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Europe is heading towards a severe water crisis

A recent study by Matthias Huss, glacier expert at the University of Fribourg, confirms that glaciers play a mayor part in providing water for the major rivers in the Alps.
Although we are not really aware of it, as many other regions of the world, Europe depends greatly on melt water from glaciers for fresh water. The Swiss Alps for example are often called the “water towers of Europe”. With sixty billion of cubic meters of water, Switzerland holds an important part of European fresh water, essential for large rivers and overall water management.
Glaciers store water during wet, cold winters in the form of ice and release that ice during hot summer months in the form of fresh melt water.
With the rise of temperatures the glaciers grow smaller every year and the water shortages in Europe during hot summer months are steadily increasing. Between 1996 and 2006 each year Read more…
EU ministers scramble to deal with cucumber crisis
EU agricultural ministers Monday struggled to come to terms with a deadly bacteria outbreak suspected of stemming from contaminated cucumbers that has already killed 12 in Germany.
“One problem with Spanish cucumbers, and all of Europe is trembling,” Belgium’s minister Sabine Laruelle said on the sidelines of an informal meeting in Debrecen, eastern Hungary.
At least 12 people have died in Germany following an outbreak of enterohaemorrhagic E. coli (EHEC) found on imported cucumbers.
And several hundred more are being treated in hospitals for the highly virulent strain of bacteria, which can result in full-blown haemolytic uraemic syndrome (HUS), a disease that causes bloody diarrhoea and serious liver damage and which can result in death.
Around Europe, other cases — real or suspected — have been reported in Denmark, Sweden, Britain, the Netherlands, Austria, France and Switzerland, all of them apparently stemming from Germany.
Dutch agriculture minister Henk Bleker said Read more…
Chinese Citizens Turn to Gold in One of Greatest Booms in Metal’s History
Europe is facing the worst drought in century

Traditional Easter fairs in the east and the north of the Netherlands have been cancelled because of the risk of fires posed by the extraordinarily dry weather affecting northern Europe. In the eastern half of the country, one of Europe’s biggest traders, outdoor family barbecues, smoking and camp fires are a strict no-no.
In the Swiss canton of Zurich, officials began moving trout this week from the river Toess before their habitat dried up. This year threatens to bring “one of the most significant droughts since 1864,” the year when records began in Switzerland. The drought in western Switzerland over the last 12 months is as severe as those recorded in 1884 and 1921. Several cantons have also imposed bans on lighting fire in and close to forests. A grass shortage could also lead to a Read more…
Leaked cables reveal anger at regime may make Libya the next Arab domino to fall
THE violence and corruption of members of Colonel Muammar Gaddafi’s family have made Libya a gangster state with a worse record of governance than Egypt or Tunisia, according to leaked US diplomatic cables.
The documents reveal previously undisclosed details of how family greed, rivalry and extremism have complicated British and US efforts to normalize relations with Libya since it decided to abandon nuclear weapons and renounce terrorism. Gaddafi’s children plunder the country’s oil revenues, run a kleptocracy and operate a reign of terror that has created simmering hatred and resentment among the people, according to the cables released by WikiLeaks.
In the light of the upheavals in the Arab world, the diplomatic traffic also shows that far from being stable, Libya could be another corrupt authoritarian domino poised to fall.
One intriguing sequence of cables tells how Switzerland faced down threats after Swiss police arrested Hannibal Gaddafi, a younger son, and his wife for allegedly abusing two of their domestic staff.
Swiss police officers drew their guns and fought to disarm two Read more…
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