A view of an Italian ski resort in the Alps Photo: ALAMY

EU ski holiday paid for by taxpayers

Taxpayers will heavily subsidise a skiing holiday in the Italian Alps for the children of MEPs and European Parliament officials in February.

Telegraph | Dec 31, 2009

By Bruno Waterfield in Brussels

European Union officials, including MEPs, are already under fire for threatening legal action unless they are paid a recession busting 3.7 pre cent pay rise in January.

Most also pay reduced “community” rates of taxation and the latest perk will fuel controversy over the subsidised lifestyle enjoyed by many EU civil servants.

The eight-day skiing trip for 80 children aged between eight and 17 is timed to begin over the weekend of St Valentine’s Day, providing some romantic time off from parenting for officials.

Costs, the holiday is priced at 920 euros (£822), are generously subsidised by the parliament’s budget. Households receive different levels of subsidy depending on their monthly income but even those on a income of over £108,000 get a discount.

There is reduction of up to 52 per cent for officials earning £69,620 a year and an MEP, earning £86,000, is eligible for a subsidy of 45 per cent.

According to an internal document an extra 10 per cent reduction “applies to the enrolment of a second child and subsequent children”.

Mats Persson, of the think-tank Open Europe, said: “It is ridiculous that, at a time when most families across Europe have to tighten their belts, the European Parliament thinks it is appropriate to subsidise holidays for the families of even its most well-paid staff. How can MEPs claim subsidised holidays for their children when many of their constituents’ families are struggling through the recession?”

Organised by the parliament’s staff committee, the holiday, with the educational aim of teaching children skiing skills, will be spent in Italian province of Bergamo.

The children will enjoy full board in a three-star hotel in the beautiful village of Spiazzi.

The trip includes “workshops” in a “multilingual environment” on the themes of “the mountain, its snow, its nature”. Four hours each day will be spent on the ski slopes and three hours on lessons, such as an “exercice (sic) with snow dogs” as well as “open air games” and a “torchlight procession”.

The parliament’s spokesman declined to comment on the holiday.

Nigel Farage, leader of Ukip in the European Parliament, said “spending a fortune on a skiing jolly for MEPs and their families” would anger the public after the worst economic year in memory.

“Surely now is a time of reflection and humility, not a chance to rub the taxpayer’s nose in yet another tremendous waste of money,” he said.

The Duke of Edinburgh made a joke at the expense of a comedian with an artificial foot, in his latest foray into politically incorrect humour.

Duke of Edinburgh makes joke at expense of disabled Royal Variety comedian Adam Hills

Telegraph | Dec 15, 2009

By Matthew Moore

Just days after it was disclosed that the Duke mocked the declining sight of a blind teenager, it has emerged he poked fun at the disability of an Australian entertainer at the Royal Variety Show in Blackpool.

After performing for the Queen alongside acts including Lady Gaga, Miley Cyrus and Michael Bublé last week, the comedian Adam Hills spoke to the Duke about his plans to return home.

Observing the comic’s prosthetic limb, the monarch’s husband reportedly joked: “You could smuggle a bottle of gin out of the country in that artificial foot.”

Hills, who has forged a successful career as a television presenter despite being born without a right foot, took the jibe in good humour, telling the Daily Mirror that he thought the line was “brilliant”.

Yesterday the family of Stephen Menary, an army cadet who was blinded in an IRA bombing, told how the Duke offended the 15-year-old at a tree planting event in Hyde Park in 2002.

After the Queen asked the teenager how much sight he had left, the Duke responded: “Not a lot, judging by the tie he’s wearing.”

Carol Menary, 48, Stephen’s mother, said: “After he said it there was just stunned silence. The Queen just looked at him open mouthed. I don’t think she could believe what he had said.

“My whole family were just shocked. We knew he has a reputation for putting his foot in his mouth so we didn’t take offence, but mocking the sight of a blind boy is something, even by his standards.”

Prince Philip is notorious for his public gaffes and over the years has offered his own unique advice to people all over the world.

In 2002, he asked an aborigine whether he was “still throwing spears”.

This video image made available by RAI TG3 shows Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi after an attacker hurled a statuette at Berlusconi striking the leader in the face at the end of a rally in Milan, Italy on Sunday Dec. 13, 2009 leaving the 73-year-old media mogul with a bloodied mouth and looking stunned. AP

Silvio Berlusconi is taken to hospital after being hit in the face with a model of Milan’s cathedral

London Times | Dec 13, 2009

Berlusconi hit in the face with a model of Milan’s cathedral

by Josephine McKenna and Richard Owen in Rome

The Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi was struck in the face today by a man holding a small replica of Milan’s cathedral, leaving him with two broken teeth and forcing him to spend the night in hospital.

Witnesses said Mr Berlusconi was attacked after a political rally in the centre of Milan, as he was signing autographs in the square in front of the cathedral, the Duomo. He had just finished giving a speech to rally support for his ruling coalition amid continuing speculation about his future and an increasingly divided government.

He slumped to the ground after he was struck and his security guards immediately took him to San Raffaele hospital for treatment.

The man accused of attacking Mr Berlusconi, 73, was immediately arrested, as the crowd yelled abuse at him. The suspect, Massimo Tartaglia, 42, did not appear to have any political affiliations. Police said he had no criminal record and was not among the small group of protesters at the rally, but they said that he has been treated for mental health issues at Milan’s Policlinico Hospital for the past ten years.

Raw Video: Italian Leader Punched in the Face

Italy’s ANSA news agency said that the alleged attacker had received ten years of treatment for mental problems. Police said he was wielding a miniature statue of the Duomo cathedral, the city’s symbol.

Mr Berlusconi, blood streaming down his face, appeared stunned as he was taken away to hospital in a car. Hospital sources later said that Mr Berlusconi’s condition was not serious. He had two broken teeth and has suffered injuries to his nose, lips and cheek. He would be kept in overnight for observation. President Napolitano expressed his unconditional condemnation of the attack, and repeated his recent calls for an end to violent political rhetoric.

Related

Italian Prime Minister Berlusconi struck in face at rally

Attacker punches Berlusconi in face

During Mr Berlusconi’s speech at the rally in Milan demonstrators shouted “buffoon” and “thief” at him. He shouted back “Shame, shame”, saying: “I am not a monster as the opposition claims — and not just because I am handsome.” He claimed that opinion polls gave him a popularity rating of 63 per cent, although the last published poll gave him 45 per cent. He denied accusations that he was linked to the Mafia, saying his government had done more than any other to combat organised crime. Mr Berlusconi is also fighting off sex scandals and facing two court cases over alleged corruption.

Last week in Bonn, at a meeting of fellow conservatives, Mr Berlusconi lashed out at Italy’s judges, magistrates and press as biased against him and said he was “strong and hard” and “had balls”. He claimed that magistrates, judges and the Constitutional Court were “subverting democracy and the will of the people” by defying his attempts to change the “outdated” constitution, since he had been elected last year with a commanding majority.

Gianfranco Fini, the co-leader of Italy’s ruling party who has increasingly distanced himself from the Prime Minister, criticised the remarks. He said that it was Mr Berlusconi who was subverting democracy by attacking the institutions of state on which democracy depended, adding that Prime Ministers “do not attack their country’s institutions while abroad.”

The attack was described by Umberto Bossi, leader of the Northern League, as “an act of terrorism”. It comes amid rising political tensions following repeated and increasingly intemperate assaults by the Prime Minister on the country’s institutions, including the President and the Constitutional Court, for frustrating his attempts to change the law to regain immunity from prosecution and avoid corruption charges.

Pier Luigi Bersani, leader of the Democratic Party, the main opposition party, said the attack was “inexplicable and is to be firmly condemned”.

However, Antonio Di Pietro, a former anti-corruption magistrate and leader of the centre-left Italy of Values party, said he was “against all violence, but it is Berlusconi himself who instigated this”.

Indo-Asian News Service | Dec 13, 2009

Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi made doodles of women’s underwear at a recent European Union summit and then passed them around to shocked leaders, a newspaper reported.

He etched women’s underwear through the ages – from Victorian bloomers to thongs – as the leaders discussed climate change at the meeting in Brussels on Friday.

His prank caused titters among some, but indignation among others who passed them back to him, the Mail on Sunday reported.

European leaders present included Britain’s Gordon Brown, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, French President Nicolas Sarkozy, Irish Prime Minister Brian Cowen and EU foreign envoy Baroness Cathy Ashton.

The paper said when the drawings passed across Brown’s desk, he ignored them.

Berlusconi, 73, started doodling as the leaders discussed giving more money to help developing countries combat the effects of climate change.

One source said the etchings were headed ‘Women’s knickers through the ages’ and included loin cloths used by Egyptian women, Victorian bloomers, French satin knickers, thongs and G-strings.

“No one could believe it,” the Mail on Sunday quoted an unnamed source as saying.

“He was scribbling away and then sent round some jottings with women’s knickers on it. Some people were amused. Some were not.”

An eerie turquoise light that provoked hundreds of reports of UFO sightings when it appeared over Norway was created by the latest failed test-flight of a new Russian missile.

Telegraph | Dec 10, 2009

Rather than signalling the arrival of alien lifeforms or a meteorite in the Norwegian city of Tromso, the spectacular plume of light was produced in the wake of Russia’s nuclear-capable Bulava missile.

It was test-fired from a submarine in the White Sea before dawn on Wednesday. It was the 12th test launch of the Bulava and the seventh time the firing has ended in failure, the Interfax news agency said on Thursday.

“At least this failed test made some nice fireworks for the Norwegians,” said Pavel Felgenhauer, a leading Russian defence expert. He said Russia’s armed forces would consider the latest failure of the Bulava to be a major embarrassment.

On Wednesday the Norwegian Metrological Institute received hundreds of phone calls from confused members of the public.

The light was captured on camera by a local man, Jan Petter Jorgensen, while he was on his way to work at a salmon factory. “The light appeared for two to three minutes. I could not believe my eyes, and got the shivers and was quite shaken by it,” he said.

AFP/Getty Images

USA Today | Dec 10, 2009

USA Today | Dec 10, 2009

By OLIVIER MORIN

President Obama accepted the Nobel Peace Prize today by asking “difficult questions” about war and peace, while acknowledging he is a first-year president and a superpower commander-in-chief who is sending more troops to Afghanistan.

“I would be remiss if I did not acknowledge the considerable controversy that your generous decision has generated,” Obama said during his acceptance speech in Oslo, Norway. “In part, this is because I am at the beginning, and not the end, of my labors on the world stage.”

The president devoted most of his 36-minute address to the ancient but still-present reality that conflict is sometimes necessary, even as the world seeks peace.

There are can and have been “just wars,” Obama said, but world leaders should also work for peaceful alternatives that can include tough economic sanctions, negotiating with enemies, and eliminating global poverty.

“We can understand that there will be war, and still strive for peace,” Obama said. “We can do that, for that is the story of human progress; that is the hope of all the world; and at this moment of challenge, that must be our work here on Earth.”

Obama expressed “deep gratitude and great humility” for the Nobel Peace Prize, which “speaks to out highest aspirations … For all the cruelty and hardship of our world, we are not mere prisoners of fate. Our actions matter, and can bend history in the direction of justice.”

The speech included a defense of the Afghanistan war as well as other actions necessary to confront the threat from terrorists seeking nuclear weapons. Obama also outlined his goals for a nuclear weapons-free world that takes on challenges of climate change, disease, and poverty.

Critics cited Afghanistan in calling Obama’s award premature. Protestors along the presidential motorcade route in Oslo unfurled a banner reading, “Obama You Won It Now Earn It.”

The president sprinkled his remarks with tributes to past Nobel Peace Prize winners, including American civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr., and General-turned-Secretary of State George C. Marshall, as well as humanitarian Albert Schweitzer and South African anti-apartheid leader Nelson Mandela.

“The most profound issue,” Obama said, is that he is commander-in-chief of a military still at war in Iraq and Afghanistan. “And so I come here with an acute sense of the cost of armed conflict,” he said,”filled with difficult questions about the relationship between war and peace, and our effort to replace one with the other.”

In discussing the history of warfare through the ages, Obama said there have been such things as “just wars.” And he defended U.S. efforts “to underwrite” global security for the six decades since the end of World War II.

“Make no mistake, evil does exist in the world,” Obama, citing the Nazis and al Qaeda terrorists as example. That holds true today in a world “buckling under the weight of new threats,” including terrorists seeking nuclear weapons.

The president also the United States will act on its own if necessary. “I — like any head of state — reserve the right to act unilaterally if necessary to defend my nation,” he said.

Yet though it may be necessary, Obama said, “war itself is never glorious, and we must never trumpet it as such.”

“So part of our challenge is reconciling these two seemingly irreconcilable truths — that war is sometimes necessary, and war is at some level an expression of human feelings,” the president said.

Obama devoted much of his address to three ways in which the world can avoid the “tragic choices” of conflict, and “build a just and lasting peace.”

One is developing alternatives to punish wayward nations, including effective economic sanctions; the second is promotion of human rights, including potentially difficult diplomacy with potential enemies.

“I know that engagement with repressive regimes lacks the satisfying purity of indignation,” Obama said. “But I also know that sanctions without outreach — and condemnation without discussion — can carry forward a crippling status quo.”

As examples, Obama cited President Richard Nixon’s 1972 trip to communist China; Pope John Paul II’s outreach to communist Poland; and Ronald Reagan’s dealings with the soon-to-crumble Soviet Union.

A third alternative to war is improving economic opportunity throughout the world. “True peace is not just freedom from fear,” Obama said, “but freedom from want.”

When war is necessary, the U.S. and others should abide by a code of conduct, Obama said. He drew applause when he mentioned his decision to ban torture of prisoners and to close the prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

“America must remain a standard bearer in the conduct of war,” Obama said.

Obama is the fourth U.S. president to win the Nobel Peace Prize. He cited one of his predecessors, Woodrow Wilson, honored in 1919 for creating the League of Nations even though the Senate rejected membership in it.

The other presidential winners were Theodore Roosevelt in 1906 and Jimmy Carter in 2002, more than two decades after his term in office.

What’s blue and white, squiggly and suddenly appears in the sky?

Daily Mail | Dec 10, 2009

If you know the answer, pop it on a postcard and send it to the people of Norway, where this mysterious light display baffled residents yesterday.

Curiously, it appears to be unconnected with the aurora borealis, or northern lights, the natural magnetic phenomena that can often be viewed in that part of the world.

The mystery began when a blue light seemed to soar up from behind a mountain in the north of the country. It stopped mid-air, then began to move in circles. Within seconds a giant spiral had covered the entire sky. Then a green-blue beam of light shot out from its centre – lasting for ten to 12 minutes before disappearing completely.

Onlookers describing it as ‘like a big fireball that went around, with a great light around it’ and ‘a shooting star that spun around and around’.

The Norwegian Meteorological Institute was flooded with telephone calls after the light storm.

Totto Eriksen, from Tromsø, told VG Nett: ‘It spun and exploded in the sky,’

He spotted the lights as he walked his daughter Amalie to school.

He said: ‘We saw it from the Inner Harbor in Tromsø. It was absolutely fantastic.

‘It almost looked like a rocket that spun around and around and then went diagonally down the heavens.

‘It looked like the moon was coming over the mountain, but then came something completely different.’

Celebrity astronomer Knut Jørgen Røed Ødegaard said he had never seen anything like the lights.

He said: ‘My first thought was that it was a fireball meteor, but it has lasted far too long.

‘It may have been a missile in Russia, but I can not guarantee that it is the answer.’

Air traffic control in Tromso- claimed the light show lasted ‘far too long to be an astronomical phenomenon’.

Norwegian defence spokesman Jon Espen Lien also said the lights were probably from a Russian missile test claiming it was normal for Russia to use the White Sea and the Barents Sea as a testing ground.

Tromso- Geophysical Observatory researcher Truls Lynne Hansen agreed, saying the missile had likely veered out of control and exploded, and the spiral was light reflecting on the leaking fuel.

But the mystery deepened last night as Russia denied it had been conducting missile tests in the area.

A Moscow news outlet quoted the Russian Navy as denying any rocket launches from the White Sea area.

Norway should be informed of such launches under international agreements, it was stressed.

The Russian Defence Ministry was unavailable for comment.

Meteorologists, astronomers and Armed Forces have been unable to explain the lights  Photo: REX

A eerie turquoise light spotted over Norway has sparked a mystery, with suggestions it could be a missile test.

Telegraph | Dec 9, 2009

The Norwegian Metrological Institute has received hundreds of phonecalls from confused observers but so far has been unable to identify its origin.

Some experts have speculated that the phenomenon might have been caused by a Russian rocket launch. However, the Russian embassy insists such claims are completely unfounded.

Neither meteorologists, astronomers, or the Armed Forces have offered a solution to the matter.

The light was captured by amateur photographer Jan Petter Jorgensen while he was on his way to work at a salmon factory.

“The light appeared for 2-3 minutes. I could not believe my eyes, and got the shivers and was quite shaken by it”, Mr Jorgensen said.

Morten Kristiansen, who saw the light phenomena from Sortland in northern Norway, added: ” A large ring appeared, and then spread out, sending a green beam down to earth, “says

Massive TSA Security Breach As Agency Gives Away Its Secrets

Online Posting Reveals a “How To” for Terrorists to Get Through Airport Security

ABC | Dec 8, 2009

By BRIAN ROSS and MATT HOSFORD

In a massive security breach, the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) inadvertently posted online its airport screening procedures manual, including some of the most closely guarded secrets regarding special rules for diplomats and CIA and law enforcement officers.

The most sensitive parts of the 93-page Standard Operating Procedures manual were apparently redacted in a way that computer savvy individuals easily overcame.

The document shows sample CIA, Congressional and law enforcement credentials which experts say would make it easy for terrorists to duplicate.

The improperly redacted areas indicate that only 20 percent of checked bags are to be hand searched for explosives and reveal in detail the limitations of x-ray screening machines.

“This is an appalling and astounding breach of security that terrorists could easily exploit,” said Clark Kent Ervin, the former inspector general at the Department of Homeland Security. “The TSA should immediately convene an internal investigation and discipline those responsible.”

“This shocking breach undercuts the public’s confidence in the security procedures at our airports,” said Senator Susan Collins, R-Me., ranking Republican member of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee. “On the day before the Senate Homeland Security Committee’s hearing on terrorist travel, it is alarming to learn that the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) inadvertently posted its own security manual on the Internet.”

“This manual provides a road map to those who would do us harm,” said Collins. “The detailed information could help terrorists evade airport security measures.” Collins said she intended to ask the Department of Homeland Security how the breach happened, and “how it will remedy the damage that has already been done.”
TSA Document Leaked Online

A TSA spokesperson says the document posted online is an outdated version “improperly posted by the agency to the Federal Business Opportunities Web site wherein redacted material was not properly protected.”

The TSA requested the document be taken offline, but by then it had spread around the Internet and is still available today.

The document contains a list of items for which screening is not required including wheelchairs, footwear of disabled individuals, casts and orthopedic shoes.

The redacted portions also indicate which law enforcement personnel are specially screened or exempt from some screening procedures, and indicate what requirements they must meet to be eligible for special screening.

TSA screeners are also told to require extra screening for any passenger whose passport was issued by Cuba, Iran, North Korea, Libya, Syria, Sudan, Afghanistan, Lebanon, Somalia, Iraq, Yemen or Algeria.

The document also reveals that during peak travel times, TSA screeners who check identification can reduce from 100 percent to 25 percent the times they use black lights to authenticate documents.

“Screening is like a big puzzle and this SOP gives you directions on putting the puzzle together,” said Robert MacLean, a former Federal Air Marshal who was fired for revealing holes in TSA’s security after the 9/11 attacks. MacLean added that TSA’s assertion that the documents posted are old holds no merit. “How much in screening procedure changes in 17 months?” asked MacLean. “It’s a one-dimensional process.”

The TSA says it is taking the release of the sensitive information “seriously” and is conducting a full review.

“TSA has many layers of security to keep the traveling public safe and to constantly adapt to evolving threats,” the agency said in a statement. “TSA is confident that screening procedures currently in place remain strong.” The document also provides a glimpse of the special treatment available for governors, lieutenant governors and the mayor of Washington, D.C., as well as their spouses and family and staff.

ClickGreen | Dec 7, 2009

Could Mittal be laughing all the way to the bank with his carbon credits?

New analysis released by climate change NGO Sandbag has revealed that the UK’s richest resident, Lakshmi Mittal, CEO and major shareholder of the steel giant ArcelorMittal, could make over £1 billion between now and 2012 from his company’s participation in the EU’s Emissions Trading Scheme.

ArcelorMittal has over 14 million emissions permits that it does not need in 2008, a figure which Sandbag estimates will rise to 80 million by 2012 making it by far the biggest beneficiary of the scheme across the EU.

Sandbag has written to CEO Laksmi Mittal urging him to commit to cancelling his company’s unneeded emissions permits in what would be the largest act of climate philanthropy on record. If cancelled the 80 million surplus permits would prevent 80 million tonnes worth of pollution going into the world’s atmosphere, equivalent to the annual emissions of Denmark, the country where critical climate change talks are just commencing. Such an act would also come close to matching the cuts required the UK’s whole carbon budget between now and 2012.

Anna Pearson, Head of Policy at Sandbag commented: “ArcelorMittal received its emissions permits for free and could choose to cancel them; we’re calling on them to trade in the windfall profits they could make, for positive action on climate change. This would set an example to not only business and industry worldwide but to our global leaders set to meet in Copenhagen in the coming fortnight.

“European politicians need to sign up to more ambitious targets and tougher limits on pollution in Europe and under the EU Emissions Trading Scheme so that in future, industrial companies like ArcelorMittal actually have to cut their emissions rather than being handed windfall profits. The carbon market will only deliver what politicians ask it to, so it’s up to our leaders to make it tougher and to enable it to make a much greater contribution to tackling climate change.”

In her letter to Mittal, the Founder and Director of Sandbag, Bryony Worthington, explains: “I am writing to you as the world’s leading steel CEO and in your capacity as a philanthropic supporter of causes you believe in. I am the founder of a not for profit organisation Sandbag which works specifically on the potential of the European carbon market to deliver a real and lasting impact on climate change. It is my belief that whilst the carbon market may be considered a significant risk to your business, it also offers within its current workings the opportunity for you to become a world leader in climate philanthropy.

“I am sure you are used to having parallels drawn between your own story of success and that of Andrew Carnegie a century ago. Despite his inspiring business acumen in building the Carnegie steel empire, he is now far more renowned for his philanthropy aimed at tackling poor education and illiteracy: key challenges of his time. Today Bill Gates is perhaps equally famous for his work to tackle malaria, HIV and international poverty but he has no equivalent in the field of climate change. We strongly believe that you have the power to take on this mantle.

“We have studied the EU emissions trading scheme in detail and have found that ArcelorMittal holds a great deal of power within the market through its control of a sizeable portion of the supply of emissions permits. As you will know, last year, in aggregate, your company held more permits than were required to cover emissions from your plant. We recognise that the current recession is partly to blame for emissions from your plant being below your allocations of permits. We also recognise your efforts to improve the energy efficiency of your operations leading to your company’s 20% reduction in carbon footprint on 1990 levels and your other CSR work.
Nevertheless the scale of surplus permits your company controls is so much greater than any other participant in the EU emissions trading scheme it has prompted us to write to you.

“We estimate that you have around 14 million unused emissions permits for the year 2008, and that by the end of 2012 you could hold up to 80 million permits, equivalent to the annual emissions of Denmark. Whilst I’m sure your first instinct will be to monetise these permits to invest in your business but we urge you to consider an alternative strategy. Each permit represents permission for a tonne of carbon to be polluted, a tonne which will stay in the atmosphere for around 1000 years.

“But permits do not have to be used or sold; they can of course be cancelled with the tonnes of carbon never entering the atmosphere. If ArcelorMittal were to commit to cancel its surplus permits, it would be an unprecedented act of climate philanthropy and one which would show huge leadership not only within industry, but also to the world’s politicians. Indeed, your commitment would nearly match that of the whole UK Government which has promised to cut emissions by around 100 million tonnes between 2008 and 2012, a target regarded as one of the toughest in Europe. And whilst the permits undeniably have huge monetary value, they were received for free making the donation, in theory, extremely cost effective.

“We passionately believe that you are in a unique position as a market participant but also as an individual philanthropist to play a key role in tackling the climate change with a commitment would leave a lasting legacy for future generations. We will of course be contacting other companies with surplus permits in the ETS, but as the largest player in this field it was our wish to highlight our views to you first. We would value the opportunity to meet with you personally and with your team to discuss in more detail this and other philanthropic options available to you through your involvement in the carbon market.”