Fiesty exchange over Bulgarian nominee

The European Parliament is holding confirmation hearings for the new EU commissioners this week, and by far the most dramatic one yet has been that of Bulgaria’s nominee Rumiana Jeleva, who is being accused of having ties to the Russian mafia. Yesterday’s chaotic hearing reflected the EU’s continuing problem of how to deal with Bulgaria’s corruption, which is so widespread in their political class one isn’t sure who to believe in the dispute over Jeleva’s past.

Accusations were flying back and forth in the hearing yesterday, with Jeleva being called a liar by a rival Bulgarian MEP and Jeleva in turn demanding that an MEP come to Bulgaria to see for himself that she has no ties to the mob. Then each opposing side began furiously handing out paperwork to prove their case, a violation of parliamentary rules. When authorities tried to confiscate the hand-outs, MEPs refused to hand them back. Soon there were calls for the whole hearing to break because of the discord. In the end, the panel could not confirm her and had to put off the confirmation until 24 January.

Was swine flu a hoax?

European health ministers are set to hold an emergency inquiry into whether pharmaceutical companies influenced government decisions to purchase vast stockpiles of unnecessary swine flu vaccines. The inquiry comes as European governments have announced they are being forced to sell the millions of excess doses they ordered from the companies during the height of the Swine Flu Panic.

This week Gerrmany, France and the Netherlands announced they would sell the excess H1N1 drug supplies they purchased. The revelations about how much those governments spent on the vaccine has caused a public outcry, particularly in France. The country had placed orders to spend €869 million on 94 million vaccine doses, even though the population of France is 65 million. Only 5 million French people have been vaccinated. On Monday the country announced it wanted to cancel 50 million of those orders. The UK is also in talks to cancel orders for an estimated 20 million doses of vaccine, though the government won’t reveal the total size of what it ordered.

'Racist' KFC ad: The perils of globalisation

An internet uproar has exploded over the past few days over a purportedly racist KFC ad airing in Australia. The controversy grew so loud that KFC today decided to pull the ad - not because it was causing any offense in Australia, but because Americans watching it on YouTube were offended.

You couldn't pick a more perfect illustration of this crazy globalized internet age we live in. The ad was aired by KFC Australia as part of its "cricket survival guide" series in the run-up to a big match between the Australian and West Indian cricket teams. The ad features a white Australian sitting in a crowd of unruly black Carribean cricket fans. "Need a tip when you're stuck in an awkward situation?" he asks the camera. He then shares a bucket of fried chicken with the unruly crowd. They devour it, bringing them under control. "Too easy," he says.

Iceland to vote on becoming pariah state

After seeing his house surrounded by a torch-wielding mob, Iceland’s president yesterday stunned the world by vetoing a parliament bill committing the country to paying back the €3.8 billion of British and Dutch citizens’ money it lost. The bold move triggered a shock wave of recrimination across the world: the country’s debt was instantly downgraded to junk status, the IMF hinted it may withhold the $2.1 billion it loaned the country in November and the UK threatened to veto Iceland’s bid to join the EU.

So now who’s going to make the incredibly difficult and complicated decision on whether or not to pay back the ‘other people’s money’ Iceland lost? Joe Q. Public, that’s who. The issue will now go to a public referendum on 20 February.

Mr Bean – EU President

Today the euroblogosphere was receiving more attention than it’s used to, thanks to a surprising visit from Mr. Bean on the EU presidency’s web site. But now it’s turned into a war of words between bloggers – who insist they saw the image – and Spain – which insists no such image ever appeared.

I myself didn’t become aware of the story until late this afternoon, after an entire day of being frustrated by attempts to open the Spanish EU presidency’s web site and having them time out. Spain took over the rotating EU presidency from Sweden on 1 January*, and I had to write a story about their platform but couldn’t access their documents. As soon as I opened my twitter account I could see why. Everyone in Brussels was tweeting about ‘Beangate’, commenting both on the hack itself and the enormous amount of media attention it was receiving.

Nudie Pics at the Airport?

I’ve just touched down in London after a whirlwind tour through the US, and I think I’ll be happy to not see another plane again for a long while. Flying back from Chicago to London I could already see the effects of the attempted Christmas terrorist bombing – what looked like full cavity searches for every person coming into the US. And from what I read this morning it sounds like we’ll all be shooting naked videos of ourselves at Heathrow within a few weeks time. Welcome to the new age of air travel.

I flew Air Canada back and forth to the US, despite major misgivings given their abysmal reputation for delays. My initial reluctance proved well founded. Out of four flight legs each was delayed by at least two hours. I say this after every time I fly them but this time I mean it – never again!

As I was transferring through the airport in Montreal I could see down through the glass wall into the entranceway for people transferring to flights to the US – and it was a madhouse. There was a massive hall of pat-down stations. Every single person flying to the US is now getting a full body search, and there was a queue stretching back for what seemed like miles as each person entered this massive hall to be individually meticulously searched. Lucky for me, those flying away from the US didn’t have to do that (though I’m not sure I understand the logic there…)