A US appeals court has denied a stay of deportation to alleged Nazi death camp guard John Demjanjuk, who is wanted in Germany on war crimes charges.

The ruling allows for the 89-year-old Ohio resident to be deported - although the appeals process is not exhausted.

A stay of deportation was granted earlier in April after federal agents briefly removed him from his home.

His family said he was too ill to be moved but the government has filed video showing him walking unassisted.

Mr Demjanjuk denies charges of being a guard at the Sobibor death camp in World War II.

The European Union's enlargement commissioner Olli Rehn has accused Britain of having an irrational and backward looking view on the EU's eastwards expansion and foreign workers.

He launched the extraordinary attack as the EU marked the fifth anniversary of the 2004 enlargement, when 10 mainly Central and East European countries joined.

He likened "scepticism" about expansion, especially in "established" countries such Britain, Germany and France, to sentimentality for the 1960s.

Governments around the world have been struggling to find solutions to the current economic crisis, but the Baltic country of Estonia thinks it's come up with a winner: let the people decide. 

In many European countries on Friday's May Day public holiday, people from all sides of the political spectrum took to the streets to protest government handling of the economic crisis, and to place the blame squarely at the feet of the banking industry. Protestors in some cities turned violent, and several hundred were arrested.

Estonians approached the day a little differently.

On Friday, Estonians from all works of life joined together in a one day brainstorming extravaganza called "My Estonia". The idea? That normal citizens should contribute to the problem-solving process.

It's been two weeks since the people behind the Pirate Bay were convicted of facilitating illegal filesharing in the Swedish courts, and were sentenced to a year in jail and a $3.6m fine. Since then, the Swedish Pirate party has reported that it has more than doubled its membership to more than 30,000 - and its youth party is, it says, now the biggest of any party's in Sweden. But who are they and why should we care?

I've had a look at the manifesto published on their site, and it makes for interesting reading. "Private monopoly is one of society's most dangerous enemies," it says. "Patent is an officially sanctioned monopoly on ideas." Hence, they say, they want to abolish patents - in particular for pharmaceuticals.

They also want to change the copyright laws so that it only applies to commercial use - which makes their support for Pirate Bay a bit confusing, since it is an ad-funded venture that also charges users €5 a month to stay anonymous when uploading copyrighted material. It also begs the question: is using music for political propaganda considered commercial use, since it's not, in effect, a money making scheme? According to the Pirate party's manifesto, copyright for commercial use should last for only five years and DRM (digital rights management) should be forbidden.

I was just watching a film"UN death camps in Kosovo April 2009" about protest which was hold by Roma children living in UN camps in North Mitrovica, Kosovo.  The protesters however were still living, so far 81 has already dead after ten years suffering in United Nations Camps for Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs), living in place which is described the most toxic site in Eastern Europe.  Their story gives another perspective related to "humanitarian intervention" implemented by Nato and to international administration implemented afterwards and backed with billions of Euros EU financing.  And this is happening in Europe and in this millennium.

The children hold a protest vigil on International Roma Day.  In the protest, their banners proclaimed "God Save Us from UNHCR" and"Welcome to Kouchner's Hell", reminding Bernard Kouchner - then Special Representative of the UN Secretary General (SRSG), now FM of France - about his promise autumn 1999 to move families immediately from toxic camp.

Government officials have been monitoring environmental campaign groups and then passing intelligence on to the police, according to documents seen by the Guardian.

An internal risk report from the Department for Transport reveals that a unit referred to as the comms directorate ­"continuously monitor[ed]" peaceful protest groups opposed to the expansion of Heathrow airport and then briefed detectives about their findings.

The disclosure is the latest evidence of a wide-ranging crackdown on environmental campaign groups and has been condemned by MPs and civil liberty groups.

Earlier this month it emerged that government officials had handed confidential police intelligence about environmental activists to the energy giant E.ON ahead of a peaceful demonstration at Kingsnorth, the proposed site of a new coal-fired power station in north Kent.

Last week the Guardian revealed how undercover police were running a network of hundreds of informants inside protest organisations who secretly feed them intelligence in return for cash.

Exactly 20 years ago Hungarian border guards began dismantling the physical barrier along the Hungarian-Austrian border known as the Iron Curtain.

It was an act with huge consequences for other Eastern European countries and eventually the whole of Europe.

Only a tiny section of the Iron Curtain was removed on 2 May 1989 - about 8 km in total, either side of four border crossings between Hungary and Austria.

But it was an act of massive moral and political importance.

Hungary defied its supposed allies in the Eastern Bloc, especially East Germany, Czechoslovakia and Romania, while the then Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev looked on impassively.

The main reformer in the Communist Party in Hungary at that time, Imre Pozsgay, claims the main credit for bringing down the curtain.

"I didn't do anything heroic, but I knew how much we could get away with," he said.

The economic data are convincing. According to figures just released  by the German statistical bureau (Destatis), the economic output of the ten new member states has grown drastically since they joined the EU five years ago.

The inflation-adjusted gross domestic product (GDP) of the  new members increased by 23 percent until 2008 when compared to 2004, the year they entered the EU. Slovakia, whose GDP grew by 36 percent topped the list, followed by Lithuania and Latvia whose output rose by more than 30 percent respectively. Even Hungary's economy, which experienced the weakest increase of all new member states with only ten percent, grew significantly faster than the economies of the 15 older member states which registered eight percent.

The strong economic performance by the new members is not the sole consequence of EU membership. Most Eastern European countries had begun to drastically reform and remodel their economies after the collapse of the Berlin Wall and had recorded strong GDP growth long before joining the EU.

So while EU membership wasn't the decisive factor, becoming part of the large European market was a definite boost for the new members. It not only enabled the new countries to sell their products across Europe without any hurdles. It also forced them to adapt their production and quality standards to compete on the international market.

Obviously, the global economic meltdown hasn't spared the new member states. Growth rates have slowed in many countries; some states, such as Hungary, face severe difficulties. Still, when judged by economic standards, the EU expansion is a success.

Euronews in European elections - EPP backs Barros mandate II tells us:



"The center-right European People's Party has given public backing to the re-appointment of Jose Manuel Barroso for a second term as the president of the European Commission.

The EPP's unanimous decision came at the end of the party's two-day congress in Warsaw, at which it launched its European Parliament election campaign."

*

What has this backing to do with me?

It is no great surprise that Barroso's own political fraction, the European People's Party (EPP), endorses a new five year term for him at the helm of the Commission.

However, in the spirit of the Treaty of Lisbon and within the possibilities of the Treaty of Nice, I had expected each political party at European level to nominate its own candidate for the post.

Merely seducing, or potentially convincing ? A personal analysis of Euroscepticism

With the European parliamentary elections coming up, parties have started preparing their campaign in view of attracting as many voters as possible. At this point in time where it is believed that the European Union finds itself in a crisis, the so-called Eurosceptic parties will undoubtedly be followed very closely by the other political groupings, the media and political scientists. The Euros seize the opportunity to take a closer look at those parties which pro-Europeans fear, but often also ignore. A personal analysis of what Euroscepticism really means.

Indeed, watching the campaign launches by certain Eurosceptic parties on television, I was wondering if, agnostically speaking, I could be convinced by the arguments Eurosceptic parties put forward. And if, on the basis of the often-mentioned manifestos or programmes, I could vote for a Eurosceptic party. This formed the start of a brief research on the party websites of the British UK Independence Party, the French Front National and the Belgian/Flemish Vlaams Belang. I considered these three parties as Eurosceptic parties, although this term is more often misused than used rightly. For this reason, it is perhaps first important to consider what exactly Euroscepticism means, as opposed to e.g. Eurocriticism, Europhobia or anti-EU programmes.

WASHINGTON (AFP) -- US President Barack Obama will host a summit with his Afghan and Pakistani counterparts on Wednesday, the White House said, amid growing US concern over the deteriorating situation in the region.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai and Pakistani leader Asif Ali Zardari will also hold separate talks with Obama as well as a mini-summit, White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said Friday.

"The president looks forward to discussing with these two democratically elected leaders how we can work together to enhance our cooperation in this important part of the world as the United States implements a new strategy" for Afghanistan and Pakistan, said Gibbs.

Obama has put nuclear-armed Pakistan, a key regional US ally, at the center of the fight against Al-Qaeda as Washington dispatches 4,000 more troops, in addition to an extra 17,000 already committed, to Afghanistan.

The plan, unveiled in March, includes a focus on flushing out Al-Qaeda sanctuaries in Pakistan and boosting civilian efforts to build up both Afghanistan and Pakistan, notably in agriculture and education.

A year after the devastating Cyclone Nargis tore through the Burmese Delta leaving up to 140,000 people dead and further exposing the disregard and inefficiency of the country's military rulers, half a million of those who are still alive continue to depend on hand-outs just to survive.

But the problems facing the beleaguered people of Burma are not just those caused by the fury of Cyclone Nargis's 130mph winds and the surging 12ft wall of water they created. Campaigners say that the authoritarian regime, hidden away in its remote jungle capital, is continuing to imprison people simply for trying to help those affected by the storm.

((On the southern coast of Sri Lanka, ten miles from one of the world's busiest shipping routes, a vast construction site is engulfing the once sleepy fishing town of Hambantota.))

This is where China is building a $1 billion port that it plans to use as a refuelling and docking station for its navy, as it patrols the Indian Ocean and protects China's supplies of Saudi oil. Ever since Sri Lanka agreed to the plan, in March 2007, China has given it all the aid, arms and diplomatic support it needs to defeat the Tigers, without worrying about the West.

Barack Obama will have an early opportunity to shape the direction of US constitutional law after a supreme court justice, David Souter, announced his retirement yesterday.

The departure of Souter - who will leave at the end of the term next month - opens the way for a Democratic president to make an appointment to the country's highest court for the first time in 15 years, but there is likely to be a bitter nomination fight in congress whoever his choice is.

Although the overall balance of the court will not change because Souter generally sided with other liberal justices, his replacement is likely to perpetuate Obama's influence long after the president has left office as the court decides cases around issues from limits on presidential authority after the overreaching of the George Bush years to claims of a constitutional right to same-sex marriage.

The president has made it clear he favours appointing a justice who will protect abortion rights and who has "a sense of what real-world folks are going through".

Human rights groups have renewed attacks on Iran's policy of executing juvenile offenders after a woman painter was hanged for a murder allegedly committed when she was 17. Delara Darabi was hanged in Rasht prison yesterday despite having apparently won a temporary stay of her sentence last month from Iran's judiciary chief, Ayatollah Mahmoud Hashemi Shahroudi.

Campaigners say she was executed without her family or lawyer being informed 48 hours in advance as Iranian law requires.

Darabi, 22, had spent five years in jail after being convicted of murdering her father's wealthy female cousin. She initially confessed to the crime but later insisted that her boyfriend carried out the murder to steal the 65-year-old woman's money. The boyfriend persuaded her to confess, she claimed, by convincing her she would not be executed because of her age.

A Greek-owned ship has been hijacked by Somali pirates south-west of the Seychelles, a seafarers group says.

The Ukrainian crew were believed unharmed in the night-time attack, about 250 nautical miles (463km) from the Indian Ocean islands.

It came hours after a Portuguese warship thwarted an attack on a Norwegian vessel in the Gulf of Aden.

The warship, part of a Nato patrol, destroyed explosives they discovered when they captured the pirates.

Zimbabwe's Prime Minister, Morgan Tsvangirai, has said the new unity government is broke and can not meet trade union demands for higher wages.

Mr Tsvangirai said no state worker, including President Robert Mugabe, was earning more than $100 (£67) a month.

The unions have called for a monthly minimum of $450 and threatened to go on strike if their demand is not met.

But Mr Tsvangirai told a May Day rally in Harare that the government needed more time to fix the economy.

The Australian government says it is to spend more than $72bn (£48bn) upgrading its military over the next two decades.

Key purchases include 100 fighter jets and 12 new submarines, replacing the current fleet of six.

Eight frigates and 24 combat helicopters are also on the list, set out in the country's first defence white paper for 10 years.

The government says it will enable Australia to defend its interests in a changing Asia-Pacific region.

The white paper is entitled: "Defending Australia in the Asia-Pacific Century; Force 2030".

The 12 new hunter-killer submarines - which will be built in Australia - will double the size of the current fleet.

One hundred F-35 fighters will be purchased over the next decade, and funds will also be allocated to counter cyber and electronic warfare.

Brazilian police and soldiers have begun an operation to remove non-indigenous residents from an Indian reservation in northern Brazil.

The operation follows a landmark ruling by the country's Supreme Court that the Raposa Serra do Sol reservation should be solely for indigenous people.

The non-indigenous rice farmers and farm workers say they are victims of "legalised robbery".

But the authorities say they will be properly compensated.

In March, Brazil's Supreme Court ruled that the area in the northern border state of Roraima should be maintained as a single continuous territory exclusively for use by the indigenous population.

Hundreds of thousands of people in Burma's Irrawaddy Delta still need assistance - a year after a deadly cyclone, the UN and aid agencies warn.

The UN and Burma's neighbours made a $700m (£469m) appeal for reconstruction in February but have so far received pledges of only $100m (£67m).

The UN says it is now allowed to bring in all the staff it needs after an initial ban by Burma's (Myanmar) junta.

Cyclone Nargis killed about 140,000 people in 2008.

More than two million people were left homeless.

Israel says its aircraft have attacked tunnels on the border between the Gaza Strip and Egypt for a second day.

Officials said three tunnels used to smuggle weapons into the coastal enclave had been destroyed.

The raids came hours after Palestinian fighters in Gaza fired rockets into southern Israel, with no reported injuries.

Israeli police said two mortars landed in an open area inside Israel without causing damage or casualties.

The Sri Lankan army has killed 91 people at a makeshift hospital inside a civilian safe zone in the last two days, two doctors have told the BBC.

The doctors said bombardments from the army had killed 64 people on Saturday, including patients, their relatives and bystanders in Mullivaikal.

About 87 people were injured. Another 27 people reportedly died on Friday.

The army has denied bombing the hospital, saying that Tamil Tiger rebels carried out suicide attacks.

A spokesman for the Sri Lankan army said that although soldiers had heard explosions in the area, they had not fired any shells.

May 2 (Bloomberg) -- Berkshire Hathaway Inc. Chairman Warren Buffett dismissed the importance of the government's stress tests of major U.S. financial institutions in helping him assess banks he invested in.

"I think I know their future, frankly, better than somebody that comes in to take a look," Buffett said before the start of Omaha, Nebraska-based Berkshire's annual shareholder meeting today. "They may be using more of a checklist type approach."

Berkshire's second-largest holding by market value after Coca-Cola Co. is Wells Fargo & Co., the biggest bank on the U.S. West Coast. Berkshire also owns stakes in Goldman Sachs Group Inc., Bank of America Corp., the biggest U.S. bank by assets, as well as U.S. Bancorp, M&T Bank Corp. and SunTrust Banks Inc. Buffett says he judges banks by their "dynamism" and their ability to gather deposits.

"If you look at Coca-Cola today, for example, and just looked at a balance sheet, it wouldn't tell you anything at all about Coca-Cola," the billionaire investor said. "It's what the product is."

The 19 banks in the stress tests, designed to show whether they need more capital to withstand a deterioration of economic conditions, hold two-thirds of the assets and more than one-half of the loans in the U.S. banking system, according to a Federal Reserve study released April 24.

The tests, originally scheduled for release on May 4, are set to be disclosed after U.S. markets close on May 7, according to a government official who spoke on condition of anonymity.

Insolvency experts warned today that a 59% annual jump in failing companies was "the tip of the iceberg" as official figures highlighted the impact of Britain's plunge into recession on the hard-pressed corporate sector.

Liz Bingham, head of restructuring at Ernst & Young, said: "As worrying as these figures are, this is just the tip of the distress iceberg. Many more companies and individuals are being restructured outside of formal processes and the figures do not include those companies that are effectively dead in the water, but lacking the triggers that force intervention. The number of corporate insolvencies has once again risen significantly, but we fear that the worst is not yet over for many UK businesses as the economy continues to contract and credit remains constrained."

In run up to presidential race, German president Horst Koehler has hit out at bankers' greed, but is optimistic that the dark cloud of global financial crisis will have a silver lining. 

President Horst Koehler, who is seeking a second term in office, stirred up the battle of words when he slammed the country's financial elite for failing to acknowledge personal errors that contributed to the global financial crisis.

In an interview in Saturday's edition of the tabloid newspaper Bild, Koehler complained that they "have, regrettably, remained silent."

Koehler blamed a lack of financial transparency and supervision for the financial crisis. The 66-year-old, who is the former head of the International Monetary Fund, excoriated bankers as having "tried to sue for multi-million (euro) payments, even though they are personally hardly hurting from the crisis."

Economics Minister Doris Leuthard, Swiss companies and trade unions joined forces on Tuesday to combat the growing threat of youth unemployment.

At a news conference in Bern, Leuthard called for increased cooperation so that young people could have a better education. She also advised companies to continue to employ their apprentices after their vocational training.

The call did not fall on deaf ears, with employers and the unions agreeing joint action was necessary to remedy the situation.

Young people, particularly those between aged 20-24, are being particularly hit by the economic downturn. At the end of March, 5.1 per cent of that age group were jobless, compared with an average unemployment rate of 3.4 per cent.

Alan Abelson in Barron's cites the analysis of STEPHANIE POMBOY in her MacroMavens commentary, (a subscription service.)  She scoffs at the idea that the current market rally is more than a bear market rally.  She notes the "amount of financial pain being priced into the credit markets" which are shown by the spreads, which have narrowed, but remain "far, far wider than they were at the 2003 cycle lows."  While the common reaction to this among the investment community is that the credit markets are wildly oversold, she thinks it might have something to do with the fact that "an overwhelming portion of some $8 trillion in mortgage debt (or 80% of the total) is teetering on the edge of, or in some state of, negative equity."

Continuing from Alan's column:

As to the Fed's claim that the equity of homeowners as a group stands at 43%, she points out that what the Fed neglects to tell you is that roughly a third of them have their houses free and clear. Lo and behold, some basic arithmetic reveals that 67% of homeowners with mortgages have equity of less than 15%. That, Stephanie comments drily, suggests the "destruction priced into the credit markets hardly seems out of whack with potential reality."

And while, thanks to "the transfer of toxic assets to taxpayers" and the magic of accounting legerdemain, the scarred financials to some significant extent may be spared further pain, the same, alas, can't be said for the nonfinancial sector. Little recognized, she insists, is how much the extraordinary gains in domestic nonfinancial profits from the low in 2001 to the peak in 2006 -- a stunning rise of 388% -- owed to the housing bubble.

"Who in his right mind," she asks, "would believe that explosion in profits during the housing-bubble stretch a mere coincidence and, therefore, in no way subject to the same inexorable decline?" Since we delight in answering rhetorical questions, we'd reckon not more than 95% of the folks who contend we're in a new bull market.

Absent the powerful stimulus provided by the unprecedented boom in housing, she sees a huge hit still in the offing for nonfinancial corporate profits. A worst-case analysis is that such profits would sink to 2003 levels, a further decline of $450 billion, or 54%. Under a less exacting (and frightening) estimate, using their relationship to GDP, they would return to their pre-bubble percentage of 3.5%, which translates into a drop from here of $340 billion, or 41%.

At the end of the day, earnings, to state the obvious, are what makes the stock market go up -- and down. The prospect that they are in for a fresh drubbing is all the more ominous because it's unexpected. As Stephanie reflects, "bear-market rallies come and go, but what makes this one so noteworthy is just how far removed perception is from reality."

One of the arguments apparently being made in Washington by those who oppose regulation of credit default swaps is that it would reduce liquidity and that of course would be a terrible thing.

My impression is that no one has endeavored to put metrics on this assertion (as in how and where liquidity would be reduced and what the consequences would be). However, just because a certain amount of liquidity is good, it does not necessarily follow that more is always better. Recall Keynes' remark, "When the capital development of a country becomes a by-product of the activities of a casino, the job is likely to be ill done." Excessive liquidity can lead to precisely such an outcome. (Note we recently discussed evidence of harm caused by CDS, and asked readers for examples of where they were beneficial, and what sort of transactions required customization. The response was underwhelming).

We are suffering a hangover from just such a period. One of the comments I have heard from debt market participants in the bubble era was that they were faced with a 'wall of liquidity", tons of money looking for places to park it. And some of that appeared to be the direct result of credit default swaps. CDS allowed banks in Europe to circumvent capital requirements, enabled investment banks to accelerate profits from deals into the current period by (in theory) defeasing risk, allowed banks to extend bigger loans than they would have otherwise by hedging some of the risk. The net effect was that a lot of players achieved higher gearing than they would have otherwise.

...Veratect Corporation, a two-year-old U.S. company that monitors disease outbreaks worldwide, claims it identified the first case of the new virus on Mar. 30 in the municipality of Perote, in the southeastern Mexican state of Veracruz, 800 km from the Mexican capital.

The Seattle, Washington-based company says it reported the cases to the World Health Organisation (WHO), the U.S. Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDCs) and the International Federation of the Red Cross (IFRC) in early April.

A pig factory farm run by Granjas Carroll, a subsidiary of the U.S.-based Smithfield Foods - the world's largest pork producer and processor - operates near the Perote village of La Gloria.

Mexico's health ministry confirmed Wednesday that the first case in Mexico of swine flu - which is a new mix of pig, bird, and human viruses - occurred in Perote, although the first person to die of the disease in this country was an employee of a national tax office on Apr. 12 in the southern state of Oaxaca.

Researchers and activists point to intensive pig farming as a perfect breeding-ground for new viruses.

See LQD: The NAFTA flu.

The decision by citizens of canton Appenzell Inner Rhodes to ban naked hikers has provided rich pickings for stand-up comedians and satirists.

Simon Enzler, a clothed cabaret artist from eastern Switzerland who uses the topic in his act, talks to swissinfo about what the average Appenzeller makes of it all and wonders where the nudist police are going to stick the SFr200 ($175) fines.

In a world first, on April 26 the traditional open-air assembly in Appenzell, a scenic region in eastern Switzerland, decided overwhelmingly to clamp down on a sudden influx of naked tourists, particularly from nearby Germany.

The government of Appenzell Inner Rhodes recommended the ban, saying the local population was opposed to the "indecent practice".

LONDON -- It was 2:30 in the morning, and Marc and Jo Stephens were at home in Redruth, Cornwall, when Ms. Stephens realized that their fourth child was about to be born, three weeks early.

Ms. Stephens's history of speedy births meant that there was no way they were going to make it to the hospital on time, her husband said Friday, according to the Press Association news service. Mr. Stephens called a midwife, who said she was too busy at the hospital to come to their house.

The next thing Mr. Stephens knew, his wife was on all fours, the baby's head was showing and events were moving inexorably along. Rather than having a panic attack, grabbing a large bottle of gin or running screaming into the street, Mr. Stephens, a 28-year-old navy engineer, applied the lessons he had learned earlier in the evening when, after his wife began labor, he typed "how to deliver a baby" into the Google search engine on his computer.

"I watched a couple of clips on YouTube," Mr. Stephens said.

The biggest internet revolution for a generation will be unveiled this month with the launch of software that will understand questions and give specific, tailored answers in a way that the web has never managed before.

The new system, Wolfram Alpha, showcased at Harvard University in the US last week, takes the first step towards what many consider to be the internet's Holy Grail - a global store of information that understands and responds to ordinary language in the same way a person does.

Although the system is still new, it has already produced massive interest and excitement among technology pundits and internet watchers.

Computer experts believe the new search engine will be an evolutionary leap in the development of the internet. Nova Spivack, an internet and computer expert, said that Wolfram Alpha could prove just as important as Google. "It is really impressive and significant," he wrote. "In fact it may be as important for the web (and the world) as Google, but for a different purpose.

The cucumber sandwiches may have been in short supply and many of the spectators ringing the boundary bemused US soldiers, but today a slice of English village green cricket was transported to the headquarters of the west's military mission in Afghanistan.

To roars of approval from a mixed crowd of foreigners and locals, a team from the Ditchling cricket club in Sussex were soundly thrashed by Afghanistan's national side, a squad of former refugees that is rapidly emerging as a power in international cricket.

To the untrained eye, it is just a tattered cardboard box, holding row upon row of photographic negatives. To photography experts it is part of the "Mexican Suitcase", a cultural legend that went missing for 70 years, containing the most enigmatic work of the acclaimed war photographer Robert Capa.

The AFP reports that German Chancellor Angela Merkel appears in a lingerie ad wearing nothing more than a purple matching bra and panties set.

AFP reports that the ad is for an underwear company that is offering a $7 discount on new undies to anyone who trades in an old pair. The slogan of the campaign is, "The country needs new undies."

At first glance it looks like a rocky desert - but this image of the Mars landscape has got space-gazers talking.

An oddly shaped space boulder appears to show eye sockets and a nose leading to speculation it might be a Martian skull.

[Torygraph Alert]  And the next thing you know, they'll be wanting to join the EU and swamp us with hard-working plumbers...

Normally, the more conventional way of making something dissappear, especially cars, is to destroy them and recycle. However, a totally different approach to making a car disappear has just been attempted and that too successfully.

An art student, Sara Watson who is studying drawing at the University of Central Lancashire made a battered old Skoda "invisible" by painting it so that it merges with the surrounding car park.

At this point 105,029 people have been laid off in New York City but while our loris is a bit slow, there is something very wrong with the richest city in the nation looking for a new home for one of our our cutest animals and many of the other creatures of the night.

with Machiavelli knowingly advocating actions which are wrong. Yet, although he explicitly writes that a prince needs to learn how not to be good, he may yet resist the immorality charge. To challenge conventional moral thinking is not thereby to be immoral; and contrary to popular image, The Prince is much concerned with which actions truly are right.

It's a good book, and a good read.

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

It's shockingly disappointing that science, art, technology, medicine, spirituality and culture have all been transformed out of recognition and beyond imagination since then - while politcs, war and econmics are the same old same old.

Just because that's the way it's been done for a long time doesn't mean the truths are truly universal, or in any way inevitable.