(EC vice-president Jacques) Barrot said the European Union was encouraging and helping the authorities of Western Balkan countries in the fight against xenophobia, racism, and discrimination, particularly against Roma or Gypsies.
"We don't want to judge you, but to help you and open the doors of
If the EC is not going to judge
The rush to embrace
The sweet assessment of Croatia is also the same tired stuff we’ve seen from the EU in recent years, particularly in the cases of Serbia and Bosnia: Tell a country it must do X and Y or it won’t move closer to the Union; then, when the country doesn’t do X or Y, or even try to appear as though it may one day do X or Y, allow the country to move closer to the Union anyway, thus undermining any and all credibility the EU may have had. Such has been the case with
One bright spot in this is that no matter how far the EU bends over backwards to help usher in Croatia, the Union won’t be able to invite any new members to join until the 27 member countries ratify the Lisbon Treaty – which doesn’t look promising after Ireland’s recent resounding “no” on the treaty’s referendum.
Italian Police Arrest 47
Corruption news
The Russian Duma Monday approved the first reading of an anti-corruption bill submitted by Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev, reported the Moscow Times. The bill, if it passes a second reading next month, outlines the changes that anti-corruption crusader Medvedev has clamored for since his election in March: Federal ministers and their families will have to declare their assets and income, officials leaving government jobs will have to have permission from their former bosses to work for companies they dealt with while in government office, and officials who receive gifts worth more than 5,000 rubles ($185) will have to turn the gifts over to the state. Communist Party deputy Viktor Ilyukhin said his committee would push for amendments to the bill that would allow the assets of corrupt officials to be confiscated, and expand the type of relatives of state officials who are to declare their income and assets. That would now include parents, siblings and adult children.
Engineering giant Siemens announced last week that it had set aside €1 billion to settle damages in corruption cases in the US and Germany. The company acknowledged dubious payments to secure contracts in various countries, in a corruption scandal that came to light last year. Also last year, Siemens agreed to pay a €201 million fine that would bring to end the corruption investigation in
In
Russian mob group in US southwest
The
The bust was made after undercover officers infiltrated the group and began trading and selling purported stolen merchandise to the owners of the stores, according to Sgt. Mark Robinson, a Tucson Police Department spokesman.
It was determined that the group in
Robinson told the Tucson Citizen that the men had been charged with trafficking stolen jewelry and high-value coins worth more than $100,000, and with trafficking marijuana and other narcotics. Police reckoned the crimes had a national and international angle, as the suspects were wiring money to
A man reported as “one of Greece’s most notorious protection racketeers” was shot dead by two gunmen on a motorcycle that pulled up next to his car at a traffic light last weekend, reported the daily Kathimerini.
Alekos Kosmopoulos, 47, was linked to a high-profile bloody battle between underworld figures in the late 1980s and was convicted of the murder of a former associate a few years later.
Police said that Kosmopoulos resumed his criminal activities after being released from jail, but over the past few years had maintained a much lower profile. In view of this, officers believe that his murder is likely to have been a settling of old scores or a contract killing.
Police said that two gunmen shot Kosmopoulos several times before riding off. No description of the suspects was issued by late last night.
Microsoft: Organized Crime on ‘Net
Software giant Microsoft’s latest research shows that organized crime on the Internet is increasing, reports ITbusiness.ca.
After dryly discussing hackers attacking operating systems versus attacking applications, and making the earth-shattering observation that “the majority of today’s malicious activities are driven by a motive for financial gain,” Microsoft
“These will be boxes like, ‘You have spyware, so click here for free software to get your computer clean,'” he said. “Depending on the intensity and severity of this, your computer can then be breached and compromised. We saw 86,000 variants of Zlob in the last six months and we feel the reason this number is so high is because there's a financial upside to it.”