EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - A UK cross-party parliamentary committee inquiry into the lobbying industry has issued a report that criticises the European Commission's voluntary registry of lobbyists as having "no real benefit" and of being no model for the introduction of a similar registry in Britain.

The Council has decided not to participate in the joint lobbying registry

After a year and a half of investigations into the sector and its influence on legislation, the eleven-member Public Administration Select Committee on Monday (5 January) called for the creation of a registry of lobbying activity for the UK, but insists that, unlike in the case of the commission's current framework, lobbyists should be forced to sign up to it.

"We see no advantage whatsoever to a voluntary register, which, as has been shown in the European Commission's case," the report reads, "allows those who wish to hide the nature and scale of their activity to do so, and leads to the availability of uneven and partial information of no real benefit to those wishing to assess the scale and nature of lobbying activity."

European consumers were hit with a further slash in Russian natural gas deliveries, as a standoff over energy pricing between the Kremlin and Ukraine worsened.

The Russian reduction, the second since January 1 by Russian gas monopolist Gazprom, would "begin to cause problems in getting sufficient gas to Europe," in a few hours, said Valentyn Zemliansky, a Naftogaz Ukrainy spokesman.

 

Gazprom cut shipments to just 72 million cubic meters of gas for European consumers, from 260 million on Monday and an average of 300 million previously.

 

Officials in both countries confirmed plans to renew talks on ending the conflict in Moscow on Thursday.

 

But the sides remained far apart on a host of issues, while the steep drops in gas supplies critical for heating struck Europe simultaneously with a vicious snap of cold weather.

Germany, Russia's biggest political ally in Europe, tonight warned that its supply of Russian gas could swiftly collapse as the dispute between Ukraine and Moscow intensified and Europeans began freezing in their homes.

The Russian monopoly provider Gazprom accused Ukraine of filching gas supplies due for Europe.

The row escalated today, with gas volumes slashed even further, as a swathe of countries in eastern and southern Europe reported a complete shutdown of supplies or serious disruption on the coldest day of the winter. Russian shipments of gas to the Balkans, including Romania, Bulgaria, Croatia, Macedonia, Greece, Bosnia, Serbia and, beyond them, to Turkey shut down or were slashed by up to two thirds.

The disruption of supplies also spread to Italy, Austria, Slovakia, the Czech republic, Hungary and Slovenia as well as Poland.

Amid a growing political and diplomatic crisis, Oleh Dubyna, head of Naftogaz, Ukraine's state energy firm, said he would restart negotiations on price contracts in Moscow on Thursday with Gazprom executives.

Russia halted gas supplies via Ukraine to the Balkans, Turkey and south-eastern Europe today and flows to EU-member state Austria dropped by 90 per cent in a deepening price row between Moscow and Kiev.

Russia and Ukraine blamed each other for the crisis which has struck at a time of unusually low winter temperatures across Europe, which receives about one quarter of its gas from Moscow.

The dispute threatens to worsen ties with the West already fraught after Russia's war with Georgia last year.

Europe receives about one fifth of its gas from Russia via Ukraine, leaving European customers vulnerable when Moscow reduced volumes to Ukraine on New Year's Day after failing to reach agreement with Kiev over gas prices.

German billionaire Adolf Merckle committed suicide by throwing himself under a train, "broken" as his business empire crumbled under a growing burden of debt, his family said.

Merckle, whose holding company owes banks about 5 billion euros ($6.7 billion), owned stakes in HeidelbergCement AG and drug wholesaler Phoenix Pharmahandel AG. He had been seeking emergency financing for more than two months from a group of more than 30 banks led by Commerzbank AG, Deutsche Bank AG, Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc and Landesbank Baden-Wuerttemberg.

EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - Restarting old nuclear reactors, sharing gas stocks and calling an EU-Russia-Ukraine summit have emerged as potential EU reactions to the gas crisis, as severe supply cuts hit EU consumers and industry.

Twelve thousand homes in Varna, Bulgaria were left without central heating as snow fell on Tuesday (6 January), with Bulgarian fertiliser producers Neochim and Agropolychim forced to halt production after Russian gas to the country stopped flowing through Ukraine in the small hours.

A Naftogaz plant - Ukraine and Russia's reputations have suffered

Gas supplies to Greece, Austria, Romania, Slovenia, the Czech Republic and Slovakia fell by 70 percent to 100 percent, with Slovakia - which imports all of its gas from Russia - expected to declare a state of emergency at midnight.

France, Germany, Poland and Hungary also suffered serious disruptions. Poland reduced gas deliveries to industrial plants and Germany's energy champion - E.ON Ruhrgas - warned the company's "possibilities [of functioning normally] will reach their limits" if the problem drags out.

Several European countries say their supplies of Russian gas have been cut or sharply reduced amid an energy price dispute between Moscow and Ukraine.

Serbia, which has had its supply completely cut, said it was a "critical" situation.

Countries as far west as Italy and Austria say they have received only 10% of their expected supply.

Amid cold weather across the continent, the European Commission said the supply cut was "completely unacceptable".

The governing coalition in Germany on Monday (5 January) indicated that its latest economic stimulus package could run to €50 billion over two years.

According to Germany daily Die Welt, Chancellor Angela Merkel's Christian Democrats (CDU) and their junior coalition partner, the Social Democrats (SPD), have still to agree which measures should be financed with the money.

Germany's first economic package was criticised as being too small

While both sides continue to work on the details of the package, it is expected to deliver help for business, more infrastructure spending and modest tax cuts.

Tax was one of the areas causing the most difficulty. The conservatives wanted to see sharp tax cuts included in the measures while the SPD were pushing for a rise in taxes on the rich.

Eurozone inflation has tumbled to its lowest level in more than two years on the back of crumbling economic activity, extending the steep sell-off in the euro that has emerged since the start of the year.

Annual inflation in the 16-country region fell to 1.6 per cent in December from 2.1 per cent a month earlier, according to an initial estimate by Eurostat, the European Union's statistical office. That was the same as in October 2006 but otherwise the lowest since November 1999.

With further falls in inflation expected in coming months, the latest figures added to the pressure on the European Central Bank to cut interest rates again. Since October the ECB has slashed its policy rate by 175 basis points to 2.5 per cent. However, it has not yet sent any clear signals about whether a further cut is likely at its meeting next week.

VIENNA -- With an aggressive style that stood out in the staid world of Austrian banking even more than her bouffant red wig, Sonja Kohn made few friends gathering billions for Bernard L. Madoff from wealthy investors in Russia and across Europe.>

Now, she has even fewer. Mrs. Kohn has dropped out of sight, leaving the firm she founded, Bank Medici, in the hands of Austrian regulators, who took it over last week.

Embarrassment from investing heavily with Mr. Madoff could explain wanting to disappear from public view. But another theory widely repeated by those who know Mrs. Kohn is that she may be afraid of some particularly displeased investors: Russian oligarchs whose money made up a chunk of the $2.1 billion that Bank Medici invested with Mr. Madoff.

"With Russian oligarchs as clients," said a Viennese banker who knew Mrs. Kohn and her husband socially, "she might have reason to be afraid."

[...]

It is a stunning reversal for the 60-year-old Mrs. Kohn. The daughter of Jewish refugees from Eastern Europe who moved to Vienna after World War II, she came to New York in the 1980s and was one of the rare women to found and head a small brokerage firm. At that time, she started a decades-long friendship with Mr. Madoff. Once known here as "Austria's woman on Wall Street," she became one of Mr. Madoff's international conduits for securing billions of dollars from the global rich.

Unemployment in Germany rose last month for the first time since February 2006, ending an unprecedented labour-market recovery in Europe's largest economy and casting renewed doubt over the country's prospects for this year.

Figures released by the Federal Labour Agency showed the number of jobseekers had risen by a seasonally-adjusted 18,000 in December, almost twice as much as economists had anticipated, bringing the jobless rate from 7.5 to 7.6 per cent month-on-month.

The rise in unemployment brings an abrupt end to Germany's spectacular job-market recovery, which lasted uninterrupted for 34 months and had brought the number of jobseekers from more than 5m down to less than 3m.

Alistair Darling warned on Tuesday that Britain was "far from through" the recession, in a clear signal that he will have to abandon the government's forecast that the recovery would start in the second half of this year.

The Bank of England is on Thursday expected to respond to the slump by cutting interest rates to their lowest point for 300 years, which could provoke tension with the Treasury and ultimately threaten its independence.

Mr Darling said that if rates fell close to zero, the central bank and Treasury would have to work "hand in hand", since any operations by the Bank of England to print money would have to be authorised by him. His stance will disappoint many at the central bank who wanted to be given authority by the Treasury to operate quantitative easing - creating money to buy assets - within parameters agreed in advance.

...

"The gas crisis and the Israeli situation demonstrate the true character of the EU," said Fredrik Erixon, head of the Brussels-based European Centre for International Political Economy. "They want to be a big global player but they don't have the tools, or the skills or the clout to do so."

...

The disarray was underscored by a pair of simultaneous missions this week to mediate a cease-fire in the 11-day conflict pitting Israel against Hamas in the Gaza Strip. French President Nicolas Sarkozy, who gave up the EU presidency on Dec. 31, met officials in the region as a separate delegation headed by the Czech Republic, which now holds the EU leadership, sought a solution.

...

Gas deliveries from Russia to Europe through Ukrainian pipelines were reduced due to a pricing dispute between Russia's state-owned OAO Gazprom and Ukraine. The EU today invited Russia and Ukraine to attend a Jan. 9 meeting of its Gas Coordination Group. Europe gets about 25 percent of its gas from Russia.

...

"It's very silly of the EU to try to depoliticize its Russian energy policy," said Erixon. "You can't deal with a politically driven company like Gazprom the way you deal with a Western company."

...

George Alogoskoufis, Greece's finance minister, was sacked on Wednesday in a reshuffle prompted by deteriorating public finances and fears of continued social unrest following last month's street riots in central Athens.

He was replaced by Yiannis Papathanassiou, the deputy finance minister responsible for handling transfers from the European Union's structural funds.

Mr Alogoskoufis faced growing unpopularity over recent efforts to boost tax collection as the economy slowed.

The Israeli incursion into the Gaza Strip continued on Tuesday (6 January), reaching Gaza city, despite international calls for ceasefire and multiplying diplomatic efforts in the region.

Israeli troops clashed with Palestinian militants on the edge of the densely populated Gaza City, home to around 1.4 million people, on Monday night, with fighting still raging in the city in the early hours of Tuesday, news agencies report.

Israeli tanks have rolled into Khan Yunis, the largest city in the southern Gaza Strip

Israeli tanks also entered Khan Yunis, the largest city in southern Gaza.

The third night of Israel's ground assault - the eleventh day of the war on Gaza - brings the death toll on the Palestinian side to around 550 people, including around 100 children, according to emergency services figures reported by the AFP news agency.

More than 2,500 have been wounded.

GAZA (Reuters) - Israeli shelling killed more than 40 Palestinians Tuesday at a U.N. school where civilians had taken shelter, medical officials said, in carnage likely to boost international pressure on Israel to halt a Gaza offensive.

An army spokesman said troops fired mortars at the premises after gunmen mortared their positions from inside al-Fakhora school in Jabalya refugee camp. He gave no casualty figure.

People cut down by shrapnel lay in pools of blood in the street. Witnesses said two shells exploded outside the school, killing at least 42 civilians and wounding dozens among people who had taken refuge there and residents of nearby buildings.

It took the Palestinian death toll in 11 days of violence to over 600 and prompted U.S. President-elect Barack Obama to break his silence on the offensive, to say the loss of life among civilians was "a source of deep concern" for him.

An Israeli strike on a UN school killed at least 46 Palestinian civilians Tuesday, in the deadliest single incident since Israel launched its Gaza offensive, and one which is likely to increase pressure over a ceasefire.

It came only hours before the UN Security Council was scheduled to debate a draft resolution by Arab member states, calling for an immediate end to the Israeli offensive and for the protection of civilians. Gaza emergency services chief Mo'aweya Hassanein told reporters that more than 150 were injured in the strike just outside the al- Fakhoura school in the Jabaliya refugee camp, north of Gaza City.

 

Hundreds of civilians had been taking shelter from nearby fighting in the camp's boys elementary school, run by the UN's agency for Palestinian refugees (UNWRA). The UN said three Israeli artillery shells fell next to the school. The Israeli military said it was checking the reports. Witnesses said the school was hit shortly after local militants fired mortar shells from near the school at the Israeli tanks.

As the international community says that Israel's image is suffering, Red Cross officials called the last 24 hours the most terrifying night yet of violence in Gaza.

Pierre Kraehenbuehl, the International Committee of the Red Cross' head of operation, said on Tuesday, Jan. 6, that the military offensive against Palestinian rocket squads launched by Israel in late December has left up to 600 dead and as many as 3000 injured in Gaza so far.

 Many Gazans have been left without electricity or running water, thousands have been displaced from their homes and residents say food supplies are running thin.

The hostilities between Israel and the Palestinian group Hamas are having repercussions for European Muslims and Jews. Countries throughout the continent are reporting an increase of anti-Jewish acts.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy warned on Tuesday, January 6 that his country would not tolerate violence between Muslim and Jewish communities because of the ongoing conflict.

 

The admonition came after a burning car was rammed into the gates of a synagogue in Toulouse late Monday evening.

 

No one was hurt, but local Jewish leader Armand Partouche said that people were inside the building at the time and could have been injured or even killed.

The civilian death toll in Gaza increased dramatically today, with reports of more than 40 Palestinians killed after missiles exploded outside a UN school where hundreds of people were sheltering from the continuing Israeli offensive.

Two Israeli tank shells struck the school in Jabaliya refugee camp, spraying shrapnel on people inside and outside the building, according to news agency reports.

The medical director of the hospital in Jabaliya told the Guardian 41 bodies had been brought in so far and more could be on the way. Reuters journalists filmed bodies scattered on the ground amid pools of blood and torn shoes and clothes. In addition to the dead, several dozen people were wounded, hospital officials said. The Israeli military said it was looking into the reports.

A United Nations official in Gaza said the school was clearly marked with a UN flag and its location had been reported to Israeli authorities. John Ging, director of operations in Gaza for UNRWA, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency, said that three artillery shells landed at the perimeter of the school where 350 people were taking shelter. "Of course it was entirely inevitable if artillery shells landed in that area there would be a high number of casualties," he said.

Nicolas Sarkozy, the French president, today flew to Syria to urge President Bashar al-Assad to pressure Hamas for a ceasefire in Gaza, as the fighting with Israel entered its 11th day.

"I know the importance of Syria in this region and its influence on a number of players," Sarkozy said in Damascus. "I don't have any doubt that President Bashar al-Assad will throw all his weight to convince everyone to return to reason."

Assad condemned the Gaza offensive. "We have to immediately stop the barbaric Israeli aggression in Gaza," he said at a joint press conference with Sarkozy. "Thirty percent of the victims are children under the age of 10, and Gaza is now a concentration camp."

Israeli tank shells killed at least 40 Palestinians today at a UN school where civilians had taken shelter, medical officials said, in carnage likely to boost international calls for a halt to Israel's Gaza offensive.

An Israeli military spokeswoman said she was looking into information on the incident at al-Fakhora school in Jabalya refugee camp.

People cut down by shrapnel lay in pools of blood on the street. Witnesses said two Israeli tanks shells exploded outside the school, killing at least 40 civilians - Palestinians who had taken refuge there and residents of nearby buildings.

In a separate attack earlier in the day, three Palestinians were killed in an airstrike on another school run by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency.

The deaths raised to 75 the number of Palestinian civilians killed on Tuesday alone, according to medical officials.

A ceasefire in the Gaza Strip is attainable within days if the smuggling routes which supply arms and money to Hamas can be shut down, international envoy Tony Blair said today.

Mr Blair said that the Hamas movement, which holds power in the Palestinian enclave, is in contact with Egypt over the issue and that Cairo is prepared in principle to take action. All "responsible" players in the region should be working towards an immediate cessation of the hostilities which have now entered their 11th day, he said.

The former Prime Minister was speaking in Jerusalem after an intense night of fighting in Gaza as Israeli forces expanded their ground and air offensive.

Heavy fighting was under way in the north of Gaza City last night as the Israeli Defence Minister, Ehud Barak, pledged to continue the war against Hamas - entering its 10th day - until "peace and tranquility" returned to the south of his country.

Residents in the territory's main city reported heavy ground and air bombardments that were sending plumes of smoke into the air as flares and fires lit up the night sky above the northern district of Zeitoun where some of the most intense engagements were believed to be taking place.

There were unconfirmed reports last night that up to nine Israeli soldiers had been killed or seriously injured in Gaza. The Israeli government refused to confirm the reports, saying only that eight soldiers had been injured.

The US President-elect Barack Obama today expressed deep concern about the loss of civilian lives in Gaza and Israel.

Speaking after Israeli tank shells killed at least 40 Palestinians at a UN school where civilians had taken shelter, Obama told reporters "the loss of civilian life in Gaza and Israel is a source of deep concern for me."

But Obama otherwise said he would adhere to his principle that only US President George Bush would speak for American foreign policy at this time, but said he would have plenty more to say after his 20 January inauguration.

US president-elect Barack Obama today broke his silence on the fighting in Gaza, saying he was "deeply concerned about the conflict" but postponing further comment on the Israeli invasion and Hamas attacks on Israel until after his inauguration.

On a day when much of official Washington was consumed by dramatic action in the US Senate and by negotiations on Obama's massive fiscal stimulus proposal, Obama told reporters he was closely monitoring the situation in Gaza and was receiving intelligence briefings.

"The loss of civilian life in Gaza and Israel is a source of deep concern to me," he said in a question and answer session at his transition office, "and after January 20 I'm going to have plenty to say about the issue."

Obama reiterated his belief that he should refrain from interjecting in foreign affairs before his election so the US government can present a single face to the world.

President-elect Barack Obama said the U.S. will soon face a $1 trillion budget deficit and similar shortfalls are in store "for years to come" as the government grapples with a recession and other spending demands.

A "trillion dollar deficit will be here before we even start the next budget," Obama said after meeting in Washington with his economic advisers, including Peter Orszag, who has been designated as director of the Office of Management and Budget. "Potentially we've got trillion-dollar deficits for years to come, even with the economic recovery we are working on."

Ethiopia's parliament has passed a controversial bill imposing tight restrictions on aid agencies.

Foreign agencies are prohibited from a number of areas including human rights, equality, conflict resolution and the rights of children.

Local groups that receive more than 10% of their funding from abroad are also banned from working in these areas.

Under discussion for months, the bill has already been considerably modified amid objections from aid organisations

The new US Congress has opened, amid a row as the choice to fill President-elect Barack Obama's vacant Senate seat was blocked from the chamber's floor.

Senate Democrats had vowed to prevent Roland Burris taking the Illinois seat because he was picked by scandal-hit Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich.

Mr Burris said officials turned him away when he arrived to be sworn in.

The Democrats are in charge of both chambers and about to welcome one of their own into the White House.

Awami League leader Sheikh Hasina has been sworn in for a second stint as prime minister of Bangladesh.

The ceremony in the capital, Dhaka, marked a return to democracy after two years of army-backed rule.

The Awami League won a landslide in elections last week, in a major turnaround in its leader's fortunes.

Sheikh Hasina and her rival Khaleda Zia - both former prime ministers - had been jailed for suspected corruption but released to contest the vote.

BEIJING (Reuters) - China faces surging protests and riots in 2009 as rising unemployment stokes discontent, a state-run magazine said in a blunt warning of the hazards to Communist Party control from a sharp economic downturn.

The unusually stark report in this week's Outlook (Liaowang) Magazine, issued by the official Xinhua news agency, said faltering growth could spark anger among millions of migrant workers and university graduates left jobless.

"Without doubt, now we're entering a peak period for mass incidents," a senior Xinhua reporter, Huang Huo, told the magazine, using the official euphemism for riots and protests.

"In 2009, Chinese society may face even more conflicts and clashes that will test even more the governing abilities of all levels of the Party and government."

China's economy will probably grow by about 8 per cent this year, the central bank's research bureau forecast on Tuesday, the latest in a string of relatively optimistic estimates.

Some analysts have predicted a much sharper slowdown for the world's fourth-largest economy, to as little as 5 per cent, as factory output growth grinds to a halt and exports shrink from their year-earlier levels.

However, government officials and researchers have centred around the view that China can engineer growth of about 8 per cent this year -- the pace officially targeted by Beijing as what it considers necessary to create enough new jobs.

Welcome to 2009. This is a year in which the fate of the world economy will be determined, maybe for generations. Some entertain hopes that we can restore the globally unbalanced economic growth of the middle years of this decade. They are wrong. Our choice is only over what will replace it. It is between a better balanced world economy and disintegration. That choice cannot be postponed. It must be made this year.

We are in the grip of the most significant global financial crisis for seven decades. As a result, the world has run out of creditworthy, large-scale, willing private borrowers. The alternative of relying on vast US fiscal deficits and expansion of central bank credit is a temporary - albeit necessary - expedient. But it will not deliver a durable return to growth. Fundamental changes are needed.

The chairman of India's Satyam Computer Services on Wednesday confessed to fixing the IT outsourcing company's books for the past "several" years, the country's first major fraud case to emerge following the global financial crisis.

In a letter to Satyam's board, B Ramalinga Raju resigned after admitting to wildly inflating Satyam's margins to paint a picture of good performance and retain his management position in one of the worst scams to have hit India's outsourcing sector.

Satyam is India's fourth biggest information technology outsourcing firm by revenue and is listed in New York and Mumbai, and the scam has rocked the country's business world.

And I love this: Satyam faces risk of losing governance award
How come?

"Ne te courbe que pour aimer..." René Char

• In 2008, the Treasury market had its best annual rally in more than 25 years on fears of global credit crisis, recession, deflation. 10yr and 30yr Treasury yields fell to all-time lows and T-bill yields even dipped into negative territory for the first time since the Great Depression. The total return of the 30-year bond was c. 45%, its best year since 1982. Treasuries in general returned 14%, outperforming S&P 500 by 53 percentage points
• In 2009, any signs of a less than dire economic outcome as deflation may burst the bubble in Treasuries. With the U.S. government expected to issue between $1.5 trillion to $2 trillion of debt into the $5 trillion Treasury market to finance its rescues of the financial system, the risk of a sudden drop in prices is growing. 10yr and 30yr Treasuries are still yielding between 2-3%, 2yr notes less than 1%, T-bills near zero. The TIPS market is anticipating less than 0.5% annual inflation for the next 10 years (ML)

Oil prices rose above $50 a barrel on Tuesday amid a growing belief that Opec is succeeding in delivering cuts in production.

Oil traders have been largely sceptical about the cartel carrying out the three output cuts totalling 4.2m barrels a day it has announced since September. But preliminary evidence of lower supplies has now pushed prices higher.

The clearest signal of Opec's success in cutting production came on Tuesday in a record narrowing of the price spread between lower-quality, heavy sour crude - which constitutes the bulk of the cartel's output - such as Dubai oil, and higher-quality, light sweet oil, such as the international benchmark Brent oil.

Anyone who has spent a chilly half-hour waiting for a double-decker may already have doubted the existence of a deity. But for those who need further proof, a nationwide advertising campaign aimed at persuading more people to "come out" as atheists was launched today with the backing of some of Britain's most famous non-believers.

The principal slogan - "There's probably no God. Now stop worrying and enjoy your life" - can already be seen on four London bus routes, and now 200 bendy buses in London and 600 across the country are to carry the advert after a fundraising drive raised more than £140,000, exceeding the original target of £5,500.

The money will also pay for 1,000 advertisements on London Underground from next Monday and on a pair of giant LCD screens opposite Bond Street tube station, in Oxford Street. Organisers unveiled a set of quotes from public figures - including Albert Einstein, Douglas Adams and Katharine Hepburn - who have endorsed atheism, or at least expressed scepticism about a Creator. The words "That it will never come again is what makes life so sweet" are quoted from the poet Emily Dickinson.

Hap tip to nanne.

Ad astra per aspera

The enormous pressure inside the gas pipeline grid that supplies UK homes is set to be harnessed to generate clean electricity.

Work to place small turbines inside the gas network will start later this year at Beckton in east London. This first scheme will produce 20MW by 2010 from the natural gas that rushes through the pipes. Repeated across the country, the technology could generate up to 1GW - equivalent to the output of a conventional coal or nuclear power station.

Andrew Mercer of company 2OC, which has developed the "geo-pressure" technology, said: "We're very lucky that somebody else has built this pipeline infrastructure. We can borrow it to produce renewable energy."

When natural gas is drilled from underground reservoirs it is at far too high a pressure to be used safely in homes. "It would just blow up your gas cooker," Mercer said. Instead, the pressure must be released at hundreds of sites across the supply network known as letdown stations.

George Bush will designate nearly 200,000 square miles of the Pacific Ocean as conservation areas on Tuesday, recasting his record on the environment just two weeks before leaving the White House.

Tuesday's formal announcement will establish Bush as the leader who has protected more of the oceans than anyone else in the world, environmentalists said.

The three regions in the Pacific Ocean encompass some 195,280 square miles of remote and relatively uninhabited island chains.

They include pristine coral reefs, vanishing marine species and the deepest place on Earth.

First time for everything, I suppose.

Ad astra per aspera

After just five years, the romance between the football club owner and the little dancer is over: a rare sculpture by Degas is up for sale again - this time with a £12m transfer fee on her head.

The current owner, Sir John Madejski, was knighted in the New Year honours list for lavish philanthropy, such as donating millions of pounds to create a new courtyard garden at the V&A museum and to restore the Fine Rooms, now named in his honour, at the Royal Academy.

The art collector is better known in football circles for steering his club, Reading, into the Premier League last year, and paying most of the £25m cost of its new stadium. The club was relegated last season.

The coal ash pond that ruptured and sent a billion gallons of toxic sludge across 300 acres of East Tennessee last month was only one of more than 1,300 similar dumps across the United States -- most of them unregulated and unmonitored -- that contain billions more gallons of fly ash and other byproducts of burning coal.

Like the one in Tennessee, most of these dumps, which reach up to 1,500 acres, contain heavy metals like arsenic, lead, mercury and selenium, which are considered by the Environmental Protection Agency to be a threat to water supplies and human health. Yet they are not subject to any federal regulation, which experts say could have prevented the spill, and there is little monitoring of their effects on the surrounding environment.

In fact, coal ash is used throughout the country for construction fill, mine reclamation and other "beneficial uses." In 2007, according to a coal industry estimate, 50 tons of fly ash even went to agricultural uses, like improving soil's ability to hold water, despite a 1999 E.P.A. warning about high levels of arsenic. The industry has promoted the reuse of coal combustion products because of the growing amount of them being produced each year -- 131 million tons in 2007, up from less than 90 million tons in 1990.

ScienceDaily (Jan. 6, 2009) -- Physicists at Indiana University have developed a promising new way to identify a possible abnormality in a fundamental building block of Einstein's theory of relativity known as "Lorentz invariance." If confirmed, the abnormality would disprove the basic tenet that the laws of physics remain the same for any two objects traveling at a constant speed or rotated relative to one another.

IU distinguished physics professor Alan Kostelecky and graduate student Jay Tasson take on the long-held notion of the exact symmetry promulgated in Einstein's 1905 theory and show in a paper to be published in Physical Review Letters that there may be unexpected violations of Lorentz invariance that can be detected in specialized experiments.

"It is surprising and delightful that comparatively large relativity violations could still be awaiting discovery despite a century of precision testing," said Kostelecky. "Discovering them would be like finding a camel in a haystack instead of a needle."

If the findings help reveal the first evidence of Lorentz violations, it would prove relativity is not exact. Space-time would not look the same in all directions and there would be measurable relativity violations, however minuscule.

[...]

"No dedicated experiment has yet sought a seasonal variation of the rate of an object's fall in the Earth's gravity," said Kostelecky. "Since Newton's time over 300 years ago, apples have been assumed to fall at the same rate in the summer and the winter."

Spotting these minute variances is another matter as the differences in rate of fall would be tiny because gravity is a weak force. The new paper catalogues possible experiments that could detect the effects. Among them are ones studying gravitational properties of matter on the Earth and in space.

After a year of concerns about his gaunt appearance, months of rumours about his declining health and a flurry of speculation a week ago that he may even be at death's door, Apple founder Steve Jobs has broken his silence to insist he remains firmly at the helm of the consumer gadgets giant.

He is suffering a "hormone imbalance", he said in a letter to the Apple faithful gathering at the annual Macworld conference in San Francisco yesterday. That is causing him to lose weight, he said, but he has already begun treatment.

Niko & the way to the stars

The animated Christmas movie Niko & The Way to the Stars has become one of Finland's most successful cinema exports of all time. With screening deals in more than 100 countries, it is already the most widely distributed ever.

At the end of December, Niko was the most-watched film in seven countries: Belgium, Denmark, France, Russia, Slovakia, Lebanon and Finland.

In France, the distributor has boosted the number of copies being shown to 391 after the movie drew 115,000 viewers in its first five days. In Finland it has attracted more than 200,000 people.