Catégorie : Politics

Published on Corriere della sera english, by Enrico Marro, Marzo 25, 2014 (English translation by Giles Watson).

Impeccably efficient and well worth a full bonus. Despite the best efforts of the then civil service minister Renato Brunetta, almost all public-sector managers in the top two pay bands managed to obtain assessments of more than 90% and pocket a full bonus. The Renzi government will now have to find a way to link earnings to results in its reform of public administration. But it will have to do more than that.   Continuer la lecture de « Italy: State Fat Cats’ Bonus Bonanza »

Published on World Socialist Web Site WSWS, by Christoph Dreiere, March 29, 2014.

A day after US President Barack Obama intensified NATO’s confrontation with Russia in Brussels, Germany’s second largest weekly newspaper, Die Zeit, has come out in favour of the reintroduction of compulsory military service.    Continuer la lecture de « German magazine Die Zeit calls for reintroduction of compulsory military service »

Development economics for the global north – Published on Dissident Voice, by New Unionism, March 29, 2014.

This week sees yet another make or break conference for the interminable Doha Round of World Trade Organization talks, writes network member Conor Cradden. This time it’s in Bali, and on the agenda (yet again) is breaking the deadlock about multilateral trade regulation (for a quick guide to what’s going on see this piece on the Guardian website).   Continuer la lecture de « Collective Industrial Relations »

Published on Spiegel Online International, by Susanne Koelbl, March 27, 2014 (Photo Gallery – Translated from the German by Charles Hawley).

Zalmai Rassoul has long been a close political ally of Afghan President Hamid Karzai. Now, he is campaigning to succeed his mentor. With Karzai backing Rassoul, many believe the outgoing leader is seeking to retain his influence … //

… Security Questions:   Continuer la lecture de « Hamid's Shadow: Karzai Confidant Takes Aim at Afghan Presidency »

Published on Testosterone Pit, by Wolf Richter, March 27, 2014.

… Russian President Vladimir Putin might have had a field day listening to the speech. But he was busy. He was at his official residence in Novo-Ogaryovo near Moscow, meeting with German industry tycoons, including Joe Kaeser, CEO of multinational engineering conglomerate Siemens. It wasn’t an emergency response to the current sanctions spiral but had been planned during their last meeting in October. Continuer la lecture de « German Industry Goes To See Uncle Putin »