Italy's top court has begun reviewing a law that grants Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi immunity from prosecution while in office.

The immunity law enabled Mr Berlusconi to withdraw from a number of court cases, including one where he was accused of corruption.

Opponents say immunity violates the principle that all citizens are equal before the law.

If Mr Berlusconi loses, his advisers say he may have to resign.

Observers say that is unlikely, though a ruling against Mr Berlusconi could leave him weakened.

Sunday's elections in Greece have put the social democratic PASOK party back in power after a five-year hiatus, and new Prime Minister George Papandreou promises to lead the country out of the economic abyss. But few German commentators think he will have either the means or the will to carry out the reforms the country really needs.

Recent elections in Europe have seen center-left parties take a beating from their conservative competitors. But two countries have bucked the trend. Portugal's Socialists held on to power in an election in late September. And now Greece's social democratic party PASOK, the Panhellenic Socialist Movement, has trounced the ruling conservative party, the New Democracy, led by Costas Karamanlis.

The elections held Sunday saw PASOK take 43.92 percent of the vote -- which will give it 160 of the parliament's 300 seats -- as compared to the 33.48 percent won by New Democracy. On Tuesday, PASOK leader George Papandreou was sworn in as prime minister and will announce his cabinet choices.

The 57-year-old former foreign minister belongs to one of Greece's major political families. Both his father and grandfather served several terms as prime minister for PASOK, which ruled Greece for most of the 1980s, 1990s and early 2000s.

EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - Several thousand dairy farmers from across the continent on Monday drove their tractors to the heart of the European quarter in Brussels, where EU agriculture ministers were meeting informally to discuss a response to the crisis in the milk sector.

While the Schuman roundabout, home to the Council of Ministers building, was filled with black, acrid smoke from a pair of bonfires of straw-filled rubber tyres, agricultural vehicles draped in angry banners and flat-bed trucks bearing German black-red-and-gold fibre-glass cows blocked the streets.

The younger farmers hurled bottles, bags of grain and potted plants at a phalanx of riot police with shields and gas-masks at hand, while razor-wire barricades protected the council building and water cannon lay ready in case the trouble escalated.

Following a peak in milk prices in mid-2008, world markets have seen a sharp decline. A recent drop of some 40 percent has pushed milk prices to 1992 levels. The development will have robbed European dairy producers of some €14 billion by the end of the year, according to Copa and Cogeca, the European farmers' associations.

It's one of Europe's longest-running disputes, but the icy relations between Turkey and Armenia could be thawing out. Turkey has said an agreement to re-establish diplomatic ties with Armenia will be signed on Saturday. 

Ana, a nanny for a Turkish family in Istanbul, is one of thousands of Armenians forced to look for work abroad because of Turkey's trade embargo against Armenia. She says life in Istanbul is hard, because of the closed frontier between the two nations.

"We are illegal and earn very little money, and you always have to avoid the police as you could be arrested at any time and deported," she said.

Ana was overjoyed at the news that Turkey was prepared to re-establish ties with Armenia. In 1993, Turkey severed ties and closed its border after Armenia fought a war with Turkish ally Azerbaijan over the disputed Nagorno Karabakh enclave.

"I can't wait for the embargo to be lifted," she said. "It will change everything, for both our countries. We just want peace and normalcy."

EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - The British Conservatives' notoriously tortuous relationship with the European Union came to the fore once again on Monday as the party appeared to back away from the idea of holding a referendum on the EU's planned treaty to trying to renegotiate specific policy areas.

"We think that the social and employment legislation, we think that's an area that ought to be determined nationally rather than at the European level. There are many things in the Lisbon Treaty - giving more power over home affairs and justice - that we don't think is right," Conservative leader David Cameron told the BBC.

"We think Lisbon, the problem with it, is that it's taking powers away from the nation states, centralising them in Europe. We don't think that's the right approach."

The Conservatives, holding a four-day long party conference in the northern city of Manchester, are trying to find their way to a policy on Europe that will satisfy hardline opponents of the EU but not completely alienate other member states in the 27 nation Union.

After its worst election result in the postwar period, Germany's center-left Social Democratic Party has hastily replaced its leadership with a younger generation of politicians. But the new leaders will struggle to find an identity for the SPD, which has lost half its voters since 1998.

It is 5 p.m. on Monday Sept. 28 as the politicians on whom Germany's center-left Social Democratic Party is pinning its hopes meet in a room on the fifth floor of party headquarters in Berlin. Andrea Nahles, Olaf Scholz, Klaus Wowereit and Sigmar Gabriel are sitting at a round table in Nahles' office. The last few rays of sunshine on an otherwise gray day shine through the window.

"Well, let me begin," says Nahles, a rising star in the party's left wing who is also the youngest member of the group. The three men nod politely. "You know that it's up to us now," says Nahles. More nodding. The meeting of the trustees of the Social Democratic Party's estate can begin.

IMAGE GALLERY

n the summer of 2002, Edelman, still going strong, intervened in Israel's show trial of the now jailed Palestinian resistance leader, Marwan Barghouti.

He wrote a letter of solidarity to the Palestinian movement, and though he criticised the suicide bombers, its tone infuriated the Israeli government and its press. Edelman had always resented Israel's claim on the Warsaw Ghetto uprising as a symbol of Jewish liberation.

Now he said this belonged to the Palestinians. He addressed his letter to "commanders of the Palestinian military, paramilitary and partisan operations -- to all the soldiers of the Palestinian fighting organisations".

Many of the survivors of the uprising who settled in Israel could not forgive Edelman for his frequent criticism of Israel. When on my return from Warsaw I tried to convince a number of Israeli universities to award Edelman an honorary doctorate in recognition of his role in the Warsaw ghetto uprising, I ran into stubborn opposition led by Holocaust historians in Israel. He had received Poland's highest honor, and at the 65th commemoration of the Warsaw ghetto uprising he was awarded the French Legion of Honor medal. He died not having received the recognition from Israel that he so richly deserved.

The European Union has drawn up secret plans to establish itself as a global power in its own right with the authority to sign international agreements on behalf of member states.

Confidential negotiations on how to implement the Lisbon Treaty have produced proposals to allow the EU to negotiate treaties and even open embassies across the world.

A letter conferring a full "legal personality" for the Union has been drafted in order for a new European diplomatic service to be recognised as fully fledged negotiators by international bodies and all non-EU countries ....

Lorraine Mullally, the director of Open Europe, described the move as "a huge transfer of power which makes the EU look more like a country than an international agreement".

Pupils in a Irish school are being asked to bring their own toilet paper to school to help offset funding cutbacks.

The principal of St John's Girls National School in Carrigaline, County Cork, confirmed she had sent out a memo to parents last week requesting that their daughters occasionally bring a roll of toilet paper to give to the class teacher, who would dispense the rolls to students when needed.

The bizarre request is part of the school's cost-containment programme so that dwindling state funding can be better spent on education, says principal Catherine O'Neill.

She refused to divulge the school's annual budget but said that the Government's abolition of various grants was behind the request.

The euro zone's services industries returned to growth for the first time in 16 months in September.

Economists said that demonstrated the recovery has spread from manufacturing to services.

The latest figures were compiled from surveys sent to purchasing managers at 2,000 companies.

France was the best performer while Germany held steady.

Manufacturing output collapsed in August, dragging down overall industrial production to its lowest level since 1987 and adding to fears that the UK has not yet managed to shake off the recession.

Production by the manufacturing industry contracted by 1.9 per cent in the month, the biggest drop since a 3.1 per cent decline in January, the Office for National Statistics reported. Analysts had expected manufacturing output to increase by 0.3 per cent in August.
...
The sharp fall in output - although monthly figures can be erratic - comes after the manufacturing industry had shown little change since the beginning of the year. The sector has now contracted 14.8 per cent from peak to trough.

The weak official data for August follow other evidence that manufacturing may be facing new problems. The purchasing managers' index for the sector registered contraction in the past two months, after showing a rapidly easing decline earlier in the year.

Gold prices hit a new record above $1,040 an ounce on Tuesday as the dollar lost ground following reports that the US currency's critical role in global oil trading was coming under scrutiny.

Gold reached a record $1,043.45, racing past its previous peak of $1,030.80 set last March when Bear Stearns, the US investment bank ran into trouble.

Middle East history, Gulf Arabs are planning - along with China, Russia, Japan and France - to end dollar dealings for oil, moving instead to a basket of currencies including the Japanese yen and Chinese yuan, the euro, gold and a new, unified currency planned for nations in the Gulf Co-operation Council, including Saudi Arabia, Abu Dhabi, Kuwait and Qatar.

Secret meetings have already been held by finance ministers and central bank governors in Russia, China, Japan and Brazil to work on the scheme, which will mean that oil will no longer be priced in dollars.

The plans, confirmed to The Independent by both Gulf Arab and Chinese banking sources in Hong Kong, may help to explain the sudden rise in gold prices, but it also augurs an extraordinary transition from dollar markets within nine years.

The Americans, who are aware the meetings have taken place - although they have not discovered the details - are sure to fight this international cabal which will include hitherto loyal allies Japan and the Gulf Arabs. Against the background to these currency meetings, Sun Bigan, China's former special envoy to the Middle East, has warned there is a risk of deepening divisions between China and the US over influence and oil in the Middle East. "Bilateral quarrels and clashes are unavoidable," he told the Asia and Africa Review. "We cannot lower vigilance against hostility in the Middle East over energy interests and security."

Contest to shape the future of banking

The International Centre for Financial Regulation and the Financial Times launch an essay contest on Tuesday that seeks to advance the debate on banking regulation.

Entitled "How best to regulate the bank of tomorrow", the contest solicits scholarly essays of up to 5,000 words on five topics related to banking supervision in the wake of the financial crisis. The author of the best overall entry will win $7,500 and the best essay in each topic will win $1,500.

The contest is part of an effort to broaden the debate about the regulation of financial services, which has been dominated largely by industry groups, regulators and politicians.

Sweden prepares for financial collapse in Latvia and major bank losses at home

Bloodbath Coming in the US Banking Sector

NEW YORK -- The U.S., Britain and France staged a bravura performance of political theatre last week by claiming to have just "discovered" a secret Iran uranium enrichment plant near Qum. On cue, a carefully orchestrated media blitz trumpeted warnings of the alleged Iranian nuclear threat and "long-ranged missiles."

In reality, the Qum plant was detected by U.S. spy satellites over two years ago, and was known to the intelligence community. Iran claimed the plant will not begin enriching uranium for peaceful power for another 540 days. UN nuclear rules, to which Iran adheres, calls for 180 days notice.

UN nuclear watchdogs say Iran should have revealed the plant earlier. Iran alerted the UN last week and said it would invite inspectors.

The reluctance of Iran to reveal its nuclear sites is magnified by constant threats of attack against them by Israel and the U.S. Iran also recalls Iraq, where many of the UN "nuclear inspectors" were likely spies for CIA or Israel's Mossad. This may explain some of Iran's secretive behaviour. The U.S., Britain, France and Israel have been even less forthcoming about their nuclear secrets.

When diplomats representing the European Union and Brazil meet in Stockholm Tuesday, one of the topics on the agenda will be the ongoing crisis in Honduras and how both sides can help promote a political solution. 

International concern has been rising ever since a military-backed coup forced leftist Honduran President Manuel Zelaya from office on June 28.

 

Honduras was plunged into a political crisis after the country's Supreme Court ordered Zelaya's arrest for allegedly seeking to illegally amend the constitution to allow presidents to serve more than a single four-year term.

 

The consequent military action led to Central America's first coup in more than a decade and sent Zelaya into exile. He eventually slipped back into Honduras almost two months later to claim sanctuary in the Brazilian Embassy.

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan -- Steps by the United States to vastly expand its aid to Pakistan, as well as the footprint of its embassy and private security contractors here, are aggravating an already volatile anti-American mood as Washington pushes for greater action by the government against the Taliban.

An aid package of $1.5 billion a year for the next five years passed by Congress last week asks Pakistan to cease supporting terrorist groups on its soil and to ensure that the military does not interfere with civilian politics. President Asif Ali Zardari, whose association with the United States has added to his unpopularity, agreed to the stipulations in the aid package.

But many here, especially in the powerful army, object to the conditions as interference in Pakistan's internal affairs, and they are interpreting the larger American footprint in more sinister ways.

Apple has become the latest company to resign from the United States Chamber of Commerce over climate policy.

"We strongly object to the chamber's recent comments opposing the E.P.A.'s effort to limit greenhouse gases," wrote Catherine A. Novelli, the vice president of worldwide government affairs at Apple, in a letter dated today and addressed to Thomas J. Donohue, president and chief executive of the chamber. Click here to read the letter.

"Apple supports regulating greenhouse gas emissions, and it is frustrating to find the chamber at odds with us in this effort," Ms. Novelli continued.

Apple's resignation was effective immediately, the letter said. The move comes a few weeks after Apple expanded the environmental disclosures on its products.

The global recession provides a window of opportunity to curb climate change and build a low-carbon future, says the International Energy Agency (IEA).

It calculates that global greenhouse gas emissions will fall by 3% this year - an increase on previous estimates.

If governments take this opportunity to invest in clean technology, the global temperature rise can be kept below the G8 goal of 2C (3.6F), the agency says.

The findings were released at UN climate talks in Bangkok.

"The message is simple and stark: if the world continues on the basis of today's energy and climate policies, the consequences of climate change will be severe," said IEA executive director Nobuo Tanaka.

The British recently emerged as the second largest purchasers of diet products within Europe, behind the Dutch. In this edited version of an original Expatica article, Virginia Griffith explores why the Dutch are leaner than the British.

The United Kingdom has now been cited as 'the fattest country in Europe' with over half of its population reported as overweight or obese, consequently ranking a mere one percent behind that of America. The future statistics do not bode well either with a prediction that in the next 10 years 78 percent of the British population will be overweight. 

The Netherlands has also witnessed an increase in the number of people pronounced as overweight or obese, around 30 percent, double that of 20 years ago. Nevertheless in recent years these figures have stayed constant with little or no influx. According to the official statistics agency Statistics Netherlands (CBS) the Dutch lead healthier lives, with declining numbers of smokers and heavy drinkers, together with being reported as taking more regular exercise. What is consistent, however, in both Britain and in Holland is the high percentage of overweight men compared to that of women - 40 percent to 30 percent.

Why?
So why are the Dutch so successful compared to the British when warding off the bulge? Why are the British consuming more calories then any other country in Europe? It could simply be as a direct result to the accessibility and wide variety of junk food available. Although of course most moderately large towns across Europe boast at least one major hamburger chain, the UK unlike Holland possesses a mammoth amount. High streets are inundated with eateries, the majority being American, all offering highly calorific food to go.

EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - Food companies making bogus claims about the effects of products such as "probiotic" yoghurts or taurine-based energy drinks will need to rethink their marketing campaigns, the EU's food safety agency chief, Catherine Geslain-Laneelle, has told this website.

The Parma-based European Food Safety Agency (EFSA) recently issued scientific opinions rejecting claims that so-called probiotic yoghurt drinks with "good bacteria" improve the consumers' health and immunity systems.

Some yoghurt companies sell their products based on false claims.

Although companies Danone and Yakult did not take part in this round of evaluation, the ruling may impact marketing campaigns for their probiotic best-sellers such as Activia, Actimel and Yakult.

EFSA also found that the so-called taurine ingredient found in energy drinks such as Red Bull does not stimulate the "mind and body" to the extent that companies claim it does.

Russia has never made energy conservation much of a priority. But President Dmitry Medvedev would like that to change. He wants to see consumption drop by 40 percent in the next decade -- but without the technological know-how, it could be difficult.

Sometimes, Dmitry Medvedev has to be brusque. Last Wednesday, the Russian president found it necessary to reprimand his audience in front of national television cameras for talking during his speech. "Whoever's chatting can go somewhere else. And that includes the bosses," he said. Medvedev is not accustomed to being ignored.

The problem may have been his choice of subject. The normally stoic Kremlin boss had been giving a speech on his new favorite subject: energy efficiency. It is not a topic that generally receives much attention in Russia.

3,000 Protest Outside Climate Talks in Bangkok

In Bangkok, some 3,000 protesters demonstrated on Monday, calling on world leaders to take immediate and tougher action to fight global warming. Bangkok is hosting the last major negotiating round before the UN's climate summit in Copenhagen in December. Protesters called on the United States and other developed nations to make steep cuts in emissions.

Jacques-chai Chomthongdi, Focus on the Global South: "The most important thing is that developed countries need to quickly cut emissions by 2020, by at least 40 percent of the level that they negotiated. If they don't cut that down, everyone will be impacted. We need rich countries to cut emissions, and poor countries need a proper plan to encourage their people to adjust to live with that."

But I can't find a story.

Diversity is the key to economic and political evolution.

An "exceptional" collection of the biggest dinosaur footprints ever recorded has been found by two amateur enthusiasts on an expedition near France's Jura mountains, palaeontologists said today.

Imprints measuring up to 2 metres (6ft 6in) in diameter and stretching over a vast area of land have been uncovered near the village of Plagne, 30 miles west of Geneva, according to the National Centre of Scientific Research.

In a statement, the centre said the significance of the prints could not be overestimated. "According to the researchers' initial work, these tracks are the biggest ever seen," it said.

Pierre Hantzpergue, a palaeontologist at the University of Lyon who verified the prints with a colleague at the research centre, said the perfectly preserved tracks could make Plagne one of the most significant dinosaur locations in the world.

"What is remarkable about this site ... is firstly the sheer size of the footprints. They are really enormous," he said. "This is new. Some very big footprints have been found in the US but I don't think they are as big as these."

EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - Ireland is the best place to live within the European Union, according to an annual United Nations report on standard of living.

However, Norway comes top overall in the UN's human development index, a ranking that takes into account the domestic economy, life expectancy, literacy rates and school enrollment.

Ireland, which recently voted Yes to the Lisbon Treaty, is the fifth best place in the world in which to live

Niger meanwhile comes at the bottom of the list of 182 countries.

Australia, Iceland and Canada round out the top four in the ranking, which is based on the most recent data available, from 2007, and so does not take into account the global economic crisis, which hit both Ireland and Iceland very hard.

Ireland is the top EU country on the list, clocking in at number five, followed by the perennial winners of these sort of contests, the Netherlands and Sweden at six and seven respectively.

A well-educated woman positively influences both her own and her partner's chances of a long life, Swedish research suggests.

A man whose partner had only a school education has a 25% greater risk of dying early than if she had had a university education, it suggests.

The authors say educated women may be more likely to understand the various health messages their families needed.

The findings are based on a study of 1.5m working Swedes, aged 30 to 59.

Chat with the co-writer of the documentary 'Il Corpo delle Donne', which looks at how Italian TV dissects 'women's bodies'. Since spring 2009, it has attained enormous exposure across all networks thanks to its intelligent and ruthless critique of Italian television

A collection of samples taken from public and private Italian television channels, Il Corpo delle Donne ('Women's Bodies') is dedicated to the image and role of women - and the results are chilling. The author of this visual essay, which has been translated into four other languages including Spanish, Portuguese, English and French, is Lorella Zanardo. She was European brand manager for Unilever in Milan and Paris, marketing director for Gruppo Mondadori, holds an MBA and a degree in English and German literature, been a theatre and cinema actress and also runs her own consultancy, Sportgate. The mother-of-two is now more known as a consultant and lecturer on feminist issues.

We meet to discuss Zanardo's sensitisation campaign concerning gender differences and the rights laid out in article three of the Italian constitution. She has two ways of ensuring that her valuable work does not lose momentum, to not merely turn into a passing fad. Firstly, her daily militancy gains strength through national network agreements. Secondly, her educational project Nuovi occhi per la TV ('New Eyes for TV') is directed at schools and teachers and can be accessed through its official website. Interview
Is the Italian situation unique? Are there other European countries where the role and image of women is deemed to be in danger? 

* Will only use 'real women' in photoshoots

* Editor sick of 'fattening girls up with Photoshop'

Germany's most popular women's magazine is banning professional models from its pages and replacing them with images of "real life" women instead.

In what is seen as the latest attempt to stamp out the "size zero" model, the editors of Brigitte said it would in future only use women with "normal figures".

"From 2010 we will not work with professional models any more," said Andreas Lebert, editor-in-chief, adding that he was "fed up" with having to retouch pictures of underweight models who bore no resemblance to ordinary women.

PARIS -- In poor Paris suburbs it now pays off to do well in school -- literally. High school students can earn rewards worth up to €10,000 for their class to share if they attend lessons and get good grades.

The pilot program, which took effect Monday in three vocational schools in working-class neighborhoods near the French capital, is the most eye-catching of a number of government measures aimed at tackling a chronic problem of poor class attendance, mass dropouts and high youth unemployment in France.

The idea relies on a combination of peer pressure and material incentives: Students jointly commit to an average attendance and performance target. Depending on how ambitious the target is, the government will pay from €2,000, about $3,000, to €10,000 into a group fund that can be spent on anything from driving lessons to class trips when the target is achieved.

"We're trying to be creative -- you have to be," said Jean-Michel Blanquer, head of the greater Paris school district, who likened the initiative to a "moral contract."

PARIS -- A French gay soccer team says its members were victims of homophobia when a team of Muslim players refused to play a match against them.

The Paris Foot Gay team says Tuesday it received an e-mail from the Creteil Bebel club canceling a match scheduled for last Sunday.

"Because of the principles of our team, which is a team of devout Muslims, we can't play against you," the e-mail said, according to Paris Foot Gay.

Swiss authorities have denied bail for Oscar-winning filmmaker Roman Polanski who was arrested in September on a US warrant after fleeing sentencing for a decades-old charge of having unlawful sex with a minor.  

A spokesman for the Swiss justice ministry said on Tuesday that the government believes there is a high risk that Roman Polanski may flee if released from custody. 

"In our view, there is still a very high risk that he will flee and that a release on bail or other measures after a release cannot guarantee Polanski's presence in the extradition procedure," Folco Galli said.

Polanski's lawyers have appealed to Switzerland's highest criminal court for this release.

There is a rumour that someone has been arrested after ticking "No" on one of those Alpha course posters.