After 10 bruising days for the political process, relief rather than celebration was the dominant public reaction to the breakthrough in the policing talks.

Agreement was eventually reached on important issues such as policing devolution and marching regulation, together with an exploration of new ways to make the administration function more smoothly.

...The lack of negotiating skills was starkly on show. This criticism applies mostly to the Democratic Unionists, headed by Peter Robinson who, although a seasoned politician, lacks direct negotiating experience. Sinn Fein leaders Gerry Adams and Martin McGuinness are veterans of hundreds of meetings over many years with the British and Irish governments and others.

...On the unionist side, Mr Robinson will be defending the new agreement against hardline opponents. They are already claiming it is a craven sell-out and a victory for republicans.

For these and other reasons, the next few months are unlikely to provide a soothing respite from all the recent bruising. Instead, the likelihood is that more contusions lie ahead.

Still in the process of being finalised, the report's rapporteur - Belgian Green MEP Bart Staes - told EUobserver the document ultimately asks one simple question: Is it correct that parliament should sign off on its own accounts?

While the council of ministers, representing member states, also has to approve parliament's expenditure, a gentleman's agreement means scrutiny is kept to a bare minimum.

The upcoming document, set to form the basis for committee debate on parliament's 2008 expenditure over the coming weeks, will direct strong criticism towards the legislature's procurement procedure and raises concerns over recent calls to increase money for MEP assistants before a proper review is carried out.

The 31-pager will also raise the alarm over the substantial increase in the number of 'negotiated procedures' rather than open tender contracts awarded by parliament throughout 2008, criticising the administration's suggestion prior to the report's drafting that their number is simply "difficult to reduce further."

Dominique Strauss-Kahn (pictured) told French radio Thursday he would consider running for the French presidency "in certain circumstances". A CSA poll suggested that the director of the IMF would defeat President Sarkozy by a margin of 52% to 48%.

An unusual controversy was at the heart of the annual dinner of the Representative Council of French Jewish Institutions (CRIF) on Wednesday. The organisation's leader, Richard Prasquier, sought to explain why he had defended a man who had aimed a comment described by some as anti-Semitic at former French Prime Minister Laurent Fabius.

Georges Freche, a long-time president of the Languedoc-Roussillon region in southern France and a former member of the Socialist Party, caused a stir last month when he said one shouldn't vote for Fabius because "he didn't look Catholic". Since Fabius is of Jewish descent, the remark was deemed by many to be anti-Semitic.

Fabius was offended and the Socialist Party was shocked; but Freche revealed that he got a letter of support from none other than the leader of France's Jewish umbrella group.

Prasquier said Freche was not anti-Semitic, even though he considered his latest remark to be intolerable. Freche, who was expelled from the Socialist Party in 2007, is not new to allegations of racism. He once made waves by claiming there were too many black players in France's national football team.

Observers say Prasquier defended Freche because of his past support for Israel. Defending the Jewish state is one of the CRIF's main aims, as Prasquier repeated in his speech on Wednesday.

Chris Grayling, the man lined up by David Cameron to be the next home secretary, has received a stinging rebuke for manipulating official statistics. Sir Michael Scholar, chairman of the UK Statistics Authority, has warned him that the way he used figures for violent crime were "likely to mislead the public".

The humiliating slapdown adds to doubts about how credible the Conservatives are as a potential government, when they appear to be only three months away from taking office.

Earlier this week Mr Cameron was forced to "clarify" the extent to which an incoming Tory government would immediately cut public spending, admitting that there would not be "swingeing cuts".

Kettering MP Philip Hollobone caused controversy earlier this week with his views on the burka and whether it should be banned. Here, in his own words, the MP speaks in depth about his comments and why he felt he had to speak out.

"I have been concerned about the burka for some time, but it wasn't until I took my children to the play area at Wicksteed Park recently and saw a woman wearing a burka that it really came home to me how inappropriate and frankly offensive it was for people to wear this most ridiculous apparel in 21st century Britain.

"In my view, wearing the burka is not an acceptable form of dress and the banning of it should be seriously considered.

The US is threatening to stop working with Europe in the fight against terrorism after an EU parliamentary group rejected a proposed data-sharing agreement. A final EU vote is scheduled for next week. 

The United States has warned that it may stop working with EU institutions on terrorist data exchange if the European Parliament next week blocks a bilateral deal on the issue.

"If the European parliament overturns the agreement, I am unsure whether Washington agencies would again decide to address this issue at EU level," US ambassador to the EU William Kennard wrote in a letter sent to European Parliament President Jerzy Buzek, according to news agency AFP.

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton also called Buzek and EU foreign affairs chief Catherine Ashton to voice Washington's concern over the issue.

In the wake of Barack Obama's decision to give the EU summit miss, José Luis Zapetero's EU presidency is languishing. If only his problems were confined to the European stage. With the Spanish economy on the rocks, the national press, many with knives out, remarks that the president is going through an unprecedented crisis.

"Total distrust", headlines ABC. On the morning after the Madrid stock exchange plunged 6%, the conservative daily points at Spain's "crisis of credibility", which puts prime minister José Luis Rodriguez Zapatero in a tricky position. This is all too clear with latest polls giving the conservative Partido Popular (PP) a four point advantage over the president's Socialist PSOE. ABC criticizes the socialist leader and his "chain of mistakes at Davos and Brussels". The "frivolous and distant" Zapatero is also accused of "having cosied down into an unreal world". Demanding "urgent decisions", ABC laments that that his "passivity and inefficiency have condemned Spain to years of obscurity".

El Mundo, however, applies some balm by soothingly reporting on Zapatero's 4 February visit to Washington, where Obama invited him to the interestingly monikered "National Prayer Breakfast". Zapatero succeeded "in making a speech based on universal ethical values, and connected with the auditorium". The daily is apparently relieved that "Zapatero has finished trying to look like Aznar [his conservative predecessor] in his effort to show how close he is to the president of the US".

President Nicolas Sarkozy was drawn into a corruption scandal on Thursday after French prosecutors opened an investigation into the suspected illegal funding of a presidential contender whose campaign he ran.

Mr Sarkozy was accused of being "at the heart" of a political scandal involving claims that 11 French submarine engineers were murdered in Karachi to punish France for failing to pay secret arms contract "commissions" to senior Pakistani officials.

Although the May 2002 bomb attack was blamed on al-Qaeda terrorists, investigating judges have said there would be a "cruel logic" if it was in fact ordered by disgruntled members of the Pakistani establishment.

The "problem" such as it is (and I think there is one) is that Europe to the extent it identifies itself as such is nursing fantasies of grandeur largely on the terms of other "big" civilizations - rather than on defining its aspirations in uniquely, identifiably European terms. A respectful (or as close as it's possible to approximate coming from someone with an American passport) suggestion: consider engaging less in "superpower"-themed yearning to meet or beat the Americans at their own game, and explicitly focus on what makes Europe Europe. That is to say: why should European societies want to play out the same adolescent boys' fantasies of conquest that America enjoys? This is irresponsibility and ugliness. Let's not desire more militarism and murder in the world. I believe there could and should be the ambition of being "the responsible adults" in world affairs - and sadly the field is wide open for dominating that sphere without competition. As far as a clear and unique prestigious pinnacle of excellence for Europe goes, this is something that really is a good - and therefore a political goal which genuinely has the potential to command consensus throughout the various member states, if advanced lucidly. Being comprehensively and wisely responsible is a much more solidly prestigious and robustly effective characteristic than some might carelessly insist - the sphere just needs opening up and overt, unapologetically forceful definition. Really it's easy for any society to indulge in the many bad elements of human nature and let anger and ugliness take over the aspirational agenda - par for the proverbial course. As best I understand, the point of European union is that it is possible to do the things that have never been done and should have been and still can. By the way, when the Americans insist they like action not talk, this is the best time to dismay them by giving them what they are asking for. If Europe calls that bluff and directly, clearly asks for Obama's partnership on a big and good new project, it will put them on the back foot and they will not be able to deliver. It wouldn't be difficult or dangerous in our time to rap America's knuckles in front of the entire world - at present, to reveal the "pragmatic President" to be not the pragmatist he says he is, but another kind of pragmatist entirely. If he doesn't want to show up at the table and prefers to send text messages to "Europe" from his airplane, it's no longer a low blow to cut him down to size and ask him to make good on his empty words. The Americans ask for commitment because they won't deliver that themselves - it's never happened in history (apart from arming the IDF unconditionally). But regardless of the exact tone to take, to keep a hawk's eye on the USA at this point is a costly mistake. The time is ripe to cut out the middleman and deal with the Chinese directly as far as the money goes. For the rest, if Europe stops worrying about what the world thinks of Europe, the world will think perfectly highly of Europe, and the Americans are no exception - indeed they've a unique weakness here which they can only guard against by posturing if other societies allow themselves needlessly to be unnerved - or to be impressed with expensive materiel that really can only kill so many millions of people. It's better not to use it anyway; why not want something else?

cheers!

"Two wrongs don't make a right, but three lefts do." Jim Hightower

There was no let-up in the turmoil caused by European budget deficits on Thursday (4 February), with investors turning their attention to the weak state of Portugal's public finances.

The country's stock market plunged nearly five percent, the biggest daily fall since November 2008, and bonds yields rose, even as opposition parties proposed to increase public spending on the Atlantic islands of Madeira and the Azores.

Portuguese finance minister Fernando Teixeira dos Santos from the centre-left Socialist party implored members of parliament not to follow through with the opposition regional finance bill, warning it would only add to investor doubts.

In a televised address, he said it would send the "the worst possible message" to financial markets, at a time when Europe's peripheral states are under intense scrutiny.

No one dares to show investors the finger like Argentina did.

*Traitor*, n.
A benighted individual who perceives an illusory distinction between serving his nation and abetting the criminals who govern it.

UK banks have a near-£100 billion exposure to the struggling European economies currently sending shockwaves through global markets.

Nerves are frayed because a sovereign debt default by Greece - and even Portugal and Spain - could rip another major hole in bank balance sheets shaken by the financial crisis.

According to the Basel-based Bank for International Settlements (BIS), UK banks had a total £76.2 billion exposure to the Spanish economy in corporate and government lending at the end of September last year.

They also lent £7.8 billion to Greece and £15.6 billion to Portugal, according to the BIS figures.

The fears have weighed on bank stocks, with Barclays shares down almost 20 per cent in the past month. Royal Bank of Scotland and HSBC have shed 16 per cent and 13 per cent respectively.

Greece is currently facing the prospect of bankruptcy, which could threaten the euro. In an interview with SPIEGEL ONLINE, Peter Bofinger, a prominent economic adviser to the German government, explains why he believes Europe's common currency would survive a Greek collapse and calls for a new global monetary order.

...SPIEGEL ONLINE: ... The financial problems of the southern European members are putting pressure on the entire euro zone. Some of your fellow economists fear a crash would trigger a domino effect and cause a rapid plunge in the value of the euro.

Bofinger: Some of my fellow economists are going too far. Compared to other currency zones, the euro zone is doing a lot better than many claim. The national debts and new state borrowing is lower than in the United States. And in an emergency it could also cope with a Greek bankruptcy. The country produces just 2.6 percent of the euro zone's GDP.

SPIEGEL ONLINE: Still, the loss of faith in the euro would be massive. And regarding national debt, debt within the euro zone is currently about 88 percent of its GDP. You call that figure low?

Bofinger: It is not low, but it is lower than in the US. There, the national debt is 92 percent of GDP. In Japan, it is even 197 percent. And the United Kingdom's budget deficit is far worse than that of the euro zone. And as far as a possible loss of confidence is concerned, let me point out that the state of California has been on the verge of bankruptcy for months and its share of the US's GDP is about 13 percent. Viewed from that perspective, my fear of a domino effect is limited.

Meeting with the commission president, Jose Manuel Barroso, and enlargement commissioner Ollie Rehn, in Brussels on Thursday (4 February) she "underlined potential unfortunate and damaging effects of any link made by member states between the Icesave issue and the second review of Iceland's economic programme with the IMF," according to a statement from her office, referring to the row between between the north Atlantic nation and the Netherlands and the UK.

After the Icelandic Icesave internet bank collapsed in 2008, depositers in the UK and the Netherlands were compensated by their governments to the tune of €3.8 billion. The Hague and London now are demanding Reykjavik pay them back.

The government has agreed to do so, but the terms are considered onerous by a majority of the population. Under the terms of the agreement the loan will be paid back over 15 years with interest, with estimates suggesting every household will have to contribute around €45,000.

One in three Europeans of working age has few or no formal qualifications, making them 40% less likely to be employed than those with medium-level qualifications, according to figures compiled by an expert group.

Nearly a third of Europe's population aged 25-64 have no, or only low, formal qualifications and only one quarter have high-level qualifications, according to the 'New Skills for New Jobs' report.

The document, written by an independent panel established by the European Commission, was published yesterday (4 February)and is expected to feed into a new skills strategy due to be launched by the EU executive later this year.

...Unemployment in the EU 27 has hit 9.6%, but skilled workers are significantly less likely to be out of work. Figures released with the report also show that companies that train their staff are 2.5 times less likely to go out of business compared to firms that do not.

However, experts warned the growth in temporary and contract working arrangements could make employers less likely to invest in upgrading skills.

(My emphasis)

*Traitor*, n.
A benighted individual who perceives an illusory distinction between serving his nation and abetting the criminals who govern it.

POLAND: On February 2, the Federation of Independent Rail Operators ZNPK announced it had filed a complaint with the European Commission alleging that the Polish authorities are infringing the spirit of EU legislation by giving preferential treatment to incumbent freight operator PKP Cargo.

ZNPK officials believe that the revised structure of freight tariffs introduced by infrastructure manager PKP PLK in December 2009 is discriminatory as it offers financial incentives to train operators to run lighter freight trains. This benefits short feeder trains and wagonload services, almost all of which are operated by PKP Cargo.

<head explodes> Does anyone need an explanation of the glaring idiocy here?

*Traitor*, n.
A benighted individual who perceives an illusory distinction between serving his nation and abetting the criminals who govern it.

GERMANY. Federal Transport Minister Dr Peter Ramsauer and Deutsche Bahn Chairman Dr Rüdiger Grube officiated at an event on February 2 launching the huge Stuttgart 21 project.

Together with Baden-Württemburg Ministerpräsident Günther Oettinger, Mayor of Stuttgart Dr Wolfgang Schuster and Director of the Verband Region Stuttgart Jeannette Wopperer, they ceremonially dismantled a buffer stop in the existing station, marking the start of an ambitious scheme to replace the present Stuttgart Hauptbahnhof by an underground station.

...Partly because of the cost, the Stuttgart 21 project has generated considerable controversy - and continues to do so. The price tag now stands at €6∙5bn, of which €4∙2bn is for the new main station and the approach works. However, the cost may well rise again before completion, currently expected in 2019.

REUTERS - China will levy heavy anti-dumping duties on U.S. chicken products, its Commerce Ministry said on Friday, a move likely to aggravate trade relations and antagonise one of the few U.S. industries that profitably exports to China.

The ministry's initial investigation showed that U.S. companies had dumped chicken products into the Chinese market, according to the ministry's website.

The tariffs were announced a day after China requested a World Trade Organisation ruling on European Union duties on shoes made in China. That was the most recent of many cases demonstrating China's embrace of the WTO to keep markets open to the exports on which it depends.

BAE will pay 400 million US dollars (£255.7 million) to the Department of Justice and £30 million to the SFO, the firm said.

The company will plead guilty in court to an offence of failing to keep "reasonably accurate accounting records" in its activities in Tanzania, the SFO said.

The payout to the SFO will be made as an "ex gratia payment" for the benefit of the people of Tanzania.

Saturday's El País reports on the plight of the British, Germans and Scandinavians affected by the latest real estate corruption scandal to come to light in Spain, in Montroi, Valencia.

Nice homes on the hillside, close to a river, with swimming pool, artificial lake and Spain's sunshine 30 kilometres from Valencia. He paid 150,000 € to the developer but when he arrived it was nothing like the photos, there was no pool, and a few weeks after arrival the power and water went off. Rodney purchased a generator and was getting water from the village well. He says he feels humiliated and has lost everything. The copia simple of his escritura [property deed] is not worth the paper it's written on as the home has been built illegally on rustic land not classified for building.

There are 77 homes in the same position.

Reports on Friday (5 February) said Taiwan's military is set to buy three helicopters from German manufacturer Eurocopter, a subsidiary of EADS, with an option to buy up to 17 more.

Taiwan's defence ministry spokesman Martin Yu said the contract for the EC-225 search-and-rescue helicopters was valued at $111 million.

The European deal comes hot on the heels of last week's news that Taiwan will buy roughly $6.4 billion-worth of arms from US companies, prompting Chinese condemnation and threats of sanctions.

Whether Europe will now come in for the same response is yet to be seen.

Some analysts suggest Beijing's response may be more muted due to an unwillingness to fight on two diplomatic fronts as the same time.

An attempt to secure a wide-ranging public inquiry into how UK forces treated detainees during the Iraq war will be launched today.

Lawyers for 66 Iraqis who claim they were abused by British troops are lodging a claim for a judicial review on behalf of all the alleged victims.

Birmingham-based legal firm Public Interest Lawyers argues that the cases are so numerous and so similar that Defence Secretary Bob Ainsworth must hold a single inquiry into the UK's detention policy in south-eastern Iraq.

The allegations include claims that British troops subjected Iraqi prisoners to rape, sexual humiliation and torture.

But I thought European occupiers were supposed to be so much better than the barbarian Americans...

*Traitor*, n.
A benighted individual who perceives an illusory distinction between serving his nation and abetting the criminals who govern it.

Two bombs targeting Shia Muslims exploded in Pakistan's largest city today, one outside a hospital treating victims from the first blast hours earlier. At least 22 people were killed and more than 50 others wounded.

Police appealed for calm following the strikes in the chaotic city of 16 million people. Karachi has a history of religious violence between Shiite and Sunni Muslims, and has been tense in recent weeks due to deadly clashes between rival political parties.

By Charles Hawley

For years, Germans were just fine thinking of Afghanistan as merely a reconstruction effort -- and their political leaders were happy to keep that misconception alive. But since the bombing in Kunduz that killed several civilians, all of that has changed. Now the country is being forced to admit to itself that it's at war.

What an utterly twisted rhetoric. The majority of German public opinion rejecting the Afghanistan involvement was certainly viewing it as war...

*Traitor*, n.
A benighted individual who perceives an illusory distinction between serving his nation and abetting the criminals who govern it.

REUTERS - A leader of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas's Fatah group travelled to the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip on Wednesday for rare talks with the Islamist rival faction on an Egyptian-proposed reconciliation deal.

The trip by senior Fatah official Nabil Shaath followed a signal last week from Hamas, which is shunned by the West for refusing to recognise Israel, that it was willing to agree on new Palestinian elections and possible power-sharing.

Abbas, whose mandate is now limited to the Israeli-occupied West Bank after Hamas ejected Fatah from Gaza in a 2007 civil war, needs to find accommodation with the Islamist group to enable him to speak on behalf of all Palestinians.

Haiti's prime minister, Jean-Max Bellerive, announced that at least 212,000 people died in last month's massive earthquake, adding that the toll will likely rise "a little" as recovery crews find bodies when they raze demolished buildings.

HAVANA, Cuba (ACN) -- Cuba bought 360 tons of rice worth 108 thousand sucres from Venezuela, which is the first commercial operation with the virtual currency created by the Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America (ALBA). (...)  The Unitarian System of Regional Payment Compensation (SUCRE by its Spanish acronym) is a common account created in 2007 with the objective of reducing the regional trade dependence on the US dollar.

The EU could be powered almost entirely by renewable energies in 2050 without power disruptions by adding intelligence to its existing grids and building new cross-border connections, according to a study by Greenpeace and the European Renewable Energy Council (EREC), an industry group.

The report, published yesterday (4 February), argues that with the right political framework, existing grid infrastructure can be upgraded to handle a green energy supply system where 90% of electricity comes from renewable sources by 2050.

Current electricity transmission and distribution systems were designed over 40 years ago to serve large, centralised conventional power plants, the report oulines. By contrast, the new power system could be built on micro-grids and smart grids that use advanced communication and control technologies to connect and distribute small renewable energy generators, like roof-mounted solar panels, more efficiently, it says.

The intelligent grids will then have to be linked up into a super grid by building new interconnections, the study explains. This will guarantee the security of supply at all times by transporting large energy leads across regions, it says.

Moreover, there is no reason to fear power cuts when the sun doesn't shine or the wind isn't blowing, the research argues. Using case studies, it demonstrates that such extreme weather events are very rare and can be compensated by a mix of different renewable sources. [Also called natural balancing -DoDo]

The study estimates that the cost of strengthening interconnections and building new super grid connections to supply Europe securely would amount to around 209 billion euros by 2050.

Rail is the perfect answer to respond to the challenge of greening passenger and freight transport, said Felipe González, chairman of the reflection group on the future of Europe beyond 2020.

"We cannot avoid going back to the concept of railways. In the past, railways were a response to industrialisation and changing times, and will be so again in the future. I don't want to shock anyone, but the comparison can be used," said González as he collected a European Railway Award this week for his contribution to modernising the Spanish transport system.

He said that compared to other alternatives, rail transport - both passenger and freight - is particularly suited to "Europe's dimensions and demographic density".

"If I had had the time, I would have tabled a proposal for Spain to continue to progressively substitute road with rail in the transport of goods," he continued.

Plans to let national governments decide whether to allow genetically modified (GM) crop cultivation on their land could unblock a paralysis in EU GMO approvals, but risk igniting internal market disputes.

Proposals from the Dutch and Austrian governments, under consideration by the executive European Commission, have won the backing of several countries and interested parties, and will be at the top of the new Commission's agenda.

If the plan succeeds, the proposal could see speedier authorisation of GM crop varieties, giving more choice to farmers who are increasingly dependent on them for cost benefits, especially in the animal feed sector.

But some see the plans as fraught with risks and incompatible with the bloc's internal market laws, which guarantee the free movement of goods. They could also engender competitive war between farmers in different countries and contravene international trade laws.

The article quotes pro-GM-lobby sources only, but a lot of them...

*Traitor*, n.
A benighted individual who perceives an illusory distinction between serving his nation and abetting the criminals who govern it.

Thousands of tons of trash are thrown into the sea each year, endangering humans and wildlife. A classified German government report obtained by SPIEGEL ONLINE indicates that efforts by the United Nations and the European Union to clean up our oceans have failed entirely.

...according to a classified German government strategy paper obtained by SPIEGEL ONLINE, if you add up all the good such measures have done, you still end up with zero. In fact, according to the confidential paper, international efforts aimed at protecting the oceans have failed across the board. Our oceans have devolved into vast garbage dumps.

Even strict laws have yet to do anything to help the oceans, the paper states. Take the case of the North and Baltic seas. Although dumping into them has been illegal since 1988, the amount of waste found in these seas has still "not improved." The government also estimates that, each year, 20,000 tons of waste finds its way into the North Sea alone, primarily from ships and the fishing industry. The paper concludes that all related international agreements have been "unsuccessful."

The avalanche risk remains high in the alpine regions of Austria and Germany. Eight skiers and snowboarders have been killed this week, including a British airman smothered while on a training exercise.

The Salt Lake Tribune has the disheartening news:

Rep. Mike Noel, the Legislature's chief climate-change skeptic, declared Thursday that global warming is a conspiracy to control world population.

The House Natural Resources Committee then approved a resolution that expresses the Utah Legislature's belief that "climate alarmists' carbon dioxide-related global warming hypothesis is unable to account for the current downturn in global temperatures."

The resolution, sent to the House on a 10-1 vote, would urge the Environmental Protection Agency to drop plans to regulate the pollution blamed for climate change "until a full and independent investigation of the climate data conspiracy and global warming science can be substantiated."

The resolution is a smorgasboard of anti-science rhetoric, coal-industry talking points and nonsensical fearmongering.  Here are some lowlights of the claims the resolution makes:

Sociologist Michael Schwartz, a sharp Iraq-watcher and author of a provocative book on the Iraq War, surveys the travails of Iraq's oil industry since the 2003 Bush-Cheney invasion and points to the continued difficulties of the Iraq petroleum industry.

My own guess is that eventually the security situation will settle down enough to allow the foreign petroleum companies now signing bids to develop specific fields to press forward. It will be a long slow haul, but Iraqi petroleum will likely come online over time. When that expansion of production happens,it will have a big impact on Iraq. There will be massive internal migration of labor to the Basra and other oil-rich areas, mixing up Sunni Arabs and Kurds with regional labor migrants from e.g. Egypt, India and Pakistan

Waterloo - A significant expansion of nuclear energy worldwide is unlikely to occur before 2030. This provides a window of opportunity to urgently fix the currently inadequate system for governing nuclear energy to avoid accidents, nuclear terrorism and weapons proliferation.

These are the key findings of the three-and-a-half year Nuclear Energy Futures project released today by The Centre for International Governance Innovation (CIGI) in Ottawa. The project was unique in considering together the normally `stove-piped' subjects of nuclear safety, security and non-proliferation. Nuclear Energy and Global Governance to 2030 reports the findings of the three-and-a-half year Nuclear Energy Futures project. Flowing from the findings is the project's five-point Action Plan for policymakers in Canada and abroad.

Remember the old Wendy's ad? Old ladies peered between hamburger buns at a tiny patty and angrily demanded, "Where's the beef?" That is how many of us on the Plains reacted when President Obama called for massive investments in clean coal and nuclear energy but left out wind -- an industry that reported record gains in 2009, that is rebuilding rural economies nationwide. "Where's the wind?" we wondered. What about the energy solutions our nation's farmers and ranchers can provide?

President Obama's rousing call to lead the world's clean energy economy generated rare applause from both sides of the aisle during last week's State of the Union. For the Administration -- and for clean energy advocates -- there is a critical lesson and an important missed opportunity in last week's applause.

The lesson: we can pass a strong energy bill for the 21st century.

Recent polls show that most Americans are now where Heartlanders have been for some time: at least half are unsure about climate science and place climate change relatively low on their priority list. That is far from tragic, though, because numerous polls also show that residents of the Plains and the coasts alike overwhelmingly support energy efficiency, renewable energy, and low-carbon transportation options.

Americans support energy solutions that happen to reduce greenhouse gas emissions whether or not they care about climate change. We need -- and have numerous versions of -- an energy bill that bolsters national security, builds energy independence, creates jobs, ensures long-term economic resilience, and keeps the U.S. competitive in a global economy headed toward a low-carbon future.

The weather is looking good here at the Kennedy Space Center for Sunday's pre-dawn launch of the Endeavour shuttle.

We had torrential rain and tornado warnings on Friday, but the forecasters say there is an 80% chance of acceptable flight conditions come 0439 EST on Sunday.

The weekend's launch is an important moment for Europe and its involvement in the space station project.

The Endeavour orbiter will deliver the final planned connecting unit, known as Node 3 or Tranquility, and a dome shaped element with windows refferred to as the Cupola.

Both units were made in Italy by Thales Alenia Space. Thales has now produced about a half of the total pressurised volume on the US side of the platform.

Anti-Jewish sentiments are thought to be deeply rooted in a fifth of the ethnic German population, and some Muslim residents also hold clearly anti-Semitic views. Berlin activists wants to change that.

A small Muslim community in a western German town would like to build a minaret on its mosque. But the plan has triggered passionate opposition from locals, many of whom rely on rhetoric from the extreme right in railing against the "symbol of Islam's quest for power."

"Willkommen," reads the stencilled print on the wall along the riverside boardwalk in the small town of Völklingen. Not content to just welcome its German guests, however, the message is translated into a number of languages. "Bienvenue ... bienvenidos ... velkommen," it reads. And "hosgeldiniz," a nod to the city's substantial Turkish population.

And the latest: Vodafone UK was forced to issue a stream of apologies after an employee in its Stoke office spotted an unattended keyboard and typed a homophobic tweet - which happened to be the @VodafoneUK account (http://twitter.com/vodafoneuk) with (at the time) more than 8,500 followers... And you know what? It's really sorry.

NASHVILLE -- The National Tea Party Convention's early reluctance to give credentials to reporters -- a decision that came after some negative commentary on the event's cost and critics -- was short-lived. Reporters are swarming the Gaylord Opryland Hotel and, with little exception, getting press passes. When I checked it around 11 a.m., more than 150 reporters had been credentialed. While there are around 600 paying attendees, the scene in the hall outside of the banquet and meeting rooms is basically one-to-one reporter-to-attendee. Inside the breakout sessions, at least three cameras are filming at any one time.

'Something profound has been lost'

Interview with Clare Short, post-Chilcot.:

When Short finally resigned from cabinet, two months after the war began, it was her third resignation from office on a point of principle. "Loyalty is a good quality," she says, "but loyalty to something that's wrong is not good." Moreover, she argues, loyalty to a party as she understands it no longer exists. "The way you band people together to get loyalty is to let everyone have a fair stab at speaking and arguing, and then vote. The excuse now is a divided party will never win, you can't have arguments, it'll be in the media. Something profound is lost."

It has had 100 years to mature, and has been on ice all that time, but no one has actually tasted it. So it remains to be seen whether the Scotch abandoned in Antarctica by Ernest Shackleton is "a gift from the heavens", as one whisky lover declared yesterday.

Three crates of the stuff, along with two cases of brandy, have been excavated from beneath the explorer's hut at Cape Royds, which his team quit in haste in 1909. The spirits, entombed in ice ever since, have been dug up by a New Zealand heritage group restoring the hut.

The MacKinlay's whisky, made by an Edinburgh distillery now owned by Whyte & Mackay, is a defunct blend, and the company is salivating at the prospect of recreating it.

In 1980, the historian and activist Howard Zinn published The people's history of the United States, which turned inside out the traditional perspectives of American history. Zinn portrayed many of America's heroes as perfidious villains and transformed the triumphalist narrative of American progress into a litany of unfettered power-abusing and exploitation of the poor, people of colour, immigrants, workers, and all the disenfranchised who had lacked a voice in mainstream histories. Originally published with a print run of 5,000, the book became a staple of many history courses, and its spin-offs, including a young-people's version, a comic-book, and an abridged history of the 20th century, have gone on to sell 2 million copies.

Critics, and even some obituarists, accused Zinn of failing to show "balance", but Zinn insisted his book was one small counterweight to the overwhelming bias of mainstream history toward the political, economic, and social elites, and its implicit assumption of idealistic nationalism, capitalism, and imperialism. His refusal to credit the likes of Jefferson, Lincoln, or the Roosevelts with progressive achievements, while highlighting their shortcomings, infuriated mainstream "liberal" historians, while his steadfast opposition to wars saw right-wingers targeted him as an "appeaser".

Charles Darwin's ancient ancestors were among the first group of Homo sapiens to leave Africa, a DNA analysis has revealed.

His forebears, Cro-Magnon men, left Africa about 45,000 years ago, heading to the Middle East and Central Asia, then migrated to Europe about 10,000 years later. There, they clashed with the Neanderthals, driving them to extinction. During the last Ice Age they retreated to Spain before moving north again about 12,000 years ago.

Darwin's ancient family history was revealed by DNA tests on his great-great-grandson, Chris, who lives in the Blue Mountains, just west of Sydney.

The 29-year-old was informed of the decision by Fabio Capello during a brief meeting at Wembley this afternoon. The decision comes after allegations surrounding the Chelsea skipper's private life came to light.

"After much thought I have made the decision that it will be best for me to take the captaincy away from John Terry," said the Italian in a statement.

The British Homeopathic Association has been accused of misrepresenting scientific evidence on alternative medicine in documents it gave to a parliamentary inquiry.

The organisation claimed several scientific reviews offered support for homeopathy in material submitted to the cross-party science and technology select committee, which is holding an investigation into the products. Robert Mathie, a researcher at the BHA, said the reviews found evidence for a difference between homeopathic remedies and sugar pills, which contain no active ingredients.

But the claim has dismayed some of the scientists who wrote the reviews and angered MPs on the committee who are in the final stages of writing their report.

People who own a cat are more likely to have a university degree than those with a pet dog, a study by Bristol University suggests.

A poll of 2,524 households found that 47.2% of those with a cat had at least one person educated to degree level, compared with 38.4% of homes with dogs.

The study said longer hours, possibly associated with better qualified jobs, may make owning a dog impractical.

It also found that UK pet ownership was much higher than previously thought.