EU court gives boost to indirect disability rights - EUobserver.com

A preliminary judgement by the EU's top court on Thursday (31 January) could boost the rights of millions of employees taking care of disabled relatives and prevent them from indirect discrimination.

Poiares Maduro, the advocate general at the European Court of Justice said that UK national Sharon Coleman, a legal secretary in London, was unlawfully forced out of her job for demanding flexible hours to look after her disabled son.

He argued she had suffered from "discrimination by association" and suggested that EU laws that guarantee fair treatment at work for disabled people extended to those connected with them.

"[It] protects people who, although not themselves disabled, suffer direct discrimination and/or harassment in the field of employment and occupation because they are associated with a disabled person," he said.

Romania and Cyprus confirm opposition to Kosovo independence - EUobserver.com

Romania and Cyprus said on Thursday (31 January) that they would not recognise a unilateral declaration of independence by Kosovo.

"Cyprus, for reasons of principle, cannot recognise and will not recognise a unilateral declaration of independence", Cypriot foreign minister Erato Kozakou-Marcoullis was quoted as saying by French news agency AFP.

"This is an issue of principle, of respect of international law, but also an issue of concern that it will create a precedent in international relations," she added.

On the same day, Romanian president Traian Basescu made an even stronger statement after a meeting with NATO secretary-general Jaap de Hoop Schefferat in Brussels.

Brussels watches as Serbs head to polls - EUobserver.com

EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - Serbians will on Sunday elect their new president, in a choice between current pro-Western leader Boris Tadic and his nationalist and eurosceptic opponent Tomislav Nikolic.

The election has regularly been presented as a "referendum" on Serbia's future, particularly in terms of foreign policy.

The difference in positions between the candidates is quite stark: Mr Nikolic favours closer ties with Russia, while Mr Tadic sees EU integration as the only way forward for Serbia.

The latest polls put Mr Tadic slightly ahead of his opponent, with 2.1 to 2.35 million people saying they would vote for him, while 2 to 2.25 million voters said they would instead put their trust in Mr Nikolic, Serbian news site B92.net reports.

Germany rejects US demand to increase Afghan deployment - Europe, News - Independent.co.uk

A bitter diplomatic row between Germany and the United States deepened yesterday after Berlin flatly rejected demands from Washington that it deploy troops in war-torn southern Afghanistan and angrily dismissed the request as "impertinent" and a "fantastic cheek".

Germany currently has some 3,200 soldiers stationed in comparatively tranquil northern Afghanistan and the capital Kabul as part of the current Nato peacekeeping mission. It has been urged to deploy troops in the south before but has consistently refused. Yesterday however, it became clear that Washington had stepped up pressure on Berlin to commit troops to the south.

The move followed increased Taliban attacks and threats from Canada that it would withdraw its Afghanistan contingent completely unless more Nato troops were sent south. Canada has lost 77 combat troops in the region.

I'll be president of Europe if you give me the power - Blair | Special Reports | Guardian Unlimited Politics

Tony Blair has been holding discussions with some of his oldest allies on how he could mount a campaign later this year to become full-time president of the EU council, the prestigious new job characterised as "president of Europe". Blair, currently the Middle East envoy for the US, Russia, EU and the UN, has told friends he has made no final decision, but is increasingly willing to put himself forward for the job if it comes with real powers to intervene in defence and trade affairs.

Article continues Blair, who is being actively promoted by the French president Nicolas Sarkozy, recognises he would need to abandon his well-paid, private sector jobs if he won. His wife Cherie - often portrayed as seeking ever more wealth and well-paid consultancies for her husband - is understood to be supportive of him accepting the job.

Some Blair allies also say that he now recognises that as envoy in the Middle East he is not going to be allowed to become the key player in furthering Israeli-Palestinian talks this year, and will be reduced to a role of supporting political development in Palestine and boosting its economy.

The president of the European council of ministers is a post created under the Lisbon treaty. The president will be the permanent chair of the council of ministers, Europe's chief decision-making body.

Jonathan Powell, Blair's Downing Street chief of staff, is among the former lieutenants he has met to discuss a bid for the European role.

Some senior figures believe he could yet be a loser in the carve-up of four big European jobs due to be distributed at the end of the French presidency in the second half of this year. Some claim that if the commission president, José Manuel Barroso, wanted to remain in post for a second term, it would be difficult for Blair, a political ally and previous advocate for Barroso, to hold the parallel, prestigious European council job.

Le Figaro - Politique : Nicolas Sarkozyaurait épousé Carla Bruni

Le maire du VIIIe arrondissement de Paris confirme qu'il a uni le nouveau couple présidentiel. L'Elysée se refuse à tout commentaire.

«J'ai marié deux électeurs du VIIIe arrondissement, qui habitent 55, rue du Faubourg Saint-Honoré.» C'est avec ce trait d'humour que le maire du VIIIe arrondissement de Paris François Lebel a annoncé samedi sur Europe 1 avoir célébré l'union de Nicolas Sarkozy et Carla Bruni dans la matinée à l'Elysée.

The mayor of the 8th arrondissement has announced he married Sarko and Bruni this morning. Without publishing the bans, and at the Elysée palace - this seems barely legal ; marriages are public in France.

Again, Sarkozy believes he is above the law.

Un roi sans divertissement est un homme plein de misères

The Nordic Region - a GMO-free zone in the future?

"The Nordic Region should be declared free of genetically modified organisms and the Nordic countries should join other European states like Austria, Greece and Poland, which have already declared themselves GMO-free zones," according to a proposal by the Lef-Socialist Green Group (VSG) on the Nordic Council.

The growing number GMO-free zones is due to widespread scepticism about the health aspects of genetically modified food products, according to the Group.

"Research suggests that the use of genetically modified products has a negative impact on health," the VSG notes.

It is important to maintain biological diversity. The alternative, according to the group, is to have only a few genetically modified species and for multinational companies to enjoy a monopoly of them.

The VSG is calling on the Nordic governments to work towards a GMO-free region.

"It would provide a boost to sustainable development and underpin the positive environmental and health image the Nordic Region aims to project," the Group says.

Nordic MPs have long been interested in the question of genetically modified organisms. The Centre Group on the Nordic Council previously proposed stricter labelling of genetically modified products, for example.

Trans fats cost 50,000 lives annually in the EU

What do Denmark, restaurants in New York and McDonalds have in common? They have all banned the dangerous trans fatty acids. Professor Steen Stender, Gentofte Hospital, explained this at the Nordic Council hearing in the Welfare and Citizens' and Consumer Rights Committees in the Swedish Parliament in Stockholm on 30 January 2008. The background was a Social Democratic proposal for a Nordic ban as in Denmark.

Steen Stender was chair of the Danish Nutrition Council's working group on trans fats, whose research resulted in a Danish ban on more than 2 gram trans fats per 100 gram in foodstuffs from 2004. This legislation has worked. A large part of the populations were already wary of the dangerous fats in e.g. margarine. However, a small group of drivers and young people, for example, who often live on fast food or food products from petrol stations, ate more than 5 grams a day. This led to a significant risk of heart disease.

Steen Stender has since gathered data on a typical trans fat meal in a number of countries. Below you can see the content of industrially produced trans fats in a fast food meal, 100 gram biscuit and 100 gram microwave popcorn in the selected countries. The data collection is from 2005-06:

Hungary: 42 gram
Czech Republic: 41 gram
Poland: 39 gram
USA: 36 gram
Iceland: 35 gram
France: 25 gram
Germany: 25 gram
Portugal: 24 gram
Spain: 24 gram
Great Britain: 24 gram
Netherlands: 23 gram
Russia: 23 gram
Austria: 22 gram
Italy: 21 gram
Norway: 16 gram
Sweden: 14 gram
Finland: 10 gram
Switzerland: 5 gram
Denmark: 0.4 gram

Before the Danish ban the comparable figures for Denmark in 2001 were 30 gram. The tough Danish thresholds for trans fatty acids could save thousands of human lives, if they were applied to all the nearly 500 million EU citizens. About 50,000 EU citizens die every year too young from heart disease because they have eaten foods containing industrially produced trans fatty acids.

When articles on the Danish ban were published in prestigious medical journals it led to media pressure in the USA. Both McDonalds and KFC voluntarily changed to less dangerous forms of fats in their food.

The EU Commission gave up conducting a lawsuit against Denmark for distorting competition. Steen Stender would rather have won a lawsuit. This point of view was backed up by Henrik Dam Christensen, who previously sat in the EU Parliament. Following the hearing the Social Democratic proposal on a ban in the other Nordic countries like in Denmark will be discussed at the next Nordic Council meeting in Stavanger in April, but generally speaking, most of the politicians agreed that something must be done - both in the Nordic region and in the EU.

Sham Democracy

• Independent - "Western countries are turning a blind eye to flawed and unfair elections... giving autocrats a veneer of acceptability and allowing sham democracies to thrive, Human Rights Watch said... 'States claiming the mantle of democracy... should guarantee the human rights that are central to it, including the rights to free expression, assembly and association, as well as free and fair elections... By allowing autocrats to pose as democrats... the United States, the European Union and other influential democracies risk undermining human rights worldwide.'"

• NYT - "The advocacy group... said that the Bush administration was giving lip service to the promotion of democracy around the world by endorsing suspect elections while allowing human rights violations in those countries to go unchecked... The organization blamed the United States and Europe for undermining human rights by allowing autocrats to pretend they are democratic... acting 'as if simply holding a vote is enough to prove a nation democratic'."

USA

• McClatchy - In "the clearest sign yet that the U.S. economy is nearing a recession, if not already in it. The Labor Department reported Friday that the nation's unemployment rate dropped a hair to 4.9 percent in January. But non-farm payroll employment fell by 17,000 jobs, led by declines in construction, manufacturing and even health care... The last time employment turned negative was in August 2003".

• LA Times - Bush used a signing statement to 'express concerns' with four provisions of the 2008 authorization bill for the Defense Department. "Those measures would: prohibit the administration from establishing permanent bases in Iraq or controlling Iraqi oil resources, establish a congressional commission to review military contracts in Iraq, protect contractor whistle-blowers, and put a 45-day deadline on U.S. intelligence agencies to respond to information requests from Congress' committees on intelligence and armed services."

• Guard, reserves called inadequate for domestic disasters
  By Peter Spiegel, Los Angeles Times

  National Guard and reserve forces remain inadequately equipped and unprepared to deal with a wide range of domestic disasters, particularly an attack with unconventional weapons, a congressional commission has concluded.

  In its final report, the panel said Thursday that congressional and Pentagon policymakers had been reluctant to acknowledge that the military remains the only institution that can respond quickly to natural and man-made disasters. That reluctance "places the nation at risk," because it has led to shortfalls in planning and readiness, the report said.

  Reserve units have been taxed by repeated deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan, but the commission said the inadequacies were not solely the result of the wars. Overall, it said, the Pentagon has failed to provide adequate funding, on the "flawed assumption" that current training for military operations overseas would suffice for domestic duties as well.

• Fort Worth Star-Telegram - "Senior Airman Johnson, a tall, towheaded 20-year-old college student and Air Force reservist, was relieved from duty in Iraq by his mother. Johnson the son returned from Kirkuk, Iraq, on Wednesday after six months of duty with the Fort Worth-based 610th Security Forces Squadron. His mother, Staff Sgt. Tammi Johnson, a 42-year-old reservist in the 507th Security Forces Squadron in Oklahoma, took his place."

• Oregonian - "Oregon Secretary of State Bill Bradbury is the first high-ranking state executive to voice firm opposition to construction of any liquefied natural-gas terminal in Oregon. Speaking at a global warming forum..., Bradbury said he believed the facilities would take the state '180 degrees the wrong direction'".

• WaPo - "The persistent and dramatic decline in the snowpack of many mountains in the West is caused primarily by human-induced global warming and is not the result of natural variability in weather patterns, researchers reported yesterday... Using data collected over the past 50 years, the scientists confirmed that the mountains are getting more rain and less snow, that the snowpack is breaking up faster and that more rivers are running dry by summer... The researchers' computer models showed that climate change is clearly the explanation that best fits the data."

• Bloomberg - "Thousands of bats are dying from an unknown illness in the northeastern U.S. at a rate that could cause extinction... At eight caves in New York and one in Vermont, scientists have seen bat populations plummet over two years... Scientists don't know what's causing the deaths". AP adds "The white fungus ring around bats' noses is a symptom, but not necessarily the cause. For some unknown reason, the bats deplete their fat reserves and die months before they would normally emerge from hibernation."

Europe

• CS Monitor - "The race to replace President Vladimir Putin officially opens Saturday. But actual campaigning is difficult to find. Mr. Putin's handpicked successor, Dmitri Medvedev, who is basking in opinion polls that show him winning almost three-quarters of the votes on March 2, has declined to campaign or even publicly debate his opponents. Several outside candidates who might have challenged the Kremlin's script were ejected from the ballot in the pre-campaign stage, leaving only the usual, predictable also-rans of post-Soviet Russian politics".

• Stark choice for Serbs in presidential vote
  By Dan Bilefsky, International Herald Tribune

  As Serbia prepared to choose a president, 25,000 supporters of the nationalist challenger, Tomislav Nikolic, packed a stadium where the warm-up performances included a haunting song celebrating Radovan Karadzic, the fugitive Bosnian Serb leader indicted for genocide, and rousing speeches by former lieutenants of the late Slobodan Milosevic.

  The main nod to the West in an evening marked by enthusiastic tributes to Moscow was an appearance by Serbia's Eurovision Song Contest winner, Marija Serifovic. She belted out her powerful winning Serbian ballad, before rebuking the pro-Western incumbent, President Boris Tadic, for failing to appreciate the glory she had brought to this poor but proud Balkan nation of nine million...

  Nikolic's Radical Party edged out Tadic's Democratic Party in the first round of the elections. The latest polls show Tadic, 50, a telegenic but understated psychologist, who advocates closer ties with the European Union and Washington, ahead by 3 percent, or about 150,000 votes...

  The vote also has become a test between a campaign by the European Union and the United States to stabilize the Balkans and Russian determination to extend its sphere of influence to the Adriatic Sea.

• AFP - "Poland said Friday it has reached a deal in principle with the United States for aid to modernize Polish air defenses in return for Warsaw's hosting a controversial US missile shield. But Poland's visiting Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski added that 'a great deal of work' lay ahead while his host, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, spoke of "some progress" and "some momentum" on missile defense."

• AP - "Denmark will investigate claims that the CIA secretly used an airport on the Nordic country's remote Arctic territory of Greenland to transport prisoners in the U.S. war on terror, the prime minister said Thursday... Denmark, like many other European countries, began investigating reports in 2005 that the U.S. intelligence agency quietly touched down on their territory as part of the CIA's so-called 'extraordinary rendition' program."

• NYT - "As numerous European banks considered whether to make a bid for Société Générale, reeling from a $7.1 billion trading loss, regulators in Brussels warned the French government Thursday against trying to protect the bank from foreign suitors... France has a history of butting heads with European regulators over shielding national champions from takeovers and bankruptcy."

• IHT - "When elections come again to Italy - and they may soon because the center-left government of Prime Minister Romano Prodi... polls show that nearly two years after he lost the prime minister's office, [Silvio] Berlusconi would probably win... While Berlusconi and his allies lead in most polls published in recent weeks, he is only the likely winner - not the certain one. He will probably face the popular mayor of Rome, Walter Veltroni, who is media savvy and nearly 20 years younger than Berlusconi."

• AP - "The Constitutional Court has struck down the law that opened Romania's secret police archives, a blow to efforts to further expose the country's communist past. Many Romanians contend the law had been used for retribution and blackmail... The court ruling, issued Thursday, effectively forces the Council for the Study of the Securitate Archives to shut down, and makes its previous decisions null."

• BBC News - "High winds and heavy snowfall have been affecting much of the UK, stranding some motorists and blacking out homes. Some 200 people had to be rescued after being stranded by snow on the A66 in Cumbria. And 3,500 homes, mostly in North Yorks, are still without power."

Africa

• Guardian - "At least nine people were killed in western Kenya yesterday in revenge attacks over the shooting of an opposition MP, officials said yesterday, despite a call from the UN secretary general, Ban Ki-moon, for an end to the violence. A mob of 3,000 people armed with bows, arrows, spears and machetes lynched a police officer in the Rift Valley village of the MP who was shot by a policeman. In a second village, six people were hacked to death and two killed with poisoned arrows, according to witnesses. A local official said Kalenjin people were killing Kisii people, who are blamed for the MP's death because they are considered government allies."

• Conflict spells disasster for whole of East Africa
  By Anne Penketh, The Independent

  Kenya's political meltdown is threatening its economic lifeline to Somalia and other neighbouring countries and disrupting the supply of desperately needed relief aid.

  The economies of landlocked states such as Uganda, Rwanda and Burundi, which rely on Kenya's trade links via its Indian Ocean port of Mombasa, are already being hit by the effects of the unrest.

  Goods are piling up in Mombasa amid fears of blockages along the main road to Nairobi. Other arteries including the roads from the capital to the western city of Kisumu and the highway between Nakuru and Eldoret have also been blocked. Guillermo Bettocci, the Somalia representative of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, expressed concern about the cancellation of flights at Nairobi airport, which is used to fly out supplies to Somalia.

• BBC News - "Barrels containing about 2.5 tonnes of cocaine have been seized from a ship off the coast of Liberia. It is the single largest drug seizure in the country's history, according to maritime officials. The ship, the Blue Atlantic, was spotted on the high seas on Thursday by a French military vessel, which intercepted and towed it to the port."

Middle East

• WaPo - "Within the span of 10 minutes, two female suicide bombers blew themselves up in crowded Baghdad markets on Friday, killing dozens of people in the deadliest day in the Iraqi capital in months, according to U.S. and Iraqi officials... There were conflicting reports about the scale of the carnage. Iraqi police said 58 people were killed and 172 others were wounded, while the U.S. military reported 27 killed and more than 50 injured. The bombings took place in predominantly Shiite neighborhoods." The AP adds: "The chief Iraqi military spokesman in Baghdad, Brig. Gen. Qassim al-Moussawi, said the female bombers had Down syndrome and that the explosives were detonated by remote control -- indicating they may not having been willing attackers in what could be a new method by suspected Sunni insurgents to subvert stepped up security measures."

• NYT - "The Kurds' efforts to seize control of the oil-rich city of Kirkuk and to gain a more advantageous division of national revenues are uniting most Sunnis and many Shiites with Mr. Maliki's government in opposition to the Kurdish demands... Now the Americans are increasingly placed in the uncomfortable position of choosing between the Kurds, whom they have long supported and protected, and the Iraqi Arabs, whose government the Americans helped create."

• BBC News - "Egypt has arrested 15 Palestinians armed with weapons and explosives who are believed to have crossed the Gaza border since it was breached last week. The men, who were detained in the Sinai peninsula, also had detonators, flak jackets and grenades, officials said. The arrests came as Egyptian government officials held talks with the Palestinian militant group, Hamas, on how to re-establish border controls."

• CNN - "An undersea cable carrying Internet traffic was cut off the Persian Gulf emirate of Dubai, officials said Friday, the third loss of a line carrying Internet and telephone traffic in three days. Ships have been dispatched to repair two undersea cables damaged on Wednesday off Egypt." The cables were likely damaged by ships' anchors. The Guardian has more.

South Asia

• Independent - "Afghanistan's President, Hamid Karzai, has been inundated with appeals to save the life of Sayed Pervez Kambaksh, the student journalist sentenced to death after being accused of downloading an internet report on women's rights... The United Nations, human rights groups, journalists' organisations and diplomats urged Mr Karzai's government to quash the death sentence and release him."

• LA Times - "Two deadly bombings Thursday in Afghanistan underscored the difficulties in combating the nightmarish tactics of the Taliban insurgency, which is increasingly sending suicide bombers through cities in search of vulnerable targets. Thursday's attacks claimed seven victims, including the deputy governor of turbulent Helmand province, who was praying in a mosque. A declining sense of security pervades many parts of the country, as American and other NATO troops tackle a revived insurgency."

• McClatchy - "The Bush administration has signaled that it will continue to tolerate Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf's crackdown on his country's judiciary at least until after a Feb. 18 national election. Calling Musharraf an indispensable ally, U.S. officials have largely declined to criticize his ouster of top judges and said that questions about restoring the courts' independence should be put on hold until after the election."

• CS Monitor - Parveena Ahangar "is the champion of families left vulnerable in this [Kashmir] conflict. She's also a ferocious oddity in a traditional Muslim culture where a veiled woman's place is in the kitchen. This barely literate housewife has become the globe-trotting face of a campaign to account for what human rights groups claim are 10,000 disappeared men... Indian authorities dispute the disappearance figure and assert that most of those alleged to be missing slipped into Pakistan for guerrilla training".

• Reuters - "India has put 26 people in isolation with bird flu symptoms and hundreds more people are being monitored, officials said on Friday as Pakistan and Thailand reported outbreaks of bird flu in poultry. India is battling its worst outbreak of avian influenza, which has spread to 13 of West Bengal's 19 districts. The densely populated state is adjacent to Bangladesh, itself trying to control a major outbreak of bird flu, and has millions of backyard fowl."

• SMH - Among "north India's Sikh leaders... there are fears that young Sikhs are spurning the traditional headgear in growing numbers. Even in the Sikh heartland city of Amritsar, home of the magnificent Golden Temple, turbans are being abandoned. Sikh elders there are so alarmed they have set up a free turban clinic."

Asia-Pacific

• Guardian - "Chinese state security forces have arrested one of the country's most prominent civil rights activists in an apparent crackdown on dissent ahead of the Olympics. Hu Jia - who used blogs, webcasts and video to expose human rights abuses - is expected to face charges of inciting subversion of state power".

• Reuters - "Millions of Chinese faced a humanitarian crisis on Friday, as petrol and food reserves dwindled and yet more bad weather was forecast for a country paralyzed by record-breaking cold and snow. More than 160 counties and cities in central China were suffering blackouts and water shortages... including Chenzhou, in Hunan province, a city of 4 million that has been without power and water for more than a week."

• AFP - "China's gridlocked transport system rumbled back to life Friday but millions of angry travellers remained stranded all around the country, unable to return home for annual holidays amid the worst winter in five decades... Officials said Friday the number of train cars used to carry coal to power plants would be raised to an all-time high of 40,000 per day amid reports the nation's stockpile of coal for power generation had dropped to a six-day supply."

• IHT - "The government said Friday that at least 175 people in Japan were sickened by insecticide-tainted dumplings from China, prompting supermarkets to pull Chinese-made meat products from their shelves while Tokyo pressed Beijing to improve food safety. Newspaper headlines warned of a national panic as hundreds more people complained of dizziness and nausea after eating dumplings and other Chinese-made foods."

• AP - "Myanmar's junta has stepped up surveillance of the Internet, arresting one blogger who wrote about the stifling of free expression in the military-ruled nation, a media advocacy group said. The blogger, Nay Myo Latt, was taken into custody in Yangon on Wednesday after writing about the suppression of freedoms following last fall's crushing of pro-democracy demonstrations, Reporters Without Borders said." Hat tip Turkana.

• Reuters - "Vietnamese military technicians have capped an area of a former U.S. military airport with concrete to stop dioxin or 'agent orange' contaminating a lake, part of a joint project to deal with a bitter war legacy. The measures taken in recent months at Danang in central Vietnam were temporary, but an important milestone, a group of prominent Vietnamese and Americans said on Friday."

• SMH - "Are Labor prime ministers rain-makers? Before November's federal election, Brian Clancy, a journalist with the Victorian rural newspaper The Weekly Times... found that since 1972... there had been 13 wet years in 16 years of federal Labor rule, while all but three Coalition years had been dry. As soon as Kevin Rudd moved into the Lodge the heavens opened, bringing often flooding rains to eastern Australia."

• SMH - "The effect of seismic exploration [for oil] on Australia's best-known blue whale feeding ground is set to intensify, just as signs emerge that the endangered [whales] are increasingly sick. Surveys with exploding airguns are planned for 5900 square kilometres of waters that blue whales use at the same time, off Victoria and South Australia. Whales avoid seismic noise and concern is growing that these blue whales will miss out on prime feeding opportunities. Some already show signs of being emaciated and parasite-ridden, scientists studying them say."

Americas

• AP - "Led by a column of tractors, tens of thousands of demonstrators marched through downtown Mexico City on Thursday to protest recent trade openings that removed the last tariff protections for ancestral Mexican crops like corn and beans. Chanting 'Without corn, the country doesn't exist!' farmers and farm activists from across the nation demanded the Mexican government renegotiate the 1994 North American Free Trade Agreement, or NAFTA, to reinstate protection for basic crops." Hat tip davidseth.

• Reuters - "Mexico is demanding that U.S. Border Patrol agents stop using tear gas to protect themselves against increased attacks as they try to keep illegal immigrants from entering the United States... Mexico's human rights commission says Border Patrol agents have fired tear gas into Mexico at least six times since November."

• Miami Herald - "Human Rights Watch on Thursday said Venezuela does not belong to a group of nations like Pakistan and Russia that use the veneer of democracy to mask autocratic rule -- directly contradicting U.S. government assertions. The New York-based group's position also runs contrary to allegations by many opponents of Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez that he is undermining democracy at home and around Latin America." Hah!

• AP - "Argentina's Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo, who launched a human rights crusade in the late 70s against a bloody dictatorship, took control of a building at a former naval academy that was the junta's chief torture center. Activists on Thursday painted cheery suns and flowers on the building, which will begin operating April 30 as a cultural complex and also houses classrooms for law students attending a university the Mothers founded in recent years."

• AP - "One of Colombia's most-wanted drug lords has been found slain, Venezuela's top counter-drug official said Friday. Fingerprints of the man who was found shot to death in the Venezuelan city of Merida on Wednesday matched those of Wilber Varela, said Col. Nestor Reverol, head of the National Anti-Drug Agency."

• BBC News - "The Panamanian golden frog communicates with other frogs by semaphore in the form of gentle hand waves. It has evolved the mechanism to signal to rivals and mates above the noise of mountain streams. Shortly after filming for the BBC One series Life In Cold Blood, the frogs had to be rescued from the wild, due to the threat of chytrid fungus... The whole species is now extinct in Panama - this was one of the last remaining populations."

• Globe and Mail - Canada's "Prime Minister Stephen Harper wouldn't answer questions Friday about allegations the governor of Kandahar was personally involved in the torture and abuse of detainees." "The Harper government knew, but tried to keep secret since last spring, allegations that the governor of Kandahar was personally involved in torture and abuse of detainees."

• Globe and Mail - "A severe winter snowstorm barrelled into Southern and Eastern Ontario on Friday, closing schools and offices, and leading to the cancellation of a large number of flights... People scrambled to train stations in hopes of reaching their destinations, Via Rail services filled up fast. Extra capacity was added but it wasn't enough to accommodate the demand. Most trains running between Windsor and Ottawa or Quebec City were sold out by late morning, with limited availability on other routes."

• CBC News - "A $2-billion carbon capture and storage plan aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions was released Thursday by a task force established by the Alberta and federal governments in March 2007... The report's main recommendation is for the federal and provincial governments to provide $2 billion in funding to get five new carbon capture and storage facilities operating by 2015. Taxpayers should not have to pay to reduce the pollution created by industry, said John Bennett, executive director of Ottawa-based environmental group ClimateforChange.ca when asked about the recommendation."

World

• Guardian - "Mangrove ecosystems should be better protected, the UN's food agency has warned as it published new figures showing that 20% of the world's mangrove area has been destroyed since 1980... The total mangrove area has declined from 18.8m ha (46.4m acres) in 1980 to 15.2m ha (37.5m acres) in 2005... Around 50% of the world's total mangrove area is found in Indonesia, Australia, Brazil, Nigeria and Mexico."

By the numbers

• Bush has 352 days left. 3,941 U.S. and 4,250 total coalition confirmed deaths in Iraq. Over $490,814,000,000 has been spent on the Iraq invasion and occupation. The U.S. federal debt is now over $9,211,662,000,000.

Lifeline for Pervez: Afghan Senate withdraws demand for death sentence - Asia, World - Independent.co.uk

In a dramatic volte-face, the Afghan Senate has withdrawn its confirmation of a death sentence on Sayed Pervez Kambaksh, the student convicted of blasphemy for downloading a report on women's rights from the internet.

The move follows widespread international protests and appeals to the President, Hamid Karzai, after the case was highlighted by The Independent and more than 31,000 readers signed our petition to secure justice for Mr Kambaksh. In Britain, the Foreign Secretary David Miliband, the Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg and the shadow Foreign Secretary, William Hague, backed the campaign, and there have been demonstrations in the Afghan capital, Kabul.

The first ruling by the Senate supporting the death sentence on Mr Kambaksh by a religious court in Mazar-i-Sharif in the north of the country, was proposed by Sibghatullah Mojaddedi, a key ally of President Karzai, and was seen as a severe blow to the 23-year-old journalism student's chances of avoiding execution. The new stance, in which the Senate calls its previous decision "a technical mistake", significantly raises hopes that he will eventually be freed.

"PostGlobal, the joint washingtonpost.com and Newsweek site on global affairs moderated by David Ignatius and Fareed Zakaria, launched "Islam's Advance" this week. This blog aims to challenge perceptions of Islam as a monolithic and ext"

Islam's Advance

This blog aims to challenge our perceptions of Islam as a monolithic and extremist creed, and to look for answers to some of the most important questions facing the world today: how is Islam adapting to the demands of the 21st century? What can the religion do to reform from within? And how do those tensions play themselves out in the lives of ordinary Muslims?

Over the next few months, I'll be traveling around Central Asia and the Middle East in search of answers to these questions. Starting in Afghanistan, I'll be talking to dozens of young Muslims about what their faith means to them, how to they see the world around them changing, and what their role in it will be.

Some of their voices will be quirky and idiosyncratic, others more reflective and steeped in tradition. Most must juggle the competing forces of family and modernity, sectarianism and a transnational creed, extremism and Western-style freedoms, corrupt governments and unfulfilled promises from the international community

Who created the perceptions of an extremist creed?
Who makes opposites of  "extremism" and "Western-style values"?
Who makes corrupt government an exogenous element?

In the long run, we're all dead. John Maynard Keynes

Graphic Novel Tackles Taboo of the Holocaust | Germany | Deutsche Welle | 01.02.2008

How do you inform increasingly history-weary teenagers about the Holocaust? An institute in the Netherlands has come up with an unconventional way to deal with Germany's dark past in the classroom -- a comic book.

For the past two days, Thomas Heppener has been besieged by calls from journalists. Ever since the director of the Anne Frank Center in Berlin unveiled plans for a comic book on the Holocaust in German schools, media interest has been intense.

Germany's mass-selling Bild tabloid on Thursday, Jan. 31,  published excerpts from the book, under the headline "Hitler Comic for German schools."

Bildunterschrift: Großansicht des Bildes mit der Bildunterschrift:  "Die Suche" is a milestone publication

"I'm a bit surprised at the intense reactions the plans have sparked," said Heppener. "Of course if you hear the words 'Hitler comic' you're going to be taken aback at first. But if you look closer, you'll see it's a serious attempt to find new ways to approach history at a time when Holocaust witnesses are dying out and young people are increasingly uninterested in that period."

The Subprime Cleanup Intensifies

Did UBS Improperly Book Mortgage Prices? Several Probes Expand

Federal criminal prosecutors in New York are investigating whether UBS AG misled investors by booking inflated prices of mortgage bonds it held despite knowledge that the valuations had dropped, according to people familiar with the matter.

The investigation, by the U.S. attorney in New York's Eastern District in Brooklyn, is preliminary. The U.S. attorney's office frequently works closely with the Securities and Exchange Commission to coordinate efforts to gather information. The New York prosecutors haven't issued subpoenas, according to people familiar with the matter.

The SEC, deepening its own set of investigations into whether Wall Street firms improperly mispriced mortgage securities, recently upgraded probes of UBS and Merrill Lynch & Co. into formal investigations, people familiar with the matter say. This step, which requires approval of the full commission, gives the SEC broad subpoena power, or the authority to require firms and individuals to produce information.

(...)

There is also a broader effort by the Justice Department to look into whether there was fraud in originating, packaging and selling mortgage-related products. The Federal Bureau of Investigation has said it has opened criminal inquires into 14 companies as part of an investigation of the subprime-mortgage crisis. The FBI wouldn't identify the companies under investigation.

Although prosecutors have expressed an interest in subprime matters, the criminal investigations might not result in the filing of any charges. Securities-valuation cases involve a fair amount of judgment based on an opaque market. To bring fraud charges, "prosecutors need proof to convince a jury beyond a reasonable doubt that the banks made materially misleading statements about securities, and proof that they did it with the intent to deceive," says Christopher J. Clark, a New York white-collar lawyer and former assistant U.S. attorney in Manhattan in the securities and commodities fraud unit. To obtain an indictment, prosecutors would need probable cause, he adds.

In the long run, we're all dead. John Maynard Keynes

Leaked UK gov't doc reveals plan to "coerce" Brits into national ID register -- MIRROR THIS FILE! - Boing Boing

UK campaigners NO2ID this morning enlisted the help of bloggers across the world to spread a leaked government document describing how the British government intends to go about "coercing" its citizens onto a National Identity Register. The 'ID card' is revealed as little more than a cover to create a official dossier and trackable ID for every UK resident - creating what NO2ID calls 'the database state'.

NO2ID's national coordinator, Phil Booth, exhorted bloggers, freedom lovers and anyone who gives a damn about personal privacy to mirror the annotated document on their site.

Any idiot can face a crisis - it's day to day living that wears you out.

Good morning, Fran. Have a good day!

I'm in Lucknow, capital of Uttar Pradesh, state with 166-mln strong population.
Arrived here by train from Siliguri where I was touring West Bengal Hills and Sikkim on mind-blowing serpantine mountainous roads. Generally I think these roads, treacherous, dangerous and prone to landslides and accidents, take bigger part of memory of these serene places populated by hobbits (hillmen are not tall or burly), because life (even tourist' life) is mainly spent on roads, inside jeeps - sights and towns are far away from each other, visit to two-three monasteries takes the whole day. Fortunately for my purse I met in Siliguri a group of travelling Russian strudents with their teacher and we shared jeeps, otherwise the trip could breach my budget.  

In Lucknow I am spending only one day, sights (two imambaras and portrait gallery of erstwhile nawabs with successors becoming fatter and more decadent) are enough to be busy for half-day, second part I could spend at fantastic culinary feast in one of the city's restaurants, but I don't want to eat much.
The worst thing in Lucknow is almost total absence of private authorickshaws or taxis, very inconvenient for me (possibly I could hire them from hotel but I don't stay here, I just put my luggage in locker room in railway statiuon and after few hours I am departing for holy Haridwar and Rishikesh).

The best impression from Lucknow I've got in Ram Advani bookshop right in the centre of business district Hazratganj next to Capoor's hotel. It is very old-fashioned and lovely. When I came inside I saw the group of elders talking about something and said Namaste to lady at the counter. But one of the gentlemen got up, and offered me his service and advice. I was touched, and told him I'm interested in regional history. Books were mainly writings about Lucknow, its past and present but not what I'm interested most. Classical music was playing gently making even mundane conversations meaningful. Later we (I and Mr Ram Advani) talked once again, he was sorry he could not provide for me books, I was grateful for wonderful bookshop, worthy of visit to Lucknow.

Just a shameless invite to come see photos from my new home over at Hubbert's Toboggan

Rather than cross post as a photo diary I thought I would just leave a link.

Been here over a month now!  it barely seems like a couple of weeks... and I seem to be more busy than when I was working full time!

The difference between theory and practise in practise ...

I agree, haven't really been able to look at it leisurely, but skimming through it, it looks great.