WW3

Zimbabwe opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai warned on Saturday that the “end game” for President Robert Mugabe was drawing near and that the collapse of the country could be around the corner.

Speaking at the end of a week’s visit to Mugabe’s arch-foe, Australia, Tsvangirai called for concerted international pressure on the long-serving ruler to respect democratic norms.

Zimbabwe’s economic woes and humanitarian crisis could not continue for ever, he said. The economy was “in free-fall”, he put inflation at a rampant 12 000 percent, unemployment at 85 percent and said five to six million Zimbabweans depended on food aid.

Presidential and parliamentary elections scheduled for March were “the starting point for resolving this crisis” he said, and called for international pressure and monitoring to ensure the voting was free and fair.

“The economy has shrunk by almost 68 percent with a consequent humanitarian crisis,” he added. “The situation is really dangerous, because unless the haemorrhage is stopped we may have a serious collapse of the state.

“The people of Zimbabwe are very conscious of their dire straits but are also conscious that the end game is probably near.

“We are seconds away from a national humanitarian crisis unless we act now - we will stop at nothing until our vision of a new Zimbabwe is achieved.”

Mugabe, 83, has been in power without a break since the country, then known as Rhodesia, won independence from Britain in 1980.

He has come in for a barrage of criticism over a brutal crackdown on the opposition through 2007 that saw Tsvangirai badly beaten in police custody.

Tsvangiarai, the leader of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change, was hosted by the Australian government and met top figures, among them prime minister John Howard and foreign minister Alexander Downer.

Harare was furious about the visit. The country’s state media called on Wednesday for the government to sever ties with Australia because it was seeking to topple Mugabe.

Canberra in May ordered Australia’s national cricket team not to proceed with a tour of Zimbabwe this month. It has also cancelled the student visas of several children of top Zimbabwe government figures.

Tsvangirai, as he prepared to return to Zimbabwe, said he had committed no crime and did not believe any action would be taken against him when he returned home on Sunday. He did, however, admit he would feel nervous on his arrival.

He was badly beaten while in police custody earlier in 2007 after being arrested with about 50 others while trying to hold an anti-Mugabe rally.

Tsvangirai said the international community should keep a clear focus on the situation in Zimbabwe and not to forget its long-running crisis while preoccupied with other trouble spots such as Iraq.

“Zimbabwe must remain on the international agenda,” he said.

Tsvangirai also said he was “cautiously optimistic” that South Africa’s president, Thabo Mbeki, would bring pressure to bear through an initiative of the Southern African Development Community, a regional grouping that includes Zimbabwe, and also called for support from the African Union.

African leaders have been criticised for their lukewarm criticism of Mugabe’s government but Tsvangirai said Harare should be forced to adhere to SADC protocols during the March elections. - Sapa-AFP

About 500,000 trash bins across England has been fitted with an electronic bug that monitor the homeowner’s waste disposal habits:

With the bugging technology, the electronic chips are carefully hidden under the moulded front ‘lip’ of wheelie bins used by householders for non-recyclable waste. As the bin is raised by the mechanical hoister at the back of the truck, the chip passes across an antenna fitted to the lifting mechanism. That enables the antenna to ‘read’ a serial number assigned to each property in the street.

When the truck returns to the depot, all the information collected on the round is transmitted to a hand-held device and downloaded on to the council’s centralised computer. Each household can be billed for the amount of waste collected - even though they have already paid for the services through their council tax.

Of course, it’s all hush hush. Must be part of the war on terror. The terror of stinky garbage, that is:

Until now, the majority of bins have been altered without the knowledge of their owners. In many cases, councils which ordered the installation of the devices did not even debate the proposals publicly.

Link - via Fortean Times

OBVESTILO BANKE

Osebni ali drugi zaupni oziroma varovani podatki, ki so nam na razpolago ali nam jih boste sporočili v zvezi z opravljanjem storitev (npr. izvršitvijo plačilnega naloga) in ki med bankami za ta namen potujejo preko omrežja SWIFT (Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication), bodo lahko na podlagi posebne zahteve posredovani domačim ali tujim (tudi v ZDA) državnim, upravno-administrativnim ali sodnim organom zaradi izvajanja ukrepov preprečevanja pranja denarja in ukrepov zoper financiranje terorističnih aktivnosti.

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Tuesday, 7 January, 2003, BBC News

Italian media have been publishing transcripts of an inquiry into the policing of the 2001 Genoa G8 summit in which officers admit fabricating evidence against protesters.

At the centre of the inquiry is a police raid on a school being used as a dormitory by anti-globalisation demonstrators, in which dozens of people were injured.

A senior officer, Pietro Troiani, reportedly admitted under questioning that two petrol bombs allegedly found at the school were planted by police to justify the raid.

In fact, they had been found elsewhere in the city, in the Corsa Italia, where protesters and police had clashed earlier in the day.

Mr Troiani’s lawyer later denied any involvement of his client in fabricating evidence, saying he had only handed the bombs to another police official, reports say.

Police disciplined

Out of 93 people arrested at the school in the early hours of 22 July, 72 suffered injuries, and all were later released without charge.

“Now that the investigation into the G8 events is drawing to a close, suspected truths which had already emerged are being officially confirmed,” reported the Italian television channel, Rai Uno.

At least 77 police officers have been under investigation for alleged brutality, and three police chiefs have been moved to other jobs.

Transcripts of some of their interviews have been published in Italian newspapers, including Italy’s leading left-wing daily, La Repubblica, and the Genoa daily newspaper, Il Secolo XIX.

Demonstrators said riot police beat them with clubs, smashed windows and wrecked computers in the raid.

The BBC’s Bill Hayton was among those who stood outside the Diaz school, hearing the screams coming from within, then watching bodies brought out on stretchers.

When the police left he went in and saw blood on the walls, floors and radiators of an upstairs room.

‘Simulated’ stabbing

One of the key witnesses is Michele Burgio, Mr Troiani’s driver, who admits to planting petrol bombs at the school.

According to the media reports, Mr Troiani later admitted to prosecutors that fabricating evidence was a “silly thing” to do.

Attention is also focusing on a knife attack on one police officer, Massimo Nucera.

A senior police chief, Franco Gratteri, head of the Central Operations Services, is quoted as saying that the stabbing was not carried out by protesters, but was simulated.

Mr Gratteri says the “attack” could have been aimed at justifying the excessive use of violence used by some flying squads.

Hundreds of police and protesters were injured in street battles during the summit, which was attended by violent anarchists as well as peaceful protesters.

One protester died after being shot by police.

Organizers of the protests at the North American leaders’ summit in Montebello, Que., say they have video that shows police disguised as masked demonstrators tried to incite violence on Monday.

About 1,200 protesters were in the small resort town near Ottawa as Prime Minister Stephen Harper met with U.S. President George W. Bush and Mexican President Felipe Calderon at a two-day summit to discuss issues under the Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America pact.

The video titled Stop SPP Protest — Union Leader stops provocateurs, posted on YouTube Tuesday, was shown at a news conference held Wednesday in Ottawa by protest organizers, including Dave Coles, president of the Communications, Energy and Paperworkers Union, who appears in the video.

In the footage filmed Monday afternoon, three burly men with bandanas and other covers over their faces push through protesters toward a line of riot police. One of the men has a rock in his hand.

As they move forward, Coles and other union leaders dressed in suits order the men to put the rock down and leave, accuse them of being police agents provocateurs, and try unsuccessfully to unmask them.

In the end, they squeeze behind the police line, where they are calmly handcuffed.

“The Communications, Energy and Paperworkers Union believes that the security force at Montebello were ordered to infiltrate our peaceful assembly and to provoke incidents,” Coles told reporters. “I think the evidence that we’ve shown you today reinforces the view.”

Coles showed photographs of the masked men’s and police officers’ boots taken during the handcuffing, in which they appear to have identical tread patterns on their soles.

He also questioned why other activists have been unable to identify the three men whose images have been broadcast worldwide and demanded to know who the masked men were.

“Do they have any connection to the Quebec police force or the Royal Canadian Mounted Police or are they part of some other security force that was at Montebello?” Coles asked, adding that he wants to know how the Prime Minister’s Office was involved in security during the protests.

He suggested that the government might want to provoke violence in order justify its security budget for the summit and discredit protesters.

“They want to defuse our questions … by trying to make it look like some radical group trying to create a confrontation,” he said.

The RCMP has refused to comment, while Quebec’s provincial force has flatly denied that its officers were involved in the incident.

It said it is not releasing any names as no charges were laid.
Retired police officer believes masked men were cops

Meanwhile, a retired Ottawa police officer who was formerly in charge of overseeing demonstrations for the force said he questions who the masked men really are, after viewing the video.

“Were they legitimate protesters? I don’t think so,” said Doug Kirkland.

“Well, if they weren’t police, I think they might well have been working in the best interests of police.”

He added that if the situation was as it appeared, he did not approve of the tactic. “It’s pretty close to baiting,” he said.

On Wednesday, the mayor of Montebello thanked police and protesters, praising the fact that there wasn’t a single report of damage during the two-day summit.

The Security and Prosperity Partnership pact, signed in 2005, is intended to forge closer trade and security links between the countries.

Opponents say negotiations about the agreement are secretive and undemocratic, and the treaty itself erodes Canada’s control over its natural resources, security and defence.

CBC News

Jörg Blech, SPIEGEL ONLINE

Robot warriors have already seen action in Iraq, and the US Army plans to replace one-third of its armored vehicles and weapons with robots by 2015. These killing machines may one day come equipped with an artificial conscience — even to the extent of disobeying immoral orders.
The US Army’s latest recruits are 1 meter (about 3 feet) tall, wear desert camouflage and are armed with black M249 machine guns. They also move on caterpillar tracks and — thanks to five camera eyes — can even see in the dark.
The fearless fighters are three robot soldiers who, unnoticed by the general public, were deployed in Iraq in mid-June, charged with hunting down insurgents. As if guided by an unseen hand, they hone in on their targets and fire at them with their machine guns. It’s the future of war — and it’s already here.
“It’s the first weaponized robot in the history of warfare,” says Charles Dean, an engineer with Waltham, Massachusetts-based Foster-Miller, the manufacturer of the new devices. Dean and the 70 employees in his department are eager to find out how their three protégés are holding up on the front. Because the three robots, dubbed “Swords,” are being used in a secret mission, their creators have no idea whether the devices have already killed enemy fighters in combat.
It seems only a matter of time before the three combat robots will get some reinforcements. The American military is currently testing the Gladiator, an unmanned mobile device developed by engineers at the Carnegie Mellon University Robotics Institute in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Gladiator weighs more than a ton and comes equipped with rubber tires that enable it to scurry up inclines of up to 60 percent. The US military has already mounted a targeting camera and a remote-controlled M240 machine gun on a prototype.
“We’ve already done plenty of shooting with the machine gun,” says Col. Terry Griffin, who heads the joint US Army and Marine Corps robot program. If further tests are successful, a four-wheel version of the Gladiator could be headed for Iraq next year — assuming US troops are still in the country.
According to Griffin, the combat robot is capable of disbanding groups of undesirables. There are three stages of escalation: First Gladiator issues warnings through a loudspeaker, then it fires rubber bullets and, finally, it starts firing its machine gun.

A New Kind of War

More than 50 years after author Isaac Asimov argued in his classic novel “I, Robot” that a robot should never be allowed to do harm to people, the development of automated killers has become unstoppable. Swords and Gladiator are the harbingers of a new type of warfare, in which killing will increasingly be left up to machines.
The US Army is developing a number of warrior robots.
According to an internal US Army memo, armed machines “are making their way onto today’s battlefields and will be extremely widespread on the battlefields of the future.” The Pentagon’s budget already includes up to $200 billion for a modernization program dubbed “Future Combat System.” Under the program, robots will replace one third of armored vehicles and weapons by 2015.
Automated warfare is also making inroads in Israel, where the military deploys robots along the country’s 60-kilometer (37-mile) border with the Gaza Strip. The stationary “See-Shoot” system developed by Rafael, an Israeli weapons manufacturer, includes machine guns and cameras, and has a range of 1,500 meters (4,921 feet).
From a military standpoint, there are many reasons to support the growing use of steel soldiers. For one, fear and fatigue are non-issues. Robots kill without hesitating and, unlike flesh-and-blood soldiers, losing them is merely a financial loss. A new Swords goes for about $150,000. Besides, politicians and generals no longer need to worry about a public outcry over excessive fatalities: Who mourns a fallen tin soldier?

Still in Control

However, human operators are still strictly in control of these mechanical soldiers. It will be a while before the humanoid murderers portrayed in Hollywood films like “Robocop” and “Terminator” will be unleashed on humanity. “But there are no scientific barriers standing in the way of autonomous combat robots,” says Ronald Arkin of the Atlanta-based Georgia Institute of Technology. “The parts of the whole are being assembled as we speak.”
In his corner office, graying robotics expert Arkin investigates ways to prevent the grim scenarios of science fiction films from becoming reality. He is currently conducting an Internet survey in an attempt to determine how military officials, politicians, robotics researchers and ordinary citizens feel about autonomous killing machines.
What are the ethical rules these machines should follow when they are sent into war, for example? To help tackle the issue, Arkin is developing software that could be used to program the machines with such rules — a sort of conscience for steel soldiers.
One of those machines, BigDog, provides a sense of how far robotics has come technologically. The headless device feels its way as it moves forward. A built-in computer and internal sensors ensure that BigDog remains firmly on all fours, even when given a firm kick in the side. The robot, developed by Boston Dynamics, will likely begin its military career as a packhorse.
At a show last week at Webster Field, a military base in Maryland, a craft with a diameter of only 33 centimeters (13 inches) could be seen flying through the air and landing on spring-like legs. US troops in Iraq are currently testing about 20 of these so-called Micro Air Vehicles, which are made by Honeywell Aerospace. The soldiers can either control the drone with a joystick or program it to run on automatic pilot. To do so, they call up a digital map of their surroundings on a computer screen and click on the target. The drone then uses GPS to locate the target.
An even more impressive device on display at Webster Field was a seven-meter (23-foot) helicopter called Fire Scout. Instead of a cockpit, the unmanned helicopter has a windowless face that covers a Cyclops-like eye: a laser device that enables Fire Scout to land on its own, even on the tight deck space available on smaller warships. Fire Scout, of which US manufacturer Northrop Grumman has only produced two prototypes, is still unarmed. But that too will change, says engineer Doug Fronius: “There are definite plans to integrate weapons into the system.”
Northrop Grumman is also developing an unarmed stealth fighter, the X-47, which the company expects to perform its first fully automated landing on a moving aircraft carrier in 2011. “By removing the pilots, we enable the device to remain airborne for an additional 10 hours or more,” says Tighe Parmenter of Northrop Grumman. “To program an enemy mission, all you need is a keyboard and a mouse.” In early August the US Navy awarded the company a contract worth $635.8 million to develop the fighter drones.
In general, airborne robotic devices are the vanguard among military robots. Unmanned flying objects have been used in war zones for some time, mainly for reconnaissance, but also to deliver deadly weapons. The two missiles that killed Al-Qaida terrorist Mohammed Atef in November 2001 as he was traveling to Kabul by car were fired from a Predator drone.

Fatal Decisions

Regardless of whether robots hurtle through the air or serve as mechanical infantrymen on the ground, until now human operators have decided whether they are permitted to shoot. The fear that the machines could suddenly start letting loose on their own troops is still too great.
Before Swords fires its first salvo at terrorists in Iraq, it needs the permission of two human operators. A supervisor presses a button on his remote control, which makes the machine gun operational. At the same time, another soldier must activate two red switches on this control unit to allow the robot to begin shooting.
However, it is only logical that decisions over life and death will increasingly be transferred to the machine — just as soon as engineers have figured out how to overcome the problem of distinguishing between friends and foes. The first device likely to be capable of making this distinction could be installed by as early as this year along the 248-kilometer (154-mile) demilitarized zone between North and South Korea.
Samsung Techwin, a South Korean electronics firm, heads the consortium that developed the device, a black shooting robot. Equipped with video and ultrasound cameras, the robot can distinguish between trees and people and, according to Arkin, can independently open fire on anyone crossing the border illegally.
The Pentagon also wants to give the robots more freedom, arguing that the only way to enhance the fighting power of US troops is to enable a soldier to use several unmanned systems at the same time. This is only possible if the machines are allowed to make many of their decisions independently. According to a US Army document, both “lethal and non-lethal combat” could be possible as autonomous behavior.

The Future is Bright

The attack of the killer robots may sound like some macabre vision of the future. But robotics visionary Arkin also believes that there could be some positive aspects to the scenario. Contrary to many international treaties and declarations of intent, atrocities and human rights violations have always been part of wars in the past. A case in point is the torture scandal involving US troops at Iraq’s Abu Ghraib prison.
Arkin believes that combat robots would not be tempted to commit such atrocities, thanks to their artificial conscience. “Robots could behave more humanely than human beings,” he says. He plans to present a prototype of his morality software at a conference in September. Depending on the situation and its mission, a robot would select, from a wide range of options, the one action that it considers especially ethical — even if it means refusing to obey a command.
Arkin also hopes that the mere presence of unmanned systems could make crises and conflicts more humane. Wherever their cameras are pointed, the robots create a record that could ultimately be open to public scrutiny. Soldiers can then expect everything they do to be captured on camera, an effective deterrent against those who seek to exact revenge and indulge their torture fantasies on prisoners.

Open Arms

In the meantime, the robots are being welcomed with open arms by their human fellow soldiers. The US Army will decide in October whether to deploy additional Swords robots in Iraq. If the soldiers had their way, they would get another 20 Swords, says Michael Zecca of the Picatinny Army Arsenal in New Jersey.
Soldiers are especially fond of the hundreds of unmanned robots that have been used for years as minesweepers in Iraq and Afghanistan, and are credited with saving countless lives. The small tin soldiers are so valuable to the military that they are even promoted and decorated with medals. Whenever a mine detonates under one of the devices, soldiers prefer to repair the robot if at all possible, rather than have it replaced with a brand-new substitute.
At a military base in Yuma, Arizona, a colonel ordered soldiers to break off a test in which a robot was being repeatedly sent into a minefield — because, so he said, it was inhumane.
Arkin sees an underestimated danger in this tendency among soldiers to anthropomorphize machines. In an extreme case, officers could become more attached to their robots than to the men and women they command. Then, so Arkin’s tongue-in-cheek prediction, an officer might well issue an order like, “Tom, you go and see if the coast is clear — the robot stays here!”

Translated from the German by Christopher Sultan

Fully 71 percent of Israelis believe that the United States should launch a military attack on Iran if diplomatic efforts fail to halt Tehran’s nuclear program, according to a new poll.

The survey, commissioned by Bar-Ilan University’s BESA Center and the Anti-Defamation League, found that 59 percent of Israelis still believe the war in Iraq was justified, while 36 percent take the opposite view.

Some 65 percent believe that the United States is a loyal ally of Israel, with only 11 percent saying the opposite. A slightly higher proportion, 73 percent, described U.S. President George W. Bush as friendly. Forty-eight percent attributed U.S. support for Israel to strategic considerations, while 30 percent credited American Jewry and 17 percent cited shared values and a shared democratic tradition.

Regarding America’s importance to Israel, there was near consensus: 91 percent said that close relations with the U.S. are vital to Israel’s security. Some 51 percent of respondents predicted that the U.S. will ultimately impose an agreement on Israel and the Palestinians, while 43 percent disagreed.

In addition, 52 percent of respondents described American Jewish support of Israel as “sufficient,” while 33 percent did not. About half of all Israelis believe that American Jewry is in danger of disappearing due to assimilation, the poll found.

Od vseh idej, ki so se porodile pri iskanju rešitev za podnebne spremembe, mi je najbolj ugajal predlog Jian Jingsonga, profesorja s kitajske univerze Tsihinghua. Postanimo vegetarijanci, pravi profesor, kajti prav zaradi čedalje večje proizvodnje mesa nastajajo v okolju čedalje hujše motnje.

Še posebno pa mi je ugajalo, da je doktor Jiang to predlagal pred vrhunskim srečanjem Apeca in dan pred tem, preden sta se v avstralskem Sydneyju sestala ameriški predsednik George W. Bush in avstralski premier John Howard, voditelja dveh mesojedih držav, ki sta še pred uradnim začetkom letnega zasedanja tega foruma odločno podprla skupno akcijo za povečanje energetske učinkovitosti. Ne ZDA ne Avstralija niso podpisale kjotskega protokola, zato je bil njun zavezniški stisk rok znamenje, da bo v Sydneyju še en forum brez prave vsebine, in to s polnimi krožniki sočne govedine in jagnjetine.

Profesor Jiang misli resno, ko opozarja, da se od znanosti pričakuje, da bo rešila problem podnebnih sprememb, da pa izhoda iz te zagate ne bo, dokler ne bo večji del človeštva spremenil načina življenja – tudi načina prehrane. »Vegetarijanstvo je izbira višje morale,« pravi profesor Jiang in trdi, da lahko površina Zemlje vzdržuje dvajsetkrat več vegetarijancev kakor mesojedcev. Za vsak kilogram govedine je treba deset tisoč litrov vode – to precej presega zmogljivosti preostalih vodnih vode – in pri vsakem kilogramu nastane 40 kilogramov iztrebkov – to je veliko več od gnojila, ki ga lahko prenese okolje.

In medtem ko je kitajski profesor pripovedoval, koliko metana izpuščajo krave, in opozarjal na to, da pomeni vsak hamburger izgubo 6,25 kubičnega metra gozda, so v Sydneyju šilili svinčnike, da bodo z njimi iz osnutka deklaracije črtali vsako konkretno zahtevo po zmanjšanju porabe organskih energentov in hkrati večstranski forum spreminjali v dvostranske sestanke. Bush in Howard sta nemudoma prešla na svojo skupno temo – vojno proti terorizmu – in znova odločno zagotovila, da bosta šla v Iraku do konca, čeprav ne eden ne drugi zdaj zagotovo nič več ne vesta, kje in kakšen bo ta konec. Drugi bodo prihodnje dneve izkoristili za to, da bodo potiskali v ospredje vsak svoj najhujši problem, nato pa se bodo znova vsi skupaj zbrali pod glavnim naslovom zasedanja: ohraniti je treba globalni razvoj ali – prebrano z druge strani – ekološko ravnovesje ni mogoče.

Pri vseh velikih temah, ki so od začetka stoletja prišle pred 21-članski forum, Apec do zdaj ni resno prispeval k rešitvi niti enega problema. Po šanghajskem vrhunskem srečanju leta 2001 mu ni uspelo ustaviti terorizma, prav tako kakor po lanskem hanojskem zasedanju Severne Koreje ni odvrnil od jedrske avanture. Pravzaprav se je ob vseh transpacifiških krizah, kakršni sta bili sars in cunami, zdelo, da ga sploh ni. Kljub temu nihče ne pričakuje, da bo blok, ki obsega 60 odstotkov globalnega družbenega proizvoda in okoli polovico svetovne trgovine, kar tako razpadel, saj mu vsako leto po zasedanju namenijo toliko pozornosti, kakor da bi mogel prav on rešiti najhujše probleme. Pravzaprav gre tudi tukaj za isto načelo kakor pri vegetarijanstvu in podnebnih spremembah: Apec ne bo imel pravega pomena, vse dokler se voditelji velikih sil ne bodo naučili, da je treba globalne interese postavljati nad osebne.

Delo.si

A 75-year-old Swedish woman currently has the fastest broadband connection in the world.

Sigbritt Löthberg, from Karlstad in central Sweden, enjoys a massive 40Gbps connection - many thousand times faster than the average connection speed delivered to homes. It’s the first time such a high speed as ever been delivered to a home user anywhere in the world.

Sigbritt has only recently taking up computing. She is the mother of Swedish ‘internet legend’ Peter Löthberg, who arranged the connection along with the local council’s network department.

“This is more than just a demonstration,” said Hafsteinn Jonsson, network manager at Karlstad Stadsnät.

“As a network owner we’re trying to persuade internet operators to invest in faster connections. And Peter Löthberg wanted to show how you can build a low price, high capacity line over long distances,” Jonsson told The Local .
1,500 HDTV channels

Sigbritt is now able to enjoy 1,500 high-definition HDTV channels simultaneously. Or, if she doesn’t find anything to watch there, there’s also the option of downloading a full high-definition DVD in just two seconds.

The ultra-fast connection speed has been achieved by a new modulation technology. It allows data to be transferred directly between two routers up to 2,000 kilometres apart, without any intermediary transponders.

The distance is, in theory, unlimited - there is no data loss as long as the fibre is in place, according to Karlstad Stadsnät.

“I want to show that there are other methods than the old fashioned ways such as copper wires and radio, which lack the possibilities that fibre has,” said Peter Löthberg, who works at Cisco.

The fibre technology behind such high speed connections is “technically and commercially viable,” Jonsson said.

“The most difficult part of the whole project was installing Windows on Sigbritt’s PC,” Jonsson added.

Slovenska vlada je mariborski nadškofiji izplačala 8,1 milijonov evrov (1,941 milijarde tolarjev) odškodnine zaradi nezmožnosti uporabe šolskega poslopja od začetka denacionalizacije do njegove vrnitve, četudi je mariborski škof (današnji mariborski nadškof) pred dobro dekado podpisal dokument, v katerem se je takšnim odškodninskim zahtevam odrekel (več o pravnih vidikih tega dokumenta si boste lahko prebrali v 2. delu). Za isto poslopje davkoplačevalci vsak mesec plačujemo mariborski nadškofiji več deset tisoč evrov najemnine.

V omenjeni stavbi na Vrbanski ulici 30 – z 10.000 m2 je to največje šolsko poslopje v državi – se nahajata srednja biotehniška šola in fakulteta za kmetijstvo. Svoj domicil bosta izgubili leta 2009, do takrat pa imata pravico najemati prostore.

Kompenzacija vključuje:
-    4,4 milijonov evrov iz vladnega proračuna za leto 2006 (1,051 milijard tolarjev),
-    2,9 milijonov evrov (701 milijard tolarjev) iz letošnjega,
-    mariborska nadškofija bo dobila v naravi dve parceli v bližini šole, v protivrednosti 808.333 evrov (194 milijonov tolarjev).

Najemnina za kvadratni meter znaša 5 evrov na kvadratni meter. Ministrstvo za visoko šolstvo, znanost in tehnologijo plačuje mariborski nadškofiji najemnino 10.870 evrov (2,604.887 tolarjev) na mesec za 2174 m2 in Ministrstvo za šolstvo in šport najemnino 20.833 evrov (4,992.420 tolarjev) na mesec za 4166 m2. Skupaj: 31.703 evrov (7,597.307 tolarjev) na mesec.

Minister za šolstvo Milan Zver trdi, da je država zmagovalka pogajanj z mariborsko nadškofijo, saj je slednja zahtevala več kot 23 milijonov tolarjev odškodnine za 13,5 let, odkar poslopja ni uporabljala. Toda to, da je nadškofija zahtevala tako visoko odškodnino, še ne pomeni, da je bila do nje tudi upravičena, opozarja nekdanji šolski minister dr. Slavko Gaber in hkrati navaja, da je objekt zasegel tretji rajh, in sicer še v 3. gradbeni fazi, danes pa ga je cerkev dobila dokončanega z odškodnino vred. Poleg tega naj bi v preteklih letih Slovenija nudila mariborski nadškofiji brezplačne nadomestne prostore za cerkvene šole.

Prejšnja vlada je zatrjevala, da bi vrnitev poslopja v naravi državi povzročilo nesorazmerne stroške, ob čemer se je sklicevala na 19. člen zakona o denacionalizaciji. Janševa vlada takšnih pomislekov ni imela, posestvo je vrnila in s tem mariborski nadškofiji odprla vrata za zahteve po odškodnini. To je slednja uveljavljala takoj po pravnomočni odločbi o vrnitvi objekta.

Pogajalci so v debati o višini odškodnine ignorirali dokument iz leta 1986 – protokol, v katerem se (takratna) mariborska škofija odpoveduje kakršni koli odškodnini zaradi nezmožnosti uporabe nacionaliziranih objektov v Mariboru. Na dokumentu je žig mariborske škofije in podpis tedanjega škofa in sedanjega nadškofa dr. Franca Krambergerja. Petnajst let kasneje je nadškof dr. Kramberger zahteval odškodnino ter ob poravnavi izkazal nezadovoljstvo z njeno višino.

Minister Zver trdi, da dokument nima več pravne veljave, saj eden od podpisnikov ne obstaja več, vendar pa to dejstvo na pravno veljavnost protokola ne bi smelo vplivati.

Državljani si upravičeno postavljajo vprašanje, ali je - glede na povedano – Rimskokatoliška cerkev z vztrajanjem pri zahtevi za finančno odškodnino ravnala v skladu s svojimi etičnimi nauki.