MADRID: A high-profile judge Tuesday dropped an investigation into Franco-era killings, ending what had promised to be the first criminal investigation into alleged atrocities committed by Spain's former dictator and his allies.

The judge, Baltasar Garzón, last month declared himself competent to investigate the killings of 114,000 people at the hands of Franco's supporters during the 1936-1939 civil war and the dictatorship that followed and ordered the exhumation of at least 19 mass graves.

Garzón had intended to investigate whether crimes against humanity were committed under Franco and, if so, whether 34 former generals and ministers were involved.

But the judge said Tuesday that he was dropping the investigation after state prosecutors questioned his jurisdiction in crimes that were committed 70 years ago and that involved dead suspects. In a 152-page statement, Garzón passed responsibility to regional courts for opening 19 mass graves believed hold the remains of hundreds of victims, including those of the poet García Lorca.

ROME: Renato Brunetta, minister of public administration and innovation, has won unusual bipartisan support for a bill that promotes principles of transparency, standards and meritocracy in the public sector.

Italy's bitterly divided government and opposition don't often see eye to eye, but they have united in declared determination to make the country's deeply entrenched, sclerotic bureaucracy a tad more 21st century.

Renato Brunetta, minister of public administration and innovation, has won unusual bipartisan support for a bill that promotes principles of transparency, standards and meritocracy in the public sector. It is, he trumpeted last week, an "epoch-making reform."

The extraordinary bipartisan backing for the bill - which foresees crackdowns on proven idlers, widespread restructuring, and an increased monitoring of output - is a tacit acknowledgement that Italy's bureaucratic machine is at the root of the untold inefficiencies that discourage productivity and act as an added drag on an already sluggish economy.

Former French prime minister Dominique de Villepin has been ordered to stand trial in a criminal court in connection with an alleged smear campaign that targeted President Nicolas Sarkozy.

Mr Villepin is accused of orchestrating the leak in 2004 of a faked list of account-holders at the Clearstream bank in Luxembourg, which included Mr Sarkozy's name.

The names were supposed to have benefited from illegal commissions from arms sales.

A judicial official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the investigative judges have ordered the conservative ex-premier and four others to stand trial over allegations they had roles in an effort to smear Mr Sarkozy before he was elected.

Mr Villepin faces charges of "complicity in slanderous denunciations" -- which he has vigorously denied. He could face up to five years in prison if convicted.

Unlike the others, Mr Villepin can appeal the judges' ruling -- but only if he chooses to argue the alleged wrongdoing was conducted as part of his official duties. He was serving as foreign minister at the time of the alleged crimes.

Europe's schoolchildren will next year get free fruit and vegetables worth £421 million a year under a European Union drive against obesity to be agreed later this week.

Brussels policy-makers are concerned that more than 22 million children in the EU are overweight, including at least five million who are obese, a figure that is expected to rise by 400,000 annually.

The World Health Organisation recommends a daily intake of 400g of fruit and vegetables per person and most of the EU's 27 member states currently fail to meet that target.

Ahead of a meeting of EU farm ministers later this week, MEPs gave their backing on Tuesday to measures that will see healthy farm produce distributed to schools to counter obesity.

Details of the free food scheme - financed from the EU budget - including what sort of fruit and vegetables will be offered to pupils is expected to be left to national governments.

Georgia is expected to ask for an international peacekeeping force in the breakaway regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia during the second round of talks in the wake of its war with Russia this summer.

The Georgian Foreign Ministry wants the international troops to replace Russian forces currently in the areas, reported the RIA Novosti news service.

  

Georgia is also expected to ask during talks on Wednesday, Nov. 19, for a Russian troop withdrawal from areas where it says the Russian forces are in violation of a French-brokered ceasefire.

  

South Ossetia, for its part, accused Georgia over the weekend of violating the agreement and firing at a sentry post inside the rebel region.

  

Russia, which has recognized South Ossetia's and Abkhazia's unilateral declarations of independence, said it was placing 3,800 troops in each region to protect the local populations from Georgian attacks.

  

The second round of talks is scheduled to occur in working groups, with no plenary meeting planned.

EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - France has unveiled plans for a post-French EU presidency financial summit, despite the Czech Republic's sensitivity over its upcoming chairmanship of the EU.

The Elysee Palace on Tuesday (18 November) formally announced an "international summit" to be held in Paris on 8 January, entitled "New World: Values, Development and Regulation," continuing France's ambition to create a "new model" for capitalism in the wake of the global financial crisis.

Mr Sarkozy - known for having a high-octane personality, is to chair another major international meeting

The meeting is to bring together international leaders as well as intellectuals such as economist Joseph Stiglitz and philosopher Francis Fukuyama and will be co-chaired by French President Nicolas Sarkozy and former British PM Tony Blair.

The move comes after a G20 summit in Washington last weekend fell short of EU hopes to tighten global financial regulation.

The new Paris meeting is the latest in a long line of high-powered events organised by France since it took over the EU helm in July. An EU presidency normally hosts two EU summits, but Mr Sarkozy has already added one extraordinary Georgia war summit, one special financial crisis summit, a eurozone summit and a G4 financial summit.

The European Parliament on Tuesday (18 November) lifted the immunity of Belgian far-right MEP Frank Vanhecke, who is facing racism charges in Belgium.

MEPs voted by 564 for and 61 against to lift his immunity, while 42 abstained.

The Belgian deputy of the Flemish nationalist party Vlaams Belang is accused of publishing and editing a political pamphlet in 2005 which wrongly accused "foreigners" of desecrating cemeteries.

Mr Vanhecke had accused "foreigners" of vandalism in 2005

The text also said: "a culture which has no respect for the dead or for the symbols of a different faith is a delinquent culture," according to French news agency AFP.

It later transpired that four local Flemish young people were guilty of the crimes the "foreigners" had been accused of in Saint-Nicolas, a town in Flanders, Belgium's Dutch-speaking northern region.

MEPs dispose of an immunity which prevents them from being "wanted, detained or sued because of opinions or votes emitted by them in the exercise of their functions."

EUOBSERVER / DUBLIN / STRASBOURG - Speaking in the Irish parliament on Tuesday (18 November), Declan Ganley, the head of anti-Lisbon campaign group Libertas, said the Irish government had encouraged other EU states to continue with ratification of the Lisbon treaty in order to increase pressure on Irish citizens.

The Irish Parliament's sub-committee on Ireland's Future in Europe is due to hand in its report to the Irish government by the end of the month

"It is very clear to me that some who should be representing Ireland wish it to be isolated," he told the parliamentary sub-committee on Ireland's Future in Europe.

"There is a charade being played in this country right now to walk us into another referendum."

The sub-committee was set up in the wake of last June's rejection of the Lisbon treaty and is due to hand in its report to the Irish government by the end of the month.

Earlier in discussions, Mr Ganley suggested that the British foreign secretary, David Miliband, had told the Irish government that they would be prepared to halt British ratification of the Lisbon treaty.

A Russian court reversed a decision to open to the public the trial of four men charged in connection with the 2006 murder of reporter and Kremlin critic, Anna Politkovskaya.

The Moscow District Military Court ruled that the media and public would be barred from the trial after the jury's refusal to hear the case in front of the press.

"This trial will continue as a closed trial," said Judge Yevgeny Zubov, who is presiding over the case. "This is considering the security of the participants in the trial, that of their relatives and their loved ones."

Zubov's decision came after his ruling on the first day of the trial on Monday, when he said the proceedings would be open but that he had the right to close them.

Politkovskaya, an award-winning reporter for the Novaya Gazeta, was a fierce critic of the Kremlin's actions during two wars in Chechnya in the early 1990s.

EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - Thousands of raucous tobacco farmers from across Europe mounted a demonstration in the EU capital on Wednesday (19 November), setting alight a bonfire of tobacco leaves outside the European Council building in protest at changes to EU subsidies.

Claiming a crowd of 10,000 tobacco growers and workers from processing factories, organisers had called the day of action in Brussels to coincide with a meeting of EU agriculture ministers on the Common Agricultural Policy "health check."

Tobacco farmers marching in Brussels against subsidy cuts on Wednesday

The farmers and workers say the proposed cut of half their subsidies from 2010 will result in massive job losses across the industry.

The protesters demanded that existing subsidies, which link the money to production volumes, be extended to 2013 to give them more time to adjust to EU agricultural sector reforms and said they were hoping for a favourable decision from the agriculture ministers meeting today.

A 2004 agreement by member states will from 2010 see half of the payments to tobacco farmers delivered to a restructuring fund to help the sector switch to other crops.

European fisheries ministers have agreed a plan aimed at increasing dwindling cod stocks.

The new plans envisage using better nets that allow smaller cod to escape, as well as closing certain areas to fishing when cod are spawning.

Ministers have admitted the plan will be difficult for fishermen to achieve.

But they say the incentive will be larger quotas in areas like the North Sea, where cod stocks are beginning to recover.

The UK Government has raised more than £50 million in the world's first official carbon auction.

Under the European emissions trading scheme (EU ETS), energy intensive industries - that are responsible for half the region's emissions - are given an allowance for the amount of carbon dioxide they produce.

A certain number of these "carbon credits" are given to each of the 12,000 companies in the scheme and then traded in a "cap and trade" scheme that ensures companies that want to pollute more have to pay and industries that cut emissions are rewarded.

However so far the "cap and trade" system has been criticised as companies that pollute tend to pass on the cost to the consumer, while other companies are making huge profits from selling excess credits.

In order to claw back some of the money and to better control the price of carbon so that industry is forced to cut emissions, the UK Government has put seven per cent - or four million of these allowances - in an open auction.

Every police force in the UK was tonight scouring the leaked British National party membership list for names of serving officers, after the Merseyside force confirmed it was investigating one officer's links to the far-right party.

The Prison Service pledged to oust any employee on the list and far-right supporters spoke of fear for their livelihoods as the BNP was plunged into crisis.

Party officials complained that hundreds of members had received threatening or abusive telephone calls within hours of the list being posted on the internet, and feared that the episode could lead to a damaging slump in support and membership.

Merseyside police, who discovered the name of one of its constables on the list, identified him and said that he had served briefly as the chief constable's driver. A spokesman said: "We are very clear: membership of the British National party is totally incompatible with the duties and values of the police service and Merseyside police. We will not accept a police officer or police staff being a member of BNP. As a matter of urgency, we have immediately started an investigation into all aspects of this case."

Scotland Yard, Surrey and West Yorkshire police also confirmed that they were studying the list, and the Association of Chief Police Officers said it expected every other force to follow suit.

November 18th, 2008 by Pierre Noël, University of Cambridge

Conventional wisdom has it that Russia dominates Europe's natural gas market, and that European imports of Russian gas are growing and can only continue to grow. This supposedly places the EU in a dangerous state of dependency and compromises its strategic position towards Russia. All sides of the debate over Europe's Russia policy share these premises, including those "realists" who argue that dependency on Russian gas makes it irresponsible for the EU to pursue policies that antagonise Moscow. But the conventional wisdom is wrong: Europe's gas supply is not dominated by Russia, or, for that matter, by any other exporter.

Since 1980, and particularly since 1995, Europe has considerably diversified its sources of gas imports. Today, for the EU as a whole, gas supply diversity is not a pressing problem.

As the figure below shows, over the past 40 years, natural gas consumption has grown steadily in Europe, and much faster than primary energy consumption. (Gas now accounts for around a quarter of energy use in Europe.) Since the mid-1970s, imports have covered all this growth. In 2007, Europe imported 300 billion cubic metres (bcm) of gas, accounting for 60% of consumption.

Germany's ailing car industry faces the prospect of slashing jobs as the global slump hits home. Dwindling demand and problems with liquidity have some of the biggest names in the business eyeing a bleak future.

There's a saying in Germany that when Daimler coughs, the state of Baden-Wuerttemberg catches pneumonia.

Things are not yet quite as bad as that in the home of Mercedes-Benz, or in Germany in general. But strong medicine is needed to get Germany's ailing car industry back on its feet amid a slump in profits and sales.

The first dose was requested by Opel, once the nation's biggest carmaker, which has been brought to its knees by the massive losses suffered by its US parent General Motors (GM).

Opel has asked the German government for 1 billion euros ($1.27 billion) in credit guarantees to tide it over through a potential liquidity crisis that could arise if GM runs out of cash.

In an interview with SPIEGEL, Werner Wenning, the CEO of German pharmaceutical giant Bayer, discusses the speculative excesses in the financial markets, the disastrous emphasis on short-term profit and the appropriateness of his multimillion-euro salary.

SPIEGEL: Mr. Wenning, speculative excesses have brought the financial markets to the brink of disaster. The industrialized countries are going into recession, and the reputation of executives is at an all-time low. Is capitalism in a crisis?

Werner Wenning: I'd say that's probably a bit exaggerated. In 1991, when I worked for the Treuhand agency (the government agency that privatized the former East German state-owned enterprises after the Wall came down) for a year, I realized just how inhuman socialism treated citizens. I am not familiar with any better model than the social market economy. It is the most effective system when it comes to meeting society's needs. Still, we should return to its principles.

The Bayer factory complex in the German city of Leverkusen. SPIEGEL: What has been forgotten?

Wenning: We have to rediscover a balanced relationship between the interests of the capital markets and the interests of workers. The capital market seeks to achieve the highest possible return on invested assets. The worker, on the other hand, is interested in job security and fair compensation.

SPIEGEL: Can the two really be reconciled that easily?

Wenning: Those of us working in industry bear little of the blame. We have become more competitive and have done exceedingly well globally. Workers benefit from this; at least at Bayer, they share in the profits. In the financial sector, on the other hand, a number of things went wrong. For a long time, money was too cheap, and it was used irresponsibly. Banks used mathematical methods to develop products that bore no relation to the real economy. They established special-purpose entities that never appeared on any balance sheets. But what was lacking most of all was an agency tasked with supervising the market players.

The German government's offer to come to the rescue of carmaker Opel has come in for hefty criticism, particularly from within Chancellor Merkel's own party. Meanwhile Opel says it is reducing production for next year and cutting back to a 30-hour week in most plants.

They say that if America sneezes, the world catches a cold. Now, it seems that if US auto giant General Motors has influenza then its European subsidiary Opel is going to straight to the German government for the aspirin.

On Monday Berlin agreed to consider extending loan guarantees to Opel so that it can insulate itself from the troubles at its parent company in Detroit. While Chancellor Angela Merkel was careful to insist that any such move would be a special case, the plans are already coming under fire. Some politicians from within her own party have attacked any hint of a bailout, with some arguing that German taxpayers should not be helping out what is essentially a US company.

German carmaker Opel may be facing a cold winter. Merkel met with Opel executives on Monday after they asked for a loan guarantees of around €1 billion ($1.26 billion) to ensure liquidity if Detroit-based GM files for bankruptcy. The entire US car industry is pleading for a government aid package of around $25 billion to weather the current problems wrought by the worst economic situation in decades.

In Germany, where the auto industry is one of the biggest employers, some are concerned that any state aid to Opel could flow across the Atlantic to prop up its US parent company. Others worry that bailing out one company or one sector could have a snowball effect with troubled firms automatically turning to the state when the going gets tough.

The European Unions is planning to unveil an economic stimulus package worth 130 billion euros, German Economics Minister Michael Glos said Wednesday. All member states will be expected to chip in.

Glos told private German TV news channel n-tv that each EU country would be expected to contribute 1 percent of their gross domestic product to the package. He added that this would amount to about 25 billion euros ($31.61 billion) for Germany.

 

According to news reports, details of the package are supposed to be announced on Nov. 26, with EU leaders possibly approving the plan at their summit on Dec. 10.

"We welcome the commitment to a shared belief that - as it says in the summit conclusions - market principles, open trade, investment regimes, and effectively regulated financial markets foster the dynamism, innovation and entrepreneurship that are essential for economic growth, employment, and poverty reduction."

"But we cannot go on as we did in the past, as the G20 conclusions suggest: The summit expressed its trust that growth will be restored. Yet, we cannot simply go back to business as before. What we need is a commitment to qualitatively better growth, recognising that resources are finite. A modern day Maynard Keynes would put people back to work and foster innovation by installing solar panels and wind turbines on every building across Europe."

Efforts by the European Union and NATO to fight pirates off the coast of Somalia have proven futile. With a limited mandate, their ships cannot keep armed bandits from seizing merchant vessels and taking hostages.

Pirates off the coast of Somalia captured another ship on Wednesday, Nov. 19. It is the third vessel since the spectacular hijacking of the Saudi supertanker "Sirius Star" last weekend.

 

Although NATO, European and US vessels are stationed in the region, they are helpless in effectively battling the increasing problem of piracy -- though single operations are sometimes successful.

 

The German navy, for example, said Tuesday one of its frigates had foiled attacks on two ships in the Gulf of Aden, using a helicopter to chase off pirates who fled in their speedboats.

 

The US has long been a model for many parts of the Arab world, but the Bush administration's foreign policy led to rifts. Now, the region has high hopes from America, but they aren't sure what to expect from President-elect Barack Obama.

It's about 120 kilometers (75 miles) from Dubai to Abu Dhabi, which is roughly the distance from Santa Monica to Santa Barbara. One hundred years ago, California was the El Dorado for the Americans, a land on the horizon, far off near the edge of their map and yet at the center of their fantasies. Today, the Gulf Emirates occupy a similar place in the imaginations of the Arabs. Rich. Modern. Bold. The Emirates are enlightened where much of the Arab world is repressed and held back by its self-imposed restrictions. Many a young man in the slums of Cairo, in the prisons of Baghdad or behind the walls of Palestine has dreamt of speeding, wild and free, along the road from Dubai to Abu Dhabi in an SUV or in a convertible earned through his own hard work.

Fog rolls in to a construction site in Dubai. The Arab world is eager to find out what the Obama administration holds for it. The coastal road, known as highway 11, recently received new signs similar to those in the US, including emblems like those used in the Interstate highway system, indicating whether a driver is going "northbound" or "southbound." The step was not an arbitrary one. Even though the British controlled this part of the world for centuries, modern Gulf Arabs have always looked to their protective power, the United States, emulating its capitalism and megalomania. The skyscrapers of Dubai and the checkerboard urban landscapes of Doha and Kuwait are concrete acknowledgements of their role model.

"I love everything about America," Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, the ruler of Dubai, said two years ago. His words reflected the sentiments of a growing class of ambitious Arabs who are tired of being seen as the eternal losers in world history. He spoke on behalf of those who are simply interested in doing business and have long felt alienated by the leftist and nationalist ideologies of pan-Arabism, by Wahhabism in Saudi Arabia and by the Palestinians' obsession with victimhood. But despite the rapid pace of progress in this futuristic region during the last eight years, the current administration in Washington has made things difficult for these modern Arabs. This explains why the sheikh of Dubai followed his words of adoration with a much-quoted caveat: "I love everything about America, except for its foreign policy."

With its enormous population and booming industrial economy, India is set to become one of the planet's chief polluters. India's chief climate treaty negotiator, Shyam Saran, talks to SPIEGEL ONLINE his country's role in reducing greenhouse gas emissions. SPIEGEL ONLINE: Mr. Saran, when will India oblige itself to start restricting its own CO2 emissions?

Saran: Even though there is no legal obligation on India in this respect, the Prime Minister of India made a commitment that India's per capita emissions will at no time exceed the average of the per capita emissions of developed, industrialized countries. We have thus accepted a limit on our emissions and at the same time provided an incentive to our partners in developed countries to be more ambitious. The more significant their reductions of emissions, the lower the limit we would need to accept for our own.

 A Greenpeace protest in India: "Stop Climate Change"

SPIEGEL ONLINE: India is expected, as a rising industrial power, to sign on to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change -- especially now that the US under Barack Obama will likely begin reducing its own emissions.

Saran: We see no link between what the United States, as the world's largest emitter of greenhouse gases, does and India assuming legal commitments for emission reductions. The volume of US emissions today constitutes over 20 percent of the global total and 20 tons annually per person. Despite our much larger population, India produces only 4 percent of those emissions -- 1.1 tons per person. Therefore, while we would welcome a positive and forthcoming attitude on the part of a new administration to significantly reduce US emissions -- as President-elect Obama has promised -- this has no bearing on India. It will not lead India to accept rules that go beyond the current UN climate treaty, which does not stipulate legally binding reductions for developing nations.

"[In Afghanistan] a small army would be annihilated and a large one starved."
Duke of Wellington (1769-1852) (source)

With recent attacks on convoys through the Khyber pass, the line of communications through Pakistan to Afghanistan is in deep trouble. WaPo reports:

Security restrictions forced customs officials to slow the flow of traffic to 25 trucks every few hours. Before the Taliban raid and border closure last week, an average of 600 to 800 tractor-trailers moved through Torkham a day, according to Afghan customs officials. Customs officials said they hoped at best to see 200 trucks pass through on Tuesday.

The U.S. military asking suppliers to evaluate alternatives:

The first option is to move cargo between Northern Europe and various destinations in Afghanistan through Caucus' and Central Asia. The second option is to move cargo between CONUS and Afghanistan through Asia and Central Asia.

Some European countries have arranged transport via railroad through Russia and Uzbekistan to Afghanistan. The U.S. seems not be willing to depend on Russian goodwill. That leaves the red and the green lines as the only possible transport routes. Both are much longer than the current blue route through Pakistan.

Geneva, Switzerland,  Thursday 8 November - Four Nordic countries, Sweden  (1), Norway (2), Finland (3) and Iceland (4) once again top the latest Gender Gap Index released today by the World Economic Forum. All countries in the top 20 made progress relative to their scores last year - some more so than others. Latvia (13) and Lithuania (14) made the biggest advances among the top 20, gaining six and seven places respectively, driven by smaller gender gaps in labour force participation and wages.

The performance of the United States (31) was mixed over the last year - its scores on political empowerment improved but this was offset by a bigger gap on economic participation - causing the United States to lose 6 places relative to its rank in 2006. Switzerland (40) loses 12 places relative to its position in 2006. The change was the result of a correction made by the UNDP in its calculation of estimated earned income for women and men - the ratio between women's and men's incomes is now larger than previously reported (0.61 in 2007 vs 0.9 in 2006). Switzerland's scores on all other variables remain largely static. France (51) remains one of the few countries holding the number one ranking on both education and health and has made considerable progress relative to its 70th position in the 2006 ranking. This significant increase is due to an improvement in the ratio between women's and men's labour force participation rates as well as the availability of new data on women in skilled employment. Calculations based on the new data show that the proportion of women among "professional and technical workers" as well as the proportion of women among "legislators, senior officials and managers" increased. In the bottom half of the rankings, countries such as Tunisia (102), Turkey (121) and Morocco (122) not only fall further in the relative rankings but also show a drop in scores relative to their own performance last year. On the other hand, Korea (97), the United Arab Emirates (105) and Saudi Arabia (124) show encouraging improvements in their 2007 scores as compared to their 2006 scores.

Ricardo Hausmann, Director of the Centre for International Development at Harvard University; Laura Tyson, Professor of Business Administration and Economics at the University of California, Berkeley; and Saadia Zahidi, Associate Director and Head, Women Leaders' Programme are the report's editors.

Tyson has been named among MSM nominees for US Treasury Sec in the Obama administration.


Diversity is the key to economic and political evolution.

"I don't think we have a government-run banking system. Most people believe we have a private banking system. But somebody -- the Federal Reserve -- is there to help set the guidelines within which this private banking system functions. Banks are free to do almost anything on banking practices if they want, just as long as it fits within those guidelines. And so it would be with the Federal Health Board. We would try to streamline the tremendous bureaucracy that exists today in our federal government when it comes to health-care. So this would really mean far less bureaucracy, not more. And I would simply ask the question, if you think our banking system today is reasonably regulated, why not try the same type of model for our health-care system?"

Gulp.

I excuse this incredibly short-sighted choice of comparison by telling myself that his book did not read at all as if he were on drugs-on the contrary, it seems that he understands far better than Hillary and co. ever did how to get a workable program through congress.
Some links, for this incredibly important issue:
Ezra Klein, The American Prospect
CBS News, on the Daschle appointment
WaPo on the same issue

Grabbing what you can, as John Ruskin said, isn't any less wicked when you grab it with the power of your brains than with the power of your fists.

SAN FRANCISCO -- Responding to pleas for legal clarity from those on both sides of the issue, the California Supreme Court said Wednesday that it would take up the case of whether a voter-approved ban on same-sex unions was constitutional.

The court, however, stopped short of suspending the ban, which California voters passed as Proposition 8 two weeks ago after an expensive and hard-fought campaign.

The proposition, which overturned a May decision of the California Supreme Court that legalized same-sex marriage, has been challenged by a number of cities and civil rights groups, which say it is a substantial revision of the state's Constitution, and therefore requires legislative approval.

In agreeing Wednesday to take the case, the court suggested in a two-page order signed by six of its seven justices that it would take up that question, as well as lingering questions over the legality of some 18,000 same-sex marriages performed in the state this year. Those ceremonies were halted after Proposition 8 passed.

The court has also been asked to consider whether same-sex couples are being denied equal protection under the state's Constitution. An amendment banning same-sex marriages has never been challenged in a state where the marriages had been legal.

WASHINGTON -- An effort by the New York Police Department to get broader latitude to eavesdrop on terrorism suspects has run into sharp resistance from the Justice Department in a bitter struggle that has left the police commissioner and the attorney general accusing each other of putting the public at risk. Skip to next paragraph Annie Tritt for The New York Times

Raymond W. Kelly, the New York police commissioner, accused federal agencies of blocking the police's surveillance requests. Readers' Comments

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The Police Department, with the largest municipal counterterrorism operation in the country, wants the Justice Department and the Federal Bureau of Investigation to loosen their approach to the federal law that governs electronic surveillance. But federal officials have refused to relax the standards, and have said requests submitted by the department could actually jeopardize surveillance efforts by casting doubt on their legality.

Under the law, the government must in most cases obtain a warrant from the special Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court before it can begin electronic monitoring of people suspected of spying or terrorism. The requests are subjected to sharp scrutiny, first by lawyers at the F.B.I., then by lawyers at the Justice Department, and finally by the court itself.

New York's department, as a local police force, cannot apply directly, but must seek warrants through the F.B.I. and the Justice Department. The police want those agencies to expedite their requests, and say that the federal agencies unfairly blocked the city's applications for surveillance warrants, first in June and then in September. The disagreement, in which the Bush Justice Department has taken a more cautious approach than police officials, is something of an unexpected twist for an administration that has more often seemed willing to stretch legal boundaries to fight terrorism.

[...]

While the letters do not specifically identify the target of the eavesdropping requests, Mr. Mukasey said that the Police Department had sought authority in one of them to eavesdrop on "numerous communications facilities" without providing an adequate basis for their requests. Some officials who have been briefed on the cases said the requests, from the police Intelligence Division, were unusually broad, and included telephones in public places, like train or subway stations, rather than phones used by a specific individual.

Silvio Berlusconi, the flamboyant Italian Prime Minister, played a practical joke on the German Chancellor today by jumping out at her from behind a lamppost when they met for an Italo-German summit in Trieste.

Slipping away from the welcoming committee, the Italian leader hid behind the lamppost and emerged with a cry of "Cucu!" when Angela Merkel stepped out of her official car to enter the regional council headquarters where they were to meet. Reports said the German leader, who appeared amused, opened her arms and replied "Silvio!".

Mr Berlusconi, noted for his unpredictable behaviour and often ill-judged jokes, raised eyebrows recently by describing Barack Obama, the US President-elect, as "suntanned", during a visit to Moscow. Carla Bruni Sarkozy, the Italian-born wife of President Sarkozy of France, said that the remark and the furore it caused had made her "happy to be no longer an Italian citizen".

A woman has been given a new section of windpipe created from her own stem cells in an operation that could revolutionise surgery.

Claudia Castillo, 30, who lives in Barcelona, has become the first person to be given a whole organ tailor-made for her in laboratories across Europe.

A graft from a donor was used, but because it has been imbued with Ms Castillo's own cells, there is no sign that her body will reject the organ. Related Links

• Possibly a genuine breakthrough

Multimedia

• GRAPHIC: replacing the bronchus

Researchers and surgeons from Britain, Italy and Spain collaborated to grow tissue from Ms Castillo's own bone marrow stem cells, using them to fashion the new bronchus - a branch of the windpipe. They believe that one day the approach will be used to create engineered replacements for other damaged organs, such as the bowel or bladder. In five years they hope to begin clinical trials in which laboratory-made voice boxes are implanted into patients with cancer of the larynx.

Martin Birchall, of the University of Bristol, a British member of the team, said: "This is the first time a tissue-engineered whole organ has been transplanted into a patient. I reckon in 20 years' time it will be the commonest operation - it will transform the way we think about surgery."

Russia plans to raise a schooner that sank off the coast of Finland in 1771 with gold, precious porcelain and Dutch paintings for Empress Catherine the Great aboard.

The Frau Maria was commissioned by Catherine the Great to transport precious porcelain, gold, silver, bronze and 27 paintings by Dutch masters for her art collection, which became the basis for the Hermitage museum in St. Petersburg.

But the ship was struck by a storm in October 1771 and sank 41 metres (135 feet) off the coast of what was then Sweden, Tarasov said.

Artem Tarasov, head of the Rescue of National Cultural and Historic Valuables fund, said the project would take two years.

"We would like to say that within two years all necessary measures will be taken and in 2010 we will be able to finally see what secrets this ship holds."

There is hope that the paintings have not been ruined, he said.

Town officials have reported an "explosion" in the rat population of the north German town best known for its fairy tale about a mystery piper who once got rid of them all.

A makeshift rubbish dump on the town's fringes is blamed as being a "takeaway" food centre for the rats, as the invasion threatens to overshadow preparations for the town's 725th anniversary celebrations.

Thomas Wahmes, a town spokesman, said the land had become a "real refuge" for the unwanted rodents.

According to the famous legend, a colourful - or "pied" - rat catcher lured all the rats out of town in 1284 by playing his pipe.

When the townspeople refused to pay him, he did the same with Hamelin's children. On St John's Day while the inhabitants were in church, he played his pipe, attracting the children of Hamelin.

STRASBOURG, France (Reuters) - Honey bees, whose numbers are falling, must be given flowery "recovery zones" in Europe's farmlands to aid their survival, a leading EU lawmaker said Wednesday.

Bees pollinate numerous crops and scientists have expressed alarm over their mysterious and rapid decline. Experts have warned that a drop in the bee population could harm agriculture.

"If we continue to neglect the global bee population, then this will have a dramatic effect on our already strained world food supplies," said Neil Parish, who chairs the European Parliament's agriculture committee.

Parish, a British conservative, said vast swathes of single crops such as wheat often made it difficult for bees to find enough nectar.

But he said farmers could help bees by planting patches of bee-friendly flowers -- including daisies, borage and lavender.

The Salvation Army is experimenting with a plastic alternative for people who do not have cash to throw in a holiday red kettle. This season, five bell-ringers in El Paso County, Colo., will be the first to test accepting debit and credit cards along with spare change and bills. Salvation Army officials say the kettle tradition needs to be tweaked as consumers increasingly carry only plastic.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/14/us/14brfs-NOCHANGESWIP_BRF.html

On Christmas Eve 2005, Hietikko got the idea of writing his administrative science doctoral dissertation on the perspectives of power and leadership thrown up by characters and power structures in the Tolkien novels.