Venice floods

Hundreds evacuated in Tuscany as Venice floods --- Some 200 people were evacuated in parts of Tuscany as heavy rains over the weekend left 70 percent of the city of Venice underwater, authorities said on Sunday. Sea levels peaked at 1.5 metres above normal levels before receding slightly.     

 Floodwaters drenched most of the tourist destination of Venice and led to the evacuation of 200 people in Tuscany, as bad weather hit northern Italy at the weekend, authorities said Sunday.  In Venice itself, heavy rains and winds from the south triggered "acqua alta" (high water) and 70 percent of the city was flooded, with sea levels reaching a peak of 1.5 metres (five feet) above normal before receding slightly, they said.  In Tuscany, around 200 people were evacuated because of heavy rains which flooded homes and caused mudslides, local officials said.  The most affected region was the province of Massa and Carrara, which produces the famous Carrara marble.  In Massa di Carrara alone, some 50 people were evacuated and a car was carried away by an overflowing river, but the couple in the vehicle were saved by firefighters.  The authorities have urged the local population to avoid going into the streets and to stay in the the upper floors of their homes.  In Pisa, some streets have been without electricity following the floods. In the large Tuscan port of Livorno, civil defence forces were on alert because of the heavy rains. In Liguria, the region bordering Tuscany, 30 people had to be evacuated, the authorities said. In anticipation of the floods two days ago, the authorities issued warnings and planned security measures to avoid any casualties after 13 people died in Tuscany and Liguria a year ago.  The bad weather was heading slowly towards the centre of the country and was set to hit Rome where civil defence forces have been put on alert.

"nationalists are NOT extremist" - Extremists are the NATZI's running Europe !!!

'Extremists and hooligans'  are Merkel , Barroso and their  unelectedcroonies !!!!

Diverse groups including Polish patriots, nationalists and groups of football hooligans took part in Sunday's march. Many of the young men wore scarves or balaclavas over their faces.

Nationalist marches have been growing in size on the national holiday, with leftists turning out to oppose them, says the BBC's Adam Easton, in Warsaw.

Last year's march dwarfed its predecessors, with numbers swollen by football supporters outraged by a government clampdown on violent fans.

However, two other marches marking the day in 1918 when Poland regained its sovereignty after years of foreign rule passed without incident.

To prevent clashes this year the marches took different routes.

Polish President Bronislaw Komorowski also organised his own Independence Day march with military veterans in an attempt to reclaim the day from what he called "extremists and hooligans".

Ahead of the march he appealed for a less polarised society.

"Today public life is poisoned by excessive rows," he said. "We should be critical, but criticism should not mean mutual destruction."

The 11 November celebration marks the day when Poland regained its independence, 123 years after it was divided between Russia, Prussia and the Austrian Empire.

A TIDAL wave of Romanian ....

A TIDAL wave of Romanian and Bulgarian immigrants is threatening to swamp Britain — and flood our overstretched jobs market.An EU law means that from 2014, more than 29 million people from the two countries will be entitled to apply for any UK job. Many Romanians and Bulgarians are already free to come here if they have a guarantee of UK work before they leave their home country. But many thousands more are here working illegally for cash. One, Romanian Parafeni Vasile, 36, earns up to £130 for a day’s labouring. And he predicted: “All my friends will come in 2014. Why not?”He is one of hundreds of Bulgarians and Romanians who gather each day in the car park at DIY retailer Wickes in Tottenham, North London. Our investigators watched as white vans pulled up from time to time to take one of the men off to work on a building site. Without an NI number, it is impossible to earn legal wages, pay taxes or receive benefits. At the moment, Romanians and Bulgarians wishing to come to Britain can obtain one only if they have a guaranteed job before they arrive. But the Government has to lift that employment restriction by January 1, 2014. Britain currently takes in around 200,000 immigrants a year, including 40,000 Romanians and Bulgarians. The Government argues that most of the people from those countries who want to come to the UK are already here — so the law change will not have a bad effect on the jobs market. But it has got its immigration figures wrong before. In 2004, when the EU expanded to include countries including Poland, officials predicted fewer than 20,000 people would arrive from the new countries.

The German (Fourth Reich's ) Governor of Greece - Horst Reichenbach made no comments !!!!!

No final decision on next tranche of Greek bailout expected today, despite "broadly positive" Troika report ( Governor's Horst Reichenbach report in fact).

The German finance ministry has declared that there is no chance of a deal today on Greece's bailout programme, despite Athens approving its 2013 budget last night.

Ministry spokeswoman Marianne Kothe told reporters in Berlin that it wasn't realistic to expect a decision at tonight's Eurogroup meeting (of euro finance ministers), particularly as German MPs must have their say first.

Kothe said: Everyone is working under a lot of pressure to resolve questions which are still open...I think it's rather unrealistic to expect a final decision today as in Germany the Bundestag has to agree to it in advance.

There are also reports this morning that Jean-Claude Juncker, chair of the eurogroup, has also ruled out a decision this evening.

The precise whereabouts of the Troika report on Greece is another issue ... Germany's Kothe said today that she didn't think the final version was complete yet...in fact The German (Fourth Reich's ) Governor of Greece - Horst Reichenbach made no comments !!!!!

Heil ....

Germany has asked a panel of top advisers to examine France's economic problems.

Finance minister Wolfgang Schaeuble (pictured, below) has asked its panel of economic advisers, known as the "wise men", to look into France's reform proposals, amid concerns that weaknesses could spread to Germany and the rest of Europe, according to Reuters. More from the newswire:  Schaeuble's request denotes growing concern in Berlin and among private economists over the health of the French economy, which is set to miss a European Union goal for reducing its public deficit next year.

"Concerns are growing given the lack of action of the French government in labour market reforms," Lars Feld, an economist who sits on the panel, told Reuters.

Although Schaeuble raised the prospect of a report on France with members of the council this week, Feld and the finance ministry made clear that the government had not submitted a formal request. The ministry declined comment on the minister's "unofficial discussions" in general.

The eurozone will struggle to emerge from a double-dip recession next year as deep budget cuts stifle growth, the European commission has said.  In a gloomy health check on the state of the 17 countries that belong to the monetary union, Brussels said a sharper than expected fall in output in 2012 would be followed by a virtually non-existent recovery in 2013.  The commission said the eurozone as a whole would contract by 0.4% this year and grow by 0.1% in 2013. It cut its forecasts for the single currency's "big four" economies – Germany, France, Italy and Spain – as it predicted that unemployment would rise to a fresh peak of 11.8% next year.

"Europe is going through a difficult process of macroeconomic rebalancing, which will still last for some time," said the economic and monetary affairs commissioner, Olli Rehn. "Europe must continue to combine sound fiscal policies with structural reforms to create the conditions for sustainable growth to bring unemployment down from the current unacceptably high levels."

Brussels blamed the deepening sovereign debt crisis and financial market concerns about a possible breakup of the eurozone for the "disappointing" growth performance in 2012. It said domestic demand would make no contribution to eurozone GDP in 2013 as the lack of jobs and tax increases hit consumer spending.

The commission expressed confidence that by 2014 the benefits of the austerity programmes would bear fruit, leading to expansion of 1.4%.

Although the UK is expected to grow by just 0.9% next year, Brussels believes it will expand more quickly than any of the major economies of the eurozone. The commission has pencilled in growth of 0.8% for Germany, 0.4% for France, a contraction of 0.5% for Italy and a retrenchment of 1.4% for Spain. In all cases the predictions are for output to be weaker than expected by national governments, leading to budget deficit reduction targets being missed.

Greece is one eurozone economy where the commission's forecasts are less pessimistic than those of the government. The EU executive believes the Greek economy will shrink by 6% this year and 4.2% in 2013 before finally emerging from a six-year slump with growth of 0.6% in 2014. The government is assuming contraction of 6.5% in 2012, 4.5% in 2013 and growth of 0.2% growth in 2014.

The European Union's Autumn economic forecasts said gross domestic product (GDP) across the 17-nation currency area would shrink 0.4pc in 2012 and that it would take until 2014 to recover, with expected growth then of 1.4pc.

"Europe is going through a difficult process of macro-economic rebalancing, which will still last for some time," EU Economic Affairs Commissioner Olli Rehn said in a statement, pointing to a gradual pick-up "from early next year."

The Commission expected the United States to far outstrip Europe, with steadily-increasing growth above the two-percent mark going forward.

However, Rehn said there is still a risk that record and mounting unemployment - put at nearly 12pc next year across the debt and austerity ravaged eurozone - could undo progress on financial markets where the pressures on government borrowing rates have eased in the past few months.

With inflation at next year forecast to "fall below two percent," the core target underpinning eurozone-wide economic planning, Rehn said that decisions taken at some two dozen crisis summits had "laid the foundations for strengthening confidence."
A German government spokesman told reporters that parts of the troika report on Greece would be ready by Monday, although they added that Germany’s lower house of parliament would need to approve the tranche before any cash could be disbursed.