14 June 2002
Royal rent row
Recent Jubilee celebrations for the reign of Britain's Queen Elizabeth II have focussed media attention on the value of the monarchy and the spotlight has now fallen on Kensington Palace, formerly the London home of the late Princess Diana. Located in one of the most prestigious districts of the capital, it is currently home to Prince and Princess Michael of Kent, who occupy a ten-room apartment. But public indignation has been aroused with the news that they only pay around 10.000 euro rental per year. Scrutineering British Parliamentary watchdogs had tough advice for Prince Michael. On a visit to the Kensington Palace, parliamentarian Alan Williams suggested it was time the Prince "moved out". His colleague, Ian Davidson noted, "Prince and Princess Michael of Kent undertake no public duties whatsoever, yet live in a royal palace at a peppercorn rent. That is just outrageous". Market rate rentals for similar apartments in the area would cost the Kents ten times as much as they currently pay and the row comes in the middle of an accommodation crisis for low paid city workers in the British capital.
Czech candidates rally before vote
Aiming to enliven voters in the final hours of the Czech Republic's general election campaign, Civic Democracts leader Vaclav Klaus has held a rally in Prague's Old Town Square. The voting takes place on Friday and Saturday. The right-winger, who is endorsed by sports and pop stars, wants pensions and spending reform, and urges caution as the country edges towards EU membership in 2004. Also doing his bit to inject some life into the campaign is leftwinger Vladimir Spidla. He wants to build a Scandinavian-style welfare system and strongly supports joining the EU. But despite their smiles in front of the cameras neither Spidla nor Klaus is likely to find it easy to win control - the polls suggest they will get around 30 per cent of the vote each, and may have to work hard to build a coalition government.
French Prime Minister's PR rally raided
In the second phase of France's national elections, the country's new Prime Minister, Jean-Pierre Raffarin, has been drumming up support in the provinces. But his public relations exercise was ambushed by Socialist Party Secretary, Francois Hollande, who utilised his position as Mayor of Tulle to welcome the visiting premier to the town. The media hijack was concluded with a formal exchange of political sound bites, after which the serious business of pressing the electoral flesh was pursued with classic Gallic vigour. According to opinion polls, the centre-right, led by President Chirac's "Union pour la Majorité Presidentiel" party, looks almost certain to trounce the left and win a commanding National Assembly majority in the runoff round of elections to the lower house this Sunday.
Fresh twist to German food scare
More than 400 German cattle, pig and poultry farms have ground to a halt after it was found they had been using feed contaminated with a cancer-causing chemical. At first it was thought only organic farms were affected, but now these conventional producers have also been placed under quarantine. Seventy-two tonnes of organic wheat, tainted with Nitrofen, were used to produce the animal food. German Agriculture Minister Renate Kunast insists its all under control, "The most important thing is consumer protection," she said, "That is why it is right to close the farms, to test them and then to allow them to open again so that its clear the farmers have an interest in public safety." The source of the contamination is a cereal supplier in the eastern town of Malchin. While converting from conventional to
US scraps missile treaty for defensive shield
The United States is to build a missile defence shield after officially scrapping its Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty with Russia yesterday. Successful testing of an interceptor missile system has persuaded the Pentagon that a basic missile defence can be in place within two years. Concern over the threat from rogue nuclear nations convinced President George W Bush to announce the abandonment of the ABM Treaty last December. He told a press conference, "I have concluded that the ABM Treaty hinders our government's ability to develop ways to protect our people from future terrorists or rogue state missile attacks." The Treaty was originally signed in Moscow in 1972 by President Richard Nixon and Soviet leader, Leonid Brezhnev, and banned all development of missile defence systems. But despite early objections, Russia raised no major protest to US plans at this weeks G8 summit.
A United Nations food summit has drawn to a close with a renewed pledge to half world hunger by 2015. The meeting came to an end after four days of controversy. Although some eighty world leaders attended, the heads of hardly any western powers showed up, leading to charges that industrialised nations were indifferent to the plight of the estimated 800 million people who go hungry every day. Senegal's Jacques Diouf, holding the final press conference, denied that the organisation is a money wasting empire in itself. He said they are fighting a new global war, against hunger and poverty. However he has come in for criticism for demanding an additional $24 billion a year in farm development aid. Meanwhile France's infamous anti-globalisation protester Jose Bove lead a demonstration near the venue, against GM foods.