The European Union's employment commissioner on Saturday asked Germany to explain its decision to keep its labor market closed until 2011 to unskilled workers from new EU member states in eastern Europe.

"I am awaiting a concrete and detailed explanation from Germany," Vladimir Spidla told the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung daily during a conference in Bonn. "Germany must provide (an explanation), then I will see if the arguments are convincing," the former Czech prime minister added.

Earlier this week, the German government said it would ease rules for highly qualified immigrants from new EU states seeking work to fill yawning gaps in the German job market.

The government also reduced the minimum wage highly-skilled foreigners have to earn to secure a work permit to 63,600 euros ($101,200) per year from 86,400 euros.

The European Union is not prepared to make any more concessions on agriculture at next week's key round of global trade talks in Geneva, the French presidency of the bloc said Friday, July18.

"The EU has exhausted its room for maneuver in agriculture and cannot go any further. So we will not be making any further concessions," said Anne-Marie Idrac, a French government minister in charge of foreign trade.

Idrac was speaking on the sidelines of an extraordinary meeting of EU ministers, convened in Brussels to prepare the groundwork for next week's World Trade Organization (WTO) talks where 30 nations will try to salvage a set of long-floundering trade liberalization negotiations.

Those talks will address the so-called Doha Round, which seek to bring down global trade barriers.

European Commission president Jose Manuel Barroso has for the first time publicly admitted he wants a second term as head of the EU executive.

In an interview with Dutch daily NRC Handelsblad on Saturday (19 July), he said he feels "honoured and privileged" to serve as commission president.

"If today I had to decide about a second term, my answer would be 'yes'. Provided of course that I have the support of member states and the European Parliament. I have not said that before", he indicated.

"I will see whether the conditions are right to continue. And whether the Europeans want me"

He said however that it is "too early" to take a final decision on his candidacy since the appointment of a new commission president is only scheduled to take place after the June 2009 European Parliament elections.

Rome has decided that all Italians' fingerprints will be taken and figure on their ID cards starting from 2010, in order to respond to EU criticism about taking the fingerprints of Roma living in Italy, Le Figaro reports. Additionally, tougher measures against illegal immigrants have been adopted.

Sicily's Cosa Nostra is stronger than ever - but its new young bosses are doing `business' differently

On a sun-drenched morning last week in Palermo, the Sicilian capital, a bunker-like courtroom in the Ucciardone prison was the scene of a rare challenge to the mafia. Bosses and low-ranking "soldiers" stared fixedly from their steel cages as seven shopkeepers - hidden by shaded glass - identified those who had allegedly collected extortion money from them for years.

To date, 18 Palermitans - owners of bars and pizzerias, shops and car showrooms, even a street vendor who sells olives - have picked out their tormentors, for whom extortion rackets are the key instrument to control a neighbourhood.

One witness had paid the same mafioso for 22 years; a refusal would have meant a gangster holding a gun to his temple or burning his shop down. At best. One man, the son of an ironmonger, recently refused to pay - and subsequently found a video cassette of the Agatha Christie film A Murder Is Announced on the seat of his scooter.

Three German climbers kidnapped earlier this month by Kurdish rebels in eastern Turkey have been freed, the CNN-Turk and NTV television channels reported Sunday, July 20.

"(Turkish) Foreign Minister Ali Babacan called his opposite number in Germany, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, to tell him that the three German citizens are now in the hands of Turkish forces and are in good health," said spokesman Burak Ozugergin.

 

The trio -- Helmut Johann, Martin Georpe and Lars Holper Reime -- were seized by separatist rebels from the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) on July 8 during a climbing expedition to Mount Ararat in Agri province.

 

"Because of our heavy operations in the region, the PKK was forced to leave them on a hilltop and flee ... The aim of our operations has been to prevent the terrorists from taking the hostages across the border," said Agri governor Mehmet Cetin.

LAREDO, Spain: Four bombs exploded in northern Spain on Sunday -- including one outside a bank -- causing damage but no injuries, officials said. A caller earlier warned about the explosives, saying he was speaking on behalf of Basque separatists.

The first detonated without warning around 5 a.m. outside a bank in the northern town of Getxo, damaging a cash dispenser and breaking windows, the regional Interior Ministry said in Bilbao.

Five hours later, a caller warned fire officials in the Basque town of Muskiz that two bombs would explode in Laredo and Noja in the neighboring province of Cantabria, the ministry said.

A bomb exploded in the sand next to Laredo's beach-front promenade at around 12:20 p.m. In Noja, a device detonated at the beach around 1 p.m., and another bomb exploded at a golf course about an hour later, according to Cantabria's regional Interior Ministry in Santander.

Norway's Sovereign Wealth Fund has proven that big money can be invested in ethical ways. Others should follow suit

Many people think ethical investments are a worthy but inconsequential sideline away from the business of making big money - an indulgence for do-gooders. But the example of the second largest sovereign wealth fund (SWF) in the world, after Abu Dhabi's, may give them food for thought. Norway's Government Pension Fund, worth a dizzying £203bn, frequently flexes its ethical muscles.

The fund saves up nearly all the income from its oil and gas resources from the North Sea - the Nordic country is the world's fifth largest oil exporter and second biggest gas exporter to Europe. It invests nearly all the money outside its borders, to avoid overheating the domestic economy, taking only 4% of the fund's revenue each year to balance the annual budget. And when it invests its cash, it makes sure it's done ethically.

In 2006, the fund disinvested from US retail giant Wal-Mart because its labour policies, such as blocking employees' attempts to form unions or pressurising staff to work overtime without compensation, amounted to "serious/systematic violations of human rights and labour rights". The year before, it kicked out Britain's largest weapon manufacturer, BAE Systems, citing its involvement in the production of nuclear weapons. The fund does not invest in companies producing "especially inhumane" military equipment, such as nuclear, chemical and biological weapons, as well as anti-personnel landmines or cluster bombs. Neither does it invest in industries that harm the environment on a large scale. In total, about 25 firms have been kicked out.

The Ministry of Defence tonight confirmed another laptop with "sensitive information" on has been stolen while one of their officials checked out of a hotel.

An MoD spokesman said the theft from the Britannia Adelphi hotel in Liverpool city centre on Thursday brought the total of laptops stolen to 659.

On Friday the MoD admitted that 658 of its laptops had been stolen over the past four years - nearly double the figure previously claimed.

The department also said 26 portable memory sticks containing classified information had been either stolen or misplaced since January.

However, the MoD insisted its policies were "generally fit for purpose", and said all data losses were fully investigated.

European Union rules limited the ability of British financial authorities to cope with the crisis at Northern Rock, according to a pamphlet published today by a leading economist.

The fine print:

Prof Congdon's pamphlet was published today by thinktank Global Vision, which campaigns for a looser British relationship with the EU.

Global Vision director Ruth Lea said: "The health and stability of the financial sector is vital to the well-being of the British economy.

"Tim Congdon's paper shows that it is crucial to renegotiate our membership with the EU so we are free of EU involvement in our banking system."

Investors in UK bank HBOS have overwhelmingly declined the chance to buy new shares in the firm.

The top mortgage lender announced that just 8.29% of the new shares offered in its £4bn rights issue were taken up

KIEV, July 21 (RIA Novosti) - A Ukrainian opposition party has prevented foreign warships participating in a NATO naval exercise from leaving the Black Sea port of Odessa, the Bratstvo (Brotherhood) press service said on Monday.

Sea Breeze 2008, a NATO military exercise, began last Monday in Ukraine's Odessa, Crimea and Black Sea coastal regions. Two years ago, the Sea Breeze 2006 exercise in the Crimea was also disrupted by protests.

Ukraine and the United States are joined by 15 other countries for this year's exercises, which are due to end on July 26. Fifteen Ukrainian ships, four aircraft, 10 helicopters, and 500 service personnel are involved in the military exercises.

"On the morning of July 21, 10 Brotherhood boats blocked off the exit from the port of Odessa, where foreign warships are deployed, with the aim of preventing them from participating in the NATO Sea Breeze 2008 exercise," the party said.

It added that three boats were later detained, but the others continued the 'blocking operation.'

"The NATO drill in Odessa is being accompanied by numerous protests by local residents. This demonstrates the public mood in Ukraine over the government's course toward early admission to the alliance," it said.

KABUL, Afghanistan -- Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama says the situation in Afghanistan is "precarious" and "urgent."

In an interview broadcast Sunday during his first trip to Afghanistan, Obama said the U.S. needs to start planning now to send in more troops. He has called for an additional one to two brigades _ or about 7,000 troops _ to be sent to Afghanistan to help counter a resurgent Taliban and quell rising violence.

Obama told CBS News that Afghanistan has to be the central focus in the fight against terrorists.

He said the Bush administration allowed itself to be distracted by a "war of choice" but now is the time to correct the mistake.

The situation in Iraq seems to be improving. SPIEGEL spoke with Iraqi Prime Minister al-Maliki about his approval of Barack Obama's withdrawal plans and what he hopes from US President Bush in his last months in office.

SPIEGEL: Mr. Prime Minister, the war and its consequences have cost more than 100,000 lives and caused great suffering in your country. Saddam Hussein and his regime are now part of the past. Was all of this worth the price?

Maliki: The casualties have been and continue to be enormous. But anyone who was familiar with the dictator's nature and his intentions knows what could have been in store for us instead of this war. Saddam waged wars against Iran and Kuwait, and against Iraqis in the north and south of his own country, wars in which hundreds of thousands died. And he was capable of instigating even more wars. Yes, the casualties are great, but I see our struggle as an enormous effort to avoid other such wars in the future.

BARACK Obama embarks on a tour of Europe, the Middle East and Afghanistan this weekend - a feverishly anticipated audition on the world stage that includes the unprecedented spectacle of aUS presidential candidate addressing a huge crowd in a foreign city.

Yet for all the adoring throngs that are likely to greet the Democratic contender and the eight foreign leaders he will meet, the trip is aimed at voters back home, where Senator Obama's youth and inexperience have raised significant doubts that he has the gravitas, grit and sure-footedness to be their next commander-in-chief.

The 20,000km whirlwind tour, extraordinary for its timing midway through a general election campaign and the international media frenzy it is attracting, will take Senator Obama to Iraq, Afghanistan, Jordan, Israel, the West Bank, Germany, France and Britain as he seeks to bolster his national security credentials, one of his greatest electoral liabilities.

Should any of his hosts be under the illusion that the trip is not primarily a White House campaign event, Senator Obama, 46, is taking no foreign journalists. He has filled his campaign plane with US reporters, including three television news anchors, who are in discussions to hold prime-time interviews with him on consecutive nights.

A pamphlet warning Britons to leave the Middle East or face death has come to light in a stash of illicit propaganda.

The document does not hail from Basra or Baghdad, nor was it penned by the Islamists of al-Qaeda or the al-Mahdi Army. It was found in Haifa, about 60 years ago, and it was issued by the underground group led by Menachem Begin - the future Prime Minister of Israel and winner of the Nobel Peace Prize.

The document, which surfaced at an auction house this week, is addressed to "the soldiers of the occupation army" and aimed at British soldiers serving in Palestine, then under the British Mandate, preceding the establishment of Israel in 1948. The print has faded and the paper has discoloured since it was unearthed from a grove of trees in Haifa in the summer of 1947. Yet the language and the concerns remain current.

Bombings and murders by underground groups, such as Begin's Irgun, hastened the British withdrawal and the United Nations declaration that led to the founding of modern Israel.

In the second part of his interview to Pepe Escobar, investigative historian and military policy analyst Gareth Porter expands on what awaits Senator Barack Obama when he deals with the power of the national security state. Porter also examines what kind of movement and leader would it take to really try to change a very rigid system, and the proposition of Obama as a new Bobby Kennedy.

Colombia is preparing for what is expected to be one of the biggest demonstrations in its history.

Millions are expected to turn out, not just in Colombia but across the world, to call for an end to kidnapping and for peace.

Ingrid Betancourt, the French-Colombian hostage freed in a daring military rescue earlier this month, will lead protests in Paris.

The question is whether the rebels of the Farc group are going to listen.

EU Commission Chief Barroso urged trade ministers from more than 30 nations meeting for make-or-break talks in Geneva Monday to reach a balanced deal, warning that emerging economies too had to make a major contribution.

After nearly seven years of unsuccessful haggling, trade ministers from three dozen rich, poor and emerging economies will try to bridge massive  differences on farm subsidies, import tariffs and accessibility of markets at a meeting in Geneva which opens Monday, July 21.

Called the Doha Development Agenda or Doha round, named after the Qatari capital where the world trade talks were first launched with great fanfare and hope in 2001, the negotiations have been jammed for years.

At the heart of the deadlock lie developing nations' demand for lower farm subsidies and agricultural tariffs in the rich world. In return, industrialized countries are pressing that developing countries reduce import duties and make their markets more accessible to imported services and manufactured goods.

BETHLEHEM (AP) -- British Prime Minister Gordon Brown demanded Sunday that Israel cease settlement construction and promised more money to jump-start the battered Palestinian economy.

Gordon Brown, left, shakes hands with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas. 1 of 2

In his first trip to Israel and the Palestinian territories as Britain's leader, Brown repeatedly stressed that economics are key to Mideast peace, and said Israel should ease travel restrictions in the West Bank that have hindered commerce.

But his strongest comments were reserved for the settlements: "I think the whole European Union is very clear on this matter: We want to see a freeze on settlements."

"Settlement expansion has made peace harder to achieve. It erodes trust, it heightens Palestinian suffering, it makes the compromises Israel needs to make for peace more difficult," Brown said at a news conference with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in the West Bank town of Bethlehem.

At least 13 Afghan police and civilians have died in two incidents involving international forces, officials say.

Four Afghan police and five civilians died in an apparently mistaken air strike by international coalition forces in Farah province.

Separately, the Nato-led Isaf said it had "accidentally" killed at least four civilians in Paktika province.

The incidents are the latest in a series of controversial clashes involving foreign troops.

MOSCOW, July 21 (RIA Novosti) - Russian combat aircraft could return to Cuba in a bid to counter U.S. plans to deploy a missile shield in Central Europe, a Russian daily reported on Monday.

Moscow has strongly opposed the possible deployment by the U.S. of 10 interceptor missiles in Poland and an accompanying radar in the Czech Republic as a threat to its national security. Washington says the defenses are needed to deter a possible strike from Iran, or other "rogue" states.

"While they are deploying the missile shield in Poland and the Czech Republic, our strategic bombers will already be landing in Cuba," a high-placed military aviation source told the Izvestia newspaper.

Russia's Tu-160 (Blackjack) and Tu-95 (Bear) strategic bombers are both capable of reaching Cuba.

However, while the source admitted that the possibility of Russian bombers being stationed in Cuba was for now just a hypothetical possibility, he also noted that the rumors had not appeared from out of thin air.

The Internet is helping bring about a resurgence of the planned language Esperanto, long given up by many for dead. In Rotterdam, Esperantists are celebrating the 100th anniversary of the World Esperanto Federation.

The language that was developed in the late 19th century to bring about world peace was hit hard by Stalinist purges and Nazi ideology in the 20th. But its greatest blow was likely from something else:  a general lack of interest, not to mention the emergence of English as the global lingua franca.

 

But as speakers of Esperanto gather on July 19 for the beginning of the World Esperanto Congress in Rotterdam, they will be celebrating a resurgence of interest in the language as well as the fact that their world body has made it to the century mark, battered perhaps, but still kicking.

 

This "auxiliary language" owes its boost to the online world.

Week-long luxury package to Abu Dhabi takes travel to new heights - or new depths - of 'trophy tourism'

If you've spent the past few weeks desperately scouring holiday websites or Teletext for a cheap last-minute deal to somewhere sunny, look away now. A luxurious seven-star hotel yesterday unveiled the world's first US$1m (£500,000) holiday.

Abu Dhabi's Emirates Palace Hotel is offering an eye-wateringly expensive seven-day break for two people in what is being billed as the "ultimate holiday experience".

But what does spending so much on a holiday get you? For a start, it brings two first-class flights, a bit of mile-high champers and a booking in the hotel's most glamorous room, the Palace Suite: three decadent gold, silver and marble bedrooms interrupted only by a giant 61in plasma TV screen. It's a "palace within a palace", the hotel claims.

In return for parting with more than £70,000 a day, there's no need to throw a bag into the Teasmade as the round-the-clock dedicated staff will see to the refreshments between meals. Nor will you have to get up early to reserve a sun-lounger with a towel - your private butler will see to it.

GERLACH, Nevada: Five mustangs pounded across the high desert recently, their dark manes and tails giving shape to the wind. Pursued by a helicopter, they ran into a corral - unwilling recruits in an emotional debate over whether to thin, through humane means, a captive herd that already numbers 30,000.

The champions of wild mustangs have long portrayed them as the victims of ranchers who preferred cattle on the range, middlemen who wanted to make a buck selling them for horse meat, and misfits who shot them for sport. But the wild horse today is no longer automatically considered deserving of extensive protections.

Some environmentalists and scientists have come to see the mustangs, which run wild from Montana to California, as top-of-the-food-chain bullies, invaders whose hooves and teeth disturb the habitats of endangered tortoises and desert birds.

Even the language has shifted. In a 2006 article in Audubon magazine, wild horses lost their poetry and were reduced to "feral equids."

The Great Global Warming Swindle, a controversial Channel 4 film, broke Ofcom rules, the media regulator says.

In a long-awaited judgement, Ofcom says Channel 4 did not fulfil obligations to be impartial and to reflect a range of views on controversial issues.

The film also treated interviewees unfairly, but did not mislead audiences "so as to cause harm or offence".

Plaintiffs say the Ofcom judgement is "inconsistent" and "lets Channel 4 off the hook on a technicality."

Sicilian town surrenders in celebrity coup

As an image of local Mediterranean democracy in action, it was hard to beat. Under the deep blue sky of late afternoon, and beneath the solemn gaze of 100 or more local citizens packed into a courtyard shaded by lemon trees, the new mayor and the new town council of the little Sicilian town of Salemi had just been sworn in. Squashed into dark suits and ties, the councillors stood up one after another to give speeches of immaculate boredom.

Yet the national media had flown down from Rome, not something you would expect at such a parochial event. The reason: the new mayor of Salemi (population: 11,254), is Vittorio Sgarbi: one of the oddest and most colourful figures in contemporary Italy. In turn he has been art critic, TV talk-show host, powerful functionary in the Culture Ministry, leader of his own political party, and culture tsar of Milan. Sgarbi has made personal re-invention his trade mark. This is his strangest incarnation to date.

The new mayor has found jobs for some of his famous friends. Pouting quizzically at the crowd at this week's ceremony was Oliviero Toscani, the photographer whose reliably scandalous advertising campaigns for Benetton went round the world. He is Sgarbi's "executive officer for human rights and creativity". In charge of "urbanism and patrimony" is a Sicilian prince. The entourage also includes Graziano Cecchini, a "neo-Futurist" artist who gained fame when he dyed Rome's Trevi Fountain crimson last year; in Salemi, Sgarbi has appointed him assessore al nulla, "executive officer for nothing".

France's first lady Carla Bruni-Sarkozy has defended posing naked and claimed that boasts about her 30 lovers were poetic licence - in fact she has only had around 15.

In her most defensive interview to date, the 40-year-old former model tried desperately to pour cold water on her image as an international sex symbol.

Before her marriage to 53-year-old President Nicolas Sarkozy in February, Mrs Bruni-Sarkozy dated a long list of high-profile celebrities including British rock stars Mick Jagger and Eric Clapton.

Laurent Fabius, France's Socialist former prime minister, was also among her conquests and she once boasted that she preferred "polyandry and polygamy" - many sexual partners - to a husband or boyfriend.

(Hope you got pictures for Photoblog Friday ;-)

Interviewer: What do you believe is behind this recent increase in terrorist bombings? Helpmann: Bad sportsmanship