European commission president José Manuel Barroso says country should join in 2013 after six years of negotiations Croatia took its biggest step towards joining the EU as its 28th member state on Friday when the European commission said it was ready to close six years of negotiations. In a statement awaited with both hope and fear in Zagreb, José Manuel Barroso, the commission’s president, said Croatia should join the EU in July 2013. Stefan Fuele, the commissioner for enlargement in charge of the negotiations with Zagreb, said he was confident that all EU governments would support the recommendations. Britain, along with the Netherlands, has been the most reluctant EU country to give the green light to Croatia. Jadranka Kosor, the Croatian prime minister, made her first visit to Downing Street on Friday, reflecting her anxiety about UK opposition, but emerged from a meeting with David Cameron confident that the UK government would not veto entry. Membership negotiations for the small country of 4.5 million people have been troubled, lasting six years and taking longer than those for all of the eight former communist central European countries that joineden masse in 2004. The lengthy process reflected deep weariness across Europe over EU expansion, suggesting that the other five countries of the former Yugoslavia, as well as Albania, face a long slog to get in, despite promises to the Balkans from Brussels. For years, Croatia was also handicapped by its refusal to locate and hand over war crimes suspects for trial at the special tribunal in The Hague and a territorial waters dispute in the Adriatic with its neighbour Slovenia, which blocked negotiations for a year. The 27 governments of the EU still have to endorse Friday’s commission proposal, meaning that the British or the Dutch could yet delay agreement. An accession treaty then has to be agreed and signed by the end of the year, subjected to a referendum in Croatia and ratified by 27 parliaments. Battling widespread corruption, especially among the judiciary, courts, police and political elite in Zagreb, has been the biggest challenge for the Kosor government, with the EU setting tougher standards for entry because of blunders made on Bulgaria and Romania, which joined the EU in 2007. The EU shifted the goalposts at the last minute – at the insistence of the British, the French, and the Dutch – to demand a new process of monitoring Croatia’s compliance with its EU commitments over the next two years. If things go smoothly, Croatia’s entry will be hailed as a breakthrough, paving the way for the rest of the former Yugoslavia to join the EU less than two decades after the wars of the 1990s. But growing euroscepticism, populism, and nationalism across much of Europe could jeopardise such hopes. Croatia European Union Europe Ian Traynor guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …After more than 50 years, California is replacing 36 tombstones in an El Droado Hills cemetery inscribed with a racial epithet—and the words “US Government.” When the US Army Corps of Engineers relocated the cemetery from the Gold Rush-era settlement of Negro Hill to make way for a dam…
Continue reading …University of Toledo basketball star Naama Shafir won’t be allowed to compete in the upcoming European women’s championship unless she shows more skin, the sport’s European governing body has decided. Shafir, a point guard for the Israeli national team and an Orthodox Jew, wears a T-shirt under her jersey in…
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Student based in Italy ‘planned spectacular attack on Libyan embassy in Rome’ A Libyan student leader loyal to Colonel Muammar Gaddafi has been arrested in Italy, accused of planning to assassinate the Libyan rebels’ leading international representative and lead an attack on Libya’s embassy in Rome. Court documents released after the arrests of three men identified the intended victim of the plot as Abdel Rahman Shalgam, a former foreign minister who headed the Transitional National Council’s delegation to this week’s meeting of the Libyan contact group in Abu Dhabi. Shalgam, who was Gaddafi’s foreign minister from 2000 until 2009 and subsequently his ambassador to the UN, defected to the rebels on 25 February. The alleged mastermind of the plot to kill him is Nuri Ahusain, the head of the Libyan students’ union in Italy, who was arrested at his home in Perugia by anti-terrorist police on Thursday. Two other Libyans, aged 21 and 33, were detained in an earlier raid. The investigation is still in progress, and about 10 other people are understood to be suspects. Some details remain unclear, but the warrant for Ahusain’s arrest, issued by a judge in Perugia, said the student leader had made clear his “murderous intentions” towards Shalgam in a phone conversation on 29 May, unaware that police were listening in. He allegedly repeated his plan to kill the diplomat in another phone call the following day. The content of this second call indicated that the order for an attack on the Libyan embassy in Rome had come from Tripoli. Shalgam had arrived in the Italian capital a few days earlier. On 30 May, he appeared at a press conference at the embassy alongside eight Libyan army officers who announced their defection and said they were part of a group of up to 120 members of the military who had defected. The ambassador in Rome has also abandoned Gaddafi, and his embassy now flies the rebels’ red, black and green flag. Italian police followed Ahusain and two other men when they travelled to Rome on a suspected reconnaissance mission. The warrant for Ahusain said the plan foiled by police involved “storming the building in Rome that houses the current transitional Libyan government in Benghazi with the aim of driving out the present diplomatic representative”. Police said the attack was to have been carried out by Libyan students loyal to the regime, together with Algerian mercenaries recruited in Naples. Libya Middle East Muammar Gaddafi Italy Europe Arab and Middle East unrest John Hooper guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …A mom who likes to consider herself a ” Human Barbie ” had a special birthday surprise for her 7-year-old daughter: A voucher for a boob job. Daughter Poppy “begged me for a boob job, so I gave her the voucher so she can have it after she’s 16, when it’s legal,…
Continue reading …Electronic cigarettes don’t burn anything and emit an odorless vapor instead of smoke, but users say they sometime get treated as if they’d lit a reeking cigar. Use of the devices in places where cigarettes are banned has sparked fierce debate, and some states, cities, and workplaces have reworked smoking…
Continue reading …Universities asked to replace old degree classifications with new grading system
June 10, 2011 No Comment
Pilot scheme provides detailed reports of students’ abilities including module results and extra curricular achievements Every university in the country will be asked to adopt a new detailed electronic record of a student’s achievement to replace the “blunt instrument” of the traditional first, second or third-class honours degrees. The new higher education achievement report (HEAR), which gives an in-depth portrayal of students’ abilities, will be rolled out nationally from next autumn after being trialled at 27 universities this year. Robert Burgess, vice-chancellor of Leicester University and head of a steering group that has co-ordinated the new approach to measuring student performance, said the ambition was to replace the current “crude classification system”. Every university is being asked to take up the new system from next year to meet students’ expectations of a better service in exchange for higher fees, Burgess said. The two systems are due to run in parallel, but the expectation is that firsts and seconds will be phased out once employers become used to the richer information available in the new report. Describing the pilots, Burgess said: “We are producing information that drills down to modular level and indeed indicates whether a student does better at timed examinations, projects, dissertations, all those type of things. “The other thing is that the HEAR also records students’ achievements in extra-curricular activities – a student who has represented the university in terms of sport or perhaps been conductor of the university orchestra.” The Association of Graduate Recruiters (AGR) warned last year that firms had raised the bar on degrees amid fierce competition for graduate jobs, and graduates with a 2:2 or worse faced being filtered out by automated applications. While the graduate job market went on to improve during the year, with a surge in recruitment in the closing months of 2010, a survey for the AGR illustrated how sharply employers were discriminating on the basis of degrees. The poll found that nearly 78% were insisting on a 2:1. Universities including Leicester that have piloted the new system will award the first HEARs to graduates this summer. Burgess said that the “template is in place” for every institution to take up the scheme next year. Other universities that are already taking part in trials of the system include Bristol, Manchester, Newcastle, Plymouth and St Andrew’s. He said: “The intention is to propose to the sector, as from October 2012, that all students entering higher education institutions will get the opportunity to achieve a HEAR having worked with it through a three-year period.” The intention is to make the HEAR available to employers (with the student’s consent) before he or she graduates so it can be used in early job applications. Burgess said that over time, the detailed information available in the new record would make the traditional categories look “pretty much like blunt instruments”. “The summary — first, 2:1 and so on — is just that, a summary, it doesn’t give the richness of the experience. “In a situation where students are paying [higher] fees they’re going to expect a much more detailed evaluation of their performance and a detailed evaluation that can be given to employers and can be used in order to help them in their careers.” The vice-chancellor said that employers would be able to use the HEAR to match jobs with graduates on the basis of relevant skills. “If you’re choosing an employee on the basis they’ve got a 2:1 — how do you know what they’re really good at, were they really good in timed examinations? If that’s the only thing they’re good at, that’s not necessarily going to be a skill you really require.” Next year’s admissions round, when two-thirds of English universities are seeking to charge the maximum fee, will also see a more systematic use of background information in assessing candidates for places on degree courses. For the first time, the Universities and Colleges Admissions Service (UCAS) will provide universities with data on the GCSE and A-level performance of a candidate’s school, as well as figures for the percentage of pupils on free school meals at the applicant’s school. While some institutions already gather their own contextual data, others do not use any additional data when assessing candidates. Burgess, who is chairman of UCAS, urged universities to be cautious in the use of such data when selecting candidates. He told the Guardian: “Using contextual data in respect of selection is somewhat problematic. It may be seen as unfair if it looks like it is giving some students a helping hand in selection. “It is not as straightforward as some might think. A student might live in a desirable area, but their parents may not have professional jobs. Or they may have gone to independent school, but their parents have been working horrendous overtime hours to be able to pay for that.” The Office for Fair Access (Offa) is currently vetting universities’ plans to charge higher fees. In its submission to Offa, Cambridge has said that its “minimum objective” is simply to maintain the status quo in terms of its state school intake, because of the uncertainty over whether a fee rise will deter some applicants. Higher education Students Graduation Jeevan Vasagar guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …Gary Johnson won’t be joining other Republican hopefuls for CNN’s debate next week, and he’s hopping mad about it. The libertarian former New Mexico governor, who took part in the Fox News-sponsored GOP debate last month , says CNN is being “elitist” by not inviting him because of his low poll…
Continue reading …Two-year jail sentence for former neighbour who held a grudge against pet owner A man who kidnapped a bank director’s dog and demanded a ransom of £500, in revenge for her failure to help secure him a loan, has been jailed for two years. Gabriel Radzikowski, 29, was furious that his former neighbour Sara Lilly, 48, was unable to use her position as a regional director at a high-street bank to help him get a loan. He broke into the back garden of her home in Bath and stole her Yorkshire terrier, Bilbo Baggins. He later phoned her using a false name, claimed he had found the pet and demanded £500 for its safe return. But Lilly recognised his voice and called the police. Radzikowski dumped Bilbo in a freezing pond but a passer-by spotted the dog and plucked it to safety. Sentencing Radzikowski at Bristol crown court, Judge Michael Longman told him: “Your motive was financial and to get your own back. It was planned, calculated and cruel. You did not feel the slightest regret or remorse for your actions.” The court was told that Radzikowski had lived in the flat above Lilly’s but was forced to move out because he could not afford the rent. During their time as neighbours he asked her to secure him a bank loan that he had an “unreasonable expectation” of being granted. In December last year Lilly found her dog was missing. As she searched, she received a phone call from Radzikowski who pretended to be someone called Martin. He said he had found her dog and would only return it if she provided a £500 reward. She phoned the police and then received a call from a walker who had rescued the dog after spotting it bobbing in a small area of open water in an otherwise frozen pond. Lilly told the court that she was particularly upset because she was so close to her dog. She said: “I don’t have children so he is my child really in a certain way. He is my pet and I love him.” During his trial Radzikowski alleged that Lilly had tried to frame him because he had once turned down her offer to pay him £100 if he spent the night with her. Sentencing him, Judge Longman described his claims as scurrilous, adding: “You pleaded not guilty despite strong evidence and made scurrilous claims against Sara Lilly which took her aback in court. “You befriended Sara Lilly when you lived in her building. She was friendly and welcoming and you formed unreasonable expectations of how she could help you get a loan. When she couldn’t help you, you sought to take it out on her.” Radzikowski was sentenced to 12 months for blackmail and 12 months for intimidation, to be served consecutively. Crime Animals Steven Morris guardian.co.uk
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Cornwall council discussing imposing tax on visitors, saying it could raise £26m a year and improve county Cornish hoteliers, bed and breakfast owners and visitors have reacted angrily to an idea that a £1-a-night tax could be levied on tourists to the county. Cornwall council is discussing imposing the tax on visitors, arguing that it could raise £26m a year and help improve the county for both tourists and residents. However, many who work in the tourism industry have expressed concern that the measure would prompt some visitors to stay away. Andy Hannan, the mayor of Newquay in north Cornwall, was among those who said he was shocked at the idea. “I’m amazed, flabbergasted. This tax will put us at a disadvantage,” he said. “The fear is it will just disappear into the Cornwall council pot.” Kevin Oliver, the chairman of Cornwall Federation of Small Businesses, said: “I think it would be detrimental to the county’s economy. If you introduce a tourist tax, you turn people away from Cornwall – and why would anybody want to do that? It’s just a nonsense.” Gill Jenkins, who runs a B&B in Bodmin, said she feared a tax would act as a deterrent to would-be visitors. Julian Peck, a hotelier in Looe, south Cornwall, said a multi-million pound industry would be risked for the sake of “a quid”. He also pointed out that while £1 a night did not sound like much, it equated to more than £50 for a family of four staying for a fortnight. People who often holiday in Cornwall expressed distaste about the idea, some claiming they would never visit a part of the UK that effectively charged them for the privilege. Tom Flanagan, Cornwall council’s corporate director for the environment, planning and economy, raised the idea at a meeting of the communities and local government select committee. He argued that it could help mitigate the impact of central government cuts on areas such as public transport. However, he admitted that collecting the tax would be difficult. Cornwall council said it was one of a “range of ideas” being looked at. A spokesperson explained: “The suggestion to raise money to improve the local infrastructure in Cornwall by introducing a charge for tourists is not formal council policy at this time. “It is one of a range of ideas which are being considered by the council, and has not yet been discussed by councillors.” Cornwall United Kingdom Steven Morris guardian.co.uk
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