The right-wing People's Party (SVP) and the Greens were the biggest winners in the Swiss elections. The SVP consolidated its position as the parliament's largest party, according to early projections on Sunday, Oct. 21.

The tough, bitter campaign fought by the right on an anti-immigration and anti-crime ticket, however, failed to translate into the landslide victory SVP members, led by Justice Minister Christoph Blocher, had hoped for.

"I'm very happy," People's Party president Ueli Maurer said, calling his party's advances confirmation for the People's Party policies.

The People's Party, which already held the majority of seats in parliament at 63, were set to gain six seats in parliament and the Greens, the fifth biggest party, were set to gain four seats, according to projections by the state-owned SRG television and radio networks.

Poles voted on Sunday, Oct. 21, in a parliamentary election that could weaken the Kaczynski twins' grip on power and usher in a coalition ready to speed up economic reforms and improve relations with the European Union.

Opinion polls on Sunday suggested the Civic Platform, a center-right opposition party, will attract most support.

 

Turnout among Poland's 30.5 million voters reached over 55 percent, making it the highest level since the country voted to end communism in 1989, according to a survey by the PBS public opinion institute. Low voter participation in 2005 was seen as a key reason behind the Kaczynskis' victory.

 

The electoral commission said some areas had run out of ballot papers and that voting would have to be extended. The commission's Jan Kacprzak said several polling stations in the northern port city of Gdansk also had to extend their opening hours.

 

Kacprzak did not explain the cause of the Gdansk delays but said voting was expected to end at 10:55 p.m., local time. Voting had originally been scheduled to close at 8 p.m.

Thousands of people are forced to spend years living in abject poverty on the streets of Britain's cities after fleeing persecution in their own countries, an independent asylum inquiry has heard. The destitute have no access to help from the state as they have not been granted asylum, yet they prefer to stay in Britain rather than return home because they fear of being tortured or killed.

Senior lawyers, doctors and immigration officials even claim such destitution is, in effect, now being used by the Government as policy, in an attempt to force desperate people out of the country.

There are at least 280,000 people living in poverty in Britain after having their leave to remain refused. Some of them are appealing those decisions. Some just go completely underground, taking their chances on the streets of the UK with no money or shelter.

"This government is made of shit. But it is our government" - one of the placards waved at a mass rally of Italian workers in Rome at the weekend illustrated the pressure building from the left on the fragile centre-left coalition government led by Romano Prodi, prime minister.

Communist newspapers on Sunday hailed Saturday's march as a potent reminder of the strength of the leftwing base. They put the turnout at 1m, though other reporters estimated the crowd that snaked through central Rome at over 100,000.

Although the rally was directed at defending workers' rights and expressing anger at labour reforms the Prodi coalition is presenting to parliament, many demonstrators appeared more intent on venting frustration at their splintered, leftwing leadership as well as at trade union leaders who had agreed to the reforms.

The main trade union federations did not support the rally, and Mr Prodi's government was pleased that no ministers attended. Marchers, many carrying communist banners, called on the various communist splinter parties, Greens and others on the left, to bury their differences and unite this "red thing" - as the unnamed movement is commonly known - as a single party.

The post is a two and a half year term, but it can be held twice. The system replaces the current situation where the post rotates among member states every six months.

But despite his high-profile career, giving an EU post to Mr Blair would probably cause some strong controversy.

Critics continue to point to his support of the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003 - something that caused a deep rift in the EU. Others question his commitment to the European project, given the fact that London does not participate in some key common policies.

A spokesperson for former UK leader told British media that Mr Blair - who is now the quartet's envoy to the Middle East - was "focusing on his current role".

Luxembourg's prime minister Jean-Claude Juncker, Danish prime minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen and Poland's former president Aleksander Kwasniewski have also been tipped for the top job.

EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - Academic researchers are finalising a big European Commission-funded legal handbook containing the core principles of EU member states' private law.

EU officials say the catalogue, to be presented to the commission in December, could in future form the basis for a full-blown European civil code.

More than 150 law researchers from across Europe are drawing up a so-called 'Draft Common Frame of Reference' which will consist of legal articles related to the exchange of goods and services - for example on leasing, damage, the right to withdraw from contracts and unjustified enrichment.

The articles will seek to describe what is the common core of European private law (in this case, mainly contract law), the bulk of which is currently covered by the 27 EU member states' national private law systems.

Private law is deeply rooted in national legal traditions which are often centuries-old, such as the UK's common law or France's Code Civil introduced by Napoleon. Any possible EU interference in the area of private law is therefore seen as highly sensitive.

Six hundred people, wearing black uniforms and insignia which critics say are reminiscent of the Nazi era, took an oath of loyalty on Sunday to defend Hungary as members of a far-right "guard".

The Hungarian Guard was launched in August with 56 members and drew widespread criticism because of its uniform and use of a red-and-white striped flag linked to the fascist Arrow Cross regime which sent hundreds of thousands of Jews to death camps.

Well, that's pretty scary when people are openly joining fascist paramilitaries.  Something is very, very wrong in Europe.

[Torygraph Alert]

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

Huge delays, people pissed off but still not complete colapse.. it can still get worse...

http://www.lavanguardia.es/

http://www.lavanguardia.es/lv24h/20071022/53404872676.html

http://www.elpais.com/articulo/espana/Barcelona/afronta/caos/ferroviario/elpepuesp/20071022elpepunac _1/Tes

Roughly 10 km of lines with cars int the southern highways.. plus delays of 30 minutes 1 hour of the alternativve bus system  to cover the lines....

I must say I live right ont he south of Barcelona...and the line I take everyday is one of the collapsed.

A pleasure

I therefore claim to show, not how men think in myths, but how myths operate in men's minds without their being aware of the fact. Levi-Strauss, Claude

Nothing in our Belgian press yet. As this was a very international event: somebody does know more about it?

I'll try to dig some background...

Center for Vigilant Freedom » EUROPEAN ORGANIZATIONS GATHER IN BRUSSELS TO ORGANIZE RESISTANCE TO ISLAMIZATION AND SHARIAH

October 19, 2007

FOR MORE INFORMATION:
Ann Marchini
0044.788.75.64.825

On October 18 and 19, over 70 organizations and individuals joined together in the European and Flemish Parliaments to create a European network of activists from 14 nations to resist the increasing Islamisation of their countries.

Keynote speakers included Bat Ye'or, author of Eurabia and Dhimmitude and Robert Spencer, author of Religion of Peace, Why Christianity is and Islam Isn't. Additional speakers included David Littman, Dr. Arieh Eldad, member of the Israeli Knesset, Dr. Patrick Sookhdeo, Director of the Institute for the Study of Islam and Christianity, Sam Solomon, Director of Fellowship of Faith for Muslims and author of the Charter of Muslim Understanding, Dr. Marc Cogen, Ghent University, Dr. Andrew Bostom, author of The Legacy of Islamic Antisemitism, and Laurent Artur du Plessis, author of a forthcoming book on shariah finance. Many participants worldwide also attended the first day of presentations online through webex conferencing.

Armando Manocchio of the Italian organization Una Via per Oriana ("A Way For Oriana") presented an award to Bat Ye'or in honor of Oriana Fallaci, including a 5,000 Euro scholarship for young journalists.

Additional anti-islamisation experts and activists from the fourteen European countries presented reports on the current state of Islamisation and jihadism in their nations, and citizen efforts to mount a defense of constitutional liberties and national sovereignty, including:

Austria: Elizabeth Sabaditsch-Wolff

Belgium: Filip Dewinter

Czech Republic: Matyas Zmo

Denmark: Lars Hedegaard

Finland: Not disclosed publicly

France: Nidra Poller

Germany: Stefan Herre

Italy: Adriana Bolchini Gaigher

Netherlands: Dr. Johannes J.G. Jansen

Norway: Jens Anfindsen

Romania: Traian Ungureanu

Sweden: Ted Ekeroth and Reinhard

Switzerland: Dr. Arnaud Dotezac

United Kingdom: Gerard Batten

Other countries represented included Canada, Israel and the United States.

The first day of the Counterjihad Brussels 2007 conference was held in the European Parliament, and the second day of working groups was held in the Flemish Parliament. Selected texts, videos and supplementary documents including charters, existing laws and draft legislation as well as country and issue updates will be posted in the coming week at the conference website at CounterJihad Europa.

Assistance was provided by many organizations and individuals over the last six months including David Littman, Bart Debie, Fjordman, Baron Bodissey of Gates of Vienna and Philip Claeys.

World oil production has already peaked and will fall by half as soon as 2030, according to a report which also warns that extreme shortages of fossil fuels will lead to wars and social breakdown.

The German-based Energy Watch Group will release its study in London today saying that global oil production peaked in 2006 - much earlier than most experts had expected. The report, which predicts that production will now fall by 7% a year, comes after oil prices set new records almost every day last week...

The report's author, Joerg Schindler, said its most alarming finding was the steep decline in oil production after its peak, which he says is now behind us...

The EWG study relies more on actual oil production data which, it says, are more reliable than estimates of reserves still in the ground. The group says official industry estimates put global reserves at about 1.255 gigabarrels - equivalent to 42 years' supply at current consumption rates. But it thinks the figure is only about two thirds of that.

LANDSDOWNE, Virginia (Reuters) - U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney, taking a tough line toward Iran, described the country's government on Sunday as a "growing obstacle to peace in the Middle East."

Cheney, in a speech to a think tank, also accused Tehran of practicing "delay and deception" regarding its nuclear program and warned of consequences if it did not comply with the West's demands that it halt sensitive nuclear work.

The U.S. vice president's harsh rhetoric toward Tehran came just a few days after President George W. Bush warned that nuclear-armed Iran could lead to World War Three.

The Bush administration has been trying to rally support for a tighter international sanctions but faces difficulties amid Russian resistance.

• NYT - "Dick Cheney, ratcheting up the administration's warnings to Iran, today branded that country's government 'a growing obstacle to peace in the Middle East' and declared that United States and its allies 'will not allow Iran to have a nuclear weapon.' The vice president's remarks, coming just days after [George W.] Bush suggested that a nuclear-armed Iran could lead to 'World War III'."

• LA Times - "Across the country, other Republican lawmakers who have broken with over the war are under fire from party loyalists. The revolt could cost Jones and a handful of other members of Congress their seats next year. It also helps explain why the stalled Democratic legislative campaign to end the war is unlikely to revive any time soon. Despite months of pressure, no more than eight Republican lawmakers in the House and Senate have backed any measure that mandates a troop withdrawal... While most Americans want U.S. troops out of Iraq, Republicans remain solidly behind the president and the war. A recent CBS News survey found 58% of Republicans approve of the way Bush is handling the war, compared with just 5% of Democrats and 20% of independents." Republican "politicians have defied that sentiment at their peril." Republicans have truly become the party of war and destruction. Too bad Democrats don't seem to want to be the party of peace and prosperity.

• The Hill - Zing! "Sen. Joseph Biden (Del.), chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination, said the Republican White House contenders, with the exception of Sen. John McCain (Ariz.), 'know virtually nothing about foreign policy.'"

• Atlanta Journal-Constitution - "Gov. Sonny Perdue declared a state of emergency in most of Georgia on Saturday, and called on [George W.] Bush to recognize that the historic drought had created a disaster for 85 counties. In a defiant plea Saturday at Lake Lanier, Perdue asked Bush to issue a federal disaster designation... ¶ Perdue's actions came as the federal government continue d to release water from Lake Lanier to protect endangered mussels in Florida at the expense of water-starved North Georgia." I guess Perdue's Pray for Rain campaign has failed.

• LA Times - "Santa Ana winds gusting to hurricane force in some hilltop areas caused one death and fueled nearly a dozen brush fires across Southern California today, including a 1,200-acre blaze in the Malibu Hills that forced evacuation of hundreds of homes and destroyed several landmarks, including the famous Castle Kashan and a church. ¶ The firestorms raced through dry growth in a chain of firestorms stretching from the forestlands of north Los Angeles County to the Mexican border. In San Diego County, where two major fires erupted, one person was reported killed and eight injured in the fast-moving Harris Fire along the rugged U.S.-Mexico border."

• Telegraph - American and Israeli scientists have unveiled "plans to weaken hurricanes and steer them off course". "Under one scheme, aircraft would drop soot into the near-freezing cloud at the top of a hurricane, causing it to warm up and so reduce wind speeds. Computer simulations of the forces at work in the most violent storms have shown that even small changes can affect their paths - enabling them to be diverted from major cities. But the hurricane modifiers are fighting more than the weather. Lawyers warn that diverting a hurricane from one city to save life and property could result in multi-billion dollar lawsuits from towns that bear the brunt instead."

• AP - "A pro-business opposition party that wants to bring Poland's troops home from Iraq had a double-digit lead over the prime minister's strongly pro-U.S. party in the country's parliamentary elections Sunday, according to exit polls. ¶ State TV projections showed the Civic Platform party and its preferred coalition partner, the small Polish Peasants Party, winning a majority of seats in the lower house, which would allow them to form a government together and oust Jaroslaw Kaczynski as prime minister." According to a later NYT story, Donald Tusk of the Civic platform party has, indeed, won the election.

• Guardian - "Switzerland's rightwing People's party, accused of racism and fanning Islamophobia, strengthened its position as the country's leading political force yesterday, gaining more than 2 percentage points to win a general election for the second time in a row, according to projections."

• Guardian - "Disgruntled fans of Sheffield Wednesday who vented their dissatisfaction with the football club's bigwigs in anonymous internet postings may face expensive libel claims after the chairman, chief executive and five directors won a high-court ruling last week forcing the owner of a website to reveal their identity. ¶ The case, featuring the website owlstalk.co.uk, is the second within days to highlight the danger of assuming that the apparent cloak of anonymity gives users of internet forums and chatrooms carte blanche to say whatever they like."

• The Observer - French fall out of love with marriage habit
  By Alex Duval

  Last year 59 per cent of first-born children came into the world out of wedlock, putting French disenchantment with marriage second only to that of the liberal Swedes. Only 268,000 people got married in France in 2006 - the lowest figure since 1990. There is now more than one divorce for every two marriages. The 152,000 divorces last year marked an increase of 40,000 on 2002. Five times more French people got divorced last year than in 1963.

  But the French are still getting together, albeit with fewer legal obligations than traditional town hall or church weddings imply. The Pacs (pacte civil de solidarite) - the partnership contract introduced in 1999 mainly with gays and lesbians in mind - is now more popular with heterosexuals than homosexuals. Ninety per cent of the 154,000 Pacs contracts signed last year - providing for joint taxation but conferring little legal security - were entered into by heterosexual couples. Even though Pacs partnerships can be ended simply by sending a recorded delivery letter to a judge, only one in seven of the contracts ends in 'divorce'.

  Something, I think, for Americans to consider.

• LA Times - "In a serious escalation near Iraq's northern border, Kurdish [PKK] rebels ambushed a Turkish army patrol today, killing at least 12 soldiers and raising the specter of a major cross-border retaliation by Turkey. ¶ Turkish helicopters and ground forces shelled purported guerrilla hide-outs and escape routes along the rugged Turkish-Iraqi border well into the evening, killing at least 32 rebels, the Turkish General staff said."

• NYT - Turkey has delayed a decision to invade northern Iraq in retaliation for the attack after the request of U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.

  Turkey's prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, convened an emergency security meeting with Turkey's top officials on Sunday night, in Ankara, Turkey's capital, to discuss an appropriate response.

  Ms. Rice called him shortly before the meeting began and asked him to "allow us a few days," Mr. Erdogan said on national television. Turkey's Parliament this week granted authority to Mr. Erdogan's government to take military action in Iraq, a maneuver that was largely seen as a last-ditch effort to press the United States to act against the Kurdish militants.

  "She expressed their seriousness in this matter by not only saying that they assessed the issue in a highly sensitive way," Mr. Erdogan said of his conversation with Ms. Rice, "but also, beyond emphasizing our righteousness, she said, `allow us few days.'"

• LA Times - "U.S. forces engaged in a major gun battle with militants during an early morning raid in the Shiite district of Sadr City today and may have killed as many as 49 people. The Iraqi government said many of the victims were civilians, but the U.S. insisted only 'criminals' were killed. ¶ Those wounded in the incident included 8- and 11-year-old boys who were interviewed in their hospital beds by the Times. Another man said his 1 1/2-year-old son was killed, as well as a neighbor's son the same age. ¶ U.S. officials said the raid did not capture or kill its target".

• WaPo - "The men gathered in the evening at the schoolyard to execute their attack. By the time they finished, at least seven rockets had crashed down nearly four miles away inside the American military headquarters compound in Baghdad, killing two U.S. soldiers and wounding at least 38 other people, according to U.S. soldiers... ¶ In the days since the Oct. 10 rocket barrage, U.S. soldiers have arrested eight police officers suspected of collaborating with Shiite militiamen to target the U.S. base. Assaults by mortars and rockets on military installations across the country are relatively common -- though the missiles frequently land in unpopulated areas. But if the police are found guilty, the Camp Victory assault would represent one of the more glaring examples of Iraqi security forces turning on their American partners to devastating effect."

• Guardian - "Doubts surrounded the future of Iran's foreign minister, Manouchehr Mottaki, yesterday after the departure of the country's chief nuclear negotiator appeared to signal a significant power shift to President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. A day after Ali Larijani resigned as secretary of the supreme national security council, speculation grew that the foreign minister, a career diplomat, may be the next to go as the president tightens his grip on nuclear policy."

• NYT - "Investigators looking into the shooting death of the South African reggae star Lucky Dube arrested five men early Sunday and seized two handguns and an automobile believed to have been used in the crime, a Johannesburg police spokesman said."

• Telegraph - "In the rapidly changing battleground against international terrorism, the arid plains of the Horn of Africa are becoming a steadily more significant base from which al-Qa'eda's followers can launch their attacks. The Horn now ranks alongside the Middle East as the area of greatest concern to British counter-terrorism officials, coming second only to Pakistan, where al-Qa'eda's core leaders are ensconced."

• Independent - "The mystery behind the sudden death of Tutankhamun, the boy king who ruled Egypt more than 3,000 years ago, may have been finally solved by scientists who believe that he fell from a fast-moving chariot while out hunting in the desert... ¶ recent studies using a CT medical scanner, however, revealed he suffered a badly broken leg, just above his knee just before he died. That in turn probably led to lethal blood poisoning. Now further evidence has come to light suggesting that he suffered the fracture while hunting game from a chariot." Also, The Telegraph reports Tutankhamun's true face will be revealed for the first time.

• NYT - "Rather than a bland statement of condolence, customary after incidents of mass violence, the [Indian Foreign Ministry's] statement named [Benazir] Bhutto, a politician trying to make a comeback, with sympathy. In another era, Indian leaders might have avoided such a display for fear of being accused of interfering in Pakistani politics. 'The messages conveyed suggest an implicit recognition of the authenticity of her credentials,' said Salman Haidar, a retired Indian diplomat. 'It's a signaling of readiness to do business with her should the occasion arise. It's unusual.'"

• Times of India - "Though the Indo-US nuclear deal is on the backburner for all practical purposes, the government may not categorically acknowledge this when it talks to the Left in the joint mechanism meeting on Monday. ¶ The pro-deal lobby feels that such an assurance could make its strong advocacy for nuclear power to meet the demands of a growing economy look like an excuse for pushing the contentious pact. It is also feared that a U-turn, amounting to disowning the deal, would be a major embarrassment in the international circuit."

• The Hindu - "Pakistan will host the second joint peace jirga with Afghanistan after the general election next year and step up efforts with Iran and Afghanistan to counter terrorism, organised crime and drug trafficking. This was conveyed by Pakistan's Foreign Minister, Khurshid Mehmood Kasuri, during a meeting with Afghan President, Hamid Karzai, on the sidelines of the Economic Cooperation Organisation (ECO) Council of Minister's Meeting held in Herat on Saturday." The jirga will be in mid-January.

• BBC News - Monkeys kill Delhi deputy mayor

  The deputy mayor of the Indian capital Delhi died on Sunday after being attacked by a horde of wild monkeys. SS Bajwa suffered serious head injuries when he fell from the first-floor terrace of his home on Saturday morning trying to fight off the monkeys.

  The city has long struggled to counter its plague of monkeys, which invade government complexes and temples, snatch food and scare passers-by. The High Court demanded the city find an answer to the problem last year...

  Culling is seen as unacceptable to devout Hindus, who revere the monkeys as a manifestation of the monkey god Hanuman, and often feed them bananas and peanuts. Urban development around the city has also been blamed for destroying the monkeys' natural habitat.

  I had no idea monkeys were such a menace in India.

• WaPo - "The Chinese Communist Party announced Sunday that three of its most powerful leaders were retiring, making way for a new generation including the eventual successor of President Hu Jintao as head of the world's most populous nation... ¶ The party's new Central Committee, a 204-member ruling body that was acclaimed Sunday, the final day of the congress, does not include Zeng Qinghong, 68; Wu Guanzheng, 69; and Luo Gan, 72, according to the official agency. The three were not only members of the outgoing Central Committee but also its Politburo and nine-man Politburo Standing Committee, the pinnacle of power in China's Communist system." Zeng was Hu's most powerful rival according to The Guardian.

• Independent - "Rubies, the red gems that have, for generations, symbolised true passion between lovers, could disappear from sale in Britain as part of the international crack down on the Burmese junta. According to campaigners, 95 per cent of all rubies that eventually make their way on to the counters of some of the world's most prestigious jewellers, where they sell for up to £500,000, are mined in Burma."

• Independent - "The Australian opposition leader, Kevin Rudd, was declared the clear victor after a televised election debate last night, turning up the pressure on Prime Minister John Howard ahead of polls on 24 November. Political analysts... praised his responses to questions on interest rates, tax policy, education, climate change and Australia's military involvement in Iraq - even complimenting his choice of a charcoal and pink striped tie."

• Reuters - "The number of stay-at-home fathers in South Korea has increased more than 40 percent in three years as more women have found higher-paying jobs in a historically male-dominated society, according to government figures. ¶ Although women are responsible for raising children and men are the breadwinners in most South Korean households, the number of stay-at-home fathers was 151,000 in 2006, up from 106,000 in 2003, the National Statistical Office said in a study released over the weekend."

• AP - "A technical glitch sent a Soyuz spacecraft on a wild ride home Sunday, forcing Malaysia's first space traveler and two Russian cosmonauts to endure eight times the force of gravity before their capsule landed safely. All three were fine, with medical tests showing they were not injured during the steeper-than-usual descent, Russian Space Agency chief Anatoly Perminov said at a news conference at Mission Control in Korolyov, just outside Moscow."

• McClatchy - "Defying Latin America's longtime reputation as a bastion of machismo, women in South America are winning political power at an unprecedented rate and taking top positions in higher education and even, albeit more slowly, in business. ¶ The election last year of Michelle Bachelet to Chile's presidency and the all-but-certain victory of Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner in Argentina's presidential balloting next Sunday are the most visible examples of the trend."

• Xinhua - "Cuba's leader, Fidel Castro, voted in Cuba's municipal elections on Sunday, from the clinic where he has been recovering from a 2006 intestinal operation, witnessed by members of the electoral district where he is registered, state television reported. Castro appeared on television wearing a lightweight white jacket and chatting with the electoral officials and with primary school pupils who look after the ballot boxes."

• Canadian Press - "Two men convicted in the 2005 murder of American nun and rainforest defender Dorothy Stang get new trials this week, the final phase of proceedings seen as a key test of justice in the violent Amazon region. Brazil grants the right to retrial to anyone sentenced to over 20 years in prison, as was the case for the man convicted of shooting Ohio-born Dorothy Stang and a rancher found guilty of ordering Stang's killing."

• Los Angeles Times - Crusader hatches a quest to save turtles
  By Chris Kraul

  Just before daybreak, Arcelio Fuentes stands on the beach and empties a basket holding 93 baby sea turtles into the churning surf. Some of them are snatched by preying sea gulls and frigate birds, but most make it out into Montijo Gulf to begin their mysterious, thousand-mile journey to the Galapagos Islands and beyond.

  "I've done my part," says Fuentes, a resident of this impoverished farming and fishing village on Panama's Pacific coast, as he watches the 2-inch-long squiggly creatures disappear into the waves. "The rest is up to nature."

  Fuentes doesn't raise cows or chickens like most of his neighbors. He raises sea turtles in a beach-side incubator that he built himself, with a little help from environmental donors. It's his last-ditch effort to save the migrating sea turtles that still nest on Malena's 2-mile stretch of beach. Their number had declined to 80 last year, from hundreds in the 1980s.

• SMH - "The oceans' ability to act as a 'carbon sink' soaking up greenhouse gases appears to be decreasing, research shows, leading to new fears about global warming. ¶ Measurements of the North Atlantic taken by British scientists over the decade from the mid-1990s to 2005 show the level of carbon dioxide in its waters fell by about half over that time. ¶ One of the authors of the study, published on Saturday in a paper for the Journal of Geophysical Research, said the change may have been triggered by climate change and may also accelerate the process by leaving more CO2 in the atmosphere."

• Bush has 455 days left. 3,833 U.S. and 4,137 total coalition confirmed deaths in Iraq. Over $461,944,000,000 has been spent on the Iraq invasion and occupation. The U.S. federal debt is now over $9,059,958,000,000.

China's Communist Party has unveiled the leadership line-up that will steer the country for the next five years.

President Hu Jintao won a second term as party and army chief, while four new faces joined the party's top body, the Politburo Standing Committee.

They included two men seen as potential successors to Mr Hu in 2012 - Shanghai party chief Xi Jinping and Liaoning province's Li Keqiang.

The changes were announced at the end of the party's five-yearly congress.

The powerful nine-member Standing Committee was elected by the party's 204-member Central Committee.

Millions of Cubans have been to the polls in elections to choose more than 15,000 municipal council members.

It was the beginning of a process that will culminate in delegates electing a new National Assembly next March.

The assembly will then choose the Council of State, which President Fidel Castro has led since the early 1960s.

These were the first elections since Mr Castro temporarily handed over power to his younger brother, Raul, for health reasons over 14 months ago.

The communist government in Cuba describes its electoral system, which was enshrined in the constitution of 1976, as one of the freest and fairest in the world, where almost anyone can be elected to a municipal council or national assembly seat.

ISTANBUL: At least 12 Turkish soldiers were killed in an ambush by Kurdish separatists early Sunday in a brazen attack that sharply increased the pressure on the Turkish government to cross its American allies and send troops into northern Iraq.

A large group of Kurdish fighters attacked Turkish soldiers near the village of Daglica, about five kilometers, or three miles, from the border with Iraq, the Turkish military said. Sixteen soldiers were wounded in the attack. The Turkish military struck back, killing at least 32 militants, the military said. In another attack, a minibus in a wedding convoy was bombed, wounding 17 civilians, 6 of them critically, according to the state-run news agency.

The ambush came just four days after the Turkish Parliament voted to give the government of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan full authority to send troops into Iraq to strike at Kurdish rebels and was seen as a direct provocation on the part of the militants, who stage raids into Turkey from hideouts in the mountains of northern Iraq.

At the time of the vote, Turkish officials emphasized that they would not immediately apply the authority, and security experts said the resolution would be used mainly as political leverage to press the United States and its Iraqi allies to act against the rebels, the Kurdistan Workers' Party, or PKK.

We are in a State of Emergency.  Ramona is burning, Malibu is burning...it is being said this will be worse then our 2003 fires.

There are hurricane force wind gusts.  Airtankers canNOT get in the air.

We have lost ALOT of livestock.  The fires are so fierce that people canNOT get animals/livestock out.

We have a number of firefighters now in CRITICAL condition and fighting for their lives.  We have a number of civilians in the same condition.

Bloggers Without Borders...

Syria is a beautiful country- at least I think it is. I say "I think" because while I perceive it to be beautiful, I sometimes wonder if I mistake safety, security and normalcy for `beauty'. In so many ways, Damascus is like Baghdad before the war- bustling streets, occasional traffic jams, markets seemingly always full of shoppers... And in so many ways it's different. The buildings are higher, the streets are generally narrower and there's a mountain, Qasiyoun, that looms in the distance.

The mountain distracts me, as it does many Iraqis- especially those from Baghdad. Northern Iraq is full of mountains, but the rest of Iraq is quite flat. At night, Qasiyoun blends into the black sky and the only indication of its presence is a multitude of little, glimmering spots of light- houses and restaurants built right up there on the mountain. Every time I take a picture, I try to work Qasiyoun into it- I try to position the person so that Qasiyoun is in the background.

The first weeks here were something of a cultural shock. It has taken me these last three months to work away certain habits I'd acquired in Iraq after the war. It's funny how you learn to act a certain way and don't even know you're doing strange things- like avoiding people's eyes in the street or crazily murmuring prayers to yourself when stuck in traffic. It took me at least three weeks to teach myself to walk properly again- with head lifted, not constantly looking behind me.

It is estimated that there are at least 1.5 million Iraqis in Syria today. I believe it. Walking down the streets of Damascus, you can hear the Iraqi accent everywhere. There are areas like Geramana and Qudsiya that are packed full of Iraqi refugees. Syrians are few and far between in these areas. Even the public schools in the areas are full of Iraqi children. A cousin of mine is now attending a school in Qudsiya and his class is composed of 26 Iraqi children, and 5 Syrian children. It's beyond belief sometimes. Most of the families have nothing to live on beyond their savings which are quickly being depleted with rent and the costs of living.

The mystery behind the sudden death of Tutankhamun, the boy king who ruled Egypt more than 3,000 years ago, may have been finally solved by scientists who believe that he fell from a fast-moving chariot while out hunting in the desert.

Speculation surrounding Tutankhamun's death has been rife since his tomb was broken into in 1922 by archaeologist Howard Carter. X-rays of the mummy taken in 1968 indicated a swelling at the base of the skull, suggesting "King Tut" was killed by a blow to the head.

More recent studies using a CT medical scanner, however, revealed he suffered a badly broken leg, just above his knee just before he died. That in turn probably led to lethal blood poisoning. Now further evidence has come to light suggesting that he suffered the fracture while hunting game from a chariot.

The new findings are still circumstantial but one of Egypt's leading experts on Tutankhamun will say in a television documentary to be screened this week that he believes the case is now solved on how the boy king met his sudden and unexpected end.

Seventy years locked up in institutions hardly seems to be a punishment that befits the crime of stealing half-a-crown.

However, it is just such a fate that befell Jean Gambell when at the age of 15, in 1937, she was falsely accused of stealing 2s 6d (12.5p) from the doctor's surgery where she worked as a cleaner.

She was sectioned under the 1890 Lunacy Act and even though the money was later found, she has been moved from mental institution to mental institution. More recently, she went into a care home and has been lost to her family, who thought she was dead.

There are some sentences rarely spoken in Jerusalem, a place forever struggling with bitter divisions between its Jewish and Arab neighbours. But yesterday in the newly built corridors and classrooms of the city's only bilingual school they were commonplace.

Jamie Einstein, 13, a bright Jewish boy with a long pony tail and his wrist in a plaster cast, talked happily about two of his Arab classmates, Moataz and Majd. "My two best friends, one of them is a Muslim and one is a Christian," he said. "For me it doesn't matter. What really matters is what they are like."

Now in the eighth grade, he has been a pupil at the school since it first started its experiment in mixed education a decade ago. Each class has both Arabs and Jews, boys and girls, all of Muslim, Christian or Jewish religion. Each class also has two teachers, one Arab, one Jewish, each teaching in their mother tongue. And the school itself is run by two co-principals, one Arab, one Jewish.

Swatch chairman Nicolas G. Hayek says Hollywood star George Clooney will sit on the board of a new company that is to develop clean energy systems in Switzerland.

Hayek, hailed as the saviour of the Swiss watch industry in the 1980s and a driving force behind the Smart car, adds that Switzerland could become the world leader in renewable energies.

In an interview in Saturday's Berner Zeitung newspaper, Hayek said that the headquarters of the new holding company - yet to be named - would be in Biel, the Bernese town where the Swatch Group has its headquarters.

The tireless 79-year-old announced in August that his Swatch Group - the world leader in the watchmaking industry - and Swiss power company Groupe E would join forces to develop and produce clean, renewable energy systems.

The aim is to provide people with electricity for both residential and transport purposes, offering the automobile industry know-how in "clean power" engines.

Astronaut Nicollier

Other prominent board members include Swiss astronaut Claude Nicollier, Hayek's son Nick, who is Swatch Group chief executive, Groupe E boss Philippe Virdis and a representative of a major bank.

Hayek senior, who will be chairman of the company, said he had hesitated between Clooney and former United States vice-president Al Gore for a board seat but had decided on Clooney because of a possible candidature of Gore for the White House.

Peru shut down for business yesterday for a controversial census after President Alan Garcia ordered everyone in the country to stay home for 10 hours.

Half a million student volunteers were going from door to door to collect information about income, education level, jobs, religion and marital status.

Garcia said Peru needed new population data because of inaccuracies in the 2005 census by the National Statistics and Information Institute, or INEI, which said there are 27.2m Peruvians, half of them in poverty or extreme poverty.

Former INEI director Farid Matuk told Reuters that Garcia was trying to invalidate the 2005 census in order to cover-up his failure to live up to his promise to slash poverty to 30 per cent of the population by 2011.

A national home arrest for 10 hours... You gotta have the guts.

For scientists, global warming is a disaster movie, its opening scenes set at the poles of Earth. The epic already has started. And it's not fiction.

The scenes are playing, at the start, in slow motion: The relentless grip of the Arctic Ocean that defied man for centuries is melting away. The sea ice reaches only half as far as it did 50 years ago. In the summer of 2006, it shrank to a record low; this summer the ice pulled back even more, by an area nearly the size of Alaska. Where explorer Robert Peary just 102 years ago saw "a great white disk stretching away apparently infinitely" from Ellesmere Island, there is often nothing now but open water. Glaciers race into the sea from the island of Greenland, beginning an inevitable rise in the oceans.

Animals are on the move. Polar bears, kings of the Arctic, now search for ice on which to hunt and bear young. Seals, walrus and fish adapted to the cold are retreating north. New species -- salmon, crabs, even crows -- are coming from the south. The Inuit, who have lived on the frozen land for millennia, are seeing their houses sink into once-frozen mud, and their hunting trails on the ice are pocked with sinkholes.

"It affects everyone," said Carin Ashjian, a Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute scientist who spent early September with native Inupiats in Barrow, the northernmost town of Alaska. "The only ice I saw this year was in my cup at the cafeteria."

Monkey attack kills Delhi leader
Delhi's deputy major dies after falling from a terrace while trying to fight off a horde of wild monkeys. [BBC News | News Front Page | World Edition]

Sammy Duddy, political activist, drag artist and poet: born Belfast 1945; twice married; died Belfast 17 October 2007.

Sammy Duddy was a colourful Belfast character who combined membership of one of the city's most lethal paramilitary groups with a career as "Samantha", a highly suggestive drag act.

If you tried to sell that story to hollywood, it definitely would get turned down for being unrealistic.

Any idiot can face a crisis - it's day to day living that wears you out.

A FRENCH cable television channel has over the past few weeks been playing Love Actually, the film featuring Hugh Grant as a bachelor British prime minister who is smitten with a member of his staff.

France is lapping it up - the French Prime Minister's household enjoyed a viewing recently - but no film could compete with the Gallic version unfolding in real life as Nicolas Sarkozy, the pint-sized President, is left on his own at the summit of power after separating from his glamorous wife, Cecilia.

Their divorce proceedings have unleashed a torrent of speculation about how "super Sarko", as the hyperactive leader is known, will fare as the first bachelor head of state in France since Napoleon divorced Josephine when she could not bear him a child.

From Francois Mitterrand's secret family to the escapades of Jacques Chirac - when he was Paris mayor his nickname was "three minutes including shower" - French politicians' love lives have been colourful.

And although elected on a platform of rupture with the past, Sarkozy is unlikely to be the exception.

In what seems certain to be a national pastime, speculation has begun about who will be the next "premiere dame" as the country prepares for the unprecedented spectacle of a president playing the field.