(Reuters) - Chelsea Football Club owner Roman Abramovich emerged victorious on Friday from a $6 billion legal battle with his former mentor Boris Berezovsky that has laid bare the intrigue behind the post-Soviet carve-up of Russia's vast natural resources.

Berezovsky, who became a Moscow powerbroker under the late President Boris Yeltsin only to fall foul of Vladimir Putin, had accused Abramovich of using the threat of Kremlin retribution to intimidate him into selling prized assets at a knockdown price.

But Judge Elizabeth Gloster told a packed London courtroom that she had found Berezovsky to be an "unimpressive and inherently unreliable witness" who gave sometimes dishonest evidence and would say "almost anything to support his case".

Gloster dismissed all of Berezovsky's $6 billion in claims in one of the biggest private litigation cases ever, saying Abramovich - the world's 68th richest man with a $12.1 billion fortune - was a "truthful and on the whole reliable witness".

The head of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development has called on the European Central Bank to take action on the eurozone crisis.

"It has to be a credible signal," Angel Gurria said. "If you have the ECB which can work in the markets... then why not?"

The ECB meets this week amid much speculation it will resume buying the debt of countries with high borrowing costs.

Germany and others oppose such a move. 'System at stake'

Mr Gurria was asked by news agencies whether the ECB should buy bonds of Italy and Spain, two countries whose interest rates at auction have exceeded 7% in recent months.

"Yes, they should," he replied. "If you ask when, the answer is the sooner the better."

"I think that the ECB is the bazooka, the firepower, the muscle, the one that has the capacity to impress upon the markets," he added.

"We have passed the question of moral hazard, these are performing countries, now it is the system that is at stake."

The European commission has been urged to develop an EU industrial policy for food to take into account the "unique needs and concerns" of Europe's food and drink industry.

The appeal follows the publication of a key position paper by FoodDrinkEurope, the influential umbrella body for the industry, on an EU industrial policy for food.

(...) The position paper identifies a number of challenges which it says "must be met in order to maximise the economic performance of the sector".

These include the elimination of any remaining barriers to trade and preventing further fragmentation of the internal market "for the benefit of consumers and food operators alike".

Another necessary measure, it says, is a "better regulatory framework which encourages businesses to invest in Europe, underpinned by sound science and legal certainty".

An extraordinary summit of EU heads of state and governments in November will focus on the European Union budget for 2014-2020, it emerged following a meeting of European Affairs ministers held in Nicosia yesterday (30 August).

Meeting in the Cypriot capital, the ministers held informal talks with leading lawmakers in order to smooth the decision process with the European Parliament, which is co-legislator on budgetary matters.

Also present were European Commission Vice-President Maroš Šefčovič, responsible for inter-institutional relations, and Commissioner Janusz Lewandowski, in charge of financial programming and budget at the EU executive.

"This is a watershed moment for the negotiations," said Andreas D. Mavroyiannis, the Cypriot deputy minister for EU Affairs who chaired the meeting.

The European Stability Mechanism, the euro area's permanent rescue fund, is unlikely to be successful if Germany's highest court rules against it this month, ESM chief Klaus Regling told Der Spiegel.

"Without Germany, the ESM doesn't make any sense," the magazine quoted Regling as saying in an e-mailed preview of a story to be published tomorrow. If all euro-area states meet targets and improve their competitiveness, the debt crisis "can be overcome in one to two years," Regling said, according to the magazine.

German Labour Minister Ursula von der Leyen has warned that millions of workers face a bigger risk of ending up with inadequate pensions than previously thought.

Von der Leyen set out the figures in a seven-page internal letter to the members of the CDU's youth wing.

"At stake is nothing less than the legitimacy of the pension system for the younger generation," said von der Leyen in the letter, details of which were published by the Bild am Sonntag newspaper on Sunday.

According to the numbers calculated by her office, workers who today work full-time for 35 years and earn less than €2,500 before tax per month would receive less than today's basic pension of €688.

This is because of a fall in basic pensions from 51 percent to 43 percent of the average German wage, she wrote.

The minister said those who make no other provisions than basic pension contributions would have to "make their way to the welfare office" on retirement.

Von der Leyen also claimed that those who work full-time for 40 years would need to earn at least the equivalent of €2,200 per month to be sure of a pension higher than the basic amount.

Ambitious plans for a four-runway airport near Heathrow are to be submitted to the Government as a solution to the aviation crisis that has divided the coalition, The Independent on Sunday can reveal.

A world-leading infrastructure firm is assessing sites to the west and north-west of London which could rival, or even replace, Heathrow to challenge other European hubs in providing air links with the Far East. Sites in Oxfordshire and Berkshire could potentially be in the frame for the airport, estimated to cost £40bn to £60bn.

Justine Greening, the Secretary of State for Transport, is to launch a call for evidence as early as this week on how to increase airport capacity, after winning a major political battle to rule out a third runway at Heathrow. All other options are on the table, and a brand new "London West" airport with road and rail links to the capital would be seen as a "wild card" capable of challenging the Thames Estuary airport idea backed by Boris Johnson, the London Mayor, and the architect Lord Foster.

Spanish prime minister says in a newspaper interview that Spain already met all the conditions the EU has asked for; comments suggests that Rajoy is not prepared to accept further conditionality for ECB bond purchases; Rajoy also laid out his ideas for a fiscal union: foresees a three stage plan for eurobonds by 2018; in a Spanish newspaper interview he concedes that reality had messed up his election promises; EU officials applaud Rajoy's reforms, but are aghast at his diplomacy; the editorial director of El Mundo wonders whether Rajoy is right for the job, and should be replaced; El Pais reports that bank bailout money for Spain is being withheld on the ground that more information about the state of the banking system is needed; the Spanish government passed a banking decree on Friday, in which the Frob will not have seniority; Jens Weidmann denied to comment on his resignation threat story; it is the overwhelming consensus among commentators that he will not resign; Holger Schmieding says Weidmann's treat will, however, reduce the overall effect of the ECB's programme; French state guarantee for small mortgage lender may reach €20bn;Hollande speeds launch of state investment bank; Greek coalition partners meet again on Wednesday to finalise the latest austerity programme; Nout Wellink says Dutch parties don't tell the truth about the euro zone; only a quarter of Germans want to keep Greece in the eurozone, according to an FT/Harris poll; Wen Jiabao expresses his concern about the health of the eurozone periphery; El Pais has an interview with George Soros, in which he says that he was "very, very pessimistic" about the eurozone; he compares eurozone with the Bretton Woods, except that this time the anchor is insufficiently prepared to help the periphery; Wolfgang Munchau, meanwhile, says the EU should not fudge the banking union.

"The average pension in Slovakia is less than 400 euros (£350). The average pension in Greece is 1,400 euros (£1,200) - three, four times higher" (source)

(Reuters) - At least a dozen U.S. private equity firms have been subpoenaed by the New York state attorney general as part of a probe into whether a widely used tax strategy that saved these firms hundreds of millions of dollars is proper, a source familiar with the situation said on Saturday.

Among the firms that were subpoenaed are Bain Capital LLC, KKR & Co LP, TPG Capital LP, Apollo Global Management LLC and Silver Lake Partners LP, the source said.

Bain was once headed by Mitt Romney, the Republican candidate who hopes to unseat President Barack Obama in the November 6 election.

The subpoenas, which were sent out in July, seek documents related to the conversion of fees these private equity firms charge for managing investors' assets into fund investments, the source said. This means the investigation predates the release last month of confidential Bain fund documents by Gawker that revealed such a practice.

(Reuters) - Central bankers who travelled to the wilds of Wyoming to figure out if more policy action was needed to curb stubbornly high unemployment heard powerful arguments on both sides of the debate, and leave with many questions unanswered.

Policymakers in Europe and the United States facing weak growth and painfully high unemployment are struggling with the issue of whether additional monetary stimulus could do more harm than good.

As the annual Jackson Hole gathering came to a close on Saturday and some of the world's most important central bankers headed back home, a former vice chairman of the U.S. Federal Reserve summed up the key issue confronting the prestigious policy retreat.

"What is holding the economy back? Why is it that we've had such incredibly accommodative monetary policy for so long (but) we've had so little growth? I think it remains a puzzle," said Donald Kohn, who is now a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution think tank in Washington.

The U.S.'s best 250 years are behind it, Northwestern University professor Robert Gordon writes in a paper published by the National Bureau of Economic Research, saying economic growth may gradually "sputter out."

Gordon outlines how there was virtually no expansion before 1750 -- before the American Revolution led to the creation of the U.S. The entire period since then "could well turn out to be a unique episode in human history," he wrote in the paper published this week.

That questions the "nearly universal" view promoted by Nobel Laureate Robert Solow and others since the 1950s that "economic growth is a continuous process that will persist forever," said Gordon, who is based in Evanston, Illinois, and turns 72 next week.

(...) While innovation will still support standards of living, Gordon identified the obstacles to increasing prosperity as demographics, rising inequality, globalization, more expensive education and poorer performance in secondary schooling, environmental regulations and taxes. One way to soften the blow is for the U.S. to embrace unlimited immigration of high-skilled workers, Gordon wrote.

Brazil's economy in the second quarter showed signs that it's turning the corner after a year of stagnation as government stimulus measures help offset the impact of the global crisis.

Gross domestic product expanded 0.4 percent from the previous three months, the fastest pace in a year, the national statistics agency said today. That compares with a median forecast of 0.5 percent growth in a Bloomberg survey of 51 analysts.

While that pace is four times the revised 0.1 percent first-quarter growth, economists say there's little evidence of a strong recovery.

Barclays has made as much as half a billion pounds in two years from speculating on food staples such as wheat and soya, prompting allegations that banks are profiting handsomely from the global food crisis.

Barclays is the UK bank with the greatest involvement in food commodity trading and is one of the three biggest global players, along with the US banking giants Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley, research from the World Development Movement points out.

Last week the trading giant Glencore was attacked for describing the global food crisis and price rises as a "good" business opportunity.

(Reuters) - Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu urged world powers on Sunday to set a "clear red line" for Tehran's atomic program that would convince Iran they were determined to prevent it from obtaining nuclear arms.

Netanyahu's remarks suggested a growing impatience with Israel's main ally, the United States, and other countries that have been pressing him to give diplomacy and sanctions more time to work and hold off on any go-it-alone strike on Iran.

Recent heightened Israeli rhetoric has stoked speculation that Israel might attack Iran before the U.S. elections in November, believing that President Barack Obama would give it military help and not risk alienating pro-Israeli voters.

The US says it is suspending training for new recruits to the Afghan local police (ALP) while checks are carried out on possible ties to the Taliban.

The move follows a series of incidents in which foreign troops have been killed by Afghan soldiers or policemen.

The suspension of training - which only applies to new ALP recruits - will allow US special operations forces to "re-vet" current ALP forces.

US special forces currently have around 1,000 Afghan local police trainees.

Syrian state television said six people were wounded in twin explosions in Damascus on Sunday that appeared to target the country's military leadership.

Damascus residents said the explosions occurred at a security building in the Abu Rummana district, not far from the compound housing the army and air force headquarters near central Umayyad Square. All of those injured were male conscripts, Syrian television. Two of them were reported to be in a critical condition.

Video footage from activists showed plumes of white smoke rising from the district, an upscale neighbourhood in the heart of Damascus that is home to several embassies.

"A terrorist attack with two bombs occurred in Al-Mehdi Street in the Abu Rummana district," state television said.

The area contains several security service buildings, as well as the office of Vice President Faruq al-Shara. The explosion occurred near a security services building which is tasked with protecting the army's general staff.

TRIPOLI, Sep 2 2012 (IPS) - In the aftermath of Libya's revolution, Libyan fighters and weapons are flooding areas of conflict in neighbouring countries, according to local fighters and officials in several countries.

Libya's still heavily armed militias continue to sell their weapons on the black market directly to foreign militias from war-ridden countries, or to arms-dealers from third countries who then sell them on to warring factions, they say.

"All of the militias are involved in selling weapons. There is no law in Libya, still no functioning government, and the country's security forces are too weak to control the situation, so selling weapons is regarded as legal by many of the rebels," said Ridwan, a former rebel who fought with Tripoli's Suq Al Jumma Katiba (brigades).

"Many of the fighters got greedy following the war and believe they are entitled to compensation for the sacrifices they made for their country as they believe the government has abandoned them," Ridwan, who did not give his last name, told IPS.

"The guys sell an AK-47 on the black market for 1,000 Libyan dinars (800 dollars). An anti-aircraft gun mounted on the back of a pickup truck goes for between 8000-10,000 LD. Most of the weapons are smuggled to the borders, especially Turkey."

Libyan Islamist fighters are also reported to have swollen the ranks of the Free Syrian Army (FSA) in their fight against Syrian President Bashar Al Assad's security forces.

(Reuters) - Between babies in blankets tied onto women's backs and boys in chullos, the traditional Andean stocking hat with earflaps, Joel Reyna and his girlfriend strode up to the glowing orange sign of one of the world's highest Burger Kings and did what was once unthinkable in Huancayo: they ordered a Whopper Jr.

That, in a nutshell, captures the transformation underway in Peru's economy - the fastest-growing of the larger Latin America countries. Peru's provinces, long ignored as unprofitable backwaters by elites in Lima, are booming as foreign and domestic companies target an emerging class of consumers.

Two decades ago, Huancayo - a city of 400,000 that sits in a farming valley 10,731 feet (3,271 meters) above sea level - was overrun with leftist rebels. Now, it has a shiny new shopping center with all the trappings of a typical mall in the United States, right down to the elevator music, prickly Rent-A-Cops, and an arcade called Happyland.

"Things have gotten better compared to years past. Now we are more like Lima in terms of conveniences," said Joel Reyna, 20. While his girlfriend ate a burger, he opted for fried chicken at KFC in the food court.

A study in Nature provides, in unprecedented detail, the history of a crucial indicator of the relationship between the carbon cycle and climate processes over the past 55 million years. Over this time period, when the Earth is known to have transitioned from "hothouse" to "icehouse" conditions, the oceans also experienced a dramatic shift in the carbonate compensation depth, or CCD.

Defined as the depth below which carbonate minerals (such as calcite) dissolve completely, the CCD is known to fluctuate over time - it shallows during warm periods, and deepens when ice age conditions prevail. Now, however, scientists have a detailed and quantifiable record of just how much the CCD has shifted during recent geological history.

The study, which relies on seafloor sediment cores collected during a pair of 2009 expeditions on board the JOIDES Resolution, demonstrates that 55 million years ago, the CCD of the Pacific Ocean sat at an average of about two miles (3.3-3.6 km) below the sea surface.

As the Earth cooled, however, the CCD sank - reaching its deepest point of almost three miles (4.8 km) between 13 and 11 million years ago. Today, the Pacific's CCD sits just less than three miles (4.5 km) deep, and is thought to be on the rise as a result of modern, human-induced climate change.

Viewed as a potential target in the global effort to reduce climate change, atmospheric black carbon particles absorb significantly less sunlight than scientists predicted, raising new questions about the impact of black carbon on atmospheric warming, an international team of researchers, including climate chemists from Boston College, report in the latest edition of the journal Science.

Mathematical models and laboratory experiments used to study airborne soot particles led to projections that the absorption-boosting chemicals that coat black carbon could yield an increase in absorption by as much as a factor of two. But field studies in smoggy California cities found black carbon absorption enhancements of just 6 percent, suggesting that climate models may be overestimating warming by black carbon, the researchers report.

The surprising results highlight the early challenges in a nascent sector of climate science and could have implications for regulatory efforts to reduce the production of black carbon, or soot, by curbing the burning of fossil fuels. Still, scientists agree that black carbon in the atmosphere has a significant effect on global and regional climate, with earlier studies ranking the warming effects of black carbon particles second only to carbon dioxide gas.

Food production for a growing global population can be increased with a reduction in the environmental impact of agriculture, U.S. and Canadian researchers say.

Scientists from the University of Minnesota and McGill University in Montreal say more strategic use of fertilizer and water could dramatically boost the crop yield feed a global population expected to double by 2050 -- and also reduce the adverse environmental impact of agricultural practices.

"We have often seen these two goals as a trade-off: We could either have more food, or a cleaner environment, not both," Minnesota researcher Nathaniel Mueller said. "This study shows that doesn't have to be the case."

First World War ammunition frozen in time for nearly a century has been found as glacier melts | Mail Online

First World War ammunition frozen in time for nearly a century has been discovered in northern Italy.

More than 200 pieces of the ammunition were revealed at an altitude of 3,200 metres by a melting glacier on the Ago de Nardis peak in Trentino.

The 85-100mm caliber explosives weighed between seven and 10 kilos and explosives experts have  been to the site to safely dispose of the weaponry.

Voyager 1 beams back images of Earth as a tiny dot as it prepares for interstellar space | Mail Online

Voyager 1 beams back images of our planet as it explores the furthest fringes of the solar system

It has clocked up an astonishing 11billion miles in its 35-year journey.

And now, as the spacecraft Voyager 1 explores the furthest fringes of our solar system, incredible images of the Earth have been beamed back from a camera on board the probe.

This tiny dot, amid a band of coloured rays, is our planet, as seen from staggering distance of 11,100,000,000 miles away.

Monsanto Acquires Targeted-Pest Control Technology Start-Up

Sep 28, 2011
7:00am

ST. LOUIS, Sept. 28, 2011 PRNewswire -- Monsanto Company (NYSE: MON) today announced it has acquired Beeologics, which researches and develops biological tools to provide targeted control of pests and diseases. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Beeologics is focused on biological research. Current projects in its pipeline - including a product candidate being developed to help protect bee health - use a naturally-occurring process to provide targeted pest and disease control.

The expertise Beeologics has developed will enable Monsanto to further explore the use of biologicals broadly in agriculture. Monsanto will use the base technology from Beeologics as a part of its continuing discovery and development pipeline. Biological products will continue to play an increasingly important role in supporting the sustainability of many agricultural systems. Both companies expect that their combined research could provide farmers with novel approaches to the challenges they face.

The topic for today is the flipside of the Steel Interstate proposal: the Electricity Superhighways, and how they offer the chance to substantially increase the size of the carbon neutrality slice.

But now another powerful entity turned up: Russia's Gazprom. It's the world's largest gas producer, gas exporter, and gas distribution company with nearly 100,000 miles of gas trunk lines and branches. The Russian government owns 50.01% of it. At home, it has to sell gas under cost, one of the Soviet leftovers. It relies on high-profit sales from Europe to make up for it. But Europe is diversifying away from its single most important supplier.

Competitors include Russia's number two, Novatek, and Norway--the second largest natural gas exporter in the world. So, in April, Gazprom had to lower its European sales guidance for 2012. Its market share in Europe was 27% last year, and it's shooting for 30% by 2020, but if the US shale-gas boom ever infects Europe, those plans would become a pipedream--and if the high-profit sales from Europe tapered off further, it would have to raise prices at home, a political nightmare. Hence its fight by hook or crook against shale gas in France.

Gazprom's "underhanded tactics" and "scaremongering about a new technology" have Moscow's nod of approval and are designed to dissuade governments from developing their own shale-gas reserves, according to a report by Platts, a global provider of information on energy, petrochemicals, and metals. Efforts include all manner of operations, online and through encouraging demonstrations, but also paying public relation firms to spread "myths and misconceptions," said Aviezer Tucker, assistant director of the Energy Institute at the University of Texas. A "European Union-wide ban" on shale-gas production, he said, would be the "holy grail."

With France already knocked off, Sergei Komlev of Gazprom Export has been bouncing around the world in his fight against European shale gas. At a meeting in Qatar, according to Platts' report, he gave a presentation. "Multiple Handicaps Will Retard Shale Gas Development Outside US" was the title of one of his slides. "Fortunately, it claimed, "European shale gas development faces numerous economic, regulatory, and political barriers before there are significant amounts of shale gas production, not sooner than in ten or more years."

Breathing room for Gazprom in the natural gas wars.

South African prosecutors have provisionally dropped murder charges against 270 miners whose colleagues were shot dead by police.

The charges cannot be dismissed formally until the end of the inquiry, but prosecutors said all detained miners would be freed.

Local authorities used a controversial apartheid-era law to accuse the miners of provoking police to open fire.

Miners were demanding a huge pay rise and recognition of a new union.

Pakistani police say authorities have arrested an imam who had accused a Christian girl of blasphemy.

Munir Jaffery, an investigating officer in the case, said on Sunday that Khalid Jadoon Chishti was arrested late on Saturday for allegedly having planted pages of a Quran in a shopping bag containing burned papers and ash that had been carried by the Christian girl.

Fourteen-year-old Rimsha Masih was later accused of burning pages of the Quran, a serious offence in Pakistan that can result in life in prison.

The reversal could lead to the girl being released from prison and defuse what has been a religiously charged case in Pakistan.

The case has been especially sensitive because of the girl's young age and questions about her mental capacity.

On what grounds do we decide that Robert Mugabe should go the International Criminal Court, Tony Blair should join the international speakers' circuit, bin Laden should be assassinated, but Iraq should be invaded, not because it possesses weapons of mass destruction, as Mr Bush's chief supporter, Mr Blair, confessed last week, but in order to get rid of Saddam Hussein?

(...) in a consistent world, those responsible for this suffering and loss of life should be treading the same path as some of their African and Asian peers who have been made to answer for their actions in the Hague.

But even greater costs have been exacted beyond the killing fields, in the hardened hearts and minds of members of the human family across the world.

Has the potential for terrorist attacks decreased? To what extent have we succeeded in bringing the so-called Muslim and Judeo-Christian worlds closer together, in sowing the seeds of understanding and hope?

Leadership and morality are indivisible. Good leaders are the custodians of morality.

One of the founders of the popular file-sharing Pirate Bay website, has been arrested in Cambodia, the local police have announced.

Gottfrid Svartholm Warg was held in Phnom Penh after an international warrant was issued against him in April by his native Sweden.

Sweden acted after he had failed to show up for the start of his one-year jail term for copyright violations.

Electronic cigarettes cause damage to the lungs, according to a study that challenges earlier research suggesting the devices to quit smoking are harmless.

E-cigarettes, electronic tubes that simulate the effect of smoking by producing nicotine vapor, caused an immediate increase in airway resistance, lasting for 10 minutes, making it harder for participants to breathe, researchers from the University of Athens said in a study presented at the European Respiratory Society annual meeting in Vienna today.

The researchers used a lung function test to observe airway resistance in 32 participants who used an e-cigarette for 10 minutes. Among the healthy subjects who had never smoked, airway resistance rose to an average 206 percent from 182 percent; among smokers with normal lung function, the reading rose to an average 220 percent from 176 percent.

Paul Ryan, facing criticism for what fact-checkers said were false or distorted statements in his speech to the Republican National Convention, is now qualifying another claim: his best marathon time.

The Republican vice presidential candidate, a Wisconsin congressman, said on the Hugh Hewitt Radio show Aug. 23 that his personal best for a 26.2-mile (42-kilometer) marathon was "under three, high twos. I had a two-hour-and-fifty something."

"I was fast when I was younger, yeah," Ryan said, according to an online transcript of the interview.

Bruce Willis fights to leave his iPod tunes to his family: Actor considering legal action against Apple in battle over who owns songs downloaded from iTunes | Mail Online

Bruce Willis is more usually seen escaping from explosions and battling terrorists to save the world.

His latest battle, however, takes him to the considerably quieter world of the courtroom - although he still faces a formidable opponent.

The Hollywood action hero is said to be considering legal action against technology giant Apple over his desire to leave his digital music collection to his daughters.

If he succeeds, he could benefit not just himself and his family but the millions who have purchased songs from Apple's iTunes Store.