he secret release of information on millions of private banking transactions to US anti-terrorism investigators breached privacy rules in Europe, according to an official inquiry report released yesterday.

The findings emerged from a report into the transfer of information by Swift, a Belgian-based organisation which processes money transfers on behalf of the world's banks, including the largest UK financial institutions.

After the release of the document, Belgium's Prime Minister, Guy Verhofstadt, said that the company had broken his country's privacy rules by making the information available to the US authorities for more than five years.

However, he acknowledged that Swift had found itself in a legal no-man's land, caught between European and US law, and that some anti-terror investigation was legitimate.

Under American law the company believes it was obliged to co-operate with the scheme set up by the US Treasury Department after the 11 September attacks.

Protestors in front of the Polish parliament demanded the resignation of the government after secret tapes released this week sparked vote-buying allegations against the Kaczynski administration.

Polish Prime Minister Jaroslaw Kaczynski on Wednesday denounced an outlawed "grey network" that he said was trying to discredit his ruling Law and Justice (PiS) party by setting up a key PiS official in a hidden camera interview.

"PiS is holding talks aimed at finding support for our government and the changes it is introducing," Kaczynski said in an address to the nation aired on public television. The changes that PiS wants to introduce in Poland "bother those who form informal and formal grey networks and who, up to now, have acted outside any legal and constitutional order," Kaczynski said.

The Polish parliament buildingBildunterschrift: Großansicht des Bildes mit der Bildunterschrift:  Youths camped in front of the Polish parliament Wednesday to demand resignation

His fighting talk came a day after a key PiS official, Adam Lipinski, was shown on a rival television station, apparently trying to convince a lawmaker from the populist Samoobrona party, Renata Beger, to quit her party and join PiS.

Beger was privy to the secret film, as she was wearing the hidden camera herself.

Passenger profile

The Passenger Name Record (PNR) data falls into 34 overlapping fields, some of which contain very little information, for example the passenger's name, while others contain a lot, including the passenger's name (again), date of birth, sex, citizenship and so on.

The data can be broken down into the following categories

    * Information about the passenger: name; address; date of birth; passport number; citizenship; sex; country of residence; US visa number (plus date and place issued); address while in the US; telephone numbers; e-mail address; frequent flyer miles flown; address on frequent flyer account; the passenger's history of not showing up for flights

    * Information about the booking of the ticket: date of reservation; date of intended travel; date ticket was issued; travel agency; travel agent; billing address; how the ticket was paid for (including credit card number); the ticket number; which organisation issued the ticket; whether the passenger bought the ticket at the airport just before the flight; whether the passenger has a definite booking or is on a waiting list; pricing information; a locator number on the computer reservation system; history of changes to the booking

    * Information about the flight itself: seat number; seat information (eg aisle or window); bag tag numbers; one-way or return flight; special requests, such as requests for special meals, for a wheelchair, or help for an unaccompanied minor

    * Information about the passenger's itinerary: other flights ticketed separately, or data on accommodation, car rental, rail reservations or tours.

    * Information about other people: the group the passenger is travelling with; the person who booked the ticket

The CBP system has been built in such a way that some "sensitive" information is filtered out.

Iran's top nuclear negotiator, Ali Larijani, said Thursday that two days of talks in Berlin with the EU's foreign policy chief Solana had produced "some positive conclusions."

"It has been a long, constructive negotiation," Larijani told reporters after the meeting aimed at persuading Iran to agree to a nuclear deal offered by world powers. "We have been able to arrive at some positive conclusions. Today we have discussed modalities with the aim of coming back to the main negotiations as soon as possible."

Solana also said progress had been made and added that he would be speaking again to Larijani next week.

"We have been progressing," Solana said. "We will have a new contact in the middle of next week."

Europe's market for postal services will be thrown open to unfettered competition from 2009, according to proposals to be presented by the European Commission as early as next month.

Brussels is keen to sweep away the last remnants of an era in which postal services were dominated by state-owned monopolies, and complete the market's transformation into a competitive service sector. The Commission also hopes that full postal liberalisation will lead to lower costs for consumers and businesses.

However, the plan could face severe resistance from trade unions worried about job losses, and member states such as France, which are traditionally keen to defend public services against private-sector competition.

The European Union postal services sector is estimated to be worth more than €90bn (£61bn) a year, and employs some 5m people. The market has already seen deep changes in recent years, not least thanks to a landmark EU law from 1997 that allowed competition in an ever-growing number of postal services.

A controversial Mozart opera adapted to include a scene showing Mohammed's severed head on stage appears set for a new run in Berlin after the German government said the show must go on as a "signal of closer dialogue" with the country's 3.4m Muslims.

Mozart's Idomeneo was this week removed from the programme of Berlin's Deutsche Oper because of police fears it would be targeted by Islamic extremists.

Wolfgang Schäuble, interior minister and the country's top security official, said on Wednesday that 30 government and Muslim representatives, meeting in Berlin to launch a three-year dialogue forum, had "spoken out unanimously" that the opera should be performed as scheduled in November.

Deutsche Oper and Berlin city officials said on Wednesday night that efforts were under way to ensure the opera, already shown dozens of times in Berlin since 2003, returned to the stage.

Mr Schäuble, appearing to overrule Berlin police, insisted that "there was never a direct threat of violence" against the opera, but acknowledged that security forces had acted in good faith in responding to an undefined "heightened sense of danger" surrounding the 200-year-old work.

France and Spain have become embroiled in a row over immigration after the French interior minister, Nicolas Sarkozy, criticised the Spanish government for an immigration amnesty that saw 580,000 foreigners receive work and residency papers last year.

Mr Sarkozy, who is expected to fight for France's presidency on a centre-right ticket next year, said the socialist government of the Spanish prime minister, José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, had been encouraging illegal immigrants to breach Europe's frontiers.

"Look what has happened in the Canary Islands," Mr Sarkozy said on the France 2 television channel, referring to the 20,000 African immigrants who had reached the Spanish islands over the past year. "There has been a knock-on effect," he said. "Spain cannot control the flow of clandestine immigrants."

   
   

The play Lorca was all, created and directed by Pepe Rubianes, was finally shown last night in the Auditorioum of the Madrid CCOO (Communist trade union, after the City of Madrid would not permit it performance in the Teatro Espanol, due to statments by the actor referring to the unity of Spain in scatalogical terms. Before the showing, dozens of demonstrators with Spanish flags carrying writing in opposition to Rubianes and in favor of national unity, carrying a strong political message gathered, near the auditorium. One hour before the performance there were already people guarding the doors to the auditorium, while demostrators on the Paseo del Prado, shouting "You shit  yourself on Spain, and not in your whore mother", and carried a flag with the slogan, "Rubianes: You are an omonious actor but Spain has no fault."

La obra Lorca eran todos, creada y dirigida por Pepe Rubianes, fue estrenada finalmente anoche en el Auditorio de CC.OO. de Madrid, después de que el Ayuntamiento de Madrid no permitiera su representación en el Teatro Español, a causa de unas declaraciones en las que el actor se refirió a la unidad de España con términos escatológicos. Antes del estreno, se concentraron, en las inmediaciones del auditorio, decenas de manifestantes con banderas de España que corearon consignas en contra de Pepe Rubianes y a favor de la unidad nacional, rodeados de un fuerte dispositivo policial. Una hora antes del comienzo del espectáculo, ya había personas aguardando en la puerta del auditorio, mientras los manifestantes en el bulevar del Paseo del Prado, gritaban "Te cagas en España y no en tu puta madre", y portaban una bandera de España con el lema "Rubianes: eres un actor nefasto pero España no tiene la culpa".

The irony of right wing hacks making threats to an actor playing a poet who was murdered at that beginning of the Civil War and buried in an unmarked grave for making comments about the unity of Spain is clearly lost on the Spanish right.  I should hope that the PP would condemn this, but the City of Madrid is ruled by the PP, so they started this.  (Yet another reason why Barcelona is better than Madrid.)

Spain has never confronted the full legacy of the thousands executed in cold blood by both sides in the Civil War.  For the Republicans, it was a tragedy of militias run amok, for the Nationalists it was policy, culminating in the forced labor of thousands of Republican POWS to construct the grave of the 2nd Republic with Franco's Monument at the Valley of the Fallen.  I seriously question whether the decision to never pursue charges posthomously against the atrocities of the Nationalist isn't the reason Spain has an active and frightening fascist right wing where other European nations do not.

And I'll give my consent to any government that does not deny a man a living wage-Billy Bragg

LONDON, Sept. 28 -- President Pervez Musharraf of Pakistan arrived here on Thursday and found himself facing accusations that his country's intelligence service had indirect ties to Al Qaeda and that his government committed widespread human rights abuses as an ally of the United States in its effort to curb terrorism.

[...]

A report of a leaked document, which said that Pakistan's intelligence service indirectly supported the Taliban, played into the argument over the growing insurgency in Afghanistan, where Britain and the United States have sent forces. The document was said by the BBC to have originated in Britain's Defense Academy, a research agency sponsored by the Ministry of Defense.

Separately, Amnesty International, the human rights group, accused Pakistan of abuses, including the torture of terrorism suspects and the illegal transfer of detainees to the United States.

· Burning barricades and shoot-outs at tourist site
· Protests to go on until governor is ousted

The great colonial city of Oaxaca was brought to a standstill yesterday amid escalating tension that has already transformed much of this tourist attraction into a place of burning barricades, popular justice, shadowy paramilitary groups, and shoot-outs outside luxury hotels.

Shops, petrol stations, hotels and restaurants stayed shut as part of a 48-hour strike seeking to pressure the federal government to intervene between radical leftwing groups and the local state governor they want to overthrow.

What began in May as a dispute about teachers' pay has grown into a revolt with human rights activists fearing a bloody repression.

The Popular Assembly of the People of Oaxaca, the APPO, controls much of the city centre known the world over for its plazas and monasteries, laidback cafes and picturesque markets filled with indigenous people selling their textiles.

This is now APPO territory filled with tents, daubed with revolutionary graffiti, dotted with burnt out buses and protected by roadblocks. The protesters have also taken over local government offices and radio stations, as well as tying alleged thieves to lamp-posts.

The House of Representatives passed the same measure on Wednesday and must make a technical change to reconcile it with the Senate's. Bush was expected to sign it soon afterward.

While the bill cleared the Senate by a comfortable margin, it barely survived an earlier challenge that would have delayed and possibly killed it.

"The Senate sent a strong signal to the terrorists that we will continue using every element of national power to pursue our enemies and to prevent attacks on America," Bush said in a statement after the Senate vote.

"The Military Commissions Act of 2006 will allow the continuation of a CIA program that has been one of America's most potent tools in fighting the war on terror," Bush said.

The children at the Kids on Fire summer camp are intent as they pray over a cardboard cutout of President George Bush. They raise their hands in the air and sway, eyes closed, as they join the chant for "righteous judges". Tears stream down their faces as they are told that they are "phonies" and "hypocrites" and must wash their hands in bottled water to drive out the devil.

The documentary film Jesus Camp follows three children at the Kids on Fire Pentecostal summer camp in the small city of Devil's Lake, North Dakota.

The children at the Kids on Fire summer camp are intent as they pray over a cardboard cutout of President George Bush. They raise their hands in the air and sway, eyes closed, as they join the chant for "righteous judges". Tears stream down their faces as they are told that they are "phonies" and "hypocrites" and must wash their hands in bottled water to drive out the devil.

The documentary film Jesus Camp follows three children at the Kids on Fire Pentecostal summer camp in the small city of Devil's Lake, North Dakota.

BANGKOK The military rulers of Thailand have chosen Surayud Chulanont, a former army commander and close adviser to the country's powerful monarch, as interim prime minister following their coup, the auditor general said.

"Yes, definitely, General Surayud is the prime minister. He is the suitable person," Auditor General Jaruvan Maintaka told a small group of reporters late Thursday. Her comments were carried on an official government Web site on Friday.

Surayud's appointment was expected to be announced this weekend or Monday, after it receives approval from King Bhumibol Adulyadej.

Surayud, a highly regarded 62-year-old retired officer, was selected by the country's ruling military council which seized power from Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra in a bloodless coup on Sept. 19 while the premier was abroad. The council vowed to name a civilian prime minister within two weeks.

Akara Thiroj, a spokesman for the council, said an interim constitution has already been completed and sent to the Royal Palace. He hoped the constitution could be announced Saturday or Sunday and followed by the formal announcement of the prime minister on the weekend or Monday.

At the center of the current showdown with Iran is one chilling technical fact: The same technology that can make fuel for a nuclear reactor can also make the core of a nuclear bomb.

Add to that the legal fact that the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty guarantees all members in good standing the right to make their own reactor fuel and you have a pretty good idea why the United States and Europe are having such a tough time blocking Tehran's nuclear ambitions.

Enter Warren Buffett, the billionaire investor and philanthropist. He is pledging $50 million for a fuel bank - run by the International Atomic Energy Agency - to be a supplier of last resort for any country that chooses not to get into the risky reactor fuel business and gets the IAEA seal of approval.

Right now countries can argue - sincerely or not - that without their own fuel plants they can be easily blackmailed by foreign suppliers with whom they have political disagreements. Iran has been caught lying about its nuclear program too often to believe that all it wants is reactor fuel. But its talk of nuclear cartels still gets a sympathetic hearing from many of the nuclear have- nots.

Buffett, who is working with the nonprofit Nuclear Threat Initiative, headed by a former U.S. senator, Sam Nunn, is a man who understands leverage. He won't kick in his $50 million unless some government or governments ante up $100 million in cash or fuel. And the project has to come together within two years or he will take his money off the table.

The head of Canada's national police force has publicly apologised to a man deported to Syria after being falsely accused of terrorism.

Maher Arar was deported by US customs agents to Syria after Canadian police labelled him an Islamic extremist.

Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) Commissioner, Giulano Zaccardelli said his force had made major mistakes.

A public inquiry found Mr Arar had been caught up in a hunt for terror suspects after the 2001 attacks on the US.

Mr Zaccardelli says he has no intention of resigning over the affair despite calls for him to do so.

His apology to Mr Arar was unequivocal.

Mr Zaccardelli said: "I wish to take this opportunity to express publicly to you and to your wife and to your children how truly sorry I am for whatever part the actions of the RCMP may have contributed to the terrible injustices that you experienced and the pain that you and your family endured."

Nato will take command next month of peacekeeping duties in all parts of Afghanistan hit by the Taliban insurgency after the US said it would transfer 12,000 more troops to its force.

The US servicemen will be moved from the relatively peaceful eastern part of Afghanistan to the volatile southern region, where Nato troops, including 5,000 British soldiers, have been fighting an increasingly bloody war with Islamist Taliban fighters.

The deployment will mean that 14,000 of Nato's 32,000 International Security Assistance Force (Isaf) troops under British command would be provided by the US, its biggest contingent under foreign control since the Second World War.

The agreement yesterday came as European nations failed to agree to send more troops to cover shortfalls identified by commanders. The secretary general, Jaap de Hoop Scheffer, at the Nato meeting in Slovenia, urged other countries to send more troops to the country.

Asked about the future of the Iranian Jewish community, he replied: "Did you see how many children were there tonight?"

He was right. It was hard to concentrate on praying in the synagogue, where at least 300 people had come, because of all the children running up and down the aisles and chattering outside.

But there is a difference between children and young adults. Peyman, Saketkhoo's 27-year-old son, was fond of saying, "Everyone in Iran has a problem," meaning that everyone - Jewish and non-Jewish - wants to leave.

It's not just the political situation, he said, but the fact that with the rise of Ahmadinejad, the economic situation has worsened and poverty has deepened.

(...)

Most indicative of this tacit acceptance of religious diversity is a huge picture on the side of a building in north Teheran. Like many pictures in the capital, it commemorates Iranian soldiers who fell during the 1980-8 Iran-Iraq war. But this one is different. It is dedicated to the minorities who served their country, and depicts five Iranians of various religions and ethnicities. Four represent Assyrian and Armenian ethnicities and members of the Christian and Zoroastrian communities. Right in the center is an Iranian Jew, with his name spelled in Farsi and Hebrew.

From the very conservative Jerusalem Post

In the long run, we're all dead. John Maynard Keynes

[...]

In the richest city in India, with the nation's economy marching ahead at an enviable clip, middle-class people [...] are reduced to foraging for water. Their predicament testifies to the government's astonishing inability to deliver the most basic services to its citizens at a time when India asserts itself as a global power.

The crisis, decades in the making, has grown as fast as India in recent years. A soaring population, the warp-speed sprawl of cities, and a vast and thirsty farm belt have all put new strains on a feeble, ill-kept public water and sanitation network.

The combination has left water all too scarce in some places, contaminated in others and in cursed surfeit for millions who are flooded each year. Today the problems threaten India's ability to fortify its sagging farms, sustain its economic growth and make its cities healthy and habitable. At stake is not only India's economic ambition but its very image as the world's largest democracy.

"If we become rich or poor as a nation, it's because of water," said Sunita Narain, director of the Center for Science and Environment in New Delhi.