EU's chief Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier addresses the media on the publication of "Guiding Principles for the Dialogue on Ireland and Northern Ireland" in Brussels on Thursday. Photo: AFP The EU's chief Brexit negotiator said Thursday he is ready to speed up talks with Britain on its exit from the bloc as he voiced concern about progress and London's proposal for the border with Ireland.
Britain is on a countdown to leave the EU by the end of March 2019, following last year's shock referendum vote.
Barnier spoke as his negotiation team published a combative paper on the future of Northern Ireland and its border with the EU-member Republic of Ireland.
But Barnier said, "What I see in the UK's paper on Ireland and Northern Ireland worries me.
"The UK wants to use Ireland as a kind of test case for the future EU-UK customs relations. This will not happen," he said.
Barnier accused the UK, which wanted to "suspend the application of its laws, its customs union and single market at what would be a new external border for the EU."
London says the issue of how goods and people will move across the frontier cannot be separated from discussion about wider customs arrangements between Britain and the EU.
NANJING Wholesale Womens UGG Bailey Button Sheepskin Triplet Boots 1873 Grey , July 2 (Xinhua) -- At a park in east China's Nanjing city, 200 pigs, 2,000 chickens and innumerable aquatic creatures in a 15 hectare lake have a very special job to do: predicting earthquakes.
The behavior of the park's residents is closely monitored by cameras all over the park and reports are made twice a day to the city earthquake bureau. Whenever unusual behavior is reported -- chickens flying to the trees, pigs having trouble sleeping well Cheap Womens UGG Bailey Button Sheepskin Triplet Boots 1873 Sand , fish jumping in shoals, toads heading for the hills -- staff from Nanjing earthquake bureau will come to establish if they are pre-seismic cues.
Banqiao Eco-park is just one of seven animal alert stations, mostly farms and ponds, monitored by Nanjing earthquake bureau. The bureau set up these monitoring stations last year to try to improve the city's ability to predict earthquakes and take advance action.
Earthquake forecasters in these monitoring stations are a far cry from the scientists armed with advanced gizmos and complex equations one might expect, and include chicken ugg boots leather ireland , deer, ducks, geese, monkeys, pigeons ugg boots sand ireland , pigs and even kangaroos.
At least three kinds of animals in the earthquake stations should corroborate each other when bizarre behavior occurs, said Zhao Bing, head of Nanjing earthquake monitoring. The stations should also be far from factories and mines to avoid interference.
The belief that animals can predict earthquakes has been around for a long time. In 373 B.C. historians recorded that the animals deserted the Greek city of Helike just days before a devastating quake. Before China's Tangshan earthquake in 1976, abnormal animal behavior was also reported.
No one knows exactly how some animals appear to know in advance about some earthquakes, but their more keen senses may partly explain the strange phenomenon.
According to research published earlier this year in the journal Physics and Chemistry of the Earth ugg boots grey ireland , wild animals may be more sensitive to positive ions generated in large quantities when rocks below the earth's surface are stressed in the build-up to an earthquake.
The bureau has plans to set up seven more animal stations this year.
JOHANNESBURG, July 19 (Xinhua) -- South Africa's headlineconsumer inflation decreased more than expected to 5.1 percent yearon year in June from 5.4 percent in May, Statistics South Africareported on Wednesday.
According to Statistics South Africa, last month's foodinflation figures show the significance of meat within the foodbasket.
"All products decelerated from the previous month's levels withthe exception of meat which remained elevated and therefore,sustaining food inflation at 6.9 percent ugg boots chocolate ireland ," Wandile Sihlobo, aneconomist with Agbiz told Xinhua on Wednesday.
"The uptick in meat inflation mirrors the remaining effects ofthe 2015 to 2016 El Nino induced drought in the livestock sector.As farmers continued to restock their herds, the slaughteringactivity eased a bit with that resulting in the increase in meatprices," he added.
"This is the third month in a row that we are back within theinflation target band," TreasuryOne said after the release of thedata. "All eyes will be on the South Afican Reserve Bank's monetarypolicy committee tomorrow (on Thursday) to see if they make a moveon interest rates."
Another analyst agreed ugg boots chestnut ireland , "A lower CPI print will make the SouthAfrican Reserve Bank rate decision difficult tomorrow, especiallybecause growth is weak and the exchange rate is also much strongerthan at the last Monetary Policy Committee meeting," Rand MerchantBank analyst Isaah Mhlanga wrote in a note.
In reaction to the news, the South Africa's rand declined 0.43percent against the U.S. dollar on Wednesday, trading at R12.95 tothe dollar.
South African Reserve Bank is battling to rein in the stubborninflation to the target of between 3 percent and 6 percent.Economist expects the Reserve Bank monetary policy committee toleave the repo rate unchanged at 7 percent ugg boots black ireland , and the bank's lendingrate at 10.5 percent. The change in South Africa's interest rate isoften done to keep inflation within this band. Enditem
SYDNEY, March 21 (Xinhua) -- Multiple investigations are underway into an Australian care worker who allegedly supplied a child with methamphetamines.