Barack Obama becomes the fourth American president to receive the Nobel Peace Prize The American president Barack Obama will fly into Oslo, Norway for 26 hours to receive the Nobel Peace Prize, the fourth American president in history to do so. He will receive a diploma, medal and cheque for 1.4 million dollars for his exceptional efforts to improve global diplomacy and encourage international cooperation, amongst other things. The head of the White House will be flying into the Norwegian city in the morning with his wife Michelle and will have a busy schedule. First, he will visit the Nobel Institute, where he will have his first meeting with the five committee members who selected him from 172 people and 33 organisations. The presidential couple then has a meeting scheduled with King Harald V and Queen Sonja of Norway. Then, in the afternoon, the visit will culminate in a grand ceremony, at which Obama will receive the prestigious award. He will be the fourth American president to be awarded the prize, and only the third to have received it while actually in office. The White House has stated that, when he accepts the prize, Obama will speak about the war in Afghanistan. The president does not want to skirt around this topic, as he realises that he is accepting the prize as a president whose country is currently at war in two countries. A few days ago he stepped up the war effort by sending more troops to Afghanistan, something that his critics will be stressing. At the ceremony, Obama will also be given a gold medal, a diploma, and a cheque for ten million Swedish krona (around 24 million Czech crowns). He intends to donate this money to charity, but hasn't decided which yet. Their busy schedule will then take the president and his wife to a banquet, which will be attended by the Norwegian king and queen as well as the ministerial chairman and another 250 invited guests. Obama has always been reticent in regards to his prize. He has said, for example, that he feels that he does not wholly deserve it. He has repeatedly said that the prize isn't for him, but for everyone who upholds the same values. Right after hearing about it, he described it as a "challenge to take action." Nature protection officers accused of blackmail The Litoměřice police have accused the chairman of the Litoměřice Nature Protection Society civil association of blackmail. Several times during the last year he appealed against certain building permit proceedings, and has then claimed money from investors for retracting the appeal, said Litoměřice police spokeswoman Alena Romová. The chairman of the Litoměřice Nature Protection Society is Lubomír Studnička. He is now under arrest and faces up to three years in prison. Recycling containers don't smell so good in Brno In Prague, normal people can sort their beverage bottles, and, in South Moravian, villages are recycling containers on every corner. And in Brno? There, it will take you a good few minutes to find the right sort of bin. I don't mean to imply that garbage isn't sorted in Brno. But it seems to me that considering we're the second largest city in the country, the authorities are not showing enough interest in this problem. Brno is falling way behind in its garbage sorting, not only because people here can still only put paper, glass and plastic into these bins, but mostly because of the sheer lack of containers for this kind of waste. Have you ever tried throwing a plastic bottle into a bin in the city centre? It's a real art form, and you need time and steady nerves. The only place we've managed to come across is on Moravské náměstí, opposite the Potrefená Husa. No offence to Mr. Onderka and his colleagues, but it's really not good enough. Not to mention that it's no easy task sorting garbage in other parts of the city. Plenty of my friends don't bother sorting their garbage. Out of laziness. It's just too far to the bin, you see. I don't blame them. After a party, I offered to throw out a few glass and plastic bottles. But, on Kounicova ulice, there were no coloured bins to be seen. Luckily, on the way to the tram, I found the right place. But it was overflowing with garbage. Come on, this is the centre of Brno. Isn't it supposed to look good? It should, but ecology and aesthetics don't seem to interest the Brno socialists much. They prefer to buy the city a new hockey extra-league, which puts us to shame all over the country, instead of buying a few more containers and letting us sort other garbage for a cleaner Brno. I'm glad to see that, after browsing the net for a while, my assumptions are confirmed by official statistics. Figures published by EKO-KOM show that Brno really is the worst off in the whole of South Moravia. "Paroubek's" budget takes money for pensions and sick pay The fact that the left gave extra money to the farmers and civil servants in the face of government opinion means that there might not be enough money in the budget to cover pensions, sick pay, or building society savings. And also not enough for interest on the national debt or to cover international judicial disputes. This will bring problems for whoever is in office in the latter half of next year, said the Finance Minister Eduard Janota. When the social democrats and communists raised interest rates for certain groups, they were relying on the fact that the government would loan money for susceptible expenses, pensions, and sick pay. "It's just a case of postponing the problem, laying a minefield," says Janota. Higher interest has to be paid on loaned money, and, at some point, it has to be paid back. The state does not have much choice where to find it. If it doesn't reduce social benefits or the costs of running the state, it will have to increase taxes. For all those that the left just handed out money to: firefighters, teachers, farmers. And later, their children, too. People don't have to worry about pensions or sick pay, where 1.8 billion has disappeared from the accounts; they'll get them. Although, at the cost of the state falling deeper into debt – next year the treasury won't just be 163 billion short, but even more. Despite the efforts of Minister Janota, debt will continue to increase at an ever faster rate, as will interest costs. The state will need money to cover it, and it's no longer enough just to slightly bump up VATs or reduce maternity benefits, as the government has done in its anti-deficit package. As money has been diverted to several groups of voters, next year there will also be a shortage of five billion for building highways and railways. These are mostly sections that have been tendered out and are half-finished and cannot be redesigned or made any cheaper. At the most, conserve what isn't free too. This means that delaying or halting thirty major building projects and money from European funds is also at risk, warns transport ministry spokesman Karel Hanzelka. The ČSSD has suggested that the deficit be resolved Solomon-style – it should draw on ČEZ dividends, which are mostly state-owned, and use those to top up the transport fund. The problem is that the level of these dividends is never certain, and they are certainly not a bottomless resource. Last year, 18 billion of ČEZ money went into the budget. Every year, these dividends are used to pay for clearing up ecological damage, topping up the pensions account, or are set aside as a reserve for the upcoming pension reforms. Moreover, according to EU regulations, this trick increases the actual budget deficit to 5.7 percent of GDP. But this is not the end of these transfers. The budget is almost three billion shot to cover various damages owed to the victims of communism and crime, to meet the cost of judicial disputes, and even to cover building society savings. It is still not clear if the state can get by without this money. It's a gamble. If we were to lose an international dispute, we'd still have to pay, claims Janota. The minister will then have to save money within the resort or, in the worst case scenario, reach into the government's budget reserve. The two-billion-crown State Treasury project, which is already underway, is also lacking a hundred million, and what each office is spending can be followed on-line. The first stage will start in January. If the finance minister can't find the money elsewhere, the project will have to be aborted and sanctions will be imposed, warns Janota. Your next smartphone will run two operating systems The Americans are saying that, in the future, users will be able to switch between different operating systems on their mobile phones at the touch of a button. The plans revealed so far look promising. Just press one key and in just a few seconds you can switch from Windows Mobile to Android. This is the goal of the American company Vmware, which primarily develops computer virtualisation software. This will let you have two user profiles at once on the same phone. You can switch between them or have one for work and one for home. Both of them will run at the same time, says Srinivas Krishnamurti of VMware in an interview with Computer World magazine. It was presented last November and first demonstrated just a few days ago. It will go on sale in 2012. The virtualisation of smartphones is not science fiction. VMware has already given reporters a demonstration of a smartphone with two operating systems. It was a modified N800 with 128 MB of RAM, running Windows Mobile and Android at the same time. The development of new mobile phone technology is in full swing. VMware is now working with European and American operators to test smartphone virtualisation and the sets should reach customers sometime during 2012. Lack of snow in mountains causes problems for hoteliers It's not only Krkonoše ski-lift operators who are worried by these bare slopes. The lack of snow is putting people off booking ski holidays in hotels and guest houses. This means vacancies are still available in the Krkonoše throughout the winter, including Christmas and New Year's Eve. We're getting plenty of visitors to our site. People are browsing the offers, checking prices, but, so far, are worried about making a definite booking. "When they call, the first thing they ask is if we think they'll see snow or mud," says Martin Jandura, who runs the Spindl.Info information web site. Anyone who wants to spend New Year's Eve in Špindlerův Mlýn just how they want, had better start thinking about booking soon. Those preferring to save money and go for cheaper accommodation can still give it a few days. Hoteliers in Špindlerův Mlýn are so far just offering week-long stays for New Year's Eve. I think they'll try to keep that up for a while, but even they will give in and offer shorter stays. Then there'll be a sudden shortage of vacancies," estimates Jandura. The Vrchlabí travel agency Ingtours is still offering vacancies throughout the winter. What we’re interested in is Christmas week, which hasn't sold out yet. Half of our capacity is still available. That's why we've been preparing some cheaper last-minute Christmas breaks," said Ingtours director Petr Schiefert. The Vrchlabí travel agency can still offer New Year's Eve in the Krkonoše, but there are fewer vacancies. Another good time for bookings is the first fortnight in February, although bookings for the remaining winter dates tend to be average. This year, interest in winter breaks is low due to the fact that there is still no snow on the Krkonoše. People are waiting to see if any falls. Nobody wants to spend the end of the year in the mountains when there's no snow. If snow falls on the slopes this week, Christmas will sell out too," says Schiefert. On the other hand, the Horizont Hotel in Pec pod Sněžkou has seen better bookings this year than last year. We're up about 5 percent. We have the last few vacancies for New Year's Eve and Christmas. There's a lot of interest during the Polish holidays in January and we usually get plenty of bookings in February too," explains the director of the best hotel in Pec, Karel Rada. The Omnia Hotel, by the central car park in Janské Lázně, is eighty-percent booked up for New Year's Eve. Yet the newest hotel in Janské Lázně still has half its beds free for Christmas. January this year has been a nice surprise, as we're already sixty-percent booked up. So February isn't looking quite so good, but as soon as it snows, then interest in staying in the Krkonoše will definitely rise, says the owner of the Omnia Hotel, Erik Sporysch. For now, however, the Krkonoše hoteliers will have to wait for heavier falls of snow. Colder weather is forecast for Thursday, so if anything falls, it should be snow. But it should get warmer again after that, said Jiří Jakubský of the Czech Hydrometeorological Institute in Hradec. USA: Repetition is the mother of wisdom It's almost funny to see how Barack Obama, reputedly the wisest president, is trying so hard in the matter of the Afghan war to repeat the strategy of his predecessor, having himself considered him to be the most foolish. When he finally came out with his long-awaited Afghan doctrine, it appeared that he had made a carbon copy of Bush's Iraq scenario three years earlier. It's not just that in the text itself he repeatedly uses the words "just like in Iraq", but he even went as far as to use the name of Bush's declaration from January 2007 as the title of his own declaration:"The new way forward". While three years ago he himself criticised Bush's idea to send fresh troops to help in the beleaguered civil war in Iraq as "an irresponsible decision with catastrophic consequences". The following months, however, showed that Bush's strategy, which was recommended by his field commanders, was the only possible course of action and so successful that there are no reports in the news about Iraq. It didn't help Bush's reputation, but in objective terms, it left his successor in a much more favourable position than might be expected. Barack Obama hopes that, in Afghanistan, the miracle will repeat itself. He was again asked to increase the military contingent by his field commanders, particularly the supreme commander of the Afghan operation General Stanley McChrystal, who even went against the custom of his subordinates to harshly criticise the reluctant gunners in the White House. He asked for 40 thousand men to turn the situation around. The president hesitated for three months, but failed to come up with anything better, and so at least the general did out of 10 thousand soldiers. He managed to squeeze a promise out of Europe for another 5 thousand, even though he himself was originally counting on 10. The trickiest aspect of Obama's strategy seems to be his plan to start pulling troops out of Afghanistan within 18 months and to finish the process within three years. Obama's doctrine as a whole calls for more questions than it answers. Many doubt that this half-hearted increase will bear the same fruit as the action plan in Iraq. Despite the internecine war of recent years, Iraqi society is relatively firm on its feet and its leaders have been honouring the treaties. The Afghan situation is just the opposite - nobody can be relied upon and no treaties are being upheld. In these conditions, it is hard for the Afghan security forces to prepare, being so used to changing leaders to suit themselves. Political institutions, no matter how formally they might be set up, will be nothing more than a Potemkin village in which patriarchal tribal relations will run wild. Balancing the interests of a variety of ethnic groups is unusually difficult due to the tricky relations between them, a fact which is further complicated by the influence of Pakistan and Iran. Even building an "operational state", which is the most basic aim of the entire operation, does not seem particularly feasible. The timing of Obama's strategy is foiled by his voluntarism. Over the last eight years, the situation in Afghanistan has just gotten worse and worse, and is now on the verge of exploding. Only a truly romantic soul, totally unaffected by reality, could believe that the soldiers sent into the turmoil of this war for an "early return home" will bring about any miracles here. From a political viewpoin,t it is pure irresponsibility setting a date for withdrawing the troops, as the Taliban will see it as indirect acknowledgement of an American defeat. The last NATO summit showed that the willingness of the European people to take part in the operations in Afghanistan is waning. European politicians cannot and are unwilling to explain to voters what the security of Germany or Italy has to do with the war in the foothills of the Hindu Kush. Another factor which could radically stir things up is what is going on around Iran. If the situation continues to get worse and increased sanctions against Iran have no effect, the United States will face the difficult question of whether to try to resolve the situation using military force or not. This will need answering when, according to Obama, America orders the victorious withdrawal of its troops from Afghanistan. Any such solution will obviously also mean a dramatic turnaround in the Afghan situation. The only saving grace for Barack Obama is the fact that there are three more years to the presidential elections, so there's still enough time for him to come up with another strategyif this one turns out to be a total whitewash. Managers at Goldman Sachs no longer to receive cash bonuses The top management of the American bank Goldman Sachs will not receive their bonuses in cash this year. The announcement came from the company as a reaction to the harsh criticism of their salary policies. Instead of money, the group of 30 top managers will receive shares, which cannot be sold for another five years. The shares can also be confiscated if the managers take excessive risks. According to Reuters, Goldman Sachs is leading the effort to link Wall Street bonuses with long-term performance. I assume that Wall Street is well aware of the broader path it has to take, said former investment banker for JPMorgan, Douglas Elliott. The problem lies in the details, he added. Goldman Sachshas been targeted by critics since it set aside almost 17 billion dollars (almost 300 billion crowns) for bonuses in the first three quarters of this year. Reuters claims that the total bonuses awarded by the business this year, despite today's announcement, exceeds 20 billion dollars. High bonuses in the banking sector, what with the economic crisis, have become a political hot potato. On Wednesday, Britain announced that it had decided to charge a one-off fifty percent tax rate on bankers' bonuses exceeding 25,000 pounds (around 712,000 CZK). France is preparing similar measures. This year, women were awarded the Nobel Prize in all fields except physics In Stockholm today, a record five women received Nobel Prizes from the Swedish king Carl XVI Gustaf in the professional categories and for literature. In addition to four scientists, they also included the German writer Herta Müller, originally from Romania. The Nobel Prize for medicine went to two American biologists, Elizabeth Blackburn and Carol Greider, together with their fellow countryman Jack Szostak, for their research in chromosomes. The prize for chemistry was won by the Israeli Ada Jonath, together with the Americans Venkatraman Ramakrishnan and Thomas Steitz, for their work to clarify the structure and function of ribosomes. The last award was the Nobel Prize for Economics, which went to the Americans Elinor Ostrom and Oliver Williamson for their analysis of economic management. The only specialised category which nobody won this year was physics. Today, this prize was won by the scientists Charles Kao, for his research in optical fibres, and George Smith and Willard Boyle, for inventing the CCD ship, which is the basis for all digital cameras, faxes, and astronomical telescopes. All the winners received a diploma, the Nobel Medal, and a certificate for a monetary reward. In each category, this award totals ten million Swedish krona (approximately 25 million CZK). If there are multiple winners, they share the prize money between them. Traditionally, the most highly-anticipated award, the Nobel Peace Prize, went to the American president Barack Obama in the Norwegian city of Oslo this afternoon. In his speech, he acknowledged that the award was controversial, as he is just starting out in office and, moreover, heads a country which is currently at war in two countries - Iraq and Afghanistan. In defence of his policy he added, however, that these wars were essential in order to bring about peace, despite the high cost. Minister Janota considers resignation. Klaus invites him to the Castle On Friday morning, President Václav Klaus will meet with the finance minister Eduard Janota, who is considering resigning as he does not agree with the government's budget for next year as approved on Wednesday by the Chamber of Deputies. It is assumed that the budget and also Janota's possible continuation in office will be the topic of Friday's meeting. The budget has also been criticised by Klaus. He claims the deficit is too high, which is worsening the public funding crisis. The meeting was announced by the president's spokesman Radim Ochvat. Janota wants to discuss his future on Monday with the Prime Minister, Jan Fischer. According to the Budget Act, which Klaus is due to sign, the Czech Republic should get by with a deficit of 163 billion crowns. However, on Wednesday, the House approved the left's proposals to transfer funds, gave state employees a pay rise, and allocated extra money for social services and for direct payments to farmers. The government criticised the social democrats' proposals, saying that they will surreptitiously increase the budget deficit. A bitter political dispute has broken out between the left on the one hand, and the government, Klaus, and the right on the other, leading to questions about the future of Fischer's interim government, which was agreed on in spring by the ODS, ČSSD and Green Party. Critics claim that the budget, as approved by the House, essentially does away with the package of saving measures put into effect by Fischer's government in autumn and which it believes should stop the state falling deeper into debt. At a breakfast meeting with entrepreneurs today, Klaus, who is behind the state budget law but is not obliged to sign it, declared that politicians have long been neglecting a "serious problem," which is the "unsustainable deficit level" of public finances. Now, he claims, there is no good solution to this. The only thing that could improve the situation is a strong government which could fall back on the broader consensus of the political parties, the president says. ODS chairman Mirek Topolánek said that it was a terrible budget and that the government should rethink continuing in office. The vice-chairman of the ODS, Petr Nečas, told ČTK that the concept of an interim government supported by the ČSSD, ODS, and the Green Party is evidently no longer working. In response to this, Premier Fischer described this statement as "strong words." The head of the ČSSD, Jiří Paroubek, reacted to Topolánek by saying that what was terrible was the deficit in the budget prepared by the former Topolánek government for this year, which exceeds 200 billion crowns. On Wednesday the ČSSD declared the approval of next year's budget to be a success. The People's Party was also satisfied. Mandela played by Morgan Freeman in Clint Eastwood's new film South Africans claim that the new Hollywood film Invictus will tell the world a lot about their country, its struggle and its victories, despite some people criticising the fact that the main roles are played by American actors. It is a story about sport, race relations, and Nelson Mandela. The life of the tireless fighter against the racist system of apartheid in South Africa and its first black president, Nelson Mandela, is played by the Oscar-winning American actor Morgan Freeman. Freeman said that he had asked ninety-one-year-old Mandela if he could play him in Eastwood's film. Another leading role in the film is played by Matt Damon. I told him: 'If I'm going to play you, I'll need access to you". The seventy-two-year-old actor, who won an Oscar for his role in Eastwood's boxing drama Million Dollar Baby, has already played roles such as the leader of the anti-slavery movement who eventually himself became a slave, a fictitious president of the USA, and even a god in Evan Almighty, but has only rarely portrayed someone who is still alive and means so much to people as Mandela. The former South African statesman spent 27 years in prison for his active role in ending apartheid in South Africa. He was released in 1990 and was then the country's president for four years. In 1993 he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. Invictus is Latin for 'unconquered' and is the name of a poem by the English writer William Ernest Henley, published in 1875. The challenge was to speak like he does. The film tells the true story of how Nelson Mandela joined forces with the captain of the South African rugby team, Francois Pienaar, to help unify the country. The newly-elected President Mandela knows that, after apartheid, his nation will still be racially and economically divided. He believes that he can unite people through sport, so he decides to unite the rugby players who, to the world, are outsiders. The South African team eventually makes it through to the World Cup in 1995. Freeman worked for several years to get Mandela's story onto the big screen. My only aim was to play this role as realistically as possible, said Freeman. Naturally, the greatest challenge was to speak like Mandela. The actor said that if he and world politicians were in the same ball park, he would try to meet Mandela, go for dinner with him, and be behind the scenes with him before his speeches. The most important thing was that he wanted to shake Mandela's hand. I found out that when I take your hand, I draw on your energy, it flows into me, and I feel that I know how you are feeling, he said. For me it's important to try and become a different person. In the film, Matt Damon portrays François Pienaar, the captain of the national rugby team, which was dominated by white players. The actor said that he had six months in the tough world of rugby to prepare for the role. It turned out to be a great surprise for him when he first met Pienaar at his home. I remember ringing his doorbell, he opened it, and the very first thing I said to François Pienaar was: 'I look much bigger on the screen.' Despite the evident differences in the stature of the actors compared to their real-life counterparts, under Eastwood's direction, Invictus has received positive reviews and there is even talk of an Oscar nomination. The Daily Variety film critic Todd McCarthy summed up the film by saying: "It was a great story, a very well-made film." In the film reviews on rottentomatoes.com, Invictus has a 76 percent positive rating. Secret of the glare over Norway solved: the Russians were testing a rocket Strange lights of unknown origin have been seen over Norway. Yesterday the Russian defence ministry finally admitted that it had tested an intercontinental ballistic missile not far from the Norwegian border. However, it was another unsuccessful launch and the missile, which is known as "Bulava" and should have been the pride and glory of the Russian army, has gradually turned into a nightmare for the Russian generals and Prime Minister, Vladimir Putin. His repeated presence at tests on the rocket has not affected the success rate of the test flights. The Bulava has generally not lifted off or has been damaged in the air. The Russian newspapers are describing the "Bulava" as "the flightless rocket." The rocket that doesn't fly but lights up This, the 13th test, started off according to plan. But near the end of the flight there was technical damage to the missile. Apparently the engine blew up in the rocket's third phase. This time, the "Bulava" was launched from the atomic submarine Dmitrij Donskij, which was cruising under the surface of the White Sea. This type of rocket can be launched from a craft which is moving and even submerged. This makes it likely that the mysterious light over Norway, caused by an unidentified flying object, was actually the malfunctioning "Bulava." Anyway, the Norwegians never had any doubts that it was a Russian rocket. The generals are defending themselves this time though, claiming that it can't be described as a total failure. The first two phases of the rocket went well, and the accident happened during the third stage. Previously, the engines have always malfunctioned during the first phase. Even though not one test launch has been completely error-free, the defence ministry consider only six out of the thirteen tests to have been failures. The generals are optimistic about this almost fifty-percent success rate and keep insisting that the "Bulava" will eventually fly smoothly and will even carry up to ten hypersonic nuclear blocks weighing a total of 1.15 tons. The legendary Fetisov signs a year's contract with CSKA Moscow aged 51 The legendary defender Vjačeslav Fetisov will again play a professional ice-hockey match at the age of 51. The former world champion, Olympic winner and Stanley Cup holder will help out his team, CSKA Moscow, when they need him, and will evidently be playing in the fifth KHL duel against Saint Petersburg. Fetisov, who retired at forty in 1998, is currently the president of CSKA. Since Denis Kuljaš was injured, we urgently need another defender. Fetisov is training regularly and has agreed to help the team. We just need to sort out a few formalities, the AP agency quoted the Moscow club coach Sergej Němčinov as saying. It's not year clear whether or not the famous hockey player's comeback will be for just one match. I think Fetisov is someone who can boost the morale of the other players, said Němčinov. According to AP, if Fetisov returns to the ice, he will be the oldest Russian professional hockey player. In the NHL, the legendary attacker Gordie Howe played for Hartford for a whole season at the age of fifty-one and scored 15 goals and 26 assists. The oldest of the famous quintet of Fetisov, Kasatonov, Makarov, Larionov, and Krutov is one of the best and most successful hockey players of all time. In the Soviet Union uniform, he received two Olympic gold medals, seven world championship tiles, and triumphed in the Canada Cup and the Junior World Championship. In the second half of his career, he also enjoyed success in the NHL, when wearing the Detroit uniform, he twice raised the Stanley Cup over his head. Since 2001, he has been a member of the Hockey Hall of Fame. Hyundai obliges unions. All overtime is cut The management of the Hyundai car plant in Nošovice has agreed with the unions to cut all overtime. It is because of all this forced overtime that the unions have declared a strike on Monday. This was confirmed by the Hyundai spokesman, Petr Vaněk. The management, however, wants to come to an agreement with the trade union leaders for one Saturday shift this year. We can't give up on our production plan, it's essential, so we have proposed voluntary overtime on Saturday December 19th, involving two shifts, said Vaněk. The website Sedmička.cz wrote that the firm had offered all employees who are to work the Saturday shift a bonus of 400 CZK. This bonus will also be paid retrospectively to those who worked on Saturday November 28th. According to Vaněk, the firm has decided to change how it motivates its employees to take the proposed overtime. Either they'll claim the additional wage for the overtime or they can take time off in lieu on December 28th and extend their Christmas holiday by one day, said Vaněk. Additionally, all employees working the Saturday shift will have their travel expenses and lunch paid for. Considering that overtime was the most pressing and thorny question for the unions, as well as for the protesting employees who brought production to such a grinding halt last week, the management decided yesterday afternoon to immediately cancel all overtime for December, said Vaněk. Until last week, virtually every day the car plant workers had been forced to do two hours' overtime on top of their normal eight-hour shifts. After signing the agreement, the trade unions will call off the strike Further talks should be held between the car plant management and union leaders on Friday morning. On Wednesday, the head of the unions, Petr Kuchař, said that if they came to an agreement on the demands and sign the document, they are willing to call off the strike. The situation at the plant deteriorated sharply last Wednesday when some 400 workers held a spontaneous strike to protest against the incessant overtime. They were also protesting against bad pay conditions and alleged persecution. The management responded by saying that employees had to work overtime to meet the demand for cars. In Monday's announcement of the strike, the unions also asked that no sanctions be imposed against the workers who halted production last Wednesday. The trade unions are asking the firm to keep overtime to a minimum. Moreover, this year they are requesting that a 5000 crown bonus be paid for this work. The Hyundai car plant in Nošovice now employs 2000 people. The firm began series production last November. By this September, it had made around 80,000 cars, and its current capacity is 200,000 vehicles a year. Czech discovery: a substance which works on 'tough' forms of the HIV virus A team of Czech and German scientists has been testing a new compound which can slow the spread of the HIV virus in the body. The main advantage of this improved substance is that it also works on viruses which have become immune to medication. In some cases, this outweighs the fact that the compound used for the normal form of the virus does not have such a strong effect as some drugs that are already available. No cure has yet been found for AIDS. Patients' lives can be greatly prolonged by a mixture of drugs which prevent the HIV virus from multiplying in the body. However, they have a number of side-effects. Moreover, if the propagation of the virus is not completely suppressed, it can lead to the development of resistant viruses, against which drugs are no longer effective. The work being done by experts from three institutions, the Czech Academy of Sciences, VŠCHT Prague, and the University of Heidelberg, is opening up the way to deal with the rthe virus' resistance. They have shown that substances known as metallacarboranes act on the protein responsible for the proliferation of the HIV virus. Metallacarboranes are a compound of boron, hydrogen, carbon, and cobalt. These compounds block the spread of the virus in a different way to all the other drugs in use today, and so they may get over the resistance problem. In their work, the scientists are coming up with new ‘improved’ compounds, prepared using knowledge of the molecular mechanism and its relation to the virus protein. Metallacarboranes have a unique three-dimensional structure: two multi-walled cages consisting of boron, hydrogen and carbon atoms are connected to a metal atom, in this case cobalt. A treacherous and hardy virus The HIV protease is the protein of the HIV virus, which is essential to the life-cycle of the virus. The mature infectious viral corpuscles would not occur if the HIV virus was not split by the HIV protease. If we can stop the HIV protease, we will also stop the virus from spreading through the patient's body, the scientists explained in a press release published by the Institute of Organic Chemistry and Biochemistry of the Czech Academy of Sciences. In a paper published in the Journal of Medicinal Chemistry, the scientists describe a series of compounds in which there are two pairs of cages (see the diagram) connected by a short organic chain, which is then systematically modified. Somewhat weaker, but more reliable The effectiveness of this series of substances against the HIV protease has been tested in a test-tube, as well as its effectiveness against the more immune(resistant) strain as acquired from patients infected with the HIV virus. The effect of metallacarboranes on the normal strain of the enzyme is not as strong as that of drugs used in clinical practice, although their effect is not diminished against the resistant strains, whereas drugs currently used are often ineffective. The unique mechanism of the effect and also of its other properties, such as its biological and chemical stability, low toxicity, and the possibility of making other chemical modifications, make metallacarboranes an interesting compound for future research aimed at suggesting new effective drugs to combat HIV, says Pavlína Řezáčová, head of the Structural Biology laboratory at the Institute of Organic Chemistry and Biochemistry and the Institute of Molecular Genetics of the Academy of Sciences. Fall-out over the budget. ODS attacks Fischer, who defends himself The head of the ODS, Mirek Topolánek, described the next year's approved budget as "terrible" and said that Premier Jan Fischer's government should seriously rethink its position in office. The government chairman described the ODS statement as strong words. Apparently he will take some time to think about it. The vice-chairman of the ODS, Petr Nečas, said that the concept of an interim government supported by the ČSSD, ODS, and Green Party, was evidently no longer working. According to Nečas, the government chairman must decide if he intends to fall back on the minority in the House as a fight against the growing deficit, or if he is to stay in office with the help of the parliamentary left. The approaches taken by the ODS and social democrats on the issue of public deficits are diametrically opposed, remarked Nečas. On Wednesday, the House accepted the budget for 2010, naturally with the left's proposed amendments for more than 12 billion crowns. The House gave extra money for the salaries of state employees, for social services, and for direct payments to farmers. he government criticised the social democrats' proposals, saying that they will surreptitiously increase the budget deficit. The Czech Republic should get by with a deficit of 163 billion crowns. Before the vote, the ODS left the room, complying with the government's wishes that the amended budget is not as poor an option as the provisional budget. Disappointment and futility The finance minister, Eduard Janota, has spoken about his feeling of disappointment and futility, while Premier Jan Fischer said that the government is still assessing the current situation. Nečas is convinced that if Janota were to really threaten to resign should the proposed amendments be accepted, the situation would look completely different. According to Czech Television, Janota has made an appointment to see the Prime Minister on Monday after the session. At the same time, he indicated that he was rethinking his position in office. The reason for this is his disappointment in the budget talks. If Fischer commits himself to continuing the fight against the budget deficit, Nečas believes that the ČSSD appointees who carried through the budget amendments have no place in the government. The Prime Minister should also clearly state that he will hand in his resignation if the House approves other laws that will increase the deficit, those relating to sick pay, pensions, or the amendment to the Civil Servants Act for example. Topolánek: Ministers appointed to the ODS have committed no offence This is a matter for the ministerial chairman Fischer and the government as a whole. Ministers appointed to the ODS have done nothing wrong, stressed Topolánek in a text report from the USA. He pointed out that several ministries employ people in under-secretary positions who support TOP 09, which voted against the budget. Nečas emphasised that, if Fischer were to decide to resign on the principle of the fight against the public finances deficit, "it is totally logical and correct that he falls back on the left majority currently in the House." But then he would not be able to count on the support and tolerance of the civil democrats. I haven't thought about it, and I'll concentrate on that when the time comes, defence minister Martin Barták told reporters in the House, having been elected by the civil democrats. This afternoon, Prime Minister Fischer flew to Brussels to attend a European Council meeting. ODS stands down at the request of the Prime Minister Nečas also stressed that, on Wednesday in the House, the ODS would evidently have voted against the amended budget if the Prime Minister had not explicitly asked the civil democrats to allow the budget to be approved. We don't look like orphans, we're not little children, was how he reacted to the question of whether the ODS was not hampered by the presence of the party chairman in the parliament and in the Czech Republic during the political negotiations regarding the budget. I didn't notice that my vote was missing. Back when I renounced my mandate, I knew that the following months would see the Bolshevisation of the House and the destruction of all that is positive, Topolánek himself responded. The new Czech Railways timetable shows that fewer trains will be running for almost the same fares From December 13th, Czech Railways will be cancelling or restricting some less frequented express and local trains, but will be adding more services to other lines. As of the day the new timetable comes into force, there will be two percent fewer services in comparison with now. Most fares, including basic and special tickets, will stay the same. More links to the capital will be available, for example, to the people in the Ostrava region, as the railways are adding one Pendolino to that line. However, the express will stop running to Bratislava. There will be fewer express trains on the Prague - Písek - České Budějovice route, and the direct service from Prague - Letohrad will be cut dramatically. The region planning the greatest transport cuts is the Region of Hradec Králové, with a total cut of eight percent, although Prague and the surrounding area can expect to see a rise. Two night trains on the Prague - Tábor - České Budějovice line are also being cut, and several express services on the Prague - Písek - České Budějovice route will be reduced to just a few days a week. One of the greatest changes is the introduction of the new direct line from Milovice to Prague, since people now travelling from Milovice have to change in Lysá nad Labem. This is the fifteenth line in the Esko suburban system, which can now be opened since the track from Lysá nad Labem to Milovice has been fully electrified. Long-distance services to the capital will end at the Prague Hlavní nádraží station. Czech Railways is introducing more Pendolino routes between Prague and Ostrava and trains to Šumperk/Jeseník will run on two-hour intervals. From December 13th, passengers will no longer be able to take Pendolino to Bratislava. This year's cost of regional railways: 200 million more Express trains are ordered and paid for by the Ministry of Transport, and next year it will give the railways four billion crowns to cover demonstrable losses, the same amount as this year. Local trains are ordered by the regional authorities, who, next year, will pay out a total of eight billion crowns for them, while almost three billion will be contributed by the state. This year, regional trains are costing 200 million more. Czech Railways have concluded a new ten-year contract for local and express trains, whereas, previously, the contract was always for one year. The railways have praised the system, despite the fact that the great majority of fares have not been increased. The only changes are to ČD Net one-day network tickets and eLiška cheap internet tickets. Travellers without a customer card will find that the ČD Net price has increased from 450 crowns to 600 crowns. The eLiška price will now depend on the distance travelled, whereas, previously, it was a flat rate of 160 crowns to travel between any regional cities. Filipino gunmen still holding more than 50 people, Children have been released Today, gunmen in the south of the Philippines kidnapped 75 people, including several primary school students and their teachers. This from the AFP agency, which originally announced only 65 abductees. All 17 of the captured children, together with their teacher, were released after eight hours. The kidnapping happened in the province of Agusan del Sur. Around 19 gunmen are apparently using the hostages as a human shield in their escape from the police. Local negotiators are now trying to arrange the release of the remaining hostages. According to AFP, the gunmen are part of the New People's Army (NPA), which is the armed faction of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP). According to AP, the police had originally been chasing the kidnappers following violence that occurred as accounts were settled between two local family clans. In the province of Maguindanao, in the south of the Philippines, martial law has been declared due to the recent massacre which left 57 people dead. The victims of the massacre on November 23rd, which was related to the elections for governor, included 30 reporters. The governor of this southern Filipino province has been arrested on suspicion of involvement in the massacre, together with his father Andal Ampatuan, the patriarch of the influential Ampatuan family. Muslim separatists are also active on Mindanao. But on Tuesday, these separatists renewed peace talks with the Filipino government. The story of South Africa affects everyone, says Morgan Freeman alias Mandela In the next few days, the new Hollywood film Invictus by Clint Eastwood will hit American cinemas, depicting part of the life of the former South African president Nelson Mandela. The role of the world-famous opponent of apartheid is taken on by Morgan Freeman, who was apparently chosen years ago by Mandela himself for his talent. The supporting male role of the legendary South African rugby champion Francois Pienaar is played by Matt Damon. With the film in cinemas critics and the public Nelson Mandela Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela was born on July 18th, 1918 in Mvez, in South Africa. In 1988 he was awarded the Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought, and in 1993 received the Nobel Peace Prize with de Klerk. He was president of South Africa from 1994 to 1999. There were great expectations, as he appeared in public at a time when not only was South Africa busy preparing for the football world championship, but the media was also rife with worrying news about increasing racial hatred and discrimination by the black majority. According to the AP news agency, the response to the new film has so far been generally positive in South Africa, despite the number of objections to "brat-pack" Hollywood stars being cast in the main roles. However, despite what he says, Morgan Freeman is proud of the new film. I had dreamt about this role for many years and prepared for it well. I met Nelson Mandela many times to, as they say, draw on his energy, he said in an interview after the film's grand premiere in Los Angeles. I think it's good that we can commemorate Mandela and his mission in a film. It is a story about South Africa, but it affects everybody, he added. In the national rugby team uniform The film, based on the book by the British writer John Carlin, entitled Playing the Enemy: Nelson Mandela and the Game that Made a Nation, portrays the South African human rights activist during his first presidential election campaign. In the film, Morgan Freeman tries to unite the two races and the populations that had so long been segregated and, like Nelson Mandela did in 1995, appears in the film in the South African national rugby uniform at the world cup match, which was won by South Africa. For appearing in the kit, which is an almost sacred symbol in South Africa, fourteen years ago, Mandela received a standing ovation from the predominantly white spectators and gained the esteem of the white people. Perhaps a football championship can actually bring people together as one nation, said rugby player Chester Williams, who in 1995 was the only black person on the national team. Whether the tense situation in South Africa will improve is only now becoming apparent. White South Africans, however, are sceptical, as rugby fan Christopher Dawson, who fled the country to go to Britain, admitted in a recent interview for LN. The championship begins on June 11th, 2010. Transformer worth tens of millions of crowns burns in Louny region In the morning, a fire broke out in a transformer owned by Čeps at the switching station in the village of Výškov, near Louny. Six fire engines came out to fight the fire, said the spokesman for the Ústí regional firefighters, Lukáš Marvan. Originally, the firefighters wanted to let the transformer burn, but later changed their minds and are putting the fire out using a mix of water, foam, and special fire-suppression agents. The fire was caused by a technical fault, a short circuit inside the transformer. Nobody was hurt, and according to company spokesperson Pavla Mandátová, the incident will not hinder the safe operation of the distribution station. The damage is estimated at several tens of millions of crowns, although the exact figure will not be known until the fire has been extinguished. Mandátová says that the ruined transformer will have to be replaced with a new one. She added that nothing like this had ever happened in the ten years that Čeps has been operating, and this kind of fault was a one-off. According to ČEZ spokeswoman for northern Bohemia, Sonia Holingerová Hendrychová, there were no power cuts and households, offices and companies were not affected by the transformer fire. In the Czech Republic, the joint stock company Čeps is the exclusive operator of transmission systems and 400 kV and 220 kV power lines. It maintains, restores and develops 39 switching stations with 67 transformers converting electricity from the transmission system to the distribution system, as well as 4339 kilometres of power lines. Jančura files a slander suit against three ČSSD commissioners The owner of Student Agency, Radim Jančura, will today file a slander suit against three social democrat commissioners. These are Michal Hašek, commissioner for South Moravia, Radko Martínek, commissioner for Pardubice, and Olomouc commissioner Martin Tesařík. Jančura announced this in the Twenty Minutes programme on Radiožurnál. The suit relates to the company's attempts to operate regional trains in certain regions. However, all the regions eventually signed a long-term contract with Czech Railways. So now all three commissioners are attacking us and saying that we're getting the best out of it, while the offer we put forward was just what they themselves wanted. They claim that we're more expensive than Czech Railways, which is not true, as we know the Czech Railways prices that were concluded last week. So all we can do is defend ourselves. It's for slander against Student Agency, Jančura told Radiožurnál. He also said that he has proof from all the regional authorities that they did not act in accordance with European law. He is therefore preparing a motion for the European Commission. Hašek sees the suit as a further continuation of Mr Jančura's great media show, which works as a free advertisement for himself and his company. It's understandable that I'm prepared to defend my good name and that of my region, and I call upon the other commissioners to do the same. I expect that this matter will clearly show that it is Mr Jančura who is manipulating the public over regional rail transport and using lies and false arguments, said Hašek. Last week, Jančura said that he is investing several million crowns in advertising to draw attention to these inappropriate actions taken by the regional authorities. He told Radiožurnál that he was halting the campaign for Christmas and would restart it in the New Year. He specified that the campaign would fight corruption as such. Jančura started the campaign after the regions decided to operate regional rail links with Czech Railways and had not announced tenders for the order, worth around 150 billion crowns. According to Jančura this is illegal and in contravention of the principles of the European Court of Justice. Jančura claims that his criticism of regional rail transport has already led to his being threatened by a member of the ČSSD. The only threat was that if we don't stop this, we could lose our bus licence. He introduced himself as a member of the ČSSD, I know who it was but I'm not going to say his name, Jančura told Radiožurnál today. Vaccinations against pneumococcus will be free and voluntary. Starting January, vaccinations against pneumococcus will radically change ingrained habits. These should be the first free yet voluntary vaccinations for families. But some are saying that compulsory vaccinations would be more effective. Preparations for the introduction of free anti-pneumococcus vaccinations are reaching a peak. The pharmaceutical institute is already setting the maximum price for vaccines to be paid for by health insurance companies. Experts are now clear on how to proceed with the vaccinations. New vaccinations Vaccines free of charge for children born in August Starting January, there could be free anti-pneumococcus vaccinations for children born on or after August 2nd. The condition is that they have not received any prior vaccinations. Anyone who began to be vaccinated last year or earlier will have to pay for any later re-vaccinations. The first batch of vaccinations must be given when the child is between 3 and 5 months old. Last year, one in four families had their children voluntarily vaccinated against pneumococcus. Parents paid 1600 crowns or more per vaccination. The youngest children require four vaccinations. Overall, experts estimate that health insurance companies spend 300 to 450 thousand crowns a year on vaccinations. But they save on the treatment that unvaccinated children would otherwise need. So far, the state has been paying around 500 thousand crowns a year on all general vaccinations for children. Subsidised vaccinations were introduced as part of the Janota package. Pneumococcus causes infections of the middle ear, but also serious infections of the cerebral membranes and blood poisoning. Pneumococcal infections claim the lives of up to 28 children under the age of ten every year, according to hospital figures. Besides the Czech Republic, around 40 countries have introduced general anti-pneumococcus vaccinations for children. Will vaccinations be compulsory? Some believe that in the future these vaccinations could be compulsory. As of January, they should be paid for by the insurance companies and not compulsory. The head of the Nahlas civil association, Rudolf Kalovský, says that compulsory vaccinations would be better. His association has long been promoting pneumococcus vaccines. The specialists at the international conference that our association attended were not very happy to hear that we have voluntary vaccinations. It's not completely ideal. On the other hand, we're happy that we managed to get at least these voluntary vaccinations in place. I think this is the route we have to take, said Kalovský. The Ministry of Health, however, does not want to change the pneumococcus vaccination system. We're not considering it at this time, said ministry spokesman Vlastimil Sršeň. Voluntary vaccinations have their drawbacks, say doctors The chairwoman of the Professional Society of Paediatricians, Hana Cabrnochová, acknowledges that voluntary vaccinations have their drawbacks. If all children were vaccinated, the number of revaccinations could then be cut. "With vaccines costing so much, we can understand the political decision that vaccinations should be offered on a voluntary basis," says Cabrnochová. Experts assume that, starting next year, more than 80 percent of new parents will have their babies vaccinated against pneumococcus. The anti-pneumococcus vaccinations are a milestone in that they are the first general vaccinations for children to be paid for by the insurance companies, not the state. Insurance companies should fund prevention to save money on later treatment, explains Cabrnochová. Doctors will have to buy vaccines themselves However, practising paediatricians are concerned when it comes to buying the vaccines. According to the original plan, the vaccines would be purchased by the insurance companies, and doctors would receive them in the same way that the state issues drugs for other vaccinations. Some ministers, however, are worried that the insurance companies could "run wild with health insurance funds". So doctors will have to buy the vaccines and wait until the insurance companies refund the money. It is estimated that practising paediatricians will have to spend 40 thousand a month on vaccines, which is a lot of money. It certainly won't be easy, says Cabrnochová. US artist's son 'in museum theft' The son of renowned American fantasy artist Frank Frazetta, has been charged with trying to steal paintings worth $20m (£12m) from his father's museum. Police in Pennsylvania say Alfonso Frank Frazetta was caught loading 90 paintings into his vehicle and trailer. They say Mr Frazetta and another man used an excavator to break into the museum in the Pocono Mountains region. Mr Frazetta Snr, aged 81, is famed for his depiction of characters such as Conan the Barbarian and Tarzan. The artist was in Florida at the time of the incident, the Associated Press news agency reported. AP quoted an unnamed police official as saying the younger Mr Frazetta may have been motivated by a family feud. A police affidavit said Mr Frazetta Jnr, 52, claimed he had been instructed by his father to "enter the museum by any means necessary to move all the paintings to a storage facility", the agency reported. Mr Frazetta Snr denied granting any such permission, the agency said. Labour defends budget tax rises Ministers have defended the tax rises and spending cuts announced in the pre-Budget report against criticism from the opposition, business and unions. The Tories said Alistair Darling "blew" an opportunity to show he was serious about cutting the deficit by delaying decisions until after the election. The chancellor also came under fire for hitting low and middle income workers. Among his headline proposals are a 0.5% rise in National Insurance and a 1% cap on public pay settlements from 2011. National Insurance anger Unions have protested that low-paid workers are being penalised for a recession not of their making and warned of "problems" ahead. The National Insurance increase - which will raise about £3bn a year - has angered the business community, which says it is a tax on jobs when the focus should be on economic recovery. The increase, limited to those earning more than £20,000 a year, will hit about 10 million workers. KEY POINTS OF PBR National Insurance up by a further 0.5% from April 2011 Economy to shrink by worse than expected 4.75% this year New 50% tax on banker bonuses 1p rise in corporation tax for small firms scrapped Tax rebates for electric cars and wind turbines State pension to rise by 2.5% According to Treasury estimates, someone earning £30,000 will be £90 a year worse off and someone on £40,000 will be £190 worse off, while someone earning £10,000 a year will be £110 better off. Ministers said their target of halving the deficit by 2013 meant "difficult decisions" but insisted that 60% of the burden of extra taxes would fall upon the top 5% of earners. Treasury minister Stephen Timms denied the tax rises and spending cuts outlined were a "drop in the ocean" compared to what was needed. "These are large numbers. They will deliver for us this halving of the deficit which is absolutely essential over the next four years," he told the BBC. Mr Timms said he was confident the economy would return to growth by the turn of the year. However, Labour forecasts for future economic growth - which will influence the amount it has to borrow and how quickly he deficit is cut - have been questioned after the chancellor was forced to revise earlier figures. In his statement, he said the economy was likely to contract 4.75% this year - far worse than the 3.5% decline predicted in April - while borrowing would be £3bn higher than earlier estimated. 'Blown opportunity' The Conservatives, who will launch a new advertising campaign on Thursday warning of Labour's "debt crisis", said projected borrowing of £789bn over the next six years was unsustainable. Mnisters had failed to lay out a credible plan for how they would pay this back, they added, "cynically" ducking tough choices until after the election - which must be held by June 2010. "They have not included anything of significance they are going to do," said shadow Treasury minister Philip Hammond. "They had an opportunity to do it and they have blown it." " The all important announcements will come after the election, whoever wins it " Roger Bootle, Deloitte Labour insist that schools, hospitals and the police will be protected from future cuts unlike under Tory proposals which would see the deficit cut faster and further. But the Lib Dems said the money raised by tax rises and spending cuts would be used to support spending next year not to reduce the deficit, arguing the plans were "built on sand". The BBC's political editor Nick Robinson said some of the timing of the announcements - such as the above inflation increase in some disability benefits next April - would leave the chancellor open to accusations of electioneering as the money may simply be clawed back the year after. However, Labour insist the extra help is being provided when people need it most and the situation will be reviewed in September 2010. 'Phoney budget' Although ministers did not publish spending details for beyond 2011, economists said it was clear the squeeze on public spending would only begin to bite in the medium term. The respected Institute for Fiscal Studies said the chancellor's figures implied substantial cuts in many areas, potentially including transport, higher education, science and defence, in the future. "It really is holding off the pain until later," said its director Robert Chote. "The all important announcements will come after the election, whoever wins it," added Roger Bootle, economic adviser to accountants Deloitte. "This has been the phoney pre-Budget report. The markets realise this." FBI probes 'US Pakistan arrests' The FBI is investigating the arrest in Pakistan of five reported US men on suspicion of extremist links. The men were arrested in a raid on a house in Sarghoda in eastern Punjab province, Pakistan's US embassy told the BBC. The FBI has said it is investigating whether they are the same men who were reported missing from their homes in the US state of Virginia last month. The US State Department said it was also seeking information on the men. Three of them are reported to be of Pakistani descent, one of Egyptian heritage and the other of a Yemeni background. "If they are American citizens, we of course are going to be very interested in the charges that they've been detained on and in what sort of circumstances they're being held," said spokesman Ian Kelly. FBI spokeswoman Katherine Schweit said the agency was aware of the arrests and was in contact with the families of the missing students. "We are working with Pakistan authorities to determine their identities and the nature of their business there, if indeed these are the students who had gone missing," she said. The Pakistani embassy in Washington said the men were arrested in a house belonging to an uncle of one of them. He said the house was already of interest to local police and that no charges had yet been filed against the arrested men. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton declined to comment on the arrests, reported the Reuters news agency, but said the US had to "work more closely with both Afghanistan and Pakistan to try to root out the infrastructure of terrorism that continues to recruit and train people". The five students were reported missing from their homes in northern Virginia by their families in late November. Amnesty condemns Iranian 'abuses' Human rights in Iran are as poor as at any time over the past 20 years, according to a report from campaign group Amnesty International. The report details "patterns of abuse" by the regime before and after disputed presidential elections in June. One man quoted in the report said he had been beaten and burned with cigarettes. Another said he was threatened with rape. Iran has dismissed previous criticism of its human rights record. Officials have said such criticism is politically motivated. Thousands of people were arrested and dozens killed in Iran after the disputed election of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad led to the largest street protests since the 1979 Islamic Revolution. Dozens have been given jail terms, and prosecutors say at least five people have been sentenced to death. BBC Tehran correspondent, Jon Leyne, who is now in London, says that early in the protests, the supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, accepted some of the allegations of abuse, ordering the closure of the Kahrizak detention centre. But since then, there has been almost no tolerance of criticism by the authorities, our correspondent says. 'False confession' Amnesty International cited the account of 26-year-old computing student Ebrahim Mehtari, who said he was accused of "working with Facebook networks" and protesting against the election result. "They frequently beat me on the face," he was quoted as saying. "I was burned with cigarettes under my eyes, on the neck, head... They threatened to execute me and they humiliated me." After five days he signed a false confession and was taken out and left in the street, still bleeding and semi-conscious, Amnesty said. In August, defeated presidential candidate Mehdi Karroubi said some protesters detained after the election had been tortured to death in prison and others had been raped. Iranian officials denied the rape claims, but admitted that abuses had taken place. Amnesty also cited the case of a former detainee who said he was held in a container with 75 others for more than eight weeks at a detention centre at Kahrizak. Amnesty accepted that the Iranian parliament and judiciary had established committees to investigate the post-election unrest and the government's response, but it said the mandate and powers of the bodies were unclear and the parliamentary committee's findings had not been made public. The group said at least 90 people had been arrested in the past three weeks to forestall further demonstrations. Ski slope is created in city park More than 100 tonnes of artificial snow were used to turn a Bristol landmark into a piste for a competition. The Piste in the Park event attracted 16 semi-professional skiers and snow borders competing for cash prizes. At the top of the slope in Brandon Hill park there was a short jump ramp before a 100m-long slope. Fourth-year medical student John Hickman said there was a beautiful view from the top of the slope but it was pretty daunting. It's a beautiful view with all the city lights below all twinkling. There's some of the best skiers and snow borders in the county here - some real talent," he added. Prizes were awarded for the best tricks - or manoeuvres performed on the slope. After Thursday evening's event the snow will be left to melt away. Still them and us Can Islam Be French? Pluralism and Pragmatism in a Secularist State. AT A time when Swiss voters have called for a ban on the construction of minarets and there is widespread alarm over the supposed Islamisation of Europe, John Bowen, an American academic, has written an informed and measured account of whether Muslims can integrate—and are integrating—into one of the continent’s most avowedly secular societies. Some readers will come to this new book as admirers of the author’s last work, "Why the French Don’t Like Headscarves" (2006), an elegant and closely argued study of an issue that divided and preoccupied the country for a decade and a half, and whose effects are still felt today. Mr Bowen’s latest book has a broader and more ambitious canvas. As a good anthropologist, he wants to know not just what the politicians and the media are saying about Islam in France, but what is actually happening on the ground. He has spent months in the mosques, schools and institutes which now provide France’s 5m-6m Muslims with what Mr Bowen calls "Islamic spaces". He is a good listener, reproducing debates between teachers and students about the questions that concern them most. Should a Muslim get married in a mosque or a town hall (or both)? Should young Muslims be taught about evolution and gay rights? Can a Muslim woman marry a non-Muslim man? Is it legitimate for a Muslim to use an interest-based banking system to get a mortgage? It is these seemingly mundane issues, he argues, that are the stuff of daily life rather than the political dramas that preoccupy the media. The author identifies a new generation of imams, teachers and intellectuals, none of them household names, with the possible exception of Tariq Ramadan, a Swiss-born Arab Muslim scholar and academic. This new generation is trying to open up the debate about how to be both a good Muslim and a good citizen in a modern secular society. They are not having the argument all their way. Conservatives are suspicious of the very idea of a French or European Islam. The thinkers and activists whom Mr Bowen interviews tend to be at odds with their Salafi counterparts—advocates of the purist Sunni Islam associated with Saudi Arabia—who nowadays have a small but influential presence among Europe’s Muslims. Mr Bowen thinks that Muslim values and French secularism could be compatible. But accommodation requires give-and-take on both sides. He questions how far French policymakers (and the intellectual elite that so fiercely guards laïcité) are really committed to pluralism. He suggests that Muslims are probably getting a rawer deal than the Catholics, Protestants and Jews who have also had to make their historic compromises with secular republicanism. Rather than a growing pragmatism, he detects a "tightening of the value-screws". Can Islam be French? After reading this book, one is inclined to say, "Yes, but not yet." The bleakest outlook in the world THE Arctic is changing faster and more dramatically than any other environment on the planet. The ice that defines it is melting with alarming speed, taking with it life that can survive nowhere else. Oil, gas, shipping and fishing interests have been heading into the newly open water, with diplomats, lawyers, and now authors, in their wake. In "On Thin Ice" Richard Ellis, a writer and illustrator, paints a natural history of the icon of the north, the polar bear. Well-versed in the complicated history and politics of whaling, he describes the long tradition of Arctic explorers who proved themselves by taking on the white bear. Admiral Nelson’s encounter as a plucky 14-year-old midshipman fighting only with the butt of his musket is surely a myth, but others are true. Young bears, captured as they swam after the bodies of their newly killed mothers, were caught and sent to zoos and circuses. One early 20th-century big-top act featured 75 polar bears at once. Even today, zoo enclosures are still typically a millionth of the area of a wild adult’s range. The climate is rarely suitable: the resident polar bear in Singapore has turned green from algae growing within the hollow hairs of its coat. Click here to find out more! Mr Ellis draws on the accounts of other writers and historians, and often returns to the threat that hunters pose to the survival of the species. Although banned in Norway, America and Russia, the killing continues in Greenland and Canada, where hunters in helicopters and skidoo-riding Inuit Indians both use high-powered assault rifles to bring down their quarry. Ironically it is in the waters towards the north of those two hunting nations that the ice will last longest. In his new book, "After the Ice", Alun Anderson, a former editor of New Scientist, offers a clear and chilling account of the science of the Arctic and a gripping glimpse of how the future may turn out there. Not that scientists have all the answers. Neither atmospheric scientists nor oceanographers can adequately account for the speed of the changes. It is not for want of trying. Fridtjof Nansen’s pioneering journeys at the end of the 19th century and early 20th century first hinted at the whirling of the ice pack. Cold-war submarines then mapped the shifting ridges running beneath it. Satellite surveys and large arrays of iceberg-mounted probes are a useful addition, but much is still done by hardy individuals camped out in the cold. Mr Anderson looks in on the extraordinary, tiny world of the tributary system within the Arctic ice, formed by trickles of briny water which gets squeezed as it freezes. But from the bear above to the microscopic wonders within, all are doomed once the summer ice goes, which is expected to happen at some point between 2013 and 2050. 'In a few months...this could be us' Marines among 6,000 who place wreaths on graves at Arlington Pfc. De'Angello Robinson, 19, traveled seven hours by bus to place a single wreath on the tomb of a soldier whom he'd never met. For him, and the other Marines who took the trip from Camp Johnson in Jacksonville, N.C. to Arlington National Cemetery to decorate graves, the day was about paying tribute to men and women who once stood in their shoes. In a few months, from where we are getting shipped out, this could be us, said Robinson of the fallen soldiers. If it is us, I would want somebody to do the same for me so I'm just trying to show respect. He was one of more than 6,000 volunteers who gathered Saturday morning to place wreaths on veterans' gravesites across several sections of Arlington Ceremony. In 1992, Morrill Worcester, owner of Worcester Wreath Company in Harrington, Maine, began the event when he and several others decided to decorate several hundred gravesites at Arlington Ceremony. Now an 18-year-old tradition, Morrill and his wife Karen, make the trip every year stopping in different cities along the way to host events dedicated to the people in the military and victims of terrorism. The Worcesters also founded a non-profit, Wreaths Across America, which has spread the event across other states. This year, volunteers placed more than 16,000 wreaths on the graves at Arlington Cemetery, areas at the Pentagon, graves at Fayetteville National Cemetery in Arkansas, Battery Park in New York City and on the memorial site for United Airlines Flight 93 in Shanksville, Pa. For the second year, the Walmart Foundation donated more than $150,000 to purchase, and transport the wreaths. Charleen Hunt, 70, of Westminster, said she made the trip to Arlington in honor of her husband, a deceased career military man. While her husband is not buried at Arlington, Hunt said this was her way of giving back to those who made sacrifices. It's a small way civilians can support our troops, she said. It's like visiting a family gravesite. Wrapped in layers of warm clothing, volunteers walked across the cemetery's expansive lawns and hills. Volunteers targeted older tombs from World War I, World War II, and the war in Vietnam because they are not visited as often as newer graves, organizers said. The mood was upbeat as children played and couples held hands while carrying the fresh pine to the graying tombstones. Each circular wreath was a deep green with a small red bow fastened across the top. Nearby, Section 60, where most veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are buried, remained virtually silent. The United Service Organizations donated 1,000 wreaths to decorate the section but the somber mood of the current wars filled the area. Individuals openly wept, others prayed, and families and friends held each other in the frigid air. Some read aloud names carved into the stones while others bowed to see small black and white place cards pushed inside wet mud for those whose tombstones have not yet been completed. Sandra Lockwood was one of the many mothers wiping tears from her eyes in front of her son's grave. She drove eight hours from Zanesfield, Ohio to visit the gravesite of Marine Gunnery Sgt. David Shane Spicer who died in combat in July. Nobody should ever forget why we're free. . .my son paid for that, she said. "When I'm long gone, I want someone to remember him." U.S. government contractor arrested by Cuban officials The Cuban government has arrested a U.S. government contractor who was distributing cellphones and laptop computers in the country, State Department officials said Saturday. The contractor, who has not yet been identified, works for Development Alternatives Inc., based in Bethesda. The company works on projects for clients such as the U.S. Agency for International Development and the World Bank. Consular officers with the U.S. Interest Section in Havana are seeking access to the detainee, who was arrested Dec. 5. The specific charges have not been made public, though under Cuban law, a Cuban citizen or a foreign visitor can be arrested for nearly anything under the claim of "dangerousness." All so-called counter-revolutionary activities, which include mild protests and critical writings, carry the risk of arrest. Anti-government graffiti and speech are considered serious crimes. Cuba has a fledging blogging community, led by the popular commentator Yoani Sánchez, who often writes about how she and her husband are followed and harassed by government agents. Sánchez has repeatedly applied for permission to leave the country to accept awards but has been denied permission. The detention of an American contractor may likely raise tensions between the Castro brothers Communist government in Cuba and the Obama administration, which has been pursuing a "go-slow" approach to improving relations with the island. News of the arrest was first reported by the New York Times Friday night. The new U.S. policy stresses that if the Cuban government takes concrete steps, such as freeing political prisoners and creating more space for opposition, the United States will reciprocate. Cellphones and laptops are legal in Cuba, though they are new and coveted commodities in a country where the average wage of a government worker is $15 a month. The Cuban government granted ordinary citizens the right to buy cellphones just this year; they are used mostly for texting, as a 15-minute telephone conversation would eat up a day's wages. Internet use is extremely limited on the island. It is available in expensive hotels and to foreign visitors there, and at some government outlets, such as universities. Cubans who want to log on often have to give their names to the government. Access to many Web sites is restricted. The detention of an American in Cuba is rare. Most of the handful of U.S. citizens in jail in Cuba are behind bars for crimes such as drug smuggling, said Gloria Berbena, the press officer at the U.S. Interests Section in Havana. Berbena said she could not provide more information on the arrest. The arrest and detention are clearly wrong. An activity that in any other open society would be legal -- giving away free cellphones -- is in Cuba a crime, said Jose Miguel Vivanco, director of the Americas program of the group Human Rights Watch, which recently issued a tough report on freedoms in Cuba called "New Castro, Same Cuba," a reference to the installation of Raul Castro as the leader of the country to replace his ailing older brother Fidel. Vivanco said that the accused are often arrested, tried and imprisoned in a day. He said that any solution would likely be political and that the Cuban government often provokes a negative reaction in the United States just as the two countries begin to move toward more dialogue. Pakistani officials unraveling plot to send men to Afghanistan Pakistani authorities on Saturday zeroed in on the alleged mastermind of a plot to send five Northern Virginia men to Afghanistan to kill U.S. troops, saying they hope the case could help unravel an extensive network of terrorist recruiters who scour the Internet for radicalized young men. Investigators said they were hunting for a shadowy insurgent figure known as Saifullah, who invited the men to Pakistan after first discovering them when one made comments approving of terror attacks on the Internet video site YouTube. Saifullah guided the men once they were in Pakistan, attempting to help them reach the remote area in Pakistan's tribal belt that is home to al-Qaeda and its terrorist training camps. But a Pakistani intelligence official who had been briefed on the case said Saturday that Saifullah was unsuccessful in convincing al-Qaeda commanders that the men were not part of a CIA plot to infiltrate the terrorist network. As a result, they were marooned for days in the eastern city of Sargodha, far from the forbidding mountains of the northwest that have become a terrorist haven. They were regarded as a sting operation. That's why they were rejected, said the official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the case. The official said the men were undeterred and were still trying to acquire the right endorsements to gain access to the al-Qaeda camps when they were arrested by Pakistani law enforcement. The case of the five -- who remain in Pakistan and are being questioned by the FBI -- underscores the critical role of recruiters in identifying potential terrorists and, perhaps more importantly, determining who can be trusted. Since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, U.S. intelligence has made it a top priority to try to place human assets inside al-Qaeda. The organization's recruiters act as gatekeepers, keeping out those who are not serious about their commitment to holy war, and those who could be spies. Would-be American recruits are treated by al-Qaeda with special scrutiny, analysts said. But they are also considered enormously appealing to the group because of their potential to access U.S. targets and because of their propaganda value. But Evan Kohlmann, senior analyst with the U.S.-based NEFA Foundation, said terror groups have also become much more cautious in recent years about who they allow in because U.S. intelligence agencies have become experts in their recruiting methods. If you're trying to sink someone into these groups, what better way than to follow the recruitment model that so many have already followed? Kohlmann said. The model is one that has become far more Web-based. Tens of thousands protest in Copenhagen, demand climate 'action' Tens of thousands of protesters marched on the streets here Saturday, demanding bolder action on climate from the negotiators working inside the city's Bella Convention Center. Protesters said as many 100,000 people joined in the event, but police estimated the count was closer to 25,000. The event was relatively peaceful, though a handful of masked activists set off small explosives near a group of government buildings downtown. On a day when little happened in the U.N.-sponsored climate talks, thousands of activists walked across the city holding banners in English saying "There is No Planet B" and one in Spanish declaring, "The Earth is Saying, 'Enough.' Several celebrities joined the protest, including Danish model and photographer Helena Christensen, who said that traveling to her mother's native country of Peru made me aware of the heartbreaking issues the country is dealing with due to the impacts of climate changes that are already occurring." This is part of the reason why I have decided to join the big march -- to pass on the word and to appeal to the world's leaders to deliver a fair, ambitious and binding deal, she said. It is not an easy task, but it needs to be done, there is no way around it anymore. The police kept the protesters from getting too close to the Bella center, and said they had arrested 19 people, primarily on the grounds that they had either worn masks or carried pocket knives. Those activities are banned during demonstrations under Danish law. According to one bystander, who asked not to be identified because he is involved in the climate talks, activists sporting masks and black outfits set off several explosives near Copenhagen's main canal, which is nearby several ministries. They were lobbing them by the buildings, he said, adding they began as flares but were followed by "a couple big explosions." Inside the convention center, people gathered around television screens to watch the march throughout the afternoon. But the protest did not seem to penetrate the consciousness of key officials such as Su Wei, China's chief climate negotiator. When asked whether he thought the demonstration was having a constructive impact on the international deliberations, he replied in English, "Actually, that is something that I was not aware of." He then continued in Mandarin, saying, "Because the venue is large, I cannot hear what is happening outside." He observed that whether the march was hurting or helping depended on one's perspective. It shows the concentration of the general public and different sectors on the subject of climate change, he said. On the other hand, "You can also say that they disrupt the negotiations, or the freedom of other people. Test data reveal stubborn racial gaps Last week's federal report card on math achievement was a welcome piece of good news for D.C. public schools. Although the District still lags far behind the country's top-performing systems, the report card showed fourth- and eighth-graders making strides at a faster pace over the past two years than cities including Atlanta, Chicago and New York. But what remains embedded in the latest numbers from the National Assessment of Educational Progress is the persistent achievement gap between African American and white students both locally and nationally. The average scores of white D.C. fourth-graders over the past two years grew from 262 to 270 (on a scale of 500), but their African American peers' rose just three points, from 209 to 212. The achievement gap actually grew between 2007 and 2009, from 53 to 58 points. African American progress in the eighth grade remained essentially flat, dipping a statistically insignificant one point, from 245 to 244. Average white scores were not included in the test results because the sample size wasn't large enough. The picture across a six-year stretch isn't more encouraging. The gap separating white and black fourth-graders in 2003, when the first NAEP in the District was given, was 60 scale points (262 to 202). Although the scores achieved by children in both groups have increased during this period, the difference has barely narrowed to 58. Some education advocates in the District expressed concern last week that the gains celebrated by Chancellor Michelle A. Rhee and Mayor Adrian M. Fenty (D) were propelled largely by white students who are already high achievers. It would suggest that we've raised the aggregate by treating those at the higher end of the scale, which is problematic and troublesome, said Jeff Smith, executive director of D.C. Voice, a nonprofit group that advocates for educational equality in the District. I'm not jumping up and down about a two- or three-point spread, said D.C. Council member Kwame R. Brown (D-At Large), who has a daughter in the fourth grade at Eaton Elementary. A frequent critic of Rhee's management style, Brown said the message of the test scores is that the city's middle schools are in desperate need of attention. Clearly, you always want to see the plus signs, and I respect that. But what's scary is we're not spending nearly the time and energy we need to spend on our middle schools. Rhee said the District needs to continue to find better ways to address the needs of low-achieving students. This fall, for example, some teachers are being trained to use a new reading curriculum, the Wilson Reading System, targeted to students in the upper elementary and middle school grades who didn't master the basics of reading early in their school careers and are significantly behind their peers. Everyday Mathematics, a K-through-sixth-grade math curriculum emphasizing games and real-life experiences that was brought to the District under former superintendent Clifford Janey, is credited with some of the NAEP progress reported last week. I just think we have to keep working at bringing the best interventions to those students who are below grade level, Rhee said. Others say that the NAEP's results highlight the question of whether Rhee can continue to lift the overall performance of the system and still provide the additional money and resources for low-performing schools that will be necessary to narrow the gap. There is a sort of rough-edged dilemma here for Michelle Rhee, said Bruce Fuller, an education professor at the University of California at Berkeley who studies urban test scores. The conventional policy remedy is to target your resources and management reforms on schools located in the poorest sections of D.C. So the targeting may yield political repercussions that go against that important agenda. But the rub, of course, is like other urban superintendents, she's trying to hold on to the white and black middle class. Our focus is on ensuring that we build a system of great schools. We need to strengthen our neighborhood schools so that all families, regardless of where they live, are confident that their children can get an excellent public education. Janey, now superintendent of schools in Newark, said in an interview this week that one essential element to closing the achievement gap is to lengthen the traditional public school year, currently 180 days in the District, to compete with charter schools. You have to get up near 200 days to have the force of change, said Janey, who came to agreement with his teachers' union last year on a 185-day year, which he regards as "a marker" for seeking a bigger increase in the next contract. Making higher education a part of more futures The tour bus pulled into Gettysburg College with a loud wheeze. Graciela Rodriguez, 12, stepped off and blinked for a moment at the white columns, brick facades and emerald lawns. Graciela's parents had barely graduated from high school in El Salvador. Until recently, Graciela herself, who was born in Silver Spring and lives in Riverdale, had never set foot on a college campus. Yet as she and the other eighth-graders in the group explored Gettysburg, where the tuition runs $38,690 a year, their attitude was less that of awestruck visitors than of enthusiastic prospective students. Yes! This is where I'll be! exclaimed Graciela, who would like to study medicine, when the guide announced that they'd entered the science building. Wow, really? she said thoughtfully, when told of the school's low professor-to-student ratio. The Pennsylvania college was the seventh the kids had visited on their three-day tour, and by now they had completely absorbed its intended message: The question is not whether you're going to college. The question is where. Although there is mounting concern about the large number U.S.-born children of Hispanic immigrants who drop out of high school or get pregnant as teenagers, there are also hundreds of thousands who are getting the college educations they need to enter the middle class. In fact, one in five of these "second-generation" Hispanics graduates from college -- a notable achievement given that so many of their immigrant parents, mostly Mexicans and Central Americans, entered the United States without finishing high school. Their success stories are important, researchers say, because they point the way forward for a generation that will play an outsize role in the country's workforce. Those who study high achievers say they often have a natural affinity for school and an innate drive to succeed. Many also have parents who set lofty goals for their children and find ways to compensate for their unfamiliarity with American schools. But mentoring programs also can play an enormous role in helping Graciela and millions of children like her make it to college -- particularly if those efforts are sustained over time. When you're looking at low-income kids whose parents don't have the experience and the skills to help them navigate through the system, any single intervention at any one point in time is not going to solve it, said Patricia Gándara, a researcher at the University of California, Davis, who has studied Latino students. We need to think about providing a supportive network for these kids from preschool all the way on through high school. The federal program that funded Graciela's college tour is a useful example. Known as GEAR UP, it provides more than $300 million a year to local school systems to run college prep programs that begin when low-income students are in middle school and continue until they finish high school. Since 1999, the program has served more than 10 million students, with more than 60 percent going on to college, according to the U.S. Department of Education. Iraqi Oil Ministry reaches deals with 10 foreign oil companies Despite concerns about violence and political instability, the Iraqi government managed to attract major oil companies to rebuild its ailing infrastructure during two auctions that concluded Saturday. The 10 deals the Iraqi Oil Ministry reached with foreign oil companies suggest that China, Russia and European oil firms are poised to play a major role in refurbishing Iraq's oil industry, crippled by decades of war and sanctions. American companies walked away with stakes in just two of the 10 auctioned fields. Seven American companies had paid to participate in the second auction, which began Friday. The only one that submitted a bid lost. Two American companies reached deals for fields auctioned in June. The meager representation of American oil giants in Iraq's opening oil industry surprised analysts. Iraq finally opened its doors after six years of war, and instead of U.S. companies, you have Asians and Europeans leading the way, said Ruba Husari, the editor of Iraq Oil Forum, an online news outlet. It will be a long time before anything else will be on offer in Iraq. Concerns over security, underscored by massive coordinated bombings Tuesday, and political instability as the U.S. military withdraws, likely kept American oil companies from venturing more forcefully in Iraq, which has the world's third-largest proven crude reserves, analysts said. U.S. firms were in some cases at a disadvantage because rivals, particularly the Chinese and other government controlled energy firms, have markedly lower labor costs and are more prone to take risks because they don't respond to shareholders. Exxon-Mobil and Occidental Petroleum Inc. were the only American companies that reached deals with the ministry. Major U.S. firms such as Chevron and ConocoPhillips, which have cultivated close ties with the Iraqi Oil Ministry and have provided technical advice in recent years, walked away empty-handed. Russian companies Lukoil and Gazprom were the top stakeholders in two of the contracts awarded this weekend. State-owned Chinese National Petroleum Corp. bid on more contracts than any other company and walked away with large stakes in contracts for two major fields. We all know that China is on track to become a major economic as well as technological power, Oil Ministry spokesman Assam Jihad said. We feel confident that the Chinese company will be on par with its competitors and will deliver on its commitments towards Iraq. Companies pre-selected to submit bids made offers that were then compared to the per barrel fee the ministry was willing to pay for boosting output above current levels at each field. Top al-Qaeda planner apparently killed in Pakistan An apparent U.S. missile strike along Pakistan's border with Afghanistan is believed to have killed a top al-Qaeda operations planner this week, U.S. counterterrorism officials said Friday. If confirmed, this would be the second deadly attack against a senior terrorist leader this fall. Saleh al-Somali was one of two Arab men thought to have been killed when a pair of missiles tore into their car Tuesday near the town of Miran Shah in North Waziristan province, according to U.S. sources and Pakistani officials in the region. Local authorities said the missiles were fired by an unmanned aircraft of the type operated by the CIA inside Pakistan's lawless tribal belt. They were driving in a white car, heading toward the Afghan border, when the car was hit, said an official with Pakistan's civilian intelligence agency, speaking by phone from Miran Shah. The official said suspected local militants rushed to the spot and quickly confiscated what remained of the "totally demolished bodies." Local authorities were unable to verify the victims' identities, but two U.S. counterterrorism officials cited unspecified evidence that Somali was among the dead. Somali was described as a senior al-Qaeda military planner who ran the terrorist group's operations outside the Afghanistan-Pakistan region. He was engaged in plotting throughout the world, said one senior official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, citing the sensitive nature of U.S. airstrikes inside Pakistani territory. Given his central role, this probably included plotting attacks against the United States and Europe. He took strategic guidance from al-Qaeda's top leadership and translated it into operational blueprints for prospective terrorist attacks. The second U.S. official said Somali had risen quickly through al-Qaeda's ranks and was well-connected with other extremist groups in the region. He may not be a household name to some Americans, but that in no way diminishes the threat he posed to us and our allies, the second official said. If his death is confirmed, Somali would be the second senior al-Qaeda or Taliban leader killed since September, when a similar strike killed Najmuddin Jalolov, the leader of a militant faction in the tribal belt, and three other top operatives. The tempo of strikes by CIA-run drones has declined since the summer, from an average of about six operations per month to two, according to a tally by the Long War Journal, a Web site managed by a nonprofit group. The decline may be due to improved tactics by terrorist groups, which have taken steps to limit their vulnerability while also ruthlessly killing suspected informants, the site said. Top U.N. envoy in Kabul to step down The United Nations' top envoy in Afghanistan, Kai Eide, said Friday that he would step down from his post in March, ending a tumultuous tenure that was marred by allegations of widespread corruption in Afghanistan's U.N.-backed presidential election. Eide's departure comes as the Obama administration has decided to send an additional 30,000 U.S. troops to Afghanistan. The U.N. envoy said that he supports the surge but expressed concern that the U.S. timetable for a military drawdown beginning in 18 months would prompt other NATO governments to withdraw their forces. We need to accelerate the buildup of the Afghan security forces and send the right signal to the Afghans that they can trust the international community, Eide said in a telephone interview from Kabul. The commitment has to be long-term. The Norwegian diplomat also pressed the United States and other military powers to increase the number of international civil servants aiding Afghanistan's political transition. The surge on the military side has to be copied on the civilian side, he said. Eide said he was not resigning but simply fulfilling a commitment he made to his family in March 2008 to spend only two years in Kabul. He said he wanted to serve notice to U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon now so that he would have time to find a replacement. What I've said is that you better start looking for a successor, Eide said. When I came here, there was a two-month vacuum between a departure of my predecessor and my arrival. Ban has begun searching for a replacement, according to U.N. officials. The officials say he has been considering Staffan di Mistura, a Swedish-Italian national who recently headed the U.N. mission in Baghdad, and Jean-Marie Guéhenno, a Frenchman who previously led U.N. peacekeeping operations. Eide's standing in Afghanistan was tested after his former deputy, Peter W. Galbraith, accused him in September of favoring President Hamid Karzai in the country's presidential vote and of covering up evidence of massive electoral fraud. Eide denied the allegations, but he said the accusations by Galbraith -- who was fired -- "certainly damaged the mission, because there was already a great degree of skepticism with regard to international interference" in the election. Eide said he proposed the appointment of a senior civilian representative to coordinate relief efforts by the U.S.-led forces in Afghanistan. He also urged the U.N. leadership to allow his successor to hire more staff from the United States and other Western countries that donate to the Afghan mission, saying it would increase their confidence that their money is being properly spent. Eide expressed frustration with the limitations on his powers in Afghanistan, saying that cumbersome U.N. hiring regulations undercut his ability to bring in talent. The U.N. rules are such that I have only been able to recruit a single person since May, he said. That is catastrophic and can't continue. Gates: Iran to face additional sanctions Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates said Friday that world powers will soon impose "significant additional sanctions" on Iran over its failure to engage in talks on its nuclear ambitions. Gates, speaking to a group of about 300 U.S. troops in northern Iraq during a week-long tour of war zones in Afghanistan and Iraq, played down the prospect of military action against the Islamic republic. There are no good options in Iran, he said, in response to a query from a soldier about the likelihood of such a development. ¨ One of the things that weighs on me is that if we have learned anything from Iraq over the past six years, it is the inherent unpredictability of war. The Obama administration is considering a package of sanctions that would target Iran's military and political elite, but Gates signaled that some of the sanctions could also affect ordinary Iranians. He said that "a package of incentives and disincentives" would be needed "to persuade the Iranian government that they would actually be less secure with nuclear weapons" because "their people will suffer enormously" from sanctions. In a statement Friday by White House spokesman Robert Gibbs, the administration joined European leaders in warning that Iran will face "credible" consequences if it does not bring its nuclear program into full compliance with the U.N. Security Council and its nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency. Iran insists that it wants to develop nuclear expertise only for peaceful purposes. In talks in Geneva on Oct. 1, it indicated that it would return to talks on restraining its nuclear program and agree to give up a substantial portion of its stockpile of enriched uranium in exchange for desperately needed fuel for a medical research reactor. The administration has pushed for such an agreement as a way to build confidence between the two sides and to buy time for negotiations. But since then, Iran appears to have walked away from the tentative deals -- in part, experts say, because the Iranian leadership is divided over whether to engage with the United States. Frankly, Iran's stiffing the international community on some of the proposals that they actually agreed to at the beginning of October, I think, has brought the international community, including the Russians and the Chinese, together in a way that they have not been in terms of significant additional sanctions on the Iranians, Gates said. President Obama has set a Dec. 31 deadline for Iran to respond to the proposals before he turns to reviewing other options, including pursuing what Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton once called "crippling sanctions." In a statement issued in New York, Iran's mission to the United Nations denounced what it called "baseless and unfounded allegations" Thursday by some Security Council members about Iran's nuclear activities and said it is willing to continue talks with the United States and five other world powers "in order to achieve an appropriate, long-term solution." Gates, who was to return to Washington late Friday, met in the morning with Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki before flying to Iraq's oil-rich Kurdish region for meetings with troops in Kirkuk and Kurdish officials in Irbil. Tensions remain high between the Kurds and Iraq's Arab majority, particularly over boundaries, property rights and revenue-sharing. Gates urged both sides to reduce the potential for conflict to prevent any delays in U.S. plans to cut the number of American troops from 115,000 to 50,000 by the end of August. Gates also sought to allay Kurdish anxiety about the pending drawdown. U.S. officials quoted Gates as telling Massoud Barzani, president of the Kurdistan Regional Government: "We will preserve your security, prosperity and autonomy within a unified Iraq. We will not abandon you." In aging China, a change of course Wang Weijia and her husband grew up surrounded by propaganda posters lecturing them that "Mother Earth is too tired to sustain more children" and "One more baby means one more tomb." They learned the lesson so well that when Shanghai government officials, alarmed by their city's low birthrate and aging population, abruptly changed course this summer and began encouraging young couples to have more than one child, their reaction was instant and firm: No way. We have already given all our time and energy for just one child. We have none left for a second, said Wang, 31, a human resources administrator with an 8-month-old son. More than 30 years after China's one-child policy was introduced, creating two generations of notoriously chubby, spoiled only children affectionately nicknamed "little emperors," a population crisis is looming in the country. The average birthrate has plummeted to 1.8 children per couple as compared with six when the policy went into effect, according to the U.N. Population Division, while the number of residents 60 and older is predicted to explode from 16.7 percent of the population in 2020 to 31.1 percent by 2050. That is far above the global average of about 20 percent. The imbalance is worse in wealthy coastal cities with highly educated populations, such as Shanghai. Last year, people 60 and older accounted for almost 22 percent of Shanghai's registered residents, while the birthrate was less than one child per couple. Xie Lingli, director of the Shanghai Municipal Population and Family Planning Commission, has said that fertile couples need to have babies to "help reduce the proportion of the aging population and alleviate a workforce shortage in the future." Shanghai is about to be "as old -- not as rich, though -- as developed countries such as Japan and Sweden," she said. A gradual easing Written into the country's constitution in 1978, China's one-child policy is arguably the most controversial mandate introduced by the ruling Communist Party to date. Couples who violate the policy face enormous fines -- up to three times their annual salary in some areas -- and discrimination at work. Chinese officials have credited the policy with helping the country avoid critical strain on its natural resources, while human rights advocates have denounced abuses in the enforcement of the policy. In rural areas, some officials have forced women pregnant with a second child to undergo abortions. In addition, many couples have had sex-selective abortions, leading to an unnaturally high male-to-female ratio. In recent years, population officials have gradually softened their stance on the one-child policy. In 2004, they allowed for more exceptions to the rule -- including urban residents, members of ethnic minorities and cases in which both husband and wife are only children -- and in 2007, they toned down many of their hard-line slogans. Qiao Xiaochun, a professor at the Institute of Population Research at Peking University, said central government officials have recently been debating even more radical changes, such as allowing couples to have two children if one partner is an only child. In July, Shanghai became the first Chinese city to launch an aggressive campaign to encourage more births. Almost overnight, posters directing families to have only one child were replaced by copies of regulations detailing who would be eligible to have a second child and how to apply for a permit. The city government dispatched family planning officials and volunteers to meet with couples in their homes and slip leaflets under doors. It has also pledged to provide emotional and financial counseling to those electing to have more than one child. The response has been underwhelming, family planning officials say. Disappointing response Although officials in one rural town on the outskirts of Shanghai say they saw an uptick in applications from couples wanting a second child after the campaign was launched, the more urban districts report no change. Huinan township, with a population of 115,000, for instance, is still receiving just four to five applications a month. Disappointed Shanghai officials say that, despite the campaign, the number of births in the city in 2010 is still expected to be only about 165,000 -- slightly higher than in 2009 but lower than in 2008. Feng Juying, head of the family planning committee in Shanghai's Caolu township, said financial considerations are probably the main reason many people don't want more children. They want to give the best to their first, she said. Yang Jiawei, 27, and his wife, Liu Juanjuan, 26, said they would love to have two children and are legally allowed to do so. But like many Chinese, they have only the scant medical and life insurance provided by the government. Without a social safety net, they say, the choice would be irresponsible. People in the West wrongly see the one-child policy as a rights issue, said Yang, a construction engineer whose wife is seven months pregnant with the couple's first child. Yes, we are being robbed of the chance to have more than one child. But the problem is not just some policy. It is money. Other couples cite psychological reasons for hesitating. Wang, the human resources administrator, said she wants an only child because she was one herself: "We were at the center of our families and used to everyone taking care of us. We are not used to taking care of and don't really want to take care of others." Chen Zijian, a 42-year-old who owns a translation company, put it more bluntly. For the dual-career, middle-class parents who are bringing the birthrate down, he said, it's about being successful enough to be selfish. Today's 20- and 30-somethings grew up seeing their parents struggle during the early days of China's experiment with capitalism and don't want that kind of life for themselves, he said. Even one child makes huge demands on parents' time, he said. A mother has to give up at least two years of her social life. Then there are the space issues -- "You have to remodel your apartment" -- and the strategizing -- "You have to have a résumé ready by the time the child is 9 months old for the best preschools." Most of his friends are willing to deal with this once, Chen said, but not twice. Ours is the first generation with higher living standards, he said. We do not want to make too many sacrifices. U.N. group drafts plan to reduce emissions The U.N.-sponsored climate conference -- characterized so far by unruly posturing and mutual recriminations -- gained renewed focus Friday with the release of a document outlining ambitious greenhouse-gas reductions over the next 40 years, with industrialized nations shouldering most of the burden in the near term. The text, which could provide the basis for a final political deal to regulate greenhouse gases, highlighted the remaining obstacles as much as it illuminated a path forward. But it was seen as an important advance in a negotiation that is running out of time, with more than 100 world leaders arriving in Copenhagen next week. Forged by a U.N. ad-hoc working group, the text is silent on how much money rich countries would give poor ones to cope with global warming over the short and long term. And it provides a range of options for the key questions, including how developed and major emerging economies would cut their carbon output, and what would be the upper limit of global temperature rise that policymakers would be willing to tolerate. It gives a lot of flexibility to the process, said John Coequyt, senior Washington representative for the Sierra Club. Michael Zammit Cutajar, who drafted the six-page document, boiled down a 180-page negotiation text to focus on what the U.N.'s top climate official, Yvo de Boer, described as "the big picture." It shows the outlines for a possible deal, in which industrial nations would collectively cut their emissions by 2020 by 25 to 45 percent compared with 1990 levels, while major developing countries would reduce theirs during the same period by 15 to 30 percent. Together, the countries would cut emissions between 50 and 95 percent by 2050. The European Union gave the talks a boost as well on Friday by pledging to provide $3.6 billion a year over the next three years to help poorer countries adapt to the impact of climate change -- from coping with flood and drought to avoiding deforestation. Still, Friday featured the same sort of verbal fireworks that have dominated the talks for the past week. U.S. special climate envoy Todd Stern rejected language requiring binding cuts of greenhouse-gas emissions for industrialized countries compared with voluntary ones by major emerging economies if they were not funded by the developed world. The move signaled that the Obama administration is taking a harder line with China than Bush administration officials did just two years ago. The United States is not going to do a deal without the major developing countries stepping up and taking action, said Stern, who also complained that the text did not do enough to make sure the cuts could be verified by outside observers. Stern made his comments an hour after Chinese vice foreign minister He Yafei said America's top climate negotiator was either lacking "common sense" or being "extremely irresponsible" for saying earlier in the week that the United States would not help China financially to cope with global warming. With the future economic trajectory of the world's major powers at stake, fault lines have erupted both within the developing world and between the industrial world and emerging economies. The current battle is as much about saving individual economies as saving the planet, with China and the United States feuding over their respective obligations while poorer nations insist that the world's two dozen most influential countries are ignoring the scientific imperative to take bolder action. Ricardo Ulate, a Costa Rican delegate, said it's not surprising that the major powers are fighting over who should bear the costs for curbing greenhouse gases, even as vulnerable countries have become more aggressive in seeking to hold the big emitters accountable for their actions. This is clearly a game where a new economic hegemony is being developed, said Ulate, who also serves as the regional Mexico and Central America climate change adviser for Conservation International. Some of the countries most vulnerable to the impact of climate change indicated they would continue to push for a legally binding treaty in Copenhagen, although most of the major participants say the talks will produce a political deal at best. The Alliance of Small Island States, which has 43 members, produced a 24-page draft treaty proposal early Friday morning. Artur Runge-Metzger, who heads international climate negotiations on behalf of the European Commission, said the push by small island nations has "put political pressure on the entire political process," in part because they are now unified and demanding action from emerging economies such as China and India. The talks took on new urgency as delegates focused on the fact that they must resolve most of the outstanding issues before the heads of government arrive to strike a deal. High-level officials such as Indian environment minister Jairam Ramesh and the Chinese vice minister stepped off planes and raced through the Bella Center's halls to closed-door meetings and news conferences so they could stake out claims that will be arbitrated over the next week. The sheer sprawl of the gathering -- where 13,000 people move in and out of the convention center each day, guitar-playing activists put on nightly shows mocking the countries they think are selling out, and draft proposals are passed hand-to-hand on paper rather than via e-mail -- poses a challenge. The intensity is only building: nearly all of the key ministers are now here, and as early as Wednesday 60 heads of government will be in Copenhagen. We're getting into the big leagues, said Carlos Manuel Rodriguez, vice president for global policy at Conservation International. The heavyweights are coming. Britain’s first 140mph train to redefine that Monday feeling At 5.13 on Monday morning a whistle will pierce the darkness to signal a train departure that marks a revolution for travel in Britain. The first high-speed commuter train in the country will reach 140mph as it streaks from Ashford, Kent, to London St Pancras, covering the 58 miles in 38 minutes. Lord Adonis, the Transport Secretary, will then be joined by Dame Kelly Holmes aboard the first Javelin commuter service out of London. He hopes that the new service will eventually plug Britain into an international network of fast, reliable trains and connect the great conurbations of the Midlands, the North and Scotland to London. Neglected backwaters would become thriving commuter towns, business travel times would be slashed and the shift from aircraft and cars to the railway would reduce national carbon emissions as well as easing congestion on the roads. In theory, the three main political parties buy into this vision. But the tens of billions of pounds needed to build a new national rail network, the inevitable planning battle and fears of environmental harm may yet put the brakes on Britain’s high-speed lines. High Speed Two (HS2), a company created in January to provide the Government with a feasibility study, will hand its report to Lord Adonis on December 30, The Times has learnt. It will provide him with a detailed route map of the next planned stage of the high-speed network. The new line linking London to the West Midlands will be drawn to within five metres in urban areas and sites where the environmental impact may be contentious. In open country, the plan will be drafted to within 25 metres of a final route. HS2 is also expected to set out three options for a wider high-speed network running north. Lord Adonis will respond in the spring. The favoured option being put forward is a Y-shaped configuration in which a single high-speed line would run up to the West Midlands. The line would split at or near Birmingham, with one branch running west of the Pennines to Manchester and Scotland and another running northeast to Sheffield, Leeds and Newcastle upon Tyne. A single line would run into Scotland. "It looks like it is going to be the best-performing option," a railway insider said. Once complete, journey times between London and Edinburgh would be cut to 2 hours 40 minutes. The first leg, which would not open before 2025, would allow passengers to travel between London and Birmingham in 49 minutes, compared with just over an hour at present. The proposals would allow trains to travel at 250mph, making the British network the fastest in Europe. The initial track is being designed to take trains 400m in length capable of carrying 1,100 people. As many as 18 could operate each hour on a London-Birmingham line. That means that a London terminal capable of handling 20,000 passengers an hour would be needed. Given space constraints in the capital, it is expected that an existing station would be expanded to accommodate the high-speed network. Rail industry experts say that only St Pancras International or Euston offer that potential. Lord Adonis will announce whether or not he thinks the scheme should proceed, but lengthy public consultation and planning procedures mean that a final decision would not be made until after a general election. Even if he does put the wheels in motion, the network would have to be built in sections. Trains would at first be forced to run off high-speed lines on to the existing rails north of Birmingham, keeping journey times between London and Scotland above three hours. That is seen as the crucial tipping point needed to ensure a switch from planes to trains, a benchmark for the rail revolution. Taxpayers meet mortgage on Tory's £75,000 orangery Alan Duncan, the frontbench Tory MP, charged the taxpayer thousands of pounds a year towards the cost of an orangery he built at his constituency home. The party’s prisons spokesman, who was demoted by David Cameron for complaining that MPs were living "on rations", increased his mortgage by £75,000 to build an oak-framed extension to his second home in Rutland. He was allowed to charge the extra interest, totalling hundreds of pounds a month, to the taxpayer. The Commons authorities approved the claims at the time and they have not been queried by Sir Thomas Legg, who is conducting a review of members’ expenses. Last night Mr Duncan said the claims "couldn’t be cleaner or simpler". Mr Duncan, one of the richest Members of Parliament, owns a two-storey house in a village in his Rutland and Melton constituency. Houses near by have sold for almost a million pounds. The ground floor comprises a kitchen, living room and dining room, but the fees office agreed that Mr Duncan needed more space. Last year he added a conservatory to the house, described in plans as an "orangery". Neighbours described it as a "glasshouse for entertaining". Mr Duncan was not required to make any reference to the increased borrowing during a recent investigation by the Commons’ Standards and Privileges Committee into his previous mortgage arangements. The committee cleared him last month of breaching the rules after an investigation into his expenses. In 2004 Mr Duncan changed the legal security for a £271,406 mortgage from his London property to his constituency home, which he had bought in 1991, the year before he became an MP. Documents released this week show that Mr Duncan was claiming about £1,400 a month in mortgage interest until March last year. In April, his claims increased to more than £1,800 a month. The interest rate on Mr Duncan’s RBS mortgage did not change in that time, suggesting that all the increase was to fund the £75,000 borrowing. The RBS standard variable mortgage rate went down from 7.94 per cent in December 2007 to 4 per cent in March this year, where it remains. The latest document release by the Commons authorities show that Mr Duncan was continuing to claim £1,250 a month this May. Mr Duncan lost his job as Shadow Leader of the House in September after an undercover reporter filmed him saying that MPs had to survive "on rations" after the expenses scandal. "Basically, it’s being nationalised, you have to live on rations and are treated like s**t." He said: "I spend my money on my garden and claim a tiny fraction based on what is proper. And I could claim the whole bloody lot, but I don’t." The MP, a millionaire from his former career as an oil trader, was first challenged over his expenses in May when it emerged that he had claimed thousands of pounds for his garden, before agreeing with the fees office that this "could be considered excessive". An activist dug a hole in the shape of a pound sign in Mr Duncan’s lawn in protest after it was revealed that he claimed £4,000 over three years. Asked about the increased mortgage last night, Mr Duncan said: "It was for capital improvements approved both by the fees office and subsequently by Legg." He added: "There is no issue of ducking and weaving or pushing the rules or anything. It is absolutely straight down the line, within the rules, authorised and everything. It just couldn’t in many ways be cleaner or simpler." Come all ye faithful to see Brighton’s beach hut Advent calendar Beach huts in Brighton have found a new lease of life for the winter months as an interactive Advent calendar. Beyond, an alternative church group that encourages spiritual exploration through creativity, invited 24 owners to decorate their huts for each day in December, using Christmas carols as their theme. The event started on December 1, with visitors allowed to view the latest hut from 5.30pm to 6.30pm each day, with mince pies and mulled wine laid on for free. Carols chosen so far include I Saw Three Ships, O Come, O Come, Emmanuel and The First Noël, where the hut features the work of Janette Tozer, a local artist. Martin Poole, 50, a TV marketing assistant from Hove, is a non-stipendiary clergyman within the Chichester diocese and the leader of Beyond. He said: "We want to make religion more relevant to people in a post-Christendom society. "Why do we as a Church expect people to come to a strange old building? It’s my feeling the Church should come to the people and celebrate in exciting ways. "The idea of the beach hut Advent calendar began just as a conversation with some friends over dinner. Brighton is such a fantastically creative and vibrant place and we are trying to try and represent that through spirituality." Barack Obama becomes the fourth American president to receive the Nobel Peace Prize The American president Barack Obama will fly into Oslo, Norway for 26 hours to receive the Nobel Peace Prize, the fourth American president in history to do so. He will receive a diploma, medal and cheque for 1.4 million dollars for his exceptional efforts to improve global diplomacy and encourage international cooperation, amongst other things. The head of the White House will be flying into the Norwegian city in the morning with his wife Michelle and will have a busy schedule. First, he will visit the Nobel Institute, where he will have his first meeting with the five committee members who selected him from 172 people and 33 organisations. The presidential couple then has a meeting scheduled with King Harald V and Queen Sonja of Norway. Then, in the afternoon, the visit will culminate in a grand ceremony, at which Obama will receive the prestigious award. He will be the fourth American president to be awarded the prize, and only the third to have received it while actually in office. The White House has stated that, when he accepts the prize, Obama will speak about the war in Afghanistan. The president does not want to skirt around this topic, as he realises that he is accepting the prize as a president whose country is currently at war in two countries. A few days ago he stepped up the war effort by sending more troops to Afghanistan, something that his critics will be stressing. At the ceremony, Obama will also be given a gold medal, a diploma, and a cheque for ten million Swedish krona (around 24 million Czech crowns). He intends to donate this money to charity, but hasn't decided which yet. Their busy schedule will then take the president and his wife to a banquet, which will be attended by the Norwegian king and queen as well as the ministerial chairman and another 250 invited guests. Obama has always been reticent in regards to his prize. He has said, for example, that he feels that he does not wholly deserve it. He has repeatedly said that the prize isn't for him, but for everyone who upholds the same values. Right after hearing about it, he described it as a "challenge to take action." Nature protection officers accused of blackmail The Litoměřice police have accused the chairman of the Litoměřice Nature Protection Society civil association of blackmail. Several times during the last year he appealed against certain building permit proceedings, and has then claimed money from investors for retracting the appeal, said Litoměřice police spokeswoman Alena Romová. The chairman of the Litoměřice Nature Protection Society is Lubomír Studnička. He is now under arrest and faces up to three years in prison. Recycling containers don't smell so good in Brno In Prague, normal people can sort their beverage bottles, and, in South Moravian, villages are recycling containers on every corner. And in Brno? There, it will take you a good few minutes to find the right sort of bin. I don't mean to imply that garbage isn't sorted in Brno. But it seems to me that considering we're the second largest city in the country, the authorities are not showing enough interest in this problem. Brno is falling way behind in its garbage sorting, not only because people here can still only put paper, glass and plastic into these bins, but mostly because of the sheer lack of containers for this kind of waste. Have you ever tried throwing a plastic bottle into a bin in the city centre? It's a real art form, and you need time and steady nerves. The only place we've managed to come across is on Moravské náměstí, opposite the Potrefená Husa. No offence to Mr. Onderka and his colleagues, but it's really not good enough. Not to mention that it's no easy task sorting garbage in other parts of the city. Plenty of my friends don't bother sorting their garbage. Out of laziness. It's just too far to the bin, you see. I don't blame them. After a party, I offered to throw out a few glass and plastic bottles. But, on Kounicova ulice, there were no coloured bins to be seen. Luckily, on the way to the tram, I found the right place. But it was overflowing with garbage. Come on, this is the centre of Brno. Isn't it supposed to look good? It should, but ecology and aesthetics don't seem to interest the Brno socialists much. They prefer to buy the city a new hockey extra-league, which puts us to shame all over the country, instead of buying a few more containers and letting us sort other garbage for a cleaner Brno. I'm glad to see that, after browsing the net for a while, my assumptions are confirmed by official statistics. Figures published by EKO-KOM show that Brno really is the worst off in the whole of South Moravia. "Paroubek's" budget takes money for pensions and sick pay The fact that the left gave extra money to the farmers and civil servants in the face of government opinion means that there might not be enough money in the budget to cover pensions, sick pay, or building society savings. And also not enough for interest on the national debt or to cover international judicial disputes. This will bring problems for whoever is in office in the latter half of next year, said the Finance Minister Eduard Janota. When the social democrats and communists raised interest rates for certain groups, they were relying on the fact that the government would loan money for susceptible expenses, pensions, and sick pay. "It's just a case of postponing the problem, laying a minefield," says Janota. Higher interest has to be paid on loaned money, and, at some point, it has to be paid back. The state does not have much choice where to find it. If it doesn't reduce social benefits or the costs of running the state, it will have to increase taxes. For all those that the left just handed out money to: firefighters, teachers, farmers. And later, their children, too. People don't have to worry about pensions or sick pay, where 1.8 billion has disappeared from the accounts; they'll get them. Although, at the cost of the state falling deeper into debt – next year the treasury won't just be 163 billion short, but even more. Despite the efforts of Minister Janota, debt will continue to increase at an ever faster rate, as will interest costs. The state will need money to cover it, and it's no longer enough just to slightly bump up VATs or reduce maternity benefits, as the government has done in its anti-deficit package. As money has been diverted to several groups of voters, next year there will also be a shortage of five billion for building highways and railways. These are mostly sections that have been tendered out and are half-finished and cannot be redesigned or made any cheaper. At the most, conserve what isn't free too. This means that delaying or halting thirty major building projects and money from European funds is also at risk, warns transport ministry spokesman Karel Hanzelka. The ČSSD has suggested that the deficit be resolved Solomon-style – it should draw on ČEZ dividends, which are mostly state-owned, and use those to top up the transport fund. The problem is that the level of these dividends is never certain, and they are certainly not a bottomless resource. Last year, 18 billion of ČEZ money went into the budget. Every year, these dividends are used to pay for clearing up ecological damage, topping up the pensions account, or are set aside as a reserve for the upcoming pension reforms. Moreover, according to EU regulations, this trick increases the actual budget deficit to 5.7 percent of GDP. But this is not the end of these transfers. The budget is almost three billion shot to cover various damages owed to the victims of communism and crime, to meet the cost of judicial disputes, and even to cover building society savings. It is still not clear if the state can get by without this money. It's a gamble. If we were to lose an international dispute, we'd still have to pay, claims Janota. The minister will then have to save money within the resort or, in the worst case scenario, reach into the government's budget reserve. The two-billion-crown State Treasury project, which is already underway, is also lacking a hundred million, and what each office is spending can be followed on-line. The first stage will start in January. If the finance minister can't find the money elsewhere, the project will have to be aborted and sanctions will be imposed, warns Janota. Your next smartphone will run two operating systems The Americans are saying that, in the future, users will be able to switch between different operating systems on their mobile phones at the touch of a button. The plans revealed so far look promising. Just press one key and in just a few seconds you can switch from Windows Mobile to Android. This is the goal of the American company Vmware, which primarily develops computer virtualisation software. This will let you have two user profiles at once on the same phone. You can switch between them or have one for work and one for home. Both of them will run at the same time, says Srinivas Krishnamurti of VMware in an interview with Computer World magazine. It was presented last November and first demonstrated just a few days ago. It will go on sale in 2012. The virtualisation of smartphones is not science fiction. VMware has already given reporters a demonstration of a smartphone with two operating systems. It was a modified N800 with 128 MB of RAM, running Windows Mobile and Android at the same time. The development of new mobile phone technology is in full swing. VMware is now working with European and American operators to test smartphone virtualisation and the sets should reach customers sometime during 2012. Lack of snow in mountains causes problems for hoteliers It's not only Krkonoše ski-lift operators who are worried by these bare slopes. The lack of snow is putting people off booking ski holidays in hotels and guest houses. This means vacancies are still available in the Krkonoše throughout the winter, including Christmas and New Year's Eve. We're getting plenty of visitors to our site. People are browsing the offers, checking prices, but, so far, are worried about making a definite booking. "When they call, the first thing they ask is if we think they'll see snow or mud," says Martin Jandura, who runs the Spindl.Info information web site. Anyone who wants to spend New Year's Eve in Špindlerův Mlýn just how they want, had better start thinking about booking soon. Those preferring to save money and go for cheaper accommodation can still give it a few days. Hoteliers in Špindlerův Mlýn are so far just offering week-long stays for New Year's Eve. I think they'll try to keep that up for a while, but even they will give in and offer shorter stays. Then there'll be a sudden shortage of vacancies," estimates Jandura. The Vrchlabí travel agency Ingtours is still offering vacancies throughout the winter. What we’re interested in is Christmas week, which hasn't sold out yet. Half of our capacity is still available. That's why we've been preparing some cheaper last-minute Christmas breaks," said Ingtours director Petr Schiefert. The Vrchlabí travel agency can still offer New Year's Eve in the Krkonoše, but there are fewer vacancies. Another good time for bookings is the first fortnight in February, although bookings for the remaining winter dates tend to be average. This year, interest in winter breaks is low due to the fact that there is still no snow on the Krkonoše. People are waiting to see if any falls. Nobody wants to spend the end of the year in the mountains when there's no snow. If snow falls on the slopes this week, Christmas will sell out too," says Schiefert. On the other hand, the Horizont Hotel in Pec pod Sněžkou has seen better bookings this year than last year. We're up about 5 percent. We have the last few vacancies for New Year's Eve and Christmas. There's a lot of interest during the Polish holidays in January and we usually get plenty of bookings in February too," explains the director of the best hotel in Pec, Karel Rada. The Omnia Hotel, by the central car park in Janské Lázně, is eighty-percent booked up for New Year's Eve. Yet the newest hotel in Janské Lázně still has half its beds free for Christmas. January this year has been a nice surprise, as we're already sixty-percent booked up. So February isn't looking quite so good, but as soon as it snows, then interest in staying in the Krkonoše will definitely rise, says the owner of the Omnia Hotel, Erik Sporysch. For now, however, the Krkonoše hoteliers will have to wait for heavier falls of snow. Colder weather is forecast for Thursday, so if anything falls, it should be snow. But it should get warmer again after that, said Jiří Jakubský of the Czech Hydrometeorological Institute in Hradec. USA: Repetition is the mother of wisdom It's almost funny to see how Barack Obama, reputedly the wisest president, is trying so hard in the matter of the Afghan war to repeat the strategy of his predecessor, having himself considered him to be the most foolish. When he finally came out with his long-awaited Afghan doctrine, it appeared that he had made a carbon copy of Bush's Iraq scenario three years earlier. It's not just that in the text itself he repeatedly uses the words "just like in Iraq", but he even went as far as to use the name of Bush's declaration from January 2007 as the title of his own declaration:"The new way forward". While three years ago he himself criticised Bush's idea to send fresh troops to help in the beleaguered civil war in Iraq as "an irresponsible decision with catastrophic consequences". The following months, however, showed that Bush's strategy, which was recommended by his field commanders, was the only possible course of action and so successful that there are no reports in the news about Iraq. It didn't help Bush's reputation, but in objective terms, it left his successor in a much more favourable position than might be expected. Barack Obama hopes that, in Afghanistan, the miracle will repeat itself. He was again asked to increase the military contingent by his field commanders, particularly the supreme commander of the Afghan operation General Stanley McChrystal, who even went against the custom of his subordinates to harshly criticise the reluctant gunners in the White House. He asked for 40 thousand men to turn the situation around. The president hesitated for three months, but failed to come up with anything better, and so at least the general did out of 10 thousand soldiers. He managed to squeeze a promise out of Europe for another 5 thousand, even though he himself was originally counting on 10. The trickiest aspect of Obama's strategy seems to be his plan to start pulling troops out of Afghanistan within 18 months and to finish the process within three years. Obama's doctrine as a whole calls for more questions than it answers. Many doubt that this half-hearted increase will bear the same fruit as the action plan in Iraq. Despite the internecine war of recent years, Iraqi society is relatively firm on its feet and its leaders have been honouring the treaties. The Afghan situation is just the opposite - nobody can be relied upon and no treaties are being upheld. In these conditions, it is hard for the Afghan security forces to prepare, being so used to changing leaders to suit themselves. Political institutions, no matter how formally they might be set up, will be nothing more than a Potemkin village in which patriarchal tribal relations will run wild. Balancing the interests of a variety of ethnic groups is unusually difficult due to the tricky relations between them, a fact which is further complicated by the influence of Pakistan and Iran. Even building an "operational state", which is the most basic aim of the entire operation, does not seem particularly feasible. The timing of Obama's strategy is foiled by his voluntarism. Over the last eight years, the situation in Afghanistan has just gotten worse and worse, and is now on the verge of exploding. Only a truly romantic soul, totally unaffected by reality, could believe that the soldiers sent into the turmoil of this war for an "early return home" will bring about any miracles here. From a political viewpoin,t it is pure irresponsibility setting a date for withdrawing the troops, as the Taliban will see it as indirect acknowledgement of an American defeat. The last NATO summit showed that the willingness of the European people to take part in the operations in Afghanistan is waning. European politicians cannot and are unwilling to explain to voters what the security of Germany or Italy has to do with the war in the foothills of the Hindu Kush. Another factor which could radically stir things up is what is going on around Iran. If the situation continues to get worse and increased sanctions against Iran have no effect, the United States will face the difficult question of whether to try to resolve the situation using military force or not. This will need answering when, according to Obama, America orders the victorious withdrawal of its troops from Afghanistan. Any such solution will obviously also mean a dramatic turnaround in the Afghan situation. The only saving grace for Barack Obama is the fact that there are three more years to the presidential elections, so there's still enough time for him to come up with another strategyif this one turns out to be a total whitewash. Managers at Goldman Sachs no longer to receive cash bonuses The top management of the American bank Goldman Sachs will not receive their bonuses in cash this year. The announcement came from the company as a reaction to the harsh criticism of their salary policies. Instead of money, the group of 30 top managers will receive shares, which cannot be sold for another five years. The shares can also be confiscated if the managers take excessive risks. According to Reuters, Goldman Sachs is leading the effort to link Wall Street bonuses with long-term performance. I assume that Wall Street is well aware of the broader path it has to take, said former investment banker for JPMorgan, Douglas Elliott. The problem lies in the details, he added. Goldman Sachshas been targeted by critics since it set aside almost 17 billion dollars (almost 300 billion crowns) for bonuses in the first three quarters of this year. Reuters claims that the total bonuses awarded by the business this year, despite today's announcement, exceeds 20 billion dollars. High bonuses in the banking sector, what with the economic crisis, have become a political hot potato. On Wednesday, Britain announced that it had decided to charge a one-off fifty percent tax rate on bankers' bonuses exceeding 25,000 pounds (around 712,000 CZK). France is preparing similar measures. This year, women were awarded the Nobel Prize in all fields except physics In Stockholm today, a record five women received Nobel Prizes from the Swedish king Carl XVI Gustaf in the professional categories and for literature. In addition to four scientists, they also included the German writer Herta Müller, originally from Romania. The Nobel Prize for medicine went to two American biologists, Elizabeth Blackburn and Carol Greider, together with their fellow countryman Jack Szostak, for their research in chromosomes. The prize for chemistry was won by the Israeli Ada Jonath, together with the Americans Venkatraman Ramakrishnan and Thomas Steitz, for their work to clarify the structure and function of ribosomes. The last award was the Nobel Prize for Economics, which went to the Americans Elinor Ostrom and Oliver Williamson for their analysis of economic management. The only specialised category which nobody won this year was physics. Today, this prize was won by the scientists Charles Kao, for his research in optical fibres, and George Smith and Willard Boyle, for inventing the CCD ship, which is the basis for all digital cameras, faxes, and astronomical telescopes. All the winners received a diploma, the Nobel Medal, and a certificate for a monetary reward. In each category, this award totals ten million Swedish krona (approximately 25 million CZK). If there are multiple winners, they share the prize money between them. Traditionally, the most highly-anticipated award, the Nobel Peace Prize, went to the American president Barack Obama in the Norwegian city of Oslo this afternoon. In his speech, he acknowledged that the award was controversial, as he is just starting out in office and, moreover, heads a country which is currently at war in two countries - Iraq and Afghanistan. In defence of his policy he added, however, that these wars were essential in order to bring about peace, despite the high cost. Minister Janota considers resignation. Klaus invites him to the Castle On Friday morning, President Václav Klaus will meet with the finance minister Eduard Janota, who is considering resigning as he does not agree with the government's budget for next year as approved on Wednesday by the Chamber of Deputies. It is assumed that the budget and also Janota's possible continuation in office will be the topic of Friday's meeting. The budget has also been criticised by Klaus. He claims the deficit is too high, which is worsening the public funding crisis. The meeting was announced by the president's spokesman Radim Ochvat. Janota wants to discuss his future on Monday with the Prime Minister, Jan Fischer. According to the Budget Act, which Klaus is due to sign, the Czech Republic should get by with a deficit of 163 billion crowns. However, on Wednesday, the House approved the left's proposals to transfer funds, gave state employees a pay rise, and allocated extra money for social services and for direct payments to farmers. The government criticised the social democrats' proposals, saying that they will surreptitiously increase the budget deficit. A bitter political dispute has broken out between the left on the one hand, and the government, Klaus, and the right on the other, leading to questions about the future of Fischer's interim government, which was agreed on in spring by the ODS, ČSSD and Green Party. Critics claim that the budget, as approved by the House, essentially does away with the package of saving measures put into effect by Fischer's government in autumn and which it believes should stop the state falling deeper into debt. At a breakfast meeting with entrepreneurs today, Klaus, who is behind the state budget law but is not obliged to sign it, declared that politicians have long been neglecting a "serious problem," which is the "unsustainable deficit level" of public finances. Now, he claims, there is no good solution to this. The only thing that could improve the situation is a strong government which could fall back on the broader consensus of the political parties, the president says. ODS chairman Mirek Topolánek said that it was a terrible budget and that the government should rethink continuing in office. The vice-chairman of the ODS, Petr Nečas, told ČTK that the concept of an interim government supported by the ČSSD, ODS, and the Green Party is evidently no longer working. In response to this, Premier Fischer described this statement as "strong words." The head of the ČSSD, Jiří Paroubek, reacted to Topolánek by saying that what was terrible was the deficit in the budget prepared by the former Topolánek government for this year, which exceeds 200 billion crowns. On Wednesday the ČSSD declared the approval of next year's budget to be a success. The People's Party was also satisfied. Mandela played by Morgan Freeman in Clint Eastwood's new film South Africans claim that the new Hollywood film Invictus will tell the world a lot about their country, its struggle and its victories, despite some people criticising the fact that the main roles are played by American actors. It is a story about sport, race relations, and Nelson Mandela. The life of the tireless fighter against the racist system of apartheid in South Africa and its first black president, Nelson Mandela, is played by the Oscar-winning American actor Morgan Freeman. Freeman said that he had asked ninety-one-year-old Mandela if he could play him in Eastwood's film. Another leading role in the film is played by Matt Damon. I told him: 'If I'm going to play you, I'll need access to you". The seventy-two-year-old actor, who won an Oscar for his role in Eastwood's boxing drama Million Dollar Baby, has already played roles such as the leader of the anti-slavery movement who eventually himself became a slave, a fictitious president of the USA, and even a god in Evan Almighty, but has only rarely portrayed someone who is still alive and means so much to people as Mandela. The former South African statesman spent 27 years in prison for his active role in ending apartheid in South Africa. He was released in 1990 and was then the country's president for four years. In 1993 he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. Invictus is Latin for 'unconquered' and is the name of a poem by the English writer William Ernest Henley, published in 1875. The challenge was to speak like he does. The film tells the true story of how Nelson Mandela joined forces with the captain of the South African rugby team, Francois Pienaar, to help unify the country. The newly-elected President Mandela knows that, after apartheid, his nation will still be racially and economically divided. He believes that he can unite people through sport, so he decides to unite the rugby players who, to the world, are outsiders. The South African team eventually makes it through to the World Cup in 1995. Freeman worked for several years to get Mandela's story onto the big screen. My only aim was to play this role as realistically as possible, said Freeman. Naturally, the greatest challenge was to speak like Mandela. The actor said that if he and world politicians were in the same ball park, he would try to meet Mandela, go for dinner with him, and be behind the scenes with him before his speeches. The most important thing was that he wanted to shake Mandela's hand. I found out that when I take your hand, I draw on your energy, it flows into me, and I feel that I know how you are feeling, he said. For me it's important to try and become a different person. In the film, Matt Damon portrays François Pienaar, the captain of the national rugby team, which was dominated by white players. The actor said that he had six months in the tough world of rugby to prepare for the role. It turned out to be a great surprise for him when he first met Pienaar at his home. I remember ringing his doorbell, he opened it, and the very first thing I said to François Pienaar was: 'I look much bigger on the screen.' Despite the evident differences in the stature of the actors compared to their real-life counterparts, under Eastwood's direction, Invictus has received positive reviews and there is even talk of an Oscar nomination. The Daily Variety film critic Todd McCarthy summed up the film by saying: "It was a great story, a very well-made film." In the film reviews on rottentomatoes.com, Invictus has a 76 percent positive rating. Secret of the glare over Norway solved: the Russians were testing a rocket Strange lights of unknown origin have been seen over Norway. Yesterday the Russian defence ministry finally admitted that it had tested an intercontinental ballistic missile not far from the Norwegian border. However, it was another unsuccessful launch and the missile, which is known as "Bulava" and should have been the pride and glory of the Russian army, has gradually turned into a nightmare for the Russian generals and Prime Minister, Vladimir Putin. His repeated presence at tests on the rocket has not affected the success rate of the test flights. The Bulava has generally not lifted off or has been damaged in the air. The Russian newspapers are describing the "Bulava" as "the flightless rocket." The rocket that doesn't fly but lights up This, the 13th test, started off according to plan. But near the end of the flight there was technical damage to the missile. Apparently the engine blew up in the rocket's third phase. This time, the "Bulava" was launched from the atomic submarine Dmitrij Donskij, which was cruising under the surface of the White Sea. This type of rocket can be launched from a craft which is moving and even submerged. This makes it likely that the mysterious light over Norway, caused by an unidentified flying object, was actually the malfunctioning "Bulava." Anyway, the Norwegians never had any doubts that it was a Russian rocket. The generals are defending themselves this time though, claiming that it can't be described as a total failure. The first two phases of the rocket went well, and the accident happened during the third stage. Previously, the engines have always malfunctioned during the first phase. Even though not one test launch has been completely error-free, the defence ministry consider only six out of the thirteen tests to have been failures. The generals are optimistic about this almost fifty-percent success rate and keep insisting that the "Bulava" will eventually fly smoothly and will even carry up to ten hypersonic nuclear blocks weighing a total of 1.15 tons. The legendary Fetisov signs a year's contract with CSKA Moscow aged 51 The legendary defender Vjačeslav Fetisov will again play a professional ice-hockey match at the age of 51. The former world champion, Olympic winner and Stanley Cup holder will help out his team, CSKA Moscow, when they need him, and will evidently be playing in the fifth KHL duel against Saint Petersburg. Fetisov, who retired at forty in 1998, is currently the president of CSKA. Since Denis Kuljaš was injured, we urgently need another defender. Fetisov is training regularly and has agreed to help the team. We just need to sort out a few formalities, the AP agency quoted the Moscow club coach Sergej Němčinov as saying. It's not year clear whether or not the famous hockey player's comeback will be for just one match. I think Fetisov is someone who can boost the morale of the other players, said Němčinov. According to AP, if Fetisov returns to the ice, he will be the oldest Russian professional hockey player. In the NHL, the legendary attacker Gordie Howe played for Hartford for a whole season at the age of fifty-one and scored 15 goals and 26 assists. The oldest of the famous quintet of Fetisov, Kasatonov, Makarov, Larionov, and Krutov is one of the best and most successful hockey players of all time. In the Soviet Union uniform, he received two Olympic gold medals, seven world championship tiles, and triumphed in the Canada Cup and the Junior World Championship. In the second half of his career, he also enjoyed success in the NHL, when wearing the Detroit uniform, he twice raised the Stanley Cup over his head. Since 2001, he has been a member of the Hockey Hall of Fame. Hyundai obliges unions. All overtime is cut The management of the Hyundai car plant in Nošovice has agreed with the unions to cut all overtime. It is because of all this forced overtime that the unions have declared a strike on Monday. This was confirmed by the Hyundai spokesman, Petr Vaněk. The management, however, wants to come to an agreement with the trade union leaders for one Saturday shift this year. We can't give up on our production plan, it's essential, so we have proposed voluntary overtime on Saturday December 19th, involving two shifts, said Vaněk. The website Sedmička.cz wrote that the firm had offered all employees who are to work the Saturday shift a bonus of 400 CZK. This bonus will also be paid retrospectively to those who worked on Saturday November 28th. According to Vaněk, the firm has decided to change how it motivates its employees to take the proposed overtime. Either they'll claim the additional wage for the overtime or they can take time off in lieu on December 28th and extend their Christmas holiday by one day, said Vaněk. Additionally, all employees working the Saturday shift will have their travel expenses and lunch paid for. Considering that overtime was the most pressing and thorny question for the unions, as well as for the protesting employees who brought production to such a grinding halt last week, the management decided yesterday afternoon to immediately cancel all overtime for December, said Vaněk. Until last week, virtually every day the car plant workers had been forced to do two hours' overtime on top of their normal eight-hour shifts. After signing the agreement, the trade unions will call off the strike Further talks should be held between the car plant management and union leaders on Friday morning. On Wednesday, the head of the unions, Petr Kuchař, said that if they came to an agreement on the demands and sign the document, they are willing to call off the strike. The situation at the plant deteriorated sharply last Wednesday when some 400 workers held a spontaneous strike to protest against the incessant overtime. They were also protesting against bad pay conditions and alleged persecution. The management responded by saying that employees had to work overtime to meet the demand for cars. In Monday's announcement of the strike, the unions also asked that no sanctions be imposed against the workers who halted production last Wednesday. The trade unions are asking the firm to keep overtime to a minimum. Moreover, this year they are requesting that a 5000 crown bonus be paid for this work. The Hyundai car plant in Nošovice now employs 2000 people. The firm began series production last November. By this September, it had made around 80,000 cars, and its current capacity is 200,000 vehicles a year. Czech discovery: a substance which works on 'tough' forms of the HIV virus A team of Czech and German scientists has been testing a new compound which can slow the spread of the HIV virus in the body. The main advantage of this improved substance is that it also works on viruses which have become immune to medication. In some cases, this outweighs the fact that the compound used for the normal form of the virus does not have such a strong effect as some drugs that are already available. No cure has yet been found for AIDS. Patients' lives can be greatly prolonged by a mixture of drugs which prevent the HIV virus from multiplying in the body. However, they have a number of side-effects. Moreover, if the propagation of the virus is not completely suppressed, it can lead to the development of resistant viruses, against which drugs are no longer effective. The work being done by experts from three institutions, the Czech Academy of Sciences, VŠCHT Prague, and the University of Heidelberg, is opening up the way to deal with the rthe virus' resistance. They have shown that substances known as metallacarboranes act on the protein responsible for the proliferation of the HIV virus. Metallacarboranes are a compound of boron, hydrogen, carbon, and cobalt. These compounds block the spread of the virus in a different way to all the other drugs in use today, and so they may get over the resistance problem. In their work, the scientists are coming up with new ‘improved’ compounds, prepared using knowledge of the molecular mechanism and its relation to the virus protein. Metallacarboranes have a unique three-dimensional structure: two multi-walled cages consisting of boron, hydrogen and carbon atoms are connected to a metal atom, in this case cobalt. A treacherous and hardy virus The HIV protease is the protein of the HIV virus, which is essential to the life-cycle of the virus. The mature infectious viral corpuscles would not occur if the HIV virus was not split by the HIV protease. If we can stop the HIV protease, we will also stop the virus from spreading through the patient's body, the scientists explained in a press release published by the Institute of Organic Chemistry and Biochemistry of the Czech Academy of Sciences. In a paper published in the Journal of Medicinal Chemistry, the scientists describe a series of compounds in which there are two pairs of cages (see the diagram) connected by a short organic chain, which is then systematically modified. Somewhat weaker, but more reliable The effectiveness of this series of substances against the HIV protease has been tested in a test-tube, as well as its effectiveness against the more immune(resistant) strain as acquired from patients infected with the HIV virus. The effect of metallacarboranes on the normal strain of the enzyme is not as strong as that of drugs used in clinical practice, although their effect is not diminished against the resistant strains, whereas drugs currently used are often ineffective. The unique mechanism of the effect and also of its other properties, such as its biological and chemical stability, low toxicity, and the possibility of making other chemical modifications, make metallacarboranes an interesting compound for future research aimed at suggesting new effective drugs to combat HIV, says Pavlína Řezáčová, head of the Structural Biology laboratory at the Institute of Organic Chemistry and Biochemistry and the Institute of Molecular Genetics of the Academy of Sciences. Fall-out over the budget. ODS attacks Fischer, who defends himself The head of the ODS, Mirek Topolánek, described the next year's approved budget as "terrible" and said that Premier Jan Fischer's government should seriously rethink its position in office. The government chairman described the ODS statement as strong words. Apparently he will take some time to think about it. The vice-chairman of the ODS, Petr Nečas, said that the concept of an interim government supported by the ČSSD, ODS, and Green Party, was evidently no longer working. According to Nečas, the government chairman must decide if he intends to fall back on the minority in the House as a fight against the growing deficit, or if he is to stay in office with the help of the parliamentary left. The approaches taken by the ODS and social democrats on the issue of public deficits are diametrically opposed, remarked Nečas. On Wednesday, the House accepted the budget for 2010, naturally with the left's proposed amendments for more than 12 billion crowns. The House gave extra money for the salaries of state employees, for social services, and for direct payments to farmers. he government criticised the social democrats' proposals, saying that they will surreptitiously increase the budget deficit. The Czech Republic should get by with a deficit of 163 billion crowns. Before the vote, the ODS left the room, complying with the government's wishes that the amended budget is not as poor an option as the provisional budget. Disappointment and futility The finance minister, Eduard Janota, has spoken about his feeling of disappointment and futility, while Premier Jan Fischer said that the government is still assessing the current situation. Nečas is convinced that if Janota were to really threaten to resign should the proposed amendments be accepted, the situation would look completely different. According to Czech Television, Janota has made an appointment to see the Prime Minister on Monday after the session. At the same time, he indicated that he was rethinking his position in office. The reason for this is his disappointment in the budget talks. If Fischer commits himself to continuing the fight against the budget deficit, Nečas believes that the ČSSD appointees who carried through the budget amendments have no place in the government. The Prime Minister should also clearly state that he will hand in his resignation if the House approves other laws that will increase the deficit, those relating to sick pay, pensions, or the amendment to the Civil Servants Act for example. Topolánek: Ministers appointed to the ODS have committed no offence This is a matter for the ministerial chairman Fischer and the government as a whole. Ministers appointed to the ODS have done nothing wrong, stressed Topolánek in a text report from the USA. He pointed out that several ministries employ people in under-secretary positions who support TOP 09, which voted against the budget. Nečas emphasised that, if Fischer were to decide to resign on the principle of the fight against the public finances deficit, "it is totally logical and correct that he falls back on the left majority currently in the House." But then he would not be able to count on the support and tolerance of the civil democrats. I haven't thought about it, and I'll concentrate on that when the time comes, defence minister Martin Barták told reporters in the House, having been elected by the civil democrats. This afternoon, Prime Minister Fischer flew to Brussels to attend a European Council meeting. ODS stands down at the request of the Prime Minister Nečas also stressed that, on Wednesday in the House, the ODS would evidently have voted against the amended budget if the Prime Minister had not explicitly asked the civil democrats to allow the budget to be approved. We don't look like orphans, we're not little children, was how he reacted to the question of whether the ODS was not hampered by the presence of the party chairman in the parliament and in the Czech Republic during the political negotiations regarding the budget. I didn't notice that my vote was missing. Back when I renounced my mandate, I knew that the following months would see the Bolshevisation of the House and the destruction of all that is positive, Topolánek himself responded. The new Czech Railways timetable shows that fewer trains will be running for almost the same fares From December 13th, Czech Railways will be cancelling or restricting some less frequented express and local trains, but will be adding more services to other lines. As of the day the new timetable comes into force, there will be two percent fewer services in comparison with now. Most fares, including basic and special tickets, will stay the same. More links to the capital will be available, for example, to the people in the Ostrava region, as the railways are adding one Pendolino to that line. However, the express will stop running to Bratislava. There will be fewer express trains on the Prague - Písek - České Budějovice route, and the direct service from Prague - Letohrad will be cut dramatically. The region planning the greatest transport cuts is the Region of Hradec Králové, with a total cut of eight percent, although Prague and the surrounding area can expect to see a rise. Two night trains on the Prague - Tábor - České Budějovice line are also being cut, and several express services on the Prague - Písek - České Budějovice route will be reduced to just a few days a week. One of the greatest changes is the introduction of the new direct line from Milovice to Prague, since people now travelling from Milovice have to change in Lysá nad Labem. This is the fifteenth line in the Esko suburban system, which can now be opened since the track from Lysá nad Labem to Milovice has been fully electrified. Long-distance services to the capital will end at the Prague Hlavní nádraží station. Czech Railways is introducing more Pendolino routes between Prague and Ostrava and trains to Šumperk/Jeseník will run on two-hour intervals. From December 13th, passengers will no longer be able to take Pendolino to Bratislava. This year's cost of regional railways: 200 million more Express trains are ordered and paid for by the Ministry of Transport, and next year it will give the railways four billion crowns to cover demonstrable losses, the same amount as this year. Local trains are ordered by the regional authorities, who, next year, will pay out a total of eight billion crowns for them, while almost three billion will be contributed by the state. This year, regional trains are costing 200 million more. Czech Railways have concluded a new ten-year contract for local and express trains, whereas, previously, the contract was always for one year. The railways have praised the system, despite the fact that the great majority of fares have not been increased. The only changes are to ČD Net one-day network tickets and eLiška cheap internet tickets. Travellers without a customer card will find that the ČD Net price has increased from 450 crowns to 600 crowns. The eLiška price will now depend on the distance travelled, whereas, previously, it was a flat rate of 160 crowns to travel between any regional cities. Filipino gunmen still holding more than 50 people, Children have been released Today, gunmen in the south of the Philippines kidnapped 75 people, including several primary school students and their teachers. This from the AFP agency, which originally announced only 65 abductees. All 17 of the captured children, together with their teacher, were released after eight hours. The kidnapping happened in the province of Agusan del Sur. Around 19 gunmen are apparently using the hostages as a human shield in their escape from the police. Local negotiators are now trying to arrange the release of the remaining hostages. According to AFP, the gunmen are part of the New People's Army (NPA), which is the armed faction of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP). According to AP, the police had originally been chasing the kidnappers following violence that occurred as accounts were settled between two local family clans. In the province of Maguindanao, in the south of the Philippines, martial law has been declared due to the recent massacre which left 57 people dead. The victims of the massacre on November 23rd, which was related to the elections for governor, included 30 reporters. The governor of this southern Filipino province has been arrested on suspicion of involvement in the massacre, together with his father Andal Ampatuan, the patriarch of the influential Ampatuan family. Muslim separatists are also active on Mindanao. But on Tuesday, these separatists renewed peace talks with the Filipino government. The story of South Africa affects everyone, says Morgan Freeman alias Mandela In the next few days, the new Hollywood film Invictus by Clint Eastwood will hit American cinemas, depicting part of the life of the former South African president Nelson Mandela. The role of the world-famous opponent of apartheid is taken on by Morgan Freeman, who was apparently chosen years ago by Mandela himself for his talent. The supporting male role of the legendary South African rugby champion Francois Pienaar is played by Matt Damon. With the film in cinemas critics and the public Nelson Mandela Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela was born on July 18th, 1918 in Mvez, in South Africa. In 1988 he was awarded the Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought, and in 1993 received the Nobel Peace Prize with de Klerk. He was president of South Africa from 1994 to 1999. There were great expectations, as he appeared in public at a time when not only was South Africa busy preparing for the football world championship, but the media was also rife with worrying news about increasing racial hatred and discrimination by the black majority. According to the AP news agency, the response to the new film has so far been generally positive in South Africa, despite the number of objections to "brat-pack" Hollywood stars being cast in the main roles. However, despite what he says, Morgan Freeman is proud of the new film. I had dreamt about this role for many years and prepared for it well. I met Nelson Mandela many times to, as they say, draw on his energy, he said in an interview after the film's grand premiere in Los Angeles. I think it's good that we can commemorate Mandela and his mission in a film. It is a story about South Africa, but it affects everybody, he added. In the national rugby team uniform The film, based on the book by the British writer John Carlin, entitled Playing the Enemy: Nelson Mandela and the Game that Made a Nation, portrays the South African human rights activist during his first presidential election campaign. In the film, Morgan Freeman tries to unite the two races and the populations that had so long been segregated and, like Nelson Mandela did in 1995, appears in the film in the South African national rugby uniform at the world cup match, which was won by South Africa. For appearing in the kit, which is an almost sacred symbol in South Africa, fourteen years ago, Mandela received a standing ovation from the predominantly white spectators and gained the esteem of the white people. Perhaps a football championship can actually bring people together as one nation, said rugby player Chester Williams, who in 1995 was the only black person on the national team. Whether the tense situation in South Africa will improve is only now becoming apparent. White South Africans, however, are sceptical, as rugby fan Christopher Dawson, who fled the country to go to Britain, admitted in a recent interview for LN. The championship begins on June 11th, 2010. Transformer worth tens of millions of crowns burns in Louny region In the morning, a fire broke out in a transformer owned by Čeps at the switching station in the village of Výškov, near Louny. Six fire engines came out to fight the fire, said the spokesman for the Ústí regional firefighters, Lukáš Marvan. Originally, the firefighters wanted to let the transformer burn, but later changed their minds and are putting the fire out using a mix of water, foam, and special fire-suppression agents. The fire was caused by a technical fault, a short circuit inside the transformer. Nobody was hurt, and according to company spokesperson Pavla Mandátová, the incident will not hinder the safe operation of the distribution station. The damage is estimated at several tens of millions of crowns, although the exact figure will not be known until the fire has been extinguished. Mandátová says that the ruined transformer will have to be replaced with a new one. She added that nothing like this had ever happened in the ten years that Čeps has been operating, and this kind of fault was a one-off. According to ČEZ spokeswoman for northern Bohemia, Sonia Holingerová Hendrychová, there were no power cuts and households, offices and companies were not affected by the transformer fire. In the Czech Republic, the joint stock company Čeps is the exclusive operator of transmission systems and 400 kV and 220 kV power lines. It maintains, restores and develops 39 switching stations with 67 transformers converting electricity from the transmission system to the distribution system, as well as 4339 kilometres of power lines. Jančura files a slander suit against three ČSSD commissioners The owner of Student Agency, Radim Jančura, will today file a slander suit against three social democrat commissioners. These are Michal Hašek, commissioner for South Moravia, Radko Martínek, commissioner for Pardubice, and Olomouc commissioner Martin Tesařík. Jančura announced this in the Twenty Minutes programme on Radiožurnál. The suit relates to the company's attempts to operate regional trains in certain regions. However, all the regions eventually signed a long-term contract with Czech Railways. So now all three commissioners are attacking us and saying that we're getting the best out of it, while the offer we put forward was just what they themselves wanted. They claim that we're more expensive than Czech Railways, which is not true, as we know the Czech Railways prices that were concluded last week. So all we can do is defend ourselves. It's for slander against Student Agency, Jančura told Radiožurnál. He also said that he has proof from all the regional authorities that they did not act in accordance with European law. He is therefore preparing a motion for the European Commission. Hašek sees the suit as a further continuation of Mr Jančura's great media show, which works as a free advertisement for himself and his company. It's understandable that I'm prepared to defend my good name and that of my region, and I call upon the other commissioners to do the same. I expect that this matter will clearly show that it is Mr Jančura who is manipulating the public over regional rail transport and using lies and false arguments, said Hašek. Last week, Jančura said that he is investing several million crowns in advertising to draw attention to these inappropriate actions taken by the regional authorities. He told Radiožurnál that he was halting the campaign for Christmas and would restart it in the New Year. He specified that the campaign would fight corruption as such. Jančura started the campaign after the regions decided to operate regional rail links with Czech Railways and had not announced tenders for the order, worth around 150 billion crowns. According to Jančura this is illegal and in contravention of the principles of the European Court of Justice. Jančura claims that his criticism of regional rail transport has already led to his being threatened by a member of the ČSSD. The only threat was that if we don't stop this, we could lose our bus licence. He introduced himself as a member of the ČSSD, I know who it was but I'm not going to say his name, Jančura told Radiožurnál today. Vaccinations against pneumococcus will be free and voluntary. Starting January, vaccinations against pneumococcus will radically change ingrained habits. These should be the first free yet voluntary vaccinations for families. But some are saying that compulsory vaccinations would be more effective. Preparations for the introduction of free anti-pneumococcus vaccinations are reaching a peak. The pharmaceutical institute is already setting the maximum price for vaccines to be paid for by health insurance companies. Experts are now clear on how to proceed with the vaccinations. New vaccinations Vaccines free of charge for children born in August Starting January, there could be free anti-pneumococcus vaccinations for children born on or after August 2nd. The condition is that they have not received any prior vaccinations. Anyone who began to be vaccinated last year or earlier will have to pay for any later re-vaccinations. The first batch of vaccinations must be given when the child is between 3 and 5 months old. Last year, one in four families had their children voluntarily vaccinated against pneumococcus. Parents paid 1600 crowns or more per vaccination. The youngest children require four vaccinations. Overall, experts estimate that health insurance companies spend 300 to 450 thousand crowns a year on vaccinations. But they save on the treatment that unvaccinated children would otherwise need. So far, the state has been paying around 500 thousand crowns a year on all general vaccinations for children. Subsidised vaccinations were introduced as part of the Janota package. Pneumococcus causes infections of the middle ear, but also serious infections of the cerebral membranes and blood poisoning. Pneumococcal infections claim the lives of up to 28 children under the age of ten every year, according to hospital figures. Besides the Czech Republic, around 40 countries have introduced general anti-pneumococcus vaccinations for children. Will vaccinations be compulsory? Some believe that in the future these vaccinations could be compulsory. As of January, they should be paid for by the insurance companies and not compulsory. The head of the Nahlas civil association, Rudolf Kalovský, says that compulsory vaccinations would be better. His association has long been promoting pneumococcus vaccines. The specialists at the international conference that our association attended were not very happy to hear that we have voluntary vaccinations. It's not completely ideal. On the other hand, we're happy that we managed to get at least these voluntary vaccinations in place. I think this is the route we have to take, said Kalovský. The Ministry of Health, however, does not want to change the pneumococcus vaccination system. We're not considering it at this time, said ministry spokesman Vlastimil Sršeň. Voluntary vaccinations have their drawbacks, say doctors The chairwoman of the Professional Society of Paediatricians, Hana Cabrnochová, acknowledges that voluntary vaccinations have their drawbacks. If all children were vaccinated, the number of revaccinations could then be cut. "With vaccines costing so much, we can understand the political decision that vaccinations should be offered on a voluntary basis," says Cabrnochová. Experts assume that, starting next year, more than 80 percent of new parents will have their babies vaccinated against pneumococcus. The anti-pneumococcus vaccinations are a milestone in that they are the first general vaccinations for children to be paid for by the insurance companies, not the state. Insurance companies should fund prevention to save money on later treatment, explains Cabrnochová. Doctors will have to buy vaccines themselves However, practising paediatricians are concerned when it comes to buying the vaccines. According to the original plan, the vaccines would be purchased by the insurance companies, and doctors would receive them in the same way that the state issues drugs for other vaccinations. Some ministers, however, are worried that the insurance companies could "run wild with health insurance funds". So doctors will have to buy the vaccines and wait until the insurance companies refund the money. It is estimated that practising paediatricians will have to spend 40 thousand a month on vaccines, which is a lot of money. It certainly won't be easy, says Cabrnochová. US artist's son 'in museum theft' The son of renowned American fantasy artist Frank Frazetta, has been charged with trying to steal paintings worth $20m (£12m) from his father's museum. Police in Pennsylvania say Alfonso Frank Frazetta was caught loading 90 paintings into his vehicle and trailer. They say Mr Frazetta and another man used an excavator to break into the museum in the Pocono Mountains region. Mr Frazetta Snr, aged 81, is famed for his depiction of characters such as Conan the Barbarian and Tarzan. The artist was in Florida at the time of the incident, the Associated Press news agency reported. AP quoted an unnamed police official as saying the younger Mr Frazetta may have been motivated by a family feud. A police affidavit said Mr Frazetta Jnr, 52, claimed he had been instructed by his father to "enter the museum by any means necessary to move all the paintings to a storage facility", the agency reported. Mr Frazetta Snr denied granting any such permission, the agency said. Labour defends budget tax rises Ministers have defended the tax rises and spending cuts announced in the pre-Budget report against criticism from the opposition, business and unions. The Tories said Alistair Darling "blew" an opportunity to show he was serious about cutting the deficit by delaying decisions until after the election. The chancellor also came under fire for hitting low and middle income workers. Among his headline proposals are a 0.5% rise in National Insurance and a 1% cap on public pay settlements from 2011. National Insurance anger Unions have protested that low-paid workers are being penalised for a recession not of their making and warned of "problems" ahead. The National Insurance increase - which will raise about £3bn a year - has angered the business community, which says it is a tax on jobs when the focus should be on economic recovery. The increase, limited to those earning more than £20,000 a year, will hit about 10 million workers. KEY POINTS OF PBR National Insurance up by a further 0.5% from April 2011 Economy to shrink by worse than expected 4.75% this year New 50% tax on banker bonuses 1p rise in corporation tax for small firms scrapped Tax rebates for electric cars and wind turbines State pension to rise by 2.5% According to Treasury estimates, someone earning £30,000 will be £90 a year worse off and someone on £40,000 will be £190 worse off, while someone earning £10,000 a year will be £110 better off. Ministers said their target of halving the deficit by 2013 meant "difficult decisions" but insisted that 60% of the burden of extra taxes would fall upon the top 5% of earners. Treasury minister Stephen Timms denied the tax rises and spending cuts outlined were a "drop in the ocean" compared to what was needed. "These are large numbers. They will deliver for us this halving of the deficit which is absolutely essential over the next four years," he told the BBC. Mr Timms said he was confident the economy would return to growth by the turn of the year. However, Labour forecasts for future economic growth - which will influence the amount it has to borrow and how quickly he deficit is cut - have been questioned after the chancellor was forced to revise earlier figures. In his statement, he said the economy was likely to contract 4.75% this year - far worse than the 3.5% decline predicted in April - while borrowing would be £3bn higher than earlier estimated. 'Blown opportunity' The Conservatives, who will launch a new advertising campaign on Thursday warning of Labour's "debt crisis", said projected borrowing of £789bn over the next six years was unsustainable. Mnisters had failed to lay out a credible plan for how they would pay this back, they added, "cynically" ducking tough choices until after the election - which must be held by June 2010. "They have not included anything of significance they are going to do," said shadow Treasury minister Philip Hammond. "They had an opportunity to do it and they have blown it." " The all important announcements will come after the election, whoever wins it " Roger Bootle, Deloitte Labour insist that schools, hospitals and the police will be protected from future cuts unlike under Tory proposals which would see the deficit cut faster and further. But the Lib Dems said the money raised by tax rises and spending cuts would be used to support spending next year not to reduce the deficit, arguing the plans were "built on sand". The BBC's political editor Nick Robinson said some of the timing of the announcements - such as the above inflation increase in some disability benefits next April - would leave the chancellor open to accusations of electioneering as the money may simply be clawed back the year after. However, Labour insist the extra help is being provided when people need it most and the situation will be reviewed in September 2010. 'Phoney budget' Although ministers did not publish spending details for beyond 2011, economists said it was clear the squeeze on public spending would only begin to bite in the medium term. The respected Institute for Fiscal Studies said the chancellor's figures implied substantial cuts in many areas, potentially including transport, higher education, science and defence, in the future. "It really is holding off the pain until later," said its director Robert Chote. "The all important announcements will come after the election, whoever wins it," added Roger Bootle, economic adviser to accountants Deloitte. "This has been the phoney pre-Budget report. The markets realise this." FBI probes 'US Pakistan arrests' The FBI is investigating the arrest in Pakistan of five reported US men on suspicion of extremist links. The men were arrested in a raid on a house in Sarghoda in eastern Punjab province, Pakistan's US embassy told the BBC. The FBI has said it is investigating whether they are the same men who were reported missing from their homes in the US state of Virginia last month. The US State Department said it was also seeking information on the men. Three of them are reported to be of Pakistani descent, one of Egyptian heritage and the other of a Yemeni background. "If they are American citizens, we of course are going to be very interested in the charges that they've been detained on and in what sort of circumstances they're being held," said spokesman Ian Kelly. FBI spokeswoman Katherine Schweit said the agency was aware of the arrests and was in contact with the families of the missing students. "We are working with Pakistan authorities to determine their identities and the nature of their business there, if indeed these are the students who had gone missing," she said. The Pakistani embassy in Washington said the men were arrested in a house belonging to an uncle of one of them. He said the house was already of interest to local police and that no charges had yet been filed against the arrested men. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton declined to comment on the arrests, reported the Reuters news agency, but said the US had to "work more closely with both Afghanistan and Pakistan to try to root out the infrastructure of terrorism that continues to recruit and train people". The five students were reported missing from their homes in northern Virginia by their families in late November. Amnesty condemns Iranian 'abuses' Human rights in Iran are as poor as at any time over the past 20 years, according to a report from campaign group Amnesty International. The report details "patterns of abuse" by the regime before and after disputed presidential elections in June. One man quoted in the report said he had been beaten and burned with cigarettes. Another said he was threatened with rape. Iran has dismissed previous criticism of its human rights record. Officials have said such criticism is politically motivated. Thousands of people were arrested and dozens killed in Iran after the disputed election of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad led to the largest street protests since the 1979 Islamic Revolution. Dozens have been given jail terms, and prosecutors say at least five people have been sentenced to death. BBC Tehran correspondent, Jon Leyne, who is now in London, says that early in the protests, the supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, accepted some of the allegations of abuse, ordering the closure of the Kahrizak detention centre. But since then, there has been almost no tolerance of criticism by the authorities, our correspondent says. 'False confession' Amnesty International cited the account of 26-year-old computing student Ebrahim Mehtari, who said he was accused of "working with Facebook networks" and protesting against the election result. "They frequently beat me on the face," he was quoted as saying. "I was burned with cigarettes under my eyes, on the neck, head... They threatened to execute me and they humiliated me." After five days he signed a false confession and was taken out and left in the street, still bleeding and semi-conscious, Amnesty said. In August, defeated presidential candidate Mehdi Karroubi said some protesters detained after the election had been tortured to death in prison and others had been raped. Iranian officials denied the rape claims, but admitted that abuses had taken place. Amnesty also cited the case of a former detainee who said he was held in a container with 75 others for more than eight weeks at a detention centre at Kahrizak. Amnesty accepted that the Iranian parliament and judiciary had established committees to investigate the post-election unrest and the government's response, but it said the mandate and powers of the bodies were unclear and the parliamentary committee's findings had not been made public. The group said at least 90 people had been arrested in the past three weeks to forestall further demonstrations. Ski slope is created in city park More than 100 tonnes of artificial snow were used to turn a Bristol landmark into a piste for a competition. The Piste in the Park event attracted 16 semi-professional skiers and snow borders competing for cash prizes. At the top of the slope in Brandon Hill park there was a short jump ramp before a 100m-long slope. Fourth-year medical student John Hickman said there was a beautiful view from the top of the slope but it was pretty daunting. It's a beautiful view with all the city lights below all twinkling. There's some of the best skiers and snow borders in the county here - some real talent," he added. Prizes were awarded for the best tricks - or manoeuvres performed on the slope. After Thursday evening's event the snow will be left to melt away. Still them and us Can Islam Be French? Pluralism and Pragmatism in a Secularist State. AT A time when Swiss voters have called for a ban on the construction of minarets and there is widespread alarm over the supposed Islamisation of Europe, John Bowen, an American academic, has written an informed and measured account of whether Muslims can integrate—and are integrating—into one of the continent’s most avowedly secular societies. Some readers will come to this new book as admirers of the author’s last work, "Why the French Don’t Like Headscarves" (2006), an elegant and closely argued study of an issue that divided and preoccupied the country for a decade and a half, and whose effects are still felt today. Mr Bowen’s latest book has a broader and more ambitious canvas. As a good anthropologist, he wants to know not just what the politicians and the media are saying about Islam in France, but what is actually happening on the ground. He has spent months in the mosques, schools and institutes which now provide France’s 5m-6m Muslims with what Mr Bowen calls "Islamic spaces". He is a good listener, reproducing debates between teachers and students about the questions that concern them most. Should a Muslim get married in a mosque or a town hall (or both)? Should young Muslims be taught about evolution and gay rights? Can a Muslim woman marry a non-Muslim man? Is it legitimate for a Muslim to use an interest-based banking system to get a mortgage? It is these seemingly mundane issues, he argues, that are the stuff of daily life rather than the political dramas that preoccupy the media. The author identifies a new generation of imams, teachers and intellectuals, none of them household names, with the possible exception of Tariq Ramadan, a Swiss-born Arab Muslim scholar and academic. This new generation is trying to open up the debate about how to be both a good Muslim and a good citizen in a modern secular society. They are not having the argument all their way. Conservatives are suspicious of the very idea of a French or European Islam. The thinkers and activists whom Mr Bowen interviews tend to be at odds with their Salafi counterparts—advocates of the purist Sunni Islam associated with Saudi Arabia—who nowadays have a small but influential presence among Europe’s Muslims. Mr Bowen thinks that Muslim values and French secularism could be compatible. But accommodation requires give-and-take on both sides. He questions how far French policymakers (and the intellectual elite that so fiercely guards laïcité) are really committed to pluralism. He suggests that Muslims are probably getting a rawer deal than the Catholics, Protestants and Jews who have also had to make their historic compromises with secular republicanism. Rather than a growing pragmatism, he detects a "tightening of the value-screws". Can Islam be French? After reading this book, one is inclined to say, "Yes, but not yet." The bleakest outlook in the world THE Arctic is changing faster and more dramatically than any other environment on the planet. The ice that defines it is melting with alarming speed, taking with it life that can survive nowhere else. Oil, gas, shipping and fishing interests have been heading into the newly open water, with diplomats, lawyers, and now authors, in their wake. In "On Thin Ice" Richard Ellis, a writer and illustrator, paints a natural history of the icon of the north, the polar bear. Well-versed in the complicated history and politics of whaling, he describes the long tradition of Arctic explorers who proved themselves by taking on the white bear. Admiral Nelson’s encounter as a plucky 14-year-old midshipman fighting only with the butt of his musket is surely a myth, but others are true. Young bears, captured as they swam after the bodies of their newly killed mothers, were caught and sent to zoos and circuses. One early 20th-century big-top act featured 75 polar bears at once. Even today, zoo enclosures are still typically a millionth of the area of a wild adult’s range. The climate is rarely suitable: the resident polar bear in Singapore has turned green from algae growing within the hollow hairs of its coat. Click here to find out more! Mr Ellis draws on the accounts of other writers and historians, and often returns to the threat that hunters pose to the survival of the species. Although banned in Norway, America and Russia, the killing continues in Greenland and Canada, where hunters in helicopters and skidoo-riding Inuit Indians both use high-powered assault rifles to bring down their quarry. Ironically it is in the waters towards the north of those two hunting nations that the ice will last longest. In his new book, "After the Ice", Alun Anderson, a former editor of New Scientist, offers a clear and chilling account of the science of the Arctic and a gripping glimpse of how the future may turn out there. Not that scientists have all the answers. Neither atmospheric scientists nor oceanographers can adequately account for the speed of the changes. It is not for want of trying. Fridtjof Nansen’s pioneering journeys at the end of the 19th century and early 20th century first hinted at the whirling of the ice pack. Cold-war submarines then mapped the shifting ridges running beneath it. Satellite surveys and large arrays of iceberg-mounted probes are a useful addition, but much is still done by hardy individuals camped out in the cold. Mr Anderson looks in on the extraordinary, tiny world of the tributary system within the Arctic ice, formed by trickles of briny water which gets squeezed as it freezes. But from the bear above to the microscopic wonders within, all are doomed once the summer ice goes, which is expected to happen at some point between 2013 and 2050. 'In a few months...this could be us' Marines among 6,000 who place wreaths on graves at Arlington Pfc. De'Angello Robinson, 19, traveled seven hours by bus to place a single wreath on the tomb of a soldier whom he'd never met. For him, and the other Marines who took the trip from Camp Johnson in Jacksonville, N.C. to Arlington National Cemetery to decorate graves, the day was about paying tribute to men and women who once stood in their shoes. In a few months, from where we are getting shipped out, this could be us, said Robinson of the fallen soldiers. If it is us, I would want somebody to do the same for me so I'm just trying to show respect. He was one of more than 6,000 volunteers who gathered Saturday morning to place wreaths on veterans' gravesites across several sections of Arlington Ceremony. In 1992, Morrill Worcester, owner of Worcester Wreath Company in Harrington, Maine, began the event when he and several others decided to decorate several hundred gravesites at Arlington Ceremony. Now an 18-year-old tradition, Morrill and his wife Karen, make the trip every year stopping in different cities along the way to host events dedicated to the people in the military and victims of terrorism. The Worcesters also founded a non-profit, Wreaths Across America, which has spread the event across other states. This year, volunteers placed more than 16,000 wreaths on the graves at Arlington Cemetery, areas at the Pentagon, graves at Fayetteville National Cemetery in Arkansas, Battery Park in New York City and on the memorial site for United Airlines Flight 93 in Shanksville, Pa. For the second year, the Walmart Foundation donated more than $150,000 to purchase, and transport the wreaths. Charleen Hunt, 70, of Westminster, said she made the trip to Arlington in honor of her husband, a deceased career military man. While her husband is not buried at Arlington, Hunt said this was her way of giving back to those who made sacrifices. It's a small way civilians can support our troops, she said. It's like visiting a family gravesite. Wrapped in layers of warm clothing, volunteers walked across the cemetery's expansive lawns and hills. Volunteers targeted older tombs from World War I, World War II, and the war in Vietnam because they are not visited as often as newer graves, organizers said. The mood was upbeat as children played and couples held hands while carrying the fresh pine to the graying tombstones. Each circular wreath was a deep green with a small red bow fastened across the top. Nearby, Section 60, where most veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are buried, remained virtually silent. The United Service Organizations donated 1,000 wreaths to decorate the section but the somber mood of the current wars filled the area. Individuals openly wept, others prayed, and families and friends held each other in the frigid air. Some read aloud names carved into the stones while others bowed to see small black and white place cards pushed inside wet mud for those whose tombstones have not yet been completed. Sandra Lockwood was one of the many mothers wiping tears from her eyes in front of her son's grave. She drove eight hours from Zanesfield, Ohio to visit the gravesite of Marine Gunnery Sgt. David Shane Spicer who died in combat in July. Nobody should ever forget why we're free. . .my son paid for that, she said. "When I'm long gone, I want someone to remember him." U.S. government contractor arrested by Cuban officials The Cuban government has arrested a U.S. government contractor who was distributing cellphones and laptop computers in the country, State Department officials said Saturday. The contractor, who has not yet been identified, works for Development Alternatives Inc., based in Bethesda. The company works on projects for clients such as the U.S. Agency for International Development and the World Bank. Consular officers with the U.S. Interest Section in Havana are seeking access to the detainee, who was arrested Dec. 5. The specific charges have not been made public, though under Cuban law, a Cuban citizen or a foreign visitor can be arrested for nearly anything under the claim of "dangerousness." All so-called counter-revolutionary activities, which include mild protests and critical writings, carry the risk of arrest. Anti-government graffiti and speech are considered serious crimes. Cuba has a fledging blogging community, led by the popular commentator Yoani Sánchez, who often writes about how she and her husband are followed and harassed by government agents. Sánchez has repeatedly applied for permission to leave the country to accept awards but has been denied permission. The detention of an American contractor may likely raise tensions between the Castro brothers Communist government in Cuba and the Obama administration, which has been pursuing a "go-slow" approach to improving relations with the island. News of the arrest was first reported by the New York Times Friday night. The new U.S. policy stresses that if the Cuban government takes concrete steps, such as freeing political prisoners and creating more space for opposition, the United States will reciprocate. Cellphones and laptops are legal in Cuba, though they are new and coveted commodities in a country where the average wage of a government worker is $15 a month. The Cuban government granted ordinary citizens the right to buy cellphones just this year; they are used mostly for texting, as a 15-minute telephone conversation would eat up a day's wages. Internet use is extremely limited on the island. It is available in expensive hotels and to foreign visitors there, and at some government outlets, such as universities. Cubans who want to log on often have to give their names to the government. Access to many Web sites is restricted. The detention of an American in Cuba is rare. Most of the handful of U.S. citizens in jail in Cuba are behind bars for crimes such as drug smuggling, said Gloria Berbena, the press officer at the U.S. Interests Section in Havana. Berbena said she could not provide more information on the arrest. The arrest and detention are clearly wrong. An activity that in any other open society would be legal -- giving away free cellphones -- is in Cuba a crime, said Jose Miguel Vivanco, director of the Americas program of the group Human Rights Watch, which recently issued a tough report on freedoms in Cuba called "New Castro, Same Cuba," a reference to the installation of Raul Castro as the leader of the country to replace his ailing older brother Fidel. Vivanco said that the accused are often arrested, tried and imprisoned in a day. He said that any solution would likely be political and that the Cuban government often provokes a negative reaction in the United States just as the two countries begin to move toward more dialogue. Pakistani officials unraveling plot to send men to Afghanistan Pakistani authorities on Saturday zeroed in on the alleged mastermind of a plot to send five Northern Virginia men to Afghanistan to kill U.S. troops, saying they hope the case could help unravel an extensive network of terrorist recruiters who scour the Internet for radicalized young men. Investigators said they were hunting for a shadowy insurgent figure known as Saifullah, who invited the men to Pakistan after first discovering them when one made comments approving of terror attacks on the Internet video site YouTube. Saifullah guided the men once they were in Pakistan, attempting to help them reach the remote area in Pakistan's tribal belt that is home to al-Qaeda and its terrorist training camps. But a Pakistani intelligence official who had been briefed on the case said Saturday that Saifullah was unsuccessful in convincing al-Qaeda commanders that the men were not part of a CIA plot to infiltrate the terrorist network. As a result, they were marooned for days in the eastern city of Sargodha, far from the forbidding mountains of the northwest that have become a terrorist haven. They were regarded as a sting operation. That's why they were rejected, said the official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the case. The official said the men were undeterred and were still trying to acquire the right endorsements to gain access to the al-Qaeda camps when they were arrested by Pakistani law enforcement. The case of the five -- who remain in Pakistan and are being questioned by the FBI -- underscores the critical role of recruiters in identifying potential terrorists and, perhaps more importantly, determining who can be trusted. Since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, U.S. intelligence has made it a top priority to try to place human assets inside al-Qaeda. The organization's recruiters act as gatekeepers, keeping out those who are not serious about their commitment to holy war, and those who could be spies. Would-be American recruits are treated by al-Qaeda with special scrutiny, analysts said. But they are also considered enormously appealing to the group because of their potential to access U.S. targets and because of their propaganda value. But Evan Kohlmann, senior analyst with the U.S.-based NEFA Foundation, said terror groups have also become much more cautious in recent years about who they allow in because U.S. intelligence agencies have become experts in their recruiting methods. If you're trying to sink someone into these groups, what better way than to follow the recruitment model that so many have already followed? Kohlmann said. The model is one that has become far more Web-based. Tens of thousands protest in Copenhagen, demand climate 'action' Tens of thousands of protesters marched on the streets here Saturday, demanding bolder action on climate from the negotiators working inside the city's Bella Convention Center. Protesters said as many 100,000 people joined in the event, but police estimated the count was closer to 25,000. The event was relatively peaceful, though a handful of masked activists set off small explosives near a group of government buildings downtown. On a day when little happened in the U.N.-sponsored climate talks, thousands of activists walked across the city holding banners in English saying "There is No Planet B" and one in Spanish declaring, "The Earth is Saying, 'Enough.' Several celebrities joined the protest, including Danish model and photographer Helena Christensen, who said that traveling to her mother's native country of Peru made me aware of the heartbreaking issues the country is dealing with due to the impacts of climate changes that are already occurring." This is part of the reason why I have decided to join the big march -- to pass on the word and to appeal to the world's leaders to deliver a fair, ambitious and binding deal, she said. It is not an easy task, but it needs to be done, there is no way around it anymore. The police kept the protesters from getting too close to the Bella center, and said they had arrested 19 people, primarily on the grounds that they had either worn masks or carried pocket knives. Those activities are banned during demonstrations under Danish law. According to one bystander, who asked not to be identified because he is involved in the climate talks, activists sporting masks and black outfits set off several explosives near Copenhagen's main canal, which is nearby several ministries. They were lobbing them by the buildings, he said, adding they began as flares but were followed by "a couple big explosions." Inside the convention center, people gathered around television screens to watch the march throughout the afternoon. But the protest did not seem to penetrate the consciousness of key officials such as Su Wei, China's chief climate negotiator. When asked whether he thought the demonstration was having a constructive impact on the international deliberations, he replied in English, "Actually, that is something that I was not aware of." He then continued in Mandarin, saying, "Because the venue is large, I cannot hear what is happening outside." He observed that whether the march was hurting or helping depended on one's perspective. It shows the concentration of the general public and different sectors on the subject of climate change, he said. On the other hand, "You can also say that they disrupt the negotiations, or the freedom of other people. Test data reveal stubborn racial gaps Last week's federal report card on math achievement was a welcome piece of good news for D.C. public schools. Although the District still lags far behind the country's top-performing systems, the report card showed fourth- and eighth-graders making strides at a faster pace over the past two years than cities including Atlanta, Chicago and New York. But what remains embedded in the latest numbers from the National Assessment of Educational Progress is the persistent achievement gap between African American and white students both locally and nationally. The average scores of white D.C. fourth-graders over the past two years grew from 262 to 270 (on a scale of 500), but their African American peers' rose just three points, from 209 to 212. The achievement gap actually grew between 2007 and 2009, from 53 to 58 points. African American progress in the eighth grade remained essentially flat, dipping a statistically insignificant one point, from 245 to 244. Average white scores were not included in the test results because the sample size wasn't large enough. The picture across a six-year stretch isn't more encouraging. The gap separating white and black fourth-graders in 2003, when the first NAEP in the District was given, was 60 scale points (262 to 202). Although the scores achieved by children in both groups have increased during this period, the difference has barely narrowed to 58. Some education advocates in the District expressed concern last week that the gains celebrated by Chancellor Michelle A. Rhee and Mayor Adrian M. Fenty (D) were propelled largely by white students who are already high achievers. It would suggest that we've raised the aggregate by treating those at the higher end of the scale, which is problematic and troublesome, said Jeff Smith, executive director of D.C. Voice, a nonprofit group that advocates for educational equality in the District. I'm not jumping up and down about a two- or three-point spread, said D.C. Council member Kwame R. Brown (D-At Large), who has a daughter in the fourth grade at Eaton Elementary. A frequent critic of Rhee's management style, Brown said the message of the test scores is that the city's middle schools are in desperate need of attention. Clearly, you always want to see the plus signs, and I respect that. But what's scary is we're not spending nearly the time and energy we need to spend on our middle schools. Rhee said the District needs to continue to find better ways to address the needs of low-achieving students. This fall, for example, some teachers are being trained to use a new reading curriculum, the Wilson Reading System, targeted to students in the upper elementary and middle school grades who didn't master the basics of reading early in their school careers and are significantly behind their peers. Everyday Mathematics, a K-through-sixth-grade math curriculum emphasizing games and real-life experiences that was brought to the District under former superintendent Clifford Janey, is credited with some of the NAEP progress reported last week. I just think we have to keep working at bringing the best interventions to those students who are below grade level, Rhee said. Others say that the NAEP's results highlight the question of whether Rhee can continue to lift the overall performance of the system and still provide the additional money and resources for low-performing schools that will be necessary to narrow the gap. There is a sort of rough-edged dilemma here for Michelle Rhee, said Bruce Fuller, an education professor at the University of California at Berkeley who studies urban test scores. The conventional policy remedy is to target your resources and management reforms on schools located in the poorest sections of D.C. So the targeting may yield political repercussions that go against that important agenda. But the rub, of course, is like other urban superintendents, she's trying to hold on to the white and black middle class. Our focus is on ensuring that we build a system of great schools. We need to strengthen our neighborhood schools so that all families, regardless of where they live, are confident that their children can get an excellent public education. Janey, now superintendent of schools in Newark, said in an interview this week that one essential element to closing the achievement gap is to lengthen the traditional public school year, currently 180 days in the District, to compete with charter schools. You have to get up near 200 days to have the force of change, said Janey, who came to agreement with his teachers' union last year on a 185-day year, which he regards as "a marker" for seeking a bigger increase in the next contract. Making higher education a part of more futures The tour bus pulled into Gettysburg College with a loud wheeze. Graciela Rodriguez, 12, stepped off and blinked for a moment at the white columns, brick facades and emerald lawns. Graciela's parents had barely graduated from high school in El Salvador. Until recently, Graciela herself, who was born in Silver Spring and lives in Riverdale, had never set foot on a college campus. Yet as she and the other eighth-graders in the group explored Gettysburg, where the tuition runs $38,690 a year, their attitude was less that of awestruck visitors than of enthusiastic prospective students. Yes! This is where I'll be! exclaimed Graciela, who would like to study medicine, when the guide announced that they'd entered the science building. Wow, really? she said thoughtfully, when told of the school's low professor-to-student ratio. The Pennsylvania college was the seventh the kids had visited on their three-day tour, and by now they had completely absorbed its intended message: The question is not whether you're going to college. The question is where. Although there is mounting concern about the large number U.S.-born children of Hispanic immigrants who drop out of high school or get pregnant as teenagers, there are also hundreds of thousands who are getting the college educations they need to enter the middle class. In fact, one in five of these "second-generation" Hispanics graduates from college -- a notable achievement given that so many of their immigrant parents, mostly Mexicans and Central Americans, entered the United States without finishing high school. Their success stories are important, researchers say, because they point the way forward for a generation that will play an outsize role in the country's workforce. Those who study high achievers say they often have a natural affinity for school and an innate drive to succeed. Many also have parents who set lofty goals for their children and find ways to compensate for their unfamiliarity with American schools. But mentoring programs also can play an enormous role in helping Graciela and millions of children like her make it to college -- particularly if those efforts are sustained over time. When you're looking at low-income kids whose parents don't have the experience and the skills to help them navigate through the system, any single intervention at any one point in time is not going to solve it, said Patricia Gándara, a researcher at the University of California, Davis, who has studied Latino students. We need to think about providing a supportive network for these kids from preschool all the way on through high school. The federal program that funded Graciela's college tour is a useful example. Known as GEAR UP, it provides more than $300 million a year to local school systems to run college prep programs that begin when low-income students are in middle school and continue until they finish high school. Since 1999, the program has served more than 10 million students, with more than 60 percent going on to college, according to the U.S. Department of Education. Iraqi Oil Ministry reaches deals with 10 foreign oil companies Despite concerns about violence and political instability, the Iraqi government managed to attract major oil companies to rebuild its ailing infrastructure during two auctions that concluded Saturday. The 10 deals the Iraqi Oil Ministry reached with foreign oil companies suggest that China, Russia and European oil firms are poised to play a major role in refurbishing Iraq's oil industry, crippled by decades of war and sanctions. American companies walked away with stakes in just two of the 10 auctioned fields. Seven American companies had paid to participate in the second auction, which began Friday. The only one that submitted a bid lost. Two American companies reached deals for fields auctioned in June. The meager representation of American oil giants in Iraq's opening oil industry surprised analysts. Iraq finally opened its doors after six years of war, and instead of U.S. companies, you have Asians and Europeans leading the way, said Ruba Husari, the editor of Iraq Oil Forum, an online news outlet. It will be a long time before anything else will be on offer in Iraq. Concerns over security, underscored by massive coordinated bombings Tuesday, and political instability as the U.S. military withdraws, likely kept American oil companies from venturing more forcefully in Iraq, which has the world's third-largest proven crude reserves, analysts said. U.S. firms were in some cases at a disadvantage because rivals, particularly the Chinese and other government controlled energy firms, have markedly lower labor costs and are more prone to take risks because they don't respond to shareholders. Exxon-Mobil and Occidental Petroleum Inc. were the only American companies that reached deals with the ministry. Major U.S. firms such as Chevron and ConocoPhillips, which have cultivated close ties with the Iraqi Oil Ministry and have provided technical advice in recent years, walked away empty-handed. Russian companies Lukoil and Gazprom were the top stakeholders in two of the contracts awarded this weekend. State-owned Chinese National Petroleum Corp. bid on more contracts than any other company and walked away with large stakes in contracts for two major fields. We all know that China is on track to become a major economic as well as technological power, Oil Ministry spokesman Assam Jihad said. We feel confident that the Chinese company will be on par with its competitors and will deliver on its commitments towards Iraq. Companies pre-selected to submit bids made offers that were then compared to the per barrel fee the ministry was willing to pay for boosting output above current levels at each field. Top al-Qaeda planner apparently killed in Pakistan An apparent U.S. missile strike along Pakistan's border with Afghanistan is believed to have killed a top al-Qaeda operations planner this week, U.S. counterterrorism officials said Friday. If confirmed, this would be the second deadly attack against a senior terrorist leader this fall. Saleh al-Somali was one of two Arab men thought to have been killed when a pair of missiles tore into their car Tuesday near the town of Miran Shah in North Waziristan province, according to U.S. sources and Pakistani officials in the region. Local authorities said the missiles were fired by an unmanned aircraft of the type operated by the CIA inside Pakistan's lawless tribal belt. They were driving in a white car, heading toward the Afghan border, when the car was hit, said an official with Pakistan's civilian intelligence agency, speaking by phone from Miran Shah. The official said suspected local militants rushed to the spot and quickly confiscated what remained of the "totally demolished bodies." Local authorities were unable to verify the victims' identities, but two U.S. counterterrorism officials cited unspecified evidence that Somali was among the dead. Somali was described as a senior al-Qaeda military planner who ran the terrorist group's operations outside the Afghanistan-Pakistan region. He was engaged in plotting throughout the world, said one senior official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, citing the sensitive nature of U.S. airstrikes inside Pakistani territory. Given his central role, this probably included plotting attacks against the United States and Europe. He took strategic guidance from al-Qaeda's top leadership and translated it into operational blueprints for prospective terrorist attacks. The second U.S. official said Somali had risen quickly through al-Qaeda's ranks and was well-connected with other extremist groups in the region. He may not be a household name to some Americans, but that in no way diminishes the threat he posed to us and our allies, the second official said. If his death is confirmed, Somali would be the second senior al-Qaeda or Taliban leader killed since September, when a similar strike killed Najmuddin Jalolov, the leader of a militant faction in the tribal belt, and three other top operatives. The tempo of strikes by CIA-run drones has declined since the summer, from an average of about six operations per month to two, according to a tally by the Long War Journal, a Web site managed by a nonprofit group. The decline may be due to improved tactics by terrorist groups, which have taken steps to limit their vulnerability while also ruthlessly killing suspected informants, the site said. Top U.N. envoy in Kabul to step down The United Nations' top envoy in Afghanistan, Kai Eide, said Friday that he would step down from his post in March, ending a tumultuous tenure that was marred by allegations of widespread corruption in Afghanistan's U.N.-backed presidential election. Eide's departure comes as the Obama administration has decided to send an additional 30,000 U.S. troops to Afghanistan. The U.N. envoy said that he supports the surge but expressed concern that the U.S. timetable for a military drawdown beginning in 18 months would prompt other NATO governments to withdraw their forces. We need to accelerate the buildup of the Afghan security forces and send the right signal to the Afghans that they can trust the international community, Eide said in a telephone interview from Kabul. The commitment has to be long-term. The Norwegian diplomat also pressed the United States and other military powers to increase the number of international civil servants aiding Afghanistan's political transition. The surge on the military side has to be copied on the civilian side, he said. Eide said he was not resigning but simply fulfilling a commitment he made to his family in March 2008 to spend only two years in Kabul. He said he wanted to serve notice to U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon now so that he would have time to find a replacement. What I've said is that you better start looking for a successor, Eide said. When I came here, there was a two-month vacuum between a departure of my predecessor and my arrival. Ban has begun searching for a replacement, according to U.N. officials. The officials say he has been considering Staffan di Mistura, a Swedish-Italian national who recently headed the U.N. mission in Baghdad, and Jean-Marie Guéhenno, a Frenchman who previously led U.N. peacekeeping operations. Eide's standing in Afghanistan was tested after his former deputy, Peter W. Galbraith, accused him in September of favoring President Hamid Karzai in the country's presidential vote and of covering up evidence of massive electoral fraud. Eide denied the allegations, but he said the accusations by Galbraith -- who was fired -- "certainly damaged the mission, because there was already a great degree of skepticism with regard to international interference" in the election. Eide said he proposed the appointment of a senior civilian representative to coordinate relief efforts by the U.S.-led forces in Afghanistan. He also urged the U.N. leadership to allow his successor to hire more staff from the United States and other Western countries that donate to the Afghan mission, saying it would increase their confidence that their money is being properly spent. Eide expressed frustration with the limitations on his powers in Afghanistan, saying that cumbersome U.N. hiring regulations undercut his ability to bring in talent. The U.N. rules are such that I have only been able to recruit a single person since May, he said. That is catastrophic and can't continue. Gates: Iran to face additional sanctions Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates said Friday that world powers will soon impose "significant additional sanctions" on Iran over its failure to engage in talks on its nuclear ambitions. Gates, speaking to a group of about 300 U.S. troops in northern Iraq during a week-long tour of war zones in Afghanistan and Iraq, played down the prospect of military action against the Islamic republic. There are no good options in Iran, he said, in response to a query from a soldier about the likelihood of such a development. ¨ One of the things that weighs on me is that if we have learned anything from Iraq over the past six years, it is the inherent unpredictability of war. The Obama administration is considering a package of sanctions that would target Iran's military and political elite, but Gates signaled that some of the sanctions could also affect ordinary Iranians. He said that "a package of incentives and disincentives" would be needed "to persuade the Iranian government that they would actually be less secure with nuclear weapons" because "their people will suffer enormously" from sanctions. In a statement Friday by White House spokesman Robert Gibbs, the administration joined European leaders in warning that Iran will face "credible" consequences if it does not bring its nuclear program into full compliance with the U.N. Security Council and its nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency. Iran insists that it wants to develop nuclear expertise only for peaceful purposes. In talks in Geneva on Oct. 1, it indicated that it would return to talks on restraining its nuclear program and agree to give up a substantial portion of its stockpile of enriched uranium in exchange for desperately needed fuel for a medical research reactor. The administration has pushed for such an agreement as a way to build confidence between the two sides and to buy time for negotiations. But since then, Iran appears to have walked away from the tentative deals -- in part, experts say, because the Iranian leadership is divided over whether to engage with the United States. Frankly, Iran's stiffing the international community on some of the proposals that they actually agreed to at the beginning of October, I think, has brought the international community, including the Russians and the Chinese, together in a way that they have not been in terms of significant additional sanctions on the Iranians, Gates said. President Obama has set a Dec. 31 deadline for Iran to respond to the proposals before he turns to reviewing other options, including pursuing what Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton once called "crippling sanctions." In a statement issued in New York, Iran's mission to the United Nations denounced what it called "baseless and unfounded allegations" Thursday by some Security Council members about Iran's nuclear activities and said it is willing to continue talks with the United States and five other world powers "in order to achieve an appropriate, long-term solution." Gates, who was to return to Washington late Friday, met in the morning with Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki before flying to Iraq's oil-rich Kurdish region for meetings with troops in Kirkuk and Kurdish officials in Irbil. Tensions remain high between the Kurds and Iraq's Arab majority, particularly over boundaries, property rights and revenue-sharing. Gates urged both sides to reduce the potential for conflict to prevent any delays in U.S. plans to cut the number of American troops from 115,000 to 50,000 by the end of August. Gates also sought to allay Kurdish anxiety about the pending drawdown. U.S. officials quoted Gates as telling Massoud Barzani, president of the Kurdistan Regional Government: "We will preserve your security, prosperity and autonomy within a unified Iraq. We will not abandon you." In aging China, a change of course Wang Weijia and her husband grew up surrounded by propaganda posters lecturing them that "Mother Earth is too tired to sustain more children" and "One more baby means one more tomb." They learned the lesson so well that when Shanghai government officials, alarmed by their city's low birthrate and aging population, abruptly changed course this summer and began encouraging young couples to have more than one child, their reaction was instant and firm: No way. We have already given all our time and energy for just one child. We have none left for a second, said Wang, 31, a human resources administrator with an 8-month-old son. More than 30 years after China's one-child policy was introduced, creating two generations of notoriously chubby, spoiled only children affectionately nicknamed "little emperors," a population crisis is looming in the country. The average birthrate has plummeted to 1.8 children per couple as compared with six when the policy went into effect, according to the U.N. Population Division, while the number of residents 60 and older is predicted to explode from 16.7 percent of the population in 2020 to 31.1 percent by 2050. That is far above the global average of about 20 percent. The imbalance is worse in wealthy coastal cities with highly educated populations, such as Shanghai. Last year, people 60 and older accounted for almost 22 percent of Shanghai's registered residents, while the birthrate was less than one child per couple. Xie Lingli, director of the Shanghai Municipal Population and Family Planning Commission, has said that fertile couples need to have babies to "help reduce the proportion of the aging population and alleviate a workforce shortage in the future." Shanghai is about to be "as old -- not as rich, though -- as developed countries such as Japan and Sweden," she said. A gradual easing Written into the country's constitution in 1978, China's one-child policy is arguably the most controversial mandate introduced by the ruling Communist Party to date. Couples who violate the policy face enormous fines -- up to three times their annual salary in some areas -- and discrimination at work. Chinese officials have credited the policy with helping the country avoid critical strain on its natural resources, while human rights advocates have denounced abuses in the enforcement of the policy. In rural areas, some officials have forced women pregnant with a second child to undergo abortions. In addition, many couples have had sex-selective abortions, leading to an unnaturally high male-to-female ratio. In recent years, population officials have gradually softened their stance on the one-child policy. In 2004, they allowed for more exceptions to the rule -- including urban residents, members of ethnic minorities and cases in which both husband and wife are only children -- and in 2007, they toned down many of their hard-line slogans. Qiao Xiaochun, a professor at the Institute of Population Research at Peking University, said central government officials have recently been debating even more radical changes, such as allowing couples to have two children if one partner is an only child. In July, Shanghai became the first Chinese city to launch an aggressive campaign to encourage more births. Almost overnight, posters directing families to have only one child were replaced by copies of regulations detailing who would be eligible to have a second child and how to apply for a permit. The city government dispatched family planning officials and volunteers to meet with couples in their homes and slip leaflets under doors. It has also pledged to provide emotional and financial counseling to those electing to have more than one child. The response has been underwhelming, family planning officials say. Disappointing response Although officials in one rural town on the outskirts of Shanghai say they saw an uptick in applications from couples wanting a second child after the campaign was launched, the more urban districts report no change. Huinan township, with a population of 115,000, for instance, is still receiving just four to five applications a month. Disappointed Shanghai officials say that, despite the campaign, the number of births in the city in 2010 is still expected to be only about 165,000 -- slightly higher than in 2009 but lower than in 2008. Feng Juying, head of the family planning committee in Shanghai's Caolu township, said financial considerations are probably the main reason many people don't want more children. They want to give the best to their first, she said. Yang Jiawei, 27, and his wife, Liu Juanjuan, 26, said they would love to have two children and are legally allowed to do so. But like many Chinese, they have only the scant medical and life insurance provided by the government. Without a social safety net, they say, the choice would be irresponsible. People in the West wrongly see the one-child policy as a rights issue, said Yang, a construction engineer whose wife is seven months pregnant with the couple's first child. Yes, we are being robbed of the chance to have more than one child. But the problem is not just some policy. It is money. Other couples cite psychological reasons for hesitating. Wang, the human resources administrator, said she wants an only child because she was one herself: "We were at the center of our families and used to everyone taking care of us. We are not used to taking care of and don't really want to take care of others." Chen Zijian, a 42-year-old who owns a translation company, put it more bluntly. For the dual-career, middle-class parents who are bringing the birthrate down, he said, it's about being successful enough to be selfish. Today's 20- and 30-somethings grew up seeing their parents struggle during the early days of China's experiment with capitalism and don't want that kind of life for themselves, he said. Even one child makes huge demands on parents' time, he said. A mother has to give up at least two years of her social life. Then there are the space issues -- "You have to remodel your apartment" -- and the strategizing -- "You have to have a résumé ready by the time the child is 9 months old for the best preschools." Most of his friends are willing to deal with this once, Chen said, but not twice. Ours is the first generation with higher living standards, he said. We do not want to make too many sacrifices. U.N. group drafts plan to reduce emissions The U.N.-sponsored climate conference -- characterized so far by unruly posturing and mutual recriminations -- gained renewed focus Friday with the release of a document outlining ambitious greenhouse-gas reductions over the next 40 years, with industrialized nations shouldering most of the burden in the near term. The text, which could provide the basis for a final political deal to regulate greenhouse gases, highlighted the remaining obstacles as much as it illuminated a path forward. But it was seen as an important advance in a negotiation that is running out of time, with more than 100 world leaders arriving in Copenhagen next week. Forged by a U.N. ad-hoc working group, the text is silent on how much money rich countries would give poor ones to cope with global warming over the short and long term. And it provides a range of options for the key questions, including how developed and major emerging economies would cut their carbon output, and what would be the upper limit of global temperature rise that policymakers would be willing to tolerate. It gives a lot of flexibility to the process, said John Coequyt, senior Washington representative for the Sierra Club. Michael Zammit Cutajar, who drafted the six-page document, boiled down a 180-page negotiation text to focus on what the U.N.'s top climate official, Yvo de Boer, described as "the big picture." It shows the outlines for a possible deal, in which industrial nations would collectively cut their emissions by 2020 by 25 to 45 percent compared with 1990 levels, while major developing countries would reduce theirs during the same period by 15 to 30 percent. Together, the countries would cut emissions between 50 and 95 percent by 2050. The European Union gave the talks a boost as well on Friday by pledging to provide $3.6 billion a year over the next three years to help poorer countries adapt to the impact of climate change -- from coping with flood and drought to avoiding deforestation. Still, Friday featured the same sort of verbal fireworks that have dominated the talks for the past week. U.S. special climate envoy Todd Stern rejected language requiring binding cuts of greenhouse-gas emissions for industrialized countries compared with voluntary ones by major emerging economies if they were not funded by the developed world. The move signaled that the Obama administration is taking a harder line with China than Bush administration officials did just two years ago. The United States is not going to do a deal without the major developing countries stepping up and taking action, said Stern, who also complained that the text did not do enough to make sure the cuts could be verified by outside observers. Stern made his comments an hour after Chinese vice foreign minister He Yafei said America's top climate negotiator was either lacking "common sense" or being "extremely irresponsible" for saying earlier in the week that the United States would not help China financially to cope with global warming. With the future economic trajectory of the world's major powers at stake, fault lines have erupted both within the developing world and between the industrial world and emerging economies. The current battle is as much about saving individual economies as saving the planet, with China and the United States feuding over their respective obligations while poorer nations insist that the world's two dozen most influential countries are ignoring the scientific imperative to take bolder action. Ricardo Ulate, a Costa Rican delegate, said it's not surprising that the major powers are fighting over who should bear the costs for curbing greenhouse gases, even as vulnerable countries have become more aggressive in seeking to hold the big emitters accountable for their actions. This is clearly a game where a new economic hegemony is being developed, said Ulate, who also serves as the regional Mexico and Central America climate change adviser for Conservation International. Some of the countries most vulnerable to the impact of climate change indicated they would continue to push for a legally binding treaty in Copenhagen, although most of the major participants say the talks will produce a political deal at best. The Alliance of Small Island States, which has 43 members, produced a 24-page draft treaty proposal early Friday morning. Artur Runge-Metzger, who heads international climate negotiations on behalf of the European Commission, said the push by small island nations has "put political pressure on the entire political process," in part because they are now unified and demanding action from emerging economies such as China and India. The talks took on new urgency as delegates focused on the fact that they must resolve most of the outstanding issues before the heads of government arrive to strike a deal. High-level officials such as Indian environment minister Jairam Ramesh and the Chinese vice minister stepped off planes and raced through the Bella Center's halls to closed-door meetings and news conferences so they could stake out claims that will be arbitrated over the next week. The sheer sprawl of the gathering -- where 13,000 people move in and out of the convention center each day, guitar-playing activists put on nightly shows mocking the countries they think are selling out, and draft proposals are passed hand-to-hand on paper rather than via e-mail -- poses a challenge. The intensity is only building: nearly all of the key ministers are now here, and as early as Wednesday 60 heads of government will be in Copenhagen. We're getting into the big leagues, said Carlos Manuel Rodriguez, vice president for global policy at Conservation International. The heavyweights are coming. Britain’s first 140mph train to redefine that Monday feeling At 5.13 on Monday morning a whistle will pierce the darkness to signal a train departure that marks a revolution for travel in Britain. The first high-speed commuter train in the country will reach 140mph as it streaks from Ashford, Kent, to London St Pancras, covering the 58 miles in 38 minutes. Lord Adonis, the Transport Secretary, will then be joined by Dame Kelly Holmes aboard the first Javelin commuter service out of London. He hopes that the new service will eventually plug Britain into an international network of fast, reliable trains and connect the great conurbations of the Midlands, the North and Scotland to London. Neglected backwaters would become thriving commuter towns, business travel times would be slashed and the shift from aircraft and cars to the railway would reduce national carbon emissions as well as easing congestion on the roads. In theory, the three main political parties buy into this vision. But the tens of billions of pounds needed to build a new national rail network, the inevitable planning battle and fears of environmental harm may yet put the brakes on Britain’s high-speed lines. High Speed Two (HS2), a company created in January to provide the Government with a feasibility study, will hand its report to Lord Adonis on December 30, The Times has learnt. It will provide him with a detailed route map of the next planned stage of the high-speed network. The new line linking London to the West Midlands will be drawn to within five metres in urban areas and sites where the environmental impact may be contentious. In open country, the plan will be drafted to within 25 metres of a final route. HS2 is also expected to set out three options for a wider high-speed network running north. Lord Adonis will respond in the spring. The favoured option being put forward is a Y-shaped configuration in which a single high-speed line would run up to the West Midlands. The line would split at or near Birmingham, with one branch running west of the Pennines to Manchester and Scotland and another running northeast to Sheffield, Leeds and Newcastle upon Tyne. A single line would run into Scotland. "It looks like it is going to be the best-performing option," a railway insider said. Once complete, journey times between London and Edinburgh would be cut to 2 hours 40 minutes. The first leg, which would not open before 2025, would allow passengers to travel between London and Birmingham in 49 minutes, compared with just over an hour at present. The proposals would allow trains to travel at 250mph, making the British network the fastest in Europe. The initial track is being designed to take trains 400m in length capable of carrying 1,100 people. As many as 18 could operate each hour on a London-Birmingham line. That means that a London terminal capable of handling 20,000 passengers an hour would be needed. Given space constraints in the capital, it is expected that an existing station would be expanded to accommodate the high-speed network. Rail industry experts say that only St Pancras International or Euston offer that potential. Lord Adonis will announce whether or not he thinks the scheme should proceed, but lengthy public consultation and planning procedures mean that a final decision would not be made until after a general election. Even if he does put the wheels in motion, the network would have to be built in sections. Trains would at first be forced to run off high-speed lines on to the existing rails north of Birmingham, keeping journey times between London and Scotland above three hours. That is seen as the crucial tipping point needed to ensure a switch from planes to trains, a benchmark for the rail revolution. Taxpayers meet mortgage on Tory's £75,000 orangery Alan Duncan, the frontbench Tory MP, charged the taxpayer thousands of pounds a year towards the cost of an orangery he built at his constituency home. The party’s prisons spokesman, who was demoted by David Cameron for complaining that MPs were living "on rations", increased his mortgage by £75,000 to build an oak-framed extension to his second home in Rutland. He was allowed to charge the extra interest, totalling hundreds of pounds a month, to the taxpayer. The Commons authorities approved the claims at the time and they have not been queried by Sir Thomas Legg, who is conducting a review of members’ expenses. Last night Mr Duncan said the claims "couldn’t be cleaner or simpler". Mr Duncan, one of the richest Members of Parliament, owns a two-storey house in a village in his Rutland and Melton constituency. Houses near by have sold for almost a million pounds. The ground floor comprises a kitchen, living room and dining room, but the fees office agreed that Mr Duncan needed more space. Last year he added a conservatory to the house, described in plans as an "orangery". Neighbours described it as a "glasshouse for entertaining". Mr Duncan was not required to make any reference to the increased borrowing during a recent investigation by the Commons’ Standards and Privileges Committee into his previous mortgage arangements. The committee cleared him last month of breaching the rules after an investigation into his expenses. In 2004 Mr Duncan changed the legal security for a £271,406 mortgage from his London property to his constituency home, which he had bought in 1991, the year before he became an MP. Documents released this week show that Mr Duncan was claiming about £1,400 a month in mortgage interest until March last year. In April, his claims increased to more than £1,800 a month. The interest rate on Mr Duncan’s RBS mortgage did not change in that time, suggesting that all the increase was to fund the £75,000 borrowing. The RBS standard variable mortgage rate went down from 7.94 per cent in December 2007 to 4 per cent in March this year, where it remains. The latest document release by the Commons authorities show that Mr Duncan was continuing to claim £1,250 a month this May. Mr Duncan lost his job as Shadow Leader of the House in September after an undercover reporter filmed him saying that MPs had to survive "on rations" after the expenses scandal. "Basically, it’s being nationalised, you have to live on rations and are treated like s**t." He said: "I spend my money on my garden and claim a tiny fraction based on what is proper. And I could claim the whole bloody lot, but I don’t." The MP, a millionaire from his former career as an oil trader, was first challenged over his expenses in May when it emerged that he had claimed thousands of pounds for his garden, before agreeing with the fees office that this "could be considered excessive". An activist dug a hole in the shape of a pound sign in Mr Duncan’s lawn in protest after it was revealed that he claimed £4,000 over three years. Asked about the increased mortgage last night, Mr Duncan said: "It was for capital improvements approved both by the fees office and subsequently by Legg." He added: "There is no issue of ducking and weaving or pushing the rules or anything. It is absolutely straight down the line, within the rules, authorised and everything. It just couldn’t in many ways be cleaner or simpler." Come all ye faithful to see Brighton’s beach hut Advent calendar Beach huts in Brighton have found a new lease of life for the winter months as an interactive Advent calendar. Beyond, an alternative church group that encourages spiritual exploration through creativity, invited 24 owners to decorate their huts for each day in December, using Christmas carols as their theme. The event started on December 1, with visitors allowed to view the latest hut from 5.30pm to 6.30pm each day, with mince pies and mulled wine laid on for free. Carols chosen so far include I Saw Three Ships, O Come, O Come, Emmanuel and The First Noël, where the hut features the work of Janette Tozer, a local artist. Martin Poole, 50, a TV marketing assistant from Hove, is a non-stipendiary clergyman within the Chichester diocese and the leader of Beyond. He said: "We want to make religion more relevant to people in a post-Christendom society. "Why do we as a Church expect people to come to a strange old building? It’s my feeling the Church should come to the people and celebrate in exciting ways. "The idea of the beach hut Advent calendar began just as a conversation with some friends over dinner. Brighton is such a fantastically creative and vibrant place and we are trying to try and represent that through spirituality."