Though a moratorium on the use of the death penalty is due to expire in January, the Constitutional Court in Russia has ruled that the punishment is contradictory to the International protocols the country has signed.

AFP - Russia cannot apply the death penalty even after moratorium expires next year, a court ruled Thursday, effectively banning the use of capital punishment in the country for good.
  
However politicians warned it was too soon to formally abolish the death penalty as public opinion -- which is strongly in favour of capital punishment -- was not ready for such a move.
  
The end of the judicial moratorium on January 1 "does not make it possible to apply the death penalty on the whole of Russia's territory," Constitutional Court president Valery Zorkin said in his ruling.
  
"This decision is final and may not be appealed," he said of the ruling, which came after a request for a decision from country's Supreme Court.

Finance Minister Wolfgang Schäuble is the most important member of Germany's new coalition government. He insists he is loyal to Chancellor Angela Merkel, but he could prove to be a thorn in her side.

Wolfgang Schäuble is sitting in his seat on a small Bombardier Challenger jet owned by the German military, heaping praise on Chancellor Angela Merkel. He has nothing but good things to say about her intelligence and her attention to detail, and he raves about her charm. His press spokesman interjects that she also has a strong political instinct. "That's true," Schäuble agrees, "she does have a good instinct."

It is Tuesday of last week, and Schäuble is flying back to Berlin from Brussels, where he attended a meeting of European Union finance ministers. He eventually tires of praising the chancellor and begins talking about Merkel's weaknesses. She likes to be surrounded by low-maintenance people, says the new CDU finance minister. He doesn't elaborate, which raises the question of whether he counts himself as part of this group.

He leans back and says: "I'm not low-maintenance."

This is precisely the reason why Schäuble stands a good chance of becoming the cabinet's strong man. He is already at the center of the first rift in the new CDU/CSU-FDP coalition government, over whether it should enact a major tax reform. FDP Chairman and Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle thinks it should, Horst Seehofer, the head of the CDU's sister party, the Christian Social Union (CSU), doesn't think so and Merkel's opinion is somewhere between the two. Finding a solution to the impasse is Schäuble's job.

A source close to the British Labour Government has just given me reliable information about the most radical copyright proposal I've ever seen.

Secretary of State Peter Mandelson is planning to introduce changes to the Digital Economy Bill now under debate in Parliament. These changes will give the Secretary of State (Mandelson -- or his successor in the next government) the power to make "secondary legislation" (legislation that is passed without debate) to amend the provisions of Copyright, Designs and Patents Act (1988).

What that means is that an unelected official would have the power to do anything without Parliamentary oversight or debate, provided it was done in the name of protecting copyright. Mandelson elaborates on this, giving three reasons for his proposal:

1. The Secretary of State would get the power to create new remedies for online infringements (for example, he could create jail terms for file-sharing, or create a "three-strikes" plan that costs entire families their internet access if any member stands accused of infringement)

2. The Secretary of State would get the power to create procedures to "confer rights" for the purposes of protecting rightsholders from online infringement. (for example, record labels and movie studios can be given investigative and enforcement powers that allow them to compel ISPs, libraries, companies and schools to turn over personal information about Internet users, and to order those companies to disconnect users, remove websites, block URLs, etc)

3. The Secretary of State would get the power to "impose such duties, powers or functions on any person as may be specified in connection with facilitating online infringement" (for example, ISPs could be forced to spy on their users, or to have copyright lawyers examine every piece of user-generated content before it goes live; also, copyright "militias" can be formed with the power to police copyright on the web)

Healthy children between six months and five years old will be vaccinated against swine flu, the Department of Health has confirmed.

The expansion of the government's inoculation programme was revealed as the latest weekly bulletin showed a sharp rise in patient deaths and the number of children being admitted to hospital. 

The overall number of new cases showed a second successive weekly fall. Health officials estimate there were 55,000 new cases this week in England compared with 64,000 last week. There was a slight drop in Scotland.

The number of people who have died from swine flu in the UK has reached 214. There were 18 deaths in England last week. The figures since the start of the outbreak in May are 142 fatalities in England, 21 in Wales, 38 in Scotland and 13 in Northern Ireland.

The number of people needing hospital care for the virus is 783, down slightly from 785, in the previous week. Of those in hospital, 180 were in intensive care, up from 173 in the previous week. 

The Conservative party has been pressing the government to give vaccinations to healthy children because those under the age of 16 are in one of the more vulnerable groups. About 21% of all H1N1 deaths in the UK have been among under 14s.

David Curry, the MP who heads the committee responsible for policing Commons expenses, has claimed almost £30,000 for a second home that his wife has banned him from staying in, The Daily Telegraph can disclose.

After learning of the Telegraph investigation, David Curry resigned as chairman of the Parliamentary Standards and Privileges Committee and now faces a formal inquiry into his claims.

The Conservative MP is accused of having an affair with a headmistress in his Yorkshire constituency and using a taxpayer-funded cottage to meet his lover.

A former horse riding school in the tiny Baltic state of Lithuania was used as a secret CIA prison to hold and interrogate top al-Qaeda terrorists, it has been claimed.

The allegations have sparked a parliamentary inquiry after President Dalia Grybauskaite said she harboured "indirect suspicions" that such a facility existed.

According to unnamed former intelligence operatives quoted by ABC News, the CIA built the secret jail in 2004 and used it for more than a year, flying in at least eight suspected al-Qaeda terrorists from Afghanistan.

Police chief constables may resign if a Tory government tries to place forces under local political control, the head of their professional body has warned.

Sir Hugh Orde, of the Association of Chief Police Officers, said colleagues would resist being told how to protect the public by locally-elected leaders.

The Tories want these officials to be able to hire and fire police chiefs and set force budgets in England and Wales.

Sir Hugh said police independence was vital to public trust and democracy.

The elections watchdog has ruled that the Liberal Democrats can keep £2.4m in donations which it had been suggested came from a man convicted of fraud.

Michael Brown was convicted of stealing more than £30m from clients last year.

EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - After weeks of speculation and recriminations over a lack of transparency, EU leaders will meet in Brussels on Thursday evening (19 November) to decide who will take up the new posts created under the Lisbon Treaty.

A new permanent president of the European Council and a beefed-up high representative for foreign affairs are designed to increase the EU's visibility on the world stage and help co-ordinate its work back home.

But after the jubilation that greeted the Irish Yes result in a second referendum and Czech President Vaclav Klaus' eventual signing of the treaty, the recent backroom dealing has both been very difficult and left the EU open to criticism about the lack of democracy in its decision-making process.

On 19 November, leaders of Europe's 27 member states will settle the question of who is to head the European Council and the EU's diplomatic service. However, for the European press, a process which should have marked a milestone on the road to European integration has been marred by a lack of transparency.

Male or female? Right-wing or left-wing? High profile player or back office manager? On the eve of the informal summit of European Union leaders in Brussels, there is no end of speculation on the identity of the future.

President of the European Council and High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security. On Thursday, heads of state and government leaders will sit down "to an official dinner and a comprehensive menu of dignitaries in line for the two most powerful jobs in the EU," reports Jurnalul National, which further avers that "hot lines between European capitals must have been busy with endless bargaining to establish an appropriate compromise" on the two posts.

However in Madrid, El País notes that "the process of electing an EU President has been so chaotic that many observers in Brussels doubt that the summit will produce results." If that is the case, De Standard is convinced that "Sweden, the current holder of the EU presidency," ought to be held to blame. The Belgian daily further insists that the Swedes "neglected to take advantage of a historic opportunity, where they could have put in place the first piece of the puzzle" when European leaders met in Berlin on 9 November. Then on 16 November, Sweden's Minister for Foreign affairs, Carl Bildt, refused to touch on the burning issue when he simply stated that the summit was still three days away, which amounted to "an eternity in politics." On this basis, De Standard takes the view that the selection procedure will be as unpredictable as "a game of pinball."

EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - EU commissioner hopefuls will not win the approval of centre-right MEPs if they are considered to have collaborated with repressive Communist regimes or with governments 'tainted by corruption,' the largest group in the European Parliament has indicated.

"The candidate commissioners must under no circumstances have been associated with oppressive regimes and must not have participated in non-democratic governments or political movements, or governments or movements that have been tainted by corruption," a checklist drafted by the European People's Party (EPP) reads.

The EPP will only give a green light to commissioners who have not collaborated with oppressive regimes

The EPP holds the largest number of seats in the EU legislature, 288 out of 736.

It is important to know what the positions of commissioner candidates were in the past, when dissidents were put in prison or killed, the conservative deputies believe. "We don't want to reward perpetrators of the Communist regimes," German MEP Manfred Weber said on Wednesday (18 November) at a press briefing.

A conference at the Centre for European Policy Studies (CEPS) presented a number of policy priorities for the incoming European Commission, but above all underlined the importance for the EU of speedily getting to grips with the many unanswered questions concerning the set-up of the European institutions in the Lisbon Treaty era. 

As EU leaders meet in Brussels today to decide on a first permanent president of the European Council and a new souped-up foreign minister, the CEPS experts cautioned that while a media frenzy continues to rage over the potential candidates for these positions, the EU must get its house in order if, as it hopes, the new treaty and positions will finally allow the 27-member bloc to become a key player on the global stage. 

"The grand strategic question," notes CEPS senior fellow Michael Emerson, "is what the EU is going to do on the global level". The goal, he argued, should be for the EU to become "the leading proponent of normative foreign policy in the world". 

Herman Van Rompuy, the centre-right Belgian prime minister, is set to become the first president of the European Council as Tony Blair was forced to admit defeat in his long-running campaign for the job. But Britain is to be rewarded with the key post of high representative for foreign policy, going to the former Labour cabinet minister Lady Ashton.

Tony Blair bowed out when it became clear that centre-right leaders, who dominate the EU, are determined that the post, created by the Lisbon treaty, should go to their group.

Gordon Brown moved onto "Plan B" after making a final push for Blair at a meeting of centre-left leaders in Brussels shortly before the summit. To nobody's surprise, it became clear that Blair enjoyed no support in the group. At the meeting Brown pulled the Blair nomination off the table and proposed Ashton, a former leader of the Lords, for high commissioner instead.

To be handed in today, a Europe-wide online petition succeeded in spurring opposition to Tony Blair's now-failing bid for the presidency of the European Council.

[ Paris, 19 November 2009 ]  With more than 45,000 signatures, the Stop Blair! petition (http://stopblair.eu) will be handed in today, in advance of this evening's summit slated to discuss candidates for the post of President of the European Council. Once tipped as hot favourite, Tony Blair is now understood to have little chance of securing the presidential job.

A volunteer effort with no budget and no advertising, the Stop Blair! petition has nonetheless shown that Mr Blair would not be a popular choice for the post wrongly billed as "EU President".

"It was always our analysis that the smaller EU member states and Germany were not in favour of the 'big' presidency Tony Blair would bring," said John Evans, Stop Blair! coordinator at European Tribune (http://www.eurotrib.com), which organized the petition. "But, when those countries were silent while Blair's communications machine was running full tilt, we were the only ones to stand up and say no. We spoke out early and clearly, and we were heard."

Barring last-minute arm-twisting in the corridors of power, Blair's candidature seems most unlikely to be accepted by the European Council.

When locusts move on, they leave nothing behind

EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - EU leaders have chosen Belgian Prime Minister Herman Van Rompuy to be the first president of the European Council, while UK trade commissioner Catherine Ashton will become the bloc's foreign policy chief.

Mr Van-Rompuy, from the centre-right political family, is a trained economist and has been running Belgium for less than a year. He writes Haiku (Japanese verse) and is known for his low-key style, which includes a line in self-deprecatory humour and caravan holidays.

The decision came much faster than expected

He came to prominence after Germany and France a few weeks ago agreed between themselves to promote him. Several diplomats subsequently suggested that his short term in office stood to his advantage as he has had no time to make enemies among other EU leaders.

The presidency decision - nominating a person from a small country with no international profile - confirms the speculation of recent weeks that the majority of member states wanted to choose a person whose main role will be that of an internal fixer, rather than someone who can open doors in Washington and Moscow.

Brown sacrifices support for Blair to win foreign minister role for UK

Britain last night secured the job of the EU's first "foreign minister" for Baroness Ashton of Upholland after Belgian Prime Minister Herman van Rompuy was crowned as the first "President of Europe", quashing any hopes Tony Blair might have still been harbouring of assuming the role.

Following a trade-off that managed to juggle the competing demands from Europe's left and right political blocs, from the region's big and small states and from those calling for a gender-balanced ticket, the victorious couple were formally anointed at a dinner of the European Union's 27 leaders.

Lady Ashton - the Labour peer who was first identified as a candidate by The Independent last month - won a spectacular promotion from Trade Commissioner to become the most powerful woman ever to serve on the European Commission. She shrugged off immediate criticism that she had never been elected to office, lacked experience in foreign affairs and had been chosen because she was a woman.

After weeks of backroom dealings, Belgian PM Herman Van Rompuy was named the EU's first president while Briton Catherine Ashton was selected the 27-nation bloc's first foreign affairs chief.

REUTERS - European Union leaders named Belgian Prime Minister Herman Van Rompuy, who is little known outside his own country, as the bloc's first president on Thursday to lead efforts to make it more influential on the world stage.

They also chose Baroness Catherine Ashton, a Briton little known even in her own country, as EU foreign affairs chief under a deal that kept out more established figures such as Tony Blair, and raised questions about how the bloc plans to lift its profile.

20/11/2009 - PROFILE The new face of European diplomacy: Baroness Catherine Ashton 19/11/2009 - Christopher Robeet "This is a balanced consensus ticket, but the question is: are they the best candidates?" 19/11/2009 - Hernan Van Rompuy "I did not seek this position, but from tonight, I take on this task with conviction and enthusiasm" 19/11/2009 - Catherine Ashton "I will endeavour to do in my own way the best that I can for Europe"

The appointments are intended to bolster the EU's standing and help it to match the rise of emerging powers such as China following the global economic crisis, but neither Ashton nor Van Rompuy is a familiar figure outside Europe.

A Belgian federalist and a former chairwoman of Hertfordshire Health Authority were ushered into Europe's two grandest jobs last night as it stumbled on to the world stage.

The European Union's 27 leaders balked at the chance to have Tony Blair as their president, preferring not to be overshadowed. In a stitch-up between the two big blocs of the EU, the Centre Right fell in behind Herman Van Rompuy, the Belgian Prime Minister, to take that job.

The centre-left Socialist leaders backed Baroness Ashton of Upholland, Britain's Trade Commissioner, to be the first High Representative for Foreign and Security Policy, as well as vice-president for external affairs.

The deal went through swiftly at a dinner of EU heads and the expected marathon session never materialised. The deadlock was broken when Gordon Brown abandoned his support for Mr Blair at a meeting of Socialist leaders before the summit.

"This is a breakthrough," said Martin Schulz, a German legislator who heads the Socialist grouping in the European Parliament.

Swedish Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt, who chaired the meeting, said it took time to consult with all of his other 26 EU colleagues.

"But it's very important to show that everyone has a say, that this is the Europe of 27, that everyone was actually in on this decision, and this also showed tonight when we unanimously could support both of these candidates," Reinfeldt said.

Agreement reached

Differences over political affiliations, geographical considerations and even gender have been a severe strain on the selection process over the last several weeks. There has even been frequent bickering over what role exactly the president should play as the top representative of the European Union.

 

Earlier Thursday, the Dutch premier Jan Peter Balkenende, a conservative, ruled himself out of the presidency, while Europe's Socialists publically threw their support behind Britain's Catherine Ashton as the new foreign policy chief.

 

The ultimate breakthrough apparently came when the move was backed by British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, who then said that London would drop its support for Tony Blair as a candidate for the presidency.

Tony Blair was left looking like the big loser last night despite never having formally applied for the job of European president.

As the EU's 27 leaders picked two virtual unknowns for its top jobs, the man everyone said would "stop the traffic" in Washington, Beijing or even Brussels was left back in London wondering what might have been.

Gordon Brown called Mr Blair shortly before the summit got under way to explain that he had had one final try in front of the European socialist leaders, whom he had told three weeks ago to "get real" and choose his predecessor as their nominee for the top post.

In fact, both men knew that it was almost certainly all over before Mr Brown left for Brussels yesterday.

BRUSSELS -- Leaders of the 27 countries of the European Union on Thursday night chose Herman Van Rompuy, the Belgian prime minister, as the European Union's first president, and Catherine Ashton of Britain, currently the bloc's trade commissioner, as its high representative for foreign policy. The vote was unanimous.

Both officials are highly respected but little known outside their own countries. After the European Union's eight-year battle to rewrite its internal rules and to pass the Lisbon Treaty that created these two new jobs, the selection of such low-profile figures seemed to highlight Europe's problems instead of its readiness to take a more united and forceful place in world affairs.

In a sense, Europe seemed to be living down to expectations. Earlier, the foreign minister of Sweden, Carl Bildt, warned against a "minimalist solution" that would reduce the union's "opportunity to have a clear voice in the world."

"It is quite astounding," said Olivier Ferrand, president of Terra Nova, a center-left research institute in France. "It is jaw-dropping. It is the end of ambition for the E.U. -- really disappointing."

Herman Van Rompuy, Belgium's prime minister, has become the first president of the European Council.

Van Rompuy, largely unknown outside his native Belgium, was named after a consensus was reached at a meeting of the leaders of the 27-member European Union on Thursday.

"I did not seek this high position, I didn't make any steps to achieve it, but from tonight I take on this task with conviction and enthusiasm," Van Rompuy told a news conference.

The meeting also agreed to back the candidacy of Catherine Ashton, the British EU trade commissioner, for the foreign policy role.

---

"I would consider it [the UK] one of the winners of these negotiations as they have got perhaps the most important position with the foreign minister."  

The US has welcomed the appointment of the first permanent EU president and foreign representative.

Belgian PM Herman van Rompuy was named President of the European Council, while Briton Baroness Catherine Ashton was made EU foreign affairs supremo.

The US said the appointments would strengthen the EU and Europe's relationship with Washington.

But some in Brussels have criticised the appointments, saying the pair have too low an international profile.

British newspapers said the choices would not help the EU to achieve a greater global impact and questioned whether Baroness Ashton would carry much weight in her role.

Belgian Prime Minister Herman van Rompuy has been chosen as the EU's first permanent president at a summit in Brussels.

The centre-right leader has a reputation as a good negotiator with a self-deprecating sense of humour, which has helped him to hold together a fractious coalition government.

But his appointment may be bad news for the troubled coalition of Dutch- and French-speaking parties, which could fall apart without his careful stewardship.

In linguistically divided Belgium, he is seen as a unifying force, taking an even-handed approach to resolving conflicts - a skill that is expected to serve him well in Europe's top job.

But Mr Van Rompuy, 62, is little known outside Belgium and has attended only two European summits.

Baroness Ashton of Upholland has been appointed high representative for foreign and security policy on Thursday. But what will she actually do?

The appointment of Europe's foreign minister will quickly lead to the European Union becoming a non-voting member of the UN alongside nation states.

The post of foreign minister was resurrected from the old EU Constitution with a name change - to High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy.

EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - The European Union on Thursday evening (19 November) said it had solved the long-standing question of whom the US secretary of state should call with foreign policy problems, but admitted the situation may not be so clear in other areas.

"The Secretary of State of the United States [Hillary Clinton] should call Cathy Ashton," said European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso referring to the newly-appointed EU foreign policy chief.

Catherine Ashton still has to go through a parliamentary hearing

"She is our foreign minister," he added noting that at this level "the so-called Kissinger issue is solved."

Former US secretary of state Henry Kissinger is reported to have once asked whom he should call if he wants to talk to someone in Europe.

Supposedly asked in the 1970s - although there are doubts it was ever posed - the question has been used by Europeans ever since as a touchstone for EU foreign policy and external unity.

European leaders have decided to give the Belgian Prime Minister, Herman Van Rompoi the union's top job as the first permanent president.

European leaders have decided to give the Belgian Prime Minister Herman Van Rompoi the Union's top job, appointing him as the first permanent president.

Considered a low-key figure, he emerged as the favorite over prominent figures such as former British PM Tony Blair.

Belgian Prime Minister elected first EU president - RT Top Stories

"The European Union is not a super-state. It's a group of countries, which got together and decided to share part of their sovereignty - not all. And therefore you will not see in the foreseeable future a European army marching down a highway under the European flag. We are not going for that. We are going only for crisis management."

Europe's leaders are relieved that the wrangling over the EU's new positions of president and foreign minister is finally over. But they have no reason to be proud. Once again, the EU has missed an opportunity to boost its standing on the global stage.

The relief among the 27 leaders of the European Union following the decision about the bloc's two new top jobs was visible. Right up until just before the special summit on Thursday evening, it had looked as if it would be a long night, given how far apart the member states' respective positions were. The appointment of the EU's first full-time president of the European Council and its first foreign minister appeared to be subjecting the bloc to yet another stress test.

But then things took a surprise turn. In the end, the decisions happened very quickly.

During the preparatory meeting of center-left EU leaders in the afternoon, it was decided that Britain's Catherine Ashton should be foreign minister. And the decision to appoint Belgium's Herman Van Rompuy as EU president was already made during the leaders' "working dinner" on Thursday evening. The decision was even unanimous, no less. Afterward, the leaders patted each other on the shoulder and praised one another for their ability to take action.

Europe hopes the creation of the new posts, set to come into being in January, might answer the ex US secretary of state Henry Kissinger's famous question; who to call when you want to speak to Europe?

But it doesn't seem to have done so yet.

"I'm waiting anxiously for the first call," Van Rompuy told a press conference after he secured the post.

However Barroso, sharing the press platform with both new appointees, said after an embarrassing silence: "The Kissinger issue is now solved."

As Kissinger had been US secretary of state, Barroso said, "the secretary of state should call Cathy Ashton, she is our foreign minister."

This used to be a lot easier - before Lisbon a single person (Javier Solana) was both Council Secretary General as well as High Representative for the Common Foreign and Security Policy.

En un viejo país ineficiente, algo así como España entre dos guerras civiles, poseer una casa y poca hacienda y memoria ninguna. -- Gil de Biedma

Former prime ministers Michel Rocard and Alain Juppé (pictured) have handed the president a long awaited report on the post-credit crisis economy. Its conclusion is proving controversial, with many baulking at the 35 billion euro bill.

The report into France's "Grand Emprunt" or "National Loan" was handed today to French President Nicolas Sarkozy. Its authors, former prime pinisters Alain Juppé and Michel Rocard, looked at various ways to finance long-term projects to boost France's growth potential after the current economic crisis is over.

But the report has proved controversial, inside and outside of government circles.

The National Loan could end up totalling 35 billion euros. It will be financed in part by 13 billion euros that various banks owe the state, while the rest will be raised by auctioning off government bonds on the financial markets.

HONG KONG/SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Federal Reserve officials on Thursday downplayed the consequences of the falling U.S. dollar, underscoring that deflation is still a threat, especially with commercial real estate prices falling.

Dallas Fed President Richard Fisher said in an interview with Market News International that the weakening dollar, which hit a 15-month low against major currencies on Monday, is only one of the factors the Fed watches when setting policy.

"You pay attention to this," Fisher said in reply to a question about the effects of a weaker dollar.

"On the other hand, in terms of its inflationary input, unless it becomes disorderly, a depreciating dollar -- a gradually depreciating dollar -- doesn't necessarily add an enormous inflation impulse."

Fisher will become a voting member of the Fed's policy-setting committee in 2011.

The dollar has fallen 7 percent so far this year and likely has become a funding vehicle for bets on higher-yielding currencies in growing emerging markets.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Any tax imposed on financial transactions would have to take effect internationally to prevent Wall Street jobs moving overseas, U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said on Thursday.

"It would have to be an international rule," Pelosi said at a news conference. "We couldn't do it alone."

The top Democrat's comments seemed to spell longer odds for the Wall Street tax, which some Democrats in the House of Representatives are proposing as a way to pay for job-creating legislation.

The tax, which could raise $150 billion per year, would tap into widespread public outrage at Wall Street in the wake of the financial crisis, but support is lackluster among key legislators.

October's public borrowing figures will make dismal reading for Alistair Darling, the chancellor, ahead of next month's pre-Budget report, as debt soared by £11.4bn in the month.

The unexpectedly sharp increase in borrowing takes the total debt racked up by the government in the first seven months of fiscal 2009 beyond the amount accumated in the whole of last year.

The £86.9bn borrowed already, with only slightly more than half the fiscal year gone, already tops the total debt for 2008-9 of £84.7bn, in a sign of how the financial crisis has hit taxes from the City, even as unemployment nearing 2.5m increases the demand for social welfare payments.

The deterioration in the public finances announced on Thursday was worse than the £7bn that economists had predicted, and takes the rolling 12-month total of debt to £138bn, close to triple the level a year earlier.

Mr Darling, the chancellor of the Exchequer, will have to present the pre-Budget report in December in what will be one of the Labour government's final opportunities to lay out its spending plans before the election next year.

The pressure on both Geithner and Bernanke is finally reaching a crescendo. Fixing the US economy would start with the departure of Geithner (forced or otherwise) and the full audit of the Fed. Everything else is smoke and overleveraged, uncollateralized mirrors (perfectly acceptable in the Fed's discount window). An interview by Dylan Ratigan of Ryan Grim and Naomi Klein makes this point loud and clear. The castration of Ron Paul's bill must not occur if America does not want to end up in the same financial collapse gutter it found itself in 2008. Mel Watt and others have to look beyond their immediate financial gain and consider what is critical for the American people.

   DYLAN RATIGAN: How is the Federal Reserve trying to basically game this Ron Paul amendment which looks like it will pass, and then chop its head off just as soon as it makes it into the room?

    RYAN GRIM: This is an immensely consequential debate that's going on in the House right now, and it also tells you a little bit about how Congress works.

    The Ron Paul/Alan Grayson bill has enough support to pass. So instead of trying to kill it, which they can't do any more they come in with what they call a "compromise." A serious with a capital "s" amendment, but if you look at the fine print of it, it actually just extends the secrecy of the federal reserve, and as you said it's backed by prominent economists at the fed and formerly at the Fed. They didn't say that they that they were wit the Fed when they sent a letter around backing it, but a Google search checking their resumes show that these are Fed bankers behind it.There is really unprecedented and very meaningful opposition to the Federal Reserve that has come together from the left and the right kind of opposing the center that is trying to hold.

Nov. 19 (Bloomberg) -- U.S. stocks extended a global drop as concern grew that the rally has outpaced the prospects for economic growth. The yen and the dollar strengthened, oil tumbled and yields on Treasury three-month bills turned negative for the first time since financial markets froze last year.

The MSCI World Index of equities 23 developed countries dropped 1.7 percent at 4:31 p.m. in New York, its steepest loss this month. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index fell 1.3 percent to 1,094.90 as Bank of America Corp. downgraded chipmakers, sending Intel Corp. and Texas Instruments Inc. down at least 3.4 percent. The yen climbed against all 16 of its most-traded counterparts and the Dollar Index rose as much as 0.5 percent. Aluminum and copper led declines in industrial metals.

Stocks slid amid speculation the eight-month, 68 percent rally that drove the valuation of the MSCI World Index to the most expensive level in seven years already reflects forecasts for a 25 percent rebound in corporate earnings next year. The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development doubled its growth forecast for the leading developed economies next year to 1.9 percent in a report today, while saying that mounting debt burdens will keep the expansion in check.

Rep. Ron Paul, the Texas Republican who is perhaps the Federal Reserve's most implacable enemy, scored a big win Thursday on Capitol Hill: The House Financial Services Committee approved a bill with Paul's provision to begin federal reviews of the central bank's interest-rate decisions. The vote on the audit provision amendment was 43-26.

Paul has for years asserted that the Fed, which by design is independent of  the federal government, was corrupt and that its monetary policy would drive America to ruin by debasing the dollar. He has sought to abolish the Fed entirely, but because that almost certainly would never fly in Congress, Paul has worked for Plan B: He wants the Government Accountability Office to have full power to audit the central bank's operations -- a measure the Fed bitterly opposes.

"If we get the audit and get the books open, make them answer the questions, I am convinced that the American people will be so outraged that then we will have reform of the monetary system," Paul has said. Fed Chairman Ben S. Bernanke told Congress in June that Paul's audit provision "would effectively be a takeover of policy by the Congress . . . [and] would be highly destructive to the stability of the financial system, the dollar and our national economic situation."

Paul contends that the Fed is overreacting. Here's how he describes what the provision would do:

    --- Removes blanket restrictions on GAO audits of the Fed;

    --- Allows the audit of every item on the Fed's balance sheet, all credit facilities, all securities purchase programs, etc.;

    --- Retains limited audit exemption on unreleased transcripts and minutes;

    --- Sets a 180-day time lag before details of Fed's market actions may be released;

    --- Provides that nothing in the amendment should be construed as interference in or dictation of monetary policy by Congress or the GAO.

The economy and the stock market may be recovering from their swoon, but more homeowners than ever are having trouble making their monthly mortgage payments, according to figures released Thursday.

Nearly one in 10 homeowners with mortgages was at least one payment behind in the third quarter, the Mortgage Bankers Association said in its survey. That translates into about five million households.

The delinquency figure, and a corresponding rise in the number of those losing their homes to foreclosure, was expected to be bad. Nevertheless, the figures underlined the level of stress on a large segment of the country, a situation that could snuff out the modest recovery in home prices over the last few months and impede any economic rebound.

....

 The overall third-quarter delinquency rate is the highest since the association began keeping records in 1972. It is up from about one in 14 mortgage holders in the third quarter of 2008. The combined percentage of those in foreclosure as well as delinquent homeowners is 14.41 percent, or about one in seven mortgage holders. Mortgages with problems are concentrated in four states: California, Florida, Arizona and Nevada. One in four people with mortgages in Florida is behind in payments.

Testimony submitted to the Congressional Oversight Panel, hearing on "The overall impact of the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) on the health of the financial system and the general U.S. economy," Thursday, November 19, 2009. (pdf version)

Submitted by Simon Johnson, Ronald Kurtz Professor of Entrepreneurship, MIT Sloan School of Management; Senior Fellow, Peterson Institute for International Economics; and co-founder of http://BaselineScenario.com.

Summary

1)      In the immediate policy response to any major financial crisis - involving a generalized loss of confidence in major lending institutions - there are three main goals:

   1. To stabilize the core banking system,
   2. To prevent the overall level of spending from collapsing,
   3. To lay the groundwork for a sustainable recovery.

....

7.      If any country pursues (a) unlimited government financial support, while not implementing (b) orderly resolution for troubled large institutions, and refusing to take on (c) serious governance reform, it would be castigated by the United States and come under pressure from the IMF.  At the heart of every crisis is a political problem - powerful people, and the firms they control, have gotten out of hand.  Unless this is dealt with as part of the stabilization program, all the government has done is provide an unconditional bailout.  That may be consistent with a short-term recovery, but it creates major problems for the sustainability of the recovery and for the medium-term.  Serious countries do not do this.

8.      Seen in this context, TARP has been badly mismanaged.  In its initial implementation, the signals were mixed - particularly as the Bush administration sought to provide support to essentially insolvent banks without taking them over.  Standard FDIC-type procedures, which are best practice internationally, were applied to small- and medium-banks, but studiously avoided for large banks.  As a result, there was a great deal of confusion in financial markets about what exactly was the Bush/Paulson policy that lay behind various ad hoc deals.

9.      The Obama administration, after some initial hesitation, used "stress tests" to signal unconditional support for the largest financial institutions.  By determining officially that these firms did not lack capital - on a forward looking basis - the administration effectively communicated that it was pursuing a strategy of "regulatory forbearance" (much as the US did after the Latin American debt crisis of 1982).  The existence of TARP, in that context, made the approach credible - but the availability of unconditional loans from the Federal Reserve remains the bedrock of the strategy.

10.  The downside scenario in the stress tests was overly optimistic, with regard to credit losses in real estate (residential and commercial), credit cards, auto loans, and in terms of the assumed time path for unemployment.  As a result, our largest banks remain undercapitalized, given the likely trajectory of the US and global economy.  This is a serious impediment to a sustained rebound in the real economy - already reflected in continued tight credit for small- and medium-sized business.

11.  Even more problematic is the underlying incentive to take excessive risk in the financial sector.  With downside limited by government guarantees of various kinds, the head of financial stability at the Bank of England (Andrew Haldane) bluntly characterizes our repeated boom-bailout-bust cycle as a "doom loop."

12.  Exacerbating this issue, TARP funds supported not only troubled banks, but also the executives who ran those institutions into the ground.  The banking system had to be saved, but specific banks could have wound down and leading bankers could and should have lost their jobs.  Keeping these people and their management systems in place serious trouble for the future.

13.  The implementation of TARP exacerbated the perception (and the reality) that some financial institutions are "Too Big to Fail."  This lowers their funding costs, enabling them to borrow more and to take more risk.

14.  The Obama administration argues that its regulatory reforms will rein in the financial sector in this regard.  Very few outside observers - other than at the largest banks - find this convincing.

15.  In fact, TARP also allowed the US Treasury to make it clear that some individuals are "Too Connected to Fail".  Financial executives with strong connections to the current and previous leadership of the New York Fed (e.g., through network connections of various kinds) have great power and enormous market value in this situation.

16.  The US recovery strategy hinges on continued low interest rates (and a continuation of quantitative easing).  This creates risks of a new global asset bubble, funded in dollars and driven by exuberance about prospects in emerging markets.  The Fed has already signaled clearly that it will not raise interest rates for a long while.

17.  Unless bank regulators limit the direct and indirect risk exposure of US financial institutions to this new supposedly low risk "carry trade", we face the very real prospect of another, even larger crisis.

EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - Israel's decision to push ahead with settlement expansion in East Jerusalem in defiance of international community opinion generated a rebuke from the EU on Wednesday (18 November).

"The Presidency of the European Union is dismayed by the recent decision on the expansion of the settlement of Gilo," said the Swedish EU presidency in a statement.

Jerusalem's Temple Mount and Wailing Wall - a holy city for two peoples

"The presidency recalls that settlement activities, house demolitions and evictions in East Jerusalem are illegal under international law."

On Tuesday, after the Palestinian Authority announced it was preparing to unilaterally declare independence, the Jerusalem municipal planning committee approved a construction scheme that would see some 900 housing units in Gilo, claimed by Israel as a Jerusalem neighbourhood but described by the United Nations as an Israeli settlement in East Jerusalem.

Hamid Karzai called for Afghan forces to assume responsibility for unstable areas in three years and to take complete control of security within five, in an inauguration speech closely monitored by the international community this morning.

After being sworn in for a second five-year term as president, Karzai promised to tackle corruption by prosecuting government officials and ending a culture of impunity.

Dignitaries from more than 40 countries, including the Pakistani president, Asif Ali Zardari, the US secretary of state, Hillary Clinton, and the British foreign secretary, David Miliband, attended the ceremony in Kabul.

"Afghanistan wants to lead operations in non-secure areas in the next three years," Karzai said, adding that Afghan forces should be able to take control of security within five years.

But even as Karzai pledged to make the country safe from the Taliban, two US soldiers and 10 Afghan civilians were killed in separate suicide bomb attacks.

WASHINGTON -- The international security company formerly called Blackwater Worldwide is facing large government fines for unlicensed arms shipments to Iraq, as a key Congressional committee is asking for a separate investigation into whether the company bribed Iraqi officials. Skip to next paragraph Related Times Topics: Blackwater Worldwide

In talks likely to result in millions of dollars in penalties, executives from the company, now known as Xe Services, are negotiating with government regulators over years of violations of export laws. According to government officials and former company employees, many of the violations involve arms shipments to Iraq, to outfit company security guards operating inside the country.

In addition, former company officials say that other penalties could result from violations of licensing requirements for the transfer of other forms of military technology and training expertise to foreign countries.

Senator John Kerry, the Massachusetts Democrat who is chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee, wrote in a letter on Wednesday that his committee was told by a top State Department official that the company had engaged in "broad violations" of export laws and that the unlicensed shipments "went beyond weapons for personal use."

In the letter, Senator Kerry asked the State Department's acting inspector general to begin an investigation into the "continued fitness" of Xe Services to carry out contract work for the State Department. The letter cited a report in The New York Times last week that Blackwater executives had approved of a plan to make secret payments to Iraqi officials after Blackwater employees killed 17 Iraqi civilians in Baghdad in September 2007.

BAGHDAD -- A leader of a Sunni Awakening Council was sentenced to death for kidnapping and murder on Thursday, setting off charges that the Shiite-dominated Iraqi government was trying to weaken the Sunni movement, which is credited for much of the reduction of sectarian violence here since 2006.

Adil al-Mashhadani, who led the Awakening militia in the impoverished Fadhil neighborhood of Baghdad, was arrested in March on charges of terrorism. A spokesman for the Justice Ministry, Abdul-Sattar Bayrkdar, provided no further details about the crime. His arrest set off 24 hours of bloody fighting between Awakening members and American and Iraqi security forces, after which the government dissolved the Fadhil council.

The Awakening Councils, also known as the Sons of Iraq, are local groups, including former insurgents and Baathists, who turned against the insurgency and received pay, first from the Americans and now from the Iraqis. Under their agreement with the government, they have tacit amnesty for past acts of sectarian violence but not for crimes like murder.

Other Awakening leaders had mixed reactions to Mr. Mashhadani's sentencing. "Nobody is above the law," said Nabil Ahmed, an Awakening leader in the Adhamiya neighborhood.

[...]

Mr. Mashhadani has long been a controversial figure, described by some in Fadhil as a protector, others as a brutal extortionist who buried victims alive.

The officer had been called to the girl's home in Ozark, Arkansas, by her mother because she was behaving in an unruly manner and refusing to take a shower.

In a report on the incident the officer, Dustin Bradshaw, said the mother gave him permission to use the Taser.

The High Court of Justice put an end to years of controversy Thursday by ruling that privately run prisons are unconstitutional.

Following the decision, the state is expected to have to pay hundreds of millions of shekels in compensation to a company that had already completed construction of the first private prison, near Be'er Sheva.

The panel of nine justices, presided over by Supreme Court President Dorit Beinisch, ruled that for the state to transfer authority for managing the prison to a private contractor whose aim is monetary profit would severely violate the prisoners' basic human rights to dignity and freedom.

Global warming appears to have stalled. Climatologists are puzzled as to why average global temperatures have stopped rising over the last 10 years. Some attribute the trend to a lack of sunspots, while others explain it through ocean currents.

At least the weather in Copenhagen is likely to be cooperating. The Danish Meteorological Institute predicts that temperatures in December, when the city will host the United Nations Climate Change Conference, will be one degree above the long-term average.

Otherwise, however, not much is happening with global warming at the moment. The Earth's average temperatures have stopping climbing since the beginning of the millennium, and it even looks as though global warming could come to a standstill this year.

Ironically, climate change appears to have stalled in the run-up to the upcoming world summit in the Danish capital, where thousands of politicians, bureaucrats, scientists, business leaders and environmental activists plan to negotiate a reduction in greenhouse gas emissions. Billions of euros are at stake in the negotiations.

ScienceDaily (Nov. 18, 2009) -- Professor Guillermo Bazan and a team of postgraduate researchers at UC Santa Barbara's Center for Polymers and Organic Solids (CPOS)  have announced a major advance in the synthesis of organic polymers for plastic solar cells.

Bazan's team reduced reaction time by 99%, from 48 hours to 30 minutes, and increased average molecular weight of the polymers by a factor of more than 3.

The reduced reaction time effectively cuts production time for the organic polymers by nearly 50%, since reaction time and purification time are approximately equal in the production process, in both laboratory and commercial environments.

The higher molecular weight of the polymers, reflecting the creation of longer chains of the polymers, has a major benefit in increasing current density in plastic solar cells by as much as a factor of more than four. Over polymer batches with varying average molecular weights, produced using varying combinations of the elements of the new methodology, the increase in current density was found to be approximately proportional to the increase in average molecular weight.

Researchers have long debated what triggered the extinctions that struck North American megafauna between 14,000 and 11,000 years ago (SN: 12/4/99, p. 360), and one of the prime candidates has been habitat change caused by a warming climate. The appetites and activities of humans streaming into the continent across a land bridge from Asia provide another possible culprit.

....

Sediments that accumulated in lakes in Indiana and New York provide evidence for the claims of Williams and his colleagues. In that material, the researchers looked at long-term trends in the amounts of tree pollen, charcoal bits and spores of fungi in the genus Sporormiella. Digestive processes in large herbivores are an integral part of the fungi's life cycle, and spores have been isolated from the dung of ancient mammoths, Williams says.

Recent studies suggest that when the number of Sporormiella spores in a sample of lake sediment is less than 2 percent of the number of grains of tree pollen, it's a sign that the surrounding area is home to few if any herbivores producing the large quantities of dung required for the fungi to thrive, says Jacquelyn Gill, also a paleoecologist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and a coauthor of the new report.

Analyses of sediments pulled from Appleman Lake in northeastern Indiana reveal that the numbers of Sporormiella spores began to decline about 14,800 years ago. But it wasn't until 13,700 years ago, more than a millennium later, that the spore-to-pollen ratio dropped below 2 percent, signaling a disappearance of the mammoths from the local area.

Also around 13,700 years ago is precisely when pollen grains from broad-leaved and presumably tasty trees such as ash and ironwood began to show up in lake-bottom sediments in substantial numbers. That's no coincidence, the researchers argue: These presumably tasty trees could only flourish when the megafauna that ate them were no longer present in large numbers.

Over the years, the toxicity of PCBs has slowly emerged. Some have been designated not only as probable carcinogens, but also as agents that diminish immunity and pollutants that lower birth weight and IQ. Now, researchers with the Anniston, Ala., Environmental Health Research Consortium report that these toxic pollutants also appear to impair vascular health.

A Monsanto plant in Anniston manufactured PCBs from 1929 to 1971. To probe for any lurking human impacts of widespread contamination in communities around the plant, the federal government funded a group of universities and community groups to study blood and other health indicators. For the new investigation, they focused on about 750 randomly selected men and women in the community nearest to the former PCB-production facility.

David Carpenter of the University of Albany, in Rensselaer, N.Y., and his colleagues discovered a dose-dependent climb in risk of both systolic and diastolic hypertension with rising blood concentrations of PCBs. "We're excited by this relationship," Carpenter says. "It's very novel."

His team reported the finding at the recent Dioxin 2009 conference in Beijing (the August meeting's formal name is the 29th International Symposium on Halogenated Persistent Organic Pollutants).

What began as a short visit to Hungary finished seven years later with a prize-winning book documenting the lives of the Roma people, from India to Eastern Europe. The photos are now on display in Germany. And with Berlin planning to repatriate up to 10,000 Roma, they are more than just pretty pictures.

It was nine years ago that Danish photographer Joakim Eskildsen and his wife, Swedish writer Cia Rinne, first decided to travel to Hevesaranyos in Hungary to document the life of the Roma people living there. Having just been to South Africa and seen the effects of apartheid firsthand, the couple became interested in what they saw as a form of apartheid in Europe: the way that the Roma -- commonly referred to as Gypsies -- were being treated.

And then somehow, that first trip to stay with the friend of a friend's Roma mother in Hungary for four months turned into a seven-year-long project. It wasn't planned that way but as, Eskildsen writes on his Web site, "once we had started we were unable to simply stop. The more we found out about the Roma and got to know them, the more our interest in, and liking for them, grew."

For seven years Eskildsen and Rinna saved up and traveled intermittently through seven countries -- Hungary, India, Greece, Romania, France, Russia and Finland -- sometimes living with Sinti and Roma people for months at a time. The couple would often move in with the Gypsies they met and at times, Eskildsen has said in various interviews, the lack of privacy almost drove them crazy. Eskildsen took pictures and Rinna wrote while they lived in Roma villages, on the edges of cities, in streets, forests and rubbish dumps, and in huts, tents, and shacks.

A young Holocaust victim has been brought back to life on the Internet. As a virtual figure, a young Jewish boy from Poland writes about his life during the Second World War - and he's looking for friends on Facebook. 

A young boy in shorts and a white T-shirt, with black hair, dark eyes, and a mischievous grin - that is how Henio looks to his friends on his Facebook page.

"My name is Henio Zytomirski. I am seven-years-old. I live on 3 Szewska Street in Lublin," he writes on his profile. His birthday is March 25, 1933. He is no more than seven or eight years old. As a young Jewish boy, he was killed by the Nazis in a concentration camp.

Virtual witness to history

Henio has been signed up to Facebook since August 18, 2009. "On that day, I wrote my first entry," said Piotr Buzek. The 22-year-old works in the Brama Grodzka Cultural Center in Lublin, and he is responsible for bringing Henio back to life in the virtual world. He imagines how Henio felt during his life and writes as though he were him.

"Here at the center we have collected a lot of information about Henio's life, and then I tried to imagine how this young boy experienced the world around him," said Buzek.

WASHINGTON -- A failure early Thursday morning of a system that feeds flight plans to air traffic controllers snarled thousands of flights in the eastern United States. By midmorning the system was working again, but the backlog caused widespread airport delays.

The system, the National Airspace Data Interchange Network, located in Atlanta with a backup in Salt Lake City, was a casualty of another failure in the tightly linked air traffic data system, a Federal Aviation Administration official said Thursday. The same system failed in August 2008, but it was not clear if the cause was the same this time. The result, however, was clear.

Flight plans typically consist of hundreds of alpha-numeric characters, giving the flight number, type of equipment, takeoff location and various intermediate points, with altitudes. On Thursday airlines were faxing flight plans to controllers, who were typing that data on keyboards, not quite hunt-and-peck but not nearly as fast as a computer would transfer the information.

When the system failed, it took another with it, the one that sorts through "notices to airmen," or F.A.A. alerts about short-lived problems, like equipment failures or runway closings, and delivers them to pilots.

THE competitors stood nervously on stage, awaiting the judges' decisions. As each name was called the crowd cheered, and the winner stepped forward to claim a prize, bowing his or her head to accept a medal.

<...>

The ultimate goal of the Choudhurys, who emigrated from India to Los Angeles, is to have yoga qualify as an Olympic sport. "It's far away," Mrs. Choudhury said in an interview. "A lot of work needs to be done before we really get into it, but this is our dream."

One big obstacle may be the yoga community itself. To many people, the idea of competition goes against the philosophy of yoga, which emphasizes self-acceptance and inner growth. Although yoga does tend to attract people who are limber, the physical poses, or asanas, are only one aspect of the practice; others include chanting, meditation and reading Sanskrit.

"The initial reaction from most people is always the same thing: competition yoga? Those things don't belong in the same sentence," said John Philp, a filmmaker in New York who directed a documentary film, "Yoga, Inc.," about the commercialization of Western yoga, and wrote a book with the same title.

<...>

Mr. [Richard Rosen, director of the Piedmont Yoga Studio in Oakland, Calif.] said that yoga contests could spread the perception that people with the most flexible limbs were the best yogis. "Unfortunately, yoga has been conflated with asana, which is a huge misapprehension," he said. "If the people who are winning asana competitions are suddenly being seen as more yogic than others, that's a really bad comparison to make." ...

Prevention could begin with lifestyle in younger years, one researcher says during the American Public Health Association meeting.

Philadelphia -- In Peter Whitehouse's view, all people fall into one of two groups: those with Alzheimer's disease and those who are afraid of getting it.

....

"There's this sense that if we invest enough money in research, fame and fortune will be ours if we find a biological fix, a magic bullet," he said during a packed session November 9. But Alzheimer's disease is a moving, multifaceted target.

Several hundred genes play a role in the condition, which causes different symptoms in different patients. And while Alzheimer's researchers often talk about the brain plaques and tangles that characterize the disease, the reality is that not all Alzheimer's patients show these deposits and some patients with other forms of dementia do show them, said Whitehouse, who recently published The Myth of Alzheimer's: What You Aren't Being Told about Today's Most Dreaded Diagnosis.

Whitehouse says that, instead of thinking of Alzheimer's as a strict dichotomy -- you have it or you don't -- he and a growing number of researchers are beginning to think of brain aging and dementia as more of a continuum. We're all a little demented, the thinking goes. Some of us are just more demented than others.

This thinking implies different responsibilities for society, he said. First, it means greater acceptance for those who do have more advanced dementia, rather than stigmatizing or fearing those individuals. Second, it means recognizing that aging takes place throughout a person's lifespan and that lifestyles during the younger years can affect people's health later in life. "We need to focus on the elders but not forget the young people," he said.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - "Pirates of the Caribbean" star Johnny Depp was named People magazine's "Sexiest Man Alive" on Wednesday, reclaiming a title he first won in 2003.

Depp, whom People described as "the king of cool with the killer cheekbones," succeeded 2008 winner Hugh Jackman. Other stars who have received the honor twice include George Clooney and Brad Pitt.

ANCHORAGE, Alaska -- Starry-eyed children writing letters to the jolly man at the North Pole this holiday season likely won't get a response from Santa Claus or his helpers.

The U.S. Postal Service is dropping a popular national program begun in 1954 in the small Alaska town of North Pole, where volunteers open and respond to thousands of letters addressed to Santa each year. Replies come with North Pole postmarks.

Last year, a postal worker in Maryland recognized an Operation Santa volunteer there as a registered sex offender. The postal worker interceded before the individual could answer a child's letter, but the Postal Service viewed the episode as a big enough scare to tighten rules in such programs nationwide

German police have arrested several people suspected of operating a soccer match-fixing ring that targeted top-flight soccer fixtures in Europe. Arrests were made in several European countries. 

German authorities have swooped on a group suspected of fixing top-level European soccer matches. The arrests were part of an ongoing investigation into suspected bribery at the highest levels in soccer in Europe.

Public prosecutors in the German city of Bochum said an investigation into the bribery ring had been underway since the beginning of this year, and was conducted with the support of soccer's governing body in Europe, UEFA.

Those arrested are suspected of using cash to bribe players, coaches, referees and officials in "high-ranking European leagues" with the aim to profit from fixed match results through betting syndicates.

German daily Berliner Morgenpost reported that the central figures in the match-fixing ring were believed to be based in the German capital Berlin, and were suspected of involvement in a prior soccer match manipulation scandal centered on former referee Robert Hoyzer.

Nov. 19 (Bloomberg) -- Jeanne-Claude, the artist who collaborated with her husband, Christo, on large-scale public works that included wrapping Berlin's Reichstag in aluminum and decking out New York City's Central Park with sheets of yellow- orange fabric, has died. She was 74.

She died last night at a New York hospital from complications of a brain aneurysm, the Associated Press reported, citing her family.

The couple's 2005 project in New York, "The Gates," placed panels of free-flowing fabric suspended from gateway frames along 23 miles of the park's walkways. The two-week exhibition drew 4 million visitors and generated $254 million from hotel stays, restaurants and other cultural attractions, according to the city.

Other projects by Jeanne-Claude and her Bulgarian-born husband included the 1995 "Wrapped Reichstag" in Berlin, the 1983 transformation of islands off Miami into lily pads using pink fabric, and, in 1991, a simultaneous display of huge umbrellas in Japan (blue) and in California (yellow). The display was taken down early after one umbrella uprooted by a wind gust north of Los Angeles struck and killed a woman.