One of the country's top legal advisers during the run up to the 2003 invasion of Iraq said on Tuesday he believed the military action was illegal.

Michael Wood, the most senior legal adviser at the Foreign Office until 2006, told an inquiry examining Britain's role in the war a United Nations resolution authorising the use of force had been required to make the military action lawful.

"I considered that the use of force against Iraq in March 2003 was contrary to international law," Wood said in a written statement to the inquiry.

"In my opinion, that use of force had not been authorized by the Security Council, and had no other legal basis in war."

A special committee for rooting out collaborators with Bulgaria's Communist-era secret services has given the all clear to the country's new European Commission nominee, Kristalina Georgieva.

The lustration body, popularly known as the Commission on Dossiers, ran a check on the candidate on Tuesday (26 January) following a request from the ruling centre-right Gerb party.

"We checked with all the institutions where the documents concerning the Bulgarian secret services are kept, and there was no information on her. We looked at the file and our decision is that she's clean," Ekaterina Boncheva, a member of the nine-person commission told EUobserver.

Spain, Belgium and Hungary have agreed a joint 18-month programme, beginning in January 2010, for their 'trio' of EU presidencies. The three countries pledged continuity for their stint at the EU helm, which is the first such 'presidency trio' to take place under the EU's revamped institutions. EurActiv France reports.

Spain, Belgium and Hungary want to set a precedent and lead by example.

The three countries are the first to work under the rules of the EU's new Lisbon Treaty and will thus have the responsibility to define a working method to ensure a smooth transition without neglecting the treaty's political advances.

Two Green MEPs, Germany's Katharina Franziska Brantner and Dutch Mary Cornelissen, have submitted an amendment seeking a single language for all countries of former Yugoslavia, which stirred great passions in the European Parliament. "The Yugoslav language does not exist," said the Slovenian parliament member Ivo Vajgl calling for "tolerance towards the different languages in the region, as is demonstrated by the languages in other parts of Europe."

The amendment by the two MEPs states that the costs of translation into the languages created after the breakup of "one language" substantially affect the budget of the EU institutions.

"The European Parliament draws attention to the fact that the original Serbo-Croatian language is now divided into various official languages in some countries which are potential candidates, observes that the costs of translation and interpretation significantly affect the budget of the EU institutions and invites the Commission together with the Croatian authorities before accession to make an exemplary arrangement on the Croatian language, which will prevent later concluding a comprehensive agreement on language with Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro and Serbia, when these countries become EU members" said the amendment.

European Tribune - Successors for Red Oskar and Concrete-head Bisky

A lot of the development of German politics in the last five years was triggered by a small party: the new hard-left Left Party (or, translating its official name, "The Left[ists]"). Its influence is also recognised at EU level by giving the head of the hard-left GUE/NGL faction in the European Parliament.

The gap between rich and poor in the UK is wider now than 40 years ago, a government-commissioned report says.

"Deep-seated and systemic differences" remain between men and women and minority groups in pay and employment, the National Equality Panel found.

It said in areas such as neighbourhood renewal, taxes and education, policy action was needed to limit inequality.

The issues raised would need "sustained and focused action", Equalities Minister Harriet Harman said.

"But for the sake of the right of every individual to reach their full potential, for the sake of a strong and meritocratic economy and to achieve a peaceful and cohesive society, that is the challenge that must be met," she added.

Poverty among pensioners shrank by almost a third between 1998-99 and 2007-08, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) has said.

There were 2.9 million poor pensioners 11 years ago, but their number had dropped to two million two years ago.

Poverty is officially defined as living on 60% of the average income, once housing costs have been paid.

However, the ONS also said that in 2007 one million single person households, aged 60 or over, were in fuel poverty.

Sweden's Saab is being sold to Dutch luxury carmaker Spyker, General Motors (GM) has confirmed.

GM has been trying to sell Saab since January 2009. Earlier this month, it said it would start to shut down the firm while still looking for a buyer.

But GM said wind-down activities would be immediately suspended, "pending the close of the transaction".

Spyker sold 43 cars in 2008, when it posted a loss of $35m (£21m). Terms of the deal were not specified.

However, reports suggest that Spyker paid $74m for Saab.

Wall Street is marketing derivatives last seen before credit markets froze in 2007 as the record bond rally prompts investors to take more risks to boost returns.

Bank of America Corp. and Morgan Stanley are encouraging clients to buy swaps that pay higher yields for speculating on the extent of losses in corporate defaults. Trading in credit- default swap indexes rose in the fourth quarter for the first time since 2008, according to Depository Trust & Clearing Corp. data. Federal Reserve data show leverage, or borrowed money, is rising in capital markets.

Investors who retreated to the safety of government debt during the financial crisis are returning to the simplest forms of so-called synthetic collateralized debt obligations after last year's record 57.5 percent rally in junk bonds left money managers with fewer options. While President Barack Obama's adviser Paul Volcker has blamed credit swaps and CDOs for taking the financial system "to the brink of disaster," bankers say the instruments help companies raise capital.

President Obama's plan to freeze spending on many domestic government programs for three years would have only a modest effect on huge US budget deficits.

That's because the proposal would apply to only about one-sixth of the federal budget. Defense spending would be exempt, as would foreign aid, homeland security, and huge entitlement programs such as Medicare and Medicaid.

But even the longest journeys begin with a single step, and that makes the effort worth considering, say some budget experts.

"The president is sending a message here: 'I'm willing to do something on deficit reduction,' " says Stan Collender, a former staffer for congressional budget committees who is now managing director at Qorvis Communications.

GENEVA -- International airlines suffered their biggest decline in traffic since 1945 last year as passenger demand fell 3.5 percent, the International Air Transport Association said Wednesday.

Freight also fell, by 10.1 percent, as "full-year 2009 demand statistics for international scheduled air traffic ... showed the industry ending 2009 with the largest ever post-war decline," IATA said in a statement.

"In terms of demand, 2009 goes into the history books as the worst year the industry has ever seen," said Giovanni Bisignani, director general of the world's biggest airlines' association.

"We have permanently lost 2.5 years of growth in passenger markets and 3.5 years of growth in the freight business," he added.

Passenger traffic had improved in the final months of 2009, after a slump triggered by the financial and economic crisis.

Heads of NATO member states are fond of talking about when the alliance might begin to withdraw from Afghanistan. But a draft communiqué ahead of the conference in London makes it clear: NATO will stay in the war-torn country for years to come. It may also start paying Taliban fighters to lay down their arms.

Those in political leadership are fond of insinuating that NATO's mission in Afghanistan may soon be coming to an end. But the reality looks quite a bit different. In a draft copy of the closing statement prepared for the upcoming Afghanistan conference in London -- which SPIEGEL ONLINE has obtained -- meeting participants underline their "long-term commitment" to Afghanistan and to the military operation there.

Instead of a timeline for withdrawal, the draft statement merely says "over the next few years, the nature of international support should evolve ... from direct action to support." Indeed, for optimists in Germany and other NATO member states, the eight-page paper is full of disappointments. The Afghan army and police forces, for example, are to only take the lead on a "majority of operations in insecure areas of Afghanistan within three years."

The sounds echoed Tuesday through Investigations Square, mundane in their familiarity and poignant in their anguish. Glass shattered by a suicide bombing sounded like tinny chimes as vendors swept their sidewalks. Condolences in Arabic were murmured in the numbed aftermath of chaos. Down the street, dominoes clacked, as Ali Hassan played on a table, perched before a store shorn of its facade.

"What else can I do?" he asked. "Where else should I go?"

For a second day, Baghdad was beset by a bombing, this time at a forensics office of the Interior Ministry. Officials put the toll at 17 dead, although no one really knows how many died. The attack followed a devastating series of bombings Monday that wrecked landmark hotels catering to foreigners, killing dozens more and demonstrating the tenacity of insurgents in striking when and where they have wanted for the past six months.

On a sweltering mid-October evening, horns blare as pickup trucks at Dubai Creek wharf jockey to deliver cargo bound for Iran. Televisions, cartons of toothpaste, car parts, refrigerators and DVD players stretch for about a mile on the dock along the murky waterway that snakes to the Persian Gulf.

"We'll take anything as long as you pay us," says Ali, a 24-year-old Iranian deck hand in an oil-stained T-shirt, as he pulls down a blue tarpaulin covering air conditioners, tires and tea bags headed for the port of Bandar Abbas, 100 miles (160 kilometers) across the Gulf. "We've taken American stuff -- printers, computers, everything."

Years before the world turned its attention to Dubai's financial crisis, the second largest of the seven states in the United Arab Emirates was amassing clout -- and money -- as Iran's back door to the West, Bloomberg Markets magazine reported in its March issue.

India invited the South Korean president to attend its 61st Republic Day Tuesday, an honor that's become a tool of Delhi's foreign policy in much the same manner as Washington's White House state dinner.

At first glance, these two nations have about as much in common as kimchi and curry, although both support a legend that Koreans with the surnames Kim and Huh can trace their lineage back to an Indian princess in the first century.

Today, the connections are trade.

Since the end of the cold war, India has followed a "Look East" policy that calls for building deeper trade and security ties with Asian nations rather than focusing on Europe and America. India is now diving into economic integration with Asia, beginning with a new comprehensive trade deal with South Korea.

James O'Keefe, the young conservative filmmaker who was behind the undercover operations that led to the ACORN scandal last year, was arrested with three others for allegedly trying to bug the New Orleans office of Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-LA) yesterday.

The FBI announced today the foursome have been charged with entering federal property under false pretenses for the purpose of committing a felony.

The affidavit alleges that the botched phone bugging began with two of the four men -- Joseph Basel and Robert Flanagan, both 24 -- entering Landrieu's office in downtown New Orleans in Village People-style construction worker garb., claiming they were telephone repairmen.

Raises tax on household income at and above $250,000 (and $125,000 for individual filers). Reduces income taxes on unemployment benefits in 2009. Provides funds currently budgeted for education, health care, public safety, other services.

Yes: 53.88%, No. 46.12%. Any chance of California being next?

SEOUL (Reuters) - North and South Korea exchanged artillery fire near their disputed sea border on Wednesday, the second time in three months the rivals have clashed and briefly sending prices down on jittery Seoul financial markets.

Analysts doubted the latest clash would escalate and saw it more as an attempt by Pyongyang to stress the instability on the Korean peninsula and press home its demand for a peace deal that would open the way to international aid for its ruined economy.

Israel's leaders expressed shock and outrage on Wednesday hours after a Jerusalem man hurled his shoe at Supreme Court President Dorit Beinisch during a hearing.

[...]

Beinisch, was wounded on Wednesday when a man threw his shoes at her during court proceedings, hitting her in the face.

The overall benefit of charging trucks for the pollution they cause outweighs the limited negative price impact on consumers, shows a new report from the European Commission's in-house Joint Research Centre (JRC).

The study was requested by EU ministers, who are currently seeking ways to break the deadlock over the Commission's proposal to recast the EU Eurovignette Directive.

Peripheral countries like Portugal, Malta, the Baltic countries and Ireland oppose the plans, as they fear that additional road charging would impose higher costs on their trade, while the EU's central transit countries would get most of the financial benefit.

EU fishermen are now able to resume fishing in Norwegian waters.

The EU and Norway today reached a deal on the management of fisheries this year and, separately, concluded a long-term joint agreement on the management of mackerel stocks.

According to Norwegian officials, the two sides also agreed to increase controls and fisheries inspections and to cut quotas for cod, whiting, haddock and plaice in both the North Sea and the Barents Sea.

The vice-chair of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) defended the scientific body's review processes in Brussels yesterday (25 January), after it was forced to apologise last week for its mistake about the impact of global warming on Himalayan glaciers.

"I believe this incident on Himalayan glaciers might contribute to increasing the credibility of the IPCC," the deputy chief said. He stressed that no human institution is infallible, but if it can admit to its mistakes and learn from them, then this should only enhance its reputation.

Jean-Pascal van Ypersele said the IPCC's claim that Himalayan glaciers were in danger of disappearing by 2035 was not in line with the panel's own review procedures.

The IPCC has started the preparations for the next major report, to be released in 2014. It may be advisable to pause for wholesale institutional reform. The IPCC needs guidelines for the behavior of its officials, and those guidelines must be enforced. With a policy on conflict of interest similar to those in place in leading scientific advisory institutions, it seems obvious that the IPCC would need a new chairperson. The IPCC needs to adhere to its own standards for appointing experts and reviewing material that it reports. It needs to make its procedures for appointments more transparent. The IPCC peer-review should be made more robust, with quality assurance overriding deadlines. A formal mechanism should be put in place to correct errors after publication. Such reform will be a large and difficult task. But the credibility of climate science depends upon it.

It will take many electoral cycles and all major countries to address the problems associated with climate change. Partisan advice will be unpicked, sloppy research will be exposed. New observations and theory will change aspects of the current understanding. Sustaining a climate policy that is effective, acceptable and durable can only be based on sound and impartial advice from institutions that do their science sustainably over many decades. The IPCC was supposed to provide that advice, but its standards have slipped, its procedures have turned out to be insufficient and its credibility has been questioned.

Climate policy matters, and so too does the IPCC. Its importance means that reform is needed before the reputation of all of climate science is irreparably damaged.

The top flu expert for the United Nations health agency was categorical. Dr Keiji Fukuda, WHO Special Advisor on the Pandemic Influenza, said: "The labelling of the pandemic as fake is to ignore recent history and science, and to trivialise the deaths of over 14,000 people and the many serious additional illnesses experienced by others. So, let me state clearly for the record: the influenza pandemic policies and responses recommended and taken by the WHO were not improperly influenced by the pharmaceutical industry."

Not only the WHO but the decisions by health authorities of national governments to buy vaccines and anti-virals were called into question.

German expert Wolfgang Wodarg said: "We have to defend public health interests, and what we have experienced now is that millions of people have been vaccinated unnecessarily. This is damage done to people, in order to earn money. And we cannot tolerate such an action by such an important agency as the WHO."

Prior to undergoing her first chemotherapy treatment, Cohen approached the school principal, who eventually went to district officials for an investigation. A local newspaper article about the possible disease cluster caught the attention of Sam Milham, MD, a widely traveled epidemiologist who has investigated hundreds of environmental and occupational illnesses and published dozens of peer-reviewed papers on his findings. For the past 30 years, he has trained much of his focus on the potential hazards of electromagnetic fields (EMFs) -- the radiation that surrounds all electrical appliances and devices, power lines, and home wiring and is emitted by communications devices, including cell phones and radio, TV, and WiFi transmitters.

Read more...

In a sign of how time is healing Berlin's wounds, the city plans to dig up the giant Lenin monument it famously buried in 1991 and place it in a new museum for disgraced statues. The works will span the communist and Nazi eras and date far back into Prussian times.

Berlin tore down its biggest statue of Lenin, a 19-meter (62-foot) high monster, in 1991, just two years after the fall of the Wall. The removal symbolized Berlin's desperate rush to rid itself of all reminders of its communist past, and was featured in the hit movie "Goodbye Lenin."

In a sign that Berlin has since gained a more dispassionate view of its history, the 3.5 ton head, buried in a sand pit on the outskirts of the city, is going to be resurrected and placed in a new permanent exhibition along with scores of other monumental statues from the Cold War era.

Nazi-era statues of idealized Aryan figures will also be put on show, along with monuments to generals that date as far back as the 18th century and exude the grandeur and militarism of Prussia.

A French parliamentary committee has recommended a partial ban on women wearing Islamic face veils.

The committee's near 200-page report has proposed a ban in hospitals, schools, government offices and on public transport.

It also recommends that anyone showing visible signs of "radical religious practice" should be refused residence cards and citizenship.

The interior ministry says just 1,900 women in France wear the full veils.

Rapid technological leaps forward in the last 10 years mean mankind is closer than ever before to knowing whether extra-terrestrial life exists in our galaxy, one of Britain's leading scientists said on Tuesday.

Astronomer and President of the Royal Society (academy of science) Martin Rees said science had made enormous progress in the search for planets grouped around other distant stars -- a discipline he stressed did not exist in the 1990s.

"Now we know that most of the stars, like the sun, are likely to have planetary systems around them and we have every reason to suspect that many of them have planets that are rather like our earth," Rees told Reuters in an interview.

Fifty Dangerous Things (you should let your children do) is the first book from the people who created Tinkering School. With projects, activities, experiences, and skills ranging from "Superglue Your Fingers Together" to "Play with Fire," along with 48 other great ideas, the book is a manifesto for kids and parents alike to reclaim childhood.

Here is one paid model for online journalism that isn't exactly setting the world on fire: Nearly three months after Newsday put its Web site behind a pay wall, Newsday.com has attracted only 35 subscribers.

In addition, traffic to the Long Island daily's site has dropped by half, according to Nielsen.

Cablevision Systems Corp. bought the paper from Tribune Co. for $650 million in 2008, and sees it as a way to compete with Verizon FiOS, which has been rolling out Internet and video service on Long Island. Access to Newsday.com became an added benefit of being a cable customer.

From that point of view, the paid model is working.

"Our strategy is proceeding according to plan," a Newsday spokeswoman said." We have a more engaged, increasingly local audience."

She added that ComScore numbers show that the site's traffic has been growing sequentially since after the pay well went up.

Newsday.com can be accessed free by the paper's home subscribers, as well as by Cablevision customers and subscribers to the cable operator's Optimum Online broadband service.

According to the paper, that means about 75% of Long Island households just have to register to have access. Anyone else who wants to read the paper online has to pay $5 per week

Race:

• 27 percent of white children - 11.2 million - live in low-income families.
  
• 61 percent of black children - 6.4 million - live in low-income families.
  
• 31 percent of Asian children - one million - live in low-income families.
  
• 57 percent of American Indian children - 0.3 million - live in low-income families.
  
• 42 percent of children of some other race - 0.9 million - live in low-income families.
  
• 62 percent of Hispanic children - 10.1 million - live in low-income families.

Health insurance:

• 16 percent of children living in low-income families - 4.9 million - are uninsured.
  
• 32 percent of children living in low-income families - 9.5 million - are covered by private insurers.
  
• 49 percent of children living in low-income families - 14.6 million - are covered by Medicaid.
  
• 22 percent of children living in low-income families - 6.5 million - are covered by their state's Children Health Insurance Program (SCHIP).

Parental education:

• 25 percent of children with at least one parent who has some college or more education - 11.9 million - live in low-income families.
  
• 85 percent of children with parents who have less than a high-school degree - 7.2 million - live in low-income families.
  
• 60 percent of children with parents who have no more than a high school degree - 10.7 million - live in low-income families.

Read more...

Jan. 26, 2010 - U.S. teen pregnancies went up 3% in 2006 after declining in the 1990s and leveling off in the early 2000s.

In state rankings based on figures from 2005 -- a year before the increase -- New Mexico had the highest and New Hampshire the lowest teen pregnancy rates.

The figures come from a study by the Guttmacher Institute, a think tank that advocates for sexual and reproductive health worldwide. The study calculates the pregnancy rate by adding births, legal abortions, and miscarriages. Estimates of illegal abortions are not included.

"This increase after a long decline means that there were 750,000 teen pregnancies in 2006 -- 7% of U.S. teens got pregnant," Lawrence Finer, PhD, Guttmacher director of domestic research, tells WebMD.

Sexual activity is not up. The increase, Finer says, is due to less effective use of contraceptives by sexually active teens.

Apple watchers can now see how truly huge the company's iPhone business has become, thanks to a new accounting method the company started using this past quarter.

In less than three years, the iPhone has grown to become Apple's biggest business -- up from zero.

Americans do not trust the major tv news operations in the country- except for Fox News.

Our newest survey looking at perceptions of ABC News, CBS News, CNN, Fox News, and NBC News finds Fox as the only one that more people say they trust than distrust. 49% say they trust it to 37% who do not.

CNN does next best at a 39/41 spread, followed by NBC at 35/44, CBS at 32/46, and ABC at 31/46.

Predictably there is a lot of political polarization in which outlets people trust. 74% of Republicans trust Fox News, but no more than 23% trust any of the other four sources. We already knew that conservatives don't trust the mainstream media but this data is a good prism into just how deep that distrust runs.

Actress Joanna Lumley was named "Oldie of the Year" on Tuesday by the monthly Oldie magazine for campaigning for the rights of retired Nepalese Gurkha soldiers wanting to settle in Britain.

Thanks in part to the 63-year-old's lobbying, the government announced in May, 2009 that former Gurkhas who retired before 1997 with more than four years' service would be eligible to apply to live in Britain.

"It was widely known when Sen. Clinton was senator from this great state, that she and Sen. Schumer didn't always see eye to eye and he didn't always have a rosy relationship with her," Ford said. "And I imagine if I'm to run and I'm blessed to win, that he and I would have the same kind of relationship."

Ford has lately been critical of the Senate's health care overhaul bill, which Schumer helped to negotiate. Like Mayor Bloomberg and Gov. Paterson, Ford has expressed concern that the bill could cost New York up to $1 billion in extra Medicaid costs. His comments also come as polls show Schumer's job approval ratings, usually stratospheric, have slipped a bit among voters back home.

Read more...


Diversity is the key to economic and political evolution.

SAWYER: Two diametrically opposing paths have been laid out by your supporters. One is come out swinging, go down for history, let everyone -- let the Republicans filibuster and do it and the other is slow down, scale back, less money. Which is it going to be?

OBAMA: Well, you know, I reject those two polar opposites. Here's what I can tell you. I will not slow down in terms of going after the big problems that this country faces because other countries aren't slow down.

SAWYER: But it's about money...

OBAMA: Asia is not slowing down. Europe's not slowing down. They're worried about getting the competitive advantage in terms of clean energy. They're worried about their kids. Our health-care system is unsustainable.

So on the big issues, I am going to keep on pushing not because I welcome controversy. The easiest thing for me to do -- the easiest thing for me to do, Diane, would be to go small bore, avoid controversy, just make sure that everybody's comfortable and we only propose things that don't threaten any special interests in Washington.

If you do that, then you can get a boost in the poll numbers but, ultimately, you're not solving problems that are vital to making sure the American dream continues for the next generation. And I don't want to look back on my time here and say to myself, all I was concerned about was nurturing my own popularity. That's not why I came.

And so the one thing that I think -- whether it's supporters or opponents -- should know is that I am not backing off the need for us to tackle these big problems in a serious way. Now, if there are ideas that...

SAWYER: Even if it's spending money?

Read more...

London Mayor Boris Johnson has said he is stepping down as the chairman of the Metropolitan Police Authority (MPA).

It is believed he made the decision because he was finding it difficult to devote enough time to the job.

Southern politics are rife with corruption. It's been that way for a long, long time. (I grew up in the South, so I'm allowed to generalize. Y'all.)

When I was a child, I thought whenever an Alabama Governor left office, he was automatically sent to jail. I even met a Governor once towards the end of his term and pitied him.  I just knew he'd be in jail soon.

The latest down there is that David Barber, the appointed head of the state Task Force on Illegal Gambling, won a jackpot gambling in Mississippi. So while he's fighting gambling in Alabama, trying to keep it illegal, he's popping over the border for some quick cash. The Dothan Eagle reports: