the EU out of the institutional crisis surrounding the Lisbon Treaty and to mitigate infighting between member states on the bloc's top jobs, climate change and financial supervision. Having kicked off on 1 July, the Swedish chairmanship of the EU came at a time of institutional limbo which hijacked politicians' and media attention from the issues of climate change and the economic crisis, which formed Sweden's original priorities.The Swedish EU presidency was effective in securing the Lisbon Treaty to come into force on 1 December and in managing the transition from the old treaty, EU commission president Jose Manuel Barroso said earlier this month in Strasbourg.After a second Irish referendum on the Lisbon Treaty in September approving the document,the unexpected happened when Czech President Vaclav Klaus tabled fresh demands in order to complete the ratification of the document in all 27 member states, said Swedish Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt in the EU parliament in December.We managed to do this without new demands coming from other states, he recalled, admitting he was relieved when the treaty finally entered into force on 1 December.

The re-appointment of Jose Manuel Barroso at the helm of the EU commission was no less challenging, with national governments preferring to delay a formal appointment over the summer in order to secure better portfolios for their commission nominees in the next cabinet.It was a period of institutional change and we welcomed the eventual re-appointment of Mr Barroso, as a stable counterpart for the Swedish EU presidency, Mr Reinfeldt said.Once the Czech signature had been secured, the Swedish premier's mediating skills were tested in getting an agreement on the bloc's newly created top jobs – that of a standing president of the European Council and of a high representative for foreign policy, which will also be a vice-president of the commission.During a period of over two weeks in which Mr Reinfeldt phoned all the 26 other EU leaders several times, agreement seemed impossible. At one point, EU affairs minister Cecilia Malmstrom admitted the situation was a mess, mentioning the possibility of extending a one-day special summit on the issue for several days.

Maybe he could have moved faster on the appointments, convene a summit faster. It became a media issue when it shouldn't have, just because it took so long to get to an agreement, an EU official told this website.Mr Reinfeldt deflected such criticism when addressing the EU plenary in December. It takes time to co-ordinate 27 member states, otherwise the EU is managed by just a few. We have taken that time, he said.

Back in November, Mr Reinfeldt did not shy away from publicly warning against a Franco-German deal on who would get the top jobs. It is not just about two telling us what to do and then thinking we have the answer,he said at the time.The deal came about on 19 November, with Belgian premier Herman Van Rompuy on 1 January set to become the first permanent chairman of EU leaders' meetings for two years and a half. Surprise candidate Catherine Ashton from Great Britain became the new foreign policy supremo.Meanwhile, the Swedes were pressing EU leaders to come up with a common position and precise figures to be tabled at a UN climate change summit in Copenhagen, which, in the end, failed to secure any binding emission targets. An EU offer, deemed disappointing by poor countries and green groups, was finally put on the table just before the two-week event in the Danish capital.On financial supervision - a hot topic as the EU emerged from its worst recession since the 1930s - the deal achieved under the Swedish EU presidency was criticised by Mr Barroso as being diluted too much from the initial proposals tabled by the commission. Three new supervisory bodies were created, but a complex appeals procedure effectively gives member states a veto on their decisions under certain circumstances. The European Parliament has also indicated it is unhappy with the agreement. The parliament was also outraged by a deal struck by the Swedish presidency with the US on transfer of banking data for counter-terrorist measures. The provisional deal, approved by EU justice ministers on 30 November, came just one day before the Lisbon Treaty allowed the legislature to have a bigger say on the matter.Washington was pressing to have the deal in the bag before the end of the year, otherwise a legal limbo could have emerged, since a large database on financial transactions was soon to be relocated from the US to Europe, leaving US investigators with no access to this information. The deal is valid for nine months, with the parliament then being fully involved in the drafting of a comprehensive agreement in this area.

Nordic discipline

Coming after a chaotic six months of the EU's stewardship by the Czech presidency, which is chiefly remembered for the collapse of the Czech government and a series of gaffes, the Swedes brought a different tone to Brussels.We've tried to instill some Nordic discipline as to openness and transparency in the works of the EU council, foreign minister Carl Bildt said in December during his wrap-up of the Swedish presidency in front of the parliament's foreign affairs committee.I don't consider it an unmitigated success, there is still something like a Brussels disease which hopefully will be cured by the Lisbon Treaty, he added.Traditionally pro-transparency, the Swedes opened up to the public a few parts of the various meetings of EU ministers, in a move linked to provisions in the Lisbon Treaty. The presidency website, blogs, Twitter and Facebook accounts of Swedish officials proved valuable sources of information for Brussels journalists. Frequently asked questions, such as the menu of the leaders' dinner at summits, were promptly answered and even led to special features and webcasts on the presidency website.The idea of one British journalist to make a Rubik's cube with all the potential candidates for the top jobs was picked up not only by Mr Reinfeldt, who held up the cube in front of photographers at the 19 November summit, but also by the Swedish press team who interviewed Erno Rubik, the Hungarian inventor of the toy.

Slovenia still holding back Croatia on EU path
VALENTINA POP 22.12.2009 @ 09:27 CET

EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - Croatia on Monday (21 December) closed two more negotiation chapters in its bid to join the EU, but Slovenia is blocking the opening of three other areas.Croatia's accession negotiations are in the final and decisive phase, Gordan Jandrokovic, Croatian minister for European integration said at a press conference in Brussels.We are confident that we can bring negotiations to a successful end in the middle of 2010, he added.Zagreb finalised negotiations in the areas of free movement of services and social policy. But in the meantime, Slovenia has blocked the opening of further negotiations on fisheries, environment and foreign and security policy.Slovenian foreign minister Samuel Zbogar confirmed that opening the chapters would not be approved, saying it was a question of the process of harmonising the opening of the chapter and that the point of having a solution has yet to be reached.Mr Zbogar said that Slovenia, as well as all the other EU member states, have the right to essential doubts regarding specific chapters.

For the past year, Ljubljana has blocked Zagreb's accession talks over a maritime border dispute. The deadlock was broken in mid-November when Croatian Prime Minister Jadranka Kosor signed an agreement with her Slovenian counterpart to allow for UN arbitration of the matter.Slovenia is the only republic of the former Yugoslavia currently in the EU, while Croatia is hoping to become the 28th member of the bloc by 2012. We regret that several chapters in which Croatia is completely ready will not be opened today, Mr Jandrokovic said.Swedish foreign minister Carl Bildt tried to reassure his Croatian colleagues that the accession process was still on the right track.I hope that [Slovenian opposition] can be sorted out fairly soon ...I take that for granted, he said, as the Swedish EU presidency draws to an end.Zagreb still has to tackle some of the tougher policy areas, such as judicial reform, the fight against corruption and competition in order to finalise the negotiations with the EU. Question marks over its compliance with the war crimes tribunal in The Hague also hang over its EU bid.

Charities urge EU ministers to visit Gaza
ANDREW RETTMAN 22.12.2009 @ 09:28 CET

EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - A coalition of 16 aid groups has urged the EU's new foreign relations chief to visit Gaza as part of an effort to end Israel's blockade of the strip. EU heads of states, foreign and development ministers and the EU's new High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy should visit Gaza for themselves to better understand the impact of the blockade, the group, which includes Amnesty International and Oxfam, said in a report out on Tuesday (22 December).A visit to Gaza should be part of every European high-level visit to Israel and the occupied Palestinian territory.The report, timed to coincide with the one year anniversary of a major Israeli assault on Gaza, highlights how few senior EU officials have recently made it to the Palestinian territory, which is controlled by Hamas, an organisation classified as a terrorist entity by the union.The Swedish foreign minister, the British and Dutch development ministers and the Quartet's [the EU, US, UN and Russia] special envoy, former British premier Tony Blair, are the only European VIPs to visit the strip since the Israeli attack in December last year. Israeli authorities earlier this month stopped a delegation of nine MEPs from entering Gaza after saying the EU is marginalising itself in the peace process by taking a pro-Palestinian line on the future status of Jerusalem.

The EU's new foreign relations chief, Catherine Ashton, is due to visit the region in late January or early February.Her itinerary has not yet been confirmed. But her recent speech to the European Parliament, criticising Israeli actions in East Jerusalem, drew a rebuke from Israel's deputy foreign minister, Danny Ayalon, who compared the EU and the UN to the Roman Empire as powers seeking to cut off the city. Israel controls five of the crossings into the isolated Gaza strip, with Egypt operating the sixth entry point, which also remains under tight restrictions. The aid agencies say the Israeli bombardment last year destroyed over 6,300 homes in Gaza, as well as damaging schools, hospitals, power plants and water sanitation facilities, leaving 600,000 tonnes of rubble to clear as well as causing large-scale civilian deaths.The blockade has seen just four trucks a month of construction materials allowed into the strip over the past year. It has also strangled the local economy, where over 70 percent of people live on less than $1 a day. The wretched reality endured by 1.5 million people in Gaza should appal anybody with an ounce of humanity. Sick, traumatised and impoverished people are being collectively punished by a cruel, illegal policy,Amnesty International activist Kate Allen said.Those who want Gaza to have free access to the world should first and foremost endeavour to stop the Hamas rule of terror, so that crossings to Israel and to Egypt can be operated without fear,Israeli foreign ministry spokesman Yigal Palmor told Israeli daily Haaretz.

Latvian court ruling targets EU-IMF bailout
ANDREW WILLIS 22.12.2009 @ 09:19 CET

Latvia's constitutional court has ruled against government pension cuts, drawing a question mark over the country's ability to meet the terms of an international lending programme. The decision to cut pensions violated the individual's right to social security and the principle of the rule of law, the court said in its judgement, which cannot be appealed, on Monday (21 December).The pension cuts - in place since July - formed a vital part of the Latvian government's list of austerity measures, as it struggles to bring down its ballooning budget deficit and comply with terms under an EU and IMF-led bailout. The court ruled that the cuts - weighing in at between 10 and 70 percent of a pension depending on an individual's status - were illegal and parliament must have measures in place to rescind them by March 2010.Added to this, the government must pay back the cut money - estimated to be in the region of €250 million - no later than 2015. Roughly 9,000 pensioners had lodged complaints with the constitutional court. In handing down its ruling, the court said agreements signed with international lenders in and of themselves cannot serve as an argument about the limiting of basic rights.It added that lawmakers who approved the rushed-through cuts had not evaluated carefully the alternatives.

Tough times

The fractious coalition government of the small Baltic state of 2.2 million people is currently battling with an extremely tough economic situation after a decade-long boom imploded in 2008.Monday's court decision is a further challenge for centre-right Prime Minister Valdis Dombrovskis, with unemployment already exceeding 20 percent and the economy set to shrink by 18 percent this year. Austerity measures provoked civil unrest earlier this year, with more structural and fiscal reforms demanded under the terms of the EU and IMF-designed €7.5 billion aid package, which is being paid out in installments. Cutbacks will now have to come from other sectors, said the government, with spending in most areas already pared to the bone.

As Latvia is committed next year to meeting a certain level of public deficit ...in order to meet targets there would need to be spending cuts in other areas, the finance ministry said in a statement.

EU carbon prices fall following Copenhagen flop
LEIGH PHILLIPS 22.12.2009 @ 09:33 CET

Carbon prices tumbled on Monday (21 December) as the ramifications of the Copenhagen Accord, cobbled together in the dying hours of last week's UN climate summit, filtered through the markets.EU allowances skidded 8.7 percent in early trading to €12.40 a tonne, the biggest decline in almost a year. The accord, neither legally binding nor formally adopted by the delegates to the UN process, has been lambasted by pundits as an empty document and is now being pummelled by the markets.Carbon market traders were looking for some language that would have suggested a tightening of the amount of carbon permits available, in particular a move on the part of the EU from a 20 percent cut in emissions on 1990 levels by 2020 to a 30 percent cut.

The EU had promised to make the jump if other powers made similarly ambitious moves.
Ultimately, the EU assessed that other offers of emissions reduction commitments did not warrant such an increase.Cutting emissions increases demand for EU carbon allowances. In the absence of such a restriction of the market, it was expected that the price would fall.Experts say that carbon requires a relatively steady price of around €40 a tonne in order to spur industrial investment in cleaner technologies.