The German foreign ministry has announced strong support of gay rights around the world.

"In foreign affairs, the German government strongly objects to any discrimination based on sexual orientation," the Foreign Ministry said on its website. "It will do everything it can to fight discrimination against gays, lesbians, bisexuals and transsexuals."

The goal is not always easy to implement. Nevertheless, German human rights commissioner Markus Löning sees it as an important part of his work.

"Homosexuals are discriminated against in many countries," he said, "whether in Africa, Asia or Europe. In many nations, there is societal discrimination against homosexuals."

BRUSSELS - Francois Hollande, socialist challenger for the French presidency, has honed his general opposition to the German-led fiscal discipline treaty by outlining the concrete changes he would like to see made to the document.

BRUSSELS - The Dutch far-right Freedom Party (PVV), a key ally of the centre-right coalition government, on Wednesday (8 February) opened up a website to collect complaints about people from Central and Eastern Europe residing in The Netherlands.

AFP - French President Nicolas Sarkozy took another big step towards confirming he will stand for re-election on Thursday, taking a populist turn with promises of referendums on jobs and immigration.

Le Monde reported he might declare his candidacy as early as next Thursday, but there was no official confirmation from the office of the right-wing leader, who polls say would lose the vote to a Socialist rival.

REUTERS - Spain's Supreme Court disbarred Judge Baltasar Garzon for 11 years on Thursday for illegally tapping defence lawyers' conversations, which may effectively end his career of international human rights trials.

Although less severe than a 20-year-ban the prosecution had originally demanded, the ruling is not subject to appeal. Garzon, 56, is also liable to a fine of some 2,500 euros($3,300).

"We shall carry on fighting, carry on appealing. We have a long road ahead, but I believe both he and I are more than strong enough," Garzon's lawyer Javier Baena said after the sentence.

AFP - French flag-carrier Air France cancelled more than a third of its long-haul flights and a quarter of shorter journeys Thursday as a four-day strike by aviation workers entered its final day.

The strike by pilots, flight attendants and ground staff was costing Air France eight to 10 million euros ($11-$13 million) per day, the company said.

Air France said it was operating 65 percent of its long-haul flights and 75 percent of medium- and short-haul flights, including by regional subsidiaries.

About the same proportion of flights had been cancelled on the third day of the strike on Wednesday.

AP - Three investigating judges have filed preliminary charges against former Labor Minister Eric Woerth for "passive influence peddling" after becoming ensnared in a scandal involving the fortunes of the L'Oreal heiress.

The former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev has said Vladimir Putin has exhausted himself as Russia's leader.

Gorbachev, who called on Putin to step down as protests against his rule grew in December, said the powerful prime minister could face a sustained popular uprising against his rule similar to those seen in Arab capitals.

"He has exhausted himself," Gorbachev said during a lecture at a Moscow university on Thursday. "If he does not overcome himself, change the way things are - and I think it will be difficult for him to do that - then everything will end up on city squares."

The government is facing the threat of renewed industrial action over its controversial pension reforms after unions representing hundreds of thousands of NHS workers, civil servants, firefighters and teachers raised the prospect of widespread strikes.

Leaders of more than 700,000 public sector workers warned of co-ordinated strikes on 28 March over proposals to raise pension contributions, lower pensions and raise retirement ages.

Greek parties agree a deal with a hole to be plugged later; the eurogroup dismisses the deal, and says it wants the hole to be plugged, a parliamentary agreement, and a written statement by all leaders that they would honour it after the elections; the gap of €325m is likely to come from cuts in military expenditures and of moving forward agree wage cuts; parliament likely to accept, but some MPs said they will vote against, the Pasok deputy labour minister resigned in protest, and unions to call a 48-hour strike; Mario Draghi says he is willing to forgo profits on the ECB's stake; the WSJ story of a ESB/EFSF debt swap is also confirmed as correct; Stephen Fidler argues that such a swap would increase bondholder incentives to accept PSI; Mohamed El-Erian explains that this agreement will collapse sooner or later; a camera catches Wolfgang Schauble promising more aid to Vitor Gaspar of Portugal; the German government considers scrapping of solidarity tax to win over the SPD in the Bundesrat in support of its proposed tax cuts; Sarkozy proposes a referendum on changes in the unemployment benefits and the legal situation of foreigners in France; German banks regret not having participated more massively in the LTRO, as Draghi criticises Josef Ackermann; ECB will balance increased risks in their loosened collateral framework with steep haircuts; Boersenzeitung, meanwhile, declares the end of the eurosystem.

Several hundred Belgian firefighters have broken through police lines in Brussels and hosed down the prime minister's office in protest at the government's tougher retirement plans.

The firefighters want to keep their early retirement age at 58, arguing their arduous job does not allow them to work into their 60s.

Despite Greek political leaders finally agreeing on austerity measures to secure a second bailout, eurozone finance ministers meeting in Brussels are wavering on whether to green light the loans.

Despite reaching a deal Thursday on austerity measures demanded by Greece's international lenders as a condition for further aid, Greece does not have its next bailout completely locked up.

Final word still needs to be given by European finance ministers, who are meeting in Brussels. Greek Finance Minister Evangelos Venizelos, arriving for the meeting, said Greece "now needed the political endorsement of the eurogroup for the final step."

For many financial market experts, the European Central Bank (ECB) is the last hope for containing the sovereign debt crisis in Europe. The highly indebted states within the 17-member euro currency zone as well as Great Britain and the US continue to demand that the ECB fire up the presses and flood the market with cheap money.

Hotels across Germany boasted a record number of overnight stays last year. The considerable increase was due to more guests from both home and farther afield, with end-of-year tourism particularly brisk.

German hotels posted a record number of 394.1 million overnight stays in 2011, the Federal Statistics Office reported on Thursday. It meant a four-percent year-on-year increase.

The number of hotel guests from home soared to 330.3 million people, up three percent on 2010 levels. 68.8 million people came from abroad - a six percent rise compared to 2010 figures.

BRUSSELS - Since economist James Tobin launched the idea in 1972, we have never been closer to the implementation of a financial transaction tax (FTT). However, we risk getting a tax with its name, but only few of the characteristics which make it a tool for equity and sustainable development. Only the original can help to cure an ailing financial system, not a stripped down surrogate.

The FTT debate is rather technical and complex. Instead of one tax, we are actually talking about a variety of possible taxes depending on variables like tax rate, introduction on primary and/or secondary markets, measures to counter tax evasion, and the number of countries participating.

AFP - Oracle on Thursday announced a $1.9-billion deal to buy Internet-based "human capital" management firm Taleo Corporation.

"Human capital management has become a strategic initiative for organizations," Oracle development executive vice president Thomas Kurian said in a release.

"Taleo's industry leading talent management cloud is an important addition to the Oracle Public Cloud."

As the Syrian government cracks down brutally on the opposition, calls to protect civilians are growing louder. But many defense experts warn against military intervention.

The messages coming out of Washington these days are loud and clear. "(Bashar al-Assad) must step aside and allow a democratic transition to proceed immediately," Obama said over the weekend. "Your days are numbered," said Susan Rice, US Ambassador to the United Nations, delivering a message to the Syrian president in an interview with CNN.

Life is quickly changing in Africa: Internet and mobile phone usage continues to grow, yet thousands of people are still cut off from the digital world. Young Africans search for their perspective in a globalized, knowledge-based society and wonder which path will lead them to a successful career or education. For instance, many ask what opportunities for learning and studying are available online and what opportunities globalization has to offer. Thousands more want to study in Europe, but don't know what awaits them there.

AFP - The Palestinian leadership on Thursday endorsed the latest agreement between the heads of Fatah and Hamas and called for preparations for elections to be speeded up.

Palestinian president and Fatah head Mahmud Abbas and Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal inked an accord in Doha on Monday placing Abbas at the head of an interim government to supervise the run-up to elections later this year.

AFP - A Palestinian on hunger strike since December 18 appealed his detention without charge on Thursday in a special court session held in an Israeli hospital, his lawyer told AFP.

Khader Adnan has been on hunger strike for 54 days, longer than any Palestinian prisoner before him according to Palestinian officials, protesting what he calls his unjust detention and mistreatment by Israeli authorities.

Striking police officers in Brazil's northeast state of Bahia ended their occupation of a government building on Thursday, but their strike threatened to grow to six other states and disrupt this year's Carnival celebrations, local press reported.

REUTERS - A bill to legalize gay marriage in Washington state won final legislative approval on Wednesday in a vote that moved the state one step closer to becoming the seventh to recognize same-sex nuptials.

Washington's Democratic Governor Christine Gregoire said she looked forward to signing the measure and "putting into law an end to an era of discrimination" even as opponents, led by religious conservatives, vowed to seek its repeal at the polls in November.

The approval in the state House of Representatives came a day after gay marriage advocates won a key legal victory in California when a federal appeals court declared a voter-approved gay marriage ban in that state unconstitutional.

REUTERS - The United Nations called on rebels in northern Mali on Wednesday to halt their offensive, shortly after they seized the strategic border town of Tinzawatene and forced government troops to withdraw into Algeria.

The fighting in the remote northeastern town followed a three-week desert advance by a Tuareg-led rebel force, helped by Malians returning from the Libyan conflict, which has forced nearly 60,000 civilians to flee their homes.

"The Secretary-General condemns the use of violence as a means to achieve political objectives," a spokesman for U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said in a statement.

AFP - Helicopters ferried food and medicine to iced-in villagers Wednesday as Europe's 12-day-old cold snap tightened its frigid grip on the continent, where more than 400 have died as a result.

Eastern countries such as Poland and Ukraine account for more than half of the death toll, and dozens more have succumbed to the weather's secondary effects, such as asphyxiation due to shoddy heating.

Heavy snows eased in Bosnia but the bitter cold continued, especially in the south and southeast where temperatures dropped to minus 20 degrees Celsius (minus 4 Fahrenheit.)

Nearly 4m homes across the UK will be powered by the sun within eight years, the government said on Thursday, in a dramatic increase of ambition for the fledgling solar power industry.

But the estimate comes on the back of a cut in the subsidies available for solar energy generation, to take effect from April, which will greatly reduce the amount of money households with solar panels will receive. Ministers said the cut was needed because the costs of solar panels have plummeted in recent months, and the new rules follow an unsuccessful attempt to impose cuts last year that was judged unlawful in the courts.

GM crops around the world in 2011 - map

New data from the annual report by the International Service for the Acquisition of Agribiotic Applications shows where farmers are growing GM crops around the world

A Vienna team has shown how to send encrypted data to a quantum computer. But a stable and powerful quantum computer remains a long way off.

Imagine, for a moment, that the promise of powerful, super-fast quantum computers has materialized. In the beginning at least, there will only be a few of them, housed in special facilities.

Users who want to harness their quantum capabilities will need to send data to a remote location, allow the computer to do its magic and send back the results. Quantum physicists have now shown that there's a way to do this that's absolutely securely - meaning the remote quantum computer will never understand the true data even while it is manipulating it.

When it comes to pouring champagne, long, skinny flutes and short, wide coupes have existed side by side for generations. But neither is really the ideal for enjoying a glass of top-shelf bubbly, new research shows.

While beers and wines generally have glasses designed to highlight their taste characteristics, when it comes to champagne the flute and coupe have happily co-existed. Glassmakers, however, may have to rethink their stemware recommendations after reading research published Wednesday in the online journal PLoS ONE.

The agricultural region around Spain's Almería is home to thousands of illegal immigrants living in slum-like conditions. Amid the economic crisis, many want to return to Africa, but lack the means to get home.

A regional court in Düsseldorf ruled on Thursday that electronics giant Samsung may continue to sell its Galaxy Tab 10.1 N tablet computer in Germany, rejecting a bid by arch-rival Apple to have sales banned.

US-based consumer electronics producer Apple on Thursday failed to stop the sale of rival Samsung's new tablet computer Galaxy Tab 10.1 N which was made especially for the German market.

A regional court in Düsseldorf argued that consumers were unlikely to confuse the redesigned tablet device with Apple's iPad.

UK researchers have shown that cab drivers who learn the layout of the capital city - 'the Knowledge' - exhibit growth in the brain, challenging the notion that children are the only ones with 'plastic' minds.

AFP - A consumer advocacy group on Wednesday filed a lawsuit to try to derail Google's plan to merge user data from YouTube, Gmail, Google+ and other services in individual comprehensive profiles.

The Electronic Privacy Information Center urged a federal court to block Google from implementing the change on March 1 as planned and to direct the Federal Trade Commission to intervene.

A woman went to the police this week after receiving violent threats from fans of online lad's mag "Unilad". Like many, I was shocked and disturbed by the vitriolic attacks on women by the website and its supporters. Little did I expect that a few days later I would also be on the phone to the police, reporting online threats and harassment.

Back in 2010, self-styled "breastaurant" Hooters applied for a licence to open in Bristol. The Bristol Feminist Network and Bristol Fawcett launched a campaign objecting to the licence. We believe that Hooters contributes to the normalisation of the sexual objectification of women - a normalisation that negatively impacts on women's self-esteem and leads to an increased tolerance of sexual harassment and violence. Our campaign was unsuccessful. We were told by the licensing committee that a business whose USP is scantily clad women serving hot wings offered "something really different to Bristol". However, just over a year later, Hooters announced that it had closed.

One of Germany's most famous contemporary artists, Gerhard Richter, has turned 80. These days his works sell for massive sums of money at auction - and not just because of their unique photo-like quality.

Gerhard Richter was born on 9 February 1932 in Dresden, the son of a Nazi. He grew up in East Germany but fled communism and moved to the West in 1961.

Always an ardent observer, Richter's work reflects the world around him and his themes vary accordingly. From Red Army Faction terrorists to boarding a flight bound for New York on the morning of 11 September 2001, Richter's world finds its way into his work.

AFP - French parfumier Jean-Paul Guerlain, for decades the "nose" behind the world-famous perfume brand, went on trial Thursday on racism charges after televised remarks caused widespread offence.

Asked in an October 2010 interview about how he created the Samsara scent, Guerlain replied using a racial slur -- the French term "negre" -- and implied that black people are lazy.

"For once, I set to work like a negro. I don't know if negroes have always worked like that, but anyway..." he said.

The incident sparked widespread condemnation, with anti-racism groups saying it highlighted deep prejudice in French society.

October 1988, Alaska: the end of the cold war. Ronald Reagan was US president, communism in eastern Europe was cracking and the ice had come in early. Cindy Lowry, a Greenpeace representative in Anchorage, read in a local paper that three young gray whales were stranded near America's northernmost city, Barrow. It was the start of a story that 24 years later has Lowry portrayed by Drew Barrymore in Big Miracle, a Hollywood film out on Friday.