Students and teachers in Spain have packed the streets of Valencia, angry at cuts to the education system by their government. They are also angry about harsh and brutal tactics used by police there at previous rallies when dozens were beaten and arrested.
Teachers and students went on strike across Spain on Tuesday against deep education cuts: here.
Strike and mass protests against Spain’s education cuts: here.
Eight thousand Spanish miners kicked off a four-day strike on Wednesday against the right-wing government’s decision to slash subsidies to the sector: here.
The boss of Spain’s second-largest mortgage lender insisted on Saturday that the bank has a bright future after the government agreed to hand it another €23.5 billion (£18.8bn): here.
Czech republic: Two thousand trade unionists and leftwingers marched through Prague on Tuesday in defence of the right to strike and against anti-social government cuts: here.
More than 30,000 public-sector staff kicked off an indefinite strike for improved pay in Norway on Thursday morning, shutting down hundreds of kindergartens and schools in the middle of exam season: here.
This year, again many spoonbills breed on Texel. The largest colony is found in the National Park Dunes of Texel in De Geul, just like last year, about 400 couples. This is the largest colony of the Netherlands. In the Muy nature reserve this year there are 64 breeding pairs, the highest number since 1964. So, the birds appreciated that last winter the Forestry Commission had cut down some willows on higher places in the thickets. In the Schorren nature reserve there are at least about 60 pairs but there are still new breeding pairs arriving. So, in Texel certainly more than 530 pairs of spoonbills are nesting again.
Seeing spoonbills
The spoonbills were counted by the Forestry Commission, basing itself on aerial photographs because the swampy sites are not approachable without too much disturbance. Some nests are in and under trees, so probably a number of nests have been missed. …
In Western Europe (from Portugal to Denmark) last year 4609 spoonbill couples nested. In the separate Eastern European population, that was 1120 couples. More information about spoonbills can be found at www.werkgroeplepelaars.nl, observations for this website may also be published there.
Webcam at spoonbill nest in the Schorren reserve: here.
This is a BBC video on the earthquake in Finale Emilia, Italy. Best wishes to everyone who has suffered and still suffers from this natural disaster!
Like with disasters in Japan and elsewhere, there are not just natural, but also social and political sides to this disaster.
Dutch NOS TV images today showed Italian earthquake survivors, angry at Prime Minister “Mr Austerity” Monti, calling Monti and his entourage “thieves.”
This morning, the Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti visited the quake survivors’ camp in Finale Emilia, badly hit by the earthquake this weekend. Many people jeered and booed him.
Monti is responsible for the legal change which put an end to government aid for private property damaged in natural disasters.
“How dare you show yourself here, now that you have just indicated that we will not get any government support. You should be ashamed of yourself!” sounded from the camp while Monti talked to the journalists. …
Tents
After the earthquake, over 5000 people spent the night from Saturday to Sunday in tents and shelters. Relief about surviving the disaster predominates, but there is little confidence of a quick return.
Thousands of people have slept in tents and cars when the area after the earthquake of 6.0 still got about a hundred aftershocks.
In the sports centre of the ravaged Finale Emilia 250 people are waiting for news about relief. The coming days they will largely have to stay in the shelters for fear of further aftershocks.
Gloomy
The 73-year-old Giovanni feels gloomy. He lives in the historic center of town and briefly this morning, he was allowed to go with the fire brigade to his home to fetch his medication. When he will be allowed to return, he does not know.
For many people there are fears that in the affected closed part of the center, burglars will come at night.
After the summer
Azima, a 33-year-old woman, is trying to restrain her four children who are running around. “For them it’s a trip. There are many children of their school and for them, it cannot last long enough. I have not slept for three nights. I think constantly I feel the earth moving.”
…
The expectation is that the residents of affected areas will not be able to return home till after the summer.
From Reuters:
Protest movement gains, parties hurt in Italy vote
21/05 18:29 CET
By Steve Scherer
ROME (Reuters) – Italians delivered a stunning blow to traditional parties on Monday when they elected protest candidates to govern several key cities, signalling a major shift in the political landscape ahead of a general election next year.
In the most sensational result in two rounds of local polls, comedian Beppe Grillo’s Five-Star Movement consolidated its meteoric rise from fringe group to national contender by winning the mayor’s office in Parma, a city of 190,000 people.
Grillo’s 39-year-old candidate Federico Pizzarotti, a political newcomer, defeated Vincenzo Bernazzoli, a seasoned politician supported by a coalition of centre-left parties, according to final official results.
“My victory reflects Italians’ desire for change,” Pizzarotti said.
The two main parties in the right-left coalition that supports Prime Minister Mario Monti – architect of Italy’s tough austerity programme – did not fare well in the local elections on Sunday and Monday.
By putting the parties that support the technocrat prime minister in parliament on the defensive, they could make it more difficult for Monti to push through highly unpopular measures aimed at avoiding a Greek-style debt crisis.
Former Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi’s People of Liberty (PDL) party took a walloping in the first round two weeks ago, and lost to the centre left in Piacenza on Monday.
The left-wing Democratic Party (PD) was part of a coalition that won in the port city of Genoa, but was defeated in Palermo as well as Parma.
“The Parma victory is extraordinary. It shows a very clear rejection of the traditional parties,” said James Walston, Professor of International Relations at the American University in Rome.
ANTI-PARTY VOTE
“The local votes are very much against the parties, and only indirectly against Monti,” Walston said.
That party lost all seven races it contested on Monday.
The shaggy-haired comic’s rise became apparent two weeks ago during the first round of voting, based on his vitriolic criticism of the parties, Monti’s austerity measures, the euro, banks and the debt markets, targets of popular anger also in recent Greek and French national votes.
Greece is politically paralysed after inconclusive elections in which the mainstream parties that engineered the country’s international bailout failed to win enough seats to form a government. In France Socialist Francois Hollande was elected to the presidency on a pro-growth platform.
While a litmus test of Italy’s national mood, Monday’s vote in nearly 120 towns was largely overshadowed by two tragic events over the weekend.
On Sunday, a strong earthquake struck a large area of northern Italy, killing at least seven people, while a Saturday bombing in front of a school in southern Italy killed a teenage girl and ignited fears of a return to the political violence of the 1970s-80s.
In the first round of the local polls, tax hikes, rising unemployment and a series of corruption scandals contributed to driving voters away from Berlusconi and his centre-left rivals towards Grillo.
Italy’s economy slid further into recession in the first three months of this year, the third consecutive quarterly decline and the steepest economic contraction for three years, data published on Tuesday showed.
With Monti’s approval rating dropping to 38 percent, according to pollster SWG, down from 71 percent shortly after he took over from the scandal-plagued Berlusconi in November, the premier is trying to shift focus to growth from austerity.
In a sign of mounting voter disillusion, turnout was sharply down, declining 14 percentage points from the first round to 51 percent.
Turnout was less than 40 percent in Palermo, where veteran mayor Leoluca Orlando, who stood for the opposition Italian Values party, was headed toward a landslide victory over a centre-left candidate. It will be Orlando’s fourth term as mayor of Sicily’s biggest city.
More than 900 cities voted on May 6-7, and Monday’s voting took place in cities where no candidate won more than 50 percent in the first ballot.
(Editing by Barry Moody and Andrew Roche)
Earthquake: Italian workers killed by capitalism: here.
An influential think tank on Tuesday warned that the eurozone risks falling into a “severe recession” unless Brussels tempers neoliberal EU deficit rules with a growth pact: here.
Scientists around the world today condemned an Italian court’s decision to convict six scientists on manslaughter charges for failing to predict an earthquake that devastated the city of L’Aquila in 2009: here.
May 2012. Natural England have confirmed that the great white egret – a species of heron – has nested for the first time in Britain.
The nest site – at Shapwick Heath, Natural England’s National Nature Reserve in Somerset – is being monitored by staff and volunteers from Natural England, the RSPB and Somerset Ornithological Society. Activity on the site strongly suggests that the birds may already have young and in the next few weeks, Natural England hopes to be able [to] confirm that the nest contains chicks and that Britain can welcome a new species to its list of breeding birds. (Whilst Wildlife Extra is always happy to hear good news, there is often double standards used as organisations decry climate change, but welcome some of its consequences.)
Growing trend
The great white egret is more usually found in mainland Europe, but in recent years, there have been increased sightings of these elegant birds in England, a small number of which have been visiting the reedbeds and wetlands of the Avalon Marshes. Until now, none of these visitors have nested and there is growing excitement that this summer could see the beginning of a growing trend.
Female was born in France, and has been sighted in Lancashire, Wales and Gloucestershire
The female bird was ringed as a nestling in May 2009 in Besne, in France, and records show she travelled to Lancashire, Wales and Gloucestershire before visiting the Somerset Levels for the first time in April 2010. She has stayed in the region ever since and managed to cope with two relatively cold British winters.
Local birdwatchers spotted nesting activity on the Shapwick Heath Reserve in early April this year and alerted the Somerset Ornithological Society, Natural England and the RSPB. The three organisations immediately established a 24 hour nest watch operation with volunteers, who have currently clocked up over 1000 hours of nest-watching time. This ensured the birds were not disturbed whilst they completed their nest, concealed deep in the reed beds.
This species tends to return to the same nest site each year, so it is hoped that this pair will be pioneers and that a colony of great white egrets will become established on the Avalon Marshes.
Simon Clarke, Reserve Manager for Shapwick Heath said; “This is hugely exciting and we’ve been keeping everything crossed and a close eye on the nest since the signs of nesting activity were first noticed last month. In the last few years, we’ve been carrying out a lot of work to improve the reserve’s reedbeds for bitterns and otters – but it seems great white egrets have also appreciated the work we’ve done.
‘Major step forward for conservation’
Tony Whitehead speaking for the RSPB said: “This is another major step forward for nature conservation, and the RSPB is delighted to be working alongside NE and the Somerset Ornithological Society to protect these pioneering birds as they breed for the first time.
“The Avalon Marshes are a wonderful example of landscape scale conservation, where partnership working has produced one of Western Europe’s largest and best wetlands. Places such as these are vital in providing valuable space for newly colonising species as well as safeguarding populations of vulnerable birds such as bittern. And the really exciting thing is now predicting what’s going to turn up next – it’s the sort of place where anything’s possible”.
Simon added; “Despite the appalling weather conditions over much of this period for wardens and birds alike, these egrets have shown extreme diligence in tending the nest site. Although chicks have not yet been seen, a significant change in behaviour has been noted which suggests we may soon have some very demanding new additions to the Reserve!”
RSPB and Natural England have set up a recorded information line for people to keep up to date with the birds progress and details on visiting the reserve to view the birds. The number is 07866 554142.
Visitors to Shapwick Heath are welcome but parking is very limited. Therefore, in order to avoid disturbance to local residents, visitors are asked to park at the Avalon Marshes Centre, Westhay, BA6 9TT, where you will find directions to the Great Egret Watch.
Shapwick Heath
This magnificent wetland reserve is managed by Natural England and covers over 500 ha at the heart of the Somerset Levels and Moors. Habitats include lush green wildflower meadows; still, dark ditches; damp, secretive fens, shady, wet fern woods; and open water, fringed with rustling reedbeds.
The nest is made up of a mound of reeds lined with softer plant material, and concealed deep in the reedbeds.
Usually 3 – 4 eggs are laid with the young looked after by both adults.European population are estimated at over 24,000 pairs (Birdlife, 2004).
The great white egret is the size of a grey heron, with similar habits but can be confused with the much smaller little and cattle egrets. Great white egrets feed on a range of aquatic animals including fish, frogs and insects.
In the breeding season the tip of their yellow bill turns black on both sexes, and they develop beautiful long plumes along the back. These plumes were once used to adorn ladies’ hats and dresses, and it is estimated in 1902 alone some 200,000 birds were killed to satisfy the fashion conscious women of Europe and USA (Wading Birds of the World, Soothill, 1989).
The great white egret is distributed across most of the tropical and warmer temperate regions of the world, but is rather localised in southern Europe.
This video is called Vows Of Silence — Marcial Maciel, the Legion of Christ, and Regnum Christi.
From Associated Press:
May 22, 3:21 AM EDT
Legion No. 1 admits he knew of priest’s kid in ’05
NICOLE WINFIELD
VATICAN CITY — The head of the embattled Legion of Christ religious order admitted Tuesday to covering up news that his most prominent priest had fathered a child and announced a review of all past allegations of sexual abuse against Legion priests amid a growing scandal at the order.
The Rev. Alvaro Corcuera wrote a letter to all Legion members in which he admitted he knew before he became superior in 2005 that the Rev. Thomas Williams, a well-known American television personality, author and moral theologian, had fathered a child. He said he had heard rumors of the child even before then when he was rector but took Williams’ word they weren’t true.
Corcuera acknowledged that even after he confirmed Williams’ paternity, he did nothing to prevent him from teaching morality to seminarians or preaching about ethics on television, in his many speaking engagements or his 14 books, including “Knowing Right from Wrong: A Christian Guide to Conscience.”
Williams, for example, was the keynote speaker at a Legion-affiliated women’s conference just last month in the U.S.
Williams admitted last week he had fathered the child after The Associated Press confronted the Legion with the allegation. In a new statement Tuesday, Williams said he had resisted his superiors’ encouragement to keep a low profile after the allegations were known to them.
“I foolishly thought that I had left this sin in my past, and that I could make up for some of the wrong I had done by doing the greatest good possible with the gifts God has given me. This was an error in judgment, and yet another thing I must ask your forgiveness for,” he wrote, according to the text obtained by the AP.
Williams has not identified the mother or said whether he was supporting the child or in any way involved in the child’s life. The Legion has said the child is being cared for.
Revelations of Williams’ child have further eroded the Legion’s credibility and compounded the scandal at the order, which in 2009 admitted that its late founder, the Rev. Marcial Maciel had sexually abused his seminarians and fathered three children with two women. Maciel, who founded the Legion in 1941 in Mexico, died in 2008.
The scandal is particularly grave given that Maciel was held up as a model for the faithful by Pope John Paul II, who was impressed by the orthodox order’s ability to attract money and young men to the priesthood. Maciel’s double life, and the well-known problems of the cult-like order, have cast a shadow over John Paul’s legacy since the Vatican knew of Maciel’s crimes as early as 1950 yet he enjoyed the highest Vatican praise and access until he was finally sanctioned by Rome in 2006.
In 2010, the Vatican took over the Legion after determining that the order itself had been contaminated by Maciel’s influence and needed to be “purified.” The Vatican cited problems of the Legion’s culture, in which silence reigned and authority was abused, as being in need of reform, as well as the need for its constitutions to be rewritten and its charism, or essential spirit, to be defined.
Following an AP investigation, the Legion on May 11 admitted that seven priests were under Vatican investigation for allegedly sexually abusing minors, an indication that Maciel’s crimes were not his alone. Corcuera provided an update Tuesday, saying two of those cases had been dismissed, leaving five abuse-related cases under investigation by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.
Another two priests are being investigated for other sacramental violations, believed to involve using confession or spiritual direction to have inappropriate sexual relations with women.
In his letter Tuesday, Corcuera announced that the Legion was going to review all past cases of allegations of sexual abuse to ensure that they were handled properly. Victims of Legion priests and critics of the order have said there are many more cases of abusers which have been well-known to the leadership but covered up for decades.
“Are there other cases waiting to be discovered, more scandals ready to attack your faith and trust? I can never say for sure,” Corcuera wrote. “I can, however, tell you that we are following the lead of Pope Benedict XVI in dealing with abuse and sexual misconduct in the Legion.”
Corcuera’s letter is unlikely to stem the outrage among the members of the Legion’s lay branch Regnum Christi, for whom Williams was a major point of reference in the United States and a top public defender of Maciel when the allegations of his crimes were leveled years ago.
One month ago, Williams was the keynote speaker at Regnum Christi’s April 18-21 annual national women’s convention in Greenville, Rhode Island, where he spoke about his 2010 book on Jesus. He was scheduled to be the keynote speaker at another Regnum Christi women’s conference in Michigan in October.
Corcuera said he actually knew of the allegations against Williams before he became superior in 2005, but took Williams’ word that they weren’t true. After becoming superior in 2005, he said he learned for sure of the child’s existence and asked Williams to start withdrawing from his public work. But only in 2010 did he limit Williams’ work as a priest.
Williams, however, continued to write books, speak at conventions, author articles and, most significantly, teach morality to seminarians at the Legion’s university in Rome. He only stopped teaching in February, abruptly, after a Spanish association of victims of the Legion forwarded the allegations against Williams to the Vatican.
Whilst ringing at Alba Marsh last Friday Brendan and I caught five Reed Warblers. These are the first Reed Warblers we have caught for two months and were interesting as they are fuscus race Caspian Reed Warblers.
Caspian Reed Warbler breeds from the northern Caspian Sea to north-east Kazakhstan and east Iran; Asia Minor; Cyprus; Levant. They winter in Africa south of the Sahara.
European Reed Warbler breeds from North-west Africa & Europe east to central European Russia, Crimea & West Asia Minor. Winters in Africa south of the Sahara.
Some of the fetaures for Caspian Reed Warbler include white tips to the outer three or four tail feathers usually more obvious than Marsh or Reed Warbler. Pale grey-brown upper-parts, crown greyish, rump sandy coloured and slightly warmer toned than rest of upper-parts. Pale under-parts with only flanks brownish. Less rufous than European Reed Warbler.
Dear Kitty. Some blog 