Dominique de Villepin, the former French PM charged with plotting to discredit Nicolas Sarkozy in the build-up to the 2007 presidential poll, has filed suit against the French president for violating his right to the presumption of innocence.

AFP - Former prime minister Dominique de Villepin filed suit Monday against Nicolas Sarkozy after the French president called him and other defendants in a smear trial "guilty", a judicial official said.

EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - European commission president Jose Manuel Barroso told a gathering of civil society representatives on Monday (28 September) that the European Union needed to do more to tackle social issues such as poverty.

He said member state governments had repeatedly blocked greater European action in this area in the past, choosing instead to look after their own poor.

"I think now in the face of this economic crisis we should consider doing something at the European level for the poorest," he told delegates of the Spring Alliance, a group of civil society organisations seeking to influence the next commission's work programme.

"My position is yes [to greater European action]. So far the position of the council [representing member states] has been no. That is the reality," said Mr Barroso, who earlier this month won the backing of the European parliament to carry on for another five years at the helm of the EU executive.

EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - Romania's most powerful judges on Monday (28 September) decided to suspend a strike over salary cuts, after weeks of blocking trials and threatening to boycott the presidential election due on 22 November.

The judges of the High Court of Cassation and Justice (HCCJ), Romania's court of last resort, put their protest on hold until 31 October when they will "re-evaluate the situation and decide accordingly."

Romania's judges are wrestling with the government over benefits which they granted themselves

The power tussle started during the summer when the coalition government, led by the centre-right Democratic-Liberal Party (PDL), trimmed salaries for all state employees and cut judges' bonuses - extra pay they had granted themselves despite a ruling by the country's Constitutional Court.

The country's public finances, severely affected by the crisis, are under scrutiny by the EU and International Monetary Fund, which lent Romania an aid package of €20 billion.

The European Commission is to draft new technical standards to limit the volume of mobile music players following concerns the popular gadgets could cause hearing loss, particularly among young people. 

The EU's Consumer Affairs Commissioner Meglena Kuneva said on Monday that the proposed standards would aim to cap the maximum volume output on MP3 players from 100 decibels down to 80.

Kuneva said scientific research had shown that the quality of music reproduction at high levels on small players is now so superior that more and more people are turning up the volume, risking permanent damage.

The foreign ministers of France and Poland plan to ask the US to help free the Franco-Polish film director, Roman Polanski, after his arrest in Switzerland.

Polish foreign minister Radoslaw Sikorski on Sunday (27 September) told the Polish Press Agency that he and his French counterpart, Bernard Kouchner, aim to submit a joint appeal to US secretary of state Hillary Clinton.

Mr Polanski picking up an award earlier in his career

"[We are] considering approaching the American authorities over the possibility of the US president proclaiming an act of clemency which would settle the matter once and for all," he said.

The French foreign ministry issued a statement saying that "Bernard Kouchner has contacted [Swiss foreign minister] Micheline Calmy-Rey to express the French authorities' wishes that Mr Polanski's rights be fully respected and that the matter quickly finds a favourable outcome."

Amsterdam Mayor Job Cohen says women who fail to find a job because they wear a burqa should not receive unemployment benefit. If you are not prepared to compromise, he adds, you cannot expect to receive benefits intended for those genuinely trying to find employment.

Speaking in an interview in the daily newspaper Trouw, Mayor Cohen emphasized that he is opposed to a general ban on the burqa, since it is an expression of religious belief. However, in situations in which contact with other people is necessary, such as at school or in the workplace, he argues that women should choose a less restrictive head covering.
 
In 2007 an Amsterdam court stopped the council in nearby Diemen from cutting a woman's benefit for wearing a burqa. The Lower House of parliament then introduced a motion to allow councils to reduce benefits for burqa-wearers. A motion to halt benefits altogether was supported only by Geert Wilders' right-wing Freedom Party.
 

Ferrán Adrià is many things -- visionary, chemist, artist, magician -- but the man widely regarded as the world's best chef may be about to add another adjective to his astonishing CV, that of saviour.

The culinary genius behind El Bulli, the tiny restaurant that draws gastronomes from around the world to an otherwise unassuming corner of the Costa Brava, is to apply his skills to the task of luring tourists back to Spain.

It is a huge challenge. Tourism accounts for about 11 per cent of Spain's GDP, but it took a battering this year as the global economic downturn led foreigners to seek cheaper beach destinations elsewhere.

Overnight stays fell by 5 per cent in August year-on-year, after a 5.5 per cent decrease in July, according to the National Statistics Institute. As the value of sterling fell against the euro, the number of Britons hitting Spanish beaches fell by 10.4 per cent.

Lord Mandelson has warned that Labour would be "underdogs" at the next election but said that they will win thanks to Gordon Brown's experienced leadership.

In a keynote conference speech, the Business Secretary acknowledged the election was not "cut and dried" and still "up for grabs".

"We may be the underdogs," he told conference delegates. "But if we show the British people that we have not lost the fighting spirit and appetite for change ... then we can win and will win."

European confidence in the economic outlook increased to the highest in 12 months in September as the economy showed signs of rebounding from the worst recession in more than six decades.

An index of executive and consumer sentiment in the 16- nation euro region rose to 82.8, the highest since September 2008, from 80.8 in August, the European Commission in Brussels said today. That was the sixth straight monthly gain. Economists had projected an increase to 82.7, according to the median of 23 estimates in a Bloomberg News survey.

Michael McGowan: We should be at the heart of Europe, but not with Tony Blair as President - Yorkshire Post

Tony Blair has been touting for the job for some time to add to his lucrative portfolio and has even been mentioned as favourite to get it.

However, Gordon Brown should make it clear that the choice of Tony Blair for President of Europe does not have his blessing.

The comment attributed to Glenys Kinnock, the new Europe Minister, speaking to journalists in Strasbourg in July that the British government is backing Tony Blair for the President of Europe appears to have been a mistake and it would be helpful for Brown to make clear that his predecessor does not have the support of the Government.

Blair would see the job as a high profile grandstanding position on the world stage with plenty of air miles. And his failure to show solidarity with Europe on Iraq should eliminate him from any serious consideration for President of Europe. He was out of step with European political and public opinion apart from his friend and holiday host,
Mr Berlusconi.

(33,337 signatures.)

When locusts move on, they leave nothing behind

Portugal's socialist prime minister, Jose Socrates, is expected to win a second term in office in Sunday's elections. He's unlikely, however, to retain his absolute majority. 

Portugal's ruling Socialists are expected to win the vote on Sunday, Sept. 27, but Prime Minister Jose Socrates faces the prospect of losing the absolute majority that has allowed him to impose ambitious reforms.

 

The most recent poll showed the center-left Socialists winning 38 percent of the vote with the main challengers, the Social Democrat Party led by Manuela Ferreira Leite, winning 30 percent.

 

The possibility that Portugal could be governed by a weak minority government has raised concerns that the country could lack the strong leadership it requires to tackle the effects of the economic crisis.

 

Germans are to have a new centre-right and liberal coalition government following elections on Sunday (27 Septemebr). But the results of the vote mean the new coalition may not be any easier for returning Chancellor Angela Merkel to manage than the outgoing government of Christian Democrats and Social Democrats.

"We have reached our election goal of a stable majority for a new government," said a victorious Ms Merkel on Sunday, as the results mean that her preferred coalition could be formed without having to rely on controversial "overhang" mandates - votes given to an individual rather than a party.

However, the centre-right performed relatively poorly at the polls, meaning that Ms Merkel's continued reign is largely thanks to the record performance by the free-market liberals of the Free Democratic Party (FDP).

Early results on Sunday evening gave the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and its Bavarian sister party the Christian Social Union (CSU) 33.6 percent - the poorest showing at the polls for over 60 years - while the liberals gained five percent over the last elections to secure a result of 14.6 percent.

Spain is calling on Brussels to intervene in the restructuring of General Motors' European unit Opel amid fears that a politicized carve-up may lead to mass layoffs in car plants across the continent. 

The Financial Times newspaper reports that Spanish Industry Minister Miguel Sebastian wrote to European commissioners asking them to guarantee Opel's rescue is based on "financial and commercial" criteria.

Sebastian insisted that any reorganization by Opel's planned new owners, Canadian auto parts group Magna International, must "make best possible use of the company's assets."

The newspaper suggests that is a veiled reference to Opel's factory in the northern Spanish city of Zaragoza, which, according to leaked GM documents, is listed as one of the most efficient in Europe.

From Reuters: S&P cuts MBIA, MBIA Insurance as losses continue

Standard & Poor's on Monday cut its ratings on MBIA Inc and its structured finance insurance arm, MBIA Insurance Corp, citing an expectation the company will continue to take significant losses from insuring risky loans. ... The outlook for both companies is negative ...

We are at the point of maximum confusion in the multi-year transition of the global economy, markets and policymaking. We have left the global growth regime that was driven primarily by debt-financed consumption in the US, but we have not as yet reached a position of more balanced, albeit anaemic, growth. Those who lack a robust anchoring framework, be they investors or policymakers, risk being misled and backtracking to outdated ways of thinking.

The signs of inappropriate reversion are multiplying. Confusing temporary factors for sustainable ones, a growing number of analysts have extended the ongoing stimulus/inventory bounce to a V-like recovery next year and beyond. The momentum for meaningful financial reform is stalling in spite of clear evidence that financial activities have far outpaced the regulatory infrastructure. And some banks are returning to the bad habits that almost destroyed them.
...
Today's lack of appropriate anchoring frameworks appears to be exacerbating short-termism. The issue goes well beyond the still-limited appreciation of the multi-year realignment of the global economy, which is gaining momentum. It also relates to tendencies well-documented by behavioural economists - such as framing the problem wrongly and refusing to question past approaches.
...
These considerations serve to accentuate the inconsistency between market valuations and the reality facing companies and economies. Today's markets - be they industrial country equities or corporate bonds - have priced in vigorous growth for 2010. Valuations assume companies will be able robustly to grow earnings through higher revenues, not renewed reliance on the cost reductions that have propelled earnings in the past six months. For that, they are depending on what is likely to prove to be an elusive high-growth scenario for 2010.

Japanese consumer prices posted their sharpest decline last month since records began in the early 1970s, fuelling fears that persistent deflation could weaken the country's nascent recovery.

Core consumer prices excluding fresh food, which have been falling since March, dropped 2.4 per cent in August from a year ago, compared with a 2.2 per cent decline in July, according to figures from the Statistics Bureau.
...
While most developed economies in the world are expected to battle with inflation in the coming months, deflation in Japan is likely to persist into 2010 because of weak consumer demand, excess capacity and the strength of the yen, according to David Cohen at Action Economics in Singapore.

A number of explanations have been proposed for the great boom and bust, most of which focus on greed, overconfidence, and downright stupidity on the part of mortgage lenders, investment bankers, and Wall Street C.E.O.s. According to a common narrative, we have lived through a textbook instance of the madness of crowds. If this were all there was to it, we could rest more comfortably: greed can be controlled, with some difficulty, admittedly; overconfidence gets punctured; even stupid people can be educated. Unfortunately, the real causes of the crisis are much scarier and less amenable to reform: they have to do with the inner logic of an economy like ours. The root problem is what might be termed "rational irrationality"--behavior that, on the individual level, is perfectly reasonable but that, when aggregated in the marketplace, produces calamity.

Here's a little table I put together with numbers from the OCC -- page 9 of this pdf. Using second-quarter numbers for each year, I looked at the total nominal derivatives exposure of end users -- the people for whom derivatives are meant to exist -- and for dealers.

The results are pretty startling: while end-users have pared their derivatives exposure to a seven-year low, dealers have increased theirs to yet another all-time high. And as the OCC notes, when we say "dealers", we really mean four banks in particular: JP Morgan Chase, Goldman Sachs, Bank of America, and Citibank.

Oh, and did I mention? The amounts here are in trillions.

Year	End Users	Dealers	Ratio
2003	2.6	62.4	24.0
2004	2.5	76.9	30.8
2005	2.5	96.2	38.5
2006	2.6	110.1	42.3
2007	2.6	138.1	53.1
2008	2.8	163.9	58.5
2009	2.4	187.6	78.2

What has happened in recent years that derivatives dealers now need $78 in nominal derivatives exposure for every $1 in end-user exposure? When Adair Turner talks about "profitable activities so unlikely to have a social benefit, direct or indirect, that [banks] should voluntarily walk away from them", this is surely a prime example of what he has in mind.

Goldman Sachs Group Inc (NYSE:GS - News) expects to benefit from the new over-the-counter derivatives and commodity trading rules owing to its strong technology position, said a Citigroup analyst, who met with Goldman management, and raised his earnings outlook for the bank.

"Standardized central clearing of OTC derivatives are likely to force a major electronification of derivatives trading, which may play to Goldman's advantage given their existing technology platform and expertise in high volume electronic trading," Citigroup analyst Keith Horowitz said.

Russia has urged calm after Iran test-fired missiles capable of reaching Israel on Monday. "Now is not the time to succumb to emotions, it is necessary to calm down," a foreign ministry spokesman told the Interfax news agency.

AFP - The world should not "succumb to emotions" in dealing with Iran, a Russian foreign ministry source told Interfax news agency Monday, after Tehran tested missiles amid tensions with the West.
   
"Now is not the time to succumb to emotions, it is necessary to calm down and above all to start up an effective negotiation process," the source was quoted as saying by Interfax.
   
Russia, a permanent member of the UN Security Council, would be key to Western efforts to push for tighter sanctions against Iran over its nuclear programme.
   
The unnamed diplomat urged Iran to act constructively at a crucial meeting set for this Thursday of the six world powers negotiating with Tehran over its controversial nuclear programme.

(Reuters, 27 Sep 2009) The two-day summit on Venezuela's sweltering Margarita island, in the Caribbean, came right after the U.N. General Assembly and the G20 summit and was intended as a counterpoint to Western dominance of global institutions.

"We have to construct a new alliance, discover opportunities and help ourselves mutually," Lula said, summing up the central theme of speeches by the 28 leaders present.

On specifics, Mugabe and Chavez proposed greater cooperation on exploitation of resources like minerals and oil....

Libya was nominated to host the next ASA summit in 2011.

Paying his first visit to the Americas, Libya's Muammar Gaddafi -- in power for four decades -- has been holding court in a tent at the summit hotel and gave a fiery speech on Saturday saying a small club of major powers were still trying to run the world on their terms.

(AllAfrica, 25 Sep 2009) The first to arrive at Isla Margarita were Presidents Mamadou Tandja of Niger and Tabaré Vázquez of Uruguay. But the spotlight was hogged by Libyan President Muammar Gaddafi, current chair of the African Union, on his first visit to Latin America.

In New York, Gaddafi was not allowed to set up his traditional Bedouin-style tent. But he has been permitted to do on the grounds of the Hilton Hotel on Isla Margarita.

A source with the summit organisers said Gaddafi would not actually sleep in the tent, but would stay in a hotel room, while several of his advisers and officials would occupy the tent....

Venezuelan Energy Minister Rafael Ramírez pointed out Friday that Africa and South America together have one quarter of the world's energy resources, counting the oil and natural gas reserves of Bolivia, Brazil, Ecuador and Venezuela and those of Algeria, Angola, Libya, Nigeria, Chad, Gabon and Equatorial Guinea.

Algeria, Angola, Libya, Ecuador and Venezuela are all members of the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), but their energy agreements have not gone beyond the accords negotiated within the oil cartel.

(Tehran Times (Bloomberg), 28 Sep 2009) Lula and Chavez are competing for popularity and influence across Latin America, and the contest has extended to other parts of the world such as Africa, said Riordan Roett, director of Western Hemisphere Studies at the School of Advanced International Studies at Johns Hopkins University.

`Quiet diplomacy'

"Chavez's approach is of the moment, to capture headlines," Roett said in a telephone interview. "Brazil has been engaging in pragmatic ties, through quiet diplomacy."

This is the second South America-Africa Summit. The first was held in 2006 in Abuja, Nigeria.

Chavez has used regional summits to make rhetorical arguments about increased "south-south" cooperation, Roett said. The summit isn't likely to cause concern for the U.S., he said.

(France24, 26 Sep 2009) "We don't want this to be just another summit, we want it to lay the path for the next 10 years," the firebrand leftist leader said from New York, where he attended the United Nations General Assembly.

The Venezuela summit is also likely to feature tirades launched at the United States and other global powers, as well as Chavez's recurring arguments about the failures of capitalism....

The leaders are also set to discuss drug trafficking, a long-standing problem in South America, and a new concern for countries in west Africa. The African Union has expressed concern that west Africa is becoming a new route for drugs to enter Europe, and insisted the issue be discussed at the summit.

While the presence of cocaine in west Africa remains pales [sic?!] in comparison to some other regions, seizures have increased seven-fold in the last decade, to 5.5 tonnes in 2007, according the UN Office on Drugs and Crime. Drug labs capable of producing ecstasy, cocaine and heroin have been uncovered in countries like Guinea, and officials are concerned the problem could grow.

"Faced with stricter enforcement in Europe, in the Schengen zone, South American traffickers prefer to take the African route to get small amounts of cocaine to the European market," said Gilles Sabatier, interior security attache to the French ambassador to Venezuela.

"I favor the implementation of the Nabucco pipeline project because we need additional imports to Europe. We have a sufficient amount of natural gas for the Nord and South Stream pipelines, but not for Nabucco," Schroeder said at the Kazenergy Eurasian energy forum, which is taking place as part of the Kazakhstan Energy Week in Astana.

Interfax-Kazakhstan is the general media sponsor for the event.

"In order to have a good position, Nabucco should be filled with gas from Iran, which is right because it offers another opportunity for gas shipments to Europe. However, the European Union will have to overcome political resistance, and it will need strength to settle political disagreements over sanctions targeting Iran and energy sources originating from this country," he said.

A series of exhibitions will take place around Europe to showcase the images taken by Daniel Beltrá, the winner of this year's Prince's Rainforests Project Award at the Sony World Photography Awards. The images showcase the best of his fully-funded trip to three of the world's major rainforests, with photos from the Amazon, Democratic Republic of Congo and Indonesia. The exhibition opens to the public at Kew on the 3rd of October and runs until the 6th of December

Warning: The last two images in this slideshow contain scenes of graphic brutality to animals, which many people will find disturbing

 

Every once in a while I feel despair over the fate of the planet. If you've been following climate science, you know what I mean: the sense that we're hurtling toward catastrophe but nobody wants to hear about it or do anything to avert it.

And here's the thing: I'm not engaging in hyperbole. These days, dire warnings aren't the delusional raving of cranks. They're what come out of the most widely respected climate models, devised by the leading researchers. The prognosis for the planet has gotten much, much worse in just the last few years.

What's driving this new pessimism? Partly it's the fact that some predicted changes, like a decline in Arctic Sea ice, are happening much faster than expected. Partly it's growing evidence that feedback loops amplifying the effects of man-made greenhouse gas emissions are stronger than previously realized. For example, it has long been understood that global warming will cause the tundra to thaw, releasing carbon dioxide, which will cause even more warming, but new research shows far more carbon locked in the permafrost than previously thought, which means a much bigger feedback effect.

Before his death in 1924, Franz Kafka left his papers to Max Brod who rushed them out of Czechoslovakia ahead of the advancing Nazis. Now, the daughter of Brod's late secretary wants to sell them to a German institute. But the legal battle in Israel has become Kafka-esque.

Someone must have been spreading lies about Eva H. because, although she keeps no valuables in her apartment, an intruder broke in late one night. Her cats suddenly raised their heads, and then the silhouette of a muscular man wearing white gloves appeared in front of the glass pane of her bedroom door.

Eva Hoffe, 75, picked up her mobile phone and dialed 100, the number of the Israeli police. "There's a burglar in my house, Spinoza Street, Tel Aviv," she whispered. "Are you sure that he's still in your apartment?" asked the voice on the other end of the line. "He is standing in front of my bedroom door," replied the old woman. By the time the police arrived, the mysterious intruder had fled.

Bought by two of his devotees from Glasgow for £2m, the tiny North Ayrshire island of Little Cumbrae is being converted into an international yoga camp after a blessing from India's most popular lifestyle guru Baba Ramdev, also known as Swami Ji.

After comparing the west coast island to the Himalayas and the banks of the Ganges, Baba Ramdev led a procession accompanied by bagpipes across the island, trying not to trip over the fans who jostled to touch his feet.

In a traditional Hindu Hawan blessing the swami, surrounded by bright petals and grains, chanted and poured ghee onto an indoor fire watched on by his followers from around the world.

With that Baba Ramdev officially started the transformation of the previously uninhabited 700 acres of rocky land into Peace Island.

The Espoo-based bus operator West End Linja has installed hand sanitizer dispensers on 40 buses. The route operator aims to offer passengers the opportunity to cleanse their hands either on boarding or disembarking from its fleet.
The pump bottles have been located in the mid-section of the buses. Marketing Manager Arttu Tehiranta said the idea gained currency when the company began distributing bottles of hand disinfectant to its bus drivers.

"When we distributed them to our workers, we thought `Why not to the passengers too?' If people do use them, we may even provide the gels for a longer period," Tehiranta explained.

Carl Jung and the Holy Grail of the Unconscious - NYTimes.com

This is a story about a nearly 100-year-old book, bound in red leather, which has spent the last quarter century secreted away in a bank vault in Switzerland. The book is big and heavy and its spine is etched with gold letters that say "Liber Novus," which is Latin for "New Book." Its pages are made from thick cream-colored parchment and filled with paintings of otherworldly creatures and handwritten dialogues with gods and devils. If you didn't know the book's vintage, you might confuse it for a lost medieval tome.

And yet between the book's heavy covers, a very modern story unfolds. It goes as follows: Man skids into midlife and loses his soul. Man goes looking for soul. After a lot of instructive hardship and adventure -- taking place entirely in his head -- he finds it again.

Assisted by instruments that can track in fine detail how parcels of fluid move, and by low-cost computers that can crunch vast amounts of data quickly, researchers have found hidden structures beyond Monterey Bay, structures that explain why aircraft meet unexpected turbulence, why the air flow around a car causes drag and how blood pumps from the heart's ventricles. In December, the journal Chaos will highlight the research under way to track the moving skeletons embedded in complex flows, known as Lagrangian coherent structures.

...

The structures are invisible because they often exist only as dividing lines between parts of a flow that are moving at different speeds and in different directions. In the ocean, the path of a drop of water on one side of such a structure might diverge from the path of a drop of water on the other side; they will drift farther apart as time passes.

...

To find the structures, scientists must track flow, not by watching it go by but from the perspective of the droplets of water or molecules of air moving in it. "It's like being a surfer," Dr. Campbell said. "You want to catch the wave and move with the wave."

The Lagrangian formulation of fluid mechanics is a lot more complicated mathematically than the Eulerian form.

En un viejo país ineficiente, algo así como España entre dos guerras civiles, poseer una casa y poca hacienda y memoria ninguna. -- Gil de Biedma

Vaccines have ceased to be easy to introduce in the western world. The concept of herd immunity, where you have your child vaccinated for the good of the population, has all but vanished in the wake of the MMR furore. The death of a girl in the UK after a cervical cancer jab will not help the situation.

The cervical cancer jab protects against the human papilloma virus, not against the disease itself. Because HPV is sexually transmitted, there was much early controversy over the vaccine. Some parents opposing it argued that it would send out the wrong messages to girls and encourage them to be promiscuous. When the US bought the Merck vaccine, which also protects against sexually-transmitted genital warts (GlaxoSmithKline's Cervarix, which is used in the UK, does not), their suspicions were intensified.

Vaccine opponents are now vocal in all western countries and the internet is full of their doubts, criticisms and conspiracy theories. But last month, doubts were voiced in a more mainstream medical forum, with the publication of a US government report in the Journal of the American Medical Association (Jama). It cited 32 deaths linked to the cervical cancer vaccine, none of which has been confirmed. It also said the vaccine has been associated with higher incidents of fainting and blood clots than other vaccines.

US President Barack Obama will travel to Copenhagen to support the bid by the city of Chicago to host the 2016 Olympic Games, the White House says.

He will join his wife, Michelle, and other administration members at the International Olympic Committee meeting in the Danish capital on Thursday.

Chicago faces opposition from Madrid, Rio de Janeiro and Tokyo in the vote.

Brazilian, Spanish and Japanese leaders are also expected to lobby IOC delegates at the meeting.

My esteemed colleague Andrew Grice noticed Peter Mandelson's description in his speech today of David Cameron as a "shallow flibbertigibbet", and says it is a word he has not heard for some time.

"The flu is the flu is the flu," she said.