Poland's government gave formal approval to a missile defense deal with the U.S. on Tuesday before a visit by U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, the deputy prime minister said.

Grzegorz Schetyna said Prime Minister Donald Tusk's Cabinet signed off on the deal for Poland to host 10 missile interceptors at its regular weekly meeting.

It was the first of several steps required after negotiators last week reached an agreement following about 1 1/2 years of talks. The deal still needs parliamentary and presidential approval.

Those are expected to be formalities because both Tusk's Civic Platform party and the main opposition Law and Justice, linked to President Lech Kaczynski, support the deal.

Rice was due in Warsaw late Tuesday, and was to sign the deal alongside Foreign Minister Radek Sikorski and in the presence of Polish leaders on Wednesday morning.

Investors' gloom over German economic prospects has lifted this month, with recession fears receding, according to a closely-watched survey.

The improvement in the Mannheim-based ZEW institute's economic sentiment indicator - by 8.4 points in August to minus 55.5 points - added to evidence that Europe's largest economy might be over the worst of the economic downturn. German gross domestic product had contracted by 0.5 per cent in the three months to June, figures showed last week.

Financial market experts "reckon with a weaker, but all-in-all a robust development and, rightly, do not fear a recession," said Wolfgang Franz, ZEW president. A technical recession is defined as two quarters of negative growth.

Optimism about Germany's growth prospects may have been boosted in the past few weeks falls in the euro and in oil prices. Unlike the US, the UK and Spain, Germany has not seen house prices soaring in recent years - and so is at no risk of a property market collapse. German industry also appears to have escaped largely unscathed from the effects of global financial turmoil.

Boris Johnson was accused of plunging the London mayoralty into "complete disarray" after his chief of staff resigned on Tuesday, becoming the third senior official to quit City Hall in three months.

Tim Parker, the former AA chief executive known as the "prince of darkness" by unions for his job-cutting record, stepped down as first deputy mayor and chief executive of the Greater London Authority. He will continue to advise Mr Johnson on transport policy.

Rival parties seized on the fact that Mr Parker was the second of six deputy mayors appointed by Mr Johnson to quit.

Hazel Blears, communities secretary, said: "To lose one deputy mayor might be regarded as a misfortune but to lose two looks like carelessness . . . the new Tory administration in London is in complete disarray."

Mr Parker, who started in his new role only six weeks ago, admitted to London's Evening Standard he was "obviously disappointed but also realistic".

A fresh wave of financial jitters put European markets under pressure yesterday, sending banks and insurers tumbling and leading the wider market sharply lower.

Fears for the financial health of US mortgage groups Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac combined with a prediction by Kenneth Rogoff, the former chief economist of the International Monetary Fund, that the worst of the financial crisis could lie ahead sparked the sell-off, which escalated after poor US inflation data.

Irish banks, which are heavily exposed to the country's sickly property market, were battered. Bank of Ireland fell 7.1 per cent to €5.46, Allied Irish Banks dropped 5.2 per cent to €8.13 and Anglo Irish Bank lost 5.6 per cent to €5.66. Irish cement maker CRH, which has been hit by a construction slowdown across Europe, slid 7 per cent to €17.01.

Bulgaria Local Administration Discusses US Military Bases with US Officials
...Lieutenant General Gary D. Speer, the Acting Commanding General for the United States Army Europe and Seventh Army had a meeting Tuesday at the Novo Selo grounds with representatives from the municipal administrations of the cities of Yambol, Sliven and Bourgas.

Talks have been held with countries including Japan about offloading large numbers of Eurofighter Typhoons that the British Ministry of Defence has ordered but can no longer afford.

The talks, which officials say are at an early stage, underline the scale of the cash crisis facing the MoD as it grapples with an estimated budget deficit of £2bn.

The Royal Air Force, which had ordered 144 Eurofighters in two earlier contracts, is committed to buying another 88 as part of its membership of the Eurofighter consortium with Germany, Italy and Spain.

Severe financial penalties would be incurred for cancelling or cutting this number and the UK is sounding out potential buyers for all or part of its order.

Russia shuns Baltic drills, refuses to receive U.S. ship...MOSCOW, August 19 (RIA Novosti) - Russia said on Tuesday it will not participate in the NATO-led Open Spirit 2008 naval exercise in the Baltic Sea, and will refuse to receive a U.S. warship in the Far East port of Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky.

France distorts Georgian peace plan at UN - Moscow
Russia's ambassador to the UN says a French resolution aimed at ending the crisis in the Caucasus does not entirely reflect the six principles agreed by all parties. Vitaly Churkin made his comments after the UN Security Council held emergency consultations on the situation in South Ossetia.

Churkin said Russia would not support the revised draft resolution tabled by France. He said he was "amazed" by what "French colleagues were trying to accomplish".

He said they'd been working actively and productively together for the past several days on a draft resolution which would provide the support of the Security Council for the six-principles announced by Russia's President Dmitry Medvedev and France's President Nicolas Sarkozy.

"Then all of a sudden they move to this piecemeal approach and put together this very strange resolution which distorts even those portions of the six principles they chose to take out of the general context, attaching some political strength to it," Churkin said.

Typical for Westerners. They promise everything when shit hits the fan and then later they take it all back.
So they promised that Kosovo will stay in Serbia with their UN resolution 1244 and look what happened...
This resolution 1244 said:

Reaffirming the commitment of all Member States to the sovereignty and territorial integrity of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia and the other States of the region, as set out in the Helsinki Final Act and annex 2,
Reaffirming the call in previous resolutions for substantial autonomy and meaningful self-administration for Kosovo,

The scale of British water consumption and its impact around the world is revealed in a new report today, which warns of the hidden levels needed to produce food and clothing.

The UK has become the sixth largest net importer of water in the world, the environment group WWF will tell a meeting of international experts in Stockholm, with every consumer indirectly responsible for the use of thousands of litres a day. Only 38% of the UK's total water use comes from its own resources; the rest depends on the water systems of other countries, some of which are already facing serious shortages.

The study makes the first attempt to measure the UK's total "water footprint" and highlights the extent to which our imports come from countries which are running out of fresh water. It calculates that:

· Average household water use for washing and drinking in the UK is about 150 litres a person daily, but we consume about 30 times as much in "virtual water", used in the production of imported food and textiles;

· Taking virtual water into account, each of us soaks up 4,645 litres a day;

EUobserver: EU keeps ticking without Lisbon treaty, report says (08.08.2008)

Europe continues to work without the Lisbon treaty and the demise of the document would not be a catastrophe for the bloc, an influential think tank has said.

In an assessment of Ireland's referendum rejection of the EU treaty published on Thursday (7 August), the London-based Centre for European Reform concludes that "Europe works fairly well in many areas with the current treaties."

It notes that the 27-nation bloc continues to achieve results and "integrate" using intergovernmental bodies such as the European Defence Agency and through new laws such as those on liberalising the energy market in Europe or the Emissions Trading Scheme.

M. Borloo veut généraliser le "bonus-malus" écologique

Fort du succès du bonus-malus automobile, le ministre de l'écologie, Jean-Louis Borloo, a proposé à Nicolas Sarkozy l'extension de ce mécanisme à une vingtaine de familles de produits. Téléviseurs, ordinateurs, congélateurs, pneus, ampoules électriques feraient partie de la liste des produits concernés, encore tenue secrète par le ministère du développement durable pour éviter que les consommateurs réorientent leurs achats avant la mise en place de la mesure.

(...)

Les Français ont plébiscité le bonus-malus automobile, entraînant une progression de 45 % des ventes de véhicules consommant moins de 130 grammes de CO2 par kilomètre (le bonus versé par l'Etat peut aller jusqu'à 5 000 euros à l'achat du véhicule, le malus prélevé par l'Etat jusqu'à 2 600 euros). En huit mois, ce mécanisme a dépassé tous les pronostics : "On a abaissé de 8 grammes de CO2 la consommation automobile des nouveaux véhicules achetés, soit une réduction de 9 % de la consommation de carbone, mieux que l'objectif européen sur 2012-2020 !", calcule Jean-Louis Borloo. "Nous sommes en train d'inventer un nouveau modèle économique où le prix du marché ne rémunère plus seulement le capital ou le travail, mais aussi le capital nature", s'enthousiasme le ministre de l'écologie.

Introducing a rebate/fee system for new cars depending on their CO2 emissions has led to a massive change in buying patterns. Cars bought in 2008 have 9% lower average carbon emissions than those bought in 2007.

The intent is to lower the thresqhhold each year, to ensure continued progress, and to use the same system for other classes of goods. Sounds good to me.

In the long run, we're all dead. John Maynard Keynes

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - NATO agreed after U.S. pressure on Tuesday to freeze regular contacts with Russia until Moscow had withdrawn its troops from Georgia in line with a peace deal.

The alliance also agreed to upgrade contacts with Tbilisi but stopped short of accelerating its efforts to join NATO, an ambition which had enraged Russia even before the two-week-old conflict over Georgia's breakaway South Ossetia region.

"We have determined that we cannot continue with business as usual," the 26 NATO states said in a joint declaration issued after emergency talks in Brussels.

The statement did not explicitly refer to a U.S. demand to suspend contacts within the six-year-old NATO-Russia Council (NRC), but NATO Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer said it was clear such contacts could not take place at present.

"As long as Russian forces are basically occupying a large part of Georgia I cannot see a NATO-Russia Council convening at whatever level," he told a news conference.

BRUSSELS: After emergency talks here, NATO foreign ministers on Tuesday urged Russia to pull its troops immediately out of Georgia, saying there could be no "business as usual" between the alliance and the Kremlin until it withdraws.

After the meeting, NATO announced a new commission between the alliance and Georgia, intended to strengthen the country's ties with the organization.

The warning for Russia to withdraw came after days of mounting frustration among alliance nations at Russian defiance over its military action in Georgia.

Russia signed a French-brokered cease-fire, but Moscow has failed since then to remove its troops from key areas, despite promises that it would.

BRUSSELS (AFP) -- US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice warned Russia Tuesday it was isolating itself from the international community with its behaviour in Georgia.

"The behaviour of Russia in this most recent conflict is isolating Russia from the principles of cooperation among nations," Rice told a news conference after an emergency meeting of NATO foreign ministers in Brussels.

"When you start invading smaller neighbours, bombing civilian infrastructure, going into villages and wreaking havoc and (carrying out) the wanton destruction of (its) infrastructure, that is isolating.

"It is not an act of the United States or the European Union or anyone else to isolate Russia, it is what Russia is doing," she said.

Russia has accused Nato of trying to "whitewash a criminal regime" in Tbilisi and seeking to rearm Georgia's leaders.

Lavrov's remarks followed a meeting in Brussels of Nato foreign ministers on Tuesday in which they warned there could be "no business as usual" with Russia, and called for the immediate withdrawal of Russian troops from Georgia.

Sergei Lavrov, Russia's foreign minister, said: "Nato is trying to make a victim of an aggressor and whitewash a criminal regime - save a collapsing regime - and is taking a path to the rearmament of the current leaders in Georgia."

Ten French Nato troops have been killed in battles with Taliban fighters near Kabul, the Afghan capital, officials said.

The deaths on Tuesday resulted from fierce clashes that had started on Monday when an International Security Assistance Force (Isaf) patrol was attacked in the Sarobi district, located about 50km east of the capital.

Most of the 3,000 French troops part of the 40-nation Nato-led Isaf force are in Kabul province, which includes Sarobi, and also Kapisa province, northeast of the capital.

Around 21 soldiers were also wounded in the battles.

It's a novel way to take your own life. Just as Russia demonstrates what happens to former minions that annoy it, Poland agrees to host a US missile defence base. The Russians, as Poland expected, respond to this proposal by offering to turn the country into a parking lot. This proves that the missile defence system is necessary after all: it will stop the missiles Russia will now aim at Poland, the Czech Republic and the UK in response to, er, their involvement in the missile defence system.

The American government insists that the interceptors, which will be stationed on the Baltic coast, have nothing to do with Russia: their purpose is to defend Europe and the US against the intercontinental ballistic missiles Iran and North Korea don't possess. This is why they are being placed in Poland, which, as every geography student in Texas knows, shares a border with both rogue states.

They permit us to look forward to a glowing future, in which missile defence, according to the Pentagon, will "protect our homeland ... and our friends and allies from ballistic missile attack"; as long as the Russians wait until it's working before they nuke us. The good news is that, at the present rate of progress, reliable missile defence is only 50 years away. The bad news is that it has been 50 years away for the past six decades.

These days Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin is often compared -- unfairly -- with Stalin and Hitler. In truth, Putin is a Russian Kennedy. And Putin's Cuba is called Georgia.

Russia's invasion of Georgia has brought lovers of historical comparisons out of the woodwork. Swedish Foreign Minister Carl Bildt, for one, compared Vladimir Putin with Hitler. And former US National Security Advisor Zbigniew Brzezinski felt reminded of Stalin's treatment of Finland.

But these analogies have more to say about the West's mood than about Putin. Although it may sound bold at first, and although the Americans won't like hearing it, the Vladimir Putin the world has experienced in recent days bears the strongest resemblance to former US President John F. Kennedy in the years 1961 and 1962.

First, the youthful Kennedy was seen as the embodiment of a new America, just as the wiry Putin represents Russia's revival. Kennedy was and Putin is deeply popular among his own citizens.

U.S. builders broke ground on the fewest new homes in 17 years and producer prices climbed the most since 1981, providing no sign of an economic recovery or easing inflation.

Housing starts fell 11 percent in July to an annual rate of 965,000, the Commerce Department said today in Washington. The Labor Department reported the producer price index jumped 9.8 percent from a year before.

Compared with July 2007, work began on 30 percent fewer homes. Building permits, a sign of future construction, also fell in July, the Commerce Department reported. They were down 18 percent to a 937,000 annual pace.

Starts were projected to fall to a 960,000 annual pace, according to the median forecast of 77 economists polled by Bloomberg News. The median estimate for permits was 970,000.

Renewable energy could electrify California economy and job market, report says

By Margot Roosevelt and Tami Abdollah, Los Angeles Times Staff Writers   August 19, 2008

If California requires its utilities to get one-third of their energy from solar, wind, geothermal and other renewable sources rather than coal or gas, will that help or hurt the state economically?

A struggle is underway to influence public opinion, with business interests saying it would cost consumers in higher electric bills, and environmental groups touting the jobs that clean-tech industry would bring to the state.

A report, "Harvesting California's Renewable Energy Resources: A Green Jobs Business Plan," was released Friday by the Center for Energy Efficiency and Renewable Technologies, a Sacramento-based nonprofit.

It surveys major studies and concludes that if California gets a third of its power from renewable sources by 2020, as pending legislation would require, as much as $60 billion would be pumped into the state economy. Manufacturing could increase by 200,000 jobs.

California is requiring utilities to reach 20% renewable energy by 2010.

But the Air Resources Board says that is not enough to reduce the state's greenhouse gas emissions to 1990 levels, as the law requires.

There are some interesting links in the linked article.

If sanity be culturally normative, then by the norms of this culture I claim insanity.

NATO can't agree on sanctions against Russia

    * Posted on Tuesday, August 19, 2008
By Jonathan S. Landay | McClatchy Newspapers

BRUSSELS, Belgium -- NATO declared Tuesday that it cannot have normal relations with Russia while its troops occupy large parts of Georgia, but alliance foreign ministers failed to terminate any cooperative programs.

The outcome of the emergency session called by the Bush administration indicated continuing divisions within the 26-nation even as Moscow has failed to withdraw its forces under a French-brokered ceasefire agreement.

Russia's representative to NATO, Dmitry Rogozin, made light of the western alliance's indecision. "The mountain gave birth to a mouse," he told reporters.

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The foreign ministers affirmed NATO's opposition to any resolution to the conflict that would allow South Ossetia and another pro-Moscow rebel province, Abkhazia, to secede and join Russia, as the enclave leaders are demanding.

"A peaceful and lasting solution . . . must be "based on full respect for the principles of Georgia