Computers for schools questioned
A hearing began yesterday in Parliament into the cost of the computers given to school children last year. The laptop computer known as the Magalhães cost a total of €854 million up to last October. The e-Schools Programme was a joint venture with telecommunications operators, who contributed around €373 million to the roll out of the computers to primary school pupils.

The enquiry was set up to ascertain whether a breach occurred of the procurement rules in the purchase of computers with JP Sá Couto, the maker of lap top. When questioned, Mário Franco, president of the Foundation of Mobile Communications, gave assurances that the rules had been observed.

School girl’s body found
The body of a ten year old girl missing in a bus crash in the Azores since Monday has been found. The ten year old was discovered yesterday in a ravine next to the crash site buried in mud. She was on her way to school around 08.30 on Monday morning when the school bus fell into a ravine killing the driver aged 39.

Two other students aged twelve and ten managed to escape when the vehicle split in half, suffering from broken limbs and hyperthermia. The ten year old boy was the twin brother of the deceased girl. Crash site investigators believe an avalanche caused by intense wind and rain swept the bus some 50 metres into a ravine.

Explosion in house
An explosion in Quinta da Arreira, Fundão, resulted in the death of a 61 year old man yesterday. Fire services were called out to the garage of a private dwelling near to the Fundão shopping centre.

The victim was said to have been repairing a car using a mixture of two gases - oxygen and acetylene - in his garage when the blast occurred. The garage and ground floor of the house were destroyed and several other properties were damaged by flying debris.

Aid for Madeira
The Chinese Chamber of Commerce held a fundraising event, a spring gala, on Sunday evening and raised almost €10,000 for the cause. The event was considered to be a huge success. The €9,845 will go towards assisting the 600 people made homeless and those injured when the storms hit the islands last month.

Europe
The euro dips
The euro has dropped in value to its lowest rate against the dollar since May 2009.

Yesterday, the euro was worth $1.3436 in morning trading.  
The drop is believed to be due to fears about Greece’s €300 bn debt problems.  Other countries along with Greece have borrowed significant sums a situation which has antagonised financial markets.

At the same time, sterling was also lower against the dollar for the sixth day in a row to a value of $1.4936 and slightly lower against the euro to 90.53 pence.  The backdrop to this situation is not only the UK’s high debt level but also the fear of a hung parliament.

Greece has been pressing on with initiatives to reduce its deficit with several austerity measures although these have often been met with large protest marches.  The country is seeking to reduce its 12.7 per cent deficit to 8.7 per cent during this year.

Prime Minister George Papandreou and Chancellor Angela Merkel are due to met on Friday.  This could prove to be a crucial meeting in the decision-making process for any eurozone assistance to Greece.

Europe
New GM crop permitted
The European Commission has agreed that a genetically modified (GM) potato can be grown in the EU for industrial use but not for human consumption.

The Amflora potato’s starch can be used for such things as paper making and animal feed.  The Commission claims its decision is based “on a considerable volume of sound science.”  Environmental groups have challenged this.

Amflora was developed by a German chemical and biotechnology firm, BASF, and has proved contentious.  It was Sweden which applied to the European Council in 2003 for permission to grow it.  When the European Council could not reach a decision, the European Commission again had to consider it.

Having now been cleared, individual countries retain the right to decide if the potato should be grown.  It is believed that the Czech Republic and Germany will plant them in the spring, with Sweden and the Netherlands following shortly.

GM crops have many critics in Europe who argue that such crops could reduce biodiversity and natural resistance to pests and disease as well as being difficult to prevent cross-pollination with regular crops.  In response, the Commission claimed that strict cultivation conditions would be imposed which will address some concerns.

Only one other GM product is currently approved for commercial use in the EU, Monsanto’s MON 810 maize, which was given the go-ahead in 1998.  Spain, the Czech Republic, Romania, Portugal and Slovakia are the only countries producing it.

Europe
Lower rates for overseas internet access
A new regulation across Europe will prevent mobile phone users from accumulating large bills for using their handsets to surf the internet when they are in other European countries.

Consumers are now able to demand that their phone supplier cut them off when their bill reaches a certain level after using the internet when abroad.  Customers have until 1 July to set a limit, after which it will be set automatically at €50 (£45).

The phone firm is obliged to warn users when their bills hit 80 per cent of their limit.  The European Commission said that if service providers failed to comply with the set limits, national regulators will deal with complains are can impose sanctions.

The practice of using a mobile phone while abroad to access the internet is called “data roaming”.  

Spain
Terrorist explanation demanded
Recent claims of Venezuelan involvement with two armed rebel groups plotting to kill the president of Colombia have resulted in Spain demanding an explanation from Venezuela.

Earlier this week a Spanish judge said he believed that a government employee in Venezuela was a key link to Eta of Spain and Farc of Colombia which were acting in concert to carry out the plot.

Venezuela’s government has given no public statement on the allegations.

When a Farc computer was seized in a raid in 2008, an investigation was begun which indicated there were links to Spain.  The investigation provided evidence to demonstrate cooperation from Venezuela in the illicit collaboration between Farc and Eta.

The agent in Venezuela is believed to be Arturo Cubillas Fontan who worked in the government of the country but was also a member of Eta, running its operations in the region.

The investigation also found that Farc adherents had gone to Spain with the intention of assassinating a former Colombian president, Andres  Pastrana, and to attack the Colombian embassy.

The Netherlands
Karadzic proclaims his innocence
At his trial in the Hague, former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic denied any involvement in two of the worst atrocities in the 1992-95 conflict, saying the events were myths.

In Sarajevo about 12,000 people perished in 44 months to November 1995 while the 1995 Srebrenica massacre claimed more than 7,000 Muslim men and boys.  Overall, 100,000 people died during the course of the war.

Mr Karadzic, 64, is facing 11 charges including genocide, murder, extermination, persecution and forced deportation.  Prosecutors say he initiated “ethnic cleansing” against Muslims and Croats in eastern Bosnia in order to achieve an ethnically pure Serbian state.

He protests his innocence of all 11, saying that the conflict was “just and holy” and that it was Bosnian Muslims who began it.  He said: "It is going to be easy from me to prove that I had nothing to do with it."

Mr Karadzic told the court he had sought to defend Bosnian Serbs from terrorism committed against them and that he had tried to stave off war.

After almost 13 years in hiding, Mr Karadzic was arrested in 2008 in Belgrade.  He had been president of the so-called Bosnian Serb Republic and its army commander during the war.  He is the most important person to be tried in the Hague since the former Yugoslav president, Slobodan Milosevic, who died of a heart attack in 2006 during the course of his trial.

US
Texas says sorry to dead man
The governor of Texas has issued a posthumous pardon to a prisoner who died in 1999 in his 13th year of imprisonment.

Tim Cole was found guilty in 1986 for the rape of a student.  He always maintained his innocence, refusing an early parole as it would mean accepting guilt.  He died in 1999 of an asthma attack.

Ten years later DNA tests proved his innocence.  The family successfully obtained the test following receipt of a letter from a convicted rapist who confessed to the crime.

Four years before Mr Cole died, the man had sent confession letters to court officials, but these were never followed up.  Mr Cole had hoped to be exonerated and had written his family that he always believed in the justice system even if it had not believed in him.

Chile
Earthquake aftermath
The president of the country, Michelle Bachelet, has promised a sharp response to any renewal of the looting which has been taking place in the Concepcion following the earthquake last Saturday.

Dozens of people were arrested on Monday to combat the outbreak of looting of shops and homes.  About 14,000 troops are now in the area.

The official death toll from the 8.8 magnitude earthquake is nearly 800, with some people still missing.  It is thought that 2,000,000 Chileans have been affected, with 1.5 million homes damaged or destroyed.

Aid has not yet reached many victims, struggling without food, water, shelter or electricity.  Many roads were destroyed and a special air route is now to be opened to get aid from the capital, Santiago, 430 km away.

The quake was the seventh most powerful on record.  Some coastal towns and villages suffered further damage and destruction with a series of tsunamis swept away people and dwellings.

The European Union has pledged US$3m in assistance equaled by the pledge from Japan along with US$4.5m from Australia and US$1m from China.  Argentina is flying in a field hospital along with half a million litres of drinking water. US Secretary of State Hilary Clinton arrived with satellite telephones to help overcome the communication breakdown and has promised further aid.