Conservative Government News

Thousands of Greek striking workers, students and pensioners marched through central Athens on Wednesday to protest over wages which they are not enough to cope with rising living costs.Ships remained docked at Greek ports and train services were halted as transport workers joined the nationwide strike by private sector union GSEE, Greece's largest.City transport was also disrupted as bus and taxi drivers halted operations for a few hours.Protesters marched to parliament around noon.

Britain said on Tuesday it would return asylum seekers to a barge on its southern coast as opponents of the policy argued in court that such housing was unlawful.In an embarrassment for the Conservative government's immigration policy, legionella bacteria was detected in the water system of the Bibby Stockholm barge in August, just days after dozens of asylum seekers had been moved on.Following safety tests, the government has started sending letters to asylum seekers confirming they will be moved to the barge, an interior ministry spokesperson said.The government wants to cut the 8 million po

Pope Francis said on Friday that migrants who risk drowning at sea "must be rescued" because doing so was "a duty of humanity" and that those who impede rescues commit "a gesture of hate".Francis, 86, spoke at an inter-religious prayer service before a monument dedicated to those lost at sea. Earlier, the city's archbishop, Cardinal Jean Marc Aveline, an Algerian-born Frenchman, criticized politicians who block NGOs and their ships from saving drowning people."We cannot be resigned to seeing human beings treated as bargaining chips, imprisoned and tortured in atrocious ways," Francis said.

Rescuers scoured seas off Greece on Thursday in a massive search operation, as hopes dwindled of finding survivors of a shipwreck that killed at least 78 migrants in one of Europe's deadliest such disasters in recent years.Reports suggested hundreds of people had packed the fishing boat that capsized and sank early on Wednesday in deep waters about 50 miles (80 km) from the southern coastal town of Pylos, while being shadowed by the Greek coast guard. As dawn broke on Thursday, a coast guard vessel sailed into the nearby port city of Kalamata, transferring victims.

Britain said on Monday it will force ferry operators docking in its ports to pay the minimum wage as it stepped up pressure on P&O Ferries to rehire 800 workers who the company fired without notice in favor of cheaper staff.P&O, which is owned by Dubai ports firm DP World, said it had decided to break the law and fire workers on the spot so it could instead hire cheaper agency staff after losing 100 million pounds ($132 million) last year due to COVID-19 curbs.The Conservative government of Prime Minister Boris Johnson has condemned the move…

The Canadian government on Thursday promised to build two Arctic icebreakers and create hundreds of jobs in two politically influential provinces that will help decide an election considered likely this year.The ruling Liberals, citing the need to boost Canada's Arctic footprint as global warming opens up the region, said at least one ship would be ready by 2030 when Canada's sole existing icebreaker CCGS Louis S. St-Laurent will be 62 years old."As northern waterways become more accessible…

Greece on Monday launched a tender for the sale of a majority stake in a port on the island of Crete, a popular tourist destination in Europe.The conservative government has been keen to attract investment and upgrade its port facilities across the country after years of underspending and a decade-long financial crisis.Investors can submit expressions of interest for a 67% stake in the port of Heraklion, the busiest on Crete, by July 30, the country's privatization agency, which is managing the sale…

Croatia's liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminal on the northern Adriatic island of Krk began operations on Friday amid the first delivery of gas, said the company which runs the unit."LNG tanker Tristar Ruby anchored with 143,000 cubic meters of gas which signifies the beginning of the commercial use of the terminal," LNG Hrvatska director Hrvoje Krhen told the state news agency Hina.According to the company, the unloading of gas, delivered from the United States, will take place until Jan.

Greece launched a tender on Friday to sell Hellenic Shipyards SA, the country's biggest shipyard which has been under special administration, the Finance Ministry said.The conservative government has promised to overhaul the loss-making Greek defence industry while boosting the country's defence capabilities, amid rising tension between Greece and Turkey over offshore gas resources in the eastern Mediterranean.It has said its plans include overhauling the military division of Hellenic Shipyards, which is based in Skaramangas, near Athens.Greece has said U.S.

Australia's conservative government unveiled a radical plan on Thursday to restrict exports of liquefied natural gas (LNG) at times when domestic shortages push up local prices, aiming to ease soaring energy costs for local manufacturers. The plan would allow Australia's resources minister to impose controls on LNG exports on advice from the market operator and regulator, as the government seeks to cap domestic gas prices, which have become a political hot potato. "It's not a threat. This will be export controls.

A parking nightmare in Sydney harbour left the giant cruise liner Radiance of the Seas unable to dock because the single berth big enough to take her was already occupied. With a tight schedule to meet, the cruise organisers were forced to pay half a million dollars early last month to hire a flotilla of small vessels to ferry 2,500 passengers ashore, and bring back more waiting to embark for the next voyage. "We have not done something like this ever anywhere else in the world," says Adam Goldstein, president and COO of Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd. "It was completely foreseeable going back almost a decade that Sydney didn't have the infrastructure ultimately to support the ongoing growth in business," he adds.

DONG Energy's has set a potential $16 billion price tag on its stock market debut, giving investors a chance to buy into the growth in offshore wind power, but also into a business heavily reliant on government subsidies. State-controlled DONG Energy on Thursday set a price range for its initial public offering at 200 Danish crowns to 255 crowns per share. This would give the group a market value of 83.5 billion to 106.5 billion Danish crowns ($12.6-16.0 billion), potentially making it the Europe's biggest IPO this year.

Quebec-based Chantier Davie Canada Inc. presented a bid, potentially worth up to a billion dollars, to the federal government last month offering a Polar Class 3 icebreaker, three smaller River-class icebreakers and two multi-purpose research, border control and search and rescue ships, says a report in the Canadian Press. The proposal by Quebec-based Chantier Davie Canada Inc. has the potential to undercut one pillar of the national shipbuilding strategy, which delegates the construction of civilian ships to Vancouver's Seaspan shipyard. In a presentation to Public Services and Procurement Canada, Davie is partially reviving a pitch made to the former Conservative government in 2013, where it offered to a construct a Polar Class 3 icebreaker and deliver it in 18 months.

As a bid from Germany’s ThyssenKrupp Marine Systems (TKMS) loses ground over technical concerns, the competition for a A$50 billion ($34.55 billion) contract to build Australia’s next submarine fleet is narrowing to a race between Japan and France, reports Reuters. Some sources say Japan may be closer to grabbing the submarine fleet. Another bidder for the Australian submarine fleet competition is France. Australia has said it wants a boat in the 4,000-ton class. TKMS is proposing to scale up its 2,000-ton Type 214 class vessel, while Japan is offering a variant of its 4,000-ton Soryu boats made by Mitsubishi Heavy Industries and Kawasaki Heavy Industries.

The North American spat pitting Canada and Mexico against the United States over meat labels has sown confusion among producers and shippers in all three countries, with a trade war potentially just weeks away. The World Trade Organization on Monday authorized Canada and Mexico, the biggest markets for exported U.S. goods, to retaliate against the United States' meat-labeling rules, setting the annual level at C$1.055 billion for Canada and $228 million for Mexico. The United States took a step towards defusing the row on Wednesday when the U.S. Congress approved a spending bill that includes the repeal of federal laws mandating meatpackers identify where animals are raised and slaughtered.

Canada will provide aid to developing countries to combat climate change, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced on Friday ahead of talks on global warming, which he has promised will show the country is serious about tackling the issue. Canada will give C$2.65 billion ($1.98 billion) over the next five years, the newly elected Trudeau announced during a trip to Malta, where he was meeting the heads of Commonwealth countries. The funding will help support the transition to low-carbon economies and will target the poorest and most vulnerable countries. The contribution is part of an agreement Canada made in 2009 to work with developed countries to provide $100 billion a year by 2020 from various sources.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau instructed his natural resources minister to "modernize" Canada's independent pipeline regulator, said a letter released on Friday that gave details on the newly elected leader's environmental plans. Trudeau asked Natural Resources Minister James Carr to ensure the Calgary-based National Energy Board (NEB) has a balanced representation from across the country, as well as sufficient expertise in environmental science, community development and indigenous traditional knowledge. The Liberal prime minister on Friday published all of the mandate letters sent to his cabinet ministers, which instructed several of them to restore environmental legislation that was changed by the previous Conservative government.

Canada will push ahead with a moratorium on oil tanker traffic along the northern coast of British Columbia, effectively slamming the door on a controversial pipeline project that was already facing massive development hurdles. In a letter released on Friday, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau instructed Transport Minister Marc Garneau to work with numerous other ministries to "formalize" the ban on oil tanker traffic, a Liberal campaign promise ahead of the federal elections last month.

Canada's offshore Arctic drilling rules could "stifle" development since they do not provide incentives for companies to proceed with production after discovering oil, the government was told in a newly-released internal briefing note. The advice was prepared for the government's point man on the issue, Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development Minister Bernard Valcourt, before Imperial Oil Ltd lobbied him privately in June, seeking concessions on existing legislation. The right-leaning Conservative government said in July it would review the legislation, known as the Canada Petroleum Resources Act. To drill in the Canadian Arctic, companies need an exploratory licence, awarded with a fixed term.

Canadian officials said on Friday a C$26.2 billion ($21.5 billion) program to build 15 naval ships could end up below target and over budget, the latest challenge to Canada's troubled military procurement process. In 2010, the Conservative government announced the program to replace three destroyers and 12 frigates with 15 modern warships. But officials told a briefing that the plan was now to build "up to 15 vessels" and the exact number would not be known for another few years. Construction is set to start early in the next decade and end in 2040. "Do we think that the C$26.2 billion is going to become the sort of ceiling cost in the time frame we're talking about? Perhaps not," one official said, on condition of anonymity.

Canada declined a U.S. invitation last week to jointly announce climate policy cooperation with Mexico, with Ottawa saying it has not yet finalized its own domestic strategy, sources from both countries familiar with the discussions said on Thursday. On March 24, three days before the United States and Mexico announced they would partner on a high-level bilateral clean energy and climate policy task force, U.S. officials approached Canadian counterparts asking them to join the effort, three sources said. One source said that while Canadian officials said they were supportive of North American harmonization of climate policy they were not yet prepared to join the continental partners.

Australia under pressure to fix renewable energy target deadlock; 45 wind farm projects stalled. Australian wind farm operator Infigen Energy Ltd is exploring the sale of 18 U.S. wind farms, worth about A$500 million ($409 million), so they escape impact from the uncertain future of Australian state rebates for renewable energy firms. Infigen has hired advisers to consider ways of splitting U.S. assets from its six Australian wind farms, so consequences suffered by Infigen from a political deadlock over the rebates would not filter down to assets on the other side of the world, Managing Director Miles George told Reuters on Wednesday. "We have contemplated ... the possibility of separating our Australian and U.S. businesses so that the U.S.

Canada is set to badly miss a 2020 target for cutting emissions of greenhouse gases, in part because of its failure to regulate the booming oil and gas sector, Parliament's environmental watchdog said on Tuesday. The scathing report by Environment Commissioner Julie Gelfand will add to the political challenges faced by the right-leaning Conservative government, which polls show could lose power in an election set for 2015. The government has deep political roots in energy-rich Western Canada - home to the Alberta tar sands - and says it will do nothing to harm economic development. Gelfand found Ottawa did not even have a plan for how it would meet a commitment under the 2009 Copenhagen Accord to cut emissions by 17 percent below 2005 levels by 2020.