Thailand lacks tourists
According to the head of the Association of Thai Travel Agents (TTAA) Anek Shrishivakhat, due to the lingering fear after the December disaster, the target of 13.4 million foreign tourists set by the state for the country's tourism industry is absolutely unrealistic this year.
While Scandinavian, European and American markets have managed to at least partially overcome their fears, flows from Japan, China, Taiwan and Korea, which are of serious importance for the Thai economy, have practically dried up after the tsunami. The tsunami dealt a particularly heavy blow to the Japanese market, reports RATA-News. According to Mr. Shrishivakhat, in order to achieve any results in inbound tourism, all efforts now need to be directed at the most powerful and promising market – China.
European Commission examines new provisions of Germany's visa policy
Germany's visa policy did not comply with European norms. This statement was made by European Commissioner for Justice, Freedom and Security Franco Frattini. “The European Commission believes that the German circular on visa policy issued in 2000 did not fully comply with European consular norms,” the commissioner noted.
In February 2005, German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer stated that he took responsibility for the directive issued in 2000, the provisions of which obliged consular officials at German embassies in Eastern European countries to be less demanding in considering visa applications from certain categories of citizens. Criminal groups took advantage of this loosening of the visa regime, leading to an increased flow of criminal elements into Europe, reports RBC citing Reuters.
As Franco Frattini noted in his speech, this directive did not provide for the necessary medical examination and guarantees of return to their homeland for certain categories of citizens. According to him, experts of the European Commission are now examining the new visa policy provisions adopted by the German authorities in 2004 to determine their compliance with European norms.
Latvia to ratify European convention on protection of national minorities
Latvia plans to ratify the European convention on the protection of national minorities before June 23 of this year, but the document will not apply to immigrants from the former USSR.
As RIA Novosti reports, Latvian Foreign Minister Artis Pabriks stated that when approving this document, a number of reservations will be adopted regarding the definition of a national minority and the rights granted to it.
According to the minister, the Latvian government intends to formulate the definition of a national minority as follows: “National minorities include citizens of Latvia residing in the republic and having a long-standing connection with it, but at the same time differing in ethnic, cultural, religious or linguistic characteristics.”
By long-standing connection it is meant that “the ancestors of representatives of these national minorities must have lived in Latvia for more than 100 years.” In addition, according to Pabriks, the reservations to the convention will concern the right of minorities to use their native language in the work of local authorities in areas of their compact residence, as well as the right to use street name signs duplicated in the language of national minorities.
“We have long spoken of the need for such reservations, and they will certainly be included in our version of the convention,” stressed the Latvian foreign minister. Earlier, the republic's Prime Minister Aigars Kalvitis said that “the convention should not apply to immigrants from the former USSR, as they are not a national minority.”
Blair promises to accelerate social reforms
The new Labour government intends to accelerate the reforms already launched in the social sphere, the fight against crime and illegal immigration. As RIA Novosti reports, this was stated by British Prime Minister Tony Blair at his first monthly press conference on Downing Street after Labour was re-elected for a third term.
“Additional funds will go to the social sphere, and our task now is to deepen and accelerate reforms,” said the head of the cabinet. According to him, they will concern the further development of healthcare, education, childcare, the fight against crime, migration issues and the provision of asylum.
Blair also indicated that all these issues would be included in the program of work of the new parliament, which Queen Elizabeth II of Great Britain will officially present on May 17 during the official opening of the new parliamentary session. “There will be a reform of the system of disability benefits, and the new Minister for Work and Pensions David Blunkett will speak about this separately. In general, our agenda is busy; now that the goals are clarified and updated, we need to move forward,” concluded Blair.
Half a million slaves found in Europe
The International Labour Organization (ILO) presented a study in Berlin titled “A Global Alliance Against Forced Labour”. As Vremya Novostei reports, at least 12.3 million people worldwide are victims of forced labour in slave-like conditions. Most modern slaves live in Asia, Africa and Latin America. In Asia there are 9.5 million, in Latin America about 1.5 million, and in Africa 920 thousand.
But slavery also exists in the industrial countries of the West: about 300 thousand slaves here, as well as in Eastern Europe – 210 thousand. And researchers from the ILO found the same number of 21st-century slaves in the former USSR.
"Processes of globalization in the modern world facilitate the activities of international criminal organizations engaged in large-scale trade in human commodities," emphasized ILO representative Norbert Cyrus. He analyzed the scale and forms of forced labor in Germany, where there are about 15,000 forced workers. Two-thirds of them are women. They are often brought across the German border with false promises, their documents are taken away, and they are forced into prostitution or other types of the sex industry. 60% of the total volume of forced labor in Germany is in nightclubs and brothels. Male slaves are used on German construction sites and in agriculture. Unlike ordinary workers, these people are in an illegal situation in Europe, their work is not legally registered, and their pay does not meet European standards.
The annual profit of the global slavery industry reaches $32 billion a year. Half of this huge amount ends up in the industrialized countries of the West, followed by Asia with an annual profit of $9.7 billion. The ILO called for the creation of a worldwide alliance against forced labor.
Biometric scanning system introduced at Orlando airport
A system for identifying people by the pattern of the iris of the eye is being introduced at Orlando International Airport, the busiest in Florida, according to Lenta.ru.
The airport's security chief, Bridget Rivera Gersh, said that thanks to this equipment, the level of security at the airport will soon significantly improve. It is known that the degree of distinctiveness of the iris pattern is higher than that of fingerprints, and it is practically impossible to "fake" it.
American authorities believe that the widespread introduction of this system could significantly reduce the risk of unwanted persons gaining access to aircraft and U.S. territory. "All this is being done with the same purpose for which we installed locks on cockpit doors and introduced the institution of air marshals," explains Art Meinke, an official of the U.S. Transportation Security Administration.
The procedure of retinal scanning and personal identification based on it, as the Washington Post reports, takes just seconds and virtually eliminates the possibility of error. After passing it, a person is asked to fill out a form in which they must provide their name, place and date of birth, home and email addresses, home and mobile phone numbers, eye color, citizenship, height, and places of residence over the past five years.
This information, along with a digital image of the iris, is entered into a computer, and the person thus receives an electronic passport. In the future, a second-long eye scan should spare passengers from queues at passport control. Before airports, such systems were used only in American secret government agencies and at nuclear facilities.
It is expected that if the 90-day trials of this system in Orlando are successful, other American airports will begin to follow its example.
Greece won the legal battle in the EU for the name of feta cheese
A legal adviser to the EU's highest court recommended dismissing the lawsuit filed by Denmark and Germany, which claimed joint use of this name, RIA Novosti reports. According to a European Commission decision, only cheese produced in certain regions of Greece can be called feta.
Feta thus found itself in the same category of "local products" protected by EU laws, such as Parma ham (produced in the area around the city of Parma, Italy), champagne (sparkling wines from the Champagne region of France), and port (fortified wine produced in Portugal).
Feta is a salted sheep or goat cheese whose traditional production has a centuries-old tradition in Greece. This cheese, as a standalone dish or an ingredient for salads, is considered one of the main attributes of Greek cuisine. However, feta is eaten and produced not only by Greeks - this cheese has won the hearts of people in many European countries, which led to the dispute over its name.