It was one of those spring days embedded with latent energy back in Warsaw in 2004 when our professor, Bronislaw Geremek, facing his students from the podium of his chair in European civilization stretched his eyes and said: "And when you are in Brussels, and it is late in the day, and you are dealing with some technical detail of a regulation or a decision, never forget that Europeelle est quand même, merveilleuse!"

This was a man who had survived the holocaust in his native Poland, embraced communism in his youth, but for whom enlightenment meant freedom of all peoples and ideas, and a constant strive for peace in Europe - Geremek was imprisoned with Walesa in 1981 and represented Solidarity at the Round Table talks which gave birth to democracy in 1989. In a sense he - a historian by profession - opposed Europe's demons in all their forms throughout time, whether they took the forms of crusades or pogroms or ethnic cleansing or aggressive nationalisms, whilst refusing to believe that these sentiments would ever go away.

Europe is Europe for better and for worse.

Once again the great clock of history is moving and Europe, and the rest of the world, is faced with a Great Recession, which might make 2009 one of those years future historians will take reference to, for better or for worse, depending on how policies are designed to exit the current financial crisis, and avoid that it develops into a political crisis of unknown proportions.

The US, Canada and Italy have said they will not attend the United Nations Conference on Racism out of fear that it will be used primarily for attacks on Israel. With states like Iran, Libya and Cuba dictating the agenda, calls are growing for Germany to join the boycott too.

It was one of the low points in the history of the United Nations. In September, 2001, the South African city of Durban was playing host to the UN World Conference against Racism. The aim had been to officially declare slavery and colonialism as crimes.

Israel fears that the United Nations Conference on Racism next month will be taken over by an anti-Israel agenda. However, both in the conference room and outside it, one state repeatedly came in for diatribes: Israel, accused of being the spawn of racism and apartheid. It became clear that the attacks on Israel had been orchestrated by authoritarian regimes in the Muslim world. "The hate contingent has prevailed," wrote German newspaper Frankfurter Rundschau at the time. The memory of the meeting was soon eclipsed, however, by the terror attacks of Sept. 11, which took place just four days after the conference ended.

Now this sad spectacle may repeat itself. The UN will hold a follow-up conference to the Durban meeting in Geneva, Switzerland, between April 20 and 24. Not only Jewish organizations fear that states like Iran, Libya or Saudi Arabia might turn the event into an anti-Israeli forum -- Canada, Italy and the United States have said that they will keep away from the event. The Obama administration has said the conference threatens, again, to unfairly single out Israel.

Last night I slipped into an event at The Center which had gathered various economists and politicians to take a look at the current situation vis-à-vis Britain and the Euro. Had such an event been held a year ago, you probably would have been lucky to get three people to show up. After all, the debate about Britain joining the Euro had been dead in the water for years. But things are looking very differently recently after the unprecedented collapse in the value of the pound, and the assembled speakers at the session had some surprising things to say about what may be around the corner for Britain.

The pound has lost 30 percent of its value since last summer, the most dramatic drop in the currency's history. It's fallen from $2.00 to one pound in July to $1.39 to one pound today. The pound fell to just €1.02 recently, when it was €1.33 at the beginning of last year. So the situation for the sterling is bleak.

So now a debate which was once thought to be done and dusted is beginning to resurface, although not yet out in the open in Britain. Speaking at the session, former British MEP John Stevens observed, "It's much easier to talk about Britain and the euro outside than inside." Indeed Stevens, who just wrote a report concluding that the best monetary option for Britain is to join the euro, said that his report has received much more attention in the rest of the world than it has in the UK. In Britain, the currency problem remains the issue that dare not speak its name. Opinion polls have consistently shown that a majority of the public opposes joining the euro, and no politician in today's Britain is willing to take a principled stand on an unpopular issue. Both Labour and the Conservatives know that reawakening the euro debate could easily have the effect of spooking British consumers even further. "If the public hears talk about joining the euro, there will be mass fear that Britain is really in trouble," Stevens said, perhaps only half joking. A country's currency has much to do with its national pride, and having to give up the pound would be a massive blow to Britain's self-esteem.

The last statue of General Franco in Spain is to be withdrawn almost 34 years after the death of the dictator.

The regional government of Melilla, one of Spain's North African enclaves along with Ceuta, said the bronze statue of General Franco would be removed "within the period of 15 days".

The move means no more commemorative figures will stand in public streets to the man who ruled Spain between the end of the Spanish Civil War in 1939 and his death in November, 1975.

Daniel Conesa, spokesman for the Melilla regional government, said the statue, which shows Franco standing, would be kept in storage then transferred to a military museum.

The European Parliament has banned the terms 'Miss' and 'Mrs' in case they offend female MEPs.

The politically correct rules also mean a ban on Continental titles, such as Madame and Mademoiselle, Frau and Fraulein and Senora and Senorita.

Guidance issued in a new 'Gender-Neutral Language' pamphlet instead orders politicians to address female members by their full name only.

President Dmitry Medvedev is preparing to clear out officials loyal to Vladimir Putin after drawing up a list of potential replacements for hardliners in the Russian government.

The creation of a list of allies dubbed the "Golden 100" signals Mr Medvedev's determination to assert his authority and build his own power base amid a growing split with his predecessor, who as prime minister has maintained a stranglehold on the Russian state.

Sources told The Sunday Telegraph that Mr Medvedev is poised to fire a raft of top officials, including regional governors appointed by Mr Putin, as the Kremlin seeks a scapegoat to ease growing public unrest over the country's devastated economy.

French TV protests tax laws - The Hollywood Reporter PARIS -- France's private TV networks have banded together to protest a recent government tax on their ad revenue to compensate for the country's new ad-free public television initiative instated in January.
...
Both TF1 and M6 have seen their ad revenue plummet in the current economic climate -- a 5.3% loss for M6 in January and 3% in February and a colossal 17.6% for TF1 in January and 20.5% in February -- and those groups predict close to a 15% drop in ad revenue on the terrestrial networks in March.
...

Frank Delaney ~ Ireland

The body responsible for safeguarding equality in the UK will tell the government today that the economic climate is too fragile to impose equal pay reviews on business.

With women's pay on average 17% less than men's and the gap increasing, the Equalities and Human Rights Commission, formed 18 months ago, will say that the reviews should be excluded from the forthcoming equalities bill when it publishes its recommendations.

Summarising the strategy, the chief executive of the EHRC, Nicola Brewer, said an entirely new equal pay act was needed, and called for "radical reform in the future." This would be a long-term exercise, requiring several years of work. More immediately, the commission's approach is based on "encouraging" companies to improve their record voluntarily.

The Equal Opportunities Commission, the body which preceded the EHRC, had recommended that companies should carry out equal pay reviews as a first step to addressing disparities. But the EHRC does not want pay reviews to be in the equalities bill, due to be published next month. "They can be a helpful diagnostic tool, but they are not the whole answer. I think we do need to be realistic about the economic climate," Brewer said.

Pay audits are unpopular with businesses both because they are expensive and because revelations of pay disparities often unleash legal action by women who had not realised they were underpaid.

It all looked so good - a Celtic Tiger that repeatedly produced annual growth of 9%. Scotland's nationalist government even talked of an `arc of prosperity' that drew together Ireland, Iceland and Scotland. Now it looks more like an arc of insolvency.

How life changes, as Ireland's ministers will readily testify. It is not merely that Scottish First Minister Alex Salmond's political strategy needs rethinking. Ireland's economic situation is so bleak that there are suggestions of support packages from the International Monetary Fund and the European Union and even rumours that some EU countries want it to be evicted from the eurozone.

After months of trying to play down the scale of Ireland 's fiscal crisis, Taoiseach Brian Cowen has now admitted that the country expects to lose €18bn of its projected €55bn tax revenues for this year. An emergency budget is tabled for next month.

All major European youth organisations, including the

• European Youth Forum (YFA), 
  

the (party) political youth organisations

• Youth of the European People's Party (YEPP),
  
• Young European Socialists (ECOSY),
  
• European Liberal Youth (LYMEC),
  
• Federation of Young European Greens(FYEG),
  
• Democrat Youth Community of Europe (DEMYC),
  
• European Free Alliance Youth (EFAy)
  

as well as the

• Young European Federalists (JEF)
  

have signed and published a joint declaration asking for a proper electoral EP campaign.

As young Europeans, sharing a vision of Europe based on the values of democracy, peace, human rights, solidarity, freedom and sustainable development, we recognise the success of European integration, but we stress that we can successfully face future challenges only if the EU will be able to speak and to act as a real political Union.

In the pursuit of a more transparent Europe, the European Youth Forum (YFJ) the Party-Political Youth Organisations - Youth of the European People's Party (YEPP), Young European Socialists (ECOSY), European Liberal Youth (LYMEC), Federation of Young European Greens (FYEG), Democrat Youth Community of Europe (DEMYC), European Free Alliance Youth (EFAy) and the Young European Federalists (JEF) hope that in due time before June 2009 the citizens should know names and faces of the candidates to the main political positions of the European institutions. In particular the composition of the Commission should reflect the results of the elections as indicated by the Lisbon Treaty which has to be ratified as soon as possible.

A good initiative of the Belgian European Movement, it distributes a citizen's calendar to count the days until European Elections.

Very much like an advent calendar, it gives a little surprise for each day for those lucky to possess one. Advice, testimonies and cartoons, everything has been imagined to make those pretty complicated elections clearer. To view the calendar for free (in french), please visit this website.

A couple of days ago I presented to you the Dutch liberal politician Hans van Baalen. Judith Sargentini, the next politician to answer my questions is from the complete opposite side of the political spectrum, the left-wing/environmentalist party GroenLinks. My request made a small detour through the press office, but I must say: the outcome is a list of quite detailed answers and a very long post.
Furthermore, today apparently it's Judith's birthday. Now what better gift is there to give than a post on our Community?

1. Name: Judith Sargentini
2. Age: 34 (I will turn 35 the 13th of March)
3. Occupation: Partyleader GroenLinks for the European elections and currently partyleader in Amsterdam.

4. What did you vote in the referendum on a European Constitution?
In favour.

5. Shortly name 5 advantages of the EU.
-The countries of the EU are no longer at war with each other. Fighting with swords has become fighting with words (`Vechten is beckvechten geworden').
-Thanks to European rules our air is (slowly) getting cleaner, we must produce more `green' energy and are all EU-countries making efforts for a worldwide approach towards climate change.
-At the borders there are no barriers anymore and you are allowed to work in every EU-country.
-The EU has a border-crossing parliament to make laws and control the decision-making. This is unique in the world. Outside of Europe they are jealous of our model of peaceful cooperation.

The Germany-based Lidl supermarket chain is known throughout Europe and elsewhere for its cut-rate groceries, household items and other goods. But this week, they broadened their focus to the realm of the automobile. 

For the rest of this month, German customers of Lidl will not only be able to pick up bargain-brand potato chips and six-packs of beer. They can also purchase new cars.

 

At the beginning of the week, the chain began selling the Corsa model by Opel and the VW Polo Cross at discounts of more than 25 percent off their list prices.

 

But it's not as if potential buyers can just show up at the check-out counter and take one out for a test drive.

 

Bankers called them "OD customers" -- "old and dumb" investors who let their advisors talk them into buying Lehman Brothers securities last year. They lost their savings in the financial storm, but now the injured parties are fighting back, with help from an experienced fighter.

They arrive like a flock of birds, a few minutes ahead of schedule. They laugh and hug each other, presumably pleased not to have to deal with their anger alone anymore. They wear stocking caps to ward off cold and carry signs to protest the indifference of society. The signs include slogans like "Phony Advice -- Total Loss" or "No More Money -- No More Confidence." They've come together to hold a vigil in downtown Frankfurt, and for many it's the first time they have ever demonstrated.

Housewives, retirees, teachers and plumbers have gathered on this cold February afternoon in the city's Bornheim neighborhood. They include small investors, ordinary savers, women who watch the popular "Tagesschau" TV news program. They are not speculators. They wanted their money managed conservatively. They didn't want to have to worry about their savings. They just wanted to watch their assets grow.

The Association of British Insurers (ABI), whose members control 15pc of the FTSE 100, has called for a "supervisor of supervisors" in Europe but said that the current UK system should remain intact.

A pan-European agency with decision-making powers on regulation across the European Union should be created, the ABI said in a consultation paper.

The new body should have teeth, and should be the "final arbiter between national regulators", according to Stephen Haddrill, the ABI's director general. For such an entity to work will require the UK to "learn to work in partnership with Brussels," Mr Haddrill added.

American International Group is giving its executives tens of millions of dollars in new bonuses even though it received a taxpayer bailout of more than $170 billion dollars.

AIG is paying out the executive bonuses to meet a Sunday deadline, but the troubled insurance giant has agreed to administration requests to restrain future payments.

The Treasury Department determined that the government did not have the legal authority to block the current payments by the company. AIG declared earlier this month that it had suffered a loss of $61.7 billion for the fourth quarter of last year, the largest corporate loss in history.

Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner has asked that the company scale back future bonus payments where legally possible, an administration official said Saturday.

http://www.leap2020.eu/Global-systemic-crisis-Alert-Summer-2009-The-US-government-defaults-on-its-de bt_a2250.html

Indeed our researchers anticipate that, before next summer 2009, the US government will default and be prevented to pay back its creditors (holders of US Treasury Bonds, of Fanny May and Freddy Mac shares, etc.). Of course such a bankruptcy will provoke some very negative outcome for all USD-denominated asset holders. According to our team, the period that will then begin should be conducive to the setting up of a « new Dollar » to remedy the problem of default and of induced massive capital drain from the US. The process will result from the following five factors studied in detail further in this GEAB:
......* « Strong inflation or hyper-inflation in the US in 2009? », that is the only question.  

The only thing working in Europe's favor is the very thing for which it takes the most criticism -- the size and generosity of its welfare states, which are cushioning the impact of the economic slump.

This is no small matter. Guaranteed health insurance and generous unemployment benefits ensure that, at least so far, there isn't as much sheer human suffering in Europe as there is in America. And these programs will also help sustain spending in the slump.

But such "automatic stabilizers" are no substitute for positive action.

Why is Europe falling short? Poor leadership is part of the story. European banking officials, who completely missed the depth of the crisis, still seem weirdly complacent. And to hear anything in America comparable to the know-nothing diatribes of Germany's finance minister you have to listen to, well, Republicans.

But there's a deeper problem: Europe's economic and monetary integration has run too far ahead of its political institutions. The economies of Europe's many nations are almost as tightly linked as the economies of America's many states -- and most of Europe shares a common currency. But unlike America, Europe doesn't have the kind of continentwide institutions needed to deal with a continentwide crisis.

OHN Thain has one. So do Richard Fuld, Stanley O'Neal and Vikram Pandit. For that matter, so does John Paulson, the hedge fund kingpin.

Yes, all five have fat bank accounts, even now, and all have made their share of headlines. But these current and former giants of finance also are all card-carrying M.B.A.'s.

The master's of business administration, a gateway credential throughout corporate America, is especially coveted on Wall Street; in recent years, top business schools have routinely sent more than 40 percent of their graduates into the world of finance.

But with the economy in disarray and so many financial firms in free fall, analysts, and even educators themselves, are wondering if the way business students are taught may have contributed to the most serious economic crisis in decades.

"It is so obvious that something big has failed," said Ángel Cabrera, dean of the Thunderbird School of Global Management in Glendale, Ariz. "We can look the other way, but come on. The C.E.O.'s of those companies, those are people we used to brag about. We cannot say, `Well, it wasn't our fault' when there is such a systemic, widespread failure of leadership."

Critics of business education have many complaints. Some say the schools have become too scientific, too detached from real-world issues. Others say students are taught to come up with hasty solutions to complicated problems. Another group contends that schools give students a limited and distorted view of their role -- that they graduate with a focus on maximizing shareholder value and only a limited understanding of ethical and social considerations essential to business leadership.

If there's anything good that has come out of the financial crisis it's the slew of high-quality graphics to help us understand what's going on. Some visualizations attempt to explain it all while others focus on affected business. Others concentrate on how we, as citizens are affected. Some show those who are responsible. After you examine these 27 visualizations and infographics, no doubt you'll have a pretty good idea about what's going on.

Some of these graphics have already been shown here on ET. The list doesn't include one of my favorites: The Subprime Primer

Two local authority pension funds have told the BBC they are suing Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) for compensation.

The Merseyside and North Yorkshire funds accuse RBS of withholding the extent of the bank's problems before its government rescue last year.

The legal action against RBS, which has declined to comment, has been launched in the US. Other UK pension funds are said to be considering joining them.

They will be represented by Cherie Booth QC, wife of Tony Blair.

To conclude here we'd refer back to what we will now call the Posen Doctrine - the bank crisis action plan recently put in front of congress by the deputy director of the Peterson Institute, Adam Posen.

This says, in short: sack `em. Sack the bank management, sack the regulators and sack the supervisors, because in a banking crisis all these parties are incentivised to lie and spin and obfuscate. Only then will you get the visibility and steeliness to decide which banks are going to survive and which should fail.

Today the G20 Finance Ministers are meeting to prepare for their bosses come-together early next month.

The U.S. wants West European countries and Japan to spend more 'stimulus' money. The Europeans says that they are already spending enough when 'automatic stabilizers' are taken into account. These are unemployment and other social payments that increase automatically during a recession. In the U.S. many of such measures are not automatic and were put into its 'stimulus' package making it look bigger than the European ones.

The West Europeans want more global regulations for all things financial. The U.S. will fight new global regulations as it sees them as infringements on its sovereignty.

The upcoming G20 meeting is critical if the world wishes to avoid the economic turbulence seen in the 1930s, the UK government has warned.

Cabinet minister Douglas Alexander said the summit in London of the G20 group of rich and emerging nations next month "was an important moment".

G20 finance ministers pledged to make a sustained effort to beat the recession after they met on Saturday.

But the talks took place amid differences on the best way forward.

The finance ministers also promised to continue with economic stimulus packages and low interest rates, and to increase IMF funding.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel said she was optimistic world leaders would reach an agreement at next month's G20 summit in London, despite signs of rifts between Europe and the United States.  

Speaking after talks in London with British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, Merkel said she was confident a compromise would be reached by world leaders at G20 meeting scheduled for April 2.

 

"I'm very positive, I'm very optimistic that we will be able to come to an agreement together with the United States, with emerging economies such as China and India," she said Saturday, March 14. "We have to come up with substantive results."

 

Merkel added that the summit would "be a positive signal to the world that we want to promote growth."

Gordon Brown's grand plan to save the global economy was in crisis last night when the German Chancellor, Angela Merkel, refused to commit to a new global fiscal stimulus package to steer the world out of recession.

In a pointed warning to the Prime Minister, the German leader said it was too early to measure the effects of the first multibillion-dollar stimulus to give the go-ahead for any more state aid.

Mrs Merkel was backed up by Christine Lagarde, the French Finance Minister, who said nations needed to assess the impact of earlier measures before making any further tax and spend decisions

Along the way, despite the superficial similarities to the late 1990s, some extraordinary reversals have happened. Washington is lecturing the world on the dangers of fiscal prudence. The IMF is begging Asia for money. And Mr Brown is prioritising European unity. These are strange times indeed.

VIENNA: Battered by falling oil prices even as they try to rein in production, the leaders of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries gathered here Sunday to decide whether further cuts would be necessary.

Some observers say the cartel will stop short of making another reduction in output, instead pressing its 12 members to comply more closely with earlier agreements to lower production quotas.

But as the meeting began, there were hints that some countries favored a tougher stance, and that at least a modest easing in production could be announced.

Chakib Khelil, the Algerian energy and mines minister, said he favored both better compliance and another cut, and suggested that if OPEC did not act, crude prices could resume the steep fall they have experienced since oil peaked last summer near $150 a barrel.

Humanity is facing "water bankruptcy" as a result of a crisis even greater than the financial meltdown now destabilising the global economy, two authoritative new reports show. They add that it is already beginning to take effect, and there will be no way of bailing the earth out of water scarcity.

The two reports - one by the world's foremost international economic forum and the other by 24 United Nations agencies - presage the opening tomorrow of the most important conference on the looming crisis for three years. The World Water Forum, which will be attended by 20,000 people in Istanbul, will hear stark warnings of how half the world's population will be affected by water shortages in just 20 years' time, with millions dying and increasing conflicts over dwindling resources.

A report by the World Economic Forum, which runs the annual Davos meetings of the international business and financial elite, says that lack of water, will "soon tear into various parts of the global economic system" and "start to emerge as a headline geopolitical issue".

It adds: "The financial crisis gives us a stark warning of what can happen if known economic risks are left to fester. We are living in a water 'bubble' as unsustainable and fragile as that which precipitated the collapse in world financial markets. We are now on the verge of bankruptcy in many places with no way of paying the debt back."

MOSCOW: A top Russian Air Force official said that the government was weighing whether to base strategic bombers out of Cuban territory or on a Venezuelan island that has been offered by President Hugo Chávez, according to the Interfax news service.

In comments made at an awards ceremony on Friday night, Major General Anatoly Zhikharev, chief of staff for Russia's long-distance aviation division, told reporters that either option would be practical.

"There are four or five airfields in Cuba with 4,000-meter-long runways, which absolutely suit us," he said. "If the two chiefs of state display such a political will, we are ready to fly there."

He confirmed that Chávez had offered the use of a military airfield on La Orchila island. "If a relevant political decision is made, this is possible," he said.

A HAWKISH general, who cancelled a trip to London four years ago because he feared being arrested on war crime charges, is expected to become Israel's new defence minister.

Moshe "Boogie" Ya'alon, 58, former chief of staff of the Israel Defence Forces, is reported to have accepted an invitation from Binyamin Netanyahu, the incoming prime minister, to serve in the new government.

Renowned as a tough-minded commander, Ya'alon's legal problems stem from a decision in July 2002 to assassinate Salah Shehadeh, the commander of the military wing of Hamas, the hardline Islamic organisation that now controls Gaza.

Shehadeh, 49, who was blamed for scores of deaths and who masterminded the production of Qassam rockets that were fired into Israel, was killed by a 2,200lb bomb dropped on a building in Gaza City, where he and his family were hiding.

Israeli armed forces and border police used the cover of the war against Hamas in Gaza to reintroduce the firing of .22 rifle bullets - as well as the extensive use of a new model of tear-gas canister - against unarmed demonstrators in the Occupied West Bank protesting at the building of Israel's "separation wall".

The tactics were highlighted on Friday, when a US protester, Tristan Anderson, 38, was hit in the head by one of the new extended-range gas canisters in the village of Ni'ilin, suffering an open wound in his skull and substantial brain damage. Anderson's friend, Gabrielle Silverman, claims he was struck by a canister fired from a high-velocity rifle. The Israeli military says stone-throwing "poses a threat to troops", and several officers have been injured by rocks.

It said troops used the permitted means of riot dispersal in Friday's incident, including tear gas, rubber-coated steel pellets and stun grenades.

LA PAZ: Emboldened by a new leftist constitution, Bolivia President Evo Morales handed over ownership of farmland seized by the state from wealthy estate holders to poor indigenous people.

Morales handed out around 94,000 acres (38,000 hectares) of lands recently confiscated from five big ranches in Bolivia's wealthy eastern lowlands, a stronghold of his conservative political opponents.

The ranchers have been accused of employing workers in conditions of semi-slavery. "Private property will always be respected but we want people who are not interested in equality to change their thinking and focus more on country than currency," said Morales, flanked by military and police personnel.

Among those who lost land was US cattleman Ronald Larsen, who has emerged as a key opponent of the Morales government's land reforms, which are designed to distribute more of the nation's riches to poor indigenous peoples.

Maps are so last century. These days, adventurers clutching GPS devices are conquering new territories -- map coordinates. In the Russian winter wilderness you can tread where no one has been before, for example, to 59 degrees north, 35 degrees east.

There are certain sounds that a cross-country skier definitely doesn't want to hear, especially when the day's destination lies 15 kilometers (nine miles) away across the snow-covered Russian wilderness.

The roar of a brown bear -- hunters shot two not far from here just this past fall -- would be one such sound. The growl of a wolf would be another.

But Vladimir Chernorutsky is prepared for wild animals. He's brought along a small stungun, several skyrocket fireworks and a dozen firecrackers of a brand called "Black Death." He plans to use them if necessary to scare away predators.

Europe is set to launch one of its most challenging space missions to date.

The Goce satellite will map minute variations in the pull of gravity experienced across the planet.

Scientists will use its data to improve their understanding of how the oceans move, and to frame a universal system to measure height anywhere on Earth.

The super-sleek spacecraft will go into orbit on a modified intercontinental ballistic missile from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome in north-west Russia.

Kiev's eccentric mayor has come up with a novel way to help the Ukrainian capital through its worst financial crisis since the Soviet era: he is going to sing.

Leonid Chernovetskiy has released an album of himself singing a medley of "heartbreaking 1980s love songs". So confident is he in his own talents that the mayor has predicted he will make $1 million a day in record sales, all of which will go into the city's coffers.

"I sing very well," Mr Chernovetskiy was quoted as saying. "I don't think anyone sings as well as me apart from, maybe, God."

THE French justice minister who returned to work five days after having a baby, only to lose her job, launched a political comeback last week, letting it be known that she will run for mayor of Paris.

Rachida Dati, 43, long seen as President Nicolas Sarkozy's favourite among the "Sarko-zettes" - his women ministers - lost his confidence and was ordered to leave the cabinet and instead run for the European parliament.

She used the launch of her party's European election campaign to deny she was a Sarkozy creation and to add gravitas to the "bling-bling" image attached to her since she posed in a £15,000 Christian Dior dress at a fashion gala.

"I conceive of political life as a passionate struggle," she said, before making vague pledges on crime, justice, human rights, the environment and foreign affairs.

The growing expectation placed on schools and parents to boost pupils' self-esteem is breeding a generation of narcissists, an expert has warned.

Dr Carol Craig said children were being over-praised and were developing an "all about me" mentality.

She said teachers increasingly faced complaints from parents if their child failed a spelling test or did not get a good part in the school pantomime.

Schools needed to reclaim their role as educators, not psychologists, she said.

An Iraqi football player has been shot dead by a spectator as he was about to score an equalising goal.

The shooting happened in the last minute of a game between two local rivals on Sunday, police say

Back in 1993, the Knight-Ridder newspaper chain began investigating piracy of Dave Barry's popular column, which was published by the Miami Herald and syndicated widely. In the course of tracking down the sources of unlicensed distribution, they found many things, including the copying of his column to alt.fan.dave_barry on usenet; a 2000-person strong mailing list also reading pirated versions; and a teenager in the Midwest who was doing some of the copying himself, because he loved Barry's work so much he wanted everybody to be able to read it.

One of the people I was hanging around with online back then was Gordy Thompson, who managed internet services at the New York Times. I remember Thompson saying something to the effect of "When a 14 year old kid can blow up your business in his spare time, not because he hates you but because he loves you, then you got a problem." I think about that conversation a lot these days.

Elizabeth Eisenstein's magisterial treatment of Gutenberg's invention, The Printing Press as an Agent of Change, opens with a recounting of her research into the early history of the printing press. She was able to find many descriptions of life in the early 1400s, the era before movable type. Literacy was limited, the Catholic Church was the pan-European political force, Mass was in Latin, and the average book was the Bible. She was also able to find endless descriptions of life in the late 1500s, after Gutenberg's invention had started to spread. Literacy was on the rise, as were books written in contemporary languages, Copernicus had published his epochal work on astronomy, and Martin Luther's use of the press to reform the Church was upending both religious and political stability.

What Eisenstein focused on, though, was how many historians ignored the transition from one era to the other. To describe the world before or after the spread of print was child's play; those dates were safely distanced from upheaval. But what was happening in 1500? The hard question Eisenstein's book asks is "How did we get from the world before the printing press to the world after it? What was the revolution itself like?"

Chaotic, as it turns out. The Bible was translated into local languages; was this an educational boon or the work of the devil? Erotic novels appeared, prompting the same set of questions. Copies of Aristotle and Galen circulated widely, but direct encounter with the relevant texts revealed that the two sources clashed, tarnishing faith in the Ancients. As novelty spread, old institutions seemed exhausted while new ones seemed untrustworthy; as a result, people almost literally didn't know what to think. If you can't trust Aristotle, who can you trust?

A vegetarian diet may help to protect against cancer, a UK study suggests.

Analysis of data from 52,700 men and women shows that those who did not eat meat had significantly fewer cancers overall than those who did.

But surprisingly, the researchers also found a higher rate of colorectal cancer - a disease linked with eating red meat - among the vegetarians.