During a visit to Sofia yesterday (23 September), Romanian President Traian Basescu found an ally in the shape of his Bulgarian colleague, Georgi Parvanov, as both called for the speedy joint accession of the two countries to the Schengen area. Dnevnik, EurActiv's partner in Bulgaria, reports.

Speaking alongside his guest, Parvanov said that two bilateral official documents, one from 2008 and the other from 2010, commit the neighbouring countries to joint efforts to meet the criteria for accession to the European border-free area.

Dnevnik recalls that Bulgarian Prime Minister Boyko Borissov has insisted that each country must join according to its merits. As previously reported, Borissov did not criticise the Roma expulsions by France in the hope that Paris would not raise obstacles to the country's Schengen accession in early 2011.

Parvanov, who is a former socialist leader, openly disapproved of the policy of centre-right Prime Minister Boyko Borissov, who said France was within its rights in conducting the expulsions.

The EU's future farm policy should support only active farmers, not wealthy landowners such as the UK royal family, according to Pekka Pesonen, head of EU farmers' lobby Copa-Cogeca. He spoke to EurActiv.com in an exclusive interview.

The debate was sparked after the Financial Times Deutschland published an article regarding the conspicuous package that commissioners receive when they need to re-enter the job market once their mandate has expired.

A list of those receiving the indemnities was subsequently made public by a European Commission spokesperson. The paper reveals that among the former commissioners, all but three receive monthly indemnities, which range from between 40% and 55% of their salaries as commissioners, according to the duration of their term in office.

A commissioner's monthly salary before tax is 20,000 euros, journalists were told yesterday, with Commission vice-presidents receiving 22,500.

An attack on Great Britain by Irish-related terrorists is a "strong possibility", Home Secretary Theresa May said today as the country's threat level was raised to substantial.

The threat assessment was increased after the head of the MI5 warned that dissident Irish republicans could attempt to mount a new wave of terrorist attacks on the British mainland.

Ken Livingstone today vowed to eject Boris Johnson from City Hall after he was selected as Labour's candidate for the London mayoral elections of 2012.

And Mr Livingstone said the mayoral vote in Olympic year will provide a springboard to take on the coalition Government and return Labour to power nationally.

The day after at least a million people participated in a national strike, French trade unions have called for more demonstrations, on October 2 and October 12, in protest against the government's pension reform plan that would raise the minimum retirement age from 60 to 62.

While police figures said a million people took to the streets across the country on Thursday, trade unions put the figure at three million, leading Francois Chereque, general secretary of France's main union, the French Democratic Confederation of Labour (CFDT), to declare their efforts a success. Millions of people have taken to the streets for two nationwide strikes in the past three weeks.

The protests have continued even though the bill has already been passed by the lower house of parliament and will be examined from October 5 by the upper house, where it is widely expected to pass.

Also see Photos-Big demonstration against Sarko government

_{*Lunatic*, n.
One whose delusions are out of fashion.}

French officials across the political spectrum have expressed support for "shooting galleries", where addicts could use drugs under medical supervision. Such centres exist in several other European countries.

...the subject has become a thorny one because of divisions within the government. Though Health Minister Roselyne Bachelot has been receptive to the idea, Prime Minister François Fillon has said "The establishment of drug-use clinics is neither useful nor desirable in France".

Meanwhile, Philippe Meunier, a right-wing deputy from the Rhone region, reacted Friday with a dose of sarcasm: "Why not also give them drugs and call the Medellin cartel to get a better deal?" he said, adding that opening centres for drug use would be "an easy solution, a decision to give up". In a phone interview with France24.com, Meunier said he feared the logic behind opening "shooting galleries" would lead to the "legalisation of drug use".

German interior minister Thomas de Maiziere's has met with members of different minority Christian communities during a visit to Turkey.

Discussions with representatives from Greek Orthodox, Syrian Orthodox and Protestant Churches took place in Istanbul, and top of the agenda was further rights for minorities.

The Turkish government, under Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has made moves towards strengthening the rights of minorities.

De Maiziere told a German radio station in Istanbul that there had been "progress" but more needs to be done.

The clips of senior Liberal Democrats on the news defending David Cameron's imminent deeper-than-Thatcher slash-back are starting to look like hostage videos from Iraq. Slightly dazed, poor Simon Hughes or Menzies Campbell or Charles Kennedy will glance somewhere off camera with a nervous twitch and mumble a few supportive platitudes. Yes, we know that before the election Nick Clegg said: "There isn't a serious economist in the world who agrees with the Conservatives... [that] we should pull the rug out from under the economy with immediate spending cuts." We know he said the people pushing this argument were "fake" and "a con". But... um... things have changed... and... er... cut... yes... cut... now, please tell my family I love them and I'll be home soon, and don't hurt me, please, no, no.

Christopher Hitchens once said: "All politicians lie, but the Clintons do it with such ease, it's frightening." The Lib Dems are the polar opposite. It's to their credit that they are finding lying so difficult, and do it so badly: Vince Cable's protestations of agreement with George Osborne caused all polygraph machines within a 1,000-mile radius of Liverpool to ping into action.

GERMANY: With more than 2000 exhibitors, this year's InnoTrans trade fair in Berlin will be the biggest biennial event yet.

Taking place from September 21 to 24, the show will occupy 30 halls and almost 5 km of tracks, with a wide range of rolling stock and maintenance equipment on display. More than half of the exhibitors are coming from outside Germany, including a growing number from Asia and North America.

InnoTrans is the largest industry fair for the railway sector, comparable to the Detroit motor show or the Paris air show. (On the photo I recognise part of the open-air exhibits on the 2004 event, which I attended.)

_{*Lunatic*, n.
One whose delusions are out of fashion.}

InnoTrans: Siemens Mobility marked the launch of its new Vectron interoperable locomotive family with a short ceremony on September 22 to name the first multi-system electric loco after the company's founder Werner von Siemens.

Chief Executive of the Siemens Industry Sector Siegfried Russwurm noted that it was highly appropriate that the event should take place at InnoTrans, as it was at a trade fair in Berlin in 1879 that von Siemens first demonstrated the practicality of electric traction on rail.

Derived from experience with the Eurosprinter and Eurorunner designs, the Vectron family has been developed for cross-border freight and passenger services, at speeds of 160 or 200 km/h. Four prototypes are on show at InnoTrans 2010: the multi-system version named in the ceremony, plus AC and DC electric versions and a diesel variant.

As I said earlier, Vectron seems more a re-branding stunt than technological innovation. Also see European Tribune - From Universal to Modular (2/2), Diesel heavy haul across Europe

_{*Lunatic*, n.
One whose delusions are out of fashion.}

InnoTrans: Polish rolling stock manufacturer Pesa celebrated the launch of its ELF electric multiple-unit for commuter and regional services on September 21.

The unit on display in Berlin is one of eight ordered by the Polish voivodship of Slaskie. Its four articulated cars give a total length of 75.25 m with 200 seats and space for a total of 450 passengers, but the design is available in configurations of between two and eight cars...

Also see From byproducts to variable stars: local multiple units

_{*Lunatic*, n.
One whose delusions are out of fashion.}

Am zweiten Tag der InnoTrans wurde der DB der erste ICE 3 der neuen Generation (wenn auch noch nicht komplett vollständig) der DB übergeben.		On the second day of InnoTrans, the first new-generation ICE 3 was handed over to DB (even if it wasn't yet complete).
Der neue ICE 3, beim Hersteller Siemens Velaro D genannt, ist sparsamer, effizienter und zuverlässiger als sein Vorgänger, der genau vor 12 Jahren auf der InnoTrans/Eurailspeed 1998 erstmals gezeigt wurde... Ab Ende 2011 soll der zwischen Frankfurt und Marseille verkehren.		The new ICE 3, named Velaro D at the manufacturer Siemens, has a lower consumption and is more efficient and reliable than its predecessor, which was presented exactly 12 years ago at the InnoTrans/Eurailspeed 1998... From the end of 2011, it shall travel between Frankfurt and Marseille.

Unlike its sisters for Spain and China, the Velaro D is not stronger and faster than the ICE 3. However, it has more up to date electronics, slightly better aerodynamics, and above all a properly designed axle (all ICE 3 axles have to be replaced after one broke).

The Velaro D would travel to Marseille via the new LGV Rhin-Rhône, see The EU's emerging high-speed networkS

_{*Lunatic*, n.
One whose delusions are out of fashion.}

Railway Gazette: Girona tunnelling makes progress

SPAIN: The completion of the first section of a 2∙9 km bored tunnel that will carry the high speed line between Barcelona and the French border under the city of Girona was marked by an official visit on September 17...

A 2 700 tonne earth-pressure balance TBM supplied by Herrenknecht and christened `Gerunda', the Latin name for Girona, has completed a 1∙3 km south-north drive from a launch site at Mas Xirgu to the station box in the centre of the city...

...The high speed line to the French border is due for completion in 2012 and the 3∙6 km section through Girona is expected to cost €278·6m to build, including the new station.

The routing of this city passage was one of two disputes that held up the completion of the line, with the ironic result that (as shown in The EU's emerging high-speed networkS) the separately constructed cross-border section was finished earlier but ended in the bushes:

_{*Lunatic*, n.
One whose delusions are out of fashion.}

Railway Gazette: Agreement signed for north-south corridor

AFGHANISTAN: An agreement to undertake detailed surveys for a railway linking Kabul with Uzbekistan and Pakistan was signed by Afghanistan's Minister of Mines Wahidullah Shahrani and China Metallurgical Group Corp (MCC) on September 22. The contract specifies that MCC will construct a railway, if feasible, from northern Pakistan to Hayratan on the border with Uzbekistan.

IMHO this has no greater chance of realisation than the pipeline across Afghanistan.

_{*Lunatic*, n.
One whose delusions are out of fashion.}

The head of the civil service today launched a mole-hunt after the leak of lists of around 180 public bodies apparently facing abolition in a "bonfire of the quangos".

The lists, obtained by the Daily Telegraph and BBC, indicated that organisations ranging from the Health Protection Agency to the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority, Commission for Integrated Transport and School Food Trust are in line for the axe.

European defense ministers meeting in Belgium have discussed the need to step up military and defense cooperation in a bid to cut billions of euros from domestic defense budgets.

German Defense Minister Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg was among those who championed the idea of closer cooperation on defense at the meeting in the city of Ghent, but acknowledged that any such plan would face significant obstacles.

"We should join our forces more, but we also have to see the hurdles," Guttenberg said. "These are national hurdles. In Germany, for example, parliament has to agree to every foreign mission. While that has been a very good thing, it can also be an obstacle in the European context."

The proposal is that, in the future, EU countries could cut defense budgets in two ways: first, different member states could specialize in different aspects of defense, and second, the bloc could band together in the defense procurement process to secure better deals.

AFP - A US Congress committee on Friday voted to open the way for retaliation against China over its currency, saying Beijing had failed to fulfill promises to let the yuan appreciate.

Charging that China was deliberately undervaluing the yuan to boost exports, the House Ways and Means Committee voted to expand the powers of the Commerce Department to allow it to impose tariffs due to currency manipulation.

Under longstanding regulations, the Commerce Department can only impose tariffs on foreign goods if the producer country directly subsidies an export.

Ah, what a tangled web we weave when first we practice to deceive, said the bard.

And the web emanating from the GMAC affidavit improprieties extend much further than most may realize. Although GMAC continues to maintain that having its "robot signor" officers like Jeffrey Stephan provide affidavits on matters they know nothing about is a mere technical problem that they can remedy. In fact, an affidavit is a statement of someone with personal knowledge of a matter. Stephan signed as many as 10,000 documents a month and clearly could not have personal knowledge of the underlying situations. Deliberately preparing and submitting inaccurate documents in a legal proceeding is a fraud on the court, something most judges really really do not like.

Predictably, lawyers who are contesting foreclosures are jumping on the affidavit issue and using it to open up broader issues with foreclosures where GMAC was the servicer of the loan. For instance, this letter to a judge in South Carolina , a judicial foreclosure state, discusses not only the role of an apparent fellow robot signor of Stephan, one Jack Kerr, but more critically, another document provided in this case stamped (not signed) by one Judy Faber, also of GMAC. The Faber document transferred title to the party foreclosing in the case, so if the document is invalid, the plaintiff, in this case a Deutsche Bank trust, will lack standing to foreclose (legalese for "no tickie, no laundry"). Here is the critical section of the letter (on page 2):

   Upon information and believe, Judy Faber has instructed document custodians in thousands of foreclosure cases to apply her stamped endorsement bearing her name after foreclosure commenced to an allonge and after a consumer had challenged the chain of title in the case. Upon information and belief, Ms. Faber and her document custodian team at facilities described in the Washington Post article attached to this letter have fabricated and changed title in thousands of foreclosure cases.

This takes a wee bit of unpacking. The pooling and servicing agreement, which governs who does what when in a mortgage securitization, requires the note to be endorsed (just like a check, signed by one party over to the next), showing the full chain of title, and the minimum conveyance chain is A (originator) => B (sponsor) => C (depositor) => D (trust). The note, which is the borrower's IOU, is the critical document in 45 states. The mortgage, which is the lien, is a mere accessory to the note and can be enforced only by the proper note holder (the legalese is "real party of interest").

The wee problem is that this apparently never done (I've been told one person trying to track down a particular note found it, at Countrywide. The guy who wandered down the corridor to produce it from his files claimed that Countrywide kept all the notes on its deals, and would send them out on request when someone needed them in a foreclosure. If this is true, it indicates there are pervasive and not readily remedied problems. The required endorsements were never done [oh, and the bankruptcy trustee should approving any assets leaving Countrywide, a little nicety that evidently is not being observed either]).

Why is this serious? The cure for the mortgage documents puts the loan out of eligibility for the trust. In order to cure, on a current basis, they have to argue that the loan goes retroactively back into the trust. This is the cure that the banks have been unwilling to do, because it is a big problem for the MBS. So instead they forge and fabricate documents.

All the king's horses and all the king's men
Couldn't put Humpty together again.

---Mother Goose

Nor can Ben and Timmy or Freddie and Fanny.

"It is not necessary to have hope in order to persevere."

EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - A new transatlantic row is unfolding after the US introduced a $14 entry fee for EU travellers, with the European Commission analysing possible retaliatory measures. Meanwhile, US privacy officials are trying to alleviate concerns raised by MEPs over the collection of travellers' credit card data.

Introduced earlier this month, the fee, which can only be paid online via credit card, applies to EU tourists from 23 countries who do not require a visa to travel to the US. Travellers from Bulgaria, Cyprus, Poland and Romania continue to require a visa and pay different visa fees.

In a lively debate on Wednesday (22 September), EU parlamentarians slammed the unilateral move from the US side and called on the European Commission to consider retaliatory measures.

The commission has so far avoided saying the new Electronic Travel Authorisation System (Esta) is a form of hidden visa, despite MEPs pointing out that EU travellers who are refused by this system cannot board a plane to the US.

Ex-Liberian warlord, Prince Johnson, has been approved to run in the country's presidential election next year despite once being filmed drinking beer while overseeing the torture-death of a former president.

AP - The head of the French military says a possible military operation to free seven hostages abducted last week in Niger is not under consideration for the moment.

Military chief of staff Adm. Edouard Guillaud says the hostages' lives are not currently "directly threatened," but he did not rule out a military operation later.

Al-Qaida's North African affiliate claimed responsibility for the Sept. 16 abduction, which took place in a heavily guarded uranium mining town in northern Niger. Five of the hostages are French nationals, one is from Togo and another is from Madagascar.

AP - Israeli police on Friday barred access to the Temple Mount in Jerusalem's Old City for Muslim men under the age of 50 over fears of fresh unrest, public radio said.

Police are concerned about more violent protests in annexed east Jerusalem after Friday prayers following clashes sparked when a Jewish settlement guard shot dead a Palestinian.

The move is in addition to an Israeli military decision to seal off the occupied West Bank for 10 days from Tuesday for the Jewish festival of Sukkot, known to Christians as the Feast of Tabernacles.

Such closures are routinely imposed during Jewish and Israeli national holidays when large numbers of people often gather in public places, heightening Israeli security concerns.

Iraq and Syria have agreed to restore full diplomatic relations, Iraq's foreign minister said Friday, after ties between the countries frayed in 2009 over accusations that Damascus had sheltered insurgents responsible for major bombings in Baghdad.

In his speech to the General Assembly, Ahmadinejad said it was mostly US government officials who believed a terrorist group was behind the suicide hijacking attacks that brought down New York's World Trade Center and hit the Pentagon.

Another theory, he said, was "that some segments within the US government orchestrated the attack to reverse the declining American economy, and its grips on the Middle East, in order to save the Zionist regime."

"The majority of the American people as well as most nations and politicians around the world agree with this view," Ahmadinejad told the 192-nation assembly.

The US, French and several European delegations left shortly after Ahmadinejad made the remarks, which US diplomats said were "abhorrent and delusional."

Weeks into a diplomatic spat sparked by the collision of Chinese and Japanese vessels, China has banned exports of essential minerals to Japan, despite Japanese authorities agreeing on Friday to release the detained captain of the Chinese ship.

A Virginia woman whose IQ was two points shy of exempting her from execution has been put to death by lethal injection for the murder of two people, despite lengthy campaigns from anti-death sentence activists to save her.

Colombia Reports: In the FARC's first public statement since the death of military leader "Mono Jojoy," the guerrilla group says it is "calling for a chance at peace, not for surrender," reports EFE.  The statement said that annihilating the FARC won't bring peace to Colombia. "The only way is a political and peaceful solution to the social and armed internal conflict. In this we are and will be a determining factor," said the statement, released by the Agencia de Noticias Nueva Colombia (Anncol) on behalf of the rebels.  The group warned that "other strategies" only "prolong the cycle of war."

Carlos Valdez | The Associated Press | El Nuevo Herald (24 September)
La Paz, Bolivia - Indian Guaraní of southeastern Bolivia announced that they are preventing oil operations of the Spanish company Repsol YPF and any other companies operating in a territory that they declared cultural heritage, said a leader of the natives. "We have deemed problematic the establishment of any oil operations in the Tantayapi community, a cultural and historical heritage of the Guarani people," said Thursday president Celso Padilla of the Guarani.

GRANMA, Cuba: Admi Valhuerdi Cepero, the first deputy minister of the Ministry of Labour and Social Security, said that self-employment is open to 178 activities, of which 83 may be contract workers who are outside the family circle of the owner. "New permits are granted approvals in 29 activities whereby, in actual practice, no new permits were granted for several years." Among those mentioned were food vendors in different modalities, the producer of wines, the sawyer, the mason, the reel motors, coils and other equipment, the manufacturer selling wreaths and flowers, the tinsmith, sports instructor (other than martial arts), the collector seller of raw materials, the masseuse ...

FORT LAUDERDALE, USA (MCT) -- Tropical Storm Matthew quickly emerged in the southwest Caribbean on Thursday afternoon and was expected to strengthen into a hurricane by Sunday. At 5 pm EDT, Matthew, the 13th named storm of the season, was about 435 miles east of Puerto Cabezas, Nicaragua, moving west at 16 mph with sustained winds of 40 mph. Tropical storm warnings have been issued for portions of the Nicaraguan and Honduran borders.

China today attempted to restore some much needed confidence to the UN climate change negotiations when a senior official said the government wants to sign a binding climate treaty by late 2011.

The failure of last year's UN climate change summit in Copenhagen coupled with a fractious meeting in Bonn earlier this summer has fuelled speculation that the talks will not only fail to deliver a treaty at this year's summit in Cancun, but could implode altogether.

Privately diplomats are already working on contingency plans should the talks fail to deliver a deal before the existing Kyoto Protocol expires in 2012.

For decades, Moscow ignored environmental degradation above the Arctic Circle. But this week, Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin announced a massive cleanup effort -- and plans to increase the exploitation of resources in the region.

Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin loves to travel. And he seems to have a particular soft spot for the Arctic. In April, Putin helped researchers attach a radio transmitter to a sedated polar bear while in August, Putin paid a visit to Russian and German scientists at the research station on Samoilovsky Island in Russia's remote northeast.

The latter trip seems to have made a lasting impression -- so much so that he even felt compelled to mention it during a speech he delivered Thursday at the international Arctic conference held in Moscow. Permafrost and climate change experts at the research station in northern Siberia, Putin said, must battle "very trying conditions" but "their love of science" ensure that "they don't even seem to notice." Given their sacrifice, he went on, he wants to do everything he can to help spruce up their dilapidated station in the enormous Lena River delta.

But there is more to do in Russia's north than just renovate researchers' quarters. Putin said that, after years of delay, it is finally time to begin large-scale efforts to clean up the dirty legacy of the Soviet Union. "We will put huge amounts of money into environmental protection," Putin pledged grandly before conference attendees. "We are planning to do a serious spring-cleaning of our Arctic territories," he went on, and spoke of "garbage that (has) been accumulating for decades" there.

Shipping, considered one of the most carbon friendly modes of transport, is now a growing threat in the battle against climate change.

A new report, published by the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research, suggests `the global shipping industry's carbon emissions could account for almost all of the worlds' emissions by 2050 if current rates of growth continue.'

This would put the UK`s target of an 80 per cent reduction in greenhouse gases by 2050, and other nations' targets, at risk.

Dr Paul Gilbert, Lecturer in Climate Change at the University of Manchester, said: `In terms of tonnes kilometres shipped, [shipping] is the most efficient mode of transport, however ... the sector is predicted to grow by up to 150-250 per cent ... this will not be compatible with already high levels of climate change.'

...Currently shipping accounts for 2.7 per cent of global greenhouse emissions. If it was a nation, Aitken explains, shipping would lie behind Japan but ahead of Germany.

The UN held a special meeting Friday to discuss mounting concerns about high global food prices. Russia's grain export ban and the recent food riots in Mozambique are expected to take centre stage during the day-long talks.

The oil and gas industry has made no secret of its opposition to the Obama administration's temporary moratorium on new deepwater drilling. Now, Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-La.) has pledged to block the nomination of Jack Lew to serve as director of the Office of Management and Budget until the moratorium is lifted.

Two thirds of the TV programmes viewed in Europe are of European origin, according to a report published by the European Commission on Friday (24 September), in line with EU rules on promoting home-grown content.

European television broadcasters devote an average of 63% of their air time to programmes made in the EU and 35% to independent works created by European producers, found the report, which covers the period 2007-2008.

The EU's Audiovisual Media Services (AVMS) Directive, which entered into force in 2007, requires member states to make sure that over 50% of programming time is devoted to European works (see 'Background').

Moreover, broadcasters must reserve 10% of their transmission time - or 10% of their programming budget - for European works created by independent producers.

Five years ago, archaeologists found the "earliest evidence for large scale organized warfare in the Mesopotamian world." Using slings and clay bullets a - likely Uruk - army took over the city of Hamoukar, burning it down in the process. Now, new discoveries at a nearby settlement shed more light on the 3500 BC battle - and raise more questions. If the invading army was from Uruk, did they kill their own people? If so, why?

Hamoukar is a city that flourished in northern Syria since at least 4000 BC. They traded in obsidian and in later times copper working became increasingly important to the city's economy. Thousands of clay sealings - once used to lock doors or containers and impressed with stamp seals - were found at the ancient site. They tell of a bureaucratic system that was almost as complex as our own.

Uruk was a massive city, located to the south in modern day Iraq. Unlike Hamoukar it was lacking in natural resources such as timber and metal. Yet, despite this lack of resources, its people were on the move. "This Uruk culture from the south started expanding all over the Middle East," said Professor Clemens Reichel, of the University of Toronto and Royal Ontario Museum, who is leading the excavation at Hamoukar. His team's work is being supported by the Department of Antiquities in Syria and the Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago.

One of these colonies was located just outside Hamoukar. It's a small site, probably occupied by no more than a few hundred people. Its pottery remains were scattered over a hectare. When researchers analysed the pottery they found that much of it consisted of Uruk pottery. "It's the same stuff that you would find in Southern Mesopotamia, almost 700 km to the south," said Reichel.

Facebook users around the world were shut out of the social networking service for over two hours on Thursday while the website dealt with its worst technical glitch in four years.

The website blamed the trouble - which started on Wednesday - on a problem with an automated system which was not correcting technical errors properly. "This meant that even after the original problem had been fixed, the stream of queries continued. (...) We had entered a feedback loop that didn't allow the databases to recover," website administrators explained.

In an online statement made to its 500 million users, Facebook described the solution to the problem - turning the site off - as "quite painful".

The Sri Ganesha Temple in Berlin is currently located in a drafty barn-like building with a leaky roof. But the Hindu community dreams of building a suitably grand temple for their gods. Now construction work has officially begun, even though believing that there will be enough money to finish it requires a leap of faith.

As Hindu places of worship go, the Sri Ganesha Temple in Berlin is a pretty humble affair. It is currently located on a corner of Hasenheide Park in the city's gritty Neukölln district, in a ramshackle, barn-like structure that was once used to store gardening equipment. The roof is leaky, and the wind blows through the small gaps in the wood panels.

Yet the temple congregation, which is made up of about 90 active members, has big plans. Next to their makeshift home, the congregation plans to build what they say will be Germany's largest Hindu temple, with an ornamented, 17-meter (56-foot) "royal tower" at the gateway. After years of planning, fund-raising and setbacks, a groundbreaking ceremony occurred on a recent Saturday, on the first day of the 10-day festival of the Hindu god Ganesha.

Where is the anti-royal-tower referendum?...

_{*Lunatic*, n.
One whose delusions are out of fashion.}

BOSTON (AP) -- Attorney Ray Boucher helped secure a record $660 million settlement from the Los Angeles Archdiocese on behalf of more than 500 people molested by priests. Five days after the settlement was announced, his wife left him.

Eric MacLeish, the hard-charging lawyer whose work for victims helped spur the resignation of Boston's Cardinal Bernard Law in 2002, later suffered a breakdown, stopped practicing law and got divorced.

And Steve Rubino, once such an observant Catholic he couldn't believe a priest would molest a child, lost his faith and eventually retired from the law.

"It moved me completely out of whatever religious context I was in -- completely," he said.

The sex scandal that rocked the nation's Roman Catholic Church took a fearsome personal toll on some of the top lawyers who dared to challenge the institution.

Tony Blair hoped to frighten the Tories, or pay a back-handed compliment to a great rival, when he warned that Gordon Brown possessed a "clunking fist".

This image clearly did not go far enough for Labour's advertising agency, which felt that Britain needed to be given a clear reminder of Brown's manliness during the general election.

"Made in Scotland from Girders" - a lift from the famous Irn-Bru ad campaign - was one of the ideas for a poster suggested by Saatchi & Saatchi. The poster, which was not used, highlighted what Labour strategists believed was Brown's key quality: he was a towering figure of strength who had risen to the challenge during the financial crisis.

"I have resigned. The agency has reached a level of competence that has been acknowledged by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA)," Bordry told Reuters by telephone. The precise reason for Bordry's resignation was not immediately clear.

"Important decisions are to be made in the near future and since I had only a few months left in my presidency I wanted to pass it on now," he said, without elaborating. Under Bordry, the AFLD had samples from the 2008 Tour de France cycling race re-tested for the banned blood-boosting substance erythropoietin (EPO), leading to several top riders being suspended.

Bordry was involved in several rows, most notably with the International Cycling Union (UCI), whom he accused of giving preferential treatment to Alberto Contador's and Lance Armstrong's then Astana team in the 2009 Tour de France.

Gideon Levy is the most hated man in Israel - and perhaps the most heroic. This "good Tel Aviv boy" - a sober, serious child of the Jewish state - has been shot at repeatedly by the Israeli Defence Force, been threatened with being "beaten to a pulp" on the country's streets, and faced demands from government ministers that he be tightly monitored as "a security risk." This is because he has done something very simple, and something that almost no other Israeli has done. Nearly every week for three decades, he has travelled to the Occupied Territories and described what he sees, plainly and without propaganda. "My modest mission," he says, "is to prevent a situation in which many Israelis will be able to say, `We didn't know.'" And for that, many people want him silenced.

The story of Gideon Levy - and the attempt to deride, suppress or deny his words - is the story of Israel distilled. If he loses, Israel itself is lost.