"Kingdom of King Messiah," refers to Jesus Christ and His eternal recreation of His universe at His future Second Coming and not anything before that.
Belgium to have new government after world record 541 days
Belgium will wake up today with a new prime minister after a world record of 19 months without government but the incoming administration will not settle longer term questions over the future of the divided country.
6:30AM GMT 06 Dec 2011
Elio Di Rupo, a French-speaking Walloon Socialist will become the EU's first ever openly gay government leader after forming a fragile six party coalition government late on Monday night after 541 days of negotiations, which beat war-torn Iraq for the dubious world record.
His swearing in by King Albert II of Belgium today will create a 13 member Belgian cabinet bringing together Dutch-speaking Flemish and francophone Walloons form Socialist, Christian Democrat and Liberal parties.
But the new government has not bridged the gap between the 6.5 million Flemish in the north of the country and 4.5 Walloons in the south, meaning that doubts over the viability of both the government and Belgium itself will continue.
Mr di Rupo's government does not include Belgium's most popular party, the separatist New Flemish Alliance (NVA) which took the lion's share of the vote in Flanders during elections in June 2010. To add insult to injury Mr di Rupo does not even speak Dutch, the majority Belgian language.
Bart De Wever, the leader of the NVA, has dismissed the new coalition as "a minority government for Flanders" that is poised to implement a controversial austerity programme "that a majority of Flemish will have to pay for".
Mr di Rupo will outline the coalition's 180-page platform to parliament on Wednesday, with Belgium's new leader then free to join this week's crucial EU summit.
The Socialist will be the first French-speaking prime minister of Belgium in almost 40 years, a fact that Mr De Wever's Flemish separatist opposition will highlight.
"I'm going to work on it," said Mr di Rupo. "I will reply in Dutch in parliament, even with mistakes."
Born in 1951 in a migrant shanty-town to an Italian coalminer father and illiterate mother, Mr di Rupo will also be Belgium's first Socialist prime minister since 1974 with the task of confronting trade unions to force through an unpopular austerity programme.
The divisions between Belgium's Flemish and French speaking political parties, were behind history's longest political impasse in a democracy. The crisis called the future of the Belgian state into question.
Negotiations remained deadlocked until financial markets two weeks ago precipitated the formation of the new government after a credit downgrade threatened to plunge highly indebted Belgium into a debt crisis.
from: http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Europe/2011/0321/Belgium-breaks-Iraq-s-world-record-for-government-impasse
Belgium breaks Iraq’s world record for government impasse
Belgium, split between the Dutch-speaking north and French-speaking south, still doesn’t have a government after June elections last year. The rift may eventually cause a national divorce.
Belgium, home of the European Union and NATO, recently logged a bizarre world record: In February it eclipsed Iraq as the nation longest unable to form a government after elections. And there doesn't appear to be any end in sight to the more than 270-day standoff that could ultimately lead to a national divorce between Belgium's two main ethnic groups, the Dutch Flemish and the French Walloons.
This is a scenario that alarms European leaders, who are already straining to keep a deficit-challenged Europe unified – and who don't want separatists inSpain, Italy, or anywhere else to take heart from potentially destabilizing examples.
The Belgian divide between the 6.5 million Dutch-speaking Flemish in Flanders, to the north, and the 4.5 million French-speaking Walloons in Wallonia, to the south, used to be a charming joke. Not now. The two have drifted further apart. Dutch and French speakers don't connect much, or even watch the same television. Their regions enforce language laws that are polite codes for ongoing separation, especially for the Flemish. Flanders is widely seen as Europe's most conservative region, barring Bavaria in Germany; Wallonia, by contrast, is run by avowed socialists.
The issue gets little attention because prior impasses were always reconciled in midnight talks, because Belgian dynamics are complex enough to turn Middle East experts cross-eyed, and because separation never sat well in mainstream Flemish politics, where it was seen as extreme in a country where being relaxed is a national pastime.
But who would get Brussels?
Looming over all divorce scenarios is an impossible math problem: Who would get Brussels, which is in Flanders, but is 85 percent French-speaking?
The rise last June of a heavy-set Flemish politician, Bart de Wever, has begun to simplify some things, for better or worse.
Mr. de Wever is a "soft" nationalist. He doesn't sell hatred of Muslims or Jews the way the far-right Flemish Vlaams Belang party does. De Wever says he believes in Europe – especially in an independent Flanders.
De Wever first came to national attention in 2008 in the finals of a Flemish TV quiz show called "The Most Intelligent Person in the World." He is a "retail" politician who hits the road three or four nights a week, visiting pubs and gatherings with a message that the prosperous Dutch-speaking north should no longer underwrite social security and transfer payments to the poorer French south.
Politically, this sounds like German Chancellor Angela Merkel's rap on Mediterranean states with lax fiscal discipline, whichexpect bailouts in times of deficit crisis. It has both populist and pocketbook appeal.
De Wever's passion for a monolingual Flanders is criticized as paradoxical in a Europe already multilingual, and where Arab, German, French, Turkish, and African populations are ever more mixed in places like downtown Brussels. But if that's true, it's not sinking in.
from: http://www.rt.com/news/nato-eu-libya-forces/
NATO and EU negotiate in Brussels over Libya
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Published: 10 March, 2011, 09:20
Edited: 11 March, 2011, 07:36
Libyan rebels fire Katusha rockets at government troops on the frontline on March 9, 2011 near Ras Lanuf, Liby
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TAGS: Conflict, Meeting, EU, Middle East, Protest, Europe, Kevin Owen, Daniel Bushell, Libya
NATO defense officials and EU foreign ministers have held negotiations in Brussels over possible measures that might be taken in Libya as violence continues in the country.
The European Union approved additional sanctions against Libya on Thursday, in particular freezing the funds and economic resources of five Libyan organizations.
Also, an additional name has been added to the list of “26 individuals deemed responsible for the violent crackdown on the civilian population since 15 February and subject to an asset freeze."
The 26 people in question include the country's leader, Muammar Gaddafi, and his five family members. They were banned from traveling to Europe and their European assets were frozen.
The EU foreign ministers’ meeting paves the way for the emergency summit of EU leaders on Friday.
Meanwhile, in a joint letter to the president of the European Council, Herman van Rompuy and other European leaders, French President Nicolas Sarkozy and British Prime Minister David Cameron, have called for Europe to impose a no-fly zone over Libya.
"It is clear to us the [Libyan] regime has lost any legitimacy that it could have," the letter said. "To end the suffering of the Libyan people, Muammar Gaddafi and his clique must leave."
France has become the first country to recognize rebel Libyan National Council as the “legitimate power” in the North African state.
The French presidential administration made a statement after French President Nicolas Sarkozy met officials from the Libyan National Council in Paris. Sarkozy has become the first head of state to meet with the Libyan opposition.
Both countries agreed to exchange ambassadors – France will send its diplomat to Benghazi and Libya’s envoy will come to France to represent there Libya officially. French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe urged European partners to engage with the new Libyan leaders.
NATO defense ministers have agreed to increase their maritime presence along the Libyan coast to monitor the UN arms embargo against the country and provide support for humanitarian efforts.
"Deployment of more ships to the Libyan coast would improve NATO's situational awareness and contribute to our surveillance and monitoring capability, including with regard to the arms embargo," NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said at a media briefing after the meeting.
Pressure to take action has grown after the clashes between Libyan rebels and government forces in the oil town of Ras Lanuf on Wednesday evening.
Shelling and air strikes from Colonel Gaddafi's supporters have pushed the opposition back.
Nevertheless, locals are still united in their determination to keep out foreign intervention.
Meanwhile, Colonel Gaddafi warned the imposition of a no-fly zone in Libyan airspace would be met with armed resistance and considered proof that the West is trying to steal the country’s oil.
Gaddafi has come out very strongly saying that the Libyan people will oppose any military intervention and would rise up as one against foreign forces. He said himself that his forces would respond strongly to any such imposition of a no-fly zone, let alone any military measures. This came as he bombed oil tanks in the country.
The current crisis in Libya has led to a sharp increase in oil prices, which has a damaging effect on the world economy.
Russia’s envoy to NATO Dmitry Rogozin said that any accumulation of weapons and military forces in a region could lead to war.
“Any accumulation of weapons and military forces in the region could lead to war. That’s why pumping up hysteria may reach the point of no return; when it becomes hard to explain why it was necessary to militarize citizens' minds. There's a real danger in using missiles against Libyan air bases to deprive Gaddafi his advantage as the legal head of state. Then there will be attempts to legitimatize the rebels, to make it seem to the outside that power has passed from Gaddafi to the rebels.”
There is no common front, not only between NATO and non-NATO countries, but even within the NATO alliance. In fact there are several disagreements.
Last night Britain’s Foreign Secretary William Hague admitted that opposition is hardening to the intervention of foreign forces. He said that they still need international support for any move and that international support is not there at the moment.
Italy, considered one of Libya’s closest allies, last night demanded "breathing space" for the regime from international intervention after the Libyan leader sent envoys in private jets to the EU and Cairo. Italy claims Libya needs to be given time and discussions and negotiations should be exhausted before any military actions takes place.
Jim Lobe, Washington bureau chief from Inter Press Service, does not think the French statement signifies that the military intervention has become one step closer, as he believes that at least the US does not want to invade Libya.
“I would assume that [the US involvement] would be of a non-lethal nature, at least initially, and then, perhaps, of a defensive nature. I don’t think they want to be seen as fuelling the conflict, but I do think that politically they’ll want to be seen as having made an effort to protect those in the east who have risen up against Gaddafi,” said Lobe.
Political writer Diana Johnstone fears that what NATO is really waiting for is a little more bloodshed, so they will have an excuse to stop Gaddafi.
“They are waiting for civilians that claimed to be killed or are shown to be killed, of course, by Gaddafi. If the other side kills them that won’t be useful. [That is needed] so they can say: ‘We have to do something to stop Gaddafi from killing his own people’. That is the slogan,” she said. “There is not enough evidence yet. So, I think, they are simply waiting and provoking that bloodshed that will give them the excuse to act.”
Jean Bricmont, the author of the book "Humanitarian Imperialism: Using Human Rights to Sell War," says the Western policy of military intervention has failed.
“The violation of international law, which is implicit in the policies of the West, now is supported by part of the public opinion on humanitarian grounds. But I found that the idea of pushing towards more war in the region is very unwise,” Jean Bricmont said. “The lesson that I draw from the recent events in the Arab world is the total failure of Western policies. It seems to me that the wisest thing to do would be to stop intervening in that region.”
Claude Moniquet from the European Strategic Intelligence and Security Center says that by recognizing Libyan rebels, France is playing a dangerous game.
“I don’t know if Nicolas Sarkozy is a poker player, but he clearly gambled today. It is a dangerous game. Even if we disagree with the way Gaddafi is acting today,” he said “We don’t know the exact composition of the Council. We don’t know if there are Islamist leaders, tribal leaders, people with no political background, people with special interest in business. We don’t know today who will win.”
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