What do Kazakhstan, Israel and the north-eastern corner of South America have in common? Some people count them as European. So why do other countries fail to make the grade?

Kazakhstan, despite being in Central Asia, is a member of the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA). Israel is in both UEFA and the Eurovision Song Contest -- competing in the latter rather more successfully in recent years than, say, France or Britain.

And the South American area of French Guyana is legally a province of France, which makes it officially a part of the European Union.

Of course, critics would say that it takes a lot more than just joining a European organization to count as properly "European."

BERLIN: With Britain and Poland calling for a tough response and the German government divided, European Union countries prepared for a bitter exchange at an emergency summit meeting Monday on how to respond to Russia's invasion of Georgia and its subsequent recognition of the independence of the breakaway Georgian regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia.

The crisis in the Caucasus has rocked the political establishment in Berlin. The German government - a coalition of conservatives led by Chancellor Angela Merkel and Social Democrats - is split over how to deal with Russia, ending several weeks of unity.

The divisions in the country, which has close economic and political ties with Russia, mean that the government will be torn between taking a tough line against the Kremlin in Brussels on Monday and maintaining a dialogue with Moscow that would not please Britain or Poland, diplomats said.

London and Warsaw want to send a clear signal to Russia that the relationship between Moscow and the European Union will be placed under review. Other countries, particularly Spain and Italy, have adopted a conciliatory approach toward Russia, which analysts said only confirmed the impossibility of adopting a strong and coherent stance toward the crisis in Georgia.

With the Socialists in disarray, a young firebrand is now the best opponent of the French president

Seldom have France's opposition Socialists seemed in a more pitiful state. Overtaken long ago by the right, they were also being outflanked by the left last week as the public fell under the dubious spell of "the red postman".

Olivier Besancenot, the charismatic postal worker from Neuilly, an affluent suburb of Paris, has emerged as an icon of the French left, whose growing popularity has been an embarrassment to the mainstream Socialist leaders. They met yesterday in the western port of La Rochelle for an annual "summer university" debate to help to find a new leader.

The fact that Besancenot, leader of the Communist Revolutionary League, was in the throes of establishing an "anticapitalist" party committed to toppling the French state did not seem to damp enthusiasm among the public. Polls showed the radical firebrand to be more popular than most of the Socialist leaders, and he is ranked as the "best" opponent of President Nicolas Sarkozy.

London Mayor Boris Johnson unveiled a draft plan Friday to help the city mitigate and adapt to climate change. Johnson put special attention to water conservation, calling for mandatory metering, increased efficiency, improved drainage, and rainwater harvesting. He also envisions more trees and green space. Environmentalists said the adaptation strategy was a good step, but said measures to cut carbon emissions were missing from the equation. "It is essential that the capital prepares for the impacts of climate change," says one Friends of the Earth campaigner. "But Boris Johnson is also committed to cutting London's carbon dioxide emissions by 60 percent by 2025 in order to prevent dangerous climate change, and has so far failed to explain how he will achieve this." Some 15 percent of London is estimated to be at high risk of flooding from rising seas -- an area housing 1.25 million people, 480,000 buildings, 441 schools, 75 transit stations, 10 hospitals, and an airport.

Ryanair pilots have denounced as "insane" attempts to pressurise them into flying with less fuel by imposing a cap on their safety reserves.

The low-cost airline is saving money by curbing the discretionary rights of pilots to request extra fuel.

The disclosure, made in internal company documents seen by The Sunday Times, has led to claims that the safety of passengers is being compromised as the price of oil soars.

Details of Ryanair's policies emerged as the Civil Aviation Authority revealed that the number of emergencies declared in British airspace because of fuel shortages had doubled in five years. Last year, 27 planes were given the right to make priority landings, up from 11 in 2003.

The owner of the embattled opposition web site Ingushetiya.ru was killed Sunday after being detained by police, and his supporters promised massive protests that could lead to a sharp escalation in violence in the restive region.

Magomed Yevloyev, a prominent opposition member and staunch critic of Ingush President Murat Zyazikov, was detained in Ingushetia's main city of Nazran as he stepped off a plane from Moscow, his lawyer and friend Kaloi Akhilgov said by telephone.

He said Yevloyev had flown in business class with Zyazikov, a retired general from the Federal Security Service, and suggested that the two might have quarreled during the flight.

I was a bit shocked when I read the headlines about Russia assuming it had happened in Moscow or something, but Ingushetia is not exactly the epitome of political stability...

A vivid image of what should exist acts as a surrogate for reality. Pursuit of the image then prevents pursuit of the reality -- John K. Galbraith

LONDON (AP) -- Russia's conflict with Georgia and recognition of its small breakaway territories as independent states may have broad repercussions for separatist movements in the former Soviet sphere and around the world.

The crisis could give a jolt of energy to other breakaway regions, especially those with links to Russia, or embolden China to pursue a tougher line in Tibet and Taiwan in the absence of tough Western measures.

"Any country that has a potential separatist movement will view the events in Georgia through its own unique prism," Richard Holbrooke, the former U.S. envoy who mediated peace in Bosnia in the mid-1990s, told The Associated Press.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Cindy McCain said Sunday that Republican vice presidential pick Sarah Palin understands what's at stake in national security issues in part because she is governor of Alaska, located some 300 miles from Russia.

The wife of soon-to-be GOP presidential nominee Sen. John McCain also said she's "offended" by Democrats calling her husband elitist because of the number of homes their family owns.

Asked about Palin's credential, Cindy McCain told ABC-TV's "This Week:" "The experience that she comes from is with what she's done in the government. And also, remember: Alaska is the closest part of our continent to Russia. So, it's not as if she doesn't understand what's at stake here."

According to reports in the newspaper De Telegraaf, the country's intelligence service, the AIVD, has stopped an espionage operation aimed at infiltration and sabotage of the weapons industry in Iran.

"The operation, described as extremely successful, was halted recently in connection with plans for an impending US air attack on Iraq," said the report.

"Targets would also be bombed which were connected with the Dutch espionage action."

"Well placed" sources told the paper that a top agent had been recalled recently "because the US was thought to be making a decision within weeks to attack Iran with unmanned aircraft".

"Information from the AIVD operation has in recent years been shared with the American CIA secret service."

A Libyan "double agent" who was central to the CIA's investigation into the Lockerbie bombing exaggerated his importance in Tripoli's intelligence apparatus and gave little information of value, yet is still living at the US taxpayers' expense in a witness protection programme, according to previously unseen CIA cables.

Five months before the destruction of Pan Am flight 103 in December 1988, 27-year-old Majid Giaka turned up at the US embassy in Malta and "expressed a desire to relocate ... in return for sensitive information on Libya", in the words of a cable sent by a CIA case officer to his headquarters in Langley, Virginia, the same day. Mr Giaka claimed he was an agent of Libya's feared Jamahiriya security organisation, but it later turned out that he worked in the agency's garage.

More than 60 cables, uncovered in a BBC investigation, detail the relations between the Americans and a man later described in court as a real-life Walter Mitty. Mr Giaka, who said that he worked for Libyan Arab Airlines at Malta's Luqa airport as a cover, told the CIA that he wanted to remain in Malta. He promised he would co-operate fully with the CIA - in return for money.

John McCain's chances, which are proving to be better than anyone imagined, will depend heavily on two things: continued progress of "the surge" in Iraq, and the state of the economy. Fortunately for him, there are signs -- signs that do not yet qualify even as green shoots, but signs nevertheless -- that the housing market is finding a bottom, as Wall Street types put it. The fall in prices is slowing, nine of the 20 metropolitan areas tracked by the much-watched S&P/Case-Shiller index posted price gains in June, new-home sales ticked up in July, and the inventory of unsold new homes, although still high, declined for the second consecutive month. Nigel Gault, an economist with the forecasting firm Global Insight, told The Wall Street Journal: "We are starting to see some hopeful signs in parts of the country."

That might not be the beginning of the end of the housing crisis, or even the end of the beginning. After all, mortgage rates are creeping up; the banks face the enormous task of refunding almost $800 billion of their debt by the end of next year -- $95 billion next month; the list of troubled banks is growing; and Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae may face tougher terms from lenders and be forced to curtail their support for the mortgage market.

But most Americans are comfortable with their own circumstances as they return to work on Tuesday -- and to the job of deciding which man they want to lead the country in the next four years.

Hyper- [Murdoch Alert]

"Hooliganism" is the word used by one chareidi newspaper to describe the continued vandalism against the eruv in the Kiryat Yovel and Kiryat Menachem neighborhoods of the capital. This past Shabbos, the attack against the eruv was expanded to additional areas of the capital as well.

There appears to be a growing momentum in the battle against chareidim moving into Kiryat Yovel.  This past week, there was a protest outside Jerusalem City Hall during a council meeting, with secularists expressing their opposition to a chareidi school in Kiryat Yovel.

Once again, the eruv was torn and poles damaged, and an inspection on motzei Shabbos revealed significant damage in the two neighborhoods as well as the mehadrin eruv in other areas including Armon HaNatziv, Givat Mordechai, Givat Shaul, and Bayit Vegan. Most of the neighborhoods still had the religious council eruv, although there were actually areas without any eruv according to reports. Rabbonim lamented the fact that the acts of vandalism led to chilul Shabbos by some in areas that were left without an eruv as a result of the actions of the secularists.

Rabbonim will be convening in an urgent meeting on Sunday to discuss the alarming trend and the lack of response from Israel Police.

The Cuban weather service said one of its stations measured a gust of 204 mph (340 kph), the highest ever recorded.

Note that we learn this via the UK, not a US based media.  So what is wrong with this picture?

The government reported some minor injuries. But hurricane deaths are rare in Cuba, where evacuations are well-organized and begin early.

Ah!  That goes some way to explaining it.

"Beware of the man who does not talk, and the dog that does not bark." Cheyenne

Dear God,

The other night, James Dobson's organization asked all believers to pray for a storm on Thursday night so that the Obama acceptance speech outdoors in Denver would have to be canceled.

I see that You have answered Dr. Dobson's prayers -- except the storm You have sent to earth is not over Denver, but on its way to New Orleans! In fact, You have scheduled it to hit Louisiana at exactly the moment that George W. Bush is to deliver his speech at the Republican National Convention.

Now, heavenly Father, we all know You have a great sense of humor and impeccable timing. To send a hurricane on the third anniversary of the Katrina disaster AND right at the beginning of the Republican Convention was, at first blush, a stroke of divine irony. I don't blame You, I know You're angry that the Republicans tried to blame YOU for Katrina by calling it an "Act of God" -- when the truth was that the hurricane itself caused few casualties in New Orleans. Over a thousand people died because of the mistakes and neglect caused by humans, not You.

Some of us tried to help after Katrina hit, while Bush ate cake with McCain and twiddled his thumbs. I closed my office in New York and sent my entire staff down to New Orleans to help. I asked people on my website to contribute to the relief effort I organized -- and I ended up sending over two million dollars in donations, food, water, and supplies (collected from thousands of fans) to New Orleans while Bush's FEMA ice trucks were still driving around Maine three weeks later.

Half a million people in the Indian state of Bihar remain stranded in villages which have been devastated by massive flooding, officials say.

A BBC correspondent reports chaotic scenes as soldiers try to reach those cut off and people attempt to scramble from rooftops into rescue boats.

With 1.2 million people homeless, India is struggling to cope with the crisis.

The flood waters are spreading to new areas, and conditions in relief camps are overcrowded and unsanitary.

The floods are known to have killed at least 75 people in Bihar but the death toll could climb once the situation in remote areas emerges.

Bolivian President Evo Morales is to visit Iran, following a visit to Libya, where he met leader Muammar Gaddafi.

Bolivia described the trip to Iran as the Andean country's attempt to reach out to other nations "rejected by the international community".

For Bolivia's first indigenous president, his country and Iran are "two friendly and revolutionary countries" that are strengthening ties.

Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Mr Morales was a "dear friend".

Russia's claim that the U.S. orchestrated the conflict in Georgia has sharpened the dispute between the two superpowers. But despite close links between the U.S. and Georgia, their relationship in recent years has been marked more by frustration than coordination.

According to interviews with current and former U.S. officials, as well as with Georgian officials in Tbilisi, the U.S. for years has found the relationship with Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili difficult to manage.

From Mr. Saakashvili's ascent to power in the 2003 "rose revolution" to his assault this month on Tskhinvali, capital of separatist South Ossetia, his risky moves have often caught Washington unprepared and left it exposed diplomatically, U.S. officials say.

American frustrations have been matched by those in Tbilisi. At a crucial moment earlier this year, a lame-duck administration in Washington was unable to deliver European support to kick-start Georgia's membership in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. The Georgian president says he gave repeated warnings to U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and others that Russia would attack unless the West signaled strong support, including through NATO. These warnings, he says, went unheeded.

Democratic Rep.: Palin pick is 'direct affront to all Jewish Americans | Ha'aretz | 31.8.08

Democratic Congressman Robert Wexler of Florida lashed out Saturday at John McCain's choice of Alaska Governor Sarah Palin as his running mate, accusing her of supporting "Nazi sympathizer" Pat Buchanan, and branding the move an "affront to all Jewish Americans."

"John McCain's decision to select a vice presidential running mate that endorsed Pat Buchanan for president in 2000 is a direct affront to all Jewish Americans," said a statement by Wexler.

"Pat Buchanan is a Nazi sympathizer with a uniquely atrocious record on Israel, even going as far as to denounce bringing former Nazi soldiers to justice and praising Adolf Hitler for his 'great courage'".
Wexler went on to accuse McCain of having "failed his first test of leadership."

FEMA's degradation, from one of the government's most admired agencies to a laughingstock, wasn't an isolated event; it was the result of the G.O.P.'s underlying philosophy. Simply put, when the government is run by a political party committed to the belief that government is always the problem, never the solution, that belief tends to become a self-fulfilling prophecy. Key priorities are neglected; key functions are privatized; and key people, the competent public servants who make government work, either leave or are driven out.

Earlier this year Mr. McCain, as part of his strategy of distancing himself from the current administration, condemned Mr. Bush's response to Katrina. If he'd been president at the time, he says, "I would've landed my airplane at the nearest Air Force base and come over personally."

Um, that completely misses the point. The problem with the Bush administration's response to Katrina wasn't the president's failure to show up promptly for his photo op. It was the failure of FEMA and other degraded agencies to show up promptly with food, water and first aid.

To be fair, Republican plans to deal with Gustav by turning their convention into a "service event," perhaps a telethon to raise funds for victims, are a good idea. So is the Obama campaign's plan to mobilize its e-mail list to send aid and volunteers. But personal, voluntary aid is no substitute for an effective public response to disaster.

What we really need is a government that works, because it's run by people who understand that sometimes government is the solution, after all. And that seems to be something undreamed of in either Mr. Bush's or Mr. McCain's philosophy.

European health officials have said that Botox can have negative side effects, said to a German news report. The announcement came months after warnings against the wrinkle-smoothing injections were issued in the US.

The European Medicines Agency, based in London, found over 600 cases of negative side-effects with a potential link to Botox by August 2007, reported the German news weekly Focus in its edition to be released Monday, Sept. 1.

 

In 28 of the cases, the Botox users died.

 

Some 210 cases with a presumed link to the injection -- five of them lethal -- were reported by the Federal Institute for Medication and Medical Products in Germany.

Last month farmers around France announced that they had lost between 40 and 100 per cent of their oysters aged one to two years old.

According to oysters farmers cited by weekly magazine Marianne, the culprit is the triploid oyster, which is modified to give it three pairs of chromosomes instead of two, as is the case with common oysters.

"It's the triploid's fault", one was quoted as saying. "But one mustn't say that because the scientific and financial stakes are considerable".

According to Marianne, a disease linked to the triploid could have spread to non-modified oysters in offshore parks, although it gave no further details.

A growing number of oyster farmers favour the triploid, introduced into France in 1999, as it is grows much faster than other types and is sterile.

This means the oyster never becomes milky and mushy, as is the case with normal oysters in their reproductive period.

On the Road Again

Pump Prices Revive Appeal of Natural Gas on Capitol Hill and in Detroit

Motorists fuel their vehicles with natural gas in Salt Lake City. Fewer than 2,000 U.S. gas stations carry natural gas.

By Jordan Weissmann
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, August 26, 2008; Page D01

In the early 1990s, all three major American automakers started building clean and efficient natural gas vehicles. But when a new federal law failed to create an expected guaranteed market, the momentum died. Today, only Honda sells a model in the United States -- and in minuscule numbers.

Now, as drivers reel from the shock of high gasoline prices, natural gas vehicles are attracting renewed interest both on Capitol Hill and in Detroit. Proposed legislation and a new impetus at General Motors may bring a modest revival.

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Natural gas vehicles run on a normal internal combustion engine but have a special, high-pressure fuel tank that is cheap to fill. In April, the equivalent of a gallon of compressed natural gas averaged $2.04, compared with $3.53 for gasoline. They also emit 20 percent less greenhouse gas and less than a third the amount of smog than petroleum-powered cars. ....

The vehicles have some high-profile advocates. For months, T. Boone Pickens has plugged them as a key part of his plan to wean the United States off foreign petroleum.

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 Meanwhile, both Rep. Rahm Emanuel (D-Ill.) and Sen. James M. Inhofe (R-Okla.) have introduced legislation that would help increase the number of natural gas pumps at fueling stations and boost the number of natural gas vehicles on the road.

Many advocates, especially politicians, are attracted to natural gas because it is mostly a local resource. The United States gets 98 percent of its supply from domestic sources. And many think that recently discovered deposits of shale in Louisiana, Texas and under the Appalachian Mountains could keep the country self-sufficient for decades.

Glamorous rail journeys that evoke a bygone era have never been more popular. Now they are being joined by the Danube Express, thebrainchild of a former BR employee

Howard Trinder was bitten by the railway bug when he stood as a child in a Paris station and read down a departure board offering direct sleeper trains to Venice, Istanbul and Berlin. Throughout his subsequent 30-year career in British Rail, he retained his dream of reviving a golden era of rail travel, with its hand-built carriages and glamorous evenings in a restaurant car trundling across Europe.

Later this week, the improbable vision of this self-confessed "rail nut" son of a Durham ticket inspector will become reality, when the gleaming 12-carriage Danube Express, built at a cost of more than £5m from rolling stock that once belonged to the Hungarian postal service, pulls out of Budapest on its first journey to Warsaw.

The trip will herald the arrival of the first luxury train service in continental Europe since 1981, when the Venice-Simplon Orient Express - the modern successor to the 1930s express which epitomised high-end rail travel - was revived. The Danube Express will be the only opulent sleeper service operating between such evocative destinations as Berlin, Istanbul and Prague.

The European micro-state of San Marino has appointed its first Honourary Consul to Wales.

Federico Podeschi will be confirmed in the job at a ceremony in his homeland before travelling to Britain to take up his post.

As a consul, he will be charged with promoting the interests of San Marino and helping his fellow countrymen if they run into trouble while visiting the Principality.

But he is unlikely to be rushed off his feet. Officials estimate that among the 30,000 proud citizens of San Marino, only 300 live abroad, with just one family based in the UK -- and they live in Manchester, not Wales.

Ploughing through 38 books should provide an insight into the brain of the Tory party

This summer I decided to do something stupid: read the 38 books on the list that the Tory leader, David Cameron, issued his MPs for the recess. I must have been suffering from a chemical imbalance. I read fast. Still, 38 books was a stretch. But a lot was at stake: a glimpse into the brain of Cameron's Conservative Party, or at least how he would like them to think.

When I started I was worried. At the local elections I voted Conservative for the first time because a friend was standing as a candidate for Northumberland's new unitary authority. He did not win. I have learnt to live with the guilt, but I certainly do not want to vote Tory again. Would the Conservative reading list turn me into a Cameroonie? At the very least, would it make me want to send my sons to Eton?

Given that it was the summer holidays, unless I was prepared for my three children to divorce me, I knew that I would have to cut corners. My first insight into the Conservative brain at work.

Three of the books were not even "out". (Keen as mustard these Tories, recommending books that are not yet published.) Another issue was price. I decided against ordering one for £66.99 and another for £46.75, on the ground that the Shadow Chancellor, George Osborne, would not give any Tory the go-ahead for that level of spending commitment. I ordered the rest; including postage, it came to more than £500. So much money that I had to tell my commissioning editor that she could pay me for this column in books. This was not a good deal for a working journalist, unless the books made me such a convincing Conservative that I was selected for a safe seat at the next election. In which case, I would have to kill myself.