London buildings: News this morning via ARD indicates that five London high-rises were more or less decertified yesterday and residents were told to leave....because of the matting used in renovation. Sent to hotels (cost factor assumed by the city council)....it'll take at least a month before all of this matting can be removed. There's talk also in various press reports of manslaughter being sought on several people who approved the matting for the burnt apartment building.
Tough action in Hamburg: Local authorities have forbidden a protest camp from being erected for the G20 summit period. Lot of prevention activity noted for this summit.
"Falsification of Religion": About ten days ago, a new liberal mosque opened up in Berlin.....open to men, women, and gays. They could all walk in and pray in one facility. At the time, various German news media sources were all positive and talked of a change coming across Germany. Well...in the last day or two...the central Islam authority of Turkey said that this was a bad thing, and a 'falsification of religion'. Diyanet is the authority over Islam in Turkey and their message was rather blunt. Oddly enough, the Gulen-movement (the arch-rival of Erdogan of Turkey) weren't exactly happy over the new type mosque either.....one of the few times that Gulen and Erdogan agreed on something. Where this new concept mosque goes? It's anyone's guess.
Bank failures in Italy: Ever since 2008, various banks in Europe have been on the borderline of failure. This week, the EU said that both the Veneto-bank and Popolare-bank are likely to fail. No one has any enthusiasm to save either. Who is left to pay off the bank deposit folks? The government of Italy....maybe up to 12 billion Euro.
Harley buying Ducati: N-TV reports that Harley-Davidson is looking at deal....maybe up to around 1.5-billion Euro to buy the Ducati brand from Audi. One odd factor is that Harley doesn't have a lot of cash on hand to make this work (some say 500 million max). If you've never heard of Ducati.....it's one of the premier high-speed motorcycle companies in the world. Most of their bikes run around $12k to $20k, and are sold in the US.
Slavery in Brussels: Odd story by N-TV on slavery accusations. Widow of an Arab Sheikh and several daughters (princesses) stayed long-term in some Brussels hotel.....with staff that they'd brought with them. Their treatment amounted to some form of slavery.....at least that's what the Brussels court said. Fifteen months of jail was prescribed for human trafficking, and total fine amounted to around 165,000 Euro.
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