Vancouver Now Less Affordable Than Manhattan: Study

• Daniel Tencer Senior Business Editor, HuffPost Canada 
   
   

  Well, it finally happened. Vancouver's housing market is now less affordable than the U.S.'s two famously pricey housing markets, Manhattan and San Francisco.

  
  

  According to an analysis of North American cities from Point2 Homes, the median house in Vancouver costs 17.3 times the median income in the city. A median house in Manhattan costs 15.6 times the median income, while in San Francisco it's 13.8. Read more

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Flooding in Europe - the raging Danube River

Thousands flee flood-hit parts of Germany and Hungary

 

Our Okanagan Valley is not the only place flooding is taken place. The raging Danube River is causing major disruption of life in Europe.

 

Budapest is one of the major cities affected by the flooding. While living in Hungary decades ago I personally witnessed the  rage of the river. Click on the title of the article to read the whole story.

 

 

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Trump baffles Sweden with crime comment, says it was based on TV report

World News | Sun Feb 19, 2017 | 7:44pm EST
By Anna Ringstrom and Jeff Mason | STOCKHOLM/WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. 

 A day after falsely suggesting there was an immigration-related security incident in Sweden, President Donald Trump said on Sunday his comment was based on a television report he had seen.

Trump, who in his first weeks in office has tried to tighten U.S. borders sharply for national security reasons, told a rally on Saturday that Sweden was having serious problems with immigrants.

"You look at what's happening last night in Sweden," Trump said. "Sweden. Who would believe this? Sweden. They took in large numbers. They're having problems like they never thought possible."

No incident occurred in Sweden and the country's baffled government asked the U.S. State Department to explain. (Read more)

One might wonder if the President actually knew in which Melbourne he was.

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Province proclaimes Hungarian Cultural Week

Additional information available:

                                    Sopron Story

                                    Letters

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Hungarian Revolution 60 years ago

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, and Polish President, Andrzej Duda, give a major speech for the 60th anniversary of the fight back against Soviet occupation.

PM Orbán compared the Soviet Union with today's European Union in terms of a threat to free peoples.

This is a profound and powerful speech, worthy of a Winston Churchill or a Henry V, which the huge crowd cheered. Click here 

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Yesterday, October 23rd, Hungarians celebrated the 60th Anniversary of the 1956 revolution. In the Okanagan the celebration was held in the Hungarian Hall in West Kelowna. Many people had difficulty controlling their emotions while remembering the events that took place in Budapest and other parts of the country.

The revolution was crushed by the Soviet forces. However, it contributed to the eventual crumbling of the Soviet Empire. Both the Polish and the Hungarian people chiseled away on the Empire and its demise was hailed everywhere. 

Long Live Hungary!    

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Who was the winner here? - The Huffington Post.

Fox News has reached a settlement with former “Fox and Friends” host Gretchen Carlson over allegations that the network’s disgraced former CEO sexually harassed her, the network said in a statement Tuesday.

Fox will pay Carlson $20 million to end her lawsuit against Roger Ailes, Vanity Fair reported. Ailes received a $40 million severance package. Read more.

  

Winner $20 million loser $40 million!

 

Sometimes the winner appears to be the loser. 

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Prime Minister Resigns - The first victim of Panama Papers

Words by

Paul Fontaine

@pauldfontaine

Published April 5, 2016

Sigmundur Davíð Gunnlaugsson will resign as Prime Minister of Iceland.

Minister of Agriculture and Fishing Sigurður Ingi Jóhannsson told RÚV just moments ago that Sigmundur has resigned as the Prime Minister. This move still needs the approval of the Independence Party, and the President, before being official.

Sigmundur will remain on as chairperson of the Progressive Party, and Sigurður Ingi will take his place as Prime Minister. Sigurður said that they want to continue their partnership with the Independence Party, and do not recommend early elections at this time.

However, Independence Party chairperson Bjarni Benediktsson is currently meeting the President Ólafur Ragnar Grímsson to discuss the current situation.

Sigurður has publicly defended the Prime Minister since the Panama Papers story broke, going so far as to defend the use of offshore accounts by saying, “It is complicated to have money in Iceland.”

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Panama papers' huge fallout

The Canadian Press - 
Apr 5, 2016 / 6:45 am

Governments around the world tried Tuesday to contain the fallout from the publication of thousands of names of rich and powerful people who conducted offshore financial activity through a Panamanian law firm.
China dismissed as "groundless" reports that relatives of current and retired politicians, including President Xi Jinping, own offshore companies.
The state media are ignoring the reports, and search results for the words "Panama documents" have been blocked on websites and social media.
Iceland's prime minister has vowed to not resign despite thousands of angry protesters demanded he step down and call new elections. The leaks showed possible links to an offshore company that could represent a serious conflict of interest.
And Ukraine's president was accused of abusing his office and of tax evasion by moving his candy business offshore, possibly depriving the country of millions of dollars in taxes.
The reports are from a global group of news organizations working with the Washington-based International Consortium of Investigative Journalists. They have been processing the legal records from the Mossack Fonseca law firm that were first leaked to the German Sueddeutsche Zeitung newspaper.
Shell companies aren't by themselves illegal. People or companies might use them to reduce their tax bill legally, by benefiting from low tax rates in countries like Panama, the Cayman Islands and Bermuda. But the practice is frowned upon, particularly when used by politicians, who then face criticism for not contributing to their own countries' economies.
Because offshore accounts and companies also hide the names of the ultimate owners of investments, they can be used to illegally evade taxes or launder money.
Mossack Fonseca says it obeys all laws relating to company registrations and does not advise people how to evade or legally avoid taxes.
The firm said in a statement that "our industry is not particularly well understood by the public, and unfortunately this series of articles will only serve to deepen that confusion.
"The facts are these: while we may have been the victim of a data breach, nothing in this illegally obtained cache of documents suggests we've done anything wrong or illegal, and that's very much in keeping with the global reputation we've worked hard to build over the past 40 years of doing business the right way. "
Members of the Group of 20 — which includes China — have agreed on paper to tighten laws relating to shell companies and make sure authorities can find out who the real owners are. Actual legislation at the national level has lagged behind the promises, however.
The appearance of offshore accounts in political scandals is far from new. Shell companies played a role in the Petrobras scandal in Brazil, in which bribes were allegedly funneled to politician's accounts from executives at the oil company and from construction companies. The U.S. Justice Department said in an indictment last year that offshore accounts were used to mask the transfer of bribes to officials at FIFA, the global soccer federation.
China's Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei said he would not discuss the reports further and declined to say whether the individuals named would be investigated.
"For these groundless accusations, I have no comment," Hong told reporters at a regularly scheduled news conference.
Sueddeutsche Zeitung, working with NDR and WDR public television, reported Monday that 14 German banks had used Mossack Fonseca's services to set up 1,200 letterbox companies for clients.
The report said use of offshore company registrations had spiked after the European Union introduced regulations in 2005 requiring countries to exchange tax information on physical persons, but not for companies. Many of the accounts, however, have since been closed.
The EU has since tightened its rules on offshore companies under its Fourth Anti-Money Laundering Directive, which is being phased in as national governments pass local laws to comply by June 26, 2017. The new rules tighten requirements for companies to keep accurate information on their real owners and to make that available to authorities.

 The rich get richer - and cheaper!

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British 'garlic smuggling pair' wanted by police in Sweden

Two Britons are wanted in Sweden on suspicion of organising a multi-million pound, international garlic smuggling operation. 

Prosecutors allege the pair, who have not been named, organised shipments of Chinese garlic to Norway to take advantage of its low customs duties and then smuggled it across the border into Sweden, thus avoiding EU i

The garlic, worth an estimated £8 million in total, was then distributed across the European Union. 

Thomas Ahlstrand, deputy chief prosecutor at Sweden's International Public Prosecutions Office, described the smuggling as an "extensive operation for big money" that ran for about two years, and that there were "lorry loads" of the vegetable involved. More

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Are you envious? A glance into the future!

Some readers had difficulty opening the document. Here is what you do: Click on above photo. The following window will appear:

 Click on OK and the PPS document will appear.

You must have Power Point installed on your computer!
 
 Be glad you live here!

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Some things beyond our control?

http://artificialclouds.com/

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German officials still seeking identity of 'Forest Boy'

By Leigh Goessl
Jun 14, 2012 - 2 hours ago in World

Berlin - German officials are actively seeking the identity of a boy that showed up in Berlin after he'd wandered out of a forest.

While the teenager, dubbed "Forest Boy" in the media, actually emerged from a German forest last September, authorities did not publicly release a photo until just this week.

For many months police have been trying to unravel this unusual case. No one knows if the (estimated) 17-year-old boy has been telling the truth about his upbringing and/or if he has any family members still alive.

When he came out of the forest, the boy told police his name was Ray and that he had been living with his father, Ryan, in the forest for about five years. He said his father had recently passed away. He arrived in Berlin following his father's last instructions to "walk north" and "find civilization" in the event something happened to him. more

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Britain's got talent - the $800,000 pooch.

 

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One honest banker!

 

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Japanese Quake Survivors Have Returned $78 Million in Lost Cash

It's now time for a story that restores your faith in mankind, even if it means going all the way to Japan to find it: In the five months since that country's devastating quake and tsunami, almost $78 million in cash has been found amongst the wreckage and turned in.

The money was recovered from countless abandoned wallets and purses, as well as from 5,700 safes that have washed up along the coastline. One safe alone was said to contain $1 million. But what were these coastal villagers doing sitting on so much cash in the first place? (More)

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Cars with wings may be just around the corner - Transfer the carnaga to the skies.

WASHINGTON — If cars had wings, they could fly — and that just might happen, beginning next year.

The company Terrafugia, based in Woburn, Mass., says it plans to deliver its car-plane, the Transition, to customers by the end of 2011. It recently cleared a major hurdle when the Federal Aviation Administration granted a special weight limit exemption to the Transition.

"It's the next 'wow' vehicle," said Terrafugia vice president Richard Gersh. "Anybody can buy a Ferrari, but as we say, Ferraris don't fly."

The Transition is a long way from cartoon dad George Jetson's flying car zooming above traffic, or even the magical Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.

"There is no launch button on the (instrument) panel," Gersh noted.

Rather, the car-plane has wings that unfold for flying — a process the company says takes one minute — and fold back up for driving. A runway is still required to takeoff and land.

The Transition is being marketed more as a plane that drives than a car that flies, although it is both. The company has been working with FAA to meet aircraft regulations, and with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration to meet vehicle safety regulations

The company is pitching the Transition to private pilots as a more convenient — and cheaper — way to fly. They say it eliminates the hassle trying to find another mode of transportation to get to and from airports: You drive the car to the airport and then you're good to go. When you land, you fold up the wings and hit the road. There are no expensive hangar fees because you don't have to store it at an airport — you park it in the garage at home.

The plane is designed to fly primarily under 10,000 feet. It has a maximum takeoff weight of 1,430 pounds, including fuel and passengers. Gas mileage on the road is about 30 mpg.

Terrafugia says the Transition reduces the potential for an accident by allowing pilots to drive under bad weather instead of flying into marginal conditions.

The Transition's price tag: $194,000. But there may be additional charges for options like a radio, transponder or GPS. Another option is a full-plane parachute.

"If you get into a very dire situation, it's the ultimate safety option," Gersh said.

So far, the company has more than 70 orders with deposits, he said.

Terrafugia is Latin for "escape from the land." The company was founded in 2006 by five Massachusetts Institute of Technology grad students who were also pilots. They received some seed money from the school.

The concept of a car-plane has been around since at least the 1950s, but it's possible that Terrafugia may become the first company to mass-produce one, FAA spokeswoman Laura Brown said.

"We're working very closely with them, but there are still some remaining steps," Brown said.

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Iceland volcano: European airlines on watch for flight disruptions

By Jane Engle Los Angeles Times Staff Writer

May 23, 2011, 9:24 a.m.

This is a good time to keep in touch with your airline if you plan to fly in the next few days to Europe because there is a chance that ash from the huge volcanic eruption in Iceland over the weekend could delay or even cancel your flight.

Even as Iceland’s main airport prepared to possibly reopen Monday, Europe was on watch for potential flight disruptions as the ash cloud drifted toward the Continent.

"There is a strong possibility that parts of the ash cloud may impact parts of Scotland and Ireland in the coming 24 hours"" Eurocontrol, the European air traffic management agency, said on its website Monday, citing reports from the Volcanic Ash Advisory Centre in London. "Due to unstable meteorological conditions, it is not possible to identify with certainty the movements of the ash cloud beyond that time frame."

Last year, hundreds of flights were canceled and thousands of passengers were stranded when ash from another Iceland volcano, Eyjafjallajokull, spread over Europe, forcing aircraft to be grounded. Such a widespread closure is not generally expected in the aftermath of the weekend’s eruption.

In a notice on its website Monday, Icelandair airline said Keflavík International Airport (KEF), which serves Reykjavik, the capital, was expected to reopen at 6 p.m. local time Monday after being shut by volcanic ash. The airport’s website did not indicate its plans.

Icelandair has been offering to refund fares of passengers affected by the airport closure or to allow them to reschedule their flights. It cautioned callers Monday that they may face long wait times due to a high volume of calls.

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US warns Ottawa of pending WikiLeaks release

Thu Nov 25, 4:10 AM

By The Canadian Press

OTTAWA - The U.S. government has notified Ottawa that the WikiLeaks website is preparing to release sensitive U.S. diplomatic files that could damage American relations with allies around the world.

U.S. officials say the documents may contain accounts of compromising conversations with political dissidents and friendly politicians as well as activities that could result in the expulsion of U.S. diplomats from foreign postings.

U.S. Ambassador to Canada David Jacobson phoned Minister of Foreign Affairs Lawrence Cannon to inform him of the matter, a foreign affairs spokeswoman said Wednesday.

Melissa Lantsman said the Canadian Embassy in Washington is "currently engaging" with the State Department on this matter.

"We are not privy to the full contents of documents which may be leaked," Lantsman said in an email to The Canadian Press.

A State Department spokesman said Wednesday the release of confidential communications about foreign governments probably will erode trust in the United States as a diplomatic partner.

"These revelations are harmful to the United States and our interests," state department spokesman P.J. Crowley said. "They are going to create tension in relationships between our diplomats and our friends around the world."

U.S. diplomatic outposts around the world have begun notifying other governments that WikiLeaks, a group that bills itself as a website devoted to reforming governments worldwide by exposing their secrets, may release these documents in the next few days.

Many of the cables are believed to date from the start of U.S. President Barack Obama's administration, meaning that the White House will not be able to distance itself from any disclosures.

One concern, for example, is that the documents may reveal the kinds of pressure the U.S. administration has put on various countries to accept the transfer of Guantanamo Bay detainees who have been cleared for release but are unwelcome in their home countries.

Canadian detainee Omar Khadr was the subject of discussions last month between Cannon and U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

Canada has long resisted repatriating Khadr, the only western detainee remaining at Guantanamo Bay, despite pressure from both American and Canada's federal courts. That position is thought to have caused tensions between the two countries.

The Toronto-born Khadr pleaded guilty last month to five war crimes, including the murder of a U.S. soldier during a firefight in Afghanistan in July 2002.

On Oct. 31, Khadr was sentenced to eight years in prison. According to a pre-trial deal, the 24-year-old man will serve one more year in U.S. custody, and after that he can apply to transfer to Canada to serve out the balance of his sentence under Canadian terms.

It remains to be seen if diplomatic cables between Ottawa and Washington regarding Khadr, the Canadian mission in Afghanistan or other bilateral matters will be among the documents expected to be released this weekend.

_With files from the Associated Press.

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Greenland glacier cracks sending iceberg into Arctic Ocean

By Lesley Yarranton 8/08/2010

Petermann Glacier (Pic:Reuters)

This is the Greenland glacier that has just split in two - sending a 100 sq mile iceberg floating off into the Arctic Ocean.

The "ice island", as big as 48,000 football pitches, is the largest for 48 years and could cause chaos to shipping if it drifts further south.

A Canadian researcher looking at satellite images this week spotted that the chunk had broken off Petermann Glacier. The iceberg is said to contain enough water to supply the US for 120 days.

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Could this incident have anything to do with climate change? Nah, this is just an isolated freak of nature. We should not change our lifestyle! At lest that seems to be what many people think! It is more important to have enough parking space to launch our ever increasing horse powered boats on Kal Lake than think of the consequences.

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