Nuclear energy a tough sell in Poland

Poland, which is hosting the UN climate conference, has long blocked the European Union’s climate goals. The country remains hugely dependent on polluting coal, which meets over 90 percent of its country’s energy needs. Now, in a bid to cut carbon emissions, Poland is turning to nuclear power and plans to build two atomic power plants. The aim is for nuclear power to fulfill around a tenth of the country’s energy needs by 2030, reducing the use of polluting coal-powered plants. One of the atomic plants could come up in Zarnowiec, around 80 kilometers west of Danzig. It’s already home to the ruins of a huge nuclear power plant whose construction was stopped in 1990 through a popular referendum. Since then, the residents of Zarnowiec have been staunchly opposed to nuclear power. And they remain skeptical about the government’s latest nuclear drive.

Linking up Europe and South Korea ‘not easy’

Russian President Vladimir Putin is set to pay a state visit to South Korea today, November 12, where he will meet with President Park Guen-hye. The two leaders met on the sidelines of the G-20 summit in St. Petersburg in September and have a full agenda for their two days of discussions in Seoul, including ways of improving bilateral ties, ensuring peace and stability on the fractious Korean peninsula and stepping up cooperation and exchanges.

Putin, however, is particularly keen on a project that could bring major economic and geo-political benefits to Russia: the long-debated plan to connect the furthest reaches of Western Europe with Busan, the South Korean port on the very tip of the peninsula, by railway.

This route would primarily follow the existing Trans-Siberian Railway from Moscow to the Russian Far East before crossing into North Korea on the short stretch of border that the two nations share, continuing south, traversing the so-called Demilitarized Zone that is the border between North and South and finally ending up in Busan, the largest container ship hub in Asia.

By linking the markets and manufacturing bases in both Western Europe and the Far East, the 8,000 km route would open up vast economic opportunities more cheaply, at less risk and, even more importantly, far faster than the present shipping routes through the Indian Ocean and the Suez Canal.

Straightforward proposal

In theory, the project seems straightforward and completely feasible. There are parallel discussions on a fuel pipeline following the same route. But there is a reason why a project that has been under discussion for more than a decade is only now inching towards fruition.

'This plan has been on the drawing board for some time, but it is being held up by commitment problems,' Daniel Pinkston, a North Korea analyst with The International Crisis Group in Seoul, told DW.

'The project makes complete sense for North Korea because it would generate much-needed revenue and it could happen largely in isolation from the North Korean people, but there will be some concerns,' he said.

The North Korean government was fiercely criticized by Seoul for unilaterally shutting down the Kaesong Industrial Park in May. The facility had employed thousands of North Korean workers, earned millions for the regime in Pyongyang and been seen as a model project for inter-Korean relations, but was shut down in a fit of Pyongyang pique.

Moscow will have to ensure that it has leverage over North Korea before it commits to going ahead with the plan, said Pinkston, just in case a political issue does crop up and Pyongyang reneges on any earlier promises - although the North's closest ally, China, can testify to just how difficult it is to get Kim Jong-un's to behave reasonably.

Toshimitsu Shigemura, a professor at Tokyo's Waseda University and an expert on North Korean affairs, believes Pyongyang's record of obfuscation and broken promises means that it will be hard for any potential partners to have full faith in the project.

Who will pay?

'The first question will have to be who will pay,' Shigemura told DW. 'The Russians don't want to and the North Koreans won't agree to, so it will be down to the South Koreans, which won't be popular. And then once the rail link is operational, Russia and South Korea will have to pay Pyongyang for it to run through North Korea,' he pointed out. 'Once the investment has been made, the North could set the price at whatever it wanted and they would have to pay.'

Yet, another inevitable concern would be that the North could tap into the pipeline and siphon off oil or natural gas for its own ends.

'Basically, this would be a very good agreement and it should be simple to go ahead with it, but the implementation is very difficult,' Shigemura said.

Moving towards progress

Russia is, nevertheless, edging towards a deal with North Korea, and in September completed the rail link between the city of Khasan and Rason, the North Korean port that is listed as a 'Special Economic Zone.'

'Putin's interest in the Far East is increasing in direct proportion to his deteriorating relationship with the United States and as Europe makes more strident efforts to wean itself off Russian energy,' said Jun Okumura, a visiting scholar at the Meiji Institute for Global Affairs.

'He is playing every diplomatic card that he has and is trying to enhance Russia's presence in the Far East and to extend its economic interests. And if he could actually manage to push this railroad project through, then I think it could be a stabilizing force on the peninsula and permit Russia to play a larger geopolitical role,' he said.

'But it does always come back to the actions of the North,' Jun Okumura conceded. 'They could simply decide one day to shut it down, no matter what other countries say or do.'

Novak Djokovic beats Rafael Nadal to defend World Tour Finals title

Tennis world Number 2 Novak Djokovic capped off an impressive autumn on Monday by defending his ATP World Tour Finals title with a 6-3, 6-4 win over Rafael Nadal at the O2 Arena in London.

The Serb dominated from start to finish, defeating the world Number 1 with relative ease.

It was Djokovic's 22nd consecutive victory since Nadal beat him in the US Open final in August. Nadal finishes the year with the world's number one ranking, which he took from his Serbian rival in October.

'Look, the year-end number one is deservedly in Nadal's hands because he had two grand slam wins, the best season out of all players, the most titles,' said Djokovic.

He is now the seventh player to win the season-ending tournament at least three times. He took the title in 2008 and again in 2012.

The World Tour Finals title remains the only big trophy which Nadal has never won.

Russian gays tackle prejudice with sport

As badminton players dashed around a court in a sports hall on the edge of Moscow, nothing appeared out of the ordinary -- except for the banner proclaiming 'Sport against homophobia.'

The organiser of the tournament is Russia's only officially registered gay sports federation. Its members meet regularly to compete and socialise.

But now it has a much bigger goal: to hold for the first time a gay sports tournament in Moscow after Russia hosts the 2014 Olympics in Sochi in February, and attract major international sports figures to support their cause.

'For us this is a very large-scale project, we haven't held anything at this level before,' said 33-year-old Elvina Yuvakayeva, the co-president of the Russian LGBT Sports Federation.

They want to hold the five-day Russian Open Games between the Winter Olympics and the Paralympics being held in the Black Sea resort of Sochi so that sports people and journalists have time to travel to Moscow.

'It's a gesture... We hope to attract the attention of sports people and those who are covering the Games in Sochi,' said Yuvakayeva, who works at an engineering company.

But the event risks being the target of homophobic attacks or a ban, especially after President Vladimir Putin in June signed a law banning what it says is the promotion of homosexuality to minors.

The loosely worded law has prompted outrage among international rights campaigners and celebrities including Madonna and British comic Stephen Fry.

With events including tennis, swimming and cross-country skiing, the gay games are being planned as just a national event with only Russian amateur sports people competing.

The organisers argue the event would not fall under the controversial law.

'As for the law on propaganda, we don't invite minors to our events... that includes the audience, too,' said Yuvakayeva, specifying that both spectators and participants have to register online and confirm they are over 18.

Unlike street protests, the gay sports federation is not required to clear its events with the authorities.

'I'm sure we won't have any problems,' said the group's co-founder Konstantin Yablotsky, an openly gay amateur figure skater who teaches chemistry at a Moscow school.

The organisers said they were now working on recruiting international stars to support the gay games, while holding out little hope that Russians would come.

US diving gold-medallist Greg Louganis, who is openly gay, has promised to come, said Yablotsky.

'He personally told me that yes, he will support us.'

Yablotsky said he was also inviting the husband of openly gay US skating star Johnny Weir, Victor Voronov, who has Russian origins, although it was unclear whether Weir himself could come.

'I am negotiating now with his husband, so we hope we will have him here.'

No major Russian sports figures are out of the closet. Pole vault star Yelena Isinbayeva has backed the anti-gay law and called protests against it disrespectful to Russians.

One gay Russian sportswoman had previously supported the federation but was then ordered by her sponsor not to make any comment ahead of the Sochi games, Yuvakayeva said.

The organisers also spoke of meeting another well-known Olympic champion who declined to even discuss her views because she is involved in politics with Russia's ruling party.

The Russian LGBT Sports Federation was founded by Yablotsky and Viktor Romanov, a retired investigator who probed organised crime in the 1990s, after they met at the international 2010 Gay Games in Cologne.

While Russia's most high-profile gay activist, lawyer Nikolai Alexeyev, regularly clashes with the authorities, the sports group takes a much more cautious approach.

It is officially registered as a non-profit group that promotes LGBT sport. It regularly asks the sports ministry and city officials for funding, although it only receives rejection letters.

'We want dialogue with the authorities, with NGOs and with the public,' said Yuvakayeva.

'We want to make an effort to remove the stigma from our community.'

Those playing badminton called the sports group a vital outlet.

Nineteen-year-old student, Ivan, had made a seven-hour bus journey from the regional city of Smolensk to attend for the first time.

'I had to overcome my fears and make a huge effort to come,' he said.

'Everyone here is different, everyone is excellent, and you already don't feel disadvantaged. You become a person.'

'Sport brings people together so much,' said Maria, a 28-year-old Moscow IT professional.

'I like that different people come here, socialise and play. It's better than virtual communication on the Internet,' said businessman Yelisei.

All declined to give their surnames, saying they feared reprisals and because they are not out to everyone they know.

Several said they feared trouble over the planned gay games.

Yelisei said he thought the games should be held in secret, with an announcement after the fact.

'As soon as world media notices them, and they are discussed, the authorities will start asking questions about the activities of the organisers and will do everything they can to shut them down.'

How Spain overcame Mourinho & Madrid-Barcelona fall-out to win Euro 2012

Tensions were at a high between Barcelona and Real Madrid players in 2011-12 and domestic rivalries threatened to boil over into the national side as Vicente Del Bosque's men sought a third straight major tournament success

BOOK EXTRACT
By Graham Hunter

It transpired that in order to win Euro 2012, Spain not only had to overcome Italy, Ireland, Croatia, France and Portugal, but Jose Mourinho, too.

A foundation stone of all Spain’s triumphant football since late in 2006 has been an unbreakable spirit between players, whether starters or substitutes. In qualifying matches away from home on disastrous, cow-patch pitches, everyone pulls together. Living cheek by jowl for six weeks in order to win a tournament, everyone pulls together. Suddenly, this unity is threatened by a new force in Spanish football. 

Under Mourinho, Madrid often play superbly. Along the way, however, he both espouses and encourages ‘win at any cost’ tactics to fracture what he sees as unacceptably cosy friendships between key Spain players on either side of the Clasico divide. Tension mounts and players from both clubs begin to do and say things that threaten to do immense damage to the unity within the national squad.

Along the way, the signals given by Vicente del Bosque shift from affable confidence that this harmony is indestructible, to concern that conflict between the clubs could infect his dressing room, then to the hardline: 'Anyone who takes this kind of behaviour into my squad will be excluded.'

From the day Mourinho takes over at Madrid until Euro 2012 there are 11 Clasicos. These matches produce 82 bookings and nine red cards, plus an additional expulsion for the Madrid coach. There are numerous explosive confrontations between players who have won European and world titles together, but the moments which change everything come toward the end of the thrilling second leg of the Spanish Supercopa, in August 2011. Marcelo earns a red card for a two-footed, off-the-ground lunge at Cesc Fabregas. Both teams converge around the two participants; the benches empty - David Villa and Mesut Ozil are red-carded. Mourinho sneaks around the back of the crowd and pokes a cowardly finger into Tito Vilanova’s eye. Before it all dies down, Xavi and Iker Casillas end up recriminating with each other, face-to-face.


Trouble at Camp Nou | Mourinho pokes Vilanova and Clasico tensions mount

The Madrid and Spain captain gives an on-pitch television interview at the final whistle. He was half the length of the field away from Marcelo’s red-card offence, but adopts the Mourinho doctrine in reacting to an incident that he hasn’t seen properly.

'There will have been a tackle, they will have thrown themselves down as usual.'

He is talking about Fabregas, who produced the assist for Andres Iniesta’s World Cup-winning goal, allowing Casillas to lift the most famous trophy in football one year previously.

Gerard Pique says: 'I don’t believe this is down to the Madrid players. We’ve defeated them 6-2 at their stadium but none of this kind of thing happened. I have lived with them at competitions and they have been terrific people from the first minute. I don’t think they are to blame; it’s just that they are under the orders of a guy who is trying to damage Spanish football. When we all get together for the national side we will be open to making sure that the team is as strong as ever and that the atmosphere is as good as ever.'

Iker Casillas’s brother Unai, a diehard Barca fan, watching at home on television and beneficiary of close-ups and replays, doesn’t agree with his sibling’s assessment of the red-card incident. He assures his brother that he has got it wrong.

Iker watches the television images for himself and then contacts Puyol and Xavi and admits he said the wrong thing, and would they pass that on to Fabregas please. It’s more than enough to heal the wounds from a poisonous series of derbies.

The situation was reaching its limit. As much as you want to avoid it, these situations do have an influence'

- Spain's Santi Cazorla in 2012

Those who drew a link between Casillas acting like a decent, mature, team-mate and the decline in his relationship with Mourinho, culminating in him being dropped from the Madrid first team, found support from Vicente del Bosque when the Spain coach reflected on his captain’s club situation in September 2013.

'Iker tried to restore harmony in the situation between Barca and Madrid and it cost him. When there were difficult moments in the national team Iker helped to protect the good atmosphere and the ability of Barca and Madrid players to pull together for Spain so that we could win the European Championship in 2012. This wasn’t well received and restoring the peace has been detrimental to Iker. Everyone should take the stance that the Spain team is above, or at least equal to, the interests of any of our clubs.'

Days after the 2011 Supercopa, one of the most placid and easygoing of La Roja’s players, Santi Cazorla, commented that, for Spain, the situation was 'reaching its limit'.

'As much as you want to avoid it, these situations do start to influence peoples’ relationships. All the rest of us can do is hope that it’s all sorted out as soon as possible, that some sort of agreement is reached. It is what everyone wants.'

Questions about the disharmony between these two groups of players would follow Del Bosque and his squad all the way to the finals of Euro 2012. There, they would finally and definitively be answered. 

Jamaica’s recent failed doping tests ‘tip of the iceberg

Failed drug tests by high-profile Jamaican athletes could represent 'the tip of the iceberg', according to a leading anti-doping official from the country.

Former men's world record-holder Asafa Powell and women's Olympic relay gold-medallist Sherone Simpson are among the sprinters who have failed tests in recent months.

Dr Paul Wright, a senior official with the Jamaican Anti-Doping Commission (JADCO), says he fears that a recent visit to Jamaica by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) will reveal that doping practices have become widespread.

'The results are not good. This year alone the results really point the finger,' he told the BBC.

'Remember, all of these results except one were caught by JADCO. The problem is these people were tested positive in competition.

'What that means is months before, you know the date of the test and the approximate time of the test. This could be the tip of the iceberg to have so many positives coming in competition.'

Jamaica's testing procedures are due to be discussed at a WADA executive board meeting in Johannesburg later on Tuesday.

Meanwhile, the outgoing president of WADA, John Fahey, has called for his organisation to be granted greater powers of investigation.

He cited recent events in Jamaica and Kenya, whose government has belatedly announced an investigation into the suspensions of 17 Kenyan athletes for doping violations since January 2012.

'We do need a greater power to undertake an investigation when we see there are potential difficulties in both Jamaica and Kenya,' Fahey told BBC Radio 4 from Johannesburg.

'There is no power whatsoever for WADA under our code to comply anyone to do certain things and there are sanctions that can ultimately be imposed by those who control sport; that is not WADA.

'With the code review there is a likelihood by the end of this week for there to be a much better emphasis on investigation and a capacity, where investigations are not conducted by countries like Kenya, for WADA to instigate the investigation themselves.'

On Jamaica, Fahey said WADA was concerned 'that they had lost their way'.

'We have been aware of difficulties in Jamaica for some time,' he added. 'We have gone to them, we've assisted them, we have given them some support. We have indicated they need to make some improvements.'

Wenger: Ronaldo has overtaken Messi!

Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger has hailed Real Madrid forward Cristiano Ronaldo and believes the Portuguese has edged ahead of his Barcelona rival Lionel Messi in the last year.

Ronaldo has started the season in blistering form with 24 goals in all competitions, 10 more than the Argentina, who was recently ruled out for up to two months with a leg muscle injury.

The pair are the leading contenders to be crowned Fifa Ballon d’Or Player of the Year - which Messi has claimed for the past four years - but the Gunners boss has hinted he expects Ronaldo to win for the second time.

When asked for his opinion on the pair during a Twitter Q&A session, Wenger said: 'It’s difficult, Messi was on top until now but in the last year, maybe Ronaldo is in front, he is very athletic.'

Wenger recently revealed he came came agonisingly close to signing Ronaldo before he joined Manchester United in 2003 and even allocated the former Sporting Lisbon youngster a squad number.

The winner of the Ballon d’Or will be announced on 13 January, 2014, in a ceremony held in Zurich, Switzerland.