EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - European legislators in an influential parliamentary committee have voted to drastically scale back the EU's plans for the use of biofuels.

In a 50 to 2 vote MEPs in the European Parliament's industry committee on Thursday (11 September) voted to maintain a target of using renewable sources for transport fuel for 10 percent of vehicles by 2020, but legislators no longer assume that renewable fuel sources automatically means traditional biofuels.

The European biofuels industry is worried they are losing the argument

By 2020, two fifths of the 10 percent target would now have to come via cars that run on hydrogen or that use electricity from renewable sources such as solar and wind power, or from so-called second-generation biofuels.

MEPs also voted for a major review in 2014 of biofuel impact on the environment and on food prices before member states can press on to the 2020 goal.

Addressing the Hamburg Summit, a meeting of business leaders from China and Germany, on Thursday, Sept. 11, the elder statesman said China had made vast economic progress over the past 30 years.

He and other speakers called on European nations to intensify dialogue with China and improve relations, despite criticism in the West of China's human-rights policies, especially its controversial crackdown on protesters in Tibet this year.

France's Foreign Trade Minister Anne-Marie Idrac said the European Union was determined to step up investment in China as much as possible.

Spain's Constitutional Court on Thursday, Sept. 11, ruled that a plan by the Basque regional government to stage a referendum-like vote on the self-determination of the northern region was unconstitutional.

The Basque parliament had earlier approved the plan of organizing the vote on Oct. 25, 2008. The Spanish government and opposition conservatives lodged a complaint at the Constitutional Court.

Basque Prime Minister Juan Jose Ibarretxe said that if the Constitutional Court blocked the vote, members of his government would take their case to the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg.

The vote would have asked the Basques whether they approved of a negotiated solution to Spain's conflict with the militant Basque separatist group ETA and of Basque party talks on the region's right to decide its own future.

EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - An overwhelming majority of Europeans - 62 percent - consider climate change the second most serious problem facing the world today, a fresh EU poll has shown. However, they have little appetite for turning green when it comes to their lifestyle.

"There is a clear gap between what citizens say and what citizens are doing about fighting climate change," EU environment commissioner Stavros Dimas said on Thursday (11 September), while presenting the survey.

Although 61 percent of Europeans say they are taking some kind of action against climate change, it is limited to minor personal or financial effort such as separating waste for recycling and reducing consumption of energy, water or throw-away products.

Mr Dimas cited two main reasons for the inactivity - a lack of information about the causes and consequences of climate change and a lack of decisiveness on the side of public and private sectors.

The Ode to Joy, a snappy motto and a waving flag: this is the recipe for a proud and happy European citizen, MEPs have decided.

The European Parliament is to promote greater use of EU symbols in order to help people to identify with the union, even though the flag, motto and anthem have been criticised as the trappings of statehood. Scrapping references to the symbols was cited by Angela Merkel, the German Chancellor, and others as a key difference between the EU Constitution -- rejected by French and Dutch voters in 2005 -- and its successor, the Lisbon Treaty.

Their disappearance from the treaty has also been cited as a key reason by some governments - including Britain -- as to why referendums were not necessary on the new document. Writing in September last year Jim Murphy, the Europe Minister, declared: "Some may discount the significance of the removal of the EU flag and anthem and title of Foreign Minister [ in the Lisbon treaty] but these are another clear sign that the UK's vision of a Europe of sovereign states has won out."

David Miliband, the Foreign Secretary, told the House of Commons last July that "it is good that the symbols, flags and anthems, which distracted attention from the discussion of the European constitutional treaty, are done away with so that we can focus on what will make the EU useful to this country -- jobs, climate and energy, the issues that matter to ordinary people."

Britain risks falling behind Europe and the rest of the world socially and economically because of poor broadband internet connection speeds, according to a new study, writes Claudine Beaumont.

Connection speeds in the UK, Spain and Italy fall just below the level of performance needed to deliver a good online user experience, said a team from the University of Oxford.

The researchers warned that future generations of web applications, such as web-based television and streaming of high-definition videos, will rely on high-speed, stable broadband internet connections, and that failure to upgrade existing networks could lead to significant disadvantages.

Referring to France as the Catholic Church's "eldest daughter," Pope Benedict began his four-day visit to the nation by calling upon the French to rethink the separation of religion and state.

Greeted by French President Nicolas Sarkozy and his wife Carla Bruni when he arrived at Orly airport, the pontiff's visit to France comes at a time when the number of churchgoers in the country is plummeting.

Sarkozy made waves during a visit to the Vatican last year by calling for "positive secularism" in France. The twice-divorced lapsed Catholic suggested that religion had a place in public life.

Bildunterschrift: Großansicht des Bildes mit der Bildunterschrift:  France has Europe's largest Muslim population

With his plea on Friday, Pope Benedict continued Sarkozy's train of thought.

EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - The European Commission intends to extend the minimum length of maternity leave from fourteen to eighteen continuous weeks, while ensuring a full salary.

"Longer leave would have a positive impact on the mother's health in general," the draft commission paper, seen by EUobserver, says, adding that full payment of wages or salary would prevent women from suffering financial losses during their time away from work.

The minimum length of maternity could be extended from 14 to 18 weeks

Currently, the duration of maternity leave varies from fourteen weeks in Germany to 28 weeks in the Czech Republic and Slovakia, with the possibility of extending it to 52 weeks in some countries.

A parent does not earn her or his full monthly salary during the entire time, however.

Brussels describes its proposal as a "modest increase, which respects what many member states have in place".

An Israeli soldier has been removed from duty and jailed for two weeks for refusing to allow a Palestinian woman in labour to pass through a checkpoint.

The soldier was in command at the checkpoint outside the West Bank city of Nablus. The woman was trying to reach a hospital in the city.

She was forced to give birth at the checkpoint. Her baby was stillborn.

The Israeli army said the woman and her husband did not have the permit to allow the car to enter Nablus.

But the army said the incident, which occurred a week ago, could have been prevented.

Gordon Brown suffered a shattering blow to his authority today as one of his own whips called for a contest to replace him as Labour leader.

Siobhain McDonagh confirmed that she was among a growing band of Labour MPs seeking to trigger a leadership election in the party's conference in a little over a week.

As assistant government whip, Ms McDonagh is the first member of Mr Brown's government to publicly call for his removal.

Within minutes of the news breaking she was out of a job, a Downing Street spokesman saying that if she had not already resigned she would be sacked.

President Medvedev of Russia today likened last month's war with Georgia to the September 11 terrorist attacks on America, and vowed that the Kremlin would go to any lengths in future to protect its regional interests and Russian citizens everywhere.

Speaking to foreign academics and journalists at the giant GUM department store opposite the Kremlin, the Russian leader stepped up his defiant rhetoric against the West, which is fast becoming the hallmark of his short presidency.

"The world has changed and it occurred to me that August 8, 2008 has become for Russia what September 11, 2001 was for the United States. This is an accurate comparison corresponding to Russian realities," he said.

"Humankind has drawn lessons from the September 11 tragedy and other tragic events. I would like the world to draw lessons also from these events (in the Caucasus)," he said.

By this he means that in future he wants the outside world to take Russia's interests into consideration before taking steps, such as the eastward expansion of Nato to countries like Georgia and Ukraine and the deployment of US interceptor missiles to Poland.

Europe is the largest market for timber in the world. However, up to a fifth of imports are illegally felled from protected rainforests.

The European Commission was meant to bring forward legislation this week to end the trade inside EU borders.

But the vote was delayed and environment groups now fear it could be years before any decision is made.

Leading environmental groups including the World Wildlife Fund, Greenpeace and Friends of the Earth have written to President of the EU Manuel Barroso to demand legislation is brought forward.

Deforestation accounts for 20 per cent of all greenhouse gas emissions, more carbon dioxide than is produced by all worldwide transport, and the group fear that the EU's inaction on illegal logging signals wider complacency over climate change.

But perhaps what is newsworthy is the treasury police raid tonight in the offices of the left weekly, l'Espresso, after it published the confessions of one of the key "second level" figures who ran the illegal dumping racket in the Campania region for the past decades. Perhaps it's old age or he's just tired of seeing close associates assassinated these past months over the investigation into the Mondragone rackets. Whatever, Vassallo Gaetano is talking, and he's talking politics. He's got plenty to say about how parties handled illegal waste together with the Camorra.

Perhaps the most embarrassing case is of that grinning guy who always turns up in pictures next to super B when he goes down to Naples. As everyone knows, super B cleaned up Naples like Hercules in the Augean stables- and in less time than the good lord made the world. The guy in question is Nicola Cosentino, regional head of B's personal political entity, who according to Vassallo and others is up to his neck in illegal waste. I suppose that at his ripe age, B did need a helping hand. And who better would know how to clean up than he who made the mess in the first place?

Andreotti once remarked that to think the worst of someone may be a sin, but you're usually dead right.

I wonder if this will make the news. Grinning mobsters instead of tits and ass? No way.