British concerns did not appear to "materially" affect US actions in its "war on terror", the UK's intelligence and security committee has said.

The committee, which reports to the prime minister, was probing possible UK involvement in rendition flights.

It said America's "lack of regard" for UK concerns had "serious implications" for future intelligence relations.

In response, the UK government said the countries' intelligence relationship was "close" and "must continue".

The committee said it had found no evidence that the UK was directly involved in rendition flights - the transportation of terror suspects to foreign prisons where they could face torture.

But Britain's security services had "inadvertently" helped in one case after the US ignored caveats placed on supplied information.

When former US Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld issued a plan to reduce troops in Europe, the US was fighting one war. Five years later, it is globally stretched by two. Military experts are now rethinking the strategy.

Plans adopted by the United States in 2002 to transform its military into a leaner, more cost-effective force, which would mean significant troop withdrawals from Europe, are being reviewed in the light of the on-going conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan, and the ever-changing geo-political climate around the world.

Experts at the US Defense Department were studying whether the plans to cut troops on the continent by nearly half, formulated by former US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, were still relevant to today's global challenges, according to an unnamed Pentagon source quoted in reports from the Associated Press Monday.

Rumsfeld's plan to reduce troop numbers from 68,000 in 2001 to 28,000 by 2012 was conceived before the United States embarked on the invasion of Iraq in 2003. Defense analysts are now concerned that the plan is outdated, given America's involvement in two theaters of war, the worsening relations with Russia and Iran and a recent plan to extend the size and range of the US Army.

PARIS - For her admirers, Cecilia Sarkozy has the makings of a star on the diplomatic stage. But critics paint the French first lady as a political novice who "gatecrashed" a high-stakes EU deal on the release of six foreign medics from Libya.

Detractors of President Nicolas Sarkozy accused him of trying to steal the limelight for himself and his wife by sending her to Tripoli with EU negotiator Benita Ferrero-Waldner in the final stage of negotiations.

Although the mission's success took some sting out of the controversy -- with Cecilia hailed as a heroine in the medics' home country Bulgaria -- doubts have been cast on her true contribution to a deal clinched after years of hard graft in Brussels.

France's influential centre-left newspaper Le Monde pointed out that the "field had been amply prepared" before Cecilia Sarkozy's trip.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy appeared to be rewarding Libya for its cooperation in the freeing of six Bulgarian medics by signing a number of military and trade accords with the North African state Wednesday.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy promised Libya military protection in case of attack and signed a series of cooperation agreements during his visit, French media reported Wednesday

Sarkozy's intention to forge a "strategic partnership" with Libya during his state visit to the country, which started Wednesday and was his first visit to Africa as French head of state, was a result of the liberation of six Bulgarian medics Tuesday, according to the online edition of the French magazine Le Point.

Sarkozy's wife, Cecilia, and his top aide, Claude Gueant, helped negotiate the liberation of the five Bulgarian nurses and a Palestinian doctor who received Bulgarian citizenship. The six had been sentenced to death for allegedly infecting more than 400 Libyan children with AIDS.

The anti-nuclear group Sortir du Nucleaire has charged that Sarkozy helped liberate the nurses by promising to help build up Libya's nuclear energy program.

PARIS: Less than a week after rebuffing French calls for a greater role for governments in setting European monetary policy, Jean-Claude Trichet, the president of the European Central Bank, met with the French prime minister Wednesday for a "broad discussion" of economic issues.

"It was a very good meeting, allowing us to have a broad discussion," Trichet said after the meeting with François Fillon, although he declined to give any details about the discussion.

A spokeswoman for the prime minister's office declined to comment, describing the discussion as a "private business meeting." She also declined to say whether it was Fillon or Trichet who had requested the meeting.

An official at the French Finance Ministry, who asked not to be named because he was not present at the meeting, said the agenda of the discussion covered a range of topics, including the health of the euro-zone economy and structural economic reforms being proposed by the French president, Nicolas Sarkozy.

The talks between Trichet and Fillon follow a rare public dispute between Paris and the ECB last week, in which Trichet exchanged barbs with French officials over whether European governments should be given a voice in the bank's policy deliberations.

Terror suspects will be held for up to 56 days without charge and the country's first single border force created, under moves by Gordon Brown to counter the rapidly growing security threat to Britain.

He was accused of pushing for a return to internment with the " draconian " proposal for a sharp increase in the maximum 28-day detention period. To the anger of civil liberties groups and opposition parties, the Prime Minister suggested it could even be doubled.

He told the House of Commons there was a "growing weight of opinion" suspects might have to be held beyond 28 days when police intervened early to thwart a terrorist attack, particularly where there were huge amounts of evidence to examine and where investigations were international.

Mr Brown set out several options for raising the limit, but said his preference was for an extension "for up to 28 days more or a lesser period" with a judge approving each seven-day extension and MPs being kept informed. Other possible options included introducing a French-style system of "examining magistrates" to conduct terror trials and giving police the power to question suspects for an extra 30 days by declaring a national emergency.

The Prime Minister took MPs by surprise by announcing the establishment of a unified border force, which will bring together officers from the immigration service, Revenue and Customs and UK Visas. From next month, travellers arriving at UK ports and airports will be met by a "highly visible uniformed presence". By the end of the year they will pass through a single control-point for passport and customs checks.

The Contact Group met in Vienna Wednesday to discuss a negotiation framework for the future status of Kosovo as apprehensions at the UN and tensions in the Balkans threatened to turn the current stalemate into a crisis.

One week after Russia blocked a binding resolution on the fate of the Serbian province of Kosovo, the Kosovo Contact Group Wednesday opened talks to prepare an August restart of negotiations.

Meeting at the German embassy in Vienna, officials from the US, Russia, Germany, France, Britain and Italy attempted to overcome the US-Russian deadlock over the UN plan to grant Kosovo internationally monitored independence and to find a new format for talks.

EU foreign ministers had decided Monday to limit new talks to 120 days and hold them within a smaller format to make them more effective. Germany suggested a troika of the EU, Russia and US to lead the negotiations.

In a surprise move, Russia agreed on the troika format suggested by German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier at the EU foreign ministers' meeting on Monday.

Half of the top 20 highest-paid corporate executives in Europe last year were running French companies, according to a survey, and despite numerous headlines about fat cat pay among British bosses just two of the remainder were from the UK.

The region's highest-paid boss was Carlos Ghosn, chief executive of the French carmaker Renault, according to research by Board-Ex published in the US magazine Fortune. He took home $45.5m (£22.2m) last year thanks to $43m worth of share options.

Article continues The pay packet of Mr Ghosn, who was born in Brazil of Lebanese descent but grew up in France, was seven times higher than in the previous year. The figure does not include the cash he receives as boss of Nissan. Renault bought a controlling stake in Nissan eight years ago, with Mr Ghosn becoming the first foreigner to take charge of a major Japanese company.

Mr Ghosn's pay packet from Renault will soften the impact of the promise he made to Nissan shareholders last month that the board would forgo their bonuses this year because of the firm's poor performance.

LONDON (AP) - Britain has agreed to let the United States use a Royal Air Force base as part of its planned missile defense system, British Defense Secretary Des Browne announced Wednesday.

Browne said Menwith Hill, a U.S. military listening station in northern England, would be equipped with communications equipment enabling it to route satellite warnings about missile launches to British and American officials.

The defense secretary said in a written statement to lawmakers that the move was ``a building block to enhance our national and collective security.'' He said there were no plans to locate missile interceptors in Britain, but added that the government was keeping the matter under review.

Britain supports the contentious U.S. plan to deploy a missile defense system in Europe, although American officials have indicated that Britain's role would likely be limited to providing early warning information.

Russia must strengthen its military and step up spying on the west in response to US plans to site parts of a missile defence shield in eastern Europe, President Vladimir Putin warned on Wednesday.

Addressing newly-promoted military and security officers, Mr Putin said new US military bases in eastern Europe and the failure of Nato countries to ratify an updated version of a Cold War treaty capping levels of conventional forces in Europe were threats to Russian security.

"One of our absolute priorities is an all-round strengthening of the armed forces," Mr Putin told the Kremlin gathering. He listed not just terrorism but US military plans among "global threats" to be tackled.

"Both the situation in the world and internal political interests demand that Russia's foreign intelligence service constantly increases its resources, above all in the field of information and analytical support for the country's leadership," Mr Putin added.

ROME - An Italian magistrate asked parliament for permission to use phone tap evidence after accusing some of Prime Minister Romano Prodi's top allies of involvement in a criminal scheme over a bank takeover bid.

Foreign Minister Massimo D'Alema, and Piero Fassino, head of the main party in Prodi's coalition, the Democrats of the Left, are among six parliamentarians on 68 phone calls the magistrate, Clementina Forleo, wants to use in her investigation.

While the six deny wrongdoing and are not officially under investigation, the affair is embarrassing for the government which is more used to delighting in prosecutions involving right wingers, especially opposition leader Silvio Berlusconi.

Forleo asked parliament to let her use the bugged phone conversations between politicians and financiers who tried to buy a bank in 2005 that the opposition says shows the centre left tried to exert undue influence over business.

Turkish Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul says he has not ruled out reviving his presidential bid, days after his AK Party's landslide election win.

The AK Party won 46% of the vote in an election called amid a deadlock over Mr Gul's earlier presidential bid.

Turkey's secular establishment had repeatedly blocked Mr Gul's bid, accusing him of an Islamist agenda.

Mr Gul may be trying to gauge his opponents' reaction as he turns up the heat, a BBC correspondent says.

BRUSSELS: The European Union called Wednesday for more radio spectrum to be opened up to Internet phone services, saying that using lower frequencies would cut operators' costs and allow them reach customers over a wider area.

The proposal would widen access of the 900-megahertz and 1,800-megahertz frequencies - which have been allocated exclusively to the GSM standard of mobile phone services - to other technologies, particularly third-generation service, or 3G, which provides mobile Internet services as well as voice calls. That access would make it easier and cheaper for mobile operators in the bloc to offer wireless services, said the European Commission, the EU's executive body.

"In the EU we must remove regulatory barriers and facilitate the deployment of mobile communications by allowing new technologies to share spectrum with existing ones," said Viviane Reding, the EU's telecommunications commissioner.

BRUSSELS: The European Union called Wednesday for more radio spectrum to be opened up to Internet phone services, saying that using lower frequencies would cut operators' costs and allow them reach customers over a wider area.

The proposal would widen access of the 900-megahertz and 1,800-megahertz frequencies - which have been allocated exclusively to the GSM standard of mobile phone services - to other technologies, particularly third-generation service, or 3G, which provides mobile Internet services as well as voice calls. That access would make it easier and cheaper for mobile operators in the bloc to offer wireless services, said the European Commission, the EU's executive body.

"In the EU we must remove regulatory barriers and facilitate the deployment of mobile communications by allowing new technologies to share spectrum with existing ones," said Viviane Reding, the EU's telecommunications commissioner.

The change would mean that companies could use fewer cellular towers to reach more people, letting more customers use their phones to go online to check mail or stream video clips.

The move would cut network costs by 40 percent over five years, the EU said, citing an estimate by the wireless communications industry.

Chisinau - A European Union official called on Romania to cancel a long-held policy of offering Moldovans easy access to Romanian citizenship, the Infotag news agency reported Wednesday.

Since the break-up of the Soviet Union Romania has allowed Moldovans to become Romanian citizens with few more requirements than filling out a form renouncing Moldovan citizenship. Romania became a full-fledged EU member on January 1 2007.

Though its economy has been on the mend in recent years, Moldova remains Europe's poorest nation. Up to one-third of all working-age Moldovans, some 1.2 million men and women, are employed somewhere in Europe in low-paying jobs, according to Moldova media estimates.

Moscow has asked the British Embassy's top trade and development official to leave the country in a move suggesting the ongoing diplomatic dispute between Britain and Russia could spill over into the economic sphere.

Reports that the senior embassy official is responsible for liaising with Russian government officials and British investors indicate that Andrew Levi counsellor for economic and scientific affairs, is one of the four British Embassy officials who have been told to leave. Multiple sources close to Levi, who oversees trade and investment, have confirmed that he is one of the four and is due to leave the country Sunday.

A spokesman for U.K. Trade and Investment, a British government advisory body for the development of international trade, said last week that British companies investing in Russia were being told that it was business as usual.

hen a natural disaster strikes, we rightly expect public bodies, whether local or national, to be at the forefront of relief.

In the case of the floods that have devastated parts of the country, that means, for instance, immediately deploying the Army to distribute drinking water. In the longer term, it will involve repairing damaged infrastructure and seeking to mitigate the effects of similar occurrences in the future.

The announcement by the Prime Minister yesterday that the amount of short-term relief has been raised to £46 million, and the decision to approach the EU Solidarity Fund for help, are examples of the state taking proper care of the vulnerable.

Yet in a country with a thriving civil society, there is a limit to what the state should be expected to do.

The people of Burma endure human rights abuses on an unimaginable scale. Rape, torture and forced labour are facts of their lives. So why does the world refuse to act? A cross-party group of MPs has returned shocked by what they discovered there By John Bercow, MP Published: 26 July 2007

Burma suffers a political, human rights and humanitarian situation as grim as any in the world today. The country is run by an utterly illegitimate government that spends 50 per cent of its budget on the military and less than a $1 (50p) per head on the health and education of its own citizens.

The thugs and impostors who rule the roost practise some of the most egregious human rights abuses known to mankind. Rape as a weapon of war, extra-judicial killings, water torture, mass displacement, compulsory relocation, forced labour, incarceration of political prisoners, religious and ethnic persecution, and the daily destruction of rural villages are all part of the story of savagery that has disfigured Burma.

People lack access to food, water, sanitation and the most basic health and education provision. Twice over the past three years, I have met just a handful of the 500,000 internally displaced people in eastern Burma and the 100,000 living in refugee camps in Thailand, victims of the wanton savagery of the Burmese Army.

All cargo entering the US on ships would have to undergo thorough screening at foreign ports under new legislation agreed by key congressional committees - a move attacked on Wednesday by the shipping industry as a recipe for chaos.

The Senate and House homeland security committees reached a deal late Tuesday on implementing recommendations made by the 9/11 commission established to investigate the 2001 terrorist attacks on the US.

US cargo importers warned that the measure would threaten already congested cargo systems with chaos. The legislation, which still needs full congressional approval, breaks with the principle followed since the 9/11 attacks, which required just containers seen as posing a risk to be examined.

Stewart Verdery, a former senior Bush administration Homeland Security official, said the measure would be very difficult to implement because technology did not exist to conduct such comprehensive scans. James Carafano, a homeland security expert at the Heritage Foundation, agreed, saying the requirement was "political theatre" that would antagonise US allies.

• Guardian - "The United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) estimates that nearly 4 million Iraqis have been forced to leave their homes since 2003. About 2 million of those are in Syria and Jordan. Two thousand more arrive every day. The situation has grown so dire that the US ambassador to Baghdad, Ryan Crocker, asked Washington this month to grant immigrant visas to every single Iraqi employed by the US government in Iraq to stop them quitting or fleeing the country. At least nine Iraqi employees of the embassy in Baghdad have been killed since 2004."

• AP - "Documents show that eight congressional leaders were briefed about the Bush administration's terrorist surveillance program on the eve of its expiration in 2004, contradicting sworn Senate testimony this week by Attorney General Alberto Gonzales. The documents, obtained by The Associated Press, come as senators consider whether a perjury investigation should be opened into conflicting accounts about the program and a dramatic March 2004 confrontation leading up to its potentially illegal reauthorization."

• WSJ - "Sen. John McCain's media team has resigned, an indication that a campaign shake-up two weeks ago is continuing to backfire and further imperil the Arizona Republican's presidential candidacy. Political ad-makers Russ Schriefer and Stuart Stevens, veterans of President Bush's 2000 and 2004 campaigns, on Monday emailed the new campaign manager -- lobbyist and longtime McCain adviser Rick Davis -- to say that they were quitting."

• Army Times - "The Army is immediately ordering 1,106 former recruiters back to that duty. The soldiers are being pulled from their current assignments and sent to recruiting stations across the nation as the army struggles to meet its mission in signing up 80,000 new soldiers this year. The short-notice assignments are temporary -- they begin Friday and will run no later than Oct. 15."

• Reuters - "Al Qaeda's safe haven in northwestern Pakistan is largely inaccessible to outside forces and unlikely to be eliminated soon by the U.S. or Pakistani military, top intelligence officials said". In a "hearing before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Undersecretary of State Nicholas Burns reiterated the view that the United States would take unilateral action against al Qaeda in Pakistan under certain circumstances."

• McClatchy - "The Bush administration's strategy for pursuing al-Qaida in Pakistan's tribal region could stoke support for the Islamic militants who are protecting the terrorist network's leaders and battling Pakistan's U.S.-backed military regime, some U.S. diplomatic and defense officials and experts warn."

• The Hill - "The House Judiciary Committee voted Wednesday along straight partisan lines to hold White House Chief of Staff Josh Bolten and former White House Counsel Harriet Miers in contempt of Congress, the first concrete step toward a constitutional showdown between the two branches of government. The 22-17 vote followed two hours of heated debate over a Democratic resolution chronicling the facts in the investigation of the Department of Justice's (DoJ) firing of nine U.S. attorneys... The contempt of Congress finding requires a vote on the House floor, which is not likely until after the August recess". There should be no recess this August. Period.

• NY Times - "The House voted overwhelmingly on Wednesday to bar permanent United States military installations in Iraq as lawmakers readied for yet another clash over a Democratic demand to withdraw combat troops from the conflict. By a vote of 399 to 24, the House adopted a resolution that would limit federal spending intended 'to establish any military installation or base for the purpose of providing for the permanent stationing of United States Armed Forces in Iraq or to exercise United States economic control of the oil resources of Iraq.'"

• Chicago Tribune - "Terrorism tipsters will have immunity from lawsuits leveled at them by individuals they report under legislation proposed by Rep. Peter King (R-NY) and included by a congressional conference committee in a homeland security bill late Tuesday... The amendment would protect anyone who reports suspicious activities to authorities from being sued as a result of providing information. The protection is retroactive to October 1, 2006, to cover the incident behind its inception." 'Don't like your neighbors? Report them as potential terrorists,' King reportedly suggested.

• AP - "A multibillion-dollar farm bill already facing a White House veto threat ran into new challenges Wednesday as farm-state Republicans threatened to defect from the measure in a spat over taxes. Just hours after the White House said the bill failed to cut growers' subsidies enough, Republicans said they would withdraw support for the legislation scheduled for the House floor Thursday if Democrats pressed ahead with last-minute plans to include a tax increase."

• Star Tribune - "Since declaring she would not accept gifts or free travel as a senator, ... Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) has received everything from a floral arrangement to a hog. But each time, the gifts have landed in the garbage or in the hands of a charity. Klobuchar, who has made ethics reform her top issue, led a group of fellow freshmen senators Tuesday in announcing an ethics bill that the nine new legislators hope will pass before the looming August recess."

• LA Times - "The pace of nationwide existing-home sales sank in June to the lowest in level in more than four years, as many buyers remained on the sidelines and the housing market indicated it remained far from staging a turnaround. Sales of existing homes and condominiums dropped a larger-than-expected 3.8% from May, to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 5.75 million properties, the National Assn. of Realtors said today. June's pace was the lowest in more than four years and was down 11.4% compared with the same month last year."

• AP - "A Florida mosque raised money for Jose Padilla to study Islam and the Arabic language in Egypt, not to support violence or terrorism, a Muslim cleric testified Tuesday... The imam, Raed Awad, repeatedly denied the allegations... when asked about recruitment at his mosque or elsewhere in the U.S. of Islamic extremist fighters."

• BBC News - "A US court has ordered Sudan to pay $8m (£4m) to the families of 17 marines who died in a suicide bomb attack on the USS Cole warship in Yemen in 2000. Robert Doumar, a Virginia federal court judge, said there was enough evidence that Sudan had helped al-Qaeda, the terrorist group blamed for the attack. Sudan has denied any links with al-Qaeda and made several unsuccessful attempts to have the case dismissed."

• WaPo - George W. "Bush is a competitive guy. But this is one contest he would rather lose. With 18 months left in office, he is in the running for most unpopular president in the history of modern polling. The latest Washington Post-ABC News survey shows that 65 percent of Americans disapprove of Bush's job performance, matching his all-time low."

• The Hill - "Oregon state House Speaker Jeff Merkley is expected to announce a challenge to Sen. Gordon Smith (R-Ore.) in the next week, ending national Democrats' long search for a challenger in what they say is still a top-tier target. Merkley... is credited with engineering the Democrats' takeover of the state House in 2006".

• Star Tribune - In Minnesota, "proponents of instant runoff voting for St. Paul municipal elections need a few more signatures before voters get the chance to OK their idea... St. Paul's mayor and council members are currently elected through primary and general elections. Instant runoff voting would eliminate the primary and voters would rank candidates."

• Oregonian - "The Sandy River isn't yet flowing free. It will take several weeks for PGE contractors to remove the dam and several months for winter storms to wash out a temporary construction dam upstream. But more than 200 people celebrated the beginning of the end of Marmot -- the largest dam ever removed in Oregon. About 2,400 pounds of ammonium nitrate fuel oil and 1,900 pounds of high-velocity gelatin dynamite softened the top 10 feet of the 47-foot structure; the explosion pushed the rear of the dam back 12 feet".

• Chicago Tribune - "The House today overwhelmingly approved a measure opposing BP's plans to increase ammonia and suspended solids dumping into Lake Michigan from an Indiana oil refinery. The measure, sponsored by Rep. Rahm Emanuel (D-Ill.) passed 387 to 26, with no one in the Illinois delegation opposed (though Republican Rep. Ray LaHood apparently missed the vote). It urges the state of Indiana to reconsider a waste discharge permit it issued to BP, and it tells the federal Environmental Protection Agency to 'not allow increased dumping of chemicals and pollutants into the Great Lakes.'"

• Army Times - "By voice vote, the full Senate passed HR 1585, the Wounded Warrior Act, after amending it to include authorization for a 3.5 percent pay increase effective Jan. 1. The House Appropriates Committee did something similar moments earlier, quickly approving by voice vote a $463.1 billion defense funding bill for the fiscal year that begins Oct. 1. That includes $2.2 billion to fully cover the cost of the 3.5 percent military raise pending in Congress, despite Bush administration objections. Full funding of the 3.5 percent pay raise helps solidify congressional support for a bigger raise than the 3 percent increase requested by the administration."

• Reuters - "Nearly eight weeks have passed since the last tropical storm in the Atlantic-Caribbean region faded away, but banish any notion the 2007 hurricane season has been unusually slow and beware the coming months, experts say. The peak of the six-month season is just around the corner and forecasters are still predicting a busy one."

• CS Monitor - "In some circles, ethanol made from corn has become a golden nectar in the fight against global warming. It comes from a benign, wholesome, home-grown plant, and it produces no nasty greenhouse gases that cause climate change. But a backlash to corn ethanol is emerging. Environmentalists, economists, and poverty activists all are raising questions." This is a collection of articles about ethanol.

• Roanoke Times - "Railroad fans gave a bittersweet farewell to the steam locomotive Nickel Plate 763 as it began its journey from the Virginia Museum of Transportation... to the Ohio Central Railroad System, a network of short-line railroads in Ohio and Pennsylvania. The railroad will restore the steam engine to running condition for passenger excursion programs and will explore options such as pulling freight".

• Guardian - "Southern Europe sizzled in record-breaking temperatures yesterday with the heatwave being blamed for deaths in Hungary and Romania, power cuts in Macedonia and forest fires from Serbia to Greece. Up to 500 people have died in Hungary because of the heatwave... Romania said at least 12 people had succumbed to the temperatures, pushing the death toll to 30 since June."

• Kathimerini - "Problems with the power grid in Balkan countries caused a widespread electricity blackout in northern Greece yesterday as the country continues to swelter in temperatures above 40 Celsius (104 Fahrenheit). Northern Greece's Meliti and Amintaio power units went off-line due to the collapse of plants on the same grid in neighboring countries."

• Guardian - "Greek firefighters were last night battling blazes that raged uncontrollably, threatening houses and hotels in Kefalonia, villages in the Peloponnese, and large parts of the country's northern border areas. Tinderbox conditions triggered by temperatures that yesterday hit 45C (113F) in the shade in Athens - the hottest day of the year in the capital - were the spark for most of the blazes, according to authorities. But firefighters yesterday were also confronted by blazes that swept across the frontiers that Greece shares with Albania and Macedonia."

• Telegraph - In England, "hundreds of people were evacuated from their homes in Oxford today as tributaries to the Thames overflowed in the city. Thousands more householders down river were bracing themselves for flooding this evening as water from torrential rain at the weekend finds its way into the Thames."

• Spiegel - The German government decided to sell up to 49 percent of the nation's railway network to private investors. "Critics say the government is selling the network off too cheap, that the privatization in its current form won't boost competition and that customer service will suffer as private investors insist on the shutdown of unprofitable routes. And at a time when everyone is talking about climate change, should the government cede control of one of the most environmentally friendly forms of transport?"

• Telegraph - In Britain, "under plans covering the period 2009-14, passengers will pick up £39.2 billion of the £66.4 billion needed to run the railways and pay for the £9 billion package of schemes. While the Department for Transport hopes that soaring demand for railways will raise about half of the money needed, officials conceded that the rest would have to come from fare rises."

• Reuters - "A powerful explosion hit a gas pipeline in northwest Russia early on Thursday but officials said it was not caused by terrorism and exports were unaffected. The huge blast hit a trunk pipeline outside Russia's second city of St Petersburg just minutes after midnight, shaking buildings as far as 5 km (3 miles) away from the epicenter and setting off a fierce fire. Officials said there were no casualties".

• CS Monitor - "Since coming to Germany, Muslim migrant workers... have held prayer meetings in dark nooks that reflected the precarious situation of a people often torn between their adopted and their home countries. But the 'guest workers' who helped drive the economic boom of postwar Germany stayed... And now, the third generation is building domed mosques with minarets. Only a handful existed 10 years ago, but today 159 mosques dot Germany today, with 184 under construction, according to the Central Institute for Islamic Archives in Söst... Many see the arrival of mosques as a threat, with fears and conflicts worsening since 9/11... Grass-roots initiatives have sprouted that try to thwart mosque projects."

• Guardian - "A British man and three other people perished from cold and exhaustion after being trapped by sudden blizzards and a dramatic drop in the temperature while climbing in the Alps. They were among six people who died in three separate incidents on both the French and Italian sides of the mountain range between Monday night and Tuesday after a change in weather brought violent snowstorms to the area."

• Reuters - "French President Nicolas Sarkozy met Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi on Wednesday in a push to deepen ties, clinching accords on defense and nuclear power a day after helping solve a dispute between Tripoli and the West. Ministers of the two countries signed agreements on a military-industrial partnership, a nuclear energy project and cooperation in science research and education, officials said. Sarkozy, who met Gaddafi in a tent in the compound of his Tripoli residence, has said he wants to help Libya return to the "concert of nations" after it freed six foreign medics convicted of infecting hundreds of Libyan children with HIV."

• Reuters - "Attacks on humanitarian staff and food convoys in Sudan's Darfur region have seen a "dramatic escalation", obstructing food aid to millions of hungry people, the U.N. food agency said on Wednesday."

• BBC News - "Scientists say they have calculated the date at which the African and the Asian elephant went their separate ways. The two elephant species diverged from a common ancestor some 7.6 million years ago, experts working in the US, Germany and Switzerland say. They came to their conclusion after comparing a genetic analysis of the two species with material derived from the extinct woolly mammoth and mastodon."

• LA Times - "Two suicide car bombs exploded today amid throngs that poured into Baghdad's streets after the Iraqi national soccer team edged South Korea to reach its first Asian Cup final. Police said at least 50 people were killed and 135 were injured. Celebratory gunfire after Iraq's 4-3 victory at the game in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, killed at least one more person and injured 17, police said. Among the wounded were two policemen and an Iraqi soldier."

• Reuters - "Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said on Wednesday Tehran would never yield to international pressure to suspend its nuclear program. 'Iran will never abandon its peaceful (nuclear) work. Our nuclear work is legal and why should we stop it?' Ahmadinejad told state television."

• CS Monitor - "Stung by criticism from Washington for its failure to move faster on political and security issues, the Iraqi government is pushing back - charging the US is not doing enough to equip Iraq's security forces. Lamenting that Baghdad's requests for everything from higher-caliber guns to armored personnel carriers have gone unanswered, Iraq's ambassador to the US, Samir Sumaidaie, said Wednesday, 'We have some benchmarks of our own, and this is one of them.'"

• Telegraph - "Egypt and Jordan have formally presented an Arab peace plan to Israel which they hope will lead to the creation of a Palestinian state. Foreign ministers from the two countries are in Israel as representatives of the Arab League, the first time the 22-member group has sent a delegation to the Jewish state. The plan proposes full recognition of Israel in exchange for a return to pre-1967 borders."

• BBC News - "At least eight people have been killed and 40 injured after a rocket attack by suspected Islamic militants on a city in north-west Pakistan, police say. Four rockets were fired into Bannu hitting a number of houses, a mosque and a shop, a police official said."

• LA Times - Abdullah Mehsud, "a Taliban militant who became one of Pakistan's most wanted rebel leaders after his release from Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, killed himself with a hand grenade Tuesday to avoid capture."

• Reuters - "Britain's foreign minister and Afghanistan's leader backed the Afghan government's efforts on Wednesday to root out deep corruption that is driving people to side with the Taliban. Britain's David Miliband held talks with Afghan President Hamid Karzai in Kabul and later in Helmand with the southern province's governor and army chiefs... Frustration with Karzai's government over deteriorating security, corruption and crime is growing among Afghans."

• Reuters - "Over a million children are at risk of infectious diseases in Pakistan's flood-affected provinces of Balochistan and Sindh after last month's devastating cyclone Yemyin, which left nearly 300 dead and close to 400,000 homeless. Of the 2.5 million people affected by the floods, three-quarters were women and children, with upwards of 500,000 children under five being particularly vulnerable, the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) is now warning."

• Times of India - "Sworn in as the country's first woman President with traditional pomp and grandeur, Pratibha Patil on Wednesday called for ending divisive tendencies like communalism and fighting terrorism. Escorted by the horse-riding President's bodyguards all along the short route from Rashtrapati Bhavan to Parliament, the 12th President exchanged seats with her immediate predecessor APJ Abdul Kalam at a function in the Central Hall. As she was sworn in, the Armed Forces greeted the moment with a 21-gun salute."

• Times of India - "Israeli scholar Genady Shlomper, who was recently honoured at the World Hindi Conference for popularising the language, said Hindi has the potential to become one of the main United Nations languages... 'The emergence of Hindi at the global stage could even better its chances of acceptance in various regions of India', Shlomper noted.

• NY Times - "The former Communist Party boss of Shanghai, Chen Liangyu, has been stripped of his membership in Parliament, signaling that he will probably be charged with crimes soon, a Chinese financial magazine has reported. Mr. Chen, who had served on the ruling Politburo as well as leading Shanghai, China's east coast financial center, was dismissed from his post there last year in the biggest political shake-up in more than a decade."

• SMH - "The prosecution of the terrorism suspect Mohamed Haneef was in doubt after the Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions, Damian Bugg, announced he would review the evidence. The Federal Government backed what it said was the DPP's independent decision to review. The surprise move came after an admission last week that a magistrate's court had been falsely told that a mobile phone SIM card belonging to Haneef, and given to a relative, was found at the scene of a terrorist bombing attack on Glasgow Airport."

• AP - "Australia signaled Thursday it is edging toward a decision to sell uranium to India despite New Delhi's refusal to sign the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty. A newspaper reported that Foreign Minister Alexander Downer is about to make a submission to Cabinet ministers in favor of such sales, and a senior government minister said he would support the move under the right conditions."

• Independent - "Nintendo's resurgence in the games console market on the back of the popular Wii has started to pay off after the Japanese electronics company reported that its profit had quadrupled over the past three months."

• IHT - In Japan, Shinzo Abe's "future as prime minister hanging by a thread, it is not surprising that he has become the target of criticism in campaigns across the country for the parliamentary election Sunday. But what is surprising is that the attacks are coming from his own Liberal Democratic Party, from politicians like [Kohei] Tamura, who are distancing themselves from Abe for their own survival."

• Stuff - In New Zealand, "the Reserve Bank increased interest rates for the fourth time in a row this morning, lifting the official cash rate to 8.25 percent. But the lift in the official cash rate (OCR) from 8 percent is likely to be the last one, Reserve Bank governor Alan Bollard said."

• Stuff - "Corporal Willy Apiata has been conferred with the Victoria Cross in a ceremony this morning at Government House in Wellington," New Zealand. "Governor-General Anand Satyanand pinned the award on Cpl Apiata in a ceremony attended by his family, army colleagues and Prime Minister Helen Clark... Cpl Apiata, from the eastern Bay of Plenty town of Te Kaha, earned his award by rescuing an injured fellow soldier under enemy fire while both were serving with the Special Air Service (SAS) in Afghanistan in 2004."

• WaPo - "Confucianism is enjoying a resurgence in this country, as more and more Chinese like Guan seek ways to adapt to a culture in which corruption has spread and materialism has become a driving value. For many Chinese, a system of ethical teachings that stresses the importance of avoiding conflict and respecting hierarchy makes perfect sense, even if it was first in vogue centuries ago."

• WaPo - "What began as a property dispute between the Hare Krishna community and the local authorities has ballooned into an international controversy that threatens Kazakhstan's ambition to chair the 56-country Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe in 2009."

• McClatchy - "Saboteurs who blew up natural gas pipelines that shut down one of Mexico's main industrial regions earlier this month also crippled an important crude oil pipeline in an operation that indicated extensive knowledge of Mexico's energy infrastructure, U.S. officials said... Not only were oil and natural gas pipelines targeted, but the bombers also knew enough about energy installations to destroy the shutoff valves along several pipelines that allow for the wide national distribution of oil and natural gas."

• LA Times - In Haiti, "a year into his second tenure as president, Rene Preval has broken ranks with two centuries of despots and demagogues. Preval has eschewed the politics of brutality and confrontation, quietly achieving what only a year ago seemed unimaginable: fragile unity among this country's fractious classes."

• LA Times - "On Tuesday, [Zhenli] Ye Gon was in a U.S. courtroom, having been captured hours earlier at a restaurant in suburban Washington by U.S. agents who traced his cellphone. And [Mexico's President Felipe] Calderon was claiming victory in a case that officials say yielded the biggest haul of drug money in history."

• McClatchy - Brazil's President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva "fired his embattled defense minister, Waldir Pires, on Wednesday and replaced him with Nelson Jobim, who's a former president of the country's Supreme Court and a former justice minister. Brazil's Defense Ministry oversees the country's civil aviation, and the 80-year-old Pires has been criticized for failing to resolve an air-traffic meltdown that's seen more than 350 people die in two major air accidents in less than 10 months."

• Reuters - "Convalescing Cuban leader Fidel Castro has bowed out of Thursday's Revolution Day festivities, with his stand-in and brother, Raul Castro, to speak in his place, the government said... The news was hardly a surprise to most Cubans and foreign observers".

• Guardian - "Eight American students have graduated from a Cuban medical school after six years of free tuition, giving a fresh boost to the reputation of the communist government's healthcare system. The first class of US graduates from the Latin American School of Medicine, a Fidel Castro brainchild on Havana's outskirts, plan to return home and take board exams for licenses to work as doctors in US hospitals... The six women and two men, all from US ethnic minority backgrounds, said they would use their skills to treat poor people, in keeping with the humanitarian ethos of the school."

• Canadian Press - "Canada needs more than ice-capable corvettes and political speeches if it wants to guarantee access to Arctic oil and gas wealth, says a northern expert. Professor Michael Byers of the University of British Columbia says the neither the Conservative government nor its Liberal predecessor have put enough time or money into defending the country's economic zone near the North Pole."

• Bush has 543 days left. 3,636 U.S. confirmed deaths in Iraq. Over $446,337,000,000 spent on the Iraq war.

The International Monetary Fund last night said booms in China, India and Russia would allow the global economy to shrug off the impact of the crisis in the American housing market and post faster-than-expected growth this year.

Updating its spring forecast, the Washington-based fund said it expected the world economy to expand by 5.2% in both 2007 and 2008 - a 0.3 point increase in both years - and a continuation of the strongest period of growth across the globe since the late 1960s and early 1970s.

Article continues In contrast to the western-dominated global economy of four decades ago, the fund said the two former communist countries of Russia and China, together with the world's second most populous nation, India, would be responsible for more than half the 5.2% growth this year.

Charles Collyns, the fund's deputy director of research, said the Chinese economy was now on course to expand by 11.2% this year. "China seems to be going from strength to strength at this point. It's hitting on all cylinders," he said.

At least 70 children have died during a spell of freezing weather in the Andean regions of Peru, officials have said.

The children, all under five years old, died of pneumonia and other respiratory illnesses over the past three months.

They lived in rural areas at high altitude, where temperatures in some cases are reported to have plummeted to as low as -20C (-4F).

Peruvian Health Minister Carlos Vallejos said almost 2,000 medics had been deployed in the affected areas.

He told the BBC he expected the situation to get worse before it improves.

The National Civil Defence Institute (Indeci) has launched a campaign to provide clothing and shelter to the worst affected areas.

At a closed-door, off-the-record meeting with media mavens and corporate titans at the Time Warner Center in Manhattan Tuesday evening, Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., the freshman senator who just three years ago was an Illinois state senator, said he had better judgment about foreign policy than any presidential candidate in either party.

"One thing I'm very confident about is my judgment in foreign policy is, I believe, better than any other candidate in this race, Republican or Democrat," Obama said.

Frank Delaney ~ Ireland

The Securities and Exchange Commission today voted unanimously to publish a Concept Release for public comment on allowing U.S. issuers, including investment companies, to prepare their financial statements using International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) as published by the International Accounting Standards Board.

Under the SEC's current rules, U.S. issuers are required to prepare financial statements in accordance with accounting principles that are generally accepted in the United States (U.S. GAAP). The Concept Release is an information-seeking document that describes the policy issues and, in the form of questions, seeks public input regarding the possibility of allowing U.S. issuers to report under IFRS.

"Having a set of globally accepted accounting standards is critical to the rapidly accelerating global integration of the world's capital markets," said SEC Chairman Christopher Cox. "Today nearly 100 countries require or allow the use of International Financial Reporting Standards."

Frank Delaney ~ Ireland

Porsche is preparing to bring its first hybrid SUV to the market. But while the car's propulsion system is technologically superior to Toyota's, the heavy Porsche still ends up consuming more fuel than its competitor's all-terrain vehicle.

A test model of Porsche's Cayenne hybrid Presenting a product to the public several years before it is ready to go on sale is as unusual in the automobile industry as it is in others. Who stands to profit from such a move, after all, besides the competition?

But that's exactly what Porsche is now doing. On Monday, the Stuttgart-based sports automaker invited car testers to visit its development center, where it presented the new Cayenne all-terrain vehicle's hybrid engine. However, the new model will only be made available to customers two years from now at the earliest. That's how long it will take to test the car's bimodal power train, which has gasoline and electric engines working in tandem to produce tremendous energy-saving effects.

More than anything else, the early showing of the product -- which has irritated management at Volkswagen, its development partner on the hybrid engine -- is a sign that Porsche is clutching at straws. As a result of the successful restructuring measures implemented under CEO Wendelin Wiedeking, Porsche has recently been blessed with success. But the current panic over global warming caught the carmaker by surprise and executives are now concerned about the company's reputation.

One of Germany's most celebrated actors, Ulrich Mühe, who won international acclaim for his portrayal of an East German Stasi officer in the Oscar-winning film "The Lives of Others," has died of stomach cancer at the age of 54 -- just as Hollywood was taking notice.

 His role as a Stasi officer spying on a playwright was informed by a life in East German theater. The German actor Ulrich Mühe, who played a conflicted Stasi officer in the Oscar-winning German film "The Lives of Others," has died of stomach cancer at the age of 54.

"Germany mourns an outstanding artist and a great personality," German Chancellor Angela Merkel wrote in a condolence letter to his widow on Wednesday afternoon.

Word of his death only emerged on Wednesday, although Mühe died at his home on Sunday -- when an interview appeared in the newspaper Welt am Sonntag, announcing for the first time that he suffered from cancer.

"Yes, I have cancer," he told the paper. "I'm going through the necessary treatments and I hope to get better soon."

VATICAN CITY -- The Holy See announced this month that it would become the world's first "carbon neutral" sovereign state by planting trees in a Hungarian national park to offset the carbon-dioxide emissions and energy use of Vatican City.

It was only the latest of several statements and actions by the Roman Catholic Church's leaders that reflect an increasingly prominent concern for ecology.

Over the last few months, the Vatican has sponsored a two-day conference on climate change, and Pope Benedict XVI and other leaders have called for more attention to environmental problems.

In June, Vatican officials announced that the papal audience hall adjacent to St. Peter's Basilica would be covered with photovoltaic panels that will make it possible to heat, cool and light the building exclusively with solar power.

People who notice their friend packing on pounds might want to steer clear if they value their sleek physiques.

A new study finds that when the scale reads "obese" for one individual, the odds that their friends will become obese increase by more than 50 percent.

The study, published in the July 26 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine, suggests that obesity is "socially contagious," as it can spread among individuals in close social circles. The likely explanation: A person's idea of what is an appropriate body size is affected by the size of his or her friends.

Conversely, the researchers found that thinness is also contagious.

"Social effects, I think, are much stronger than people before realized," said co-author James Fowler, a social-networks expert at the University of California-San Diego. "There's been an intensive effort to find genes that are responsible for obesity and physical processes that are responsible for obesity, and what our paper suggests is that you really should spend time looking at the social side of life as well."

An outside expert on social networks called the new research impressive, particularly in showing a causal link between obesity and friends. However, he cautioned that the evidence for the effect extending out to friends' friends, and so on, is weaker.

"The suggestion in their paper is that obesity sort of spreads through the network as if it were some kind of epidemic, some kind of contagious disease," said Duncan Watts, who studies social networks at Columbia University. While this is plausible, he noted, the current research doesn't provide direct evidence for this phenomena.

An example of how media reporting can confuse and annoy with regard to research. Not only does the story present two contradictory results (obesity is contagious; thinness is contagious), it virtually ignores one after mentioning it, instead focusing on the more "sensational" result. And the first line pisses me off to no end. So if your friend gains weight, you're supposed to avoid them? What a way to improve their body image.

Biochemical explanation for nursing home bedside vigils?

A cat in Steere House Nursing and Rehabilitation Center in Providence, Rhode Island, appears to sense when one of the elderly residents is about to die, Reuters reports.

Oscar has been at Steere House for two years, during which he's settled down beside 25 old timers shortly before they passed away. Dr Joan Teno, a professor of community health at Brown University in Providence, who treats the centre's patients, said: "It's not that the cat is consistently there first. But the cat always does manage to make an appearance, and it always seems to be in the last two hours."

The Salon will continue as usual. So I hope you all have a good time too.

Norway's Princess Martha Louise says she has psychic powers and can teach people to communicate with angels.

The 35-year-old daughter of King Harald and Queen Sonja made the announcement on a website promoting her plans for a new alternative therapy centre.

She says she realised as a child that she could read people's inner feelings, while her experiences with horses had helped her make contact with angels.

Princess Martha Louise is fourth in line to the Norwegian throne.

Can the last politician to go out the revolving door please turn the lights off?