Aides to Ukraine's President Viktor Yushchenko have accused Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko of working in Russia's interests in a bid to become president.

Presidential spokesman Andriy Kyslynsky said Ms Tymoshenko had been co-operating with Russia by avoiding any criticism of its actions in Georgia.

He said she was counting on Moscow's support in next year's Ukrainian presidential election.

Ms Tymoshenko, currently on holiday, has not yet commented on the claim.

With financial markets in turmoil, it may not be the best time to be planning an initial public offering of shares in a government operation that just about every elected official in Germany sees as a political football.

But that isn't stopping Deutsche Bahn, the giant German railroad, from going ahead with what may turn out to be the last big privatization of former state monopolies in the largest economy in Europe, and probably the largest offering this year. The German government is hoping to raise €8 billion, or $11.8 billion, from the sale.

Hartmut Mehdorn, Deutsche Bahn's chief executive, said a furious round of road shows since the German parliament approved the sale in late May have convinced him that investors will lap up the 24.9 percent to be put on the block so that they can own a piece of a profitable company expected to chalk up more than €30 billion in sales this year.

Russia is not ready to accept the dispatch of 100 European observers to Georgia to monitor a cease-fire, French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner said Monday.

Kouchner described talks on the mission led by the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) as "difficult."

"The Russians are not inclined to accept" the mission of unarmed observers to bolster the eight OSCE monitors currently on the ground, he said.

French president Nicolas Sarkozy has used the ongoing crisis between Russia and Georgia to put the case for the EU's new treaty, currently facing ratification difficulties.

In an opinion piece in Monday's edition of French daily Le Figaro, Mr Sarkozy, who currently holds the EU's six month presidency, wrote that the Lisbon Treaty would have given the bloc the tools it needed to handle the Moscow-Tbilisi war.

 "It is notable that had the Lisbon Treaty, which is in the process of being ratified, already been in force, the European Union would have had the institutions it needs to cope with international crises."

He named the most important innovations as being the "stable" European Council President - instead of the current half-yearly system - " a High Representative endowed with a real European diplomatic service and considerable financial means in order to put decisions into force in coordination with member states. "

A German political consensus is not enough to counter the Russians. That would require, at the very least, a united European front. But that does not exist. Once again it becomes clear that German political policies cannot influence global politics when they do not reflect a united European position. It is already apparent in the committee sessions of NATO and the EU that Russia has successfully divided the rest of the continent into two parts.

The Eastern Europeans, Swedes and Britons constitute the core of Russia's critics. Germans, French and Italians, on the other hand, are pushing for an approach that would maintain dialogue with the superpower. In the cabinet session, Merkel said that the EU cannot afford to send such mixed messages.

But how does she intend to bridge the gap? Currently, Germany and France are not working together to create a strong backbone for European foreign policy. French President Nicolas Sarkozy has proven unreliable and no effective partnership can be forged with him. Recently, the French magazine Le Point quoted him as saying: "There are not many who are running the show. Bush's time is up, Blair is no longer there. Merkel, no, that's not it either. Actually, there is only me."

Such statements do not go over well in the chancellery in Berlin, especially since the inimitable Sarkozy, who currently heads the EU Council Presidency, did a slipshod job of negotiating the ceasefire between Georgia and Russia. He allowed the Russians to cruise their tanks through Georgia. In any case, Sarkozy has failed to gain the trust of Eastern European countries

François Fillon, the French prime minister, on Monday called on Europe to co-ordinate its response to the eurozone's growing economic malaise after holding an emergency session of his own ministers to examine measures to deal with France's faltering consumer confidence.

Mr Fillon said there was no need for a new domestic plan to relaunch France's stuttering economy. He said investing more public money would "solve no purpose" - the only answer was to continue with structural reform.

But as France holds the presidency of the European Union, Christine Lagarde, finance minister, will propose measures in the coming days that could be tabled at the next meeting of EU finance ministers on September 12 and 13 in Nice.

Ministers have been forced to delay the timetable for implementing Gordon Brown's eco-towns scheme, in the latest setback to the project.

A shortlist of applicants due to be published in October will not come out until next year, it has emerged. In addition, there is evidence that ministers may be starting to row back from their target of 10 towns.

The government had a long-list of 16 applicants, drawn up in April. Three of those dropped out but the Financial Times has established that three others - in Norfolk, north Yorkshire and near Cambridge - are facing difficulties.

The government admitted it was being forced to delay the announcement of its shortlist in a little-noticed line in a recent statement on green transport plans for eco-towns.

Supply of rental accommodation rose at its quickest pace on record in the three months to July, outstripping the increase in demand from tenants, according to the latest data from the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors.

Rics' latest lettings survey showed that many potential homebuyers had been forced into rental accommodation because they were unable to obtain a mortgage. Meanwhile, record numbers of homeowners were unable to sell their properties and were having to let them out.

"The wider housing market stagnation has compelled increasing numbers of would-be housebuyers and sellers to seek refuge in the rental market," Rics said. "As a result, activity in the residential lettings market is booming."

The increase in rental accommodation had not yet tempered growth in rental prices. Rics said rents had continued to rise at the same rapid pace as in the previous quarter.

But oversupply was expected to have an impact on rents in coming months. Rics' survey showed that a smaller proportion of surveyors expected rents to keep rising over the next quarter.

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (AP) -- Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf announced Monday that he will resign, just days ahead of impeachment in parliament over attempts by the U.S.-backed leader to impose authoritarian rule on his turbulent nation. An emotional Musharraf said he wanted to spare Pakistan from a dangerous power struggle.

"I hope the nation and the people will forgive my mistakes," Musharraf said in a televised address largely devoted to defending his record.

MOSCOW (AP) -- Russia's lightning war against Georgia looks like a military triumph: An armada of Russian tanks easily crushed Georgia's modest army in a show of muscle intended to punish its U.S.-allied neighbor, scare others and reaffirm Moscow's influence on its former Soviet turf.

But the conflict also revealed crucial weaknesses in Moscow's military preparedness -- including faulty intelligence, a shortage of modern equipment and poor coordination.

The swift Russian victory presented a stark contrast to the war in Chechnya in the 1990s, where Russian troops were bogged down for years, suffering a string of humiliating losses at the hands of lightly armed rebels.

When Georgia launched an offensive Aug. 7 to regain control of the breakaway province of South Ossetia, Russia responded immediately, sending thousands of troops and hundreds of tanks through the mountain tunnel that cuts through Russia's border with South Ossetia.

At the same time, dozens of Russian warplanes ranged over Georgia, attacking military bases, airports, communications and transport facilities.

KURSK/GORI (Reuters) - Russia said it had begun a military pullback from Georgia on Monday and President Dmitry Medvedev promised a "crushing response" to any future attack on Russian citizens.

The United States and France urged a speedy Russian withdrawal, the latest in a series of similar appeals which have had no visible impact as Moscow has declined to set a pullout timetable.

A senior U.S. official said there were no signs yet that the Russian forces had begun to leave. Georgia said they were broadening their presence.

ORLANDO -- Senator John McCain opened up a hard-hitting political attack on Senator Barack Obama's national security credentials and stepped up his rhetoric against the Russians in Georgia in a speech on Monday aimed at showcasing his ability to be commander-in-chief.

In an address to a Veterans of Foreign Wars convention, Mr. McCain criticized what he called Mr. Obama's "shifting positions'' on the troop escalation, or surge, in Iraq, and charged that when his rival voted against funding the troops in a single vote in 2007, he had tried to "legislate'' failure.

"This was back when supporting America's efforts in Iraq entailed serious political risk,'' Mr. McCain said. "It was a clarifying moment. It was a moment when political self-interest and the national interest parted ways.''

NEW YORK, Aug 16 (IPS) - When the Russian military launched a military invasion of its small neighbour Georgia -- operating at will in Georgia's secessionist provinces of Abkhazia and South Ossetia, as well as Georgia proper -- New York's Georgian-American community responded almost immediately by gathering outside United Nations Headquarters here to protest the invasion of their homeland.

Beginning Aug. 9, hundreds of Georgian-Americans have assembled across from the U.N. on consecutive days chanting such cries as, "Russia out of Georgia", "Georgia, Georgia, we want Georgia", and "USA-Georgia." Many of the demonstrators draped themselves in Georgian flags while others voiced more pessimistic messages through signs with such wordings as "Today Georgia, Tomorrow Who?" and "The World Has a New Fascist State: Russia."

NATO foreign ministers are to hold emergency talks in Brussels on Tuesday to reconsider the alliance's ties with Russia after its military offensive in Georgia which has raised hackles among some members.

NATO ministers are expected to pledge support for Georgia and criticize Russian intervention into the country at an emergency meeting, which is to take place in the middle of Europe's traditional summer break.

 

The meeting, called by the United States, comes amid warnings from Washington that the Kremlin risks compromising its role in Western institutions such as NATO, the World Trade Organization and the Group of Eight (G8) because of its military activity in Georgia and in the breakaway provinces of Abkhazia and South Ossetia.

Wall Street stocks fell sharply on Monday as investors soured on financials, worrying about possible dilutive capital raising by Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae.

The two mortgage giants were among the leading fallers, dropping to their lowest levels in nearly 20 years and dragging the financial sector down 3.6 per cent.

Fannie and Freddie fell 22.3 per cent to $6.15 and 25 per cent to $4.39 respectively while investors sold their holdings in other financial institutions.

Citigroup dropped 5 per cent to $17.62, JPMorgan slid 3.5 per cent to $36.74 and Bank of America gave up 4.6 per cent to $29.30.

Those losses came in spite of some takeover news. Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group, the biggest bank in Japan, boosted its bid for the part of UnionBanCal it does not yet own by 17 per cent to $3.5bn. The offer values the entire company at about $10.1bn. UnionBanCal rose 11.7 per cent to $73.18.

Cuba, one of the world's last surviving Communist states, is looking at watering down the generous social welfare system that has been a cornerstone of its economy for nearly 50 years, according to a senior government official.

Alfredo Jam, head of macroeconomic analysis in the economy ministry, told the Financial Times that Cubans had been "over-protected" by a system that subsidised food costs and limited the amount people could earn, prompting labour shortages in important industries.

"We can't give people so much security with their income that it affects their willingness to work," Mr Jam said. "We can have equality in access to education and health but not in equality of income." He said the emphasis on equality had helped maintain social cohesion during the 1990s when Cuba's economy came close to collapse after the withdrawal of Soviet assistance, but "when the economy recovers you realise that there is [a level of] protection that has to change. We can't have a situation where it is not work that gives access to goods," he said.

The growth of unit labour costs accelerated in most developed countries during the first three months of this year, adding to central bank concerns that rising pay demands could further fuel inflationary pressures.

Figures published on Monday by the Organisation of Economic Co-operation and Development revealed that industry unit labour costs increased by 0.5 per cent in the first quarter of this year across 26 member countries.

Unit labour costs measure how much employers pay workers for every unit of output they produce. When unit labour costs are rising, companies are faced with the prospect of either becoming more efficient, and cutting staff, or raising their prices to protect margins.

Central banks in a number of OECD countries have warned that they would raise interest rates if pay increases were too high.

Recent growth in unit labour costs follows a period in which they have remained largely flat or falling throughout last year. The last time there was such a large three monthly increase was in the fourth quarter of 2001, said officials.

Service sector labour costs also rose by 0.7 per cent during the first three months of this year, the same increase as in the previous three months but lower than the 0.9 per cent rise recorded in the first quarter of last year.

According to the OECD figures, industry unit labour costs rose in the US by 0.3 per cent in the first quarter, by 0.2 per cent in the European area and 0.6 per cent in Japan. In Germany and France, however, costs fell by 0.3 per cent and 0.1 per cent respectively. No figures were available for the UK.

Pakistan's president Pervez Musharraf stepped down on Monday after nine years in power, dodging his opponents' attempts to impeach him but deepening confusion over who will control the nuclear-armed state.

Announcing on national television that he had decided to resign "in the interest of Pakistan", Mr Musharraf said that, if he had decided to stay on, a political struggle could have dragged in the military.

Her [Condoleezza Rice] comments reflected concern among the US, its western allies and Pakistan's neighbours over how effectively the ruling coalition will be able to govern, given tensions between the main partners, the Pakistan People's party of the assassinated former prime minister Benazir Bhutto and the PML-N, led by Nawaz Sharif, also a former premier.

As well as the issue of deciding who will succeed Mr Musharraf, the government faces the challenge of Islamist extremism, managing relations with the army and a weakening economy.

However, confusion over who ultimately wields power in Islamabad highlights difficulties for the US and Pakistan's other partners in ­co-operating with a state that has nuclear weapons.

Ethiopia has emerged as one of the biggest victims of global inflation after food prices in the country nearly doubled in the 12 months to July, intensifying a hunger crisis that has already affected millions of people.

The crisis has been magnified by local factors - drought, hoarding, and a splurge of public infrastructure investment that has left the finances of the country's cash-strapped government under strain.

The food component of Ethiopia's consumer price index leapt 91.7 per cent in July from the same month last year, according to data released last week by the country's statistical agency.

High fuel and food prices are threatening to undo the benefits of economic progress made in recent years in many African countries, pushing more families deeper into poverty and leaving them unable to secure enough food.

In Ethiopia - ranked one of the 10 least developed countries in the world by the United Nations - the combination of inflation and a crop-killing drought had left just over 10m people out of a population of about 80m in need of food aid, the World Food Programme said last month.

Tactically there is much to be said - theoretically and playfully - for giving the Presidential election to the Republicans, yet controlling the Senate and the House. Reap what you sow.

A Republican President would be screwed every which way by the accumulation of phase shift problems - with absolutely no possibility of denial of responsibility. A Democratic President would be left with the shit and no solutions.

I am only saying that if you want to destroy the Repubs forever, wait till 2012. ;-)

You can't be me, I'm taken

An indigenous woman in Paraguay who says she was sold into forced labour as a girl has been made minister for indigenous affairs.

Margarita Mbywangi, a 46-year-old Ache tribal chief, is the first indigenous person to hold the position. She has been an activist for many years, defending her tribe's interests. She was appointed by the new president, Fernando Lugo, who was sworn in on Friday, ending more than 60 years of government by the Colorado Party.

"We are immediately going to help colleagues from different communities who are experiencing a difficult situation due to lack of potable water, food and clothing," she told local Channel 2 television.

The new minister said that as a four-year-old girl she was captured in the jungle and was sold several times into forced labour with the families of large land owners.

She told the television station that she had also been sent to school, so she could read and write, and was now studying for a high school diploma.

The new minister also identified indigenous land rights as a priority, as well as protecting forests. For an Indian the forest represents "his mother, his life, his present and future", she said. About 90,000 people say they belong to one of Paraguay's estimated 400 Indian communities, in what is one of Latin America's poorest countries, according to government figures.

Venezuela has seized control of plants and offices belonging to Mexican cement giant Cemex, as it proceeds with nationalising its cement industry.

Government officials backed by the National Guard took over the factories after talks ended without a deal. It comes a day after France's Lafarge and Swiss group Holcim agreed to hand over local subsidiaries to Caracas. Venezuela has begun nationalising several industries as part of a drive toward "21st-Century socialism".

Venezuela's Vice-President Ramon Carrizalez said Cemex had asked for $1.3bn for its Venezuelan sites, a price he said was "well above its real value". On Monday, Lafarge and Holcim signed agreements setting out the process for transferring majority shares in their Venezuelan operations to the government. Under the deal, Lafarge sold 89% of its local business for $267m, while Holcim handed over 85% of its unit for $552m.

KABUL, Afghanistan - Ten French ISAF soldiers were killed and 21 injured when about 100 insurgents attacked a patrol in Kabul Province on Aug. 18. Afghan security forces were also involved in the patrol.

Ever since Darwin, evolutionary biologists have wondered why some lineages have diversified more than others. A classical explanation is that a higher rate of diversification reflects increased ecological opportunities that led to a rapid adaptive radiation of a clade.

A textbook example is Darwin finches from Galapagos, whose ancestor colonized a competitors-free archipelago and rapidly radiated in 13 species, each one adapted to use the food resources in a different way.

This and other examples have led some to think that the progenitors of the major evolutionary radiations are those that happened to be in the right place and at the right time to take advantage of ecological opportunities.

However, is it possible that biological diversification not only depends on the properties of the environment an ancestral species finds itself in, but also on the features of the species itself? Now a study supports this possibility, suggesting that possessing a large brain might have facilitated the evolutionary diversification of some avian lineages.

<...>

"The most likely alternative," Daniel Sol states, "is that big brains enhance the rate of evolutionary diversification by facilitating changes in behavior, which would place new selection pressures on populations and favor adaptive divergence." Thus, in species with high cognitive styles, behavior might be, along with environmental factors, a major driving force for evolution.

I'm a non-PC kinda guy. Humour is about misunderstandings and disconnects between cultures. Humour is about the exploring chasms and crevices between world-views.

But this kind of simplistic cultural barbarism leaves me in despair.


You can't be me, I'm taken

In recent years, a small army of happiness gurus has lined up to proclaim the ills of modern society, and its failure to make us feel better. We have more money, say some, but family life has eroded. We live longer, but crime has risen. Some have even blamed affluence itself, arguing that the dizzying range of lifestyle options that we now confront frustrates the pursuit of happiness.

Yet contrary to the assertions of pessimists, newly released data, recently published in an article with colleagues from Jacobs University Bremen and the University of Michigan, shows that today's world is a happier one. From 1981 to the present, more than 350,000 people from 90 countries were asked about their happiness and their satisfaction with life as a whole. Among the 52 countries for which at least a decade of data is available, reported well-being rose in 40 cases, and fell in only 12. The average percentage of people who said they were "very happy" increased by almost seven points.

How is it that the world is getting happier? In the words of Thucydides, the secret of happiness is freedom. In each survey respondents were also asked to rate their sense of free choice in life. In all but three countries where perceived freedom rose, subjective well-being rose also. A chart, produced by the authors, shows how these increases in free choice and subjective well-being are strikingly related.

It is not at all surprising. Billions of people explore the Net every day. Links to links to links. Everyone wants eyes looking at them. Visibility is the Grail.

From here on in, assume that there is a condom between you and facts.

You can't be me, I'm taken

Note that the shoes will be destroyed to provide heat. ;-)

You can't be me, I'm taken

Grand Theft Bicycle

Mount the Borgcycle^TM and suddenly you are riding through a 3D recreation of a desert city. Choose between the roles of an insurgent, an invader or an onlooker. Change sides if you feel the urge! Ride through the chaos and join in on the hunt for the main targets: George Bush, Tony Blair, Steven Harper, Osama bin Laden, Saddam Hussein, Kim Jong Il (among others).

ScienceDaily (Aug. 18, 2008) -- A previously unrecognized group of air pollutants could have effects remarkably similar to harmful substances found in tobacco smoke, Louisiana scientists are reporting in a study scheduled for presentation today at the 236th National Meeting of the American Chemical Society. Inhaling those pollutants exposes the average person up to 300 times more free radicals daily than from smoking one cigarette, they added.

The discovery could help explain the long-standing medical mystery of why non-smokers develop tobacco-related diseases like lung cancer, said H. Barry Dellinger, Ph.D., the Patrick F. Taylor Chair of Environmental Chemistry at Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge.

[...]

Scientists have long known that free radicals exist in the atmosphere. These atoms, molecules, and fragments of molecules are highly reactive and damage cells in the body. Free radicals form during the burning of fuels or in photochemical processes like those that form ozone. Most of these previously identified atmospheric free radicals form as gases, exist for less than one second, and disappear. In contrast, the newly detected molecules -- which Dellinger terms persistent free radicals (PFRs) -- form on airborne nanoparticles and other fine particle residues as gases cool in smokestacks, automotive exhaust pipes and household chimneys. Particles that contain metals, such as copper and iron, are the most likely to persist, he said. Unlike other atmospheric free radicals, PFRs can linger in the air and travel great distances.

A report on growing disparities in the concentration of U.S. aluminum-can wealth, released Tuesday by the Department of Commerce, revealed that 66 percent of the nation's recyclable assets are now held by the poorest 1 percent of the population.

According to the sobering report, the disproportionate distribution of soda-can wealth is greater than ever before, and has become one of the worst instances of economic inequality in the nation's history. Data showed that over-salvaging of cans by a small and elite group of can-horders has created a steadily growing and possibly unbridgeable gap between the rich and the mega-poor.

"Although our nation's upper middle class actually consumes the most beverages, a staggering percentage of these cans wind up in the hands of a very few," said economist Cynthia Pierce, who worked as a consultant on the three-year, $14 million government study. "It's a troubling trend. And as a tiny fraction of the population continues to maintain its stranglehold on redeemable can wealth, it's a trend that shows no sign of slowing."

According to Pierce, the study points to a distinct economic advantage for the most can-affluent--those who possess the resources necessary to collect, transport, separate, and accumulate more and more cans than the rest of the population.

"Members of this exclusive group come from exceedingly poor backgrounds and have access to outrageously low levels of education, which makes them much better prepared to reap the benefits of digging around in garbage," Pierce added.

There are no words.

The rooster crows at MIDNITE. Ooooooooooh!