Delegations from Germany and Russia meet in St. Petersburg this week for the traditional gathering of minds from the the political and civil spheres of both nations. However, this year, things are different.

The next round of Russian-German intergovernmental consultations known as the St. Petersburg Dialogue begins on Tuesday, Sept. 30 with Chancellor Angela Merkel and the German delegation traveling to the Russian city to meet with President Dmitry Medvedev and members of his government.

The dialogue, which was first launched six years ago by predecessors Vladimir Putin and Gerhard Schroeder, is an open discussion forum intended to lend new impetus to German-Russian relations in a wide range of sectors, from economics and politics to education and science, cultural relations and religion.

It is supported by political and private-sector foundations and private businesses in Germany and in Russia, as well as the two governments. A cross-section of experts from all fields are represented at the event.

Not a single member of the opposition won a seat in Belarus' parliamentary elections, which was slammed by the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) as "undemocratic."

Among the problems noted by OSCE preliminary findings on Monday, Sept. 29, as "bad" or "very-bad" was Belarusian ballot counting often taking place behind closed doors barred to independent observers, making free and fair election practically impossible.

"Despite some minor improvements, the Sept. 28 parliamentary election in Belarus ultimately fell short of OSCE commitments for democratic elections ... The election took place in a strictly controlled environment with a barely visible campaign," the OSCE said in its report.

"Voting was generally well conducted but the process deteriorated considerably during the vote count. Promises to ensure transparency of the vote count were not implemented," the monitors' report said. "The count was assessed as bad or very bad in 48 percent of polling stations visited. Where access was possible several cases of deliberate falsification of results were observed."

ussia is providing four helicopters to the European Union's peacekeeping mission in Chad, despite simmering tension over the situation in Georgia, EU defense officials and diplomats have confirmed.

The four Russian transport helicopters are expected to begin operations in November and will provide more "flexibility" to the bloc's EUFOR mission, its operational commander, Lieutenant General Patrick Nash, said at a press conference in Brussels on Monday, Sept. 29.

"We want to be active, we want to be in places where we can react, and we want to have the element of surprise: Helicopters in a country the size of Chad give you that extra dimension. And the more helicopters I have, the more flexibility the force commander has," Nash said.

At the same time, Nash stressed that EUFOR was not dependent on the Russian contribution, noting that it represented less than "one third" of the mission's current helicopter capabilities.

Consisting of 3,700 soldiers, EUFOR is the EU's largest ever military mission.

EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - Sweden and the Netherlands are the best EU performers when it comes to broadband internet, while Bulgaria and Cyprus come last, according to a report by the European Commission.

"Both countries [Sweden and the Netherlands] have a favourable socio-economic context, with a high propensity to use advanced services and a competitive environment that has ensured affordable prices and high speeds," says the commission in its paper on broadband performance in the EU member states.

On average, some 36 percent of EU households currently enjoy high-speed internet access

To measure that performance, Brussels is using a so-called Broadband Performance Index (BPI) based on a series of factors, including speed, rural coverage, affordability, innovation, as well as socio-economic dimensions.

Denmark, the UK, France and non-EU member Norway follow Sweden and The Netherlands, while Poland, Romania, Cyprus and Bulgaria come last.

The European Union has extended its civil nuclear co-operation with India in a move championed by French President Nicolas Sarkozy, who is expected to sign a bilateral deal with the Indian prime minister on Tuesday (30 September).

The move, which comes despite India not being a party to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, echoes a similar agreement signed between the Asian country and the United States.

Nicolas Sarkozy hopes to strike a bilateral deal with India while extending EU civil nuclear co-operation with the Asian country

The development was announced following a EU-India summit in Marseille on Monday (29 September).

Additionally, European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso hailed a "joint action plan on climate change" sealed with India, adding that civil nuclear co-operation would be extended with the Asian country on nuclear fusion.

Finland has introduced stricter rules on gun permits, following a school shooting in which 11 people died.

Handgun permits would no longer be granted to first-time applicants, the interior ministry said.

Instead, they must train for at least a year at a gun club before being allowed to apply for a permit.

All applicants must also provide a note from a doctor about their mental health and sit an interview with police. The new rules cover pistols and revolvers.

ROME: Italian police made sweeping arrests against the mob Tuesday, targeting a powerful clan as well as three suspects linked to a recent gangland-style slaying of six African immigrants near Naples, authorities said.

In a series of raids in Naples and surrounding areas, where the Camorra crime syndicate is based, police also seized assets worth €100 million ($143.5 million) and weapons, including two AK-47s believed to have been used Sept. 18 against the Africans, police and government officials said.

Interior Minister Roberto Maroni hailed the operation as a serious blow to the Camorra organization.

"We have waged war on the Camorra," Maroni said. "We want to exert pressure like never before and keep this pressure up until the war is won."

Britain's overstretched households have collectively spent more than they earned and resorted to dipping into savings to meet soaring living costs for the first time since the late 1950s, when Harold Macmillan was Prime Minister.

The bleak picture was revealed today in official figures, which laid bare the full scale of the squeeze on families as the economic downturn forces the cost of living to spiral upwards and household incomes to grow only weakly.

The intensity of the crunch on family budgets was emphasised as the figures also showed that consumer spending in the second quarter dipped by 0.1 per cent, registering its first outright fall since early 1995.

The figures suggest that consumers resorted to cutting back on spending between April and June after being forced to draw down on their savings during the previous three months.

Italians are noted for their aversion to paying taxes but this time residents of Ravenna can be excused for saying "no" to the latest wheeze dreamt up by local bureaucrats: a rain tax.

Arguing that heavy rain causes severe damage to infrastructure, buildings and agriculture in the Po valley, the authorities in the Emilia Romagna region have quietly added 3 per cent to water bills to maintain and improve drainage systems after downpours. The Ravenna water board - which is so enthusiastic about the new tax that it wants to backdate it three years - claims that the payments will save it €1 million (£800,000) a year.

Consumer organisations in Ravenna are urging householders not to pay up. "This is just another tax in disguise," Roberto Passino, spokesman for a protest group, said.

Gurkhas who fought alongside the British Army have won their battle to settle in the UK following a High Court test case.

The result was welcomed by actress Joanna Lumley, whose late father served with the 6th Gurkha Rifles, as a chance to "right a great wrong and wipe out a national shame that has stained us all".

The six claimants who led the battle by 2,000 Gurkhas for the right to live in the UK included veterans of the Gulf War and Falklands conflicts who currently live in Nepal and Hong Kong.

They all applied to settle in the UK but were denied entry by immigration officials because of a policy that barred those who had not served since the Nepalese fighters' base moved from Hong Kong to Kent following the island nation's handover to China in 1997.

Their lawyer argued in the judicial review that all other foreign soldiers serving in the British Army are allowed to settle in the UK and the country owed the Gurkhas a "special debt" of gratitude for their brave service, which saw 50,000 killed and 13 win Victoria Crosses.

Digital body scanners which leave little to the imagination will be used by airport security on passengers travelling across the European Union within two years.

According to a draft European Commission regulation, seen by The Daily Telegraph, the new millimetre wave imaging scanners are to be used "individually or in combination, as a primary or secondary means and under defined conditions" to provide a "virtual strip search" of travellers.

The new EU regulation, which will be binding on Britain, is intended to enter into force across the continent by the end of April 2010.

Dominic Grieve, Shadow Home Secretary, stressed that while body scanners may be an effective security tool "the implementation must be carried out by the British government in a proportionate manner, based on UK security requirements rather than the dictates of Brussels".

"Ministers need to explain publicly and transparently what these proposals are and why they are suitable to the UK," he said.

Scientists have uncovered an ancient and elaborate source of pain relief that is based purely on the power of the mind, according to research published today.

Brain scans of volunteers who were subjected to electrical shocks revealed that Roman Catholics felt less pain than atheists and agnostics when they were shown a painting of the Virgin Mary.

European governments were forced to rescue a number of financial institutions hit by the US-born crisis, sending stock markets plummeting. Washington's rejection of a $700-billion bailout caused world markets to plummet.

Only a few weeks ago, banks in the euro zone financial sector were said to be safe from the US-born financial crisis, but now, as the global financial situation gradually worsens, five European governments have had to step in to prop up financial institutions.

Separately, news emerged late Monday, Sept. 29, that the US House of Representatives rejected a $700 billion measure to rescue the failing American financial system. The bailout bill was defeated after many House Republicans ignored their leaders' pleas and voted against it. A majority of Democrats voted in favor of the plan.

"I feel they've taken leave of their senses," said European Union Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson of US lawmakers Monday in an interview with BBC, "and I hope that in Europe we will not see politicians and parliamentarians replicating the sort of irresponsibility and political partisanship that we have seen in Washington."

European authorities in Brussels, Frankfurt and at EU member state level are scrambling to save the continent's financial system after bank stocks plunged when US lawmakers rejected a $700 billion bailout of Wall Street on Monday (29 September).

Banks are petrified of lending to one another for more than one day, requiring central banks to flood their coffers with the money they need to stay in business.

After yesterday's part-nationalisation of Belgo-Dutch banking giant Fortis and the nationalisation of the UK's Bradford & Bingley, Belgium-based Dexia, the biggest provider of lending to local governments in the world, could be the next financial institution to be rescued by taxpayers.

In an email from Belgian Prime Minister Yves Leterme, the country's federal government reached an agreement with Belgium's regional assemblies to jointly support the bank, Bloomberg News reported

PARIS: Dexia, a French-Belgian lender, received a capital injection of more than $9 billion from public shareholders on Tuesday as a deepening global credit crisis continued to shake European banks. Meanwhile in Ireland, the government backed all deposits in the country's banks.

After all-night negotiations, the Belgian government announced that it and other Belgian stakeholders would invest $4.26 billion in Dexia. The French government will contribute $1.42 billion, the French state-controlled Caisse des Depots $2.84 billion and the Luxembourg government $518.82 million, according to a statement from the Belgian prime minister's office.

Shares in Dexia, which had been suspended at the open, vaulted 18.1 percent to €8.45 in late morning trading.

"The market is encouraged, this restores confidence" said Georg Krijgh, an analyst at Rabo Securities in Amsterdam. "It shows the government is supporting the banks and makes Dexia one of most solvent in the region, with Fortis and KBC."

As the US financial crisis continues to unsettle global financial markets, Brussels has said American legislators need to start meeting their obligations. But will the strong words have any effect?

In an unusually strong statement, the European Union has called American lawmakers to order for failing to reach agreement on a $700 billion plan to shore up foundering financial institutions and markets.

"The US must take its responsibility in this situation, must show statesmanship for the sake of their own companies and for the sake of the world," European Commission spokesman Joseph Laitenberger told journalists.

The statement came after the US House of Representatives narrowly rejected the bailout plan on Monday, September 29.

French President Sarkozy was to meet with French banking and insurance chiefs Tuesday in the wake of the refusal of the US Congress to approve a finance bail-out.

The aim of the meeting at the Elysee Palace is to "review the situation of the financial institutions as well as the availability of credit to households and companies," Sarkozy's office said Monday, but the defeat in the House of Representatives of the plan to rescue the US finance sector will add urgency to the talks.

Last week, Sarkozy had vowed that the French state would come to the aid of any financial institution at risk of failing, to ensure that depositors did not lose any of their savings.

Late Monday, the governments of France, Belgium and Luxembourg agreed in principle to inject 6.4 billion euros ($9.2 billion) into the struggling Franco-Belgian financial services group Dexia.

This week Europe has fallen deeper into the credit crunch. With multi-billion euro bailout packages, Germany, Britain and the Benelux states have saved banks from collapsing.

Hypo Real Estate, Fortis, Bradford & Bingley. Three European banks nearly collapsed in the course of just two days on Sunday and Monday, showing that the Wall Street financial crisis is pulling European companies into its pincers at an ever-faster clip. With trust between banks waning, analysts believe Europe is threatened with a serious credit crunch.

 The logos of Europe's crisis banks: The crisis is accelerating here and pulling an increasing number of institutions into its pincers. In order to protect the financial system from collapse, governments across Europe are being forced to intervene. Britain, Germany, Belgium, Luxembourg and the Netherlands all began spectacular rescues at the start of the week:

• the British government nationalized large parts of mortgage lender Bradford & Bingley on Monday, taking over some €63 billion ($90.6 billion) in bad loans;

• the governments of Belgium, Luxembourg and the Netherlands nationalized large parts of wobbling finance giant Fortis;

• in Germany, the government is providing a massive loan package together with a consortium of banks to prevent the collapse of the Munich-based Hypo Real Estate.

With the forced sale of its Netherlands activities of ABN Amro, Dutch-Belgian banking and insurance company Fortis will be back were it started. In a little over a year, Fortis has changed from a prestigious financial institution to a pariah in the banking world.

AFP

Fortis headquarters in Brussels

Over-confidence, bluff and arrogance have proved an almost fatal cocktail for Fortis which was saved from collapse by a financial injection of almost €11.2 billion on Sunday.

THE WORLD FROM BERLIN 'No More Cause for Feeling Schadenfreude'

With the government bailout of Hypo Real Estate Holding Monday, the now-global financial crisis has arrived and reared its ugly head in Germany. Commentators here largely approve of the measure, but they also want more government action -- and less anxiety -- soon.

A trader in Frankfurt watches anxiously as the effects of a government rescue plan of Hypo Real Estate affects the German market. Last Thursday, German Finance Minister Peer Steinbrück stood before the German parliament and tried to assure its members that "The United States is the source of the crisis, and it is the focus of the crisis." Four days later, Steinbrück launched the largest financial rescue action in postwar Germany, offering €26.6 billion ($38.3 billion) of a combined €35 billion line of credit to bailout Hypo Real Estate (HRE), the country's second-largest commercial property lender, which had considerable business in the US real estate market.

For Germans and Europeans, the crisis has arrived. On Sunday, the governments of Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg took partial control of struggling Benelux bank Fortis. On Monday, Britain seized control of mortgage lender Bradford & Bingley, and Iceland's government took over Glitnir, the country's third-largest bank.

Governments across Europe have continued to prop up the battered financial sector, with Dexia, the Belgian-French financial services group, receiving more than $9bn from the Belgian, French and Luxembourg treasuries.

Facing the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression, global central banks scrambled again on Tuesday to try to relieve a severe squeeze in money markets by more than doubling the amount of funding to $620 billion.

In Ireland, the government announced a blanket guarantee for savings held by its banks, covering up to $575bn in liabilities.

France, which had joined Belgium and Luxembourg in offering the lifeline to Dexia, which has run up huge losses in its US operations, said it would come to the aid of savers with new bank measures by the end of the week.

EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - Despite Benelux governments announcing a partial nationalisation of Fortis Bank on Sunday, the ongoing financial crisis continued to collect scalps through Europe on Monday (29 September), with the UK and Germany intervening to save financial institutions. Meanwhile, the European Central Bank has announced it would lend eurozone banks €120 billion in "a special term refinancing operation."

The European Central Bank announced it would lend eurozone banks €120 billion in "a special term refinancing operation."

The decision by the Belgian, Dutch and Luxembourger governments to purchase half the Belgo-Dutch banking giant for €11.2 billion represents the biggest bailout of a European bank since the beginning of the crisis.

The European Commission said on Monday it had been consulted during the negotiations and had so far no reason to believe the deal was in breach of EU competition rules.

"Up until now the national authorities in Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg have been listening to what the commission has been saying, so we have no reason to think that what they are going to notify the commission of is not going to be acceptable to the commission in terms of state aid rules," Jonathan Todd, a spokesperson for the institution told a press briefing in Brussels.

LONDON: This past spring, Mervyn King, the governor of the Bank of England, gave a speech denouncing the hubris of bankers. That very same day, the British bank Barclays disclosed a £18.5 million pay reward to its president, Robert Diamond Jr., for 2007 - despite sustaining a £1.6 billion write-down that year.

King followed up his criticism of the excesses of the City of London, as the financial district is known, by choosing not to accept an increase in his salary of £290,000, or $516,000.

Diamond, by comparison, is the American-born chief of Barclay's asset management and investment banking businesses, whose outsize personality and bonuses have made him one of the most visible symbols of a Wall Street ethos that has taken root in the financial district.

Stark as the contrast might have been, it was a mere hint of the uproar, led by Prime Minister Gordon Brown of Britain and joined by union leaders and theologians, that has emerged here in recent days over how to best curb a perceived culture of escalating pay packages that propelled bankers to push for exorbitant risks.

By Gavin Finch and David Yong
     Sept. 30 (Bloomberg) -- The cost of borrowing in dollars overnight surged the most on record after the U.S. Congress rejected a $700 billion bank rescue plan, heightening concern more institutions will fail.
     The London interbank offered rate, or Libor, that banks charge each other for such loans climbed 431 basis points to an all-time high of 6.88 percent today, the British Bankers'
Association said. The euro interbank offered rate, or Euribor, for one-month loans climbed to record 5.05 percent, the European Banking Federation said. The Libor-OIS spread, a gauge of the scarcity of cash, advanced to a record. Rates in Asia also rose.
     ``The money markets have completely broken down, with no trading taking place at all,'' said Christoph Rieger, a fixed- income strategist at Dresdner Kleinwort in Frankfurt. ``There is no market any more. Central banks are the only providers of cash to the market, no-one else is lending.''     Credit markets have seized up, tipping banks toward insolvency and forcing U.S. and European governments to rescue five banks in the past two days, including Dexia SA, the world's biggest lender to local governments, and Wachovia Corp. Money- market rates climbed even after the Federal Reserve yesterday more than doubled the size of its dollar-swap line with foreign central banks to $620 billion. Banks borrowed dollars from the ECB at almost six times the Fed's benchmark interest rate today.

                           Libor-OIS Spread

     The Libor-OIS spread, the difference between the three- month dollar rate and the overnight indexed swap rate, widened to 246 basis points, showing cash scarcity is at a record.
     The difference between what banks and the U.S. Treasury pay to borrow money for three months, the so-called TED spread, was at 338 basis points today after breaching 350 basis points for the first time yesterday. The spread was at 110 basis points a month ago.
     ``We can be sure that funding pressures are not going to ease while there is so much uncertainty,'' said Adam Carr, senior economist in Sydney at ICAP Australia Ltd., part of the world's largest inter-bank broker. ``Cash is going to be at a premium. There's really no end in sight.''

Iceland has just bailed out Glitnir Bank, with the government putting in 600 million euros -- $859 million -- in return for a 75% stake.

... So this was, per capita, the equivalent of an $850 billion bailout here.

Notice, by the way, that it was an equity injection rather than a purchase of bad debt; I approve.

Investors in gold are demanding "unprecedented" amounts of bullion bars and coins and moving them into their own vaults as fears about the health of the global financial system deepen.

Industry executives and bankers at the London Bullion Market Association annual meeting said the extent of the move into physical gold was unseen and driven by the very rich.

"There is an enormous pick-up in investment demand. I have never seen a market like this in my 33-year career," said Jeremy Charles, chairman of the LBMA. "The gold refineries cannot produce enough bars."

The move comes as fears grow among investors over the losses at investment vehicles previously considered almost risk-free, such as money funds.

Philip Clewes-Garner, associate director of precious metals at HSBC, added that investors were not flying into gold simply because they saw it as a haven amid Wall Street's woes. "It is a flight into gold because it is a physical asset," he said

The Ukrainian vessel's cargo was headed for Kenya, according to that country and Ukraine. But U.S. officials and others suspect southern Sudan's fledgling army was to receive the tanks.

NAIROBI, KENYA -- This time it's the booty, not the pirates, that everyone's talking about.

And what they're wondering is: Just where were those Russian tanks going?

  As additional U.S. warships gathered around a hijacked Ukrainian ship off Somalia, questions persisted Monday about where the vessel's military cargo was destined.

The governments of Kenya and Ukraine say the shipment of 33 Russian-built T-72 tanks, ammunition and spare parts was part of a legal sale contracted last year to supply the Kenyan army.

But U.S. officials, arms experts and maritime officials say the more likely destination was southern Sudan, where the former rebel group Sudan People's Liberation Movement, or SPLM, governs an autonomous region and has been working aggressively over the last three years to transform its ragtag guerrilla army into a professional fighting force.

"We received reports that the cargo was intended for Sudan, so obviously our goal is to maintain watch over the ship while negotiations are taking place," said Lt. Nathan Christensen, spokesman for the U.S. Navy's Bahrain-based 5th Fleet.

One day after the House of Representatives shot down the $700 billion bailout package for Wall Street, many fear that the markets will plunge further. Political leadership, though, will have to wait -- until after a two-day holiday.

As if Monday wasn't bad enough: The US House of Representatives in chaos; the markets in freefall; the surreal appearances of two presidential candidates, both of whom swore bipartisanship only to attack each other in the very next breath.

 On Monday, the US House of Representatives failed to pass the much-touted $700 billion Wall Street bailout. And yet, as strange as Monday seemed, the day could very well be trumped by the rest of the week. The spotlight will likely be focused on stock market trading floors to see just how traders and investors react to Congress' shocking rejection of the $700 billion bailout package. But when it comes to scurrility, it will be difficult to beat the halls of the US Capitol, ground zero of this economic catastrophe.

Or, to be more precise, in the empty halls of the Capitol. After the US Representatives drop-kicked the bailout bill, triggering another Black Monday -- and leading to a 777.68 point drop in the Dow Jones industrial average -- Congressmen and women headed home to their constituencies. The occasion is Rosh Hashana, a congressional holiday.

PERTH (Reuters) - Oil extended losses below $96 a barrel on Tuesday, after slumping almost 10 percent in the previous session as fear gripped financial markets in the wake of U.S. lawmakers' shock rejection of a $700 billion rescue plan.

Asian stocks opened sharply lower after Wall Street's biggest fall since the crash of 1987, and were down roughly 4 percent amid mounting fears about the health of the global economy, with China's two biggest banks opening more than 8 percent lower.

U.S. light crude for November delivery fell 59 cents to $95.78 a barrel by 0233 GMT, after dropping $10.52 on Monday to $96.37 -- the second biggest fall since April 23, 2003.

from lebedev's blog, translated by google

Second. The initiative belongs to President Gorbachev. He gave our people the freedom, but we did not learn how to use it (the same all the time tetchy change it to "a fraction of security"). With regard to me personally, the support in any form. But in the leadership of the party necessarily need another 2-3 dozen leaders of public opinion. The party should not be vozhdistskoy (ie collegial leadership). Financing - just from different non-governmental sources.

Third. Working title - the Independent Democratic Party. The ideology - liberal social democracy, or, if you will, social democratic liberalism. From social democracy - social justice in economic policies. Of the healthy liberalism - the development of independent political institutions, which do not provide the very social justice, not to create a healthy economy and not solve the problem of increase in the welfare of all (if such a challenge from the incumbent authorities there ...).

Fourth. The strategy - less goskapitalizma. The tactics - in no case konformistskaya. The program, at least, to form - 10-15 letters, petitions you know who:

• Return to the gubernatorial race and kontrreforma (ie, a return to normal) electoral system;
  
• The development of independent media and the establishment, finally, the public television (among other things, some of the so-called "Putin's plan, his idea);
  
• Ensuring the independence of Parliament and enhancing the role of the legislature (the new law on the federal assembly);
  
• Creation of an independent, accessible and efficient judiciary;
  
• The reform of law enforcement;
  
• Revision of the economic policy of the state: roads, affordable housing and mortgages, health and education, upgrading infrastructure, reform of natural monopolies, development of small and medium businesses - instead bananotehnology, lipovoy reform utilities, pipeline them. Schroeder, Russian Island, Schalke-04 aircraft and personnel for each goschinovnika.
  
• A national memorial Gulag.

The political downstage Russia there is a lack of organizations representing civil society. Parties is not. In recent years we have with President Gorbachev tried to develop independent of the state bureaucracy institutions - therefore, in particular, involves participation in the fate of «New newspaper», National Investment Board, an international peer Institute, a national center for monitoring democratic processes, an international charity.

We hope the initiative will interest those who today has been behind sanctioned political structures. And the most we would like to see as partners those who still do not book the various «camps». And, preferably, those who are ready to engage in this activity "on a voluntary basis." Ie for whom money - not the main, and not only in their lives.

if this doesn't pull poemless out of lurk mode...


'The history of public debt is full of irony. It rarely follows our ideas of order and justice.' Thomas Piketty

All of a sudden, Pentagon sees no threat from Russia
It seems that the crisis in US-Russian relations becomes more and more problematic for the Pentagon. Two key politicians in the US defense structure - Defense Secretary Robert Gates and Mike Mullen, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, - said that the United States should develop cooperation with Russia. The Pentagon chief particularly stated that he did not see any threat from Russia, whereas Admiral Mullen claimed that the USA and Russia shared mutual interests, and that the relations between the two countries would be highly important in the future.
...Pentagon's chief Robert Gates also doubted the need for the USA and NATO to ruin relations with Russia because of Georgia.
..."Russia and US defense officials have always been better in finding a common language than politicians of the two countries," the director of Russian and Asian programs of Washington-based World Security Institute, Nikolai Zlobin told The Vremya Novostei newspaper. The expert is certain that the defense administrations of both Russia and the United States would have been able to settle all problems down long ago. "Two generals will always find a common language, whereas politicians always indulge in financial issues and reciprocal accusations. Spokespeople for both Russian and American defense departments have repeatedly exercised their ability to negotiate the issues of missile defense and the Caucasus during the recent several years. However, big problems would always arise as soon as politicians became involved in those issues," the expert said.

Pope Benedict XVI has become the first pontiff to harness solar power to provide energy for the Vatican.

Roof tiles on the Paul VI auditorium - used in poor weather for the Pope's weekly audience with pilgrims - are being replaced by 2,700 solar panels.

The photovoltaic cells will convert sunlight into electricity, generating enough power to light, heat or cool the 6,000 seat hall, engineers say.

Conserving global resources has been a priority for the German-born Pope.

Since he was elected in 2005, Benedict XVI has criticised "the unbalanced use of energy" in the world.

He has also said environmental damage was making "the lives of poor people on earth especially unbearable".

Never mind mortgage-backed securities - the reason why confidence in the banking system collapsed was too much testosterone. With more women on the trading floor, risk-taking would be a saner business

True to form, economists have offered a range of explanations for the financial crisis that threatens the world and which so few of them managed to predict. Some blame something called collateralisation, others easy money, still others lax regulation.

But, by focusing on the technicalities, have they overlooked a more obvious culprit - men?

After all, it is men who dominate the financial system that got us into this mess; it is men, by and large, whose trading inflated the profits of banks to levels that now seem like the stuff of testosterone-fuelled fantasy; and it is men who pocketed most of the bulging bonuses that even Gordon Brown reckons were a key cause of the crisis. All of which raises an important and deliciously controversial question: what would have happened if global financial institutions had been run by women?

Would they have been more focused on the human consequences and less on the next pay cheque? Would they have been more empathetic and less cut-throat? Would financial districts have had a few more crèches and a few less of those godawful bars where traders hang out to brag about their latest deal? In short, would we have avoided this calamity if markets had been doused with sufficient quantities of oestrogen?

Italian partisan organisations are to stage protests tomorrow at the Italian premiere of Spike Lee's film Miracle at St. Anna, which they say is full of lies, and insults the memory of the Italian Resistance during the Second World War.

The controversial film, already released in the United States, will be running in Italian cinemas from Friday. But it is being shown first at Viareggio on the Tuscan coast, close to the village of Sant' Anna di Stazzema in the Apennine hills above, where 560 civilians -- including women and children -- were murdered in cold blood in August 1944 by Nazi SS troops as they retreated northwards in the face of the Allied advance.

Miracle at St. Anna, which highlights the role of African-American soldiers in the war, suggests that anti-Fascist partisans indirectly caused the atrocity by first taking refuge in the village and then abandoning the villagers to their fate.

It even shows a partisan named Rodolfo collaborating with the Nazis. This runs directly counter to the accepted Italian version of events, which is that the slaughter was not a reprisal but an unprovoked act of brutality and that the hunt for partisans was a pretext.

NEW YORK - Mayor Michael Bloomberg has decided to try to reverse the term-limits law he had long supported so he can seek a third term next year and help the city emerge from financial turmoil, a person close to the mayor told The Associated Press on Tuesday.

Bloomberg made the decision over the weekend and will announce it Thursday, according to the person, who has been briefed on the matter but spoke on condition of anonymity because the announcement hasn't been made. The person said the mayor has been wrestling with the decision for the past couple of months.

The billionaire former CEO will cite the nation's precarious economic situation as the reason that New York needs a tested financial manager to stay and guide the city, the person said.

ScienceDaily (Oct. 1, 2008) -- Black bears that live around urban areas weigh more, get pregnant at a younger age, and are more likely to die violent deaths, according to a study by the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS).

The study, published in the Fall 2008 issue of the journal Human-Wildlife Conflicts, tracked 12 bears over a 10-year period living in urban areas around Lake Tahoe, Nevada and compared them to 10 "wildland" bears that lived in outlying wild areas. The authors found that bears in urbanized areas weighed an average of 30 percent more than bears in wild areas due to a diet heavily supplemented by garbage.

The authors believe that because the bears weigh more they are giving birth at an earlier age - on average when they are between 4-5 years old, as compared to 7-8 years for bears in wild areas. Some urban bears even reproduced as early as 2-3 years of age around Lake Tahoe.

Urban bears also tend to die much younger due mostly to collisions with vehicles, according to the study. All 12 urban bears tracked by the researcher were dead by age 10 due to vehicle collisions, while six of the wildland bears still survived. Bear cubs in urban areas also had dramatically higher mortality rates due mainly to vehicle collisions.

"Urban areas are becoming the ultimate bear traps," said Wildlife Conservation Society researcher Jon Beckmann, the study's lead author. "Because of an abundant food source - namely garbage - bears are being drawn in from backcountry areas into urbanized landscapes where they meet their demise."

Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari seems to be heading towards fresh trouble as the prayer leader of the Lal Masjid in the heart of Islamabad has issued a fatwa against him.

Maulana Abdul Ghafar, the prayer leader, seems to be irked by Zardari's "you're gorgeous" compliment to US vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin during a meeting.

When Zardari was asked to keep shaking hands with Palin for the cameras, he said, "If he's (the aide) insisting, I might hug you."

He said the act was un-Islamic and unbecoming of a head of state of a Muslim country.

Maulana also said that Zardari shamed the entire Pakistani by publicly making indecent gestures towards Palin in Washington last Thursday.

Zardari's offhand compliment has also created quite a flutter in the virtual world also.

No link as yet.

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