(Reuters) - In the dark days of Europe's debt crisis in 2012, when it seemed Greece might be forced out of the euro and the single currency could implode, leaders believed "more Europe" was the only answer.

Only deeper integration can bolster the region to withstand future crises, they said. A more united Europe will punch its weight in the world, not collapse on the ropes.

Among the more fervent voices in support was German Chancellor Angela Merkel, whose declaration that "we need more Europe; we need more cooperation" prompted policymakers to draft plans for a banking union, closer fiscal ties and, in time, a more complete political integration of the union's 28 countries.

How times have changed.

(Reuters) - Britain is not experiencing a runaway increase in house prices, despite concerns that government schemes are helping buyers fuel another property bubble, chancellor said on Sunday.

Data from the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors released in August showed the fastest growth in house prices since 2006, with homes in London increasing in value by more than 8 percent compared with a year ago.

Government schemes to help cash-strapped house buyers are blamed by some for helping push up prices, but the government insists that younger couples in particular need help to get their first home.

The UK has become the drug and alcohol "addictions capital of Europe", a think tank has warned.

The Centre for Social Justice - set up by Work and Pensions Secretary Iain Duncan Smith - said drink and drug abuse cost the UK £36bn a year.

Its report warned that the UK has become a hub for websites peddling potentially dangerous "legal highs".

German Chancellor Angela Merkel and centre-left election rival Peer Steinbrueck are taking part in their only televised election debate.

The event is seen as the Social Democrat (SPD) leader's biggest chance to claw back Mrs Merkel's lead in the opinion polls before this month's vote.

Although the chancellor's conservative bloc is expected to win, her coalition partners are faring poorly.

The 90-minute began at 18:30 GMT and are being aired on main channels.

An expert study has uncovered vast differences in the ambition and nature of energy efficiency policies implemented across the 28 EU member states.

The EU-funded Energy Efficiency Watch analysis interviewed 80 experts and collected 655 questionnaires before concluding that an "enormous disparity" between EU states needed to be overcome with more harmonisation and integration of policies.

"In some member states, the recognition of the economic, social, political and environmental benefits of energy efficiency drives ambitious legislation and funding programmes," the report says, "whereas others just do the bare minimum required by the European Directives (and sometimes even less than that)."

EU legislation requires states to submit National Energy Efficiency Action Plans (NEEAPs) in the years 2007, 2011 and 2014 outlining their plans to achieve indicative targets of 9% final energy savings by 2016, as required by the Energy Services Directive.  

Ex-government officials from different EU countries have told EurActiv that the directive's non-binding targets were routinely ignored, ticked off, or met by using legislative tricks.

Ministers might have expected to spend today consulting maps of Syria and pondering military targets.

Instead, they are left musing on Britain's place in the world.

Chancellor George Osborne says he expects some "national soul searching".

Those who argue a fundamental change has taken place put it like this: when Parliament stops the prime minister taking action, and risks straining relations with the US, how can the UK conduct an outward-looking foreign policy with any confidence?

Cabinet ministers, like Mr Osborne and defence secretary Philip Hammond are left hoping Britain does not - to use the Chancellor's terms - turn its back on the world.

Just one in three voters who swept the Popular Party into power in the 2011 general elections would cast their vote the same way today, according to the latest Metroscopia survey carried out for EL PAÍS. The ruling party, which has an absolute majority in Congress, would therefore see its support eroded from the 44.6 percent it won in November 2011 to a projected 23 percent of the ballot now, according to Metroscopia.

Weeks go by without Constantinos Mentzis, a tavern owner in Nicosia, stopping by his local bank branch. There is no point, he says, since banks in Cyprus have largely stopped functioning and small business like his are operating on a cash-only basis.

...

The restructuring of Bank of Cyprus was a condition of the accord signed in March with other euro-zone governments and the International Monetary Fund. Steep losses were imposed on big bank depositors--a first for euro-zone rescues--and the government has been forced to reduce its budget deficit and shut the country's No. 2 lender Laiki (Cyprus Popular Bank).

Now the economy appears to be sinking much faster than the 8.7% contraction that its creditors had forecast for this year.

Nil Nil
In the first and only TV duel in the German elections, three polls gave a lead to Angela Merkel, and one to Peer Steinbruck; commentators agree that the performance was finely balanced - FAZ called it one-one, Spiegel Online nil-nil - and also agree that Steinbruck had failed to deliver the knock-out blow in order to kickstart his flagging election campaign;
Roland Nelles writes that the debate was lame and perfunctory; Jasper von Altenbockum writes that the moderators failed to get the candidates to attack each other - which ultimately suited Merkel best; Quentin Peel notes that undecided voters were mostly in favour of Steinbruck, but says the debate is unlikely to have a big influence on the outcome of the elections;

Further News
In response to the court's rejection of the labour bill, the government studies stronger salaries cuts once in the mobility scheme while keeping public workers employed; Cyprus' credit less economy is sinking faster than expected, with unemployment soaring to 17.3% and retail trade down 11.1% in Q1 only, raising doubts about whether it can meet bailout targets; the European Trade Union Confederation challenges Olli Rehn's interpretation of Latvia and Ireland as austerity success stories; Eurostat shows the unemployment rate and youth unemployment rate worsened by 0.5% in the past 12 months; total rate of unemployment remains unchanged at 12.1%, but inflation fell from 1.6% to 1.3% - way below the ECB's target; the Greek government works on alternatives to avoid new austerity measures that could break up the fragile coalition government, as possible new elections loom in May; Hollande promises the French a "taxation pause" in the autumn; a majority in the ECB's governing council is now in favour of the publication of minutes, though level of detail still under discussion, Suddeutsche Zeitung writes; floating rate bond issuance jumps in Europe; Matteo Renzi declares candidacy for PD leadership, as the party is headed for a difficult confrontation; Carlo Rognoni writes that in order to become prime minister, Renzi needs to reform the party from the ground up; Roberto Perotti makes an impassioned plea against life senators in Italy's parliament; Wolfgang Munchau says Greece may end up in thirty years where Detroit is today; Kevin O'Rourke, meanwhile, compares the experience of Thailand and that of Ireland, noting that Thailand managed a rebound because it solved its macro problems.

Europe Must Forget Fantasies About Repeating The US Shale Boom

Strong anti-fracking grassroots movement in Europe proves that people on the continent also understand the hidden dangers of shale gas development. Many countries in continental Europe have shelved unrealistic shale projects despite the fact that European energy prices are double those in the US. Germany set strong barriers against fracking. France's president Hollande blocked shale initiatives. The Paris-based International Energy Agency has strong doubts about shale gas in Europe pointing to the lack of drilling equipment, higher population density and environmental concerns. The only apologist of fracking in the European Union is Great Britain. London is strongly influenced by US companies trying to sell drilling equipment on the island.

In May 2013 the EU Cimate Commissioner Connie Hedegaard stressed that geological and geographical factors of Europe shale did not make its large-scale exploitation as cost-effective as in North America. Finally, the Director of Strategy at the European Commission's DG Environment Robin Meige has recently said that "in the most optimistic case, European shale gas can only compensate for declines in domestic conventional gas". In other words, Europe must forget fantasies about repeating the US Shale Boom, writes online industry journal OilPrice.com.

Some Eastern European states are pushing forward the shale agenda for purely political reasons disregarding interests of their own population. For instance, the government of Poland has painted itself into a corner by making loud and unsubstantiated statements about shale gas "revolution". Despite around 40 wells being drilled in the country since 2010 by oil majors, no company has announced that it can extract gas for commercial purposes. However heavy pro-fracking lobbying resulted in dramaticcorruption scandal. Seven officials were arrested last month in connection with licenses to explore and exploit shale gas deposits.

wish techno would start diarying here again

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

SCOTS are poised to vote Yes for independence next year, according to a poll today which puts the Nationalist side in the lead for the first time since the referendum campaign got underway.

The independence side is a point clear of the pro-union campaign - at 44 per cent to 43 per cent, with just over a year to go. Undecided voters are at 13 per cent.

The latest poll was commissioned by the Scottish National Party, and conducted by Panelbase. It was sampled between 23-28 August, among 1,043 people aged 18 and over in Scotland.

Reuters) - When Margot Alarconciles woke up one morning last year and found her son sick with what appeared to be a cold, there was little she could do but wrap him in an extra blanket, walk down the hallway and start her workday: sewing clothes for up to 11 hours a day, six days a week.

"I couldn't leave my machine," she said. "Without my job, we could not eat."

Her 5-year-old son's condition deteriorated, and without proper care he soon died. Still grieving, Alarconciles now questions her decision to leave her native Bolivia for Brazil, where salaries can be many times higher but poor immigrants often must settle for work in sweatshops.

"This work is not worth it," she said on a recent Sunday as she waited to meet with an accountant who helps immigrants avoid legal problems by filing tax returns.

Japan's consumer prices increased at the fastest pace since 2008 in July, as energy costs rise and Prime Minister Shinzo Abe makes progress in pulling the economy out of 15 years of deflation.

Consumer prices excluding fresh food climbed 0.7 percent from a year earlier, the statistics bureau said today in Tokyo. That exceeded the median estimate of 29 analysts surveyed by Bloomberg for a 0.6 percent gain. Industrial output increased a less-than-forecast 3.2 percent from the previous month.

"Japan is moving into real inflation," said Junko Nishioka, chief economist at Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc in Tokyo and a former Bank of Japan official. "Today's data is encouraging for the BOJ, and they are likely to keep monetary policy on hold."

(Reuters) - U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said on Sunday tests showed that sarin nerve gas was used in a deadly August 21 chemical attack near Damascus as he sought to build the case to convince skeptical lawmakers to authorize a military strike against the Syrian government.

Kerry made the disclosure in a series of television interviews a day after President Barack Obama delayed imminent military action in Syria to seek approval first from the U.S. Congress - a decision that puts any strike on hold for at least nine days.

"This is squarely now in the hands of Congress," Kerry told CNN, saying he had confidence "they will do what is right because they understand the stakes."

Editor's Note: In recent months, many climate activists have focused their efforts on Canada's tar sands and the companies set on extracting fossil fuels from them. With the debate raging louder than ever, Rolling Stone is in contact with one of the workers helping to build a pipeline to bring oil from the tar sands to the U.S. Read on for that anonymous correspondent's second dispatch from one of the world's most controversial jobs.

On its surface, Fort McMurray, Alberta, looks like any other small Canadian city, with rows of new houses, condo developments and a Wal-Mart. Recycling bins line the streets, and residents schlep cloth bags to the store because the community banned plastic bags. But there's one big difference between Fort Mac and other towns: This is ground zero for Canada's controversial tar sands operations. Like tens of thousands of others, I saw green in the tar-like bitumen-drenched sand, and I came here to cash in. (I'm writing anonymously to protect my colleagues, my friends and myself.)

Of 5,500 badgers to be shot during the pilot culls, only 120 will be independently monitored for humaneness, it has emerged. And just 4 Natural England officials will oversee the killing in Gloucestershire and Somerset

(...) DEFRA has established a panel of independent experts to oversee the humanness of the cull, but leading scientists with expertise in animal welfare are shocked by their failure to call for much wider shoot monitoring. For pilot studies of this kind it would expected that around 50% of all shooting incidents would be monitored for humanness, but based on the figures provided by DEFRA the numbers will be closer to a tiny 4% of all the badgers to be killed.

This is of critical importance because none of the shooters to be used for the cull will have any previous experience of shooting badgers and by DEFRA's own estimates, free shooting at night will result in possibly hundreds of badgers suffering non - fatal wounds and a long painful death from organ failure, secondary infection and starvation.

Attempts by the Prime Minister to justify the pilot cull on the basis that shooting badgers is good for their welfare as they carry TB is completely undermined by the fact that a majority of badgers live their natural lives without showing any clinical signs of TB. In fact the largest recent testing of badgers for TB undertaken during the Randomised Badger Cull trials, confirmed that only around 1% had extensive signs of the disease.

LONDON -- Expanding Germany's transmission grid in order to accommodate increasing amounts of renewable energy will be a crucial element of the nation's effort to meet its 2020 climate targets. But new analysis suggests that even if grid updates are heavily delayed, the nation could still successfully add large amounts of renewables, albeit with slightly higher costs.

Germany's grid expansion plans are ambitious, involving four new HVDC cables from the north to the south of the country according to the national grid development plan, and some analysts believe they may not happen on schedule. A new report from renewables consultancy Ecofys, commissioned by the Smart Energy for Europe Platform (SEFEP), looked at Germany's options if grid expansion is delayed, concluding that even in this case the nation can stay on its current renewable energy deployment track.

"There are a number of reasons why there are concerns," said Raffaele Piria, SEFEP's programme director. "Some say grid expansion cannot or might not happen at the speed assumed by the official grid development plans, and the risk of delays has been used as a motivation to propose a slowdown in renewable energy deployment in Germany. Our study shows that even if there is a delay, it is no reason to slow down renewable deployment in general."

Watchdog Stiftung Warentest compared the meals offered by McDonald's, Burger King and German chain Kochlöffel, none of whose burger, chips and drink options did terribly well, the Süddeutsche Zeitung reported on Friday.

The overall winner was McDonalds with a "satisfactory" 2.9 on a sliding scale from 1 at the top to 5 at worst. Burger King was also ranked "satisfactory" with a 3.1 while Kochlöffel was just behind with 3.2.

Burger King's Whopper burger tasted better, the testers said, and this was at least in part because the meat was grilled over an open flame. But this also created problems, as the process created carcinogenic chemicals, they said.

All the menu meals came under fire for containing too many calories, too much salt and too much fat. Those with the least calories and fat were the McDonald's offering - but this was only because the portions were the smallest, the testers said.

Radiation levels of up to 1,800 millisieverts per hour have been detected at four locations at the crippled Fukushima nuclear plant, as the operator checks storage tanks following a leak of 300 tons of radioactive water.

Tokyo Electric Power Co. said Aug. 31 it found between 70 and 1,800 millisieverts per hour around five tanks in three areas.

An exposure of 1,800 millisieverts per hour for about four hours is considered fatal to a human. But a worker can be shielded from the radiation with proper protection because it is mostly beta rays, which have weak penetrating power.

High radiation levels may be discovered at more locations as the utility continues to examine other storage tanks.

TEPCO detected between 220 and 1,800 millisieverts per hour around joints at the bottom of two tanks in an area called H3 on Aug. 31. Radiation levels between 70 and 100 millisieverts per hour had been found at the same locations on Aug. 22.

New platform plank to be voted on next week: The Greens, if they get to participate in government, want to create a new Minister post, to shepherd the "Energiewende," or energy transition. Couldn't ask for a better Minister than Trittin. (The Minister would be responsible for coordinating all aspects of the energy transition, including laws and power lines.)

Taz.de (auf Deutsch)

Several hundred thousand workers in renewable energy in 'Schland should vote in their best interests, no matter their previous party affiliation.

"Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one's courage." - Anaïs Nin

Stephen Lacey: August 13, 2013

If you want to understand why people so often compare deployment trends in solar photovoltaics (PV) to Moore's law in computing, consider this statistic: two-thirds of all solar PV capacity in place worldwide has been installed since January 2011.

Let's put that into perspective. It took nearly four decades to install 50 gigawatts of PV capacity worldwide. But in the last 2 1/2 years, the industry jumped from 50 gigawatts of PV capacity to just over 100 gigawatts. At the same time, global module prices have fallen 62 percent since January 2011.

Even more amazingly, the solar industry is on track to install another 100 gigawatts worldwide by 2015 -- nearly doubling solar capacity in the next 2 1/2 years.

all hail the mighty Ra

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

"China will build as much new residential space in two years as there is all of Germany now," says Kohler. And the Chinese, he adds, now know that they have to design new residential and office space to be as energy-efficient as possible.

"Even today, China is having to import more and more oil and gas," Kohler explains. "The Chinese have an aversion to this dependency." Beijing, he says, has always emphasized autonomy, which is why the leaders' motivations for the new energy initiative are also political.

German energy companies should definitely go to China, says Kohler. He notes that the Chinese are primarily interested in modern German control technology for the power grid and, of course, in machines to build green energy systems. "There's something that was drowned out in the dispute over punitive tariffs against Chinese photovoltaic facilities," says the head of dena, referring to the conflict around this summer's imposition of anti-dumping duties on Chinese solar panels by the European Union. "80 percent of all machines used to produce solar panels in China are from Germany."

heh...

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

The US National Security Agency (NSA) spied on the internal communications of France's foreign ministry and diplomats and those of Qatar-based television station Al-Jazeera, a German magazine said Sunday.

Der Spiegel reported that in 2010 the NSA monitored the internal computer network of France's diplomats and that of the ministry itself by accessing so-called virtual private networks (VPN), a tool that generally offers a secure internet connection to users.

The "top secret" NSA document seen by the magazine and dated June 2010 said French diplomatic offices in New York and Washington had bugs installed on the premises and that screenshots were taken from computer monitors in United Nations offices.

The NSA was "interested in (France's) foreign policy objectives, especially the weapons trade, and economic stability," the magazine said.

An Iron Age tunic is among the discoveries found under melting snow on Norwegian mountains.

Other findings include Neolithic arrows and bow fragments, thought to be about 6000 years old.

Snow on the Norwegian mountains, and elsewhere, is rapidly melting due to climate change, which is now unveiling a world of well preserved new discoveries.

The findings are published in two papers in the journal Antiquity.

Online retailer Amazon is to alter its pricing policy for third-party traders amid investigations in the UK and Germany.

It will drop a clause banning traders signed up to its Marketplace platform from offering products elsewhere for less.

The change will come into force across the EU from Friday.

As a result, the inquiries in the UK into whether the policy was anti-competitive are expected to be closed.

When did humans start talking? There are nearly as many answers to this perplexing question as there are researchers studying it. A new brain imaging study claims to support the hypothesis that language emerged long before Homo sapiens and coevolved with the invention of the first finely made stone tools nearly 2 million years ago. However, some experts think it's premature to draw sweeping conclusions.

Unlike ancient bones and stone tools, language does not fossilize. Researchers have to guess about its origins based on proxy indicators. Does painting cave walls indicate the capacity for language? How about the ability to make a fancy tool? Yet, in recent years, scientists have made some progress. A series of brain imaging studies by Dietrich Stout, an archaeologist at Emory University in Atlanta, and Thierry Chaminade, a cognitive neuroscientist at Aix-Marseille University in France, have shown that toolmaking and language use similar parts of the brain, including regions involved in manual manipulations and speech production. Moreover, the overlap is greater the more sophisticated the toolmaking techniques are. Thus, there was little overlap when modern-day flint knappers were making stone tools using the oldest known techniques, dated to 2.5 million years ago and called the Oldowan technology. But when knappers used a more sophisticated approach, called Acheulean technology and dating to as much as 1.75 million years ago, the parallels between toolmaking and language were more evident. Stout and Chaminade have used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and positron emission tomography (PET) scans, although not on the same subjects at the same time.

Japanese animation director Hayao Miyazaki is to retire from making feature films.

The head of his studio announced this at the Venice International Film Festival on Sunday.

Miyazaki's latest work, "The Wind Rises", is competing for the festival's top prize, the Golden Lion.

The 72-year-old director has created a series of hit movies. His 2001 production, "Spirited Away", set an all-time box office record in Japan. It won a US Academy Award for best animated feature.

"The Wind Rises" is Miyazaki's first work in 5 years and the 11th feature-length movie of his career.

"Or perhaps they do not tell us these things because they fear that if the system were exposed for what it is, outraged citizens would descend on this town, and tear it apart with their bare hands."

billmoyers.com

"Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one's courage." - Anaïs Nin