French President Nicolas Sarkozy has come under fire from the opposition after the Corsican police chief was demoted. The officer had failed to prevent a demonstration at the villa of an actor -- who happens to be close friends with the president.

 Sarkozy with his friend Christian Clavier. The incident on Saturday had been relatively harmless. A group of Corsican nationalists had invaded the lawn of a rich French villa owner and demonstrated for an hour before heading home. The event however is having deep political repercussions, far away in Paris.

The villa is owned by Christian Clavier, who happens to be a close friend of President Nicolas Sarkozy and by Monday the Corsican police chief, Dominique Rossi, had been fired. Now French opposition politicians are crying foul, accusing the president of inappropriate interference on behalf of a friend.

On Saturday evening dozens of nationalists had invaded Clavier's holiday villa to protest the "colonization" of the Mediterranean island by French holidaymakers, something that they had done before. Clavier was not present but he was alerted by his staff and he ordered them to serve drinks to the demonstrators who soon left the premises.

MADRID: A judge began gathering information on Monday about people who disappeared during Spain's civil war and subsequent dictatorship, seeking to produce a reliable list of those who were killed away from the battlefield.

The judge, Baltasar Garzón, issued a ruling seeking information from church leaders, mayors and other authorities about victims of General Francisco Franco's forces after his military uprising on July 17, 1936, touched off the war against the democratically elected Republican government.

Atrocities were committed on both sides, although the general's victorious Fascists are generally considered to have committed the lion's share.

Although Franco decreed that anyone who opposed him could face execution, there is no official record of how many people were killed by his supporters during and after the civil war. A historian said the Franco government listed 55,000 people executed or murdered by Republican sympathizers.

Germany's Social Democrats (SPD) are set to name charismatic Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier as their candidate for the chancellorship in elections next year, according to a report Tuesday.

SPD federal chairman Kurt Beck, who would under normal circumstances be the candidate, had agreed to work out the party's program for the September 2009 elections with Steinmeier, the

Financial Times Deutschland (FTD) reported.

 

It added that Beck would put forward Steinmeier's name shortly after the Bavarian state elections on Sept. 28.

 

Beck had previously indicated the decision on who would challenge incumbent Christian Democrat (CDU) Chancellor Angela Merkel would be announced "before Christmas."

The EU's signal to Russia might seem harmless at first sight, but it's tougher than it looks, says DW's Ingo Mannteufel.

At their emergency meeting on the Cacasus conflict, EU leaders decided to continue their negotiations with Russia about a partnership agreement only after Russian troops have been withdrawn from the Georgian heartland. Considering the sanctions against Russia that had been discussed and called for by some EU states ahead of the meeting, this decision seems like a relatively harmless reprimand. But it isn't.

 

It's a harsh and equally sensible reaction.

 

Bildunterschrift: Großansicht des Bildes mit der Bildunterschrift:  Ingo Mannteufel

The EU's course of action is sensible, because the bloc has avoided escalating the charged atmosphere between Russia and Europe even further. Sanctions would have simply escalated the situation, which would have been harmful for Russia and Europe. The EU, in its entirety, did not continue the "war of words" waged by Georgia, Russia and some European countries.

 

But the EU's decision is also harsh, as heads of state and government basically presented Russian President Medvedev with the choice of burying a political partnership with the EU or suffering a serious setback domestically.

EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - Parts of the Lisbon Treaty might be passed by the Irish lower chamber without a referendum, said Prime Minister Brian Cowen on Monday night (1 September) while in Brussels for an EU summit on the Georgia crisis.

Mr Cowen sees this as an option for his government after the No vote on the Lisbon Treaty in June. But he rejected as "speculation" any discussion at this stage on how the government will proceed, according to the Irish Independent newspaper.

Prime Minister Cowen believes parts of the Lisbon Treaty can be passed without a referendum

"The advice to government was that a referendum was required. We put the usual, general question to people and it was rejected," Cowen said while speaking to reporters, adding that his government was putting together plans for cross-party discussions on the future of the treaty.

The Irish premier and his foreign affairs minister also informed some of their European counterparts present at the EU summit that the Irish government was set to receive the results of its research on the referendum defeat, results that would be reported back to the European Council in October.

PARIS, Sept 2 (Reuters) - French President Nicolas Sarkozy wants Europe to play a stronger role in international financial markets regulation to strengthen governance rules and boost confidence, his office said in a statement on Tuesday. "The president supported the idea that political authorities should look into questions of regulation and financial stability at the highest level," it said in a statement after Sarkozy received a report on financial market stability. It said Europe should build up contacts with the United States, Japan and emerging economies "to assure coordination in approaches to regulation and supervision and to progress towards a convergence of norms and practices at the global level". Sarkozy asked Economy Minister Christine Lagarde to present the report, by the former head of the International Federation of Accountants Rene Ricol, to her European Union colleagues at a meeting of EU finance ministers in Nice next week.

Liberal and conservative MEPs in a key committee in the European Parliament have combined to recommend a dilution of proposed rules on capping carbon dioxide emissions (CO2) from cars.

Late Monday evening (1 September), the parliament's industry committee recommended that emission curbs on vehicles be applied only to 60 percent of a company's fleet of cars in 2012, rising to cover a company's entire fleet in 2015.

One car would count as three cars in the case of zero-emissions vehicles

The European Commission had originally proposed that the imposition of the cap apply to all new cars across the board as of 2012. The delay would not be the first won by the car lobby. Earlier plans, set in 1995, proposed a deadline of 2005.

New cars must cut CO2 emissions to an average of 130 grammes per kilometre, down from a current average of 158 grammes. Firms that do not meet the target were to be fined €95 per gram per kilometre over the limit, according to the EU executive's earlier proposals.

The UK economy is likely to fall into recession this year, according to the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).

The Paris-based think tank predicts that the UK economy will shrink at an annual rate of 0.3% in the third quarter, and by 0.4% in the fourth.

According to the latest official figures, the UK economy did not grow at all in the second quarter of 2008.

The working definition of a recession is two quarters of negative growth.

The gloomy outlook for the UK economy has pushed the pound sterling to its lowest level for two years against the euro.

Ten million French children returned to the classroom yesterday to find their lessons crammed into a four-day week -- a revolution that delighted families but drew criticism from experts.

In a scheme decreed by President Sarkozy, all primary and junior secondary children are being spared the unpopular tradition of Saturday morning classes. Since most schools are closed on Wednesdays, the majority will enjoy three days off school every week.

No other Europeans, except for a small minority in Germany and Luxembourg, follow a four-day week. French Lycée (senior secondary) pupils continue with Saturday classes. Children will still spend as much time in the classroom as the European average, but educators say that their learning faces disruption by being squeezed into two blocks of two days.

"They took no account of scientific research," said François Testu, a lecturer at Tours university and the author of Life Rhythms and School Rhythms. "Children need a rhythm and the four-day week creates breaks. It is doubtless a decision that pleases parents but they do not realise the damaging consequences," he said.

Italy on Sunday announced it will pay Libya USD 5 billion as compensation for its thirty year occupation of the country, which ended in thirty-year.

The compensation package would involve construction projects, student grants and pensions for Libyan soldiers who served with the Italians during World War II.

Indeed, this had all along been the material and emotional spirit from African leaders and academics during the fall of the last century in recognition of the mistakes that colonialism did to Africa since 19th century.

The Libyan success in getting monetary compensation for the exploitation of her resources by a colonial master has definitely raised the issue of whether other African countries should also not initiate a process of demanding adequate compensation from Britain, France, Portugal and distantly also from Germany and Arab slave traders for decades of colonial subjugation spanning the period 1914 to 1960.

cui bono? i wonder what contractors will profit off this huge new highway, italian ones maybe?

Peace is not the absence of war -- peace is the absence of fear. Ursula Franklin

Ukraine to increase rent for Russian Fleet by up to 25 times
From January 1, 2009, the Ukrainian leadership is planning to put up the rent for the Crimean territories where Russia's Black Sea Fleet is stationed, according to Russia's Nezavisimaya Gazeta newspaper. It claims the corresponding documents are being prepared by Ukraine's Ministries of Foreign Relations and Defence.

The rent price was calculated in 1997 and defined in the treaty of disposition of Russia's Black Sea Fleet on the territory of Ukraine. The calculations took into consideration the Ukraine's debt to Russia, which at the time was $US 2 billion, and the cost of renting port facilities was agreed at $US 98 million.

Currently, Ukrainian debt to Russia is estimated at $US 1.3 billion.

Nevertheless, Ukraine's former Defence Minister and now a member of parliament Anatoly Gritsenko says the country should pay off the debt and put up the rent - to $US 1 billion a year at least. His colleague Yury Kostenko believes the price should be $US 2.5 billion.

The ministries are facing the difficulty of deciding the exact market price as they have no list of objects the Black Sea Fleet is exploiting.

According to the treaty of disposition of Russia's Black Sea Fleet on the territory of Ukraine, concluded by Russia and Ukraine on May 28, 1997, Russia's Fleet is to stay in the Crimea until May 28, 2017.

On August 13, 2008, Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko signed a decree to introduce `a permissive mechanism' for crossing the Ukrainian border by Russia's Black Sea Fleet.

The decree announces that the fleet must inform the Ukrainian General Staff no later than 72 hours before the prospective crossing of the country's border.

It must also present a register of staff, armaments, equipment, ammunition and explosives which the fleet is carrying, the types of ships, any aircraft and the point and date of crossing the border.

It seems that the Ukrainian leadership is interested in creating the most uncomfortable conditions for Russia's Black Sea Fleet as its stationing in the Crimea may hinder the country's joining the NATO.

On August 15 Human Rights Watch (HRW) accused the Russian Federation of having used cluster bombs in the conflict with Georgia. These accusations were widely repeated in the 'western' media. The Russian Federation consistently denied any use of cluster ammunition. As it now turns out the repeated HRW accusations were wrong. The 'evidence' provided by HRW was based on pictures and misidentified ammunition in those.

The ammunition in question is of Israeli origin and was used by the Georgian military. The Georgian Ministry of Defense has now admitted as much. HRW now also acknowledges this in a new press statement. But it continues to claim Russian use of such weapons. It does so by pointing to its own older reports which clearly misidentified Georgian cluster ammunition as Russian made. HRW has still to show any proof for its continuing accusations against the Russian Federation.

Bangkok was braced for another night of unrest tonight despite the declaration of a state of emergency after one man was shot dead and scores were injured in street battles between supporters and opponents of the Thai prime minister, Samak Sundaravej.

The emergency decree came at the climax of a week of increasing instability in the Thai capital where opponents of Mr Samak are trying to force him from power. But the commander of the army insisted that he would not use force to remove thousands of demonstrators who have taken over the prime minister's compound in a brazen display of anti-government disobedience.

The Foreign Office warned British travellers to Thailand of likely disruption at airports and on railways, as trades unions promised to strike today in solidarity with the protesters

SAHARSA DISTRICT, India (AP) - Hungry villagers rioted, desperate families swam for their lives and chaos spread across a wide swath of flooded plains in northern India Tuesday as authorities mounted one of the country's largest relief efforts.

Soldiers and aid workers scrambled to reach hundreds of thousands of people still stranded on rooftops, trees and specks of dry land more than two weeks after monsoon rains caused the Kosi River to burst its banks and turn hundreds of square miles of Bihar state into a giant lake.

The road linking Saharia village to the rest of the hard-hit Saharsa district washed away Monday. Those who could braved the fast-flowing, neck-deep water, carrying bicycles above their heads and bags of clothes on their shoulders. Some swam out into the stream, dragging frightened cattle after them.

``The water came on Saturday, and since then no government officials have come to us,'' said Ram Bachan Rai, 60, a Saharia resident.

WASHINGTON: Amid rising tensions over Georgia, US officials are increasingly concerned that Russia is moving to rebuild one of the most dangerous features of the old Soviet Union's security structure - its alliance with Cuba.

Moscow has been signalling it wants to restore a relationship with Havana that included not only economic ties, but military and intelligence co-operation.

The relationship brought the world to the brink of nuclear war during the Cuban missile crisis of 1962, when Russia secretly installed nuclear missiles on the island. It ended when a weakened, post-Soviet Russia finally closed a massive electronic intelligence complex in Lourdes near Havana in 2001.

Russia "has strategic ties to Cuba again, or, at least, that's where they're going," a senior US official said recently.

I give this one a better-than 50% truth probability:

McCain Speechwriter Trying To Write Lines That Don't Lead To Creepy Smile | The Onion - America's Finest News Source

PHOENIX, AZ--According to campaign sources, Joseph Chappel, a 38-year-old speechwriter for Sen. John McCain (R-AZ), has spent the last two weeks attempting to combine words and phrases in such a way as to not provoke a tight-jawed, dead-eyed smile from the presidential hopeful. Dreading a repeat of last month's speech to a group of businesswomen in Ohio, during which McCain followed a mention of his wife with an awkward and eerie smirk, Chappel has avoided personal anecdotes for the new speech, omitted any mention of "God" or "this great nation," and cut several phrases that had the potential to draw the 72-year-old candidate's mouth open in a horrifying display of teeth and gums.

US Military presence Worldwide

Go and see picture and data...

Base? What Base?

Many of the US forces in Kosovo are posted at Camp Bondsteel, a huge base near the city of Ferizaj/Urosevac. Until the US invaded Iraq, Bondsteel was the largest US base built overseas since the Vietnam War. Yet despite its size, Bondsteel is ignored in the Defense Department's "Base Structure Report," its annual accounting of Pentagon property owned and leased worldwide. Bondsteel was built (and has since been maintained) starting in mid-1999 by KBR, a former subsidiary of Halliburton, the firm Dick Cheney headed before becoming vice president. At Bondsteel's Laura Bush Center for Education, soldiers can even earn college credits from the University of Maryland or Central Texas College and learn foreign languages, with classes available in Albanian, Serbian, and German.

Secret Activity

The US military has faced allegations that it runs a Guantanamo-style prison at Camp Bondsteel. Council of Europe human rights commissioner Álvaro Gil-Robles leveled the accusation in 2002 after seeing Muslim captives at the base. But the US has officially contradicted Gil-Robles' charges.

Lauren Booth, a human rights activist who is also Tony Blair's sister-in-law, said she is effectively trapped inside Gaza after being prevented by Israeli and Egyptian authorities from leaving.

She arrived in Gaza on a "peace boat" ten days ago carrying human rights activists who wanted to draw attention to the tight blockade imposed in Gaza by Israel. But when the boat left last Thursday she decided to stay.

Tony Blair currently serves as a Palestinian development envoy but it is not known if he has sought to intervene on behalf of his wife's half-sister. The spokesman for Mr Blair's office in Jerusalem was unavailable for comment.

"When I went to the Israeli checkpoint I was threatened with being shot four times," she said from a house in Gaza City.

"And when I went to the Rafah crossing (into Egypt) I had all the permission lined up at the top level but a lowly official stopped me from leaving."

She described as "fantastic" British diplomats in the East Jerusalem consulate, which bears responsibility for Gaza and the West Bank, for trying everything to get her out.

Thirteen of the 14 transmission lines serving the New Orleans metropolitan area are out of service due to the storm. This creates a situation where the New Orleans metropolitan area and a corridor along the Mississippi River between New Orleans and Baton Rouge have become essentially an island, no longer electrically connected to the rest of the Entergy system and the electricity grid for the eastern United States. This "island" is south of Lake Pontchartrain and includes Orleans, Jefferson, St. Bernard, St. James, St. John the Baptist, St. Charles and upper Plaquemines parishes, which are sometimes referred to as the "river" parishes. Entergy's Waterford 1, Nine Mile Point and Little Gypsy plants are now supplying all power to this zone because all transmission lines leading to and from there are out of service.

Palestinian Attack In Israel Part of God's Judgment, Said Recent Guest At Palin's Church

[...]

Describing a trip by his son to Jerusalem, Jews for Jesus founder David Brickner described the a July Palestinian bulldozer attack against Israeli civilians as part of God's "judgment."

On the other hand, from yesterday's Forward

Michelle Obama Has a Rabbi in Her Family
Capers Funnye, Leading Black Israelite, Is Aspiring First Lady's Cousin

While Barack Obama has struggled to capture the Jewish vote, it turns out that one of his wife's cousins is the country's most prominent black rabbi -- a fact that has gone largely unnoticed.

Michelle Obama, wife of the Democratic presidential nominee, and Rabbi Capers Funnye, spiritual leader of a mostly black synagogue on Chicago's South Side, are first cousins once removed. Funnye's mother, Verdelle Robinson Funnye (born Verdelle Robinson) and Michelle Obama's paternal grandfather, Frasier Robinson Jr., were brother and sister.

Pakistan's prime minister survived an apparent assassination attempt Wednesday when at least two shots hit his limousine as he drove toward the capital.

Officials said Yousuf Raza Gilani was unhurt and brought to safety after the incident on the main highway leading into Islamabad.

Zahid Bashir, the premier's press secretary, said two bullets struck the driver's side of the vehicle in a "murder attempt."

Georgian crisis to affect Russia-U.S. cooperation in space?
Tensions between Moscow and Washington are reaching as far as space. In 2010 NASA is due to retire the shuttle fleet that ferries U.S. astronauts to the International Space Station, but replacements won't be available until at least four years later.

The plan was for Russia to step in with its Soyuz spacecraft, but analysts say Congress may not approve the deal because of Russia's response to the Georgian conflict.

"It's a very tough spot for NASA because they really are not sure which way they will go. And no one really knows until the new president comes to office," said George T. Whitesides, Executive Director of the National Space Society.
...NASA is now looking to extend the shuttle programme beyond 2010, which is a potentially risky move."Most people acknowledge the space shuttle is an old vehicle. It's been flying since 1981 and many of its parts are getting to the point where they need to be refurbished. So, with each flight, the risks are higher," Whitesides added.

...But whatever U.S. Congress decides, NASA is in a lose-lose situation, as it will probably have to put politics before the safety of America's astronauts or the future of its space programme.

The villas are set in the Sicilian hills, with spectacular views over the Mediterranean. Your future neighbours could be celebrities such as Peter Gabriel, the Genesis singer, and Massimo Moratti, the owner of the Inter Milan football team.

And then there is the price: a tidy one euro apiece.

The catch is that you have just two years to restore the homes, which were abandoned after an earthquake 40 years ago.

Vittorio Sgarbi, the colourful Mayor of Salemi - just 72km from Palermo - hopes to attract buyers who had "both the aesthetic sensitivity and the economic resources to take part in this adventure".

Scientists are set to begin a hunt for the some of the world's rarest frogs in Costa Rica, including the iconic golden toad, last seen some 20 years ago.

A team from Manchester University and Chester Zoo are in Costa Rica to track down the highly endangered creatures.

BBC News will follow their trek deep into the cloud forests of Monteverde.

Amphibian numbers around the world have crashed, in part because of a deadly fungus. Costa Rica has been particularly badly hit.

Expedition leader Andrew Gray, from the University of Manchester's Manchester Museum, said: "Costa Rica's highlands used to be major biodiversity hotspots - but in many areas, amphibian populations have been completely decimated."

They are small and look more like art than innovation. But the mini-windmills built by a British company could soon be on roofs across Europe and the US -- if German energy giant RWE has its way.

 A small wind turbine like this one may be coming soon to a roof near you. They look a bit like attachments for a gigantic hand-held mixer. But at five meters (16 feet) tall and with a diameter of close to three meters, they are certainly too big for a kitchen cabinet. They would, however, definitely fit in backyards and city parks and on the roofs of houses and office buildings.

And if the German power company RWE has its way, there will soon be thousands of the funny-looking rotors installed in the coming months and years -- in Germany, in Europe and even in the US.

It is not, as one might be tempted to believe, a vast, futuristic art project. Rather, the odd-looking, twisting contraptions are the newest generation of high-tech wind turbines. In contrast to their cousins, these windmills are virtually silent, do not require long blades to catch the wind, and spin no matter which direction the wind is blowing. Even better, their modest size and weight mean they can easily be installed on rooftops -- and they can generate up to 10,000 kilowatt hours of electricity a year, enough to supply two low-energy homes, or a 20 person office, with power.

WAVRE, Belgium: With energy prices rising, François Massau, a local coal merchant-turned-builder who died impoverished and alone in 2002 at the age of 97, is enjoying a small measure of posthumous fame, though not here in his hometown.

In the 1950s, when few people talked about ecology or conserving energy, Massau built what was among the earliest revolving homes. He built it in 1958 for his sickly wife, a schoolteacher, so that she could enjoy sunshine and warmth (there often isn't much of either in Belgium) any time of the day or the year.

Today, as energy prices soar and the need to contain carbon emissions becomes pressing, revolving buildings have arguably become fashionable. In southern Germany, Rolf Disch has built a solar-powered rotating house; in Dubai, David Fisher, an Israeli-born Italian architect, plans an 80-story rotating skyscraper, the Dynamic Tower. Some call it sunflower architecture.

The innovative technology Massau pioneered was so effective that it still works today, and all three of the revolving houses he built remain operational. Yet, on the 50th anniversary of Massau's first house, there will be no ceremonies, no special tours or honors.

It sounds like the perfect excuse for a wandering eye -- a man's tendency to be unfaithful may be influenced by his genes, research suggests.

Men who inherit a genetic variant that affects an important attachment hormone are more likely than usual to have weaker relationships and marital problems, and less likely to be married, according to the research. Their wives and girlfriends are also more likely to be less satisfied with them as partners.

While the study did not look directly at infidelity, the findings suggest that male monogamy might also be influenced by variations in a single gene. The study's authors cautioned that any effect would apply only on average, and that it was impossible to predict whether any individual would be unfaithful or a bad partner on the basis of his genes.

The gene in question affects the receptor for a hormone called vasopressin, which plays an important role in social behaviour, pair-bonding and sexual attachment. Its effects were first characterised by studies of different species of voles. Although the meadow and prairie voles are close cousins, their sexual behaviour is dramatically different.

An Italian museum that barred a Muslim tourist because she was wearing a niqab which covered her face has introduced a "veil room" so visitors can be identified.

The woman, whose nationality was not disclosed, was with her husband and daughter when she was stopped by a security guard from entering Venice's Ca'Rezzonico museum.

He told her that for "security reasons" she could not be allowed in as the niqab exposed only her eyes and Italian law forbids the wearing of face-covering masks or hoods in public because of terrorism fears.

As a result of the outcry that followed the incident, Adriana Augusti, deputy superintendent of Venice Museums, has introduced veil rooms in Ca'Rezzonico as well as the Accademia and Oriental Art Galleries and the Archaeological Museum.

Veiled Muslim visitors are asked to remove their headdress in the presence of a female security guard before then being allowed to enter the gallery or museum.

Ms Augusti dismissed suggestions that the rooms were discriminatory and said: "It is all a question of security. I have given the go ahead following what happened at Ca'Rezzonico.

As Russia and the West warn of a new Cold War after the Georgian conflict, the BBC's Humphrey Hawksley in Moscow tries to imagine what it would look like.

A complex network of narrow tunnels broke out into vast, high-ceilinged chambers with the sides curved cylindrically like the hull of a ship

Evgenia Evlenteva strode past a row of old radiation suits hanging on pegs like raincoats.

With a bounce in her step and a torch stuck into her jeans back pocket, she asked: "Right, it's more than 60 metres (200ft) deep so do you want to take the stairs or the lift?

"Oh and by the way, the door weighs three tonnes. It's made of lead and metal, and it still works."

Solar panels are one of the least cost-effective ways of combating climate change and will take 100 years to pay back their installation costs, the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (Rics) warned yesterday.

In a new guide on energy efficiency, Rics said that roof panels for heating water and generating power are unlikely to save enough from bills to make them financially viable in a householder's lifetime. In the case of solar panels to heat water for baths and showers, the institution estimates the payback time from money saved from electricity and gas bills will take more than 100 years - and up to 166 years in the worst case.

Photovoltaic (PV) panels for power - and domestic, mast-mounted wind turbines - will take between 50 and 100 years to pay back.

At least in this case Palin (Michael) speaks the truth.  King Arthur sounds as whacky as Bush.

Do you English folks miss these good-old-days?  Might be coming back soon.

Welcome to ET, Paul Krugman