Bold and even "savage" cuts in government spending will be necessary to bring the public deficit down after the next election, Nick Clegg, the Liberal Democrat leader, says today.

As the three main parties begin the conference season with competing proposals for how they would make spending cuts, Clegg used a Guardian interview to set out plans including a long-term freeze in the public sector pay bill, scaling back future public sector pensions, and withdrawing tax credits from the middle class. He is even prepared to examine means-testing universal child benefits, though he is cautious of destroying "middle-class solidarity" with the welfare state.

"I find it odd that people on multi-million pay packages from the city get child benefit. That's patently silly and patently unfair," he says.

Clegg predicts that voters will show Gordon Brown the exit at the general election, and pleads with Labour not to hold a referendum on electoral reform on the same day, saying it will set back the case by 20 years. "Anything that Gordon Brown proposes now will turn to dust," he says.

The Liberal Democrats also attacked Tory spending plans last night, claiming that Treasury documents released under the Freedom of Information laws revealed £53bn of unfunded Tory promises. "The Tories try to talk tough on spending cuts, but in reality they haven't a clue," said a spokesman, Lord Oakeshott. "With over £50bn of uncosted spending commitments, they are not fit for government."

German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Nicolas Sarkozy have called for the UN to support a carbon tax on imports from countries who fail to back international efforts to fight global warming.  

In a joint letter addressed to UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon, the two leaders said, "It would be unacceptable for the efforts of the most ambitious countries to be undermined by the carbon emissions released by lack of or insufficient action by other countries."

Sarkozy, whose government is to introduce a carbon levy on domestic fuel emissions in 2010, has repeatedly argued for a European Union carbon tax on imports from regions with poor environmental standards.

Germany had yet to come out in favor of a carbon tax on imports, which a German minister has warned could be perceived by developing nations as a form of "eco-imperialism."

MOSCOW - Russia said Saturday it will scrap a plan to deploy missiles near Poland since Washington has dumped a planned missile shield in Eastern Europe. It also harshly criticized Iran's president for new comments denying the Holocaust.

Neither move, however, represented ceding any significant ground. A plan to place Iskander missiles close to the Polish border was merely a threat. And while the Kremlin has previously criticized Tehran for questioning the reality of the Holocaust, Russian leaders have refused to back Western push for tougher sanctions against Iran.

It still remains unclear whether Moscow will make any significant concessions on Iran and other issues in response to President Barack Obama's move to scrap the Bush-era plan for U.S. missile defense in Poland and the Czech Republic.

International terrorist organization al-Qaida released a video on Friday in which Bekkay Harrach, an Islamist from Bonn, threatens the German electorate ahead of next week's general election. 

In the video, a man identified as Bekkay Harrach from Bonn demanded an end to Germany's military mission in Afghanistan. He spoke German, and was dressed in a suit and tie and stood in front of a red curtain.

"If the people choose to continue the war, they have passed judgment on themselves. The parliamentary election is the only opportunity for the people to influence its country's politics," Harrach says, "When the last German soldier is withdrawn from Afghanistan, the last mujahedeen will be withdrawn from Germany."

German security services consider the 26-minute long video genuine, since Harrach, a German of Moroccan origin, is believed to be somewhere in the middle of the al-Qaida hierarchy. He has appeared in several al-Quaida videos released on the Internet this year, calling himself Abu Talha. But the video is not believed to threaten a specific attack.

In the video, which is currently in the hands of German state broadcaster ARD, Harrach calls on Muslims to stay out of public areas for two weeks after the election.

NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen offers to integrate NATO's missile defense system with Russia's, a day after US President Barack Obama announced his plan to shelve the USA's Eastern European rocket shield. 

"We want to explore the possibility of linking NATO's missile defense shield with Russia's, at an appropriate time in the future," Rasmussen said on Friday in Brussels, "I do believe that it is possible for NATO and Russia to make a new beginning and to enjoy a far more productive relationship in the future." 

He emphasized that neither the political nor the technological pre-conditions for the proposed fusion exist yet, but said his suggestion was meant to send "a clear political signal" to Moscow.

The USA's decades-old intention to station defensive rockets in Poland and the Czech Republic has been a persistent strain on its relations with Russia, which had seen the plan as a direct threat.

Scotland's top law officer tonight fiercely criticised a move by the Lockerbie bomber to proclaim his innocence.

[...]

But the Lord Advocate, Elish Angiolini, said she "deplored" his attempt to challenge his conviction though "selective publication of his view of the evidence in the media" after he had abandoned his appeal.

[...]

She said the Crown had been "ready, willing and able" to argue the case for his conviction in the appeal which Megrahi had abandoned.

"As he and his legal team have made clear, the decision to discontinue the appeal proceedings was taken voluntarily by Mr Megrahi himself," she said.

If the prosecutor is sincere, would they be able to offer Megrahi the chance to change his mind on dropping the appeal?

"Dear Cardinal Bertone,
I read in the press that on 7 October 2009, the day of commemoration for the Madonna of the Rosary, you intend to inaugurate the exhibition, with the symbolic title of "Power and Grace", alongside Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, whom I can in no way describe as "honourable" because there is absolutely nothing "honourable" about his public or his private life, his politics or his systematic lies. Were this report to be true, you would certainly be viewed as an accomplice by the vast majority of the members of the Church both in Italy and worldwide and you would be responsible for many people "leaving" the Church, believers who have had enough of seeing the politics of diplomacy taking precedence and overshadowing the clear testimony of the Gospel. Surely you, of all people, are aware, as is every parish Priest that is living on the brink of the precipice, that this year there has been an absolute haemorrhage as regards the 8/thousand donations that many, many believers, even practicing ones, have chosen to withhold from the Catholic Church because of its interference and connivance with a government that, while it may be legitimate, has nevertheless continued to display extreme levels of illegality and immorality. I believe that this matter concerns you, both as a representative of the Vatican and as a member of the Italian Episcopal Conference.
After all that has happened, including the testimonies, the reports, the investigations, the public perjury on television sworn on the lives of his children, the immigrants that died at sea and that are now on the Government's conscience, and after the infamous law that turns an individual's "personal situation" into a "crime", in other words changing "immigrant" status to "illegal immigrant" status on the basis of the Bossi/Fini Law; after all of this, surely you cannot make as if nothing has happened and allow yourself to be seen in public with Berlusconi or, for that matter, with one of his cutthroats.
If you wish to talk about public morality and political ethics, then your actions must be consistent with the very principles that you yourself demand of others who don't have the obscene power of Silvio Berlusconi, who clearly believes that he is the Messiah and "solutus omnibus legibus", given that he views himself as the sultan and Italy as his own personal sultanate. He thinks that he can buy anything and anyone: the Courts, Court decisions, the desire to please of the pimps and panderers that supply him with ladies of easy virtue in return for payment to amuse him with orgies (and even drugs perhaps) about which he continues to boast unashamedly, to the point of claiming that: "the Italian people wish they could be like him". He thinks that he can even buy the Vatican by offering laws and favours on demand. You decide whether the potential benefit is worth the cost to the Church.
One thing you should be aware of is that there is a schism growing within the Church that is no longer simply an undercurrent but is growing day by day and we must beware of watching it become a movement, or worse still a split, also because many Bishops prefer to say nothing while in their heart of hearts they meditate and curse in private. Please don't make the mistake of taking what I am telling you too lightly. Both you and my Bishop, Cardinal Angelo Bagnasco who know me well, know that I don't tell lies and that I don't spread mere rumours, and also that I always publicly take full responsibility for anything I say.
For once, as Secretary of State, act like a Priest, nothing more than a Priest and purely as a priest and cancel all your appointments with that unscrupulous and undignified trafficker who is simply using you so as to suggest that his relations with the Vatican and the Pope "are excellent".
I attach a copy of the "Letter of repudiation" that I have sent to Silvio Berlusconi and that is garnering much support, both from believers and non-believers. If you insist on rehabilitating Berlusconi, as has already been done by Gian Maria Vian, Editor of the "Osservatore Romano" in his interview with the "Corriere della Sera", then you will no longer have any right to speak about the Gospel, ethics and morals in God's Church.
Even if Berlusconi manages to buy even the Vatican in exchange for some laws, favours and money, he should know that he will never be able to buy our consciences as believers that pray to God every day to save our "poor Italy" and to overthrow the ecclesiastical hierarchies whose behaviour is so often scandalous and who certainly don't serve as an example to the baptised population.
Concerned and embittered, I send my sincere regards." Paolo Farinella, Priest

A Gay Pride march in Serbia has been called off after police told organisers they could not guarantee its safety.

One of the organisers said Serbia's prime minister had urged them to switch Sunday's rally from central Belgrade, but the proposal was "unacceptable".

President Boris Tadic vowed on Friday to protect the participants.

Anti-gay groups had threatened violence if the march were allowed to go ahead. "We're expecting you" posters had been stuck around the Serbian capital.

And so the bigots win again...

The Russian partner of Magna, the Canadian company that has bought German carmaker Opel, says without a transfer of technology to Russia the deal would be worthless.  

The head of Russian lender Sberbank said on Friday that Russian automakers Avtovaz and GAZ were interested in joining the new Opel venture for the technology.

"The point of our participation in the deal is for the import of technology. If this doesn't happen, then we wasted our time," German Gref was quoted by news agency RIA Novosti as saying.

He was speaking at an economic forum in the Black Sea resort of Sochi meant to garner greater foreign investment in Russia.

The state-owned Sberbank has teamed up with Canadian auto parts maker Magna to purchase a joint majority 55-percent stake in Opel, while General Motors will retain 35 percent.

Stock market trading by small investors has surged to levels last seen during the "dotcom" boom, with many thousands of people buying into the strong recovery in shares that on Friday sent the FTSE 100 to its highest this year.

Some of the country's biggest brokers say a "tide" of individual investors - frustrated with the low interest rates on offer in cash savings accounts and wary of buying into property - have turned to equities in the hope of riding a six-month rally that has propelled the blue-chip index to levels almost 50 per cent above its March low.

Despite fears of an autumn correction, stock markets this week marked the anniversary of Lehman Brothers' collapse by marching to fresh highs. The FTSE 100 finished with a 3.2 per cent gain for the week.

Analysis of industry data for the Financial Times shows the number of deals placed through execution-only stockbrokers rose to more than 4m in the three months to June, a number surpassed only in spring 2000.

WHEEEEE!

Jesus died for somebody's sins but not mine - Patti Smith

The current downturn may keep jobless rates in developed economies elevated for longer than was the case after previous recessions, in part because conditions got so bad so quickly, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development reported Wednesday.
...
The O.E.C.D. forecast that unemployment among its 30 member countries would rise to nearly 10 percent by the end of 2010, from 5.6 percent in 2007, and above its previous post-1970 peak of 7.5 percent in 1993.
...
When compared with the overall resources available in the fiscal stimulus packages enacted by major economies, the increase in spending on labor market policies, like unemployment benefits and retraining, has been "rather modest in many countries."

"This looks like a missed opportunity," said John P. Martin, director at the O.E.C.D. for employment. Although the stimulus measures have added to public debt, additional spending on reducing the jobless rate "can be justified on cost-effectiveness grounds," he said.

Just after returning to New York from Japan, Britain, and economically devastated Iceland, Stiglitz paints a picture of a U.S. economy that has stanched the most serious bleeding but remains deeply wounded. "I think we would be lucky to be out of the recession by 2012," Stiglitz says. "2010 may be a year of positive growth, though far weaker than would be necessary to get unemployment down significantly." Central to the grim diagnosis, Stiglitz says, is the lack of new jobs -- an argument echoed by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development, which this week said high unemployment in the world's wealthiest countries could last years.

According to the BBC, the issue of the Tobin Tax, which as we reported previously, had garnered some vocal proponents recently, but was never expected to be anything than mere discussion points, has gotten a firm G-20 supporter in the face of French president Nicolas Sasrkozy. And while the opposition of the US is a certainty, the recent overtures by FSA Chairman Adair Turner in which he announced he would consider a Tobin tax implementation, means the US could be all alone in its disapproval of this form of taxation.

Recently many talking heads have come out and discussed how much of an adverse impact a Tobin Tax would have on the US economy, yet the simple fact is that the majority of retail investors already pay substantial transaction fees to their brokers and would not notice a theoretical 0.1% transaction tax increase in fees. Furthermore, brokerages which are now enjoying record speculative mania, could easily lower their fees to compesnate for any new trade taxation. This leaves only big institutions, and specifically those that traffic in either HFT, churning, painting the tape, or all three, as adversely impacted by a tax. Yet it is these very same entities that are benefitting from a record steep yield curve: an ongoing boon compliments of the US taxpayer. In essence: when firms get a gift from the Federal Reserve, they will take it no questions asked, yet when there is even the slightest hint of a proposition introduced that could take away even some of these profits generated courtesy of taxing the general population, which is what QE is, everyone screams bloody murder.

One (and by one, one, of course, means Goldman Sachs and other HFT titans) can only hope that the AFL-CIO and US democrats do not get much more involved in this issue. As we reported previously, the Tobin tax issue could quickly turn ugly as instead of a purely economic issue, it would start having political overtones. It is a well known feature of government that it will sniff out any segment of the economy that is abnormally profitable, and quickly seek to tax this excess profitability out of it - if you throw in the ethical considerations against HFT, and the purported strong opposition of the US against Tobin Tax could quickly dissolve.

On September 25, 2007, the President's Working Group on Financial Markets, better known as the Plunge Protection Team, announced the formation of two private sector committees, one comprising of Asset Managers and the other, of Investors. It is the first one that is more interesting, as the committee is chaired by one Eric Mindich, best known for his Goldman Sachs wunderkind status, who at 27, was the youngest Goldmanite ever to be promoted to partner. In 2004, Eric split off from Goldman, nonetheless maintaining a favorable relationship with the mothership through its "Fund of Funds" division (we jest), and its various Prime Brokerage client platforms, by starting Eton Park, which with its starting capital of $3 billion, is still likely a record of highest AUM at a fund's inception.

So what was the justification for the creation of this specific committee. From its Mission Statement:

   PRESIDENT'S WORKING GROUP ON FINANCIAL MARKETS

    ASSET MANAGERS' COMMITTEE

    Mission Statement

    The Asset Managers' Committee is comprised of representatives from a broad array of asset managers. Its purpose is to facilitate an exchange of information between the alternative asset management community and the agencies comprising the President's Working Group on Financial Markets ("PWG"). It will be a standing committee, and its members serve at the behest of the committee's chairperson for three-year terms. Members may be reappointed for additional terms. It is expected that the committee will develop best practice guidelines, as described below, and also subsequently review and reassess, and if necessary revise, those guidelines.

    The first task of the committee is to develop detailed guidelines that would define "bestpractices" for the alternative asset management industry, including practices regarding information, valuation, and risk management systems. They would foster efforts to enhance market discipline, mitigate systemic risk, augment regulatory safeguards regarding investor protection, and complement regulatory efforts to enhance market integrity. These guidelines would review and build on existing industry work and the principles and guidelines released in February 2007 by the PWG, particularly Principle 9, where possible. The initial focus will be on practices for hedge fund managers. (Bold per Zero Hedge)

Yet less than a year later, the economy and capital markets collapsed, forcing Hank Paulson to launch an  unprecedented sequence of events to prevent the full meltdown of the Western World. Indeed, the same Hank Paulson who one year prior to Lehman's collapse had this to say regarding the Asset Managers' committee:  (And here it gets interesting:)

   "These groups are drawn from among the industry's finest in their respective areas," said Treasury Secretary and PWG Chairman Henry M. Paulson, Jr. "The market will benefit if experienced participants develop and implement best practices."  (My bold)

It is safe to say that whatever the committee's true mission was, its stated one was an unmitigated failure. For reference purposes, the full committee consists of the following:

    * Eric Mindich, Chair, Eton Park Capital Management
    * Anne Casscells. AETOS Capital, LLC
    * James S. Chanos, Kynikos Associates LP
    * Anne Dinning, D. E. Shaw & Co., L.P.
    * Jonathon S. Jacobson, Highfields Capital Management
    * Marc Lasry,Avenue Capital Group
    * Edward A. Mulé, Silver Point Capital
    * Daniel S. Och, Och-Ziff Capital Management
    * Daniel H. Stern, Reservoir Capital Group
    * William Von Mueffling, Cantillon Capital
    * Michael Vranos, Ellington Management Group LLC

Pardon our hypocrisy, but virtually all of these funds (with the likely exception of Kynikos) would have gotten destroyed had Bernanke, the Chairman of the PWG and the President, decided not to intervene. Furthermore, as is well know, the President's Working Group on Financial Markets has long been not only the front for the elusive Plunge Protection Team, but is an organization this is so wrapped in secrecy that not even minutes of its meetings are kept as John Crudele of the NY Post found out post his US Treasury FOIA submission. Yet the Asset Managers' Committee seems to be in that gray area where it is not totally consumed by the PWG, and thus it is possible that a record of its actions may actually not disappear into the void once any market critical decision is made.

"If you're doing tech investing you don't care too much what's going on in Washington with regulatory policy, but it absolutely matters with clean tech -- it's a big driver," said Marianne Wu, a partner at the Sand Hill Road firm Mohr Davidow Ventures. "I don't think anyone from our IT group has been to D.C. in the last year. But our clean-tech group certainly is going to D.C. often."

Silicon Valley venture capitalists have always been about inventing the future -- taking a wild idea, nurturing it with cash and creativity and giving birth to new products, companies and industries we once couldn't imagine and now can't conceive of living without: the Web, Google, the iPhone, Twitter. But as green technology becomes the latest tech wave to break from the nation's entrepreneurial epicenter, it's now all about companies reinventing the past. Solar power companies, electric car start-ups and algae biofuel ventures aim to remake century-old trillion-dollar industries on a global scale.

Venture capitalists poured $4 billion into green-tech start-ups in 2008 -- nearly 40% of all tech investments in the U.S., according to a survey by PricewaterhouseCoopers. Green-tech investment plunged in the first half of 2009 to $513 million as the recession dragged on, but there are signs of a rebound: Silicon Valley's Khosla Ventures announced this month that it had raised $1.1 billion -- the biggest first-time fund in a decade -- that would be largely devoted to investing in green-tech start-ups, many in Southern California.

But green-tech companies face unique challenges, including global markets, tough technological hurdles and a future shaped by government incentives and regulatory policy. Those challenges are changing the game on Sand Hill Road.

So, the Fed has given a boost to stocks while keeping the bond market priced for deflation. That's quite a trick. One market is flashing "recovery" while the other is signaling "contraction". Bernanke has worked this miracle, by simply changing the definition of "indirect bidders" (which used to mean "foreign buyers" of US Treasuries) to mean just about anyone, anywhere. Here's an explanation of this latest bit of chicanery from the Wall Street Journal in June:

   "Is foreign Demand as Solid as it Looks?", Min Zeng.  WSJ

"The sudden increase in demand by foreign buyers for Treasurys, hailed as proof that the world's central banks are still willing to help absorb the avalanche of supply, mightn't be all that it seems.

    "When the government sells bonds, traders typically look at a group of buyers called indirect bidders, which includes foreign central banks, to divine overseas demand for U.S. debt. That demand has been rising recently, giving comfort to investors that foreign buyers will continue to finance the U.S.'s budget deficit.

    "But in a little-noticed switch on June 1, the Treasury changed the way it accounts for indirect bids, putting more buyers under that umbrella and boosting the portion of recent Treasury sales that the market perceived were being bought by foreigners."

Pretty clever, eh? So, if the Treasury doesn't want dupes like us to know when foreign demand drops off a cliff, they just twist the definitions to meet their needs. My guess is that the Fed is building excess bank reserves (nearly $1 trillion in the last year alone) with the tacit understanding that the banks will return the favor by purchasing Uncle Sam's sovereign debt. It's all very confusing and circular, in keeping with Bernanke's stated commitment to "transparency". What a laugh. The good news is that the trillions in government paper probably won't increase inflation until the economy begins to improve and the slack in capacity is reduced. Then we can expect to get walloped with hyperinflation. But that could be years off. For the foreseeable future, it's all about deflation.

SLAMABAD, Pakistan -- Despite growing U.S. military losses in Afghanistan, Pakistan still refuses to target the extremist groups on its soil that are the biggest threat to the American-led mission there, the U.S. ambassador to Pakistan told McClatchy.

Eight years after Washington and Islamabad agreed to fight the Taliban and al Qaida, Pakistan has "different priorities" from the U.S., Anne Patterson said in a recent interview. Pakistan is "certainly reluctant to take action" against the leadership of the Afghan insurgency.

As the war in Afghanistan becomes more brutal -- and political and popular support for it wanes in the U.S. -- Pakistan's refusal to act in support of American goals is undermining the U.S. effort to deny al Qaida and other extremist groups a sanctuary in Afghanistan.

The most effective Taliban fighters, the Haqqani network of veteran Afghan jihadist Jalaluddin Haqqani and his son Sirajuddin, operate out of the North Waziristan region of Pakistan's tribal territory. Taliban founder Mullah Mohammad Omar is widely thought to be based in the western Pakistani city of Quetta, from which he directs the insurgency through the so-called "Quetta Shura," or leadership council.

SYDNEY (AFP) - Australian authorities delivered a formal apology Saturday to the many thousands of people who were abused in state-run orphanages and children's homes in decades past.

New South Wales Premier Nathan Rees unveiled a memorial in Sydney to children who suffered in care from the 1930s to the 1970s at an official ceremony attended by more than 500 former state wards.

"To many sufferers and especially those who have joined us today I say on behalf of the government I am sorry for any hurt and distress you suffered in the care of the state," Rees said.

"This should never have happened."

The 30,000 victims of a toxic waste disaster in Ivory Coast are being offered £1,000 each in compensation, a representative of the survivors said today.

Sources in Abidjan, the country's main city, said about 20,000 of the victims of the toxic dumping had so far been told of the offer by the oil trading firm Trafigura and virtually all had accepted. But one quoted by Reuters said he would have preferred a graduated offer according to the severity of alleged injuries.

The payout offer would amount to about £30m in total, which represents slightly more than 10% of Trafigura's declared annual profits. It represents less than the £100m cheque Trafigura wrote in 2007 to the country's government to pay for a clean-up and to make some payments to the families of 16 people who had died.

That previous payment, which the company made without any admission of liability, led to the release of the company president, Claude Dauphin, from an Ivorian jail and the scrapping of criminal prosecutions there.

The confidential negotiations are likely to include a further payment for the costs of the British law firm Leigh Day, which took on the case on a no-win, no-fee basis and is thought to have risked more than £10m. Leigh Day's original claim for the victims was for another £100m, which would have given them just over £3,000 each.

WASHINGTON -- Seven former directors of the Central Intelligence Agency asked President Obama on Friday to shut down the new Justice Department inquiry into past abuses during interrogations of terrorism suspects, arguing that it "will seriously damage" the nation's ability to protect itself.

In a letter to Mr. Obama, the former C.I.A. chiefs said the cases under study had already been examined by career prosecutors who found that no criminal charges were warranted. To reopen cases based on a change in which political party controls the government, they wrote, will make it harder for intelligence officers to take risks without worrying that some future attorney general might investigate them.

"Those men and women who undertake difficult intelligence assignments in the aftermath of an attack such as September 11 must believe there is permanence in the legal rules that govern their actions," the men said in their letter.

They argued that the new inquiry would result in the disclosure of information about past operations that "can only help Al Qaeda" elude capture, and would convince foreign intelligence agencies that they could not trust the United States to protect secrets.

AURORA, Colo. -- Djilali Kacem tugged at his beard and surveyed the warehouse of Islamic books he helps oversee near Denver International Airport.

"The government should know better by now," said Mr. Kacem, an imam at a local mosque. "It has been eight years since Sept. 11, and our government still overacts sometimes when it comes to Muslims."

As an investigation into a possible terrorist plot against New York City focused increasingly last week on a local Afghani shuttle bus driver, some Muslims in and around this Denver suburb have grown uneasy, saying they are concerned that law enforcement officials are going too far because the case involves a Muslim. But others say that even if Muslims here feel that they are being unfairly targeted, law enforcement officials are obligated to follow any leads, wherever they might lead, and that in this case the F.B.I. has acted appropriately so far.

A fierce gun battle between Maoist insurgents and security forces has taken place in the central Indian state of Chhattisgarh, police say.

They say that at least seven Maoists were killed in the fight, and one paramilitary soldier.

The clashes happened during an operation to remove more than 100 insurgents from a forest.

Thousands of people have died in the Maoist insurgency since it began in the 1960s as a backlash against poverty.

Chhattisgarh police chief RK Vij told the AFP news agency that more casualties were likely after an intense battle in the jungles of Singamadagu district, 500km (300 miles) south of the capital Raipur.

Republicans say the Obama administration's attempt to overhaul the health system will lead to government-run British- or Canadian-style health care that causes delays in treatment, threatening your health and even worse.

Rep. Sue Myrick of North Carolina issued the latest warning against a Democratic-backed health care overhaul as she recalled her fight with breast cancer. She said in the Republican weekly radio and Internet address that her diagnosis "took six doctors, three mammograms and one ultrasound before they finally they found my cancer. This process took only a few weeks."

"Under the government-run health care system they have in Canada and the United Kingdom, I wouldn't have had the opportunity to get those tests so quickly," she said. "One international study found that three times as many citizens in those countries wait longer than a month to see a specialist. When it comes to life-threatening diseases like cancer, delay could mean death."

Democrats are looking for competition to private insurance companies to help drive prices down: a government-run insurance option, a trigger to add that option later; or nonprofit insurance cooperatives, designed to compete with private industry and give consumers more choices.

"These so-called health care reform bills have different names: a public option, a co-op, a trigger," Myrick said. "Make no mistake, these are all gateways to government-run health care."

The White House has announced that President Barack Obama will meet Israeli and Palestinian leaders on Tuesday.

Mr Obama will first hold separate talks with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.

The three mwn will then hold a session of joint talks.

It comes after US envoy George Mitchell's latest round of shuttle diplomacy ended without agreement.

HAVANA, Cuba (Reuters) -- Half a million people are expected to fill Havana's Revolution Square Sunday for a concert that is supposed to be about peace, but has become another front in the war of words between Havana and the Cuban exile community in Miami.
(...)
Anti-communist Cuban exiles in Miami have pilloried Juanes, accusing him of pandering to the Cuban government. Juanes lives on Miami's exclusive Key Biscayne.

Miguel Bose from Spain, Olga Tanon from the US Caribbean territory of Puerto Rico, Jovanotti from Italy and Silvio Rodriguez and Los Van Van from Cuba are part of the lineup mostly made up of Spanish-language stars.

The unrelenting global troubles confronting Barack Obama are about to converge on him all at once, providing a stern test of leadership for a first-year president who has pledged to "change the world."

...

His first speech to the 192-member General Assembly will outline his view of leadership, emphasizing a new brand of cooperation as if to underline he is not Bush. As U.N. ambassador Susan Rice described the message: "Everybody has a responsibility. The U.S. is leading anew. And we are looking to others to join."

Obama will be the first U.S. president to be chairman of the Security Council, whose rotating presidency happens to be in U.S. hands this month during the annual meeting of the General Assembly. He expects to emerge from that special summit on arms control with a resolution that advances his goals of a nuclear-weapons free world.

The swine flu pandemic could kill millions and cause anarchy in the world's poorest nations unless £900m can be raised from rich countries to pay for vaccines and antiviral medicines, says a UN report leaked to the Observer.

The disclosure will provoke concerns that health officials will not be able to stem the growth of the worldwide H1N1 pandemic in developing countries. If the virus takes hold in the poorest nations, millions could die and the economies of fragile countries could be destroyed....

UN officials say in the report that £700m should be spent on antiviral drugs and vaccines to protect health care workers and other essential personnel as well as cover those suffering from severe illness. They have identified 85 countries that do not have the ability to access vaccines from any other source and intend to cover 5-10% of each population.

A further £147m should be put aside to organise vaccine campaigns, improve communications, monitor levels of illness and improve laboratory capacity in 61 countries, the report claims. The remainder should be used to pay for the WHO and other UN-related organisations to help in these countries as well as an emergency fund for additional antiviral medicines, it argues....

The UN's request for the money comes as the virus begins to establish itself in some of the world's most vulnerable countries. On Wednesday, health officials told one website that the African continent had recorded 8,187 confirmed cases of swine flu and 41 deaths.

Or Left Hand Ultimatum?

Diversity is the key to economic and political evolution.

SOCHI, Russia (Reuters) - Russia will discuss relaxing laws regulating foreign participation in offshore energy projects to attract investment from abroad, Natural Resources Minister Yuri Trutnev told Reuters on Saturday.

Encouraged by a surge in crude prices from 2002 to a peak in July 2008, Russia passed laws curbing foreign participation in tapping its mineral resources, but oil prices have plummeted since then.

"We will look into this issue (laws regarding foreign investment) first of all in relation to offshore exploration. We believe that state regulation creates many obstacles for exploration," Trutnev said in the resort of Sochi on the sidelines of an economic forum.

The minister also blamed state-controlled energy giants Rosneft and Gazprom, which are the only two firms carrying out offshore exploration in Russia at the moment, for underinvestment.

NASA's lunar-mapping satellite has just begun its four-year mission searching for water on the moon, but it has already turned up a discovery that has scientists scratching their heads.

The Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter's seven scientific instruments have indeed confirmed the presence of large amounts of hydrogen -- a marker for water -- in permanently shadowed south pole craters, where scientists had known there were deposits of hydrogen. But the instruments have also found the element in regions where the sun shines.

NASA scientists said Thursday that this could mean water is buried underground. Water could not exist on the surface, where it is exposed to daytime temperatures as high as 220 degrees Fahrenheit, according to Richard Vondrak, project scientist for the mission, known as LRO.

"We don't know the abundance or how deeply it is buried," Vondrak said at a briefing at Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. Nor do they know whether the hydrogen is water in the form of ice. If it is, the discovery would greatly improve the chances for a successful return to the moon by astronauts.

A proposed solar energy project in the California desert that caused intense friction between environmentalists and the developers of renewable energy has been shelved.

BrightSource Energy Inc. had planned a 5,130-acre solar power farm in a remote part of the Mojave Desert, on land previously intended for conservation. The company, based in Oakland, Calif., said Thursday that it was instead seeking an alternative site for the project.

The Wildlands Conservancy, a California environmental group, had tried to block the solar development, as had Senator Dianne Feinstein, Democrat of California, who proposed that the area become a national monument.

The land was donated by Wildlands to the Interior Department during the Clinton administration, with assurances from President Bill Clinton himself, the group says, that it would be protected in perpetuity. But the Energy Policy Act of 2005, a Bush administration initiative, opened the land to the development of solar projects.

OMA, Japan -- Fishermen here call it "black gold," referring to the dark red flesh of the Pacific bluefin tuna that is so prized in this sashimi-loving nation that just one of these sleek fish, which can weigh a half-ton, can earn tens of thousands of dollars.

Tuna lovers savoring bluefin tuna meat in Oma, Japan. Ko Sasaki for The New York Times

Flags bearing wishes for good fishing fluttering over a boat at the Oma port.

The cold waters here once yielded such an abundance of bluefin, with such thick layers of tasty rich fat, that this tiny wind-swept seaport became Japan's answer to California's Napa Valley or the Brie cheese-producing region of France: a geographic location that is nearly synonymous with one of its nation's premier foods.

So strong is the allure of Oma's tuna that during the autumn fishing season, tens of thousands of hungry visitors descend on this remote fishing town, located on the northernmost tip of Japan's main island of Honshu. On a recent Sunday, dozens of tourists, filmed by no fewer than three local television crews, crowded into an old refrigerated warehouse on a pier where Oma's mayor presided over a ceremony to slice up a 220-pound bluefin into brick-size blocks for sale.

"This is a pleasure you can only have a few times in your life," said Toshiko Maki, 51, a homemaker from suburban Tokyo, as she popped a ruby-red cube of sashimi into her mouth.

But now the town faces a looming threat, as the number of tuna has begun dropping precipitously in recent years because of overfishing. This has given Oma another, less celebrated distinction, as a community that has stood out by calling for greater regulation of catches in a nation that has adamantly opposed global efforts to save badly depleted tuna populations.

By the end of this year, the world is projected to reach an unheralded but historic milestone: Half of the fish and shellfish we consume will be raised by humans, rather than caught in the wild.

Reaching this tipping point is reshaping everything from our oceans to the livelihoods and diets of people across the globe. It has also prompted a new round of scientific and political scrutiny, as researchers and public officials examine how aquaculture is affecting the world's environment and seafood supply.

"Hunting and gathering has reached its maximum," said Ronald W. Hardy, who directs the University of Idaho's Aquaculture Research Institute and co-authored a study on the subject in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. "We've got to grow more."

The drive to bring fish "from egg to plate," as Hardy puts it, has the potential to answer a growing demand for seafood worldwide, as well as reduce some of the imports that compose more than 80 percent of the fish and shellfish Americans eat each year. But without technological advances to improve efficiency, it could threaten to wipe out the forage fish that lie at the bottom of the ocean's food chain and potentially contaminate parts of the sea.

And consumers will have to accept that they are eating a different kind of fish than the ones that swim wild: ones that might have eaten unused poultry trimmings, been vaccinated, consumed antibiotics or been selected for certain genetic traits.

China has doubled its installed wind power capacity every year for the past five, and is on pace this year to supplant the United States as the world's largest market for new installations. But researchers from Harvard University and Beijing's Tsinghua University suggest that the Chinese wind power industry has hardly begun to tap its potential. According to their meteorological and financial modeling, reported in the journal Science last week, there is enough strong wind in China to profitably satisfy all of the country's electricity demand until at least 2030.

Harvard-Tsinghua project leader Michael McElroy and colleagues quantified China's wind energy potential by first modeling the availability of wind. To do this, they chopped the Chinese map into parcels 3,335 square kilometers each and used five years of recent meteorological data to generate a wind profile for each parcel. Next, they added industry-standard 1.5-megawatt wind turbines across each parcel (excluding unfriendly terrain such as steep hills, forests, and urban areas) in the model and estimated each parcel's energy output. Finally, they calculated the cost of the energy that could be produced as a function of the cost of installing the turbines.

The modeling reveals extensive regions, concentrated in northern and western China, where much energy can be generated at costs similar to the government-set energy rates earned by established wind farms, which range from 0.38 to 0.55 Chinese yuan (6 cents to 8 cents) per kilowatt-hour (kwh). For example, the model predicts that wind-farm operators could profitably generate 6.96 trillion kwh of wind energy -- more than double China's annual power consumption of 3.4 trillion kwh and comparable to the projected total demand by 2030 -- at a contract price of 0.516 Chinese yuan (7.5 cents) per kwh.

A campaign backed by automakers and some lawmakers to make electric or hybrid cars noisier in a bid to increase safety for pedestrians and cyclists has taken a strange, "Blade Runner"-type twist.

Nissan sound engineers have announced that the Leaf electric car set for release next year will emit a "beautiful and futuristic" noise similar to the sound of flying cars -- or "spinners" -- that buzz around 2019 Los Angeles in Ridley Scott's dystopian thriller based on a Philip K. Dick science fiction novel.

While virtually all of the largest developed and developing nations have made domestic commitments toward creating more efficient, renewable sources of energy to cut emissions, none want to take the lead in fighting for significant international emissions reduction targets, lest they be accused at home of selling out future jobs and economic growth.

[...]

On Tuesday, the leaders, including the heads of state or government of most economic powers, are to engage in a series of round-table discussions on outstanding climate change issues that will be less like negotiations than a series of college seminars designed to forge political momentum.

"They won't do it one by one," said Robert Orr, the United Nations assistant secretary general for policy planning. "Politically, they all have to jump together, and this is the essence of this summit. We will see if any governments are ready to say, `I am stepping through the door now; are you going to come with me?' That would be a huge break."

PARIS - The United Nations' agency for culture and education remains undecided about who will be UNESCO's next leader.

The U.N. Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization says on its Web site that a third round of voting Saturday at its Paris headquarters was inconclusive, as no candidate won the needed majority of 58 votes cast. A fourth round is scheduled Monday.

Farouk Hosni (the alleged frontrunner) is an ass, and it would be a shame if he won, but not for the reasons that have generally been cited in opposition to him. There are much better reasons.

MADRID -- Leonard Cohen is recovering after collapsing onstage while on tour in eastern Spain, his music company said Saturday.

The veteran poet and performer has been released from hospital after suffering from a stomach complaint, Doctor Music Concerts said in a statement.

Cohen was part-way through his song "Bird on the Wire" in Valencia when he fainted, causing the band to stop playing to rush to his aid as concertgoers watched. The concert was stopped.

[...]

The Canadian-born musician, who will be 75 years-old on Monday, was taken in an ambulance to the Nueve de Octubre hospital in Valencia but released early Saturday, Barcelona-based Doctor Music Concerts said.

[...]

Cohen had to come out of retirement five years ago when he discovered that most of his retirement fund had disappeared in a disputed case of mismanagement.

The gruesome botching of an execution in Ohio on Tuesday, when technicians tried but failed to find a vein in a Death Row inmate through which to administer the required mortal fluids, is casting a fresh spotlight on the flaws in America's system of capital punishment system at a time when public support for it may already be flagging.

Lawyers for Romell Broom, convicted in the 1984 rape and killing of a 14-year-old girl abducted in Cleveland, were successful in blocking the state's plans to have a second go at dispatching him by lethal injection in three days' time, for the surreal reason that one week is not enough time for him to recover from his near-death. A federal judge issued a temporary restraining order yesterday, effective for 10 days.

A solicitor who devoted herself to improving the lives of hundreds of disabled and elderly care-home residents has won a historic battle which had threatened to end her career.

Yvonne Hossack, 53, was yesterday cleared of professional misconduct after local councils, angered by her successful campaigns to stop the closure of care homes, mounted a "witch- hunt" to get her removed from the solicitors' roll.

The case has given hope to thousands of other professional campaigners and charities which work against the odds to improve the lives of disabled and elderly people.

Through President Ronald Reagan, both Bushes, Whitewater and Kenneth W. Starr, some liberals have craved their own class warrior, a Rush Limbaugh for the left who would take the fight unapologetically to the Republicans.

But faced with Mr. Moore (and later, Keith Olbermann) they recoil, claiming that kind of aggressiveness is somehow at odds with the notion of being a liberal. In a famous attack, Pauline Kael wrote that "Roger & Me" was "gonzo demagoguery that made me feel cheap for laughing." Funny -- none of Rush's listeners ever say that about him.

"I don't think they like a guy who is hovering around 300 pounds and walks around in a ball cap who comes from a factory town and talks like where he comes from," Mr. Moore said over lunch in Toronto the day before his premiere here. "People want to have polite conversation at their wine-and-cheese functions."

-Skip-

After the screening in Toronto, Mr. Moore took questions from audience members eager to know exactly what they should do. He offered some broad suggestions, stressing that he worried that Democrats in the United States would begin to abandon Mr. Obama (whom he enthusiastically supports) now that the election is won.

Pushed harder on Mr. Obama, a gradualist seemingly out of step with Mr. Moore's radical agenda of scrapping capitalism, Mr. Moore only said that he hoped for the best, but feared the influence of Goldman Sachs on the administration. Finally, he just shrugged.

"You know," he said, "the next movie may be about him."

The 176th edition of Germany's most famous celebration, Oktoberfest, has officially opened in the southern German city of Munich. More than six million people are expected to visit the "Wiesn" this year. 

Munich Mayor Christian Ude officially opened the 176th edition of Oktoberfest on Saturday with the tapping of the keg and a cry of "Ozapft is!", or "It's tapped!"

As is tradition, the head of Bavaria's government is entitled to the first keg. This year that honor went to the state's premier, Horst Seehofer, who was handed the first liter of beer by Ude.

The celebration was spared last year's dirndl scandal by Seehofer's wife, Karin, who showed up dressed in the traditional manner. A year ago, Marga Beckstein, wife of then-governor Guenther Beckstein, refused to wear a dirndl and chose instead to don a traditional jacket.

Some six million people are expected to show up at Oktoberfest this year where they will down close to seven million liters of beer and eat around 500,000 chickens and 100 oxen.

Jesus died for somebody's sins but not mine - Patti Smith

I have about 20 housemates, and I like just about all of them quite a lot.  One guy, however, is just plain tiresome.  He's perfectly nice, but rather dim and a terrible bore and a huge motormouth.  He will drone on and on and on for hours about things that nobody cares about, tell stories that are without a doubt 70 percent fiction and 30 percent inconsequential.  He drives me nuts.

It's a holiday here today, and he's been camped at a table in the garden outside my room for hours, droning on and on with a collection of other housemates, basically dragging everyone into his monologue as soon as they walk outside.  I want to go sit in the garden and read, but I can't unless I want to get dragged into some boring-ass conversation with someone I can't stand.  So instead I'm trapped in my room on a beautiful sunny day, and getting crankier by the minute.

</gripe>