International strategies to combat the global financial crisis and climate change are to be top of Germany's agenda at this year's G-8 summit in L'Aquila, Italy. 

On Thursday, German Chancellor Angela Merkel presented her policy statement for the upcoming G-8 summit in Italy. Government and state heads of the top seven industrialized nations, the United States, Germany, Great Britain, Italy, France, Japan, and Canada, plus Russia are to meet from July 8 to July 10th.

"Not back to business as usual"

"The G-8 summit will be held against the backdrop of the largest global financial crisis since the 1920s," Merkel stated at the opening of her address to parliament. 

Bildunterschrift: Großansicht des Bildes mit der Bildunterschrift:  Hypo Real Estate has been Germany's biggest money pit in the financial crisis

Germany has to date invested 80 billion euros in stabilising the country's banking and business sectors in one of the world's largest economic stimulus packages.

"Overhang seats," an odd aspect of Germany's complex electoral system, might give Chancellor Angela Merkel's conservatives an unexpected boost in the upcoming elections. The Social Democrats are itching to change the system but fear doing so might bring down the current government.

If analysts are correct, a little quirk in Germany's election system known as "overhang seats" might translate into a big boost for Chancellor Angela Merkel's conservatives in the Sept. 27 general election.

 Heading for a second term? A confident Merkel at Monday's CDU/CSU party congress. The unexpected advantage is a product of Germany's complex electoral system, which is based on proportional representation with elements of first-past-the-post, relative majority voting.

When a German goes to the polls in a general election, he or she gets two votes: one for his or her local constituency representative (the so-called "first vote") and one for the party he or she prefers (the "second vote"). A total of 299 members of parliament are chosen using each of the votes, which means that there are nominally 598 seats in the Bundestag, Germany's lower house of parliament.

Iran says Europe is no longer qualified to hold nuclear talks due to its meddling with the post-election protests in the country, with Sweden, as the new EU presidency, calling up officials from the 27-member bloc to discuss the next diplomatic move.

The EU has played a significant part in international efforts to make Tehran comply with the world's rules on nuclear power. Three EU states - Germany, France, and the UK - have been leading the negotiations along with the US, Russia and China.

Opposition protesters in Iran are calling for a complete re-run of the presidential vote

But Iran's military chief of staff Major-General Hassan Firouzabadi on Wednesday (I July) said that the alleged "interference" of Europeans in the riots following the June presidential election means the bloc has "lost its qualification to hold nuclear talks."

The statement came after Tehran's action against local employees of the UK embassy, accused by Iranians of meddling with the opposition protests.

A host of personal scandals dogging Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi threatens to undermine his credibility as the host of the G8 summit in L'Aquila from July 8-10. 

The gaffe-prone prime minister is no stranger to bad press, but lately, reports in the Italian media about his divorce, womanizing and hedonistic lifestyle have been threatening to overshadow his leadership of the G8 summit.

....

However, one newspaper poll on the weekend showed that support for the flamboyant Berlusconi was slipping, with the biggest drop among women and practising Catholics - voters likely to disapprove of sexism and philandering.

Catholic groups upset over aid

Catholic organizations have been among the most vocal of Berlusconi's critics, but not because of a sense of moral outrage. Rather, they're attacking Berlusconi for failing to make good on Italy's promises to developing nations.

In an opinion piece written for Britain's Times Online, the Catholic Agency for Overseas Development's head of policy, Joanne Green, said that Berlusconi should not be leading the G8.

He oversaw the modernisation of Spain and secured its entry into the EU; he ruled for 13 years before falling from view in a 1996 political scandal. But now Felipe Gonzalez, the charismatic former Socialist prime minister is once more stalking the land and being spoken of as a challenger to Tony Blair in the race to become the first "President of Europe".

The post doesn't actually exist yet, and won't unless Irish voters approve the Lisbon Treaty in a second referendum in October. The powers that go with the job are still ill-defined, and candidates are unlikely to emerge until the treaty is ratified. Accordingly, Mr Gonzalez says he is not standing and doesn't aspire to the job.

But for a politician who never in his long career took an uncalculated step, actions speak louder than words. Mr Gonzalez's third-term Socialist government collapsed in sleaze in 1996, and his standing suffered after the "dirty war" in which government-sponsored death squads targeted Eta Basque separatists. His personal involvement was never proved, and time has laundered his reputation. Mr Gonzalez has stepped decisively from the shadows to centre stage and is, despite professing lack of interest, positioning himself perfectly.

Peer Steinbrück is back on the verbal warpath. This week's target is a returning guest -- Britain. The alleged offense at 10 Downing Street: torpedoing efforts at EU financial reform to keep London bankers happy.

German Finance Minister Peer Steinbrück is known for speaking his mind and not pulling his punches. And things were no different on Wednesday when Steinbrück told an audience that Britain was blocking efforts to reform the world's financial markets -- just to keep London bankers happy.

 German Finance Minister Peer Steinbrück speaks at a congress on financial regulation: "(London) has restoration in mind." In his speech to a Wednesday meeting organized by the Confederation of German Trade Unions (DGB), Steinbrück accused the British government of having its policy interests "practically aligned" with the desires of the financial community there, which was opposed to any changes that might make it less competitive. "At times," Steinbrück said, "I see a great deal of resistance to regulatory measures whenever they matter to the City of London and the British government."

As members of the European commission gathered in Stockholm to mark the start of the Swedish presidency on Wednesday (1 July), the country's financial markets minister warned against overregulation of the hedge fund and private equity sectors.

"It is not private equity that caused the crisis, nor hedge funds. But in some countries, the political debate portrays private equity and hedge funds as the problem," said Mats Odell.

London's city and canary wharf are home to most of Europe's hedge funds, but Sweden also has interest in the sector

"That's not the same as saying we shouldn't regulate them. But the aim is to have sound regulation and not to kill the industry," he added.

Mr Odell's comments will provide some much needed cheer to the EU's hedge fund and private equity industries - largely based in London - who are concerned that draft legislation produced by the European commission in April could drive them out of business.

General Motors and Ford, the US car manufacturers, have suspended operations on their production lines in Russia.

The move comes as the deepening global economic crisis squeezes Russian consumers' demand for new cars.

GM said its brand new plant outside St Petersburg would halt manufacturing until August 31.

"Having carefully studied the state of the Russian car market and the extent of reduction in the demand from the creditworthy population, we have decided not to force a production increase at our Russian plant this year," Chris Gubbey, GM Russia's president, said in a statement.

Russian banks may need to raise $60bn (£36bn) in fresh capital if the recession drags on and energy prices wilt again, according to a report by Fitch Ratings.

The agency said a tenth of all bank loans have already gone bad and the final tally would rise to 40pc before the crisis is over under its "pessimistic scenario".

James Watson, Fitch's Russia analyst, said the loss ratios were significantly worse that anything seen so far in Western countries, though not as bad as in Kazakhstan, Ukraine and Latvia. Even under Fitch's base case, bad loans will reach 25pc and require $22bn in fresh capital.

Chrysler Group LLC, the U.S. automaker run by Fiat SpA, will sell four models of the Italian carmaker's 500 subcompact in the U.S., Chief Executive Officer Sergio Marchionne said.

Chrysler, which emerged from bankruptcy on June 10, will eventually sell a convertible, wagon and sporty version called the "Abarth" in addition to the four-seat subcompact in the U.S., Marchionne said in an interview on June 30. While the base 500 will go on sale next year, he didn't say when the other models will be available. ...

In Europe, the Fiat small car can be equipped with a 1.2- liter or 1.4-liter four-cylinder engine or a 1.3-liter turbo diesel. The 1.4-liter engine variant gets a combined, city- highway average of 36 miles per gallon under European regulatory standards.

My '94 Honda still does 40 mi Hwy, FFS (FOR FUCK SAKE). The '04 Audi A4 (god rest its soul) even less. And I don't see a damn thing about CO₂ emissions in the PR. So remember this, murrikans, if you're in the market for a cute Mini-like ride (base $19K): Wait. USTax Code (in EPAct 2005) domestic production limits on hybrids and import quota encourages all manufacturers to pass premium to sticker price across inventory. Wait for "Fiat-Chrystler" to make an offer you simply cannot refuse.

Diversity is the key to economic and political evolution.

Americans who refuse to buy affordable medical coverage could be hit with fines of more than $1,000 under a health care overhaul bill unveiled Thursday by key Senate Democrats looking to fulfill President Barack Obama's top domestic priority.

The Congressional Budget Office estimated the fines will raise around $36 billion over 10 years. Senate aides said the penalties would be modeled on the approach taken by Massachusetts, which now imposes a fine of about $1,000 a year on individuals who refuse to get coverage. Under the federal legislation, families would pay higher penalties than individuals....

Called "shared responsibility payments," the fines would be set at least at half the cost of basic medical coverage, according to the legislation. The goal is to nudge people to sign up for coverage when they are healthy, not wait until they get sick....

In a statement, Obama welcomed the legislation, saying it "reflects many of the principles I've laid out, such as reforms that will prohibit insurance companies from refusing coverage for people with pre-existing conditions and the concept of insurance exchanges where individuals can find affordable coverage if they lose their jobs, move or get sick."

Then you die.

Diversity is the key to economic and political evolution.

LA PAZ, Bolivia -- President Evo Morales on Wednesday accused Barack Obama of lying by pledging to change America's historically heavy-handed relationship with Latin America and then halting $25 million in annual trade benefits for Bolivia.

The U.S. on Tuesday said it is ending the import duty waivers because world's No. 3 cocaine-producing country is not doing enough to reduce "unconstrained" cultivation of coca.

Morales said the move contradicts Obama's promise at the Summit of the Americas in April to be a peer rather than an overseer of countries in the region. "President Obama lied to Latin America when he told us in Trinidad and Tobago that there are not senior and junior partners," he told reporters.

The US army says it has launched a major offensive against the Taliban in south Afghanistan's Helmand province.

The US military says about 4,000 marines as well as 650 Afghan troops are involved, supported by Nato planes.

Brig Gen Larry Nicholson said the operation was different from previous ones because of the "massive size of the force" and its speed.

A Taliban spokesman said they would resist in various ways and that there would be no permanent US victory.

Qari Yosuf Ahmadi added that "a large number" of Taliban were in the area.

"I cannot accept the fact that 4,000 US troops have taken part in this operation," he said, quoted by the Afghan AIP news agency.

"I consider it a part of a psychological war, but if 4,000 US troops really are taking part in the operation, they will not have any permanent victory."

With the election of a successor to head the IAEA, Mohamed ElBaradei is preparing to leave the post he has held for more than 10 years. He faced many challenges, but he will be remembered mainly for one thing. 

Mohamed ElBaradei's message was clear: "We are not going to say that this is a material breach unless obviously we see a gross violation of the resolution," the Director General of the International Atom Energy Association (IAEA) said at the end of January 2003. He was responding to demands by the administration of US President George W. Bush to find the so called "smoking gun," i.e. proof that Iraq possessed or developed nuclear or other weapons of mass destruction.

In the same statement, ElBaradei estimated that the IAEA needed four or five months to verify that Iraq did indeed not possess that weapons capability. Less than two months later the military invasion of Iraq began.

Israeli forces killed hundreds of Palestinian civilians and destroyed thousands of Gaza Strip homes in attacks that amounted to war crimes, Amnesty International charged today, in the first in-depth human rights group report on the recent war in Gaza.

Amnesty called on Israel to publicly pledge not to use artillery, white phosphorus and other imprecise weapons in densely populated areas. And it urged Gaza's militant Hamas rulers to stop rocket fire against Israeli civilians -- attacks it also described as war crimes.

Amnesty -- which first accused Israel of war crimes shortly after the fighting ended on Jan. 18 -- said "disturbing questions" remain about why high-precision weapons like tank shells and air-delivered bombs and missiles "killed so many children and other civilians."

The group deplored Israel's use of less-precise artillery shells and highly incendiary white phosphorous in built-up areas. It also accused Israeli forces of using Palestinians as "human shields" and frequently blocking civilians from receiving medical care and humanitarian aid.

The Organisation of American States (OAS) gave Honduras three days to restore Manuel Zelaya to the presidency or face expulsion from the region's major group, as Washington added to the pressure on coup leaders by formally suspending military contact.

ose Miguel Insulza, secretary general of the 34-member OAS, said: "We need to show clearly that military coups will not be accepted. We thought we were in an era when military coups were no longer possible in this hemisphere," he said.

The ultimatum issued by the OAS to the new government prompted the ousted leader to delay plans to return home on Thursday.

Saddam Hussein told an FBI interviewer before he was hanged that he allowed the world to believe he had weapons of mass destruction because he was worried about appearing weak to Iran, according to declassified accounts of the interviews released yesterday. The former Iraqi president also denounced Osama bin Laden as "a zealot" and said he had no dealings with al-Qaeda.

Hussein, in fact, said he felt so vulnerable to the perceived threat from "fanatic" leaders in Tehran that he would have been prepared to seek a "security agreement with the United States to protect [Iraq] from threats in the region."

Former president George W. Bush ordered the invasion of Iraq six years ago on the grounds that Hussein possessed weapons of mass destruction and posed a threat to international security. Administration officials at the time also strongly suggested Iraq had significant links to al-Qaeda, which carried out the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the United States.

Hussein, who was often defiant and boastful during the interviews, at one point wistfully acknowledged that he should have permitted the United Nations to witness the destruction of Iraq's weapons stockpile after the 1991 Persian Gulf War.

All over Europe public opinion is moving in favour of nuclear energy. But Spain is opting for a different course. Prime Minister Zapatero would like to close all nuclear power plants, starting with the one in Garoña, which was built 40 years ago and is the oldest in the country.
 
text and photos by Rop Zoutberg

This week the Spanish government will be deciding the fate of the nuclear power plant in Garoña. Its maximum life span will be reached in 2011, but an advisory body says that its life can be extended by at least ten years. According to the rapports, the nuclear power plant is safe as long as added security measures are taken in the near future.

It remains unclear if this will happen. One of Mr Zapatero's election promises last year was that Spanish nuclear power plants would be closed in favour of alternative energy sources. Environmental organisations demand that the Prime Minister keeps to his promises.

But the decision is not a light one. Alberto Gonzalez, chairman of the works council of Garoña, says he does not understand Mr Zapatero's attitude at all.

"It's about saving hundreds of jobs. They will disappear if Prime Minister Zapatero closes the doors here, because of his personal aversion to nuclear energy.

"All over Europe, as well as in the US, nuclear power plants are being kept open longer. Nuclear energy is considered crucial for the future. We want this to be the case in Spain too."

The American Clean Energy and Security Act is aimed at reducing the nation's energy consumption. The ambitious piece of legislation passed in the House on Friday. It addresses a variety of issues from carbon emissions to planting trees.

The energy bill also proposes a change in how homes are sold. Originally, it called for all "for-sale" homes, old or new, to go through a mandatory energy audit. Subsequently, homeowners would receive a type of "energy performance grade"....

No material penalty to the seller. A property appraisal, qualified (underwritten) by energy efficiency ratings of arms-length or investment-quality improvements, helps buyers to separate appreciable wheat from the MOFO (MOTHERFUCKIN) granite-jacuzzi chaff in consideration of the 30-year fixed mortgage they pray to lock in instead of a 5/1 ARM.

Opposition to the energy audits arose from homeowners and realtors. Their concerns were centered on a struggling housing market and the problems an "energy performance grade" could created for homeowners already struggling to make a sale....

She [Lawyer Laura Marino] added, "It's basically going to stigmatize older homes in New England. Which, again, they're never going to be at the energy efficiency level as new construction."

Uh No. Either seller recoups (OIL-FUELED HVAC) retrofit investment in the purchase price or seller discounts purchase price by (OIL-FUELED HVAC) retrofit investment amount PLUS buyer's future cash flows. Who the fuck really wants to assume the costs of seller's outstanding HELOC-funded orthodontia, vacations, and high-maintenance granite if they think about theopportunitycost of future utility cost savings?

Diversity is the key to economic and political evolution.

Horesailing & ZGT

BACKGROUND & DESCRIPTION

The primary technical, financial & environmental challenge to building new rail-based transportation systems is that rail requires an extensive and expensive physical infrastructure on the ground. Even the latest high-technology trains follow the established model of railcars pulled by an engine running on rails. Urban light rail systems are being designed to make the best of the existing situation but do nothing to break truly new ground. Magnetic Levitation trains do lift the train off the rail, but the MagLev railbed and indeed the whole system requires even heavier and more expensive tracks than conventional rails and beds and so is very limited in terms of cost and where it can be built. The monorail concept tried to break the earth-bound pattern by hanging the engine and cars from an overhead rail, but such systems still require heavy towers to carry the weight of the system and thus are expensive and very restricted in their scope.

I began to see a completely different approach to railway transportation created by marrying the concepts of dirigible and railcar. Just as I see horsesailing based on a helium-filled parasailing wing, I envision a transportation system composed of helium-filled ZGT pods that are suspended virtually weightlessly between guide/power wires strung almost invisibly along public lands on either side of existing roadways, old railroad right-of-ways, and other existing traffic paths. I envision individual ZGT cars made of a molded lightweight composite shell with an inflatable molded interior providing seating and other interior features for perhaps 20-30 people. The interior of the ZGT car - the seats, aisles, windows and other features - would simply be reinforced molded elements of the airbag, which might made from the same material as the Mars Rover impact airbag.

The easiest way to envision the ZGT system is to see it as a system of small helium-filled aerodynamic pods that never fly free, but instead glide along in a controlled float, tethered between a set of power and guidance wires that are suspended from low-profile shock-absorbing pylons, similar to those carrying ski lift lines or power lines but smaller, cheaper, and with lower environmental impact.

Individual ZGT pods would be powered along the guide lines by lightweight, high speed electric tractor units attached to rigid outer shell plates of the pod. With the pod's weight and that of the passenger or cargo load neutralized by the helium used to inflate the passenger and lifting structures, these ZGT cars would float between the power and guide wires rather than hanging from them. With an aerodynamic shape, gyroscopic stabilization, and a stubby set of computer-controlled fins to maintain stability in all kinds of winds, such a zero-weight craft could be suspended between three wires and propelled by an electric tractor unit at significant speeds with relatively small and environmentally friendly footprint for the system towers. There would be strong stresses on the system under certain kinds of adverse wind load conditions, but I believe that the ZGT design can compensate for most adverse wind loads without stressing the support systems to the point that they must be visually intrusive due to structural strength requirements.

ZGT lines can run alongside virtually any existing roadway, which means that a city can construct an extensive network of lines serving all neighborhoods with little or no disruption during the construction phase - far less than re-surfacing an existing road, for example. Installation of a ZGT system with its towers and wires will be no more disruptive than installation of telephone or light poles.

his first idea for horsesailing is even more insanely out there, imagine what they thought of montgolfier when he first talked about flying balloons!

If'Madness is the absence of work'(Foucault), then Sanity is the presence of play..

Climate change is causing a breed of wild sheep in Scotland to shrink, according to research.

Scientists say milder winters help smaller sheep to survive, resulting in this "paradoxical decrease in size".

Classic evolutionary theory would predict that wild sheep gradually get bigger, as the stronger, larger animals survive into adulthood and reproduce.

Reporting in Science journal, the team says this shows the "subtle interplay" between evolution and the environment.

Scientists first began studying Soay sheep, on the island of Hirta in the St Kilda archipelago, in 1985.

Since then, the sheep have decreased in size by 5% - their legs getting steadily shorter and their body weight decreasing.

Harvey Karp  "America's most read pediatrician, assistant professor of pediatrics, UCLA."

Over the past 30 years, toxic chemicals, like Teflon, plastics, and formaldehyde have increasingly invaded our homes. We used to think these substances were harmless, but a rising tide of evidence has turned the spotlight on chemical exposures as a possible poison to our children's developing brains.

One group of substances of particular concern is a ubiquitous family of hormone twisting compounds, known as endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDCs). These substances are the focus of intense scrutiny because: 1) they're found in every home in America 2) they're increasingly linked to human disease 3) our exposure to them has risen in parallel with the surge in autism diagnoses and 4) they may theoretically affect the developing fetal brain.

In recent years, research has mounted against a virtual police lineup of EDCs, like BPA (in food cans, hard plastic water bottles), phthlates (in soft plastics, cosmetics) and fire retardants (in sofas, computers, flame-resistant clothing). Multiple animal and human studies have linked EDC exposure (during or after fetal development) with a host of hormone-related disorders, like low sperm count, cancer (breast, ovarian, prostate, testicular), congenital malformation of the genitals and even obesity.

In 1996 pediatricians and other scientists convinced Congress to order the EPA to test hundreds of chemicals for endocrine disrupting effects.  This project was slow rolled almost to death under the GWB administration, with not a single chemical being tested, but the Obama Administration has committed $3billion to the project.

99.9% of US citizens tested showed measurable levels of phthalates and 93% showed measurable levels of BPA. 84% of adults tested had six or more different phthalates circulating in their blood.  There is great concern that even minuscule levels can affect fetal development, especially during fetal "windows of vulnerability."

Are Children with Autism..."Male-adjusted"?

Our increasing exposure to EDCs lends support to a new hypothesis about the cause of autism, called the "extreme male theory." This theory, proposed by Dr. Simon Baron-Cohen and colleagues, speculates that autism is caused by something changing a fetus' hormonal balance that then leads to over-masculinization of the developing brain.

Could that "something" be the slurry of hormone-altering chemicals we're exposed to every day? Are EDCs the reason autism-type disorders are 4-9 times more common in boys? (Vaccine side effects never show such lopsided impact on boys versus girls...a glaring fact that is totally ignored by those promoting the vaccine theory of autism.)

The "extreme male theory" has been supported by two interesting bits of evidence: 1) fetuses with slightly elevated levels of testosterone grow up acting extra-male (more interested in things than people, slow language development, etc.); 2) children with autism -- boys and girls -- show extra-male characteristics (e.g. poor social ability, language delay).

Here is where the very interesting link to EDCs comes into play: EDCs often act as weak estrogens and estrogen feminizines the body, but in a fetus' developing brain estrogen actually has the opposite effect...it causes masculinization.

Autism, increased risk for cancer, especially of the reproductive organs, possible predisposition to obesity, etc. etc. etc.  How's them for some "negative externalities"?  Those of us older than 60 do not recall anything like the current number of obese children in public schools.  Systematic poisoning of your population gets expensive after a while.

I have had my concerns on exactly these issues for a while and am very pleased to see them brought to the fore by someone not easily dismissed and especially for the EPA to be actively pursuing testing on these matters.  At least the Obama Administration has been good for something.

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

Greenpeace: Guide to Greener Electronics

You can't be me, I'm taken

The district in which she lives near Lisbon gained its name and reputation from illegal drugs. But as I sat on a rock and watched her daily ritual, I was aware that Maria is part of an extraordinary and controversial experiment. In almost every other place in the world, what she is doing is crime. Here, though, she can be confident her drug use will not end in prison.

Exactly eight years ago today, on July 1st 2001, Portugal decreed that the purchase, possession and use of any previously-illegal substance would no longer be considered a criminal offence. So, instead of police arresting users, at The End of the World, health and social workers now dispense the paraphernalia of heroin use.

Paula Vale de Andrade told me how her "street teams" have been able dramatically to cut HIV infections and drug deaths since the new law.

"When drug use was a crime, people were afraid to engage with the teams. But since decriminalisation, they know the police won't be involved and they come forward. It has been a great improvement."

A self-portrait by the Renaissance genius Michelangelo has been discovered in his final painting, the Crucifixion of Saint Peter in the Vatican's Pauline Chapel, it emerged last night.

The figure identified as the artist is one of three horsemen in the picture. Michelangelo is depicted wearing a blue turban of lapis lazuli blue.

Mr De Luca said the plaintive intensity of the facial features, together with similarities in dress and physiognomy with contemporary depictions of Michelangelo, had convinced him and his colleagues. "Having spoken with people like Cristina Acidini and Giorgio Bonsanti of Florence University, I do believe this is Michelangelo," he said.

http://www.rsc.org/chemistryworld/News/2009/July/02070902.asp

US researchers have developed an efficient way of producing hydrogen from urine - a feat that could not only fuel the cars of the future, but could also help clean up municipal wastewater.

Using hydrogen to power cars has become an increasingly attractive transportation fuel, as the only emission produced is water - but a major stumbling block is the lack of a cheap, renewable source of the fuel. Gerardine Botte of Ohio University may now have found the answer, using an electrolytic approach to produce hydrogen from urine - the most abundant waste on Earth - at a fraction of the cost of producing hydrogen from water.

It took some time, but now it's official. Former Goldman Sachs banker Phil Murphy is expected to become the next US ambassador to Berlin. SPIEGEL ONLINE has learned that the office of the German president has given its blessing to the appointment. He is expected to be named by Obama soon.

Germany has given its nod of approval to the appointment of Phil Murphy as the next US ambassador to Germany. SPIEGEL ONLINE has learned that the Federal Office of the German President has issued a so-called "agrément" for Murphy this week. In diplomatic jargon, it means that the country has given its official nod of approval for the suggested ambassador to the country. It's highly unusual for a country to reject a candidate and only happens in incidences where a host country has considerable objections.

I didn't know in which section to put this link - finances, Germany, World, well so it ended up in Klatsch, not a bad place for it, I think.

Bold by me.

TORRINGTON, Conn. (AP) -- A group of teenagers misunderstood a woman's screams during sex and, thinking they were stopping an assault, beat a 25-year-old man in her bedroom, police said.

A 16-year-old girl who lives in the same Torrington home as the 34-year-old woman overheard her and the man on June 6 and rounded up four friends to stop what they thought was an attack, police Lt. Bruce Whiteley said Thursday.

DENVER--After dropping a chili dog in his lap Tuesday, area resident Marcus Nielson addressed the food-related blunder, calling it but another example of how history, marred by the inevitable folly of man, repeats itself. "Will mankind never learn?" asked Nielson, gazing into the middle distance, his outstretched palm holding a limp and sodden paper plate. "Sausages, ground beef, onions, garlic--oh, what blind and obstinate fools we've been!" According to friends, Nielson has previously compared the spilling of macaroni salad to "the inexorable march of time: its conclusion already a certainty," likened the tipping over of various beverages to the "age-old dance between balance and chaos," and once, after falling down an entire flight of stairs, remarked, "Jesus fucking Christ."

As if high-profile investment scandals and the economic downturn weren't bad enough here on Earth, now folks have to deal with it outside our galaxy. Virtually, at least.

Impoverished from real-world debts, the CEO of the largest player-run financial institution in the sci-fi MMO Eve Online stole thousands of dollars worth of the game's currency and traded it for real money on the black market.

Reuters reports a 27-year-old Australian tech worker identified only as Richard - who goes by the handles Ricdic and Ricdics on Eve - helmed the reputable player-run savings and loan "business" Ebank when he embezzled about 200 billion Intersteller Kredits (the game's currency) from fellow players.

He then broke the game's terms of service by exchanging the virtual money for AU$6,300 (£3,050, $US5,000) from other players.