But it took a long time to arrive because the power went out…

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Two years ago, when New York City was paralyzed by a massive blackout, Russian energy officials [...]

Ovi Magazine is odd but interesting. I’m not sure if either is related to its Finnish origins but international character. The Greek, the Brit, the Yank, the Brasilian, not one of them what you would expect. I’m strangely addicted.

What, you may ask, has Italian government debt got to do with the French ‘no’ vote: everything would be my answer. (If you want to know more about this, thumb down my euro posts). The lack of a convincing advance towards political union makes Italian government debt riskier, so they have to pay more interest. [...]

Wow, I seem to be agreeing with Mandelson. Hardly surprising, apart from all the sleeze rows, I have the feeling he is the most competent politician working out of Brussels:
Striking a different tone from European Commission President Jos? Manuel Barroso, Mandelson appears to be suggesting a ?plan B?.
He argues that should the French ?non? be [...]

The euro fell to a seven-month low against the dollar early this afternoon, touching $1.2479 - well below the $1.2575 it bought in New York late Friday. The is a change of about a cent in a day. It is too early yet to draw any further conclusions.

Actually with the critical ECB meeting looming on Thursday, it could in fact be more like a ‘trifecta’ than a ‘double whammy’. Anyway, however you classify things, on Wednesday it will be the turn of the Netherlands. My impression is that the politicians don’t know quite how to respond.
Incidentally, with so much news coming [...]

For now, at any rate, the Nordic countries are to continue with the ratification process. We will see how this eveolves as the days pass.
We naturally respect the decision of the French people but it is crucial that Danes be allowed make their own decision in the autumn,” Anders Fogh Rasmussen, Denmark’s prime minister said.
There [...]

This piece in the FT seems to suggest that Barroso may in fact be moving away from the ‘bsuiness as usual’ line:
The European Union was on Monday braced for a wave of possible No votes against the EU constitution, after French voters decisively rejected it.Officially EU leaders stuck to the line that all member states [...]

The Economist is more or less positive about the outcome, of course it probably didn’t favour the constitution anyway:
French voters have rejected the proposed European Union constitution by a decisive margin. The flawed constitution is now probably dead, though the EU will get by without it. For President Jacques Chirac, however, it is a crushing [...]

The Chinese, as is often the case, are showing that they have an uncanny knack for putting their finger exactly on the sore spot:
“Beijing on Sunday criticised the European Union’s plans to restrict imports of textile products amid heightened controversy surrounding the threat Chinese clothing exports pose to the world’s manufacturers.”
“A spokesman for the Ministry [...]