EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - The European Union has spent at least €14 million in subsidies to firms convicted of illegal fishing, a new report has revealed.

Some 36 law-breaking vessel owners with 42 convictions between them received €13.5 million between 1994 and 2006 according to an investigation by Fishsubsidy.org, a group of researchers investigating the recipients of the EU's Common Fisheries Policy.

EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - With plans for the EU's new diplomatic corps entering their final stage, EU capitals have quietly begun to negotiate over who will take the top jobs up for grabs.

The office of EU foreign relations chief Catherine Ashton is aiming to submit a draft organigram for the External Action Service (EAS) to EU diplomats in Brussels on 17 March.

MEPs have called on the European Commission to increase transparency around ongoing negotiations for an Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (Acta), or risk legal action in the European Court of Justice.

The parliamentary resolution, passed by 663 to 13 votes in favour in Strasbourg on Wednesday (10 March), also calls on the commission to refuse to support internet cut-off as a penalty for online copyright infringement.

EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - Over 60 percent of Brussels-based lobbying consultancies have yet to sign up to the European Commission's lobby register, almost two years after it was first launched.

According to a fresh survey of the commission's initiative by the Alliance for Lobbying Transparency and Ethics Regulation (Alter-EU) to be published on Thursday (11 March), of the 286 lobbying consultancies known to provide such services in the European capital, only 112, or 39.2 percent have signed up to the registry.

EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - The President of Lithuania has underlined the country's EU status as a marker of development on the 20th anniversary of its split from the Soviet Union.

"Breaking away from the USSR and the Soviet repressive system was the foundation stone of the achievements we have today. Lithuania is a free and democratic state, a fully fledged member of the EU and Nato," Ms Dalia Grybauskaite, who came to power on the back of her reputation as EU budgets commissioner, said in a statement on Wednesday (11 March).

EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - An MEP from the eurosceptic UK Independence Party became embroiled in controversy on Wednesday (10 March) after making disparaging remarks about EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton, becoming the second MEP from the party to offend the chamber in recent weeks.

In a debate on Wednesday on the development of an EU Arctic policy, William, Earl of Dartmouth, questioned whether countries such as Greece and Cyprus, on the southern shores of the European Union, should be seeking to have a policy on the Arctic.

A court in Azerbaijan on Wednesday rejected an appeal of two bloggers who were put in jail last year for alleged hooliganism and assault, despite accounts from witnesses that they had been the ones attacked. Both had run satirical blogs criticising the Baku government.

The pro-Western Liberal coalition government in Moldova has decided to table constitutional changes in order to avoid early parliamentary elections this fall due to several failed attempts of the house to elect the country's president. A referendum on the matter will take place by 16 June.

A French politician of Algerian origin "is the wrong type of person" to head the country's top anti-discrimination body, a senior member of the ruling UMP party said Wednesday, claiming it would be better to have someone "of French stock."  Gérard Longuet told France Info radio that French-born Malek Boutih, one of the nominees to run anti-discrimination body HALDE, was "the wrong type of person."   Longuet, who is the UMP leader in the French Senate, said in the interview he preferred the HALDE's outgoing president, former Renault boss Bernard Schweitzer.   "Schweitzer comes from the old Protestant bourgeoisie," said Longuet. "He's perfect."

AFP - Ukraine's new President Viktor Yanukovych on Thursday tightened his grip on power as one of his closest allies became the new prime minister and his party succeeded in forming a ruling coalition.

The new coalition replaces the outgoing government of his arch-rival Yulia Tymoshenko, who Yanukovych defeated in February 7 presidential elections, and gives the new president control over all Ukraine's man power centres.

Immediately after its formation, the coalition nominated Mykola Azarov -- a dour ex-finance minister who was born in Russia and is seen as a steadfast Yanukovych ally -- as the new prime minister.

The nomination was predictably approved by Yanukovych and then confirmed by parliament in a vote. Azarov has been mocked by critics for his poor command of Ukrainian but is also seen as an experienced economic manager.

During a moving ceremony remembering the victims of last year's school shooting in the town of Winnenden, President Horst Koehler on Thursday said Germany's gun laws were still too lenient. The German government had pledged to take measures to prevent access to dangerous weapons last year.

"Both houses of parliament and the governments of all German states must bring the process of toughening our gun laws forward," Koehler said in front of hundreds of mourning guests.

He added that "gun clubs should also aid in the process of preventing general access to deadly weapons. Much has already been done, but much more must follow - so that people capable of committing dangerous acts can't threaten our schools with attacks like this one."

Three Turkish nationals went on trial in Germany on Thursday, accused of raising money to help finance a series of terrorist attacks in Turkey.

Prosecutors claim all three suspects, two men and one woman, have recruited members for the Revolutionary People's Liberation Front (DHKP-C), a radical Marxist-Leninist group that has mounted bomb attacks in pursuit of its goal of overthrowing Turkey's government.

 

The woman, 34-year-old Nurhan E., was allegedly the head of the European wing of the DHKP-C and raised a total of 840,000 euros ($1.1 million) for the organization. Ahmet I., 40, is accused of leading the group's Cologne cell, and Cengiz O., 36, of heading the regional Westfalia cell.

Chancellor Angela Merkel arrived for a reception with Queen Beatrix on her one-day visit to the Netherlands, before going on to meet the country's Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende.

The two leaders agreed there should be tougher sanctions against euro zone countries such as Greece, which face default on their finances.

This was the only way, Merkel said, that agreements on fiscal stability would be properly respected.

A former member of the Bosnian wartime presidency, Ejup Ganic, who was arrested in Britain last week on suspicion of war crimes, was released on bail by the High Court in London on Thursday.

As the London judge read out the verdict, Ganic's son Emir and daughter Emina embraced.

"We are very happy with the outcome, it has been very emotional," said Emir Ganic. "This is just the first step. My father is an academic who has never spent a day in prison before."

LONDON (Reuters) - A 400 km per hour railway will cost 30 billion pounds to build over more than a decade from 2017, the government said on Thursday, outlining plans to finally get Britain up to speed with Europe.

Britain only has about 110 km of high-speed railway linking London to a underwater tunnel to mainland Europe where France, Germany, Spain and Italy all have much bigger, fast networks.

The annual report of US State Department on human rights has warned of increasing concern that discrimination against Muslims was on the rise in Europe.

The human rights report for 2009 cited Switzerland's ban on the construction of minarets on mosques enacted in November, as well as continued bans or restrictions on head scarves and burqa worn by Muslims in France, Germany and the Netherlands.

The report said: "Discrimination against Muslims in Europe has been an increasing concern."

Germany and the Netherlands have prohibitions against teachers wearing head scarves or burqa while on the job, and France bans the wearing of the religious garb in public, the report said

The Investigative Committee's Moscow branch opened a criminal investigation Wednesday into allegations that traffic police stopped several cars to form a "human shield" across a road as they attempted to detain a petty thief.

The incident early Friday came to light after one of the drivers posted a video on YouTube (embedded below) alleging that traffic police pulled him over and ordered him to park his Mercedes lengthwise on the Moscow Ring Road.<

He and another driver were told to remain in their vehicles, which were damaged when a silver Audi slammed into both and drove off. The Mercedes driver, Stanislav Sutyagin, said the police told him that no compensation would be paid, despite extensive damage to his vehicle, because the suspect had not been caught.

CIA accused of poisoning French village | Sydney Morning Herald

PARIS: In 1951 a quiet village in southern France was suddenly and mysteriously struck down with mass insanity and hallucinations. At least five people died, dozens were committed to asylums and hundreds afflicted.

For decades it was assumed that the local bread had been unwittingly poisoned with a psychedelic mould. Now an even more extraordinary explanation has emerged, with evidence suggesting the CIA peppered food with the hallucinogenic drug LSD as part of a mind-control experiment at the height of the Cold War.

<...>

[A Terrible Mistake: The Murder of Frank Olson and the CIA's Secret Cold War Experiments author] Mr Albarelli came across CIA documents while investigating the suicide of Frank Olson, a biochemist working for the Special Operations Division who fell from a 13th floor window two years after the cursed bread incident. One note transcribes a conversation between a CIA agent and a Sandoz official who mentions the ''secret of Pont-Saint-Esprit'' and explains that it was not ''at all'' caused by mould but by diethylamide, the D in LSD.

<...>

Scientists at Fort Detrick told him that agents had sprayed LSD into the air and also contaminated ''local food products''.

Albarelli said the ''smoking gun'' was a White House document sent to members of the Rockefeller commission formed in 1975 to investigate CIA abuses. It contained the names of French citizens who had been secretly employed by the CIA and made direct reference to the "Pont St. Esprit incident". ...

A would-be Tory MP has been slapped down by health chiefs for running an alleged smear campaign against his local NHS hospital.

Hospital bosses claim Mark Clarke, the Conservative candidate in Tooting, South London, made "inaccurate" and "unfounded" claims to "undermine" patients' confidence in their local health service.

A letter obtained by the Daily Mirror reveals how NHS bosses were forced to write to Mr Clarke over his misleading use of hospital death figures.

The letter from Naaz Coker, chairman of St George's Healthcare NHS Trust, says a questionaire by the Tory candidate referred to a "terrible scandal of 116 preventable deaths from superbugs at St George's".

In fact, infection was the cause of death in only a third of these cases.

Teachers in England should not be banned from membership of the British National Party or any group which may promote racism, a review has concluded.

The government commissioned the report last September after a leaked list identified 15 BNP members as teachers.

Review author Maurice Smith added his recommendation should be reviewed every year, which ministers have accepted.

BNP leader Nick Griffin welcomed what he called a "common sense review" and said it was a great day for democracy.

Members of the BNP are barred from the police and prison service.

Mr Smith, a former chief inspector of schools, said a ban would be "taking a very large sledgehammer to crack a minuscule nut"

EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - The European Union has defended its draft hedge fund legislation, following criticism from the US that the rules could discriminate against foreign hedge funds, private equity groups and banks.

At a regular news conference in Brussels on Thursday (11 March), European Commission economy spokesperson Amadeu Altafaj said the bloc was entitled to come up with its own plans, and that the proposals were in accordance with G20 commitments.

Public and transport services in Greece will be interrupted on Thursday as workers stage a second general strike against the government's austerity measures. Flights will be grounded and schools and hospitals closed during the 24-hour strike called by Greece's two largest unions.

EU diplomats on Wednesday agreed to call for a ban on the international trade in bluefin tuna at a meeting in Doha, the bloc's Spanish presidency announced. They are also to push for more protection of elephants and polar bears at the Convention on the International Trade in Endangered Species.

Portugal raised €990 million Wednesday in a bond auction that had more bids than bonds available, suggesting the government's austerity plan is easing market concerns about its ability to pay off its debts.Portugal is one of the so-called PIIGS countries in the eurozone's financially troubled south.

Credit rating agency Standard and Poor's has decided not to change Iceland's credit rating following Saturday's referendum in which 93.5 percent of voters voted No to plans to re-imburse the Netherlands and the UK for monies lost following the collapse of online bank Icesave.

For the first time since Forbes began publishing its annual list of the world's 100 richest people, the top-ranked person is not from North America. Holding the exalted slot is Mexican businessman Carlos Slim, who with his 53.5-billion-dollar fortune, has surpassed Microsoft founder Bill Gates by half a billion dollars.

The head of Telmex didn't just become a member of the super-rich overnight, but he did make a whopping 18 billion dollars in just one year, easing past Gates and investment mogul Warren Buffet, who had traditionally held the top slots.

AFP - Air France said Thursday that it had filed a complaint with the European Commission against Ryanair, accusing the Irish budget airline of unfair trading practices.    The airline alleges Ryanair had made the opening of new routes in France conditional on receiving financial incentives from local officials and argued that this "was in direct violation of European regulations."    "Air France filed a complaint with the European Commission in late November 2009 concerning the aid measures implemented by regional and local French airports to the benefit of the Ryanair air company," Air France said.

AFP - Claims the Pentagon skewed bidding rules for a tanker jet contract in favour of an American manufacturer will have serious consequences for EU-US relations, senior French officials said Wednesday.

US aerospace giant Boeing is set to win a 35 billion dollar (26 billion euro) contract to build an aerial refueling tanker plane for the US air force after Northrop Grumman and its European partner EADS dropped out.

Both European officials and EADS, which owns planemaker Airbus, claim that the Pentagon altered bidding rules for the contract in order to favour Boeing's all-American offer over the European bid.

Bruederle is scheduled to meet representatives from Germany's top business associations and banks to discuss ways to ease the difficulties companies face funding investments.

Bruederle had harsh words for the banks ahead of the meeting on Thursday. He told German state broadcaster ZDF that "it is now for the banks to act," to improve lending conditions in the corporate credit market.

"Using taxpayers' money to help companies cannot always be our default option. The state cannot do the banks' job," he said.

"Health Minister Roesler shows courage, taking on the powerful pharmaceutical companies," wrote the Berliner Morgenpost newspaper. However, the paper went on to ask whether forced discounts, price limits and forced negotiations between health insurance companies and the pill pushers will bring about the desired results. "The German health-care system is mainly characterized by the tenacity of all involved, including its patients."

HSBC's Swiss wealth management unit, which is based in Geneva, is the first Swiss bank to confirm the theft of a CD containing information on 24,000 clients, mainly from France.

HSBC did not say whether the disc had data from clients in other countries. When the French authorities got hold of the CD in December, HSBC originally made light of the situation and said the data concerned only a very small number of people.

The City watchdog has sounded alarm about the prospect of a meltdown in commercial property. Announcing much tougher stress tests for banks, the Financial Services Authority raised concerns that they are not setting aside enough to cover losses on the sector.

In its overview of the financial risks facing Britain this year, the FSA said about £160bn of UK commercial property debt would mature over the next five years. During the recession, many commercial property companies were supported by forbearance from banks, which often waived conditions attached to loans, it added

"The Senate Parliamentarian's office has informed Senate Republicans that reconciliation instructions require the measure to make changes in law," Don Stewart, a spokesman for Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, said in an e-mail. U.S. stocks rose on the news, reversing earlier losses. The Standard & Poor's 500 Managed Health Care Index climbed 1.6 percent, after earlier dropping as much as 0.7 percent....

House Democrats are seeking assurance [from Senate Democrats] that the reconciliation changes [amendments to Baucus bill] will become law [IF House Democrats pass Baucus bill as referred by not-conference committee]. Lawmakers in the chamber originally sought to have the Senate act first on reconciliation [draft a budget excerpt from Baucus bill for bi-cameral vote]; then they wanted Obama to delay signing the 10-year, $875 billion Senate bill until the changes [House negotiated amendments] were passed.  

Read more...

Gregg said Republicans would force votes on a provision in the 1974 bill that says reconciliation can only be used to amend laws, plus another longstanding Senate rule that says reconciliation can only be used for budget-related issues, plus yet another Senate rule that says 60 votes are necessary to waive the budget-only rule. Senate GOP Leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.) sent a letter to Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) that insisted he had 41 votes for the last roadblock, thereby denying Democrats the magic 60.

Read more...

Possibly related post:

Jan 2010

Diversity is the key to economic and political evolution.

AFP- US Defence Secretary Robert Gates flew to Abu Dhabi on Thursday seeking support from oil-rich Gulf allies for tough sanctions on Tehran, drawing an angry response from Iran's hardline president.
   
Gates was due to hold talks with Abu Dhabi Crown Prince Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed al-Nahayan, who is also the deputy commander in chief of the armed forces in the United Arab Emirates, as part of high-stakes diplomacy designed to tighten pressure on Iran over its nuclear programme.

AFP - Israel's Labour Party may quit the ruling coalition over the decision to build 1,600 settler homes in annexed Arab east Jerusalem, Agriculture Minister Shalom Simhon warned on Thursday.
  
"Members of the Labour Party have more and more difficulty in taking part in a coalition government that they joined with the purpose of relaunching the peace process with the Palestinians," Simhon told army radio.
  
"The anger of (US Vice President Joe) Biden is justified. A grave error has been committed (by Israel) and there is a price to pay," he added.

REUTERS - A British journalist was freed by the Hamas Islamist rulers of the Gaza Strip on Thursday, nearly four weeks after his arrest on suspicion of spying for Israel, Palestinian and British officials said.

Paul Martin was detained on Feb. 14 while on a visit to Gaza to give defence evidence in a court case involving a local man accused of working with the Israeli security services.

Mahmoud al-Zahar, a senior Hamas official, told a news conference at which he was flanked by British and South African diplomats that Hamas still held Martin guilty of espionage but would not bring charges. He would instead be deported.

AFP - A US woman operating online under the name "JihadJane" recruited jihadist fighters in the United States, Europe and Asia in a bid to carry out terror plots "or die trying," prosecutors said Tuesday.
   
US authorities said middle-aged Pennsylvania resident Colleen LaRose, who was arrested in October 2009, spent more than a year networking with would-be attackers around the world.
   
She sought to recruit men and women, to raise money and even agreed to carry out the murder of a Swedish resident, pledging "only death will stop me," an indictment charged.
   
The Justice Department unsealed the indictment against LaRose just hours after Irish police arrested seven people accused of plotting to kill a Swedish cartoonist.

SANTIAGO (Reuters) - As the ground shook and buildings swayed, conservative billionaire Sebastian Pinera took office as Chile's president on Thursday, tasked with rebuilding after a massive earthquake killed hundreds just 12 days ago.

A series of strong aftershocks rattled central Chile minutes before Pinera swore in at the Congress building in the coastal city of Valparaiso. Latin American presidents and other dignitaries looked nervously at the ceiling but the inauguration went ahead as planned.

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki posted mixed results in initial returns on Thursday from Iraq's parliamentary election, and a rival grouping complained of serious fraud.

Results from five provinces, the first to be posted by the electoral commission, were in line with expectations and did not include Baghdad and other hard-to-predict areas that could prove pivotal for the Shi'ite premier's bid to remain in power.

Last week, the conservative broadcaster Glenn Beck called on Christians to leave their churches if they heard any preaching about social or economic justice because, he claimed, those were slogans affiliated with Nazism and Communism.

This week, the Rev. Jim Wallis, a liberal evangelical leader in Washington, D.C., called on Christians to leave Glenn Beck.

"What he has said attacks the very heart of our Christian faith, and Christians should no longer watch his show," Mr. Wallis, who heads the antipoverty group Sojourners, wrote on his "God's Politics" blog. "His show should now be in the same category as Howard Stern."

Mr. Beck, in vilifying churches that promote "social justice," managed to insult just about every mainline Protestant, Roman Catholic, African-American, Hispanic and Asian congregation in the country -- not to mention plenty of evangelical ones.

Even Mormon scholars in Mr. Beck's own church, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, said in interviews that Mr. Beck seemed ignorant of just how central social justice teaching was to Mormonism.

This month, the dead were Christians.

Last month, when Susan Schulman was in the area of Jos -- the epicenter of religious violence in Nigeria -- the dead were Muslims.

On assignment for The New York Times, Ms. Schulman, a freelance photographer based in London, traveled to Kuru Karama, a small village outside Jos. "It was like a ghost town," she said. "All the vehicles on the street were burned out, the mosque destroyed. Absolutely everything destroyed. It was shocking. Although I knew about what had happened, the scale was unlike anything I had ever seen."

Bubbles are back as a topic of serious discussion, as they were before the financial crisis.  The questions are: (1) can you spot bubbles, (2) can policymakers do anything to deflate them gently, and (3) can anyone make money when bubbles get out of control?

Our answers are: Spotting pure equity bubbles may sometimes be hard, but we can always see unsustainable finances supported by cheap credit.  But policymakers will not act because all great (and dangerous) bubbles build their own political support; bubbles are invincible, until they collapse.  A few investors can do well by betting against such bubbles, but it's harder than you might think because you have to get the timing right - and that's much more about luck than skill.

Bubbles are usually associated with runaway real estate prices (think Japan in the 1980s and the US more recently) or emerging market booms (parts of Asia in the 1990s and, some begin to argue, China today) or just the stock market gone mad (remember pets.com?)  But they are a much more general phenomenon - any time the actual market value for any asset diverges from a reasonable estimate of its "fundamental" value.

Bubbles are usually associated with runaway real estate prices (think Japan in the 1980s and the US more recently) or emerging market booms (parts of Asia in the 1990s and, some begin to argue, China today) or just the stock market gone mad (remember pets.com?)  But they are a much more general phenomenon - any time the actual market value for any asset diverges from a reasonable estimate of its "fundamental" value.

To think about this more specifically, consider the case of Greece today.  It might seem odd to suggest there is a bubble in a country so evidently under financial pressure - and working hard to stave off collapse with the help of its neighbors - but the important thing about bubbles is: Don't listen to the "market color" (otherwise known as ex post rationalization), just look at the numbers.

By the end of 2011 Greece's debt will around 150% of GDP (the numbers here are based on the 2009 IMF Article IV assessment; we make some adjustments for the worsening economy and the restating of numbers since that time - for example, the fiscal deficit in 2009 will likely turn out to be about 8 percent, which is double what the IMF expected until recently).  About 80 percent of this debt is foreign owned, and a large part of this is thought held by residents of France and Germany.  Every 1 percentage point rise in interest rates means Greece needs to send an additional 1.2 percent of GDP abroad to those bondholders.

What if Greek interest rates rise to, say, 10% - a modest premium for a country which has the highest external public debt/GDP ratio in the world, which continues (under the so-called "austerity" program) to refinance even the interest on that debt without actually paying a centime out of its own pocket, and which is struggling to establish any sustained backing from the rest of Europe?  Greece would need to send at total of 12% of GDP abroad per year, once they rollover the existing stock of debt to these new rates (nearly half of Greek debt will roll over within 3 years).

This is simply impossible and unheard of for any long period of history.  German reparation payments were 2.4 percent of GNP during 1925-32, and in the years immediately after 1982, the net transfer of resources from Latin America was 3.5 percent of GDP (a fifth of its export earnings).  Neither of these were good experiences.

The controversy regarded a diary by Upstate NY  MIT professor Simon Johnson critical of EU leadership on Greece.  Afew questioned the appropriateness of the criticisms. I got the cited article by Simon Johnson and Peter Boone in e-mail late this afternoon and am citing it in greater detail here. The meat of Johnson's argument is below.  

On top of all this Greece's debt, even under the IMF's mild assumptions, is on a non-convergent path even with the perceived "austerity" measures.  Bubble math is easy.  Hide all the names and just look at the numbers.  If debt looks like it will explode as a percent of GDP, then a spectacular collapse is in the cards.

Seen in this comparative perspective, Greece is bankrupt today without a great deal more European assistance or without a much more drastic austerity program. Probably they need both.

Given there's a definite bubble in Greek debt, should we expect European politicians to help deflate this gradually?  Definitely not - in fact, it is their misleading statements, supported in recent days (astonishingly) by the head of the International Monetary Fund, that keep the debt bubble going and set us all up for a greater crash later.

The French and Germans are apparently actually encouraging banks, pension funds, and individuals to buy these bonds - despite the fact senior politicians must surely know this is a Ponzi scheme, i.e., people can get out of Greek bonds only to the extent that new investors come in.  At best, this does nothing more than postpone the crisis - in the business, it is known as "kicking the can down the road."  At worst, it encourages less informed people (including perhaps pension funds) to buy bonds as smarter people (and big banks, surely) take the opportunity to exit.

While the French and German leadership makes a great spectacle of wanting to end speculation, in fact they are instead encouraging it.  The hypocrisy is horrifying - Mr. Sarkozy and Ms. Merkel are helping realistic speculators make money on the backs of those who take seriously misleading statements by European politicians.  This is irresponsible.

While Mr. Sarkozy, Ms. Merkel and Dominique Strass-Kahn may be possessed of iron resolve that Greece will not be allowed to default, the specifics as to what will be done have been scant. The article does say, rather vaguely, that "the French and Germans are apparently actually encouraging banks, pension funds, and individuals to buy these bonds..." and elsewhere refers to Sarkozy and Merkel by name and Dominique Strauss-Kahn by his position. (My italics.)

I can see two sides to this issue. With most of the bonds held by French and German citizens or institutions neither Sarkozy nor Merkel want to precipitate a default and must take care not to do so.  But if they give the impression that a default will not be allowed to happen without having in place the means to prevent default and if any in their governments encourage institutions or individuals to purchase these bonds, their position in the event of a default will be questionable.

I have read of non-specific plans to provide French and German support for Greek debt and Greece has just issued new bonds--after the question of possible default has arisen. And I recall that the sale of these bonds to Europeans has been favorably characterized in press reports. Unfortunately, I had not seen the arguments put forth by Johnson and Boone when I saw these reports, so I did not bookmark them. But if Johnson and Boone are correct in their analysis and Greece is caught in a debt trap there will be plenty of time and reporters to sift through public statements by all involved. Meanwhile Johnson and Boone are apparently being circumspect by implying more than they can demonstrate. Time will tell who is better serving potential purchasers of Greek debt.

As the Dutch said while fighting the Spanish: "It is not necessary to have hope in order to persevere."

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A growing number of Americans, nearly half the country, think global warming worries are exaggerated, as more people also doubt that scientific warnings of severe environmental fallout will ever occur, according to a new Gallup poll.

The new doubts come as President Barack Obama is pressuring the Congress to produce legislation significantly cutting smokestack emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases blamed for climate change problems.

TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan watered down legislation to fight climate change Thursday after weeks of wrangling within the government over plans for an emissions trading system that has met stiff resistance from industry.

The proposed climate bill, set to be enacted in parliament by mid-June, left room for the trading scheme to set caps on emissions per unit of production, which would allow rises in emissions when output grows.

A Midlands businessman was jailed for three years today after admitting making a fortune by fraudulently passing off battery farm eggs as free range or organic.

Around 100m mislabelled eggs sold by Keith Owen ended up on the shelves of supermarkets including Sainsbury's and Tesco. That the fraud was able to carry on for two years while he made a £3m profit raises questions for the food industry about the provenance of goods.

Owen, 44, from Bromsgrove, in Worcestershire, ran Heart of England Eggs Unlimited, which supplied eggs to major packing companies that in turn supplied them to supermarkets and smaller retailers.

For months now, Sen. Jim Bunning's had a hold on the confirmation of pesticide/biotech lobbyist Islam A. Siddiqui as America's Chief Agricultural Negotiator. Now we know why. This is hilarious, only it isn't really.

According to Congressional Quarterly, Bunning wants the U.S. Trade Rep Ron Kirk to stand up for tobacco. Yes, that's right. Canada has banned candy- and fruit-flavored cigarettes (note that is candy-flavored real cigarettes, not candy cigarettes) as they are seen to encourage young people to smoke. Bunning's upset because Canada's ban also applies to "regular cigarettes blended with flavoring ingredients to mask the harsh taste of burley tobacco." And which state is the largest producer of burley tobacco? Kentucky! The home state of Sen. Bunning.

Researchers say they've solved the mystery of why some chickens hatch out half-male and half-female.

About one in every 10,000 chickens is gynandromorphous, to use the technical term.

In medieval times, they might have been burned at the stake, as witches' familiars.

But now these chickens are shedding important new light on how birds, and perhaps reptiles, develop.

They're developing technology that grinds wood, cornstalks and other plant waste into a powder finer than baking flour that -- when blown into the air -- can be set aflame. The flame produces heat without smoke or smell.

The heat can be used to warm water or buildings or to make electricity. Still in its infancy, the technology already has the interest of the World Bank, which sees its potential to improve the lives of millions in developing nations.

The idea of burning powder is so simple, McKnight could hardly believe no one else had thought of it first.

Kim McKnight, a mechanical engineer who lives in Ithaca, came to his father in late 2006 with what he thought was a breakthrough in fuel systems that run on corn and wood pellets.

"Well, if pellets are big breakthrough, what would happen if you made it into a powder?" James McKnight asked his son. Under the right conditions, powder can be explosive. A search of the patent literature turned up nothing along those lines.

So they bought some wood powder, commonly used as a filler in plastics, and an off-the-homestore-shelf paint sprayer."The powder would burn like a flame," McKnight said. "Eureka!"

The powder has some advantages over petroleum-based fuels. It's renewable -- that is, it grows back after it's cut down. The flame can be instantly turned off by cutting off the flow of powder (try doing that with a burning log or wood pellets). The powder also doesn't pose a fire hazard if it's spilled: The wood particles have to be suspended in the air to burn.

The energy produced costs the equivalent of $1.40 per gallon of heating oil, according to McKnight. The current price for heating oil is about $2.50 a gallon, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.

And unlike biofuels such as corn ethanol, the powdered fuel can be made from plant material that would otherwise remain on the forest floor or farmer's field -- not from plants that can feed people or animals.

Summerhill filed U.S. patent applications in 2007.

Since then, the McKnights have been tinkering with their low-tech setup, using parts bought from farm catalogs and the Home Depot and even a windshield wiper motor. The burners can be made as small as 50,000 British thermal units -- enough for a residential water heater -- to millions of Btus, enough to heat commercial greenhouses or grain-drying operations on a farm.

The research phase is done, McKnight says. Summerhill has figured out how to make the powder and build the burners.

looks good...

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

Three Swedish dailies have re-printed a caricature of the Prophet Mohammed with the body of a dog after seven people were arrested in Ireland accused of plotting to kill the artist Lars Villks. "Even the right to mock must be defended in a democratic society," Expressen editor Thomas Mattsson said.

Microsoft's search engine "Bing" filters out sexually explicit keywords in Arab countries, the Open Net Initiative (ONI) has claimed in a report.   The American research organisation said in a report published at the beginning of March that out of a hundred words with sexual connotations, 20 were blocked.

At 27, Mahinur Ozdemir is by far the youngest deputy to serve in the Belgian parliament in Brussels. As the debate about the Muslim headscarf rages on in several European nations, she has also become a lightening rod for controversy.

"I am an example of social integration, and yet I wear the headscarf," says the Belgian national of Turkish origin.

When she was sworn in on June 23, 2009, pledging to uphold Belgian laws while clad  in her hijab, murmurings of discontent could be heard among her detractors. The news of her confirmation attracted much media attention, particularly in Turkey. "At home, she would be dismissed from parliament," noted one incredulous journalist, who had travelled from Istanbul to cover the event.

A Stockholm court conditionally approved the extradition of 34-year-old Swede Anders Hoegstrom to Poland on Thursday, in connection with the theft of the notorious Auschwitz sign.

It was ruled that he could face trial in Poland on the provision that, if found guilty, he would be able to serve any prison sentence in Sweden.

Investigators suspect Hoegstrom of having incited the theft of a cultural treasure after the metal "Arbeit Macht Frei" sign was stolen from a gateway leading into the former Nazi death camp.

Africa is becoming increasingly popular as a tourist destination. Figures by the UN World Tourism Organization show the continent will show an average growth rate in tourism of over five percent per year by 2020.

 

But Burghard Rauschelbach, head of the tourism and development program at the German Association for Technical Cooperation GTZ, said that such figures do not accurately reflect the realities of tourism in every African country.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - China and Iran have stepped up their abuses of human rights, targeting both anti-government activists and the free flow of information over the Internet, the U.S. State Department said on Thursday.

In its annual survey of human rights in 194 countries, the State Department also criticized Cuba, Myanmar, North Korea and Russia, which it faulted for killings of activists and journalists.

While it noted the end of Sri Lanka's 33-year civil war in May, the report found that both the government and the defeated rebel Tamil Tigers had used excessive force and committed abuses against civilians last year.

A man with learning difficulties who died at his home last night was "tormented to death" by local youths, neighbours claimed today.

Police had been warned that 64-year-old David Askew was being targeted before he was found dead in Hattersley, Greater Manchester, nearby residents said.

They criticised police and officials, claiming they had not supported Askew, his brother, Brian, and his mother, Rose, who uses a wheelchair.

Officers were called to the family home last night after being told youngsters were causing "annoyance".

When police arrived, the youths had vanished, but officers discovered Askew, who was pronounced dead at the scene.

How many more times?

Ad astra per aspera

The world's single most complicated and expensive scientific experiment, designed to discover the "God particle" and recreate the conditions that existed at the dawn of creation, will be switched off for a year to correct a design problem that could break it apart if it ran on full power.

Scientists in charge of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) in Geneva announced yesterday that the machine will only be able to run on half energy before it is temporarily shut down in two years' time. Its full operating capacity designed to probe the frontiers of science will not be achieved until at least 2013 - several years later than planned.

A Mississippi school board apologizes for any inconveniences it may have caused when it cancelled next month's prom, but if gay and lesbian students are allowed to attend and have fun with their same-sex dates, the board would really rather just not have the dance at all.

Like many high school seniors in the U.S., 18-year-old Constance McMillen had been looking forward to her spring prom. If teen movies have taught us anything, it's that the senior prom is a one of the most crucial moments in a young person's life -  when popular kids learn it's not all about popularity, when nerds learn that they're hot, or if you're Zach and Kelly, you don't need an expensive dress to have a magical time. Ms. McMillen had picked out her tux and invited her girlfriend, and therein lies the school board's problem.

Ms. McMillen went to the American Civil Liberties Union of Mississippi since it's wrong to discriminate against people based on sexual orientation, and gave the Itawamba Agricultural High School and the school board until yesterday to drop their objections. They responded by cancelling the whole thing.

Architectural design is currently enjoying a watershed moment of increased media attention, but among all the discussion of new museums, opera houses, and theatres, there is little attention paid to one of the world's oldest and most significant cultural institutions: the prison. According to a recent Washington Post article, more than 1 in 100 American adults were incarcerated at the start of 2008, making jails among the most popularly-visited sites in the nation. Historically, these buildings have been important tools in the disciplining of societies (including those who lived and worked in them, or those seeking to avoid them), and they've often provided major critical metaphors for the transmission of ideology and power structures-- most famously in the case of Foucault's interest in Bentham's panopticon. But for all the discussion generated about the design of this structure, it was ultimately dismissed as a bad idea, and few new ideas have been proposed.

How much power can you expect to get out of a one-mile stretch of road?

One mile = 5280 feet. Our Solar Road Panels are 12' by 12'. Therefore, it will take 5280/12 = 440 panels to create one mile (one lane, 12 feet wide). Each panel is expected to produce 7600Wh of electricity daily based on 15% efficiency and four hours of sunlight per day (for more details, see the Numbers page).

440 times 7600Wh = 3.344MWhr per lane per mile. So a typical four lane highway will produce 13.376MWhr per mile, based on four hours of sunlight per day.

According to a 2007 study by the Energy Information Administration, the average American home used 936kWh per month. Dividing this number by 30 will give us an average need of 31.2kWh per day. Dividing this number into the 13.376MWhr per mile, gives us approximately 428. That's how many American homes can go "off-grid" for every mile of 4-lane Solar Roadway. We can wean ourselves off coal. Again, that's based on four hours of sunlight per day. Some of the roads in our neighborhood never see sunlight. Does that mean that we'll never see the Solar Roadways in our neighborhood?

No. Every Solar Road Panel will have the ability to collect and store energy from the sun. Even the panels that never see sunshine can store the energy collected by nearby panels that are in the sun. We would install Solar Road Panels in tunnels and under bridges, knowing that they will never see sunlight themselves. Remember, we can produce three times more electricity than we have ever used. Theoretically, that means that only one-third of the Solar Road Panels ever have to see the light of day. The rest of the "shaded" panels will act as energy storage devices. They will still light up (nice for those tunnels!), melt snow and ice, report problems, etc., using the power that was collected by the panels in the region that did have access to sunlight.

panels as batteries?

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

How much power can you expect to get out of a one-mile stretch of road?

One mile = 5280 feet. Our Solar Road Panels are 12' by 12'. Therefore, it will take 5280/12 = 440 panels to create one mile (one lane, 12 feet wide). Each panel is expected to produce 7600Wh of electricity daily based on 15% efficiency and four hours of sunlight per day (for more details, see the Numbers page).

440 times 7600Wh = 3.344MWhr per lane per mile. So a typical four lane highway will produce 13.376MWhr per mile, based on four hours of sunlight per day.

According to a 2007 study by the Energy Information Administration, the average American home used 936kWh per month. Dividing this number by 30 will give us an average need of 31.2kWh per day. Dividing this number into the 13.376MWhr per mile, gives us approximately 428. That's how many American homes can go "off-grid" for every mile of 4-lane Solar Roadway. We can wean ourselves off coal. Again, that's based on four hours of sunlight per day. Some of the roads in our neighborhood never see sunlight. Does that mean that we'll never see the Solar Roadways in our neighborhood?

No. Every Solar Road Panel will have the ability to collect and store energy from the sun. Even the panels that never see sunshine can store the energy collected by nearby panels that are in the sun. We would install Solar Road Panels in tunnels and under bridges, knowing that they will never see sunlight themselves. Remember, we can produce three times more electricity than we have ever used. Theoretically, that means that only one-third of the Solar Road Panels ever have to see the light of day. The rest of the "shaded" panels will act as energy storage devices. They will still light up (nice for those tunnels!), melt snow and ice, report problems, etc., using the power that was collected by the panels in the region that did have access to sunlight.

panels as batteries?

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

A Westminster inquiry into the row over Lord Ashcroft's peerage was thrown into turmoil when the Tory MPs on the committee walked out and said they were boycotting it permanently.

In what is understood to be an unprecedented move, Conservative members have withdrawn from the public administration select committee, some following discussions with the party whips.

The committee, regarded as one of the most influential in parliament, announced an inquiry into Ashcroft's ennoblement in the aftermath of the peer's revelation last week that he has non-dom status. The billionaire described how he had renegotiated an undertaking he gave as a condition of his peerage to become a full British resident to allow him to retain his non-dom status and avoid paying tax on his substantial international earnings.

The disclosure ended 10 years of speculation about Lord Ashcroft's tax status and provoked a bitter row over whether he had broken the spirit of the undertakings he had given to secure his peerage

I notice that the loopy Father Gabriele Amorth, the Vatican's chief exorcist, is up to his tricks again, declaring in an Italian newspaper interview that Satan is busily at work in the Catholic Church. Especially the Vatican, which he claims has long been infiltrated by "Satanic sects". Paedophile scandals, power struggles in the Holy see, the assassination attempt on John Paul II, domestic tragedies - all explained by demonic activity, says Amorth. Even the mentally disturbed woman who knocked down the Pope on Christmas Eve was acting on Satan's orders, he believes.

The Times has the gist of it, but for the full story - including Amorth's ideas about the growing power of the Antichrist - you have to go to La Repubblica. It's bizarre stuff. The priest has a bag which, he claims, contains pieces of broken glass spat out by possessed people, and a couch equipped with ropes to tie people up (sounds fun!). We also learn that he has had to move new fewer than 23 times in the past quarter century as a result of complaints about the strange noises emanating from his room. Here's a flavour:

From James Forsyth's reliably excellent political column in the Spectator, a little tale that coincides with stories I've heard from people really quite close to Dave:

One candidate for a marginal seat recently drove Mr Cameron around his constituency all day on a recent trip, and was shocked that when he dropped Mr Cameron off, the Tory leader got out of the car without so much as a word of thanks.