German participation in air surveillance flights ahead of the Iraq War was unconstitutional, according to a Constitutional Court ruling. Parliament always has the final say in foreign troop deployments, the court said.

The German government erred in getting involved in the lead-up to the Iraq War without parliamentary approval, according to a Wednesday, May 7 decision from Germany's highest court.

The German center-left government under then-Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder should have gotten prior approval from the Bundestag, Germany's lower house of parliament, before taking part in a surveillance mission to Turkey in 2003, the court ruled.

EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - The European Commission has pushed back a decision on whether to permit three genetically modified crops, saying that additional scientific analysis on their effects on the environment and human health was needed before they could be approved.

One of the crops is a potato that produces extra starch - suitable for industrial uses and animal feed - and contains a gene that confers resistance to certain antibiotics, and the other two are maize varieties engineered to produce their own pesticide.

The commission asked its in-house food safety analysts, the European Food Safety Agency, to once again review the three strains - the third time it has requested EFSA review these particular crops.

In its previous assessments of the two GM maize varieties, EFSA stated that both varieties were safe.

"The commission will adopt these decisions if and when EFSA has confirmed the safety of these products," said commission spokesperson Johanes Laitenberger

EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - Slovakia has received formal confirmation that it is ready to join the euro on 1 January 2009, despite the "considerable concerns" of the European Central Bank about the forthcoming price stability performance of the country.

"The report finds that Slovakia has achieved a 'high degree of sustainable convergence' and therefore it is considered ready to adopt the euro in 2009," said the European Commission evaluation report.

It stated that "the budget deficit in Slovakia has seen a credible and sustainable reduction to below 3 percent of GDP," and its average inflation rate "is well below the reference value, and it is likely to remain below the reference value in the months ahead, albeit with a narrowing margin."

The levels of inflation in Slovakia were previously regarded as the most sensitive area of the Slovak candidacy, with Brussels urging Bratislava until the last minute to make more lasting cuts in the budgetary deficit to prevent future inflation hikes.

Nine million Europeans can't read or write, according to a recent United Nations report. Low levels of literacy are not confined to the fringes of European society, the report said.

While Euorpe has a literacy rate of more than 96 percent, serious disparities persist, according to a United Nations report released Tuesday, May 6.

 

Illiteracy affects nine million people in the central and eastern part of the continent, according to the UN's education and scientific agency UNESCO.

 

"Contrary to the commonly held assumption that only minority groups are affected, low levels of literacy touch mainstream European populations," UNESCO said in a statement.

France already controls 11 million square kilometers of the world's oceans, second only to the US. Now they want more, demanding the equivalent of three Germanys all in one gulp. It's part of a rush to divvy up the world's oceans by this time next year.

Oil reserves are running out, gas prices are soaring. France's government is reacting to the dwindling energy supply much like Russia and Great Britain: the government is laying claim to vast stretches of the world's oceans. In France's case, the claims span the globe: from French Guyana in South America to Africa and across the Indian Ocean.

Paris would like to see its Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) -- defined by international law as the ocean extending 200 nautical miles, or 370 kilometers, off a state's coasts -- expanded by almost a million square kilometers. That's three times as big as Germany, according to researcher Walter Roest of the French Research Institute for Exploitation of the Sea (IFRMER) in Brest.

Like many other states, the French government will be arguing in the next year that its geographic features in many cases extend far beyond the 370 kilometer zone. At most, that could mean an extension of its EEZ to 650 kilometers past the coastline. Right now, France claims more than 11 million square kilometers of the world's oceans -- the second largest in the world, after the United States.

Mikhail Gorbachev has accused the United States of mounting an imperialist conspiracy against Russia that could push the world into a new Cold War.
With Dmitry Medvedev due to be inaugurated today as Russian president, the Soviet Union's last leader said that the White House's claims of peaceful intentions towards its former superpower rival could no longer be trusted.
Delivering one of his most scathing attacks on the US, Mr Gorbachev told The Daily Telegraph that a US military build-up was under way to contain a resurgent Russia.
From Nato's expansion plans in the former Soviet Union to Washington's proposals for a bigger defence budget and a missile shield in central Europe, the US was deliberately quashing hopes for permanent peace with Russia, Mr Gorbachev said.

In what is becoming a game of brinkmanship between the United States and one of its closest European allies, a senior U.S. official said Wednesday that Washington was prepared to seek a different location for part of its planned antiballistic missile shield if the Polish government could not agree on the terms.

This was the first public acknowledgment by the U.S. State Department that talks with Poland had become difficult to the point of rupture because of tough conditions set by the Polish government over the location of up to 10 interceptors for the antimissile system.

"The United States would very much like to place those interceptors in Poland," Stephen Mull, the State Department official, said at a news conference in Washington after another round of talks over the issue.

Senior Polish government officials said Wednesday in Warsaw that they were extremely concerned that they were failing to persuade the Bush administration to finance the modernization of the Polish armed forces in exchange for deploying part of the shield on Polish territory.

They said it appeared that the administration and the U.S. Congress were becoming increasingly reluctant to link the deployment of the missile shield to upgrading Poland's air defenses, at a cost that could run into billions of dollars.

ROME: Conservative leader Silvio Berlusconi formed Italy's 62nd postwar government on Wednesday for his third stint as premier.

The 71-year-old Berlusconi will be in charge of a Cabinet that includes longtime allies and some fresh faces.

He faces the difficult tasks of kick-starting a sluggish economy, boosting productivity and cutting the privileges of a political class that is much maligned and largely discredited.

Franco Frattini, the outgoing EU Justice commissioner, will serve as foreign minister while Giulio Tremonti was named finance minister. Both return to posts they held in previous Berlusconi governments.

Berlusconi's right-hand man and closest aide, Gianni Letta, returned to his job of Cabinet undersecretary.

DUBLIN, Ireland: Finance Minister Brian Cowen was elected Ireland's new prime minister Wednesday, and he pledged to keep the country on its pro-European course through choppy economic waters.

Cowen won in an 88-76 vote in Dail Eireann, Ireland's parliament. He received support from all three parties in the government of his predecessor, Bertie Ahern, who stepped down Tuesday after 11 years in power.

A downcast-looking Ahern and lawmakers from all parties offered Cowen a standing ovation. Outside parliament, Cowen was mobbed by cheering, singing well-wishers as police escorted him to his prime ministerial Mercedes.

Cowen, 48, immediately reshuffled the Cabinet, appointing new ministers of finance, justice, foreign affairs and several other posts.

During his acceptance speech, Cowen's voice quivered with emotion as he noted that his political career began amid tragedy in 1984 when his lawmaker father, Ber, died of a heart attack. His wife, mother, two brothers and two daughters were watching from the public gallery above.

I reported earlier how government plans to close 38 railway branchlines even led to strikes, despite a last-minute announcement of a delay of a few months.

Now, after the break-up of the governing coalition, the first decision of the new transport minister in the new Socialist-only minority government was to delay the final decision over the 12 most threatened lines until the end of the year. (Ostensibly, to "have more time for negotiations with local governments".)

*Traitor*, n.
A benighted individual who perceives an illusory distinction between serving his nation and abetting the criminals who govern it.

The EU could subsidise coal and other fossil-fuel-burning energy companies to support the rapid development of a controversial technology that involves the storage of carbon deep underground or under the sea bed, according to proposals currently under consideration.

However, the proposals have been made at precisely the same moment that the bulk of the international environmental movement chose to come out with extensive criticisms of the technology, known as carbon capture and storage, or CCS.

UK Liberal MEP Chris Davies, the lawmaker responsible for steering legislation on CCS through the European Parliament, wants to see a short-term 'double credit' special arrangement introduced into the third phase of the EU emissions trading scheme (ETS).

This would enable power plant operators to not only benefit from the ETS by not having to buy allowances, having not produced any CO2, but they would in addition be given an extra credit note for every tonne, which could then be sold on the carbon market.

Report unveiled by the European Parliament says there is one marital breakdown and one abortion in Europe every 30 seconds

BRUSSELS There is one marital breakdown and one abortion in Europe almost every 30 seconds, a report that claims to chart the collapse of family life said yesterday.

In a survey of life in the 27 European Union countries, the Institute for Family Policy said that pensioners now outnumbered teenagers, and more people were living alone.

The report, The Evolution of the Family in Europe 2008, which was unveiled in the European Parliament in Brussels, described the European birth rate as "critical".

It said that almost one million fewer babies were born in the 27 EU countries last year than in 1980. There were six million more over65s than under14s in Europe last year, against 36 million more children than pensioners in 1980.

Pourquoi Sarkozy ? Et le pro-américanisme...

Sarkozy was elected because the French needed and still need to do some domestic housecleaning. Chirac was conservative in the sense that after some feeble attempts he didn't dare to reform France's labour and business laws.

The basic problems in France are due, on the one hand, to a cosy élite whose career path consists of moving between the upper echelons of government and business (a meritocracy, they are anciens éléves of the grandes écoles, similar to the old Chinese civil service) and, on the other hand, to labour leaders, who have managed to gain very advantageous labour contracts over the years. Ultimately, as a solution to the unmeployment problem, the French government enacted a thirty-five hour workweek. This reform resulted in even more problems for the French economy.

Sarkozy never made it into the meritocracy, while Chirac did. He had to scramble to get ahead. So he has a hard side.

Sarkozy doesn't speak English, while Chirac does (he spent time in the US). Perhaps the need to experience Americans second-hand has helped him to be pro-American.

Ultimately, whether a leader is pro- or anti- a country is a question of interests, not of love or admiration. Merkel for all her desire to be pro-American has continued the close economic ties between Germany and Russia (partly cemented by Putin's charm and excellent German). Now, she will be speaking Russian with the new leader, Dmitry Medvedev.

Albert Albertde May 7, 2008 - 3:30pm

Sarkozy's Presidential Anniversary: Sarkozy l'Américain? | The Agonist

Problèmes de la France

The French are facing numerous problems: economic, demographic, fiscal and social for a start. As part of the Euro bloc, they are affected by inflation (3.2% currently) caused in part by the oil crisis (le choc pétrolier). They benefit by being part of that bloc but are hurt by the largest trade deficit ever (€40 billion in 2007) while the Germans are enjoying a record trade surplus (€160.5 billion). Consequently, Germany has no interest in devaluing the Euro, whereas France would. France has a budget deficit of €63.2 billion (31 July 2007) as well. Another problem is the low rate of employment (under 70% of the population between 15 and 64). Finally, the demographic situation is not so much related to the growth of the population (about 2%) but to the inability of French society to deal with African immigrants from the largely Moslem Maghreb and Black Africa (e.g., Senegal).

Albert Albertde May 7, 2008 - 7:19pm

comments?

"It is time for a new Humanism, or we perish" -Albert Hoffman

The Society of St Vincent de Paul has reported a 70% increase in requests for help, as a direct result of the rising cost of living.

Since Christmas, almost 5,000 requests for assistance have been made to the charity in the Dublin area.

Between January and March almost 4,000 callers contacted the SVP in the Dublin area.

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That is twice as many as the same time last year.

Most people who called wanted help with paying rising food bills or higher fuel costs.

But critically many had not needed help for 10 years or more and many in employment were also seeking financial assistance.

The price of food is 9.3% higher than one year ago, bread is up 23% and milk is up 33%, electricity and gas bills have also risen by 12.3%. [RTÉ]

Further evidence of my increasing disconnect from reality: I had no idea  milk or bread had got more expensive - and I'm the one that does the food shopping.

The United Nations' terrorist lists and the way they are compiled are not infallible. Mistakes can be made. But what happens when somebody's name is wrongly added to such a list?

After the attacks on the United States on September 11, 2001, the fight against Islamic terrorists started in earnest. Lists of suspects, like those championed by the US and the United Nations, led the way in tracking down potential threats.

Terror lists contain data on persons and organizations suspected of supporting, financing or even being terrorists. But not all the information the lists contain can be trusted as accurate and sometimes the wrong information finds its way onto the list.

This is what happened to Nabil Sayadi. Sayadi lives in the quiet Belgian town of Putte, south of Antwerp. He describes the rural idyll with its apple blossoms and content chickens as his private island. Away from the pleasant surroundings of Putte, Sayadi faces the distrustful looks and probing questions of friends and colleagues.

This has been his life outside Putte ever since the United Nations put his and the name of his wife on its list of terrorist suspects. For five years, the Muslim couple have been suspected of being al Qaeda sympathizers, helping to finance the organization's jihad behind the facade of a charitable organization, Secours Mondial.

Fears were growing last night that as many as 100,000 people may have died in the catastrophic cyclone in Burma, even as the military junta continued to restrict access to aid workers waiting to enter the country.

The top United States diplomat in Burma's largest city, Rangoon, confirmed the figure and said as many as 95% of all buildings in the affected area may have been demolished. Shari Villarosa, the charge d'affaires of the US embassy in Burma, said there was a very real risk of disease outbreaks as the crisis continues. "There may be over 100,000 deaths in the Irrawaddy delta area," she told reporters.

The new toll came as UN secretary general Ban Ki-moon called on the junta to open its borders to aid workers and the US urged Asian countries such as China, Thailand and India to put pressure on the military regime. International frustration is mounting as disaster management experts fail to get the necessary visas to enter the country. Satellite pictures yesterday showed the bulk of the Irrawaddy delta - where most died - still under water. Planeloads of stockpiled supplies are on standby awaiting delivery to desperate victims, who have been living in water for five days. Delays in getting help to the survivors could spark a second humanitarian crisis, with an outbreak of waterborne disease in the tropical climate.

"Time is of the essence," said Ann Veneman, executive director of UN children's fund Unicef. "Children are highly vulnerable to disease and hunger and they need immediate help to survive."

Frustrated by years of on-and-off peace talks with Israel, Palestinians are losing hope for an independent homeland, and some are proposing a radically different cause: equal rights for Palestinians and Jews in a shared state.

A "two-state solution" has been the basis for Israeli-Palestinian negotiations for nearly 15 years and remains the declared aim of both groups' highest elected leaders and the Bush administration. But its advocates are increasingly on the defensive, and not just against militant Islamists and Jewish settlers who have long opposed partitioning the land.

Majorities on both sides dismiss the current U.S.-backed peace talks as futile. And a small but growing number of moderate Palestinians contend that Israel's terms for independence offer less than they could gain in a single democratic state combining Israel, the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.

As a result, the 60th anniversary this month of Israel's birth is a time of insecurity and flux. Conventional wisdom about the long-standing formula for peace is being turned on its head.

No Israeli leader accepts the idea of sharing power with Palestinians; nor has such a plan been offered to the Israeli government. But a collapse of the two-state effort would leave Israel in de facto control of a region where by the next generation, Jews will probably be in a minority.

The man being honored by 500 fellow Cuban Americans at a sold-out gala was Luis Posada Carriles, the former CIA operative wanted in Venezuela on terrorism charges and under a deportation order for illegally entering the United States three years ago.

Posada, 80, has mostly kept a low profile since his release from a Texas prison a year ago and a federal judge's dismissal of the only U.S. charges against him -- making false statements to immigration officials...

Venezuela's ambassador in Washington, Bernardo Alvarez Herrera, condemned the celebration of Posada as a mockery of justice and evidence of a Bush administration double standard in fighting terrorism...

The U.S. government has never given Venezuela a formal answer to its 3-year-old request for extradition of Posada, despite a treaty providing for such cooperation that has been in effect since 1922, the ambassador said.

Posada, a naturalized Venezuelan citizen, is alleged to have masterminded the bombing of a Cuban airliner in 1976 on which all 73 on board were killed, including a youth fencing team returning from a tournament in the Venezuelan capital, Caracas. He is also suspected of plotting a series of hotel bombings in Havana in the late 1990s, one of which killed an Italian tourist.

He has boasted of his many attempts to kill Castro and has allegedly been involved in, according to court documents, "some of the most infamous events of 20th century Central American politics."

Posada was serving time in a Panama prison for a 2000 assassination attempt on Castro when outgoing Panamanian President Mireya Moscoso pardoned him and three accomplices in August 2004 in what some observers saw as a favor to President Bush to rally the Cuban-dominated Florida vote for his reelection.

JERUSALEM: The Jewish people are marking the 60th anniversary of their national rebirth, the founding of Israel, on Thursday with the usual military flyovers, flag buntings and televised reminiscences of aging pioneers.

But there is another form of celebration planned, and its sponsors believe it says something about the national character: a three-day conference of some of the best minds from around the world on some of the biggest challenges facing humankind -- and especially the Jews -- in the coming decades.

"The brain enriches the pocket, not the other way around," Shimon Peres, Israel's president and the patron of the conference, said in an interview. "We are a small land and a small people, but we can become a daring world laboratory, and that is our desire and plan."

Nearly 700 guests are expected to take part next week in 35 discussion groups. They include statesmen like Henry Kissinger, Vaclav Havel, Tony Blair and Joschka Fischer, but also Sergey Brin of Google, Terry Semel of Yahoo and Rupert Murdoch, along with seven Jewish Nobel laureates and President George W. Bush.

Global food shortages, soaring prices and alarm over the environment. But every day, Britain throws away 220,000 loaves of bread, 1.6m bananas, 550,000 chickens, 5.1m potatoes, 660,000 eggs, 1.2m sausages and 1.3m yoghurts

A new study has exposed the staggering amount of food thrown away every day by the British public, calculating that the annual total of wasted products adds up to a record £10bn.

Each day, according to the government-backed report, Britons throw away 4.4 million apples, 1.6 million bananas, 1.3 million yoghurt pots, 660,000 eggs, 550,000 chickens, 300,000 packs of crisps and 440,000 ready meals. And for the first time government researchers have established that most of the food waste is made up of completely untouched food products - whole chickens and chocolate gateaux that lie uneaten in cupboards and fridges before being discarded.

The roll call of daily waste costs an average home more than £420 a year but for a family with children the annual cost rises to £610.

The Government's waste campaign Wrap (Waste & Resources Action Programme) revealed the extent of Britain's throwaway food culture after sifting through the dustbins of 2,138 people who signed up to an audit of food detritus. Other items on the daily list included 1.2 million sausages, 710,000 packs of chocolate or sweets, 260,000 packs of cheese, 50,000 milkshake bottles and 25,000 cooking sauces.

Brazil plans to massively expand the production of biofuels but environmental campaigners worry about the effect this will have on the rainforest. Germany's environment minister, who recently visited the country, thinks demand for cheap meat presents an even great danger.

When Germany's Environment Minister Sigmar Gabriel visited the Amazon research center in Belém, Brazil, cries suddenly drowned out the discussion over the dangers the rainforest faces. "Lower the food prices!" an angry crowd of people yelled, as they marched past the Goeldi natural history museum, waving red flags. At that moment Gabriel saw with his own eyes why his visit to Brazil is so politically explosive.

Global food shortages and the destruction of the rainforest have both recently been blamed on biofuels -- which happened to be the focus of Gabriel's negotiations with the Brazilian government during his one-week visit.

As a green giant, Brazil wants to climb the world league table of energy powers, using bioethanol grown from sugar cane. Around 70,000 square kilometers have already been planted with the fast-growing plant. In four years time the area is meant to grow to 120,000 square kilometers and by 2025 to 210,000 square kilometers -- around the size of Great Britain.

If it has a bill and webbed feet like a duck, lays eggs like a bird or a reptile but also produces milk and has a coat of fur like a mammal, what could the genetics of the duck-billed platypus possibly be like? Well, just as peculiar: an amalgam of genes reflecting significant branching and transitions in evolution.

An international scientific team, which announced the first decoding of the platypus genome on Wednesday, said the findings provided "many clues to the function and evolution of all mammalian genomes," including that of humans, and should "inspire rapid advances in other investigations of mammalian biology and evolution."

The research is described in Thursday's issue of the journal Nature by a group of almost 100 scientists led by Wesley C. Warren, a geneticist at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. The single subject of the study was a female platypus named Glennie, a resident of Glenrock Station in New South Wales, Australia, whose DNA was collected and analyzed...

In their investigation of the platypus genetic blueprint, the scientists found that its genome contains about 18,500 genes, similar to other vertebrates and about two-thirds the size of the human genome. The platypus shares 82 percent of its genes with the human, mouse, dog, opossum and chicken. Some repeated elements in the genome, the scientists noted, hold hints as to the chronology of changes in the platypus.

Of particular interest, the researchers reported, the analysis identified families of genes that link the platypus to reptiles (like those for egg-laying, vision and venom production), as well as to mammals (antibacterial proteins and lactation). The platypus lacks nipples; the young nurse through the abdominal skin.

Italy facing [EU] court action over mounting rubbish piles in Naples - Times Online

The rubbish crisis in Naples, where heaps of toxic and foul-smelling waste have been left rotting in the streets since Christmas, is heading for the courts after the European Commission announced yesterday that it was taking Italy to the European Court of Justice.

Italy's Prime Minister-elect, Silvio Berlusconi, responded by promising decisive action to resolve the emergency and avoid EU fines. The developments came as barricades and protests returned to the streets of Naples, amid public fury over the crisis. Firemen have been called out to dozens of fires over the past few days as desperate residents burn the rubbish mountains, which are a growing health risk as warmer weather arrives.

Melting glaciers release toxic chemical cocktail - New Scientist Environment

Decades after most countries stopped spraying DDT, frozen stores of the insecticide are now trickling out of melting Antarctic glaciers. The change means Adélie penguins have recently been exposed to the chemical, according to a new study.

The trace levels found will not harm the birds, but the presence of the chemical could be an indication that other frozen pollutants will be released because of climate change, says Heidi Geisz, a marine biologist at Virginia Institute of Marine Science in Gloucester in the US. She led a team that sampled DDT levels in the penguins.

Why are we asking now?

Kylie Minogue, the Australian actress and pop singer, has just been made a French cultural knight - or "chevalier dans l'ordre des Arts et Lettres". She cannot, unfortunately, call herself "Sir Kylie" but she joins the large battalion of foreign popular entertainers - from Ella Fitzgerald to Bob Dylan - who have been given France's premier, national, cultural honour. As Ms Minogue might have remarked: "I should be so lucky..."

What has Kylie done for French culture?

Er, rien. But France has a global concept of culture. You don't have to to be French artist to qualify to be a French cultural "knight". The order, created in 1957, is open to all people who have "distinguished themselves in the domain of artistic or literary creation or for the contribution they have made to the spread of arts and letters in France and the world".

In presenting her with the award, the French Culture minister Christine Albanel described the Australian singer as a "princess of pop", adding: "Everything you touch turns to gold, from your discs to your micro-shorts." This is thought to have been the first mention of micro-shorts during the formal presentation of a French national honour.

Mme Albanel also paid tribute, however, to Ms Minogue's courage in revealing that she was receiving treatment for breast cancer. The minister said she hoped that this would produce a "Kylie effect" in persuading more young women that they should seek cancer screening.

A gob-smackingly beautiful morning - just saw one of our three local roe deer picking her way through the mist on her way to an old abandoned orchard.

Summer's arrived here in Linlithgow with a rush, I'm full of hay fever (tree pollen) to prove it and the trees are green like we wouldn't believe - except every year we forget.....

Sebastien Loeb's long hair and stubble causes more of a row than Max Mosley

Its President faces possible deselection amid reports that he indulged in a Nazi-themed orgy with five prostitutes, but the governing body of world motorsport knows what really hurts its image: a driver who forgets