Salon.com > Juergen Baetz

Google clears new hurdle in EU antitrust case

Mon, 15 Apr 2013 15:30:00 +0000

BRUSSELS (AP) -- Google has taken another step toward settling a European antitrust investigation focusing on whether the Internet giant is abusing its dominant position of online search and advertising markets.

Google Inc. has submitted a list of remedies in legally binding form to address the concerns voiced by the European Commission, which acts as the 27-nation bloc's antitrust authority, the body's spokesman Antoine Colombani said Monday.

He added that they will shortly be put to a market test to see whether they will be sufficient, but declined to elaborate on how long it might still take to reach a settlement in the three-year-old investigation.

The Commission is probing whether Google unfairly favors its own services in its Internet search results. Google's search engine - the world's most influential gateway to online information and commerce - enjoys a near-monopoly in Europe.

The major concession offered by Google is widely expected to center on more clearly labeling search results stemming from its own services such as YouTube, Google Maps or its shopping search function.

Germany decides to abandon nuclear power by 2022

Mon, 30 May 2011 13:58:23 +0000

Germany's coalition government agreed early Monday to shut down all the country's nuclear power plants by 2022, the environment minister said, making it the first major industrialized nation in the last quarter century to announce plans to go nuclear-free.

The country's seven oldest reactors already taken off the grid pending safety inspections following the catastrophe at Japan's Fukushima nuclear power plant in March will remain offline permanently, Norbert Roettgen added. The country has 17 reactors total.

Roettgen praised the coalition agreement after negotiations through the night between the governing parties.

"This is coherent. It is clear," he told reporters in Berlin. "That's why it is a good result."

Chancellor Angela Merkel pushed through measures in 2010 to extend the lifespan of the country's 17 reactors, with the last one scheduled to go offline in 2036, but she reversed her policy in the wake of the Japanese disaster.

"We want the electricity of the future to be safe, reliable and economically viable," Merkel told reporters on Monday.

Germany's energy supply chain "needs a new architecture," necessitating huge efforts in boosting renewable energies, efficiency gains and overhauling the electricity grid, she added.

Experts slam organizers over Germany stampede

Mon, 26 Jul 2010 20:01:00 +0000

Prosecutors on Monday opened a criminal investigation into the deaths of 20 young adults who were trampled to death at the Love Parade, as experts accused the techno festival's organizers of ignoring Germany's exemplary safety standards and setting up a death trap.

Prosecutors did not specify who had been named as suspects in the negligent manslaughter probe. But organizers and authorities in the western city of Duisburg have come under fire for allegedly trying to squeeze as many as 1.4 million revelers into too small a space and for allowing the party to go on even after the deaths.

The tragedy Saturday happened near a jammed tunnel that was the only entrance to the festival grounds in an old freight railway station. Police said 511 people were injured.

"This is not a tragic disaster, this is a crime," said Marek Lieberberg, who manages concerts for singers like Shakira and Sting.

He called for the mayor's resignation, saying the disaster was a result of "megalomania" by the city and a huge violation of safety rules that turned the tunnel into a "deadly trap."

Air controllers lift flight restrictions in Europe

Wed, 21 Apr 2010 12:47:00 +0000

Airlines lost at least $1.7 billion during the volcanic ash crisis, the industry said Wednesday as air controllers lifted all restrictions on German airspace, paving the way for more flights into some of Europe's busiest airports.

Giovanni Bisignani, the head of the International Air Transport Association, called the economic fallout from the six-day travel shutdown "devastating" and urged European governments to examine ways to compensate airlines for lost revenues, as the U.S. government did following the Sept. 11, 2001 terror attacks.

He said it would take three years for the industry to recover from the week of lost flying time that stranded millions around the globe.

Eurocontrol, the air traffic control agency in Brussels, said 21,000 of the continent's 28,000 scheduled flights will go ahead on Wednesday. Still, experts predicted it could take days -- even more than a week -- to clear a backlog of passengers from over 100,000 canceled flights.

"The crisis is petering out," said Brian Flynn, deputy head of operations. "The potential area where there could be any possible risk of some particles of ash cloud (has) dissipated throughout most of Europe."