HAMBURG (Reuters) - The European Union is likely to achieve its target of generating 10 percent of transport fuels from renewable sources by 2020 by blending biofuels with fossil fuels, a leading EU researcher said.

Most blending is likely to use first-generation biofuels produced with food crops, said Giovanni De Santi, director of the Energy Institute at the European Union Commission's Joint Research Center.

The EU plans to source 10 percent of transport fuels from renewable sources by 2020 to combat global warming.

All EU countries must now prepare plans to show how they plan to reach green energy targets.

Second generation biofuels produced from a wide range of non-food crops from wood to grass and algae are not likely to make a significant contribution to biofuel production for another ten years, De Santi told Reuters at the European Biomass Conference in Hamburg on Thursday.

Energy experts and editorialists in Moscow derided yesterday's (2 July) EU recommendation to fill up gas storage quickly while prices were low in order to prepare for a potential supply disruption this winter after tensions between Russia and Ukraine resurfaced over a payment row.

After a meeting of the EU's Gas Coordination Group on 2 July, the Commission recommendedexternal  member states to better prepare for the coming winter period and to fill their gas storage capacity from all possible available sources.

The Russian daily Vremya Novostey mocked this decision, calling it "another testimony of the helplessness of the European bureaucrats".

Editorialist Alexei Grivach argues that filling up gas storage capacity in Western Europe while Eastern European and Balkan countries are still suffering supply deficits and lack alternative supply routes, would in no way alleviate the situation of the most vulnerable countries.

Public sector broadcasters will have to prove they are not distorting the media market before launching mobile phone or internet services, according to revamped EU rules on broadcasting unveiled by the European Commission yesterday (2 July).

The EU executive will now insist that new media ventures funded by state broadcasters are subject to an "ex-ante test" to examine whether the service strikes a fair balance between competition in the marketplace and the social and cultural needs catered to by public media outlets. 

However, it will be left to each EU member state to work out precisely how the test will operate. Similar tests have already been used in Germany, the UK and the Belgian Flemish governments, and Ireland is set to introduce one shortly. 

In the UK, for example, the BBC Trust assesses the public value of new media ventures while Ofcom, the media regulator, measures the impact on the market. 

The revised rules are built on principles laid down in 2001 but have been updated to take account of new media and in response to claims by private sector media firms that public broadcasters were using public money to encroach on their turf.

A German state minister has blamed the European Union (EU) for problems in the state Landesbank banking system.

Dr Werner Marnette, a minister in the government of Schleswig Holstein, said banks changed their operations when the EU told them to be more competitive.

Dr Marnette said he refused to sign bail-out packages for state banks such as HSH, which is part-owned by Schleswig Holstein.

He said HSH Nordbank had made huge losses on complex credit investments.

'Lost contact'

"In former times when these Landesbanks gave credit to a company, the risk was covered by the state," he told the BBC World Service's Business Daily.

Frederik Reinfeldt, the prime minister of Sweden, said today that the European Parliament would not vote in July on whether to approve giving José Manuel Barroso a second term as European Commission president.

Sweden took over the presidency of the Council of Ministers on 1 July, just two weeks after the European Council had agreed to nominate Barroso for a second term.

Reinfeldt and other members of the Council had wanted the newly elected Parliament to endorse the nomination at its first plenary session, which will be held in Strasbourg on 14-16 July. Four groups - the Socialists, the Liberals, the Greens and the United European Left - all want to delay the vote until September at the earliest.

But Reinfeldt is now resigned to a delay. Speaking at a press conference in Stockholm with Nicolas Sarkozy, the president of France, he said: "Some important [political] groups have said they are not ready and want to defer the decision slightly."

Labour is considering a plan to raise National Insurance contributions to fund a guaranteed minimum level of care for the elderly, The Independent has learnt.

The aim would be to end the current "postcode lottery" over the services provided to the elderly in their own homes, and to avoid the need for old people to sell their property to fund expensive care home fees. Ministers describe these issues as "unfinished business" from when the modern welfare state was set up by Labour after the Second World War.

The Government will set out its initial thinking in a Green Paper on long-term care next week.

An expansion of social care is emerging as one of the "big ideas" for a fourth term to be included in Labour's general election manifesto.

Under the plans, social care would not be nationalised, but tailored to individual needs through different providers.

It would be brought into line with the NHS, so that people would know what support to expect, ending the anxiety and uncertainty caused by the existing patchwork system. No decisions have been made, and ministers want a big national debate first.

Nine Chechen police officers were killed today in the Russian republic of Ingushetia after gunmen opened fire on their convoy, Russia's Interfax news agency reported, citing the republic's interior ministry.

The attackers, who fired automatic weapons at the police convoy from a forest at the roadside, also left nine policemen badly wounded, the news agency reported.

The Kremlin-appointed leader of Ingushetia, Yunus-Bek Yevkurov, is fighting for his life in hospital after a suicide bomb blast struck his armoured car on June 22 in the city of Nazran, where today's attack also took place.

After the attack on Yevkurov, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev ordered the head of the neighbouring republic of Chechnya to fight insurgents across the regional border in Ingushetia.

There have been ugly scenes in Italy as demonstrators denouncing the planned expansion of a US military base clashed with riot police.

Violence erupted as security forces moved to prevent protesters from crossing a bridge and getting nearer to the controversial site.

Youths lit firecrackers and threw stones and bottles at police who replied with tear gas.

(Reuters) - The dollar's status as the top global reserve currency is unlikely to be mentioned explicitly in the final communique at next week's Group of Eight summit, a European G8 source involved in preparations for the meeting said on Friday.

"It is expected to be mentioned and discussed remotely. But the discussions have not yet reached the level of putting it in writing in the communiques," the source, who asked not to be identified, told Reuters.

G8 sources said earlier this week that China had asked for discussion of proposals for a new global reserve currency at next week's G8 meeting in Italy.

One source said Beijing made the request during preparatory talks about a joint statement to be issued on the second day of the summit in L'Aquila by the G8 plus the G5 (Brazil, India, China, Mexico and South Africa) and also Egypt.

This forum, the so-called "G14," meets on July 9 to discuss the financial crisis, trade and climate change and for the first time a G8 summit will also produce a joint G14 statement.

"China can bring this up and they have said they would like to mention it," the European G8 source told Reuters on Friday.

Belated observations on this week's Prime Minister's Questions, which, like the indispensable Paul Waugh, I thought was a significant moment. For the first time, I thought David Cameron looked properly prime ministerial; he held the House.

Gordon Brown's performance was simply lamentable. This was not a matter of the "zero per cent rise" in public spending in 2013/14, which was just a mistake: he meant to say 0.7 per cent. It was a matter of his ruthlessness with the truth. Cameron explained why the Government's plans, including a forecast for the costs of "unemployment, which, sadly, will go up", implied spending cuts in all other departments.

One option available to staff is taking a year off with a 75 per cent drop in salary, in return for receiving the remainder of their wages as an up-front payment, said a spokesman.

BT, the former state telecom company, is one of the UK's largest private employers with more than 100,000 staff.

But it has been hit by the economic downturn and posted a £1.3billion loss for the first three months of the year.

A BT spokesman confirmed that staff had also been offered a one-off payment of £1,000 if they agree to go part-time.

The future of GM Europe (GME) could turn into a fight between the Chinese and the Russians after Beijing Automotive Industry Corporation (BAIC) made a formal offer for the distressed car maker.

The Chinese proposal - reportedly worth more than €650m (£556m) - takes the number of bids for the group, which includes Opel in Germany and Vauxhall in the UK, up to three.

The front-runner is still the Canadian parts manufacturer Magna International, backed by Russia's Sberbank and automaker Gaz, owned by Oleg Deripaska. The consortium signed a non-binding memorandum of understanding at the end of May, just days before the US parent went into Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. GME is now doing due diligence on the Magna bid and the rejection or withdrawal of interest from Fiat and RHJ International - a holding company for the US buy-out group Ripplewood - had left Magna as the only serious contender.

More than 40 per cent of investors refused to back Tesco's proposed changes to its share option scheme at the grocer's annual meeting in Glasgow yesterday.

The resolution was passed with 54.9 per cent of votes to 45.1 per cent, including abstentions, but the rebellion is the latest in a series by UK shareholders over executive reward policies.

Riskmetrics, the investor advisory service, had tabled the resolution against the change to the share option scheme that extends to three years from one year the period during which retiring executives or store managers can exercise the options. A spokesman for the Association of British Insurers said: "Other companies considering such arrangements should take note of this strong signal from shareholders."

More ambiguous economic data yesterday added to the uncertainty about whether the UK is on the road to recovery or slumping back into recession.

The UK service sector grew for the second consecutive month in June, according to the purchasing managers' index (PMI) published by the Chartered Institute of Purchasing and Supply (Cips). But the pace of change was broadly flat - registering 51.6, a slight fall from May's 51.7. And the index - which is a leading indicator of economic activity - is still barely above the break-even "50" mark, undermining hopes of a speedy upturn.

Tentative signs of improvement last month led to calls that the recession had bottomed out, and the respected National Institute of Economic and Social Research estimated a return to GDP growth in April and May. But indicators have subsequently slipped back, and economists are divided: either the slowing is just a temporary blip, or it is the economy tipping back towards a "double dip", or W-shaped, downturn.

Richard Thaler is a behavioral economist at the University of Chicago---a heretic in the Church, as it were.  In a New York Times Op-Ed he discusses a recent proposal by the Obama administration to require mortgage lenders to offer simple, standard products in addition to what ever other, more exotic products they may put on offer.

I practice what has come to be called behavioral economics. We behavioralists differ from our more traditional brethren in the way we characterize agents in the economy. Traditional economics is based on imaginary creatures sometimes referred to as "Homo economicus." I call them Econs for short. Econs are amazingly smart and are free of emotion, distraction or self-control problems. Think Mr. Spock from "Star Trek."

Real people are not Econs. Real people have trouble balancing their checkbooks, much less calculating how much they need to save for retirement; they sometimes binge on food, drink or high-definition televisions. They are more like Homer Simpson than Mr. Spock. Call them Homer economicus if you like, or just Humans. Behavioral economics is the study of Humans in markets.

Designing policies for Econs is pretty straightforward. Because they are smart consumers and make good choices, the best policies give them as many choices as possible and simply assure that they have access to all the relevant information.

Humans, however, can use a bit more help, especially when the options are hard to understand. Often, it is possible to help people make better choices without restricting their options at all. So shouldn't it be a no-brainer to try?

H/T to Brad Setser at Calculated Risk  

The University of Chicago announced plans for a Milton Friedman Institute in April, 2008.  Wonder if Richard Thaler will be a member?

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

Bailout of U.S. Banks Gives British Rum a $2.7 Billion Benefit

June 26 (Bloomberg) -- In June 2008, U.S. Virgin Islands Governor John deJongh Jr. agreed to give London-based Diageo Plc billions of dollars in tax incentives to move its production of Captain Morgan rum from one U.S. island -- Puerto Rico -- to another, namely St. Croix.

DeJongh says he had no idea his deal would help make the world's largest liquor distiller the most unlikely beneficiary of the emergency Troubled Asset Relief Program approved by Congress just four months later.

Today, as two 56-foot-high (17-meter-high) tanks for holding fermenting molasses will soon rise from the ground on the Caribbean island of St. Croix, the extent to which dozens of nonbank companies benefited from last October's emergency financial rescue plan is just beginning to come to light.

The hurried legislation adopted by a Congress voting under the threat of sudden global economic collapse led to hidden tax breaks for firms in dozens of industries. They included builders of Nascar auto-racing tracks, restaurant chains such as Burger King Holdings Inc., movie and television producers -- and London's Diageo.

"It's kind of like the magician's sleight of hand," says former House Ways and Means Committee Chairman William Thomas, a California Republican who ran the committee from 2001 to 2007 and oversaw all tax legislation. "They snuck these things in a bill that was focused on other things."

French president Nicolas Sarkozy, with a good nose for popular moods, says: "We must overhaul everything. We cannot have a system of rentiers and social dumping under globalisation. Either we have justice or we will have violence. It is a chimera to think that this crisis is just a footnote and that we can carry on as before."

Of course rentiers and social dumping are inbuild in NEC and neoliberalism, but he still at least actually uses these words "rentiers" and "social dumping". Easy to blame "globalisation" however. He is still on the right track and hopefully there is, at least, something real behind these words.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/comment/ambroseevans_pritchard/5742937/The-unemployment-timebomb- is-quietly-ticking.html

Russia, China and the US have all called for calm after North Korea test-fired a series of missiles.

Seven Scud-type ballistic missiles with a range of about 500km (312 miles) were fired in an apparent act of defiance against the US, on 4 July.

Russia and China urged Pyongyang to return to talks, while a US official urged it not to aggravate tensions.

North Korea is banned from all ballistic missile-related activities under UN sanctions.

The sanctions were strengthened after the communist nation carried out a second underground nuclear test in May.

North Korea has launched a number of missiles since the test. On Thursday it test-fired four short-range missiles.

Sarah Palin's resignation as Governor of Alaska is a brilliant liberating move for her career, and a potential turning point for the national conservative movement.

The biggest problem with her responsibility as Governor of Alaska is that the state is so far away from the rest of America. No one hears of the good work she has been doing there, and the left is free to paint their own false caricature of her. And because of the long distance and her family, as well as governing, responsibilities, she canÃfÆ'Ã,¢Ãf¢ââ,¬Å¡Ã,¬Ãf¢ââ,¬Å¾Ã,¢t get down to the lower-48 enough to build her national political presence.

I am hoping she spends two weeks of every month now touring the states doing fundraisers for a the sweeping Republican revival in 2010 that is now developing. I hope she establishes a new national grassroots organization to fight for conservative causes. And I hope she starts a new national think tank in Washington.

So now we know what it's all about.

When locusts move on, they leave nothing behind

July 4 (Bloomberg) -- Myanmar's military junta blocked Ban Ki-moon from meeting with opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi as the United Nations chief seeks to free political prisoners in the country.

The regime announced the decision after a second meeting between the UN head and Myanmar leader Than Shwe in the capital of Naypyidaw, Agence France-Presse reported, citing Ban.

Ban is on a two-day visit to the Southeast Asian nation, pressing the government to free 2,100 political prisoners, resume national reconciliation and ensure credible elections next year.

Suu Kyi, who has spent 13 years in detention since her party won the last elections in 1990, faces prison for allegedly violating a house arrest order. Pro-democracy campaigners say the potential five-year jailing is designed to prevent the 64- year-old Nobel Peace Price winner from contesting polls promised by the ruling generals in 2010.

Suu Kyi was transferred to prison last month to face trial, with prosecutors alleging she allowed an American intruder to stay for two days after he swam to her lakeside home in Yangon.

A senior Obama administration official has told the BBC that Russia has agreed to let US troops bound for the war in Afghanistan fly through its airspace.

The deal, which opens up an important new corridor for the US military, is to be officially announced when President Barack Obama visits Moscow next week.

Speaking separately, a Kremlin official confirmed a deal was on the table but suggested it referred to weapons only.

The reported agreement marks a major development in US-Russian relations.

by Harlan Ullman
London (UPI) Jul 1, 2009
Late last month Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei pointedly restated Great Britain's longstanding designation as Tehran's public enemy No. 1, surpassing the Great Satan America and Zionist Israel. In this verbal assault, the clerics credited "Perfidious Albion" with manipulating and even controlling the actions of the United States in confronting Iran and containing its ambitions. Wow!

Rather than dismiss or mock these allegations, Whitehall should capitalize on this huge exaggeration of Britain's influence. The almost certain strategic defense review to be conducted next year following national elections is the perfect vehicle to use this misperception more broadly to enable Britain to fight well above its "weight class" measured by its military capabilities and resources devoted to national security and foreign policy.

<...>

...Britain faces two basic choices regarding the role it can or will play internationally. First, Britain can continue as a "first team or first division" player in the U.N. Permanent Five, NATO and other international organizations along with the United States. Or, as argued in the 19th century, Britain could become a "little England," reducing its international commitments and responsibilities and turning inward, possibly dismantling its nuclear deterrent as obsolete and too expensive.

Assuming the first view prevails, Britain must not be overly constrained by its relatively modest and probably declining military power. Thus, it will have to box well above its weight class. That means dealing with perplexing "what if's" from an Argentine government bent on reoccupying the Falklands to a resurgent Russia or aggressive China.

A British embassy employee is to stand trial in Tehran for "acting against national security" -- a dramatic escalation in Iran's campaign to blame Britain for protests against disputed election results.

The man, a 44-year-old Iranian who is the British embassy's chief political analyst, was arrested on Saturday and has been formally charged at Tehran's Evin Prison, his lawyer, Abdolsamad Khorramshahi, said. "Apparently he will be put on trial. We have prepared and submitted the defence documents and I have to see the judge next week."

It was is not clear whether any other embassy staff will face prosecution. A senior cleric claimed that some had "confessed" to playing a role in the protest movement. The staging of political trials is likely to lead to a breach in relations not only with Britain, but also with the European Union. Iranian ambassadors were summoned to foreign ministries in capitals across Europe in a coordinated rebuke .

Senior police officer Uri Bar Lev's personal handgun and police car were stolen late Friday night after burglars broke into his home in central Israel.

The incident occurred as Bar Lev was expected to assume his new position as the Israel Police representative to the United States in Washington D.C.

The intruders arrived at the house during the early hours of Saturday morning while Bar Lev, his wife and their three children were still asleep.

Leading Clerics Defy Ayatollah on Disputed Iran Election [Link: dKos diary; quote from New York Times article]

CAIRO -- The most important group of religious leaders in Iran called the disputed presidential election and the new government illegitimate on Saturday, an act of defiance against the country's supreme leader and the most public sign of a major split in the country's clerical establishment.

A statement by the group, the Association of Researchers and Teachers of Qum, represents a significant, if so far symbolic, setback for the government and especially the authority of the supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, whose word is supposed to be final. The government has tried to paint the opposition and its top presidential candidate, Mir Hussein Moussavi, as criminals and traitors, a strategy that now becomes more difficult -- if not impossible.

KAMPALA, Jul 4 (IPS) - Africa needs a Green Revolution, but one that will increase agricultural productivity by using practices that build soil fertility while minimising harm to the environment.

Organic farmers, traders and researchers from are pushing organic agriculture as suitable for Africa because it is based on active management of the agricultural ecosystem rather than on external inputs.

Organic farming relies on compost manure, crop rotation, mulching, biological pest control. It excludes use of chemical fertilisers and genetically-modified organisms.

Many scientists are urging Africa to follow the agro-industrial "Green Revolution" model implemented in many parts of Asia and Latin America to increase food production. This requires the application of agrochemical fertiliser, pesticides and other farm inputs.

National Organic Agricultural Movement of Uganda (NOGAMU) executive director, Moses Kiggundu Muwanga, says, "The call for chemical fertilisers does not make sense: they emit greenhouse gasses, both through their production and their composition of mainly nitrous oxide, and so they contribute to climate change. Besides the cost of synthetic fertiliser is too expensive for most subsistence farmers."

So far the most significant thing is what his wife has done, the way Michelle Obama has been talking about food, especially the importance of giving your children real food. When she planted a vegetable garden at the White House, she was very careful to let the world know that it was an organic garden. And that's a big deal, because organics are fighting words in this battle and in fact the industry came back at her.

A group with the wonderful name of the Crop Life Association, which is the lobbying group for the pesticide manufacturers, was very upset that she was casting aspersions on conventional agriculture. The Crop Life Association really should go by the opposite name, the Bug Death Association. (laughs) They understood Michelle Obama's garden to be a critique of non-organic agriculture. And it was a critique. But their backlash hasn't deterred her. She is going to make food one of her issues.

I was a bit surprised. I thought she was going to be leading with, like, war widows, families of soldiers, which she said was going to be her issue. But this came out first. And she's got great feedback on it and is going to do more, from what I've heard.

On Obama's side, you've got Tom Vilsack who is the Secretary of Agriculture. As the former governor of Iowa, he seemed like a real conventional choice. But in fact he's been quite surprising, too. He's also planted a garden at the Department of Agriculture, which you could dismiss as symbolism, but he's talking a lot about local food and urban agriculture. Most significantly, he appointed as his number two a woman name Kathleen Merrigan, who is a genuine reformer. She founded the organic program at USDA, she wrote the original organic law for Senator Patrick Leahy and she's a real staunch supporter of sustainable agriculture and she's running the Department of Agriculture! That's pretty mind blowing. We'll see. She's up against incredible forces of inertia.

Agnes Guillot dreams of one day seeing a giant 50-centimetre (20-inch) -long white rat called Psikharpax scuttling fearlessly around her lab.

If so, it will be time to scream... but out of joy, rather than fear, for it could be a turning point in the history of robotics.

Psikharpax -- named after a cunning king of the rats, according to a tale attributed to Homer -- is the brainchild of European researchers who believe it may push back a frontier in artificial intelligence.

Scientists have strived for decades to make a robot that can do some more than make repetitive, programmed gestures. These are fine for making cars or amusing small children, but are of little help in the real world.

One of the biggest obstacles is learning ability. Without the smarts to figure out dangers and opportunities, a robot is helpless without human intervention.

"The autonomy of robots today is similar to that of an insect," snorts Guillot, a researcher at France's Institute for Intelligent Systems and Robotics (ISIR), one of the "Psikharpax" team.

The government's equality watchdog, set up to combat all forms of prejudice at work, faces a sex discrimination lawsuit this week from a female member of its own staff.

The case is a fresh embarrassment for Trevor Phillips, the chair of the Equality and Human Rights Commission, who is widely expected to be forced to step down when his contract ends in autumn following a string of internal disputes and allegations of financial irregularities. Several of his fellow commissioners have indicated they are likely to stand down if Phillips, who is close to several senior Labour politicians, including Lord Mandelson, is reappointed for another term.

The sex discrimination case brought by Brid Johal, an aide to Phillips's political adviser Faz Hakim, is scheduled to be heard at an employment tribunal in south London this week. It is understood her case centres on allegations that she was not told of a promotion that came up while she was on maternity leave and was therefore unfairly treated compared to other staff.

The Foreign Office is to risk the wrath of homophobic regimes worldwide by encouraging British ambassadors to do more to support gay communities.

Chris Bryant, the new Foreign Office minister, who is gay, has started writing personal letters of congratulations to British diplomats who show public support for gay rights. He is praising them for such support even if it draws anger from national governments or local homophobic groups.

On the eve of today's Gay Pride March in London, Bryant sent handwritten letters of personal congratulations to three British ambassadors in eastern Europe after they were angrily accused by national governments of promoting gay rights.

Martin Jones, 42, a builder, had been blind for 12 years after a tub of white hot aluminium exploded in his face as he worked at a scrapyard.

He married his wife Gill, 50, four years ago but had not seen her until after the delicate eight-hour operation to return the gift of sight.

The rare procedure meant that one of Mr Jones' front teeth was removed and used as a lens holder in his right eye.

"I met my wife when I was blind and when I found out there was a chance I would get my sight back the first person I wanted to see was her," said Mr Jones, from Broom, Rotherham.

"The doctors took the bandages off and it was like looking through water and then I saw this figure and it was her. She's wonderful and lovely. It was unbelievable to see her for the first time.

"I feel fantastic getting my sight back. I can't really describe it - it's beyond words. I was blind for 12 years and when my sight came back everything had changed.

"The first car I saw when my sight was restored was a Smart car and I couldn't stop laughing - I'd never seen one before and I thought it had been chopped in half.

American nuns could be said to have their habits in a twist in the face of two investigations by the Vatican into whether they have come to espouse lifestyles and views on the Church that may just be a tad too modern. Except that many don't wear habits any more. They wear regular clothes, even jeans.

Many nuns have stretched beyond the cloistered life to enter professions like teaching, the law and social work, and often eschew convents in favour of living alone. But, for the Vatican, it seems that American nuns may have strayed a bit too far from the traditional path.

There was a warning shot in March when the US Conference of Catholic Bishops issued a decree telling Catholics that they should desist from practising Reiki, an ancient Japanese healing technique increasingly favoured by nuns involving the laying-on of hands, and very far from the traditional approach that Rome seems to prefer.

A LANDLORD whose failure to fit smoke alarms led to the near-death of one of his tenants has been ordered to pay more than £30,000 by a judge.

Dharmendrasinhji Chauhan, 44, did not fit smoke detectors, fire doors or fire extinguishers at his rented property in Abbey Street.

When a blaze started in the shared house last year, tenant Ben Mousley was forced to escape from his third-floor bedroom window, falling 20ft and breaking his neck. Appearing at Derby Crown Court, Chauhan was told his attempt to cut corners had put the lives of others at risk.

The case was the first time a prosecution had been brought in Derbyshire under new fire safety legislation.

Handing down a fine of £20,000, and costs of more than £10,000, Judge John Burgess said: "I want to send the message to other people in your situation that they will have to take their obligations seriously."

Los Angeles police and city officials will be scrambling through the weekend to prepare for a memorial for Michael Jackson on Tuesday in an attempt to prevent the scenes of chaos and confusion that have marked the eight days since his death.

With the family finally settled on a Tuesday morning event at the Staples Centre in downtown LA, the city now is now bracing itself for the gathering of what is expected to be an enormous crowd of Jackson fans. The Staples Centre has a capacity for up to 20,000 at most, which most involved in the organisation agree is wildly inadequate.

The event will be opened to the public, with 11,000 tickets distributed free and the remaining 9,000 seats presumably being offered to friends of the family and music industry representatives.

But that will still leave a massive over-spill. Dennis Zine, an LA city council representative, said: "If you can imagine 100,000 people show up and you have 20,000 capacity, there is not sufficient room. Now you have a crowd-control problem."

According to the London Telegraph, men attending St. Stephen's church in Barbourne, Worchester on Father's Day were handed bottles of beers by children to slake their thirst during the service.

Other churches offered bacon rolls, chocolate bars, and even a hog roast as manna to those struggling through the carbohydrate desert between breakfast and lunch. A study recently found that less than 20% of men in England attend church monthly, perhaps because they became so peckish.

The archdeacon of St. Stephen's defended the beer giveaway, comparing it to the flowers that are given to mothers on Mother's Day. I wonder how many mums wouldn't have minded a cold one instead?

One bishop responded to the charge that the church was encouraging alcohol abuse by pointing out the gospel story in which Jesus turned water into wine. "He was all in favor of partying," said the bishop.

As the head of any teen-filled household knows, young adults have hardly abandoned TV for new media. Yet according to a new report from Nielsen Company, U.S. adolescents are actually watching more TV than ever -- up 6% over the past five years.

Another perhaps counterintuitive finding is that while teens clearly love the Internet, they actually spend less time online than mature adults.

Nielsen's study on the state of teen media usage finds that teens spend 11 hours and 32 minutes per month online -- far below the average of 29 hours and 15 minutes for which adults are presently responsible.