EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - Sweden takes over at the helm of the EU on Wednesday (1 July) for a six-month presidency that will for the most part be held hostage by the bloc's complicated institutional problems as well as being overshadowed by the global economic crisis.

Diplomats in Brussels are looking forward to having the bloc under Stockholm's political guidance following a turbulent first half of the year under the domestically strife-ridden Czechs, but the goodwill is unlikely to make Sweden's job much easier.

Stockholm: Sweden takes over at the time for the five-year changing of the guard in Brussels

Brussels will be in firm wait-and-see mode as it looks ahead to the Irish referendum on the Lisbon Treaty, a new set of institutional rules that streamlines the workings of the EU institutions, removes the veto from most policy areas and gives greater say to the European parliament on law-making.

Ireland is due to vote on it for a second time in early October. Opinion polls suggest it will be a Yes this time round. But until the day the Irish vote, it will remain unclear whether the EU will be plunged into political chaos by a No vote or taken over by a frenzy of horse-trading as a Yes vote opens up new posts created by the treaty.

Germany's highest court has said "yes" to the Lisbon Treaty, a piece of legislation aimed at bringing EU member states even closer together. Although the decision delays ratification, German commentators argue the conditions imposed could reduce Europe's democratic deficiencies.

On Tuesday, Germany's highest court ruled on the constitutionality of the Lisbon Treaty, an agreement aimed at streamlining various functions of the European Union. So far 23 out of 27 countries have ratified the treaty which would give the EU a full-time president, a foreign minister and a diplomatic service. The majority of EU leaders hope to see the treaty go into effect by Jan. 1, 2010.

The German constitution and the Lisbon Treaty: Germany's parliament will soon have a far greater say in the decisions the country's chancellor and ministers make in Brussels. The court ruled that, yes, the Lisbon Treaty is basically compatible with German law and therefore can eventually be ratified. But before it can be, further legislation must be introduced in Germany that would strengthen the national parliament's involvement in any major decision-making in Brussels.

The treaty's opponents in Germany, a political minority, claimed that the Lisbon Treaty was undemocratic, that it would strip too much power from the individual EU member states and claimed that, at its core, it is just a repackaged version of the defunct European constitution rejected by French and Dutch voters in 2005.

EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - A code of conduct coming into force on Wednesday (1 July) in 25 EU member states and Norway is to bring more transparency in defence procurement contracts. But experts question its effectiveness as long as it is a non-binding agreement.

To be implemented by the European Defence Agency (EDA), the EU's intergovernmental co-operation body on military procurements, the code will set standards for side-deals made by national governments when they sign defence contracts.

Soldiers in Afghanistan: the European Defence Agency wants to see fewer side-deals attached to military contracts

In a classic example of a so-called "offset" deal, when Hungary bought 14 fighter jets from Swedish firm Saab for around €600 million, it asked for other Swedish investments worth 110 percent of the contract value. In one of the offsets, Swedish firm Electrolux built a new €65 million fridge factory in the country.

Offset distortions are normally illegal under EU single market law. But defence contracts enjoy a "national security" exemption, even if they concern materials such as soldier's boots.

Barack Obama will lobby for nuclear disarmament and a fresh start in relations with Russia during his first visit to Moscow as president next week. But little concrete progress is expected -- the hosts fear America's overtures are a trap aimed at further reducing Russia's global influence.

John Beyrle, Washington's man in Moscow, would never have seen the light of day if it hadn't been for a group of decent Red Army soldiers. "My father always saw the Russians as a people that saved his life," the US ambassador recalls. "They could simply have shot him dead."

Croatian Prime Minister Ivo Sanader has announced he will resign and withdraw from politics.

"I have decided to withdraw from active politics and not to run for the presidency," Mr Sanader said.

The announcement came as a surprise. Croatian media had speculated recently that Mr Sanader, 56, would run for president next year.

Europe's heaviest smokers, the Greeks, can no longer light up in public places as of July 1. Can they make it stick this time? 

It's Greece's third try at kicking the habit, but critics fear loopholes in the legislation - and its unpopularity - mean it could prove as ineffective as previous attempts.

More than 40 percent of Greece's population smokes, with six out of ten being exposed to passive smoke in their workplaces. Around 20,000 Greeks die a year from tobacco-related ailments, according to the country's health minister, Dimitris Avramopoulos.

Many European Union countries have laws to limit exposure to second-hand, or passive, smoking. Britain and Ireland have the strictest rules, where smoking is banned in enclosed public places, public transport and workplaces, as well as restaurants and bars.

EU aims for standardized smoking laws

JERUSALEM -- Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel defended his ultranationalist foreign minister, Avigdor Lieberman, on Tuesday after reports emerged that President Nicolas Sarkozy of France had urged that he be replaced with the leader of the centrist opposition, Tzipi Livni.

Mr. Sarkozy made the statement in a private meeting last week at the Élysée Palace attended by Mr. Netanyahu and a number of aides to both men, comparing Mr. Lieberman to Jean-Marie Le Pen, the far-right anti-immigrant French politician. Several participants at the meeting confirmed the reported statements.

Mr. Lieberman's spokesman said that Mr. Sarkozy's comment amounted to grave and insufferable meddling in the affairs of another democracy. Israeli radio broadcasts were filled with discussion of the episode, with right-wing members of Parliament assailing France and expressing indignation, while some on the left said that Mr. Sarkozy was correct.

Italy's head of state has appealed to politicians to call a "truce" so as not to embarrass the country as it hosts next month's G8 summit.

President Giorgio Napolitano did not specify which issues he wanted political parties to stop fighting over, but debate has been dominated in recent weeks by a series of scandals over the private life of the prime minister, Silvio Berlusconi.

"It would be good, from here to the G8, given the delicacy of this huge international event, to have a truce in these controversies," Mr Napolitano said.

The Government's flagship e-borders programme is in disarray and could breach EU law, major transport operators said.

The £750 million programme to collect electronic records of everyone who enters and leaves the UK will also miss Home Office deadlines, they said.

Ferry, air and rail firms lined up to criticise the scheme at a meeting of the Home Affairs Committee of MPs.

In a surprise announcement, Croatian Prime Minister Ivo Sanader said he was resigning and quitting politics altogether after a 20-year career. He said the time had come for others to take over at the top. 

At a hastily arranged press conference, the 56-year-old conservative leader of the country's ruling Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ), said he had "decided to withdraw from active politics and not to run for the presidency."

 

"My work is done, my political life is over," Sanader told reporters on Wednesday. "I have decided that I have done my part - now, it is time for others."

 

The country has faced growing economic troubles due to the global downturn, but Sanader said this had not prompted his move. "I never ran away from problems," he said.

EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - The Europe of Freedom and Democracy Group - the new eurosceptic party formerly known as the Independence-Democracy Group - announced its party name and political programme on Wednesday (1 July).

The new party of 30 MEPs also intends to campaign against the Lisbon Treaty in the second Irish referendum likely to be held this October, with the party's co-president, Nigel Farage of UKIP, laying down a strong marker at the party's first meeting in the European parliament.

Nigel Farage outlined the new party's anti-Lisbon Treaty stance

"We will do our damndest in the second referendum to make sure that the people of Ireland understand that these so-called `guarantees' that they were given at the recent European summit, frankly are not worth the paper that they were written on," he said.

Irish prime minister Brian Cowen successfully secured legal guarantees in the areas of taxation, social issues and neutrality from EU leaders who met in Brussels last month, in the hope they will persuade Irish voters to back the EU's reforming treaty a second time round.

Gordon Brown and Lord Mandelson today confirmed that the bill for the part-privatisation of the Royal Mail has been shelved.

Mandelson, the business secretary, told peers that current "market conditions" would not allow a partial sale of the Royal Mail that would ensure value for money for the taxpayer.

He told the Lords: "Market conditions have made it impossible to conclude the process to identify a partner for the Royal Mail on terms we can be confident would secure value for the taxpayer.

"There is no prospect in current circumstances of achieving the objectives of the postal services bill. When market conditions change we will return to the issue."

In an interview with Sky News, Brown said that the government had "looked around the marketplace" and concluded that there were no buyers or investors willing to take a stake in the Royal Mail.

If there are no buyers or investors for Royal Mail during a recession, then Britain should be highly skeptical of any buyers or investors that come along when times are good. Is there any doubt that these buyers or investors would squeeze out profits from the postal service during good times, leaving behind a shell of a postal service to be bailed out by the government when times are bad? I think not.

EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - The Europe of Freedom and Democracy Group - the new eurosceptic party formerly known as the Independence-Democracy Group - announced its party name and political programme on Wednesday (1 July).

The new party of 30 MEPs also intends to campaign against the Lisbon Treaty in the second Irish referendum likely to be held this October, with the party's co-president, Nigel Farage of UKIP, laying down a strong marker at the party's first meeting in the European parliament.

Nigel Farage outlined the new party's anti-Lisbon Treaty stance

"We will do our damndest in the second referendum to make sure that the people of Ireland understand that these so-called `guarantees' that they were given at the recent European summit, frankly are not worth the paper that they were written on," he said.

Irish prime minister Brian Cowen successfully secured legal guarantees in the areas of taxation, social issues and neutrality from EU leaders who met in Brussels last month, in the hope they will persuade Irish voters to back the EU's reforming treaty a second time round.

Tony Blair's ambition to become Europe's first president have been set back by stiffening opposition from Sweden and Spain, the two countries chairing the EU for the next year.

Senior officials in Stockholm, which assumed the six-month rotating presidency of the EU today, said they feared a President Blair would be a divisive figure, triggering friction between small and large European countries, and added that José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, the Spanish prime minister, was even more strongly opposed to Blair securing the post and usurping Madrid's running of the union next year.

When are we finally going to be rid of this rotten little man?

Torna alla luce un altro autoritratto di Michelangelo. Sarebbe stato individuato nella Cappella Paolina, in Vaticano, nel corso dei nuovi restauri presentati ieri dalle autorità pontificie.

[...]

L'autoritratto michelangiolesco è stato individuato tra i personaggi della Crocifissione di San Pietro, affrescata da Buonarroti dal 1545 al 1550.

The political left must stop "holding up egalitarianism as the ideal", Communities Secretary John Denham has told the Fabian Society think tank.

Basing fairness purely on "society's response to those in greatest need" risked being unpopular, he said.

He called for a "different, more nuanced view of fairness and equality".

Meaning one which isn't.  and New Labour wonders why its traditional base has abandoned it?  This sort of pandering to the rich is why.

The European Parliament will not hold a vote on José Manuel Barroso's re-appointment as Commission president at its July plenary, it emerged yesterday (1 July) after the liberals and socialists agreed to wait until the second Irish referendum on the Lisbon Treaty this autumn.

Guy Verhofstadt, the new leader of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe (ALDE), said his group will oppose holding a vote on Barroso's re-appointment during the Parliament's opening plenary session on 15 July (EurActiv 25/06/09).

The former Belgian prime minister, who was elected unopposed as ALDE leader on Tuesday, said he and his group will "not accept timetables imposed on Parliament," dealing a blow to the centre-right EPP group and the Swedish EU Presidency who were pushing for a quick decision on the new Commission President.

Earlier, the Greens group had announced that they would oppose a July vote on Barroso, joining calls made on 18 June by the socialists.

Unless positions change, it therefore appears that there will be no majority for putting a vote on the Parliament's agenda when the Assembly's political group leaders meet on 9 July to discuss the issue.

You are a senior judge on the Constitutional Court, about to give a ruling on the constitutionality of a bill giving the Prime Minister immunity from prosecution during his period of office. Do you thresh out the arguments in the public court hearing? Or do you invite the Prime Minister to dinner with his Justice Minister for a private chat? Peter Gomez takes up the story, which has led many, including Antonio di Pietro, to call for the resignation of the two judges:-

The escort cars arrived, one just after dinner, one just before. Quietly, they drove down the steep descent to the parking lot of a an elegant block of flats hidden in parkland near via Cortina d'Amezzo in Rome. It was in this way that the neighbours of the Consitutional Court judge Luigi Mazzella were able to witness the prelude to one of the most worrying, and politically embarrassing meetings organised by the Berlusconi government. A meeting between the Prime Minister and two of the highest judges in the Court which, a few weeks from now, will decide whether or not to throw out the Alfano law, which makes it impossible to bring the prime minister to trial while he remains in office.

The inhabitants of the block of flats had already realised a few days back that this was going to be an important meeting. Ilva, Mazzella''s wife, had asked them not to park in front of the garage: "Don't be surprised if you see bodyguards and a bit of traffic - we've got important guests", she had told her friends. As L'Espressohas been able to reconstruct, it was in this way that Berlusconi, Justice Minister Alfano, Under-Secretary Gianni Letta, and the head of the Senate Constitutional Committee Carlo Vizzini arrived at the judge's residence. With them came a colleague of Mastella, Paolo Maria Napolitano, who had been elected to the Constitutional court in 2006, after previously serving as head of the personnel office of the Senate, Gianfranco Fini's aide in the second Berlusconi government, and State counsellor.

Central banks are making trillions in unusually cheap money available to banks in a bid to restore liquidity to the financial system. But institutions are not passing on the cash to their customers, choosing instead to invest it and make a fat profit.

These days, bankers are used to bad press and being scolded by politicians. There's been no shortage of either in the past week.

 Frankfurt skyline: German banks are hoarding money at the expense of their customers. "Banks Hoard Money," was the headline on the cover of the Financial Times Deutschland, while the tabloid Bild sharply condemned the "Outrageous Overdraft Interest Rates." Consumer Protection Minister Ilse Aigner railed: "It is unacceptable that the financial industry takes months to pass on reductions in the key interest rate, when it only takes a few days to pass on key interest rate increases."

The new attacks on banks have been prompted by the fact that base rates are at a historic low and that central banks are injecting money into the market like never before. In the last week alone, the European Central Bank (ECB) allocated the record sum of €442 billion ($619 billion) to 1,100 financial institutions -- at a paltry 1 percent interest rate.

French restaurants are expected to cut prices on meals and soft drinks after the government slashed value added tax from 19.6% to a lowly 5.5%. The move, approved by the European Union, follows years of French lobbying in Brussels.

The French government has slashed value added tax (VAT) for the restaurant business from 19.6% to a significantly lower 5.5%, moving to satisfy a long-term demand from the industry. The tax applies to food but not to alcohol consumption.

This drop signals lower overall prices for consumers, since dining prices in France include VAT. Establishments are not legally bound to lower their prices as a result of the VAT drop; if they choose not to, they have the right to keep the same prices as before and pocket the difference.

Nonetheless, economic minister Christine Lagarde is confident that restaurants are likely to be motivated to implement a price drop in order to stay competitive. She said "The market will prove wrong" those who do not.

Britain's most profitable rail service will be nationalised after National Express announced it would default on its operating franchise.

The East Coast Main Line, the country's busiest inter-city route, will be taken into public hands for "about a year" while a new company is found to run it.

Announcing the move today Lord Adonis, the Transport Secretary, said nationalisation was "highly regrettable" and stated that there would be no limit placed on the amount of taxpayer money that would be allocated to the nationalised service to ensure it continued to run as normal.

Talks between the Government and National Express over the franchise, which runs the London to Edinburgh route, broke down last week. The company wanted to renegotiate the contract and this morning announced it would hand back the service to the Department of Transport when its funding runs out later this year.

Millions of travellers will pay much less to use their mobile phones while abroad within the European Union after new regulations came into force today.

Under the new limits there is a single tariff covering all 27 EU member states - bringing the maximum charge for making a call while abroad down to 37p per minute. Receiving calls now costs a maximum of 17p per minute.

Sending a text message from another country inside the EU costs no more than 10p. Data transfers have also fallen, with one megabyte of data now costing 85p. The limits exclude tax.

Mobile operators now also have to bill customers by the second from the 30th second of a call in order prevent them from rounding up to the highest minute, a practice which has cost consumers dearly up until now.

Updating my post from early June, the U.S. online job market^† still hasn't shown signs of recovering from steady declines that began in September of last year. Compared to the same period last year, there were 50% fewer job postings in June 2009.

A crime of bankslaughter would give reckless City workers pause in their renewed bonus chase

Guardian UK  Deregulation of the banks was built on two intellectual pillars. One was that regulation was not necessary because banks would self-regulate in order to protect their reputation. Please stop laughing. The other was that regulation would not work because regulators would always be one step behind the bankers. And unfortunately we cannot laugh this one off. Indeed, the technical problems facing regulation are now compounded by political impediments. Green shoots, lobbying by the banks, and turf wars among the regulators have eroded the momentum for action. So if banks cannot effectively be regulated by the authorities, what can be done?

-Skip-

So how can we avoid another Northern Rock? While shareholders cannot impose genuine penalties, governments can. Fear of jail would discourage excessive risk. Before bankers huff about blunting incentives, yes, I realise that without carrots, bankers will just sit and gaze at the office ceiling. Bankers, set your minds at rest: the introduction of penalties would permit BABEL: that is, the carrots for genuinely smart behaviour could be Even Larger.

The key problem with using the law against bankers has been the difficulty of getting a conviction: surely, the managers of Northern Rock did not intend to profit at our expense. We do not need to set the burden of proof that high. Intention misses the point. Faced with a corpse and a killer, police do not need to prove ill intent: manslaughter sets the hurdle lower than murder. It is enough to show the killer was irresponsible. That is the standard we need; we need a crime of managing a bank irresponsibly: in other words, bankslaughter.

On Turner's proposal a manager can still benefit from recklessness - as long as the bank does not blow up within three years. After that, if the bank crashes he can be off playing golf. With bankslaughter, when the bank blows up - even if it is a decade later - a criminal investigation traces back to determine whether crucial decisions were reckless. If a reasonable banker faced with the information available at the time would not have taken those risks, the person responsible is dragged off the golf course and jailed.

Seems like a sensible proposal, which probably dooms it from the start.  It is a bit hard to argue that destroying a bank, even if only negligence is provable, wreaks much more destruction than a single instance of manslaughter.

H/T Yves Smith again.

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

Credit card cheques are set to be banned as part of plans for consumer protection due to be unveiled later.

Measures to assist people facing difficulties with debt and at risk from rogue traders during the recession are also expected to be announced.

Figures from the Bank of England show that UK residents owe £233bn on credit cards, overdrafts and other loans.

The disease is Anglo...

A second lesson, he added, was that there would have to be much stricter system-wide limits on leverage, particularly among big banks whose stability is crucial to the whole financial system.

"For a number of diseases, 20% of the population account for around 80% of the disease spread. The present financial epidemic has broadly mirrored those dynamics," he said, adding that the failure of a core set of large, interconnected institutions such as Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, Bear Stearns, Lehman Brothers and AIG contributed disproportionately to the spread of financial panic.

"Epidemiology provides a second key lesson for financial policymakers - the importance of targeted vaccination of these 'super-spreaders' of financial contagion. Historically, financial regulation has tended not to heed that message."

BAGHDAD -- The Iraqi government stumbled once again on Tuesday in its frequently delayed effort to award development rights to its most valuable oil fields. In a public auction it largely failed to attract the lucrative offers it sought from dozens of international oil companies invited to the bidding.

After the daylong event, which was broadcast live on national television, the government came away with just a single deal struck from among the six giant oil fields and two gas fields it had put up for bid.

The single successful contract went to a joint venture of BP and the China National Petroleum Corporation for the largest field offered: Rumaila, near the southern city of Basra, which has proven reserves of more than 17 billion barrels.

The EU is no longer qualified to take part in talks on Iran's nuclear programme, Iran's military chief says.

Maj Gen Hassan Firouzabadi, Iran's chief of staff, accused the EU of "interference" in riots which followed June's disputed presidential elections.

EU states, meanwhile, are considering withdrawing their ambassadors from Iran in a growing diplomatic row.

Britain proposed the step after Iran detained nine of its embassy staff last week. Eight have since been released.

The BBC's European affairs correspondent Oana Lungescu says senior officials from EU capitals will discuss the request in Stockholm on Thursday.

But diplomats say that Germany and Italy - Iran's biggest trading partners in the EU - oppose it, arguing that channels of dialogue with Iran should be kept open.

The ousted president of Honduras has said that he will return to the country at the weekend in an attempt to reclaim power.

Manuel Zelaya's statement, issued in Panama on Wednesday, came after the Organisation of American States (OAS) gave Honduras a 72-hour deadline to restore him to the presidency or face expulsion from the group.

"My return to Honduras is scheduled for the weekend," Zelaya said in Panama City, without specifying an exact day.

He had earlier said that he planned to return to Honduras on Thursday, but he now appears to be waiting to see if the interim government is going to abide by the OAS demands to reinstate him.

The OAS is a group of 35 independent states of the Americas.

The White House has refrained from pledging federal aid to California, after politicians in the state missed a deadline to agree on moves towards a balanced budget.

Legislators in the western US state failed to reach consensus on balancing the budget by the start of its fiscal year on Wednesday, meaning the state will now probably suspend payments of its bills.

"We continue to watch the situation and we'll see as it develops," Robert Gibbs, the White House spokesman, said after the news emerged

Maori tribes may be given legal title to parts of the foreshore and seabed separately or jointly with the Crown if the Government adopts the suggestions of its ministerial review panel.

The panel's report, issued yesterday, describes the Foreshore and Seabed Act as severely discriminatory to Maori and "the single biggest land nationalisation statute enacted in New Zealand history".

It recommends immediate repeal of the act and vesting of foreshore ownership "in trust" with the Crown while questions over the extent of iwi rights and how they can be recognised are resolved.

Background here.

There is one final consideration that shouldn't be forgotten. Two Democrats, Ted Kennedy and Robert Byrd, are extremely ill. In fact, it is conceivable either one might be in the hospital at the time of a cloture vote, although Byrd was just discharged yesterday. In both cases having them be wheeled into the Senate on stretchers in order to vote on a cloture motion is well within the realm of possibility.

Bedridden senators have been wheeled in to vote in the past; it could happen again. According to Senate rules, however, wheeling in a senator only counts if the senator is alive.

Israel inflicted "wanton destruction" in the Gaza Strip during its 22-day war on the coastal enclave in December and January, Amnesty International, the London-based human rights group has said.

In a 117-page report released on Thursday, Amnesty cited evidence that Israeli troops put children and other civilians in harm's way "by forcing them to remain in or near houses which they took over and used as military positions".

Accusing Israel of "breaching laws of war", Amnesty said: "Much of the destruction was wanton and deliberate, and was carried out in a manner and circumstances which indicated that it could not be justified on grounds of military necessity."

The organisation also criticised Hamas, the movement in control of the territory, for rocket attacks on Israel, which it called "war crimes".

Business is back on Wall Street. If the good times continue to roll, lofty pay packages may be set for a comeback as well.

Based on analysts' earnings forecasts for 2009, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. is on track to pay out as much as $20 billion this year, or about $700,000 per employee. That would be nearly double the firm's $363,000 average last year, and slightly higher than the $661,000 for the average Goldman employee in fiscal 2007, according to analyst estimates reviewed by The Wall Street Journal.

If the good times continue to roll...

What is Goldman Sachs doing so good that it can feast while the rest of the world goes on austerity regimes?

Crooked cucumbers, knobbly carrots and other strangely shaped fruit and vegetables - the stuff of EU myth, legend and ridicule is set to return to the shelves of European supermarkets.  

It's been the most popular joke about EU overregulation: desk-bound European Commission bureaucrats sitting in Brussels with nothing better to do than regulating the shapes and sizes of fruit and vegetables.

Until now, the EU only granted space on supermarket shelves for norm-fitting vegetables or fruit, but starting July 1, strange shapes and sizes are allowed back.

Cattle cloning has long been standard practice in the United States. Now EU agriculture ministers have decided that cloned meat and milk should be allowed onto the European market. Not everyone is pleased.

 Cloned cows in the US: Critics claim that cloning can cause deformities and shortened life expectancies for animals. Anyone who considers creation sacred should make sure they never talk to a cattle breeder. In-vitro fertilization, artificial insemination and embryo transfer are the terms of their trade. And now another word from the lexicon of reproductive medicine has joined the breeder's jargon: cloning.

The European Union's agricultural ministers decided on Monday of last week that in the future, the meat and milk of the offspring of cloned animals should be allowed on the European market. The European Parliament still needs to approve the proposal. However environmental and animal protection organizations responded immediately to the news and condemned the decision. They consider cloning to be unethical and cruel, and warn that the risks of cloned meat for human health have not been adequately researched.

ScienceDaily (July 1, 2009) -- For the first time, direct evidence of lightning has been detected on Mars, say University of Michigan researchers who found signs of electrical discharges during dust storms on the Red Planet.

The bolts were dry lightning, says Chris Ruf, a professor in the departments of Atmospheric, Oceanic and Space Sciences and Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences.

"What we saw on Mars was a series of huge and sudden electrical discharges caused by a large dust storm," Ruf said. "Clearly, there was no rain associated with the electrical discharges on Mars. However, the implied possibilities are exciting.

ScienceDaily (July 1, 2009) -- According to new research published online in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B (Biological Sciences) on July 1, 2009, a new fossil primate from Myanmar (previously known as Burma) suggests that the common ancestor of humans, monkeys and apes evolved from primates in Asia, not Africa as many researchers believe.

A major focus of recent paleoanthropological research has been to establish the origin of anthropoid primates (monkeys, apes and humans) from earlier and more primitive primates known as prosimians (lemurs, tarsiers and their extinct relatives). Prior to recent discoveries in China, Thailand, and Myanmar, most scientists believed that anthropoids originated in Africa. Earlier this year, the discovery of the fossil primate skeleton known as "Ida" from the Messel oil shale pit in Germany led some scientists to suggest that anthropoid primates evolved from lemur-like ancestors known as adapiforms.

According to Dr. Chris Beard-- a paleontologist at Carnegie Museum of Natural History in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and a member of the international team of researchers behind the Myanmar anthropoid findings--the new primate, Ganlea megacanina, shows that early anthropoids originated in Asia rather than Africa. These early Asian anthropoids differed radically from adapiforms like Ida, indicating that Ida is more closely related to modern lemurs than it is to monkeys, apes and humans.

Between Germany and the Netherlands, the Rhine is on average three degrees warmer than 100 years ago. Ecologists warn of serious consequences for nature and wildlife.  

Parts of the river reach an alarming 28 degrees Celsius (82 Fahrenheit) during summer with the warmest temperatures measured between the cities of Mainz and Worms, said researchers.

A new study released by environment group BUND says the development is partly caused by global warming, but mostly by waste water pumped in by nuclear and coal-fired power plants that channel water off to cool the facilities and then pump it back into the main river.

"The waste heat from all German power plants would be enough to warm every single building in the country," say Joerg Nitsch of BUND.

"This gigantic waste of heat that the Rhine has to deal with shows how utterly inefficient producing electricity with coals and nuclear power is," he added.

Racism debate after Russian and Nigerian gas companies combine to form 'Nigaz'

Gazprom has launched a new venture with Nigeria - the unfortunately-named 'Nigaz'

When a $2.5billion international venture is being planned you might expect there to be hours of debate over what to call it.

Yet branding is not the forte of some companies, it seems.

Russian Energy giant Gazprom has inadvertently walked into a racism row with the announcement of its joint venture in Nigeria - Nigaz.

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and his Nigerian counterpart Umaru Yar'Adua last week agreed the deal to build refineries, pipelines and gas power stations in Africa's most populous nation.

The name is meant to be an amalgamation of 'Nigeria' and 'Gazprom', pronounced 'nye-gaz', but it can be read phonetically as an offensive term for those of black African origin.

'How more derogatory can it be. Let's join forces in making our government rename this,' said the creator of 'Nigerians No Nigaz', a group on Facebook.

When it comes to stopping overfishing in coastal ocean waters, there's a whale of a gap between what nations pledge to do and what happens at sea. That's the grim conclusion of a new study published in PLoS Biology, the first global assessment of human management of fisheries -- designated areas where fish and aquatic animals are caught -- whose coauthors include renowned marine biologists such as the late Ransom A. Myers and Boris Worm of Dalhousie University in Nova Scotia.

It's well documented that many of the world's major fisheries are in shocking decline. Some 90 percent of the world's big fish, such as bluefin tuna, blue marlin and Antarctic cod, have almost disappeared from the oceans since the advent of industrial fishing in the 1950s, according to a groundbreaking paper published in Nature in 2003 by Myers and Worm. And by 2048 the world's supply of seafood will likely simply run out, Worm and other marine biologists warned in the pages of Science in 2006. As of 2008, 80 percent of the world's fish stocks were considered either vulnerable to collapse or already collapsed.

This sorry state of affairs has inspired numerous international efforts, such as the United Nations Code of Conduct for Responsible Fisheries and the Convention on Biological Diversity, in hopes of making more of the world's fisheries sustainable. These initiatives have gained broad acceptance on the world stage, with many countries pledging to adhere to their principles. But where the trawler meets the sea, it's a different story. "Unfortunately, our study shows that there is a marked difference between the endorsement of such initiatives and the actual implementation of corrective measures," observe the authors of the report "Management Effectiveness of the World's Marine Fisheries."

The Indian government's review of legislation that outlaws homosexuality is another step in the nation's gay revolution

The Indian gay and lesbian community may have been told not to get their hopes up about the government decriminalising homosexuality, but the fact that talks have even begun this week to discuss repealing section 377 of the Indian Penal Code, should be cause to celebrate. In India, homosexuality is illegal and carries a life sentence. But while fierce opposition has predictably come from extreme Hindu and Muslim religious parties such as the Vishwa Hindu Parishad and Jamiat Ulema-e-Hind, who claim it would bring "sexual anarchy" and "spread diseases", it can only be a matter of time until change arrives. After all, even Nepal lifted its ban in 2007.

Apart from the fact that India is trying to rebrand itself as a superpower and distance itself from its neighbour Pakistan (which also bans homosexuality), the gay revolution is already under way, whether or not the judicial system likes it. Gay Pride parades took place in India's major cities last Sunday for the second successful year in a row, from which a poignant image emerged that encapsulated the years of struggle and hope for the future of India's gay community. Two elderly Indian women, one resting her head on the other's shoulders, carried banners declaring their love for each other. Doesn't sound like a big deal? In Hindi, to quote Deepa Mehta's groundbreaking lesbian film Fire, there isn't even a word for lesbian. It doesn't exist in Indian society, according to those in power - it cannot exist.

When comic book heroes and villains get old: Superheroes Decadence by Donald Soffritti

Sentencing will take place this week in the first federal cyber bullying case in the US which was brought to trial after a teenage girl took her own life.

Lori Drew, 50, pretended to be a boy on the MySpace website to befriend Megan Meier, who hanged herself after the virtual friendship ended.

A California judge postponed sentencing until 2 July to review testimony from two witnesses.

Doctors have voted down a proposal calling for them to be given a right to pray for patients without facing disciplinary action.

The British Medical Association conference in Liverpool debated a motion saying medics should be free to discuss spiritual issues.

But delegates at the union's annual meeting refused to back the proposal.

Terry Sanderson, president of the National Secular Society, said: "The BMA conference has been very sensible in refusing give this unfettered permission to religious doctors to offer prayers to patients.

"The restrictions are there for a very important reason - to protect patients from embarrassment, irritation and possible conflict with their doctor."

The hot new idea among people who think about "journalism," and the sanctity thereof: let's ban linking, on the internet! Let's also ban wheels, in order to save the horse industry. Let's also ban talking about things!

This whole argument is premised on the assumption that we must save newspapers. At the cost of making the internet into an inefficient mess! So Richard Posner, professional smart man and US Appeals Court judge who writes 23,000 words per day, floated the idea of banning links (and more!), so internet cannibals don't keep stealing newspaper content for nothing:

As gamers, we adopt a natural knee jerk reaction against those who whom seem to be promoting videogame censorship. But journalist Benj Edwards, writing in Gamasutra earlier this week, made some interesting points about the future of game violence. His argument is that, as game visuals approach photorealism, and as the physics of combat increase in accuracy and authenticity, onscreen murders will become almost indistinguishable from the real thing - or at least, we will become so inured to graphic suffering we will be unable to register fear, horror or revulsion when confronted with the real thing.

My 86 year old mother is in really good health but had started to be short of breath. They ran some diagnostic tests and discovered she had a bad heart valve. She was referred to a cardiologist who was ready to split her chest open and replace the valve. I asked him several questions:

1. She is in relatively good health now - following the surgery will she ever recover to be as good as she was before? The answer was probably not!

2. I told the doctor that I heard that being on a heart lung machine can have a negative impact on memory and asked him if that was true. The answer was yes, especially in older people.

3. The next question was what will happen if the valve is not replaced? The answer was the shortness of breath may gradually get worse.

4. I asked him if it were his mother would he suggest the surgery? The answer was NO!

The bottom line is they were going to perform a procedure that would cost 50 thousand plus dollars that would have left my mother worse off after the surgery because Medicare would pay for it.

At 63 years of age I cannot get health insurance at any price. I am denied procedures that could keep me alive for another 20 or 30 years while Medicare pays for procedures that add little or even have negative impacts on the health of the patient. That's rationing and foolish.

There is health care rationing now and there will be rationing in any new system. Society simply can't afford to give everyone the care they might desire. So what is required is intelligent rationing.

gnarly subject, for sure...

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

* Girl, 14, escapes with cuts and a fractured collarbone

* Black boxes located in ocean near Comoros islands

A teenage girl believed to be the only survivor of a Yemeni plane that crashed into the Indian Ocean off the Comoros islands is "doing well", a nurse said today.

Said Mohammed, who treated Baya Bakari at El Mararouf hospital in the Comoros capital, Moroni, said doctors would release more information on the 14-year-old's condition later today. She is believed to have cuts to her face and a fractured collarbone.

Her father, Kassim, said he spoke with his eldest daughter by phone after yesterday's crash. Baya had left Paris on Monday night with her mother to visit her family in the Comoros.

Ben Southall, the Briton who won a competition to land the 'Best Job in the World', has begun work as caretaker of Hamilton Island in Australia.

The 34-year-old former charity worker beat nearly 35,000 applicants from around the world for the dream, six-month assignment that started on Wednesday.

He will swim, explore and relax on Hamilton Island in the Great Barrier Reef while writing a blog to promote the area to prospective tourists.

A single mega-colony of ants has colonised much of the world, scientists have discovered.

Argentine ants living in vast numbers across Europe, the US and Japan belong to the same interrelated colony, and will refuse to fight one another.

The colony may be the largest of its type ever known for any insect species, and could rival humans in the scale of its world domination.

What's more, people are unwittingly helping the mega-colony stick together.

Argentine ants (Linepithema humile) were once native to South America. But people have unintentionally introduced the ants to all continents except Antarctica.

These introduced Argentine ants are renowned for forming large colonies, and for becoming a significant pest, attacking native animals and crops.

Two police dogs have died in a hot vehicle parked outside the headquarters of Nottinghamshire Police.

An RSPCA officer was called to the Sherwood Lodge headquarters in Arnold on Tuesday and found two German shepherd dogs dead.

An independent vet is carrying out post-mortem tests to establish how the animals died.

The incident has been voluntarily referred to the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC).

The healthcare debate rages across Capitol Hill with lobbyists fighting against a `single payer' option as if it were the moral equivalent of the anti-Christ. Before you blindly accept any bill, please examine the very real (and ironic) face this debate has taken on for this journalist.

Paula Persichini-Petitti is a woman to whom I once joked, "you would be what would happen if Mother Theresa, Joan Jett and a drug-free Janis Joplin merged." Paula is one tough, rock and roll loving, hard living, Boston-area born and bred "broahd" with a "haht" (heart) of pure gold. Listening to her thick Boston accent you would start with a first impression that would be one of the absolute biggest mistakes you could ever make.