Europe needs a youth jobs plan - govts
Europe must urgently tackle youth unemployment, the French, German and Italian governments said on Tuesday, urging action to rescue an entire generation who fear they will not find jobs.
Ministers called for a mixture of measures including helping small companies and boosting apprenticeships.
Some 7.5 million Europeans aged 15-24 are neither in employment nor in education or training, according to EU data. Youth unemployment in the EU stood at 23.6% in January, more than twice as high as the adult rate.
"We have to rescue an entire generation of young people who are scared. We have the best-educated generation and we are putting them on hold. This is not acceptable," Italian Labour Minister Enrico Giovannini told a conference in Paris.
Germany in particular, weary of a backlash as many in crisis-hit European countries blame it for austerity, has over the past weeks taken steps to tackle unemployment, striking bilateral deals with Spain and Portugal.
Its labour and finance ministers told the conference that, to help young people find jobs, Europe must continue on the path of structural reforms to boost its competitiveness as well as make good use of available EU funds, including €6bn that leaders have set aside for youth employment for 2014-20.
"We need to be more successful in our fight against youth unemployment, otherwise we will lose the battle for Europe's unity," German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble said.
While Germany insists on the importance of budget consolidation, Schaeuble spoke of the need to preserve Europe's welfare model.
If US welfare standards were introduced in Europe, "we would have revolution, not tomorrow, but on the very same day," Schaeuble told students at the Sciences PO political science institute hosting the conference.
While all agreed on the urgency needed to tackle youth unemployment, ministers offered no concrete plans, insisting Europe must be pragmatic and work on various strands.
Schaeuble said this was why Germany had also decided to strike deals with countries such as Spain and Greece.
"Let's be honest, there is no quick fix, there is no grand plan," said Werner Hoyer, head the European Investment Bank.
Together with ministers, he said policies aimed at boosting youth employment must focus on small and medium-sized enterprises as they are the main entry point to the labour market for most.
More than half of Spain's under 25-year-olds are jobless, as are nearly 40% in Portugal. In Greece, youth unemployment shot to a record 64% in February.
In March 2013, the lowest youth unemployment rates were in Germany and Austria, both below 8%, highlighting the wide disparities within the EU.
The youth employment crisis will be a central theme of a June EU leaders' summit, and German Chancellor Angela Merkel has invited EU labour ministers to a youth unemployment conference in Berlin on July 3.
Following up on an idea aired earlier this month, French President Francois Hollande urged the euro zone to work towards a joint economic government with its own budget which could take on specific projects including tackling youth unemployment.
Bashir threatens to cut South Sudan oil
Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir warned on Monday he will order the flow of oil from South Sudan to be cut off if Juba provides assistance to rebels in South Kordofan and Darfur.
Bashir said he would "completely close the pipeline" that carries oil from South Sudan to ports on Sudan's Red Sea coast.
He was speaking at a ceremony after the army recaptured Abu Kershola town in the far north of oil-rich South Kordofan, which rebels seized a month ago.
In March Sudan and South Sudan, which split from Khartoum in July 2011, signed detailed timetables to resume the flow of South Sudan oil through a major pipeline in the north that runs to a port on the Red Sea, and eight other pacts to normalise relations.
Bashir said on Monday that all of the nine agreements must be respected.
"Failure to abide by any agreement will nullify the nine accords," he said.
Bashir's remarks come less than a month after the Khartoum government announced that South Sudanese petroleum had returned to Sudan's main Heglig facility.
Heglig, along the disputed border with South Sudan, is where the export pipeline begins a journey of about 1 500 kilometres (930 miles) to the Port Sudan terminal on the Red Sea.
The pipeline will carry oil that will bring billions of dollars in revenue to both impoverished nations once exports resume.
But Khartoum accuses South Sudan of backing rebels fighting in South Kordofan and Blue Nile states as well as in Darfur claims which Juba denies.
Gibril Adam, a spokesperson for the rebels, said the fighters pulled out of Abu Kershola to ease a government blockade on the town that was taking its toll on residents there.
Crisis-hit Italians swap cars for bikes
Bikes are outselling cars in cash-strapped Italy, but while cyclists in Milan say their city is ready for a two-wheel lifestyle, there are daily nuisances for riders on Rome's busy streets.
Some cities in Italy have bike-sharing initiatives, bike paths and public awareness schemes, while cyclists are still barely tolerated in others.
Giulietta Pagliaccio, head of the Italian Federation of Friends of the Bicycle, said: "The economic crisis has had repercussions for everyone, including in transport.
"There's been a small revolution in terms of lifestyle.
"We have seen a lot of people who have re-discovered this means of transport because it's ease, it's simplicity, its speed for short distances... " she said.
There were 2 000 more bicycles sold than cars in Italy in 2011 - a differential that rose to more than 200 000 units last year, according to figures from an association of biking businesses and the transport ministry.
The car sector has been hit by what the head of auto giant Fiat, Sergio Marchionne, dubs "Carmageddon" - with a 20% drop in sales in 2012.
Pagliaccio said Rome was a particularly "difficult" city for cyclists and that in general conditions were worse in the southern half of the country, with poorer quality roads and few bicycle paths.
Benefits
She said mentalities were beginning to change, except for a few motor die-hards "who would drive from their bedroom to the kitchen if they could" - but that politicians remained "very behind" in terms of bike-friendly policies.
"They are afraid of losing votes.
"It's terrifying since everything is done in this perspective, without a long-term urban vision," she said.
Piero Nigrelli, head of bicycles of an association of biking businesses, said it was "breathtaking to what point politicians lack awareness of the bicycle's value".
He said Germany boasts about seven million cycling tourists a year who generate €9bn in turnover and only "a modest investment in bike paths" would be needed to bring such benefits to Italy.
In the Italian capital, those who use existing routes complain of daily trials, from junk strewn across the paths, to stretches along the riverbank which periodically flood and in one case a path blocked by a sprawling Roma camp.
Famed for its annual Giro d'Italia bike race, Italy has yet to embrace bicycles as a form of transport, though a "Bikemi" bike-sharing scheme in Milan has been enthusiastically received by locals and sales in foldable models are on the up.
Specialist shops in the economic capital have begun stocking bikes specifically designed for urban life, such as the British Brompton model, which folds up neatly and has a handle so it can be pulled along like a suitcase.
The world's oldest bicycle-making company, Bianchi, famed for kitting out biking champions such as Fausto Coppi, has branched out into electric bicycles to meet a growing demand from Italians keen to swap four wheels for two.
"Customers are asking now for high-range commuter models...they are looking for a long-term investment that supports the idea that they are turning away from the car," said Bob Ippolito, head of Bianchi.
Commuter bikes are now the company's fastest selling models - up 35% last year - which is partly because some customers "instead of having two cars, now prefer to have a car and a bicycle", he said.
Romanians protest shale gas plans
Thousands of Romanians protested on Monday against plans by the US company Chevron to explore for shale gas in eastern Romania.
"I have three children and I want them to grow up within a safe environment with clean water. Exploring for shale gas threatens to contaminate ground water," Alina Secrieru, a 39-year old nurse from the Barlad region told AFP.
"No fracking", "Chevron go home", "We say no to shale gas", read some of the banners carried by protesters who came from Barlad and surrounding villages.
Chevron obtained a vast concession in this poor and rural area of Romania to prospect for shale gas.
"This area survives on agriculture. If our water gets contaminated by the extraction of shale gas, agriculture will die and this area as well," said Constantin, a water specialist who was among the protesters.
He refused to give his last name out of fear of losing his job as most of the local politicians are now defending shale gas drilling.
Chevron has said in the past that all its activities "have, and will continue to be conducted in compliance with Romanian laws, EU requirements and stringent industry standards."
Shale gas drilling has fuelled controversy around the world.
The technique to extract the gas, hydraulic fraction or fracking, has been banned in countries such as France and Bulgaria but is widely used in some US states.
Fracking is a process whereby liquid products, including water and chemicals, are pumped deep into oil or gas-bearing rock to cause fractures and release the hydrocarbons.
Environmentalists say the method poses serious threats that include contaminating ground water and triggering earthquakes.
Romania together with Britain, Hungary, Poland and Spain strongly pleaded for developing shale energy during the last European council on energy.
Protesters lashed at centre-left Prime Minister Victor Ponta, accusing him of flip-flopping on his position against shale gas.
Ponta, in power since May 2012, had slammed the previous government's decision to grant Chevron and other oil groups concessions to prospect for shale gas.
His government last year adopted a moratorium on drilling, putting Chevron's operations on hold.
But since the moratorium expired in December, Ponta said he was in favour of exploration.
"Politicians have let us down but we want to remind them that the people in this area are against the exploration of shale gas. People here care about their environment" said Lulu Finaru, a notary who helped organise the protest.
A US Energy Information Administration study said the joint reserves for Romania, Bulgaria and Hungary were around 538 billion cubic metres (19 trillion cubic feet), among the biggest in eastern Europe.
China 'steals' Australia spy agency plans
Chinese hackers have stolen top-secret
blueprints to Australia's new intelligence agency headquarters, a report said
on Tuesday, but Foreign Minister Bob Carr insisted ties with Beijing would not be hurt.
The Australian Broadcasting Corporation said the documents taken in the cyber hit included cabling layouts for the huge building's security and communications systems, its floor plan, and its server locations.
Carr said the government was "very alive" to the threat of cyber attacks on national security, adding that "nothing that is being speculated about takes us by surprise".
But he refused to confirm or deny China was behind the attack.
"I won't comment on whether the Chinese have done what is being alleged or not," he said.
"I won't comment on matters of intelligence and security for the obvious reason: We don't want to share with the world and potential aggressors what we know about what they might be doing, and how they might be doing it."
'Enormous areas of co-operation'
While Australia has a long-standing military alliance with the United States, China is its largest trading partner and the two countries have been forging closer ties.
Carr insisted that the relationship would not be damaged by the allegations, which follow several other hacking attacks on government facilities in the past two years.
"It's got absolutely no implications for a strategic partnership," he said. "We have enormous areas of co-operation with China."
The revelations saw Canberra came under pressure to launch an independent inquiry into the "sorry saga" by opposition politicians, but Prime Minister Julia Gillard declined to comment on "these unsubstantiated reports".
The state broadcaster's investigative Four Corners programme said the attack on a contractor involved with building the new Canberra headquarters of the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation was traced to a server in China.
It cited security experts as saying the theft exposed the agency to being spied on and may be the reason for a cost blowout and delays to the opening of the building, which was supposed to be operational last month.
Deepening concern
Des Ball, from the Australian National University's Strategic and Defence Studies Centre, said the blueprints would show which rooms were likely to be used for sensitive conversations, and how to put devices into the walls.
"Once you get those building plans you can start constructing your own wiring diagrams, where the linkages are through telephone connections, through wi-fi connections," he was quoted as saying.
The report, which did not say when the alleged theft took place, comes amid deepening concern about aggressive state-sponsored hacking by China.
In 2011, the computers of Australia's prime minister, foreign minister and defence minister were all suspected of being hacked, with the attacks reportedly originating in China.
At the time, Canberra said cyber attacks had become so frequent that government and private networks were under "continuous threat".
Beijing dismissed the allegations as "groundless and made out of ulterior purposes".
Earlier this year, computer networks at the Reserve Bank of Australia were hacked, with some said to be infected by Chinese-developed malware searching for sensitive information.
This followed Chinese telecoms giant Huawei being barred in 2012 from bidding for contracts on Australia's ambitious $35bn broadband rollout due to fears of cyber attacks.
The Australian Broadcasting Corporation said the documents taken in the cyber hit included cabling layouts for the huge building's security and communications systems, its floor plan, and its server locations.
Carr said the government was "very alive" to the threat of cyber attacks on national security, adding that "nothing that is being speculated about takes us by surprise".
But he refused to confirm or deny China was behind the attack.
"I won't comment on whether the Chinese have done what is being alleged or not," he said.
"I won't comment on matters of intelligence and security for the obvious reason: We don't want to share with the world and potential aggressors what we know about what they might be doing, and how they might be doing it."
'Enormous areas of co-operation'
While Australia has a long-standing military alliance with the United States, China is its largest trading partner and the two countries have been forging closer ties.
Carr insisted that the relationship would not be damaged by the allegations, which follow several other hacking attacks on government facilities in the past two years.
"It's got absolutely no implications for a strategic partnership," he said. "We have enormous areas of co-operation with China."
The revelations saw Canberra came under pressure to launch an independent inquiry into the "sorry saga" by opposition politicians, but Prime Minister Julia Gillard declined to comment on "these unsubstantiated reports".
The state broadcaster's investigative Four Corners programme said the attack on a contractor involved with building the new Canberra headquarters of the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation was traced to a server in China.
It cited security experts as saying the theft exposed the agency to being spied on and may be the reason for a cost blowout and delays to the opening of the building, which was supposed to be operational last month.
Deepening concern
Des Ball, from the Australian National University's Strategic and Defence Studies Centre, said the blueprints would show which rooms were likely to be used for sensitive conversations, and how to put devices into the walls.
"Once you get those building plans you can start constructing your own wiring diagrams, where the linkages are through telephone connections, through wi-fi connections," he was quoted as saying.
The report, which did not say when the alleged theft took place, comes amid deepening concern about aggressive state-sponsored hacking by China.
In 2011, the computers of Australia's prime minister, foreign minister and defence minister were all suspected of being hacked, with the attacks reportedly originating in China.
At the time, Canberra said cyber attacks had become so frequent that government and private networks were under "continuous threat".
Beijing dismissed the allegations as "groundless and made out of ulterior purposes".
Earlier this year, computer networks at the Reserve Bank of Australia were hacked, with some said to be infected by Chinese-developed malware searching for sensitive information.
This followed Chinese telecoms giant Huawei being barred in 2012 from bidding for contracts on Australia's ambitious $35bn broadband rollout due to fears of cyber attacks.
N Korea kidnap numbers 'much higher'
The number of Japanese people kidnapped by
North Korea decades ago to train its spies may be far higher than previously
thought, a report said on Tuesday, citing a former Pyongyang agent.
Between 1965 and 1985, a team of around 120 North Korean troops repeatedly abducted young Japanese fishermen, the conservative Sankei Shimbun reported, citing a government interview with a formerly high ranking North Korean military official.
One of the missions involved the snatching of a man in his 30s from a boat in waters off Aomori prefecture in northern Japan, the report said. The vessel and its remaining four crew members were sunk, it said.
The issue of Japanese kidnapped by North Korea is a running sore in relations between the two countries.
Pyongyang admitted in 2002 its agents had snatched some young Japanese in what Tokyo said was an operation to train spies in Japanese language and customs.
Following a summit between then-prime minister Junichiro Koizumi and Kim Jong-Il, the late North Korean leader, five of those who were taken were allowed to return to Japan, along with their Korea-born offspring.
Pyongyang insisted at the time that all the others had died.
‘Acts of terrorism’
But suspicions persist in Japan that the isolated state has not come clean about the scope of its abductions and the issue colours all of Tokyo's dealings on North Korea.
Asked about the report, Keiji Furuya, the state minister in charge of the kidnap issue, declined to comment, saying he could not give specifics about what the government discovered.
Japanese officials say they believe many of the hostages are still alive, and say the kidnapping of at least 17 nationals during the 1970s and 1980s - some of whom were as young as 13 - were "acts of terrorism"
The Sankei report on Tuesday, which did not name the defector or say where the interview with him took place, comes as Japan has struck out alone to re-engage with North Korea.
Earlier this month a top aide to Prime Minister Shinzo Abe visited Pyongyang in a move that appeared to take Washington and Seoul by surprise.
The US and South Korea have pushed for North Korea to re-join a six-party forum, which also involves Japan, China and Russia.
Those talks, which were derailed by nuclear and missile tests that began at the end of 2012, are aimed at curbing North Korea's atomic ambitions.
But despite the keen threat felt by Tokyo, which lies within easy reach of North Korean weaponry, the kidnapping issue trumps all others because of its domestic resonance.
Japan would not resume aid to even a completely de-fanged North Korea unless all abduction cases have been settled, Furuya said earlier this month.
Between 1965 and 1985, a team of around 120 North Korean troops repeatedly abducted young Japanese fishermen, the conservative Sankei Shimbun reported, citing a government interview with a formerly high ranking North Korean military official.
One of the missions involved the snatching of a man in his 30s from a boat in waters off Aomori prefecture in northern Japan, the report said. The vessel and its remaining four crew members were sunk, it said.
The issue of Japanese kidnapped by North Korea is a running sore in relations between the two countries.
Pyongyang admitted in 2002 its agents had snatched some young Japanese in what Tokyo said was an operation to train spies in Japanese language and customs.
Following a summit between then-prime minister Junichiro Koizumi and Kim Jong-Il, the late North Korean leader, five of those who were taken were allowed to return to Japan, along with their Korea-born offspring.
Pyongyang insisted at the time that all the others had died.
‘Acts of terrorism’
But suspicions persist in Japan that the isolated state has not come clean about the scope of its abductions and the issue colours all of Tokyo's dealings on North Korea.
Asked about the report, Keiji Furuya, the state minister in charge of the kidnap issue, declined to comment, saying he could not give specifics about what the government discovered.
Japanese officials say they believe many of the hostages are still alive, and say the kidnapping of at least 17 nationals during the 1970s and 1980s - some of whom were as young as 13 - were "acts of terrorism"
The Sankei report on Tuesday, which did not name the defector or say where the interview with him took place, comes as Japan has struck out alone to re-engage with North Korea.
Earlier this month a top aide to Prime Minister Shinzo Abe visited Pyongyang in a move that appeared to take Washington and Seoul by surprise.
The US and South Korea have pushed for North Korea to re-join a six-party forum, which also involves Japan, China and Russia.
Those talks, which were derailed by nuclear and missile tests that began at the end of 2012, are aimed at curbing North Korea's atomic ambitions.
But despite the keen threat felt by Tokyo, which lies within easy reach of North Korean weaponry, the kidnapping issue trumps all others because of its domestic resonance.
Japan would not resume aid to even a completely de-fanged North Korea unless all abduction cases have been settled, Furuya said earlier this month.
