The conservative Danish People's Party and leftist Social Liberals in Denmark are calling for increased checks on Americans wishing to travel to Denmark, including the introduction of visa requirements and pre-travel disclosures.

"We have had to admit that the Americans have not been as effective in their anti-terrorism efforts as we thought and that the threat against Denmark has grown," says Danish People's Party Justice Spokesman Peter Skaarup.

According to Visit Denmark almost 500,000 Americans visit the country each year. One of those who twice this year availed himself of easy entry into the country was a man recently arrested in Chicago on charges of conspiracy to carry out an attack on the Jyllands-Posten newspaper.

Washington, Nov 17 (CTK) - East Europeans should stop behave like small children, start to deal with their own problems by themselves and not to go to the United States complaining about Russian aggressiveness, for instance, Zbigniew Brzezinski said in in interview for the public Czech Television (CT) Tuesday.

"Without ifs, ands or buts: we want a strategic partnership with Russia," Westerwelle said at his meeting with Lavrov.

"We want more than just a trade and economic relationship," he said. "From justice to culture we want to work together and build a deeper friendship between our two peoples."

Westerwelle had earlier attended the inauguration ceremony of Afghan President Hamid Karzai in Kabul.

After the meeting with Lavrov, Westerwelle met with Medvedev to discuss matters such as nuclear disarmament, the situation with Iran and the war in Afghanistan.

The Czech Senate on Thursday banned an appearance by the controversial Dutch politician Geert Wilders on its premises. Mr Wilders was going to screen his anti-Islamic film, Fitna, and address a conference held by Czech anti-Islamists and Euro-sceptics.

The move follows protests from scientists that there had been no mention of the topic in a previous consultation document published earlier. Some said the topic, to be introduced in science lessons, was necessary to combat growing attempts to bring creationism into the curriculum.

Announcing the move, Schools minister, Vernon Coaker, said: "Lots of teachers came forward and said it should be part of the compulsory programme of study."

Under the proposals, children would start to learn about Darwin's theory on the origins of species during their later years in primary school. The new change would be brought in from September 2011.

(What!? It is not elementary school curriculum now?)

*Traitor*, n.
A benighted individual who perceives an illusory distinction between serving his nation and abetting the criminals who govern it.

Internet users who illegally download films and music will run the risk of being cut off from the web under new laws published by the Government today.

Others who abuse copyright laws could also have their internet connection slowed down as part of an attempt by Lord Mandelson, the Business Secretary, to fight back against online piracy, which costs the creative industries billions each year.

Under the powers set out in the Digital Economy Bill, finally published yesterday, internet service providers (ISPs) will be obliged to send letters to those suspected of online piracy. The owners of illegally downloaded material will also be entitled to the name and address of serial offenders, allowing them to take legal action against them.

AFP - French prosecutors said Friday they would appeal a court ruling that cleared a Total subsidiary and its former boss of responsibility for a chemical plant blast that killed 31 people.

"It is an absolute duty with regard to the deceased people and all the victims," said prosecutor Michel Valet, who announced the appeal after victims of the 2001 blast denounced Thursday's ruling.

The court in the southwestern town of Toulouse said there was not enough evidence to prove that negligence by the Total subsidiary Grande Paroisse had caused the blast.

The explosion erupted in a storage warehouse packed with 300 tonnes of ammonium nitrate at the AZF chemical fertiliser plant near Toulouse owned by Grande Paroisse.

The blast, which also injured 2,000 people and devastated 30,000 homes, came just days after the September 11 attacks in New York and initially sparked fears that it was a terrorist attack.

The appointment as a little-known peer to become Europe's first "foreign minister" stunned and dismayed many in Westminster today, prompting a barrage of briefing against Britain's most senior female politician.

Gordon Brown looks likely to draw little credit from his Labour colleagues for installing Baroness Ashton of Upholland, the EU trade commissioner who has never held elected office, into the post of High Representative for Foreign Policy and Security.

"To think that we wanted Blair and we ended up with Cathy Ashton. It's such an indictment of Gordon," said one member of the government hours after the appointment was announced.

Lady Ashton emerged from the pack after European Socialist leaders confirmed their veto of Tony Blair but said that Britain could have the second job instead. As part of the horse trading Herman Van Rumpoy, the centre right's choice to be president, was given a virtual clear run once leaders sat down for dinner last night.

The Danish People's Party is calling for extra checks on ethnic non-Western Americans wishing to travel to Denmark.

The Danish People's and Social Liberal parties in Denmark are calling for increased checks on Americans wishing to travel to Denmark, including the introduction of visa requirements and pre-travel disclosures.

"We have had to admit that the Americans have not been as effective in their anti-terrorism efforts as we thought and that the threat against Denmark has grown," says Danish People's Party Justice Spokesman Peter Skaarup.

According to Visit Denmark almost 500,000 Americans visit the country each year. One of those who twice this year availed himself of easy entry into the country was a man recently arrested in Chicago on charges of conspiracy to carry out an attack on the Jyllands-Posten newspaper.

A Polish court has ruled that the current inhabitants of a house in the north of the country must leave so that it can be reclaimed by the ethnic German woman who owned it before leaving the country in the 1970s. 

The unprecedented verdict read out by a regional court judge on Thursday means that the two families now living in the house, in the village of Narty, must be evicted. The order upholds a 2005 ruling that returned the house to the former owner.

Owner Agnes Trawny left the country for Germany in 1977. Her house, like all the property of more than 100,000 ethnic Germans who emigrated to Germany, was confiscated by the then-communist regime.

The Moskalik and Glowacki families moved into the house as tenants of the local council, but the property's ownership was never settled by the state. Until now, Polish courts routinely dismissed requests for property restitution.

The new German justice minister says Berlin is not comfortable with an EU measure that would grant US authorities access to European banking data. Now it seems likely that the Germans may scupper the deal, which is supposed to be pushed through at an EU meeting in Brussels at the end of November.

The agreement was supposed to be laced up before others got involved in the tricky debate about data protection and individual rights. Now, though, it looks like European Union plans to push through an anti-terror agreement with Washington may not go ahead, thanks in part to the new German government.

The Berlin coalition, which pairs Angela Merkel's conservatives with the Free Democrats (FDP), voted into power at the end of September, likely won't rubber stamp a proposal that would give the US wide ranging access to EU bank accounts in the course of terrorism investigations. The measure, proposed by Sweden as current holder of the EU's rotating presidency, was to have passed by Dec. 1. It foresaw allowing US investigators access to European bank accounts -- particularly international transactions -- as part of terror enquiries.

Germany is not the only country to have doubts. France, Austria and Finland have also expressed reservations, particularly regarding to the speed with which the new measure was being pushed through. Dec. 1 is the date when the new Lisbon Treaty goes into effect. The reform agreement grants the European Parliament new powers of control over decisions such as the one under consideration -- and that means lengthy debate.

I seem to remember reading about it before, not sure what to think about it (i could think of MANY arguments) - what I do find interesting though is, that these practical steps are being thought about and it shows the political will to do something different - something that goes to the heart of government - reducing barriers between governments etc.
It would be quite a new level of inter governmental co-operation.

EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - A deal struck by EU leaders in Brussels on Thursday evening (19 November) marked the latest step of an improbable rise by two erstwhile little-known politicians.

Controversy over government meddling in a court case surrounding the breakup of the cross-border bank, Fortis, late last year saw Herman Van Rompuy unexpectedly catapulted into the role of Belgian prime minister.

...He has been supportive of stimulus spending, despite presiding over a country with one of Europe's highest debt-to-GDP ratios, and on Thursday night said battling the "anxiety and uncertainty" triggered by the financial crisis and fighting climate change will be his top priorities.

More controversially, comments made by the Belgian leader in 2004, when in opposition, suggest he does not favour the prospect of Turkey joining the EU, drawing concerns from Turkish politicians following his appointment to the council presidency post.  

...Ms Ashton's rise could possibly be described as being even less expected... she has won plaudits for her trade negotiations, recently securing a free-trade agreement with South Korea, considered the jewel in the EU's crown of bilateral deals.

She has also worked hard to kick-start the stalled multilateral Doha trade negotiations and recently made good progress in resolving a long-running dispute with several Latin American countries over bananas.

Traian Basescu, the Romanian incumbent president, is to be blamed for the fact that Adrian Severin was not elected EU's Foreign Affairs minister. This is the statement of the Social-Democratic Party National Council president Adrian Nastase for RFI. The ex-Prime Minister claims that the European socialist did not receive support from the chief of state in order to become a High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs.

France is expecting to get the internal market and financial services portfolio in the next European Commission following its support for a Briton winning the post of EU foreign policy chief.

French daily Le Monde writes that Michel Barnier, a former farm minister who has already served as a EU commissioner, will also be a vice-president of the institution.

The appointment of Belgian Prime Minister Herman Van Rompuy to the post of President of the European council and British Commissioner for Trade Catherine Ashton as High Representative for Foreign Affairs has not been well received by European press, which was hoping for more charismatic European representatives.

"Europe is stunned," announces Austria's Die Presse, which takes issue with the appointment of a two "unknowns" -- or two "stop-gaps" as Der Spiegel dubs them -- to the new key posts in the EU. In Portugal, Diário de Notícias, which is similarly unimpressed, notes that representatives of Europe's member states took only half an hour to elect the "anonymous duo who are almost unknown outside of their own countries" to the positions where they will now "take charge of the destiny of the EU."

"European leaders have adopted the suicidal tactic of basing an agreement on the lowest common denominator," complains La Repubblica, which further avers that "as Henry Kissinger put it, Europe has now been provided with a telephone number, but if we cannot field a better team to take the calls, no one is likely to dial it." For the Rome daily, anyone seeking "a face and phone number for Europe will call Angela Merkel, and and shy away from Herman Van Rompuy and the even more avoidable Baroness Ashton." In Poland, Rzeczpospolita ironically introduces the new EU President to our allies: "Dear Americans, here's Mr. Europe 2009 -- Herman Van Rompuy." The Warsaw-based daily expects the transatlantic line to his office to be abuzz with fruitful discussion on "the war on terror, CO2 emissions and the tackling the economic crisis." In a more bitter attack, another Polish daily Gazeta Wyborcza simply wonders "if it was worth fighting the battle for the Lisbon Treaty to hand the new jobs to two weaklings."

With her appointment as the EU High Representative for Foreign Policy, Catherine Ashton has become overnight one of the world's most powerful women. But her role, considered even more prestigious than that of EU President, is not without pitfalls, reports Der Spiegel.

The foreign minister, who will represent the continent on the global stage and act as the voice of the 27 member countries would become Javier Solana's heir as secretary-general of the Council and, at the same time, take over the portfolio of the EU foreign commissioner and serve as the vice president of the European Commission. No one has ever held a seat in both institutions, the Council and the Commission. To achieve this mission, a powerful administration will be placed at Catherine Ashton's disposal, something which promises to be both expensive and enormous. The new "European External Action Service" could end up with a staff of 6,000 to 7,000 eurocrats. The EU would acquire yet another bloated bureaucracy -- without eliminating a single permanent position in the foreign ministries of the 27 member states.

Gordon Brown has been accused of putting Britain's economic interest at risk by accepting the "wrong" European Union job.

Critics said he had sacrificed a powerful economic post in the European Commission in favour of installing Baroness Ashton as the first EU foreign minister.

It opens the way for Michel Barnier, a centre-right French politician, to be named the next internal market commissioner overseeing financial regulation next month.

Mr Barnier, a former commissioner, is well known as defender of French protectionism and is hostile to the "Anglo-Saxon" free market model of capitalism.

The prospect has alarmed the City of London, where many banks fear the imposition of new EU regulations on the financial services sector.

Herman Van Rompuy: quirky exterior conceals sharp operator - Telegraph

Herman Van Rompuy's quirky exterior conceals a ruthless political operator who will stop at nothing to get his way as president of the European Union.

During his candidacy, he was portrayed as the perfect conciliator with valuable experience as Belgium's Prime Minister of bridging the divide between the warring Flemish and Walloon communities and holding his country together.

The "ideal candidate", said Nicolas Sarkozy, the French President, for bring "consensus and cohesion" to a fractious EU of 27 member states.

In reality, and behind his harmless, eccentric and literary persona, Mr Van Rompuy, 62, is a sharp political operator who is not above using dirty tricks to stymie his opponents.

Europe's leaders may find to their cost that the man they chose to chair their EU summits possesses dark arts that will be turned against anyone, such as an incoming Conservative prime minister, who challenges the Brussels consensus.

Last year, six months before becoming prime minister, he abused his position as speaker of the Belgian parliament to cancel a politically inconvenient debate. To make doubly sure that MPs would be silenced, he had the locks on the plenary chamber's doors changed so deputies could not get into their own parliament. The tactic was described by opposition MPs as a "coup d'etat".

Choice of European council president seen as move to block Turkish accession to EU

Europe's new president, Herman Van Rompuy, faced a furious backlash in Turkey yesterday amid reports of his hostility to the country's EU membership.

Suat Kiniklioglu, an influential member of the ruling Justice and Development party (AKP), told the Guardian there was "widespread Turkish sentiment" that Van Rompuy would harm Turkey's European aspirations and suggested that France and Germany had championed him for that reason.

"We are concerned," said Kiniklioglu, a member of the Turkish parliament's foreign affairs committee and the AKP's deputy chairman for external affairs.

"This man has made it very clear that he doesn't want to see Turkey in the European Union. What is even sadder is that he is making that argument on the basis of the supposed Christian values of the union. That's not the type of union we envisage. The values we envisage are of democracy, transparency, human rights and the rule of law."

Muted reaction suggests global community would have preferred Blair, reports John Lichfield

Limp waves of polite puzzlement circled the globe yesterday as leaders adjusted to the news that the much ballyhooed EU President would be a mild-mannered, competent manager rather than a charismatic new "face" for Europe.

The US President, Barack Obama, said that he "looked forward to working closely" with both the new European Council President, Herman van Rompuy, and the EU's first foreign minister, Baroness Ashton. He said the "two new positions" would make the European Union an "even stronger partner to the United States".

It was noticeable, however, that President Obama also declared that he intended to "work closely" with the European Commission President, Jose Manuel Barroso - a tacit recognition that there had been no real landslip in power and influence in Brussels.

As Herman Van Rompuy and Catherine Ashton blink in the unfamiliar glare of media attention, world leaders have been trying to foresee the impact of the new pair on international politics. If there is one. 

The official global reactions to the choices, made with such surprising swiftness on Thursday night, have been predictably bland.

"I warmly congratulate President Van Rompuy and my new counterpart High Representative Ashton," US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said in her official statement, before adding: "I look forward to working closely with them to strengthen and broaden our partnership."

Despite the unknown nature of the two new names, there has been very little concern among world leaders about what effect they will have. As far as the personalities of the appointees go, few people fear that they will rock the boat of international diplomacy. Van Rompuy effectively confirmed as much in his acceptance speech, in which he presented himself as a mediator.

Bildunterschrift: Großansicht des Bildes mit der Bildunterschrift:  Ashton has some urgent networking to do

The European Union, apparently, is not as serious as it had made out about asserting itself on a world stage.

The poor relationship between Lord Mandelson and his successor as Trade Commissioner is an open secret at the top levels of the Government.

Although he has kept his contempt private, Baroness Ashton of Upholland let her view slip when she was interviewed last year after replacing him. "Everyone has their own style," she began. "Peter did a fantastic job in my view, but I bring a different style. For some people, that style is more what they're looking for."

For those failing to draw the distinction, she added: "I don't know any oligarchs. I don't think I've ever been on anyone's yacht."

It is little surprise, then, that the First Secretary had other choices in mind when it came to deciding who should secure Britain's place in the new Commission. But the dismay on both sides of the Channel after she was confirmed victorious goes wider than personal animosity.

With the European Union's top new jobs going to two low-key bridge-builders, the bloc appears to have set its sights on smoothing over internal divisions before trying to construct a bigger global role.

The combination of Belgium's prime minister, Herman Van Rompuy, for the bloc's presidential post and Catherine Ashton, the European commissioner for trade, who is British, as foreign policy chief leaves the Union without the high-profile leadership for which many had yearned.

The duo look set to tread a pragmatic path, and supporters said the bloc needed to walk before it could run on the international stage.

"In some ways, the E.U. craving for star-quality leaders was like trying to cover the lack of substance with appearances," said Adam Jasser in an analysis for demosEUROPA, a research institution based in Warsaw. "Whether Europe will be treated seriously or not by the outside world depends on its ability to speak with one voice and get its priorities sorted out."

Speaking after several hours of talks with his Ukrainian counterpart Yulia Tymoshenko, he said Russia had agreed to allow Ukraine to buy less gas next year and it would now be up to the two countries' energy companies to put that agreement in writing.

"Gazprom and Naftogaz will agree on new volumes," Putin said, referring to the two countries' energy firms after talks.

"We deemed it possible to meet Ukraine halfway and tweak several of our earlier agreements," Putin said.

Earlier this year, Russia also agreed to reduce the volume of gas Kiev must acquire this year without imposing fines. That agreement however has yet to be put in writing.

Ukraine's Naftogaz has said it is meant to buy 52 billion cubic metres of Russian gas next year but may only need 27 bcm.

The deal is expected to continue forward at a meeting of Volkswagen shareholders, scheduled for December 3, to approve taking on a 49.9 percent stake in Porsche. The deal is estimated to be worth around 3.9 billion euros ($5.9 billion).

Shortly before noon Friday, an Air France A380, the world's largest civilian airliner, will take off from Paris for New York on its first transatlantic flight with 538 passengers on board.

The world's biggest cruise ship - boasting its own open air park and amphitheatre - was officially unveiled today.

The credit crunch-busting 225,000-tonne leviathan called Oasis Of The Seas was shown to the media and public at Fort Lauderdale, Florida, by American company Royal Caribbean.

The unveiling was shown live on American breakfast television.

Japan's government has officially announced the country is in a deflation period expressing fears that it could harms the recovery process. The Bank of Japan has decided to keep interest rates at its lowest level.

The overhang of debt around the developed world, said the OECD, is the major factor holding back a more vigorous recovery and the creation of thousands more new jobs. Pressure on public finances will also dampen public-sector employment growth in the the next few years. The OECD expects the jobless rate to peak in the first half of 2010 in America, but it may not be until 2011 that unemployment begins to fall in the eurozone area.

The report says the recovery is tepid because economic activity is being held back by families and businesses repairing their finances and reducing their debts. China, the OECD predicts, will lead the global recovery, helped by its limited direct exposure to the financial crisis and by a massive stimulus package. The US, the world's largest economy, is expected to grow by 2.5 per cent in 2010 and a further 2.8 per cent in 2011.

Senator Kaufman has been concerned about the SEC and about High Frequency Trading and "sponsored access" to real time market monitoring information.  Below is a press release that was associated with a letter he wrote to Mary Shapiro, Chair and the other Boardmembers of the SEC.

Senator Ted Kaufman (D-DE) today urged Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Chairman Mary Schapiro to take immediate steps to combat manipulative high frequency trading algorithms and end so-called "sponsored access," which Kaufman and many market experts believe exposes the U.S. capital markets to systemic risk.  Sponsored access permits traders - many of which are unregulated hedge funds - to trade directly on an exchange, circumventing risk checks that apply to broker-dealer trades.

"While it is clear that high frequency trading brings certain benefits to our markets, it is also clear that manipulative high frequency algorithms are almost certainly operating today and that sponsored access creates a systemic risk today," Kaufman wrote in a Nov. 20 letter delivered to Chairman Schapiro and the SEC's four other commissioners.

Kaufman has been urging the SEC to look more closely at market structure issues since he wrote the Commission on Aug. 21 calling for a comprehensive "ground up" review before piecemeal changes in the existing structure only increase concerns about unfairness or systemic risk.  Last month he was the lead witness in a Senate Banking subcommittee hearing on a host of market structure issues, including high frequency trading, which uses ultra-fast computers, co-located servers and proprietary data feeds direct from market centers to make thousands of trades a second.

"Given that the Commission under current procedures is now blind to high frequency operations, the need for immediate action should not wait until the Commission has completed its comprehensive review," Kaufman wrote.

An attachment to Kaufman's letter to Schapiro spells out in detail his thoughts on three areas where further Commission action is needed for market fairness: consolidated surveillance authority, dissemination of market data and modernizing best execution reporting standards. "Fairness," Kaufman writes in his attachment, "may be an elusive and evolving concept in the securities market, but it must be defined and then vigorously defended by regulators."

"[G]iven the current lack of effective market surveillance," Kaufman writes, "we simply cannot permit high frequency practices to continue unchecked without the ability of regulators to observe and stop manipulation or to avert systemic risks."

A brand new city with no residents.  All of the homes are sold---as investments.  (Apparently, few of the people who would live there can afford to buy!)  But the province met its GDP growth goals. It is NOT a Potemkin city, but what is it?  A badly done SimCity?

 

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

Rep. DeFazio: "There was a very interesting slide shown to the caucus on Monday night, and I don't know who the guy was, some economist. He had polling data. And he said the American people`s opinion of what we've done so far for economic recovery, 90% think its been way too much Wall Street and that's pretty overwhelming, and only 10% felt it was oriented toward helping real folks with real jobs in the real economy.

That is a very troubling number, especially for a Democratic administration and a Democratic Congress. I just think that pretty drastic steps are necessary to change direction of the policy. We've been fighting with the President's economic team for months...

They don't believe in infrastructure. They don't seem to believe in investment. They want a borrowed money, consumer driven recovery...that ain't happening."

Still popular and articulate despite five years behind bars, the 50-year-old activist is seen by some as a Palestinian Nelson Mandela, the man who could galvanise a drifting and divided national movement if only he were set free by Israel.

..."I do not see that there are fundamental political differences between Fatah and Hamas," said Barghouti, a leading figure in the two Intifadas, or uprisings against Israeli occupation, waged by the Palestinians since 1987.

..."In the shadow of the failure of negotiations and the absence of an Israeli partner for peace, the necessary strategy is firstly ending the division and restoring national unity," Barghouti said.

Hassan Nasrallah was re-elected head of Hezbollah on Thursday following a congress that also adopted a new manifesto, which is to be revealed in coming days, the militant Shiite party announced.

Iraq's Sunni Arab vice president vetoed the election law on Wednesday and sent it back to parliament, sparking fears of an election delay that could affect U.S. plans to end combat operations in Iraq in August.

Lawmakers must pass a modified law in the next few days to meet a constitutional deadline to hold the ballot in January.

Instead of addressing Vice President Tareq al-Hashemi's demand that the law give more seats to Iraqi refugees and minorities, lawmakers squabbled over whether the veto was legal.

They scheduled a session on Saturday in which they would vote to reject Hashemi's veto and send the law back for approval by the three-person presidency council without changes, said the speaker of parliament, Ayad al-Samarai.

AFP - Bombers on Friday killed 18 people in Afghanistan, a deadly start to President Hamid Karzai's second term in office that underscored spiralling insecurity nine years into the US-led war.

The attacks brought to 30 the number of people killed since Karzai was sworn in for another five years on Thursday, pledging to try to bring peace to the nation and take over security from foreign forces in five years.

Micheletti said he expected to be absent from public functions from November 25 to December 2, in an address on national media.

"With this measure I aim to concentrate all the attention of Honduran people on the electoral process and not on the political crisis," Micheletti said.

Zelaya, in comments to Venezuela's Telesur TV channel, immediately rejected the move as a "crude maneuver" that implicitly recognizes that Micheletti's presence in office "stains the electoral process."

Micheletti did not name a replacement but said that the government would function normally during his absence.

Colombian Defense Minister Gabriel Silva said uniformed troops from the Venezuelan army dynamited the bridges that cross into Colombia's Norte de Santander department in what he criticized as a violation of international law.

"Uniformed men, apparently from the Venezuelan army, arrived in trucks on the Venezuelan side at two pedestrian bridges that link communities on both sides ... and then proceeded to dynamite them," Silva said.

But Venezuelan authorities said the army had destroyed an illegal, improvised bridge spanning the border.

"The Venezuelan army took down a sort of walkway, put up by the people who pass from Venezuela to Colombia," said Alexis Balza, frontier director for Tachira State governor's office.

...many people are asking: why he is delivering so little, so slowly?

A pair of seemingly small stories about the forces warping American politics can help us to answer this question. At first glance, they will seem like preposterous caricatures, but the facts are plain. The institutions that are blocking progress on all these issues - Republicans in the Senate, and the mighty corporate lobbying machine that bankrolls both parties - have rallied over the past few months to defend two causes with very little popular support in the United States: rape and slavery. No, really. If we begin to explain how this came to pass, then we might see why the American political system is malfunctioning so badly, even after a landslide victory for change.

(He is not joking. Read it.)

*Traitor*, n.
A benighted individual who perceives an illusory distinction between serving his nation and abetting the criminals who govern it.

When seas rise, droughts hit and glaciers melt, it is women from the developing world who are likely to come off worst, a report by the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) says.

"Poor women in poor countries are among the hardest hit by climate change, even though they contributed the least to it," wrote UNFPA Executive Director Thoraya Ahmed Obaid in a press statement released on Wednesday.

Living in the most marginalized areas and dependent on agriculture to survive, it is the poor who are in the frontline of climate change. Given that most of the 1.5 billion people living on $1 a day or less are women, they are in the most vulnerable position, the report entitled 'The State of World Population 2009' said.

The record-breaking rainfall - reaching 314mm (12.4 inches) in 24 hours - is the highest level witnessed in 44 years.

The reading taken from the Environment Agency's gauging station at Seathwaite Farm exceeds the 279.4mm (11in) recorded in 24 hours in Martinstown, Dorset, in July 1955.

Statistics compiled by MeteoGroup, the weather division of the Press Association, show the deluge is the greatest seen since meteorologists started using instruments to record rainfall - back in 1727.

With at least 300 horses stabled at Keeneland at any time, and as many as 1,900 during peak horse sales, disposing of tons of straw and manure shoveled every day from barn stalls becomes a major environmental challenge for the race track.

On Friday, Keeneland received a conditional-use permit from the Board of Adjustment to establish a processing plant to convert muck into biofuel on property zoned for agriculture.

....

Keeneland is in negotiations with Three Seconds To Oil of Albany, Ga., to set up two mobile units that would convert muck, or any carbon-based product including grass, paper, pine needles or vines, into a liquid biofuel.

A contract has not been signed, "but we're considering it very, very strongly," said John Howard, Keeneland's projects administrator. The track wanted to have zoning in place, assuming the deal will be approved.

The e-mail system of one of the world's leading climate research units has been breached by hackers.

E-mails reportedly from the University of East Anglia's Climatic Research Unit (CRU), including personal exchanges, appeared on the internet on Thursday.

A university spokesman confirmed the email system had been hacked and that information was taken and published without permission.

An investigation was underway and the police had been informed, he added.

"We are aware that information from a server used for research information in one area of the university has been made available on public websites," the spokesman stated.

"Because of the volume of this information we cannot currently confirm that all of this material is genuine.

Finally, it's here: the official uncorking of the Beaujolais Nouveau, France's favorite fruity wine. This year, the vintage is being touted as one of the best in half-a-century.

Internet giant Google has for the first time showed how its long-awaited operating system, Chrome OS, will work. The 100% cloud computing system will run on netbooks as soon as 2010.

Palaeontologists have unearthed five new crocodile species that lived with the dinosaurs about 100 million years ago until they too became extinct about 64 million years ago.

Professor Paul Sereno of Chicago University and his colleagues discovered the dinosaurs while excavating remote sites in the Sahara desert, which was once part of the ancient southern continent of Gondwana and enjoyed a warm, moist climate similar to present-day Florida.

The finds show that these large reptiles once consisted of a far more diverse range of species than can be seen from today's crocodiles and alligators. They included a crocodile with dagger-like teeth that stuck out like the tusks of a boar and another with a snout shaped like a duck's bill...

In 2001, Professor Sereno led an expedition to the same area that uncovered fossilised bones belonging to the largest crocodile ever discovered, an eight-tonne, 40ft giant called Sarchosuchus imperator - "flesh crocodile emperor" - which was said to be so large that it not only walked with dinosaurs, it ate them.

There are almost three million Turkish people living in Germany and, according to a new study released this week, almost half of them intend to return to Turkey at some stage. And interestingly, more younger Turks want to return to Turkey than their elders.

This is despite the fact that almost two thirds of respondents to the study (61 percent altogether)-- one of the first polls to compare the world views of around a thousand individuals from Turkey, Germany and the Turkish population living in Germany -- had been born in Germany or had been living in the country for over 30 years. Turks are the largest ethnic minority in Germany and make up almost 4 percent of the country's population. Yet only 21 percent of those polled feel happy to call Germany home.

In fact, over half of the Turks living in Germany (62 percent) said that when they are in the country they felt like Turks. But when they were in Turkey they felt like Germans. A significant percentage of the migrants (45 percent) felt that they were not wanted in Germany and only 54 percent believed that Turks and Germans had the same educational opportunities.

Once your medicines regulator decides it should change the side effects warnings on the patient information of a drug taken by millions of people, how long do you think it would take for that change to be implemented?

In February 2008 the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency published Drug Safety Update, Volume 1, Issue 7. This is a boring government document which you have not read. After a review of clinical trial data, spontaneous reports of suspected adverse drug reactions, and published literature, they concluded: "product information for statins is being updated to reflect a number of different side-effects as class effects of all statins."

A tactic used by insurance companies to deny expensive behavioral therapy to autistic children has been deemed illegal by a Los Angeles judge.

In a preliminary ruling, Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge James C. Chalfant found that Kaiser Permanente's refusal to pay for a child's autism treatment because the provider was not licensed by the state runs counter to California's Mental Health Parity Act. That act requires insurers to cover care for mental and behavioral problems at the same levels they do for physical illnesses.

"A refusal to pay for . . . services based on the fact that the provider is not licensed is inconsistent with the intent of parity," Chalfant wrote in his Oct. 20 ruling.

It's the latest development in a long-running battle by parents nationwide to require insurers to pay for treatment of their autistic children. One of the most promising -- and expensive -- treatments is known as applied behavioral analysis. Therapists break down tasks such as feeding and dressing into tiny steps, then teach their autistic patients to master them through repeated drilling and rewards.

The ruling came as part of a lawsuit filed by Consumer Watchdog, a Santa Monica advocacy organization, against the California Department of Managed Health Care to require the agency to side with consumers when insurers refuse to pay for the autism therapy. The ruling clears the way for a trial to determine whether the department, which is responsible for regulating health plans, is doing enough to require insurers to cover such treatment.

And Kaiser is one of the best HMOs. They are obviously as capable of hiring or retaining qualified therapist for autism in addition to all of the other specialties they have. But it won't be cheap, given the current incidence of autism.

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

Primary school children in England will have to learn about evolution and British history under a shake-up of the national curriculum.

Schools Minister Vernon Coaker says the subjects will be compulsory elements of a new primary school curriculum being introduced in 2011.

French footballer Thierry Henry said that he supported a rematch against Ireland, but hours after FIFA officially ruled out the possibility of a replay of the controversial World Cup playoff game.

European football is reeling from news of a fresh match-fixing scandal involving nine countries and up to 200 games.

German prosecutors investigating the manipulation revealed on Friday that 15 people have been arrested in Germany and two in Switzerland. A series of around 50 raids were carried out on Thursday, during which documents, around €1 million in cash and valuables were seized.

At a news conference the prosecutors said that about 200 games were thought to be affected, including three Champions League games and 12 Europa League games. The investigation, carried out with the European football association UEFA, has been ongoing since the beginning of 2009.

The betting scandal involves huge sums of money placed with Asian bookmakers on matches in Europe and players, coaches, referees and officials are included among the suspects. In all around 100 people could be involved in the match-fixing conspiracy.

Fix On in Germany as Well?

Games in at least nine European leagues are being probed, including matches played in Germany, Austria, Belgium, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Croatia, Hungary, Slovenia, Switzerland and Turkey.

Former Formula One team owner Eddie Jordan believes Michael Schumacher will replace Jenson Button at the newly-named Mercedes team for next season.

World champion Button joined Lewis Hamilton at McLaren earlier this week after the Brawn team with which he won the drivers' title was renamed Mercedes.

Brenda and another Brazilian transsexual were at the center of a case involving the blackmail of former Lazio Governor Piero Marrazzo by four police officers who secretly filmed him having sex and taking drugs with one of the transsexuals.

Marrazzo, a former journalist with state broadcaster RAI who was elected governor in 2005, quit his post when the case came to light in October. He took refuge in a monastery outside Rome.

Of the four policemen arrested on blackmail charges, one was released, one is under house arrest and two are in custody.

Her crowning achievement is considered to be her translation of Isaac Newton's monumental work Principia Mathematica, with her own commentary; it is still considered the standard translation. Voltaire, one of her lovers, declared in a letter to his friend King Frederick II of Prussia that du Châtelet was "a great man whose only fault was being a woman".

A team of scientists in Switzerland have restarted the world's largest sub-atomic particle collider for the first time since the nearly $10bn machine suffered a massive malfunction last year.

Scientists switched on the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) on the Swiss-French border on Friday after 14 months of repairs, the European Organisation for Nuclear Research (Cern) said.

The LHC aims to resolve some of the greatest questions surrounding fundamental matter, such as how particles acquire mass and how they were forged in the big bang that created the universe some 13.7bn years ago.

The widow of TV producer Aaron Spelling can afford to be patient for someone to make an offer on her 56,500-square-foot Holmby Hills mansion, the nation's most expensive residential real estate listing.

The 56,500-square-foot mansion remains the most expensive residential listing in the U.S., and there's no price reduction in sight.

Quite simply, wealth can afford to wait. It's a distinction between the very rich and the very leveraged in a housing market that has been in decline for several years.

"You either sell it right away or it could take two or three years," said Jeffrey Hyland, who with Rick Hilton of Hilton & Hyland, Beverly Hills, constitute two-thirds of Spelling's sales force. "The sellers know this. There is not a sense of urgency."