ATHENS: Greek villagers fled their homes as hundreds of firefighters battled forest blazes that raged near the Greek capital Athens on Wednesday, reviving memories of last summer's deadly wildfires.

As emergency services used planes and helicopters to bring two large fires near Athens under control, strong winds fanned a new blaze near the village of Markopoulo, some 40 km (25 miles) from the city of 5 million people.

Municipal authorities evacuated around 50 villagers as flames entered the village, while many others left behind their homes and possessions to flee.

"Things are getting worse at Markopoulo and we have reports of one or two houses being damaged," a fire department official told Reuters.

The planned construction of over 180 mosques in Germany is mobilizing right-wing xenophobes but also an increasing number of leftist critics. They fear the Muslim places of worship will facilitate the establishment of a completely parallel society.

Responding to public pressure, architects reduced the size of a controversial mega-mosque planned for the city of Cologne.

The issue at hand wasn't the construction of a missile base or a new nuclear power plant. Yet the media reported "turmoil" and an "enraged" audience in a school auditorium in Ehrenfeld, a district of the German city of Cologne. The mood was almost comparable to that of the protest gatherings once held against nuclear missiles or reactors.

Instead the outrage was directed at a huge mosque planned for the area. Still, the words used by the project's opponents called to mind the protests of earlier times. "The minarets even look like missiles," railed one woman. A man said the mosque's dome reminded him "of a nuclear plant."

If one Italian entrepreneur has his way, Rome's Circus Maximus will once again play host to roaring chariot racing. It's time, he says, for Romans to once again leave the Gauls and the Huns in their dust.

 Ben-Hur Redux? An Italian entrepreneur is hoping to bring back ancient Roman chariot racing -- and modern Roman pride. It's a situation that keeps Franco Calo up at night. Across Europe and the world, chariot racing, perhaps the most Roman of all sporting events, is enjoying a renaissance of sorts. Events are held in cities from Bulgaria to Germany to France. There is even a hippodrome in Brazil.

But in Calo's native Rome? So far, the 27th generation Roman points out ruefully, there is nothing. That, though, is something Calo is setting about to change. He is pushing for the Italian capital to reclaim chariot racing and establish an event of its own.

"Rome is the only large Italian city without a unique historical manifestation, such as Siena's Palio horse races or Venice's Regata Storica," Calo told SPIEGEL ONLINE. He is slightly more pointed on his Web site Vadis al Maximo: Do Romans, he asks his readers, really want "to come in third behind the Gauls (the French) and the Huns (the Germans), when it comes to Romanness?"

The European Commission on Wednesday (16 July) told the organisations that collect music copyright fees for artists that they have to end agreements that stop them from competing across borders.

At the moment, music copyright groups have a system of contracts meaning that artists may collect payments only from an agency in their own country.

Musicians' groups say the decision will hurt lesser-known artists and those from smaller countries

But after consultation with industry and artists, following a complaint by broadcaster RTL and British online group Music Choice, the commission came down on the side of freer competition, saying this would allow authors to choose on the basis of quality of service, efficiency of collection and level of management fees deducted.

At the moment, companies such as RTL that want to offer a pan-European service cannot obtain a single licence but have to negotiate with individual national collecting societies.

...

Airbus, Europe's flagship of manufacturing co-operation, is facing an unprecedented industrial task. Announcing a raft of orders at the Farnborough air show this week, the group's backlog has never been bigger and it is ramping up production to levels it has never before achieved. But at the same time, the group is pushing through a painful restructuring in an attempt to integrate operations that, since Airbus came under the wing of the politically forged EADS in 2000, have enjoyed a degree of national autonomy.

Components factories will be sold, 10,000 jobs cut and the once indisputable right of its four founding countries - France, Germany, Spain and the UK - to share out the production work will no longer take priority over commercial decisions. It is doing all this while trying to rescue the A380 programme, one of the most ambitious in aviation history. The aircraft, which can seat as many as 850 passengers, will set Airbus apart from Boeing, its US rival suffering its own severe delays on the 787 Dreamliner. The gamble has cost the European group more than $20bn (£10bn, €12.5bn) to make happen.

...

"What was once a symbol of the success of the European Union has in 2008 become a symbol of its failure."

And I [McCain] regret some of the recent behavior Russia that has exhibited, and I'll be glad to talk about that later on including reduction in oil supplies to Czechoslovakia after they agreed with us on a missile defense system, etcetera," said the presumptive Republican nominee at a New Mexico town hall Tuesday.

Czechoslovakia?

I think he mis-spoke so,

"And I regret some of the recent behavior Russia Land of the Golden Horde that has exhibited, and I'll be glad to talk about that later on including reduction in oil fur supplies to Czechoslovakia Austro-Hungarian Empire after they agreed with us on a missile defense system Star Fort© moat and wall defense for Prague ...,"

There.  Fixed.

 

Madness takes its toll. Have exact change ready