Caroline Davies | May 11

The Observer -
It tastes sweet, like a cross between lamb and duck. And it's selling as fast as butchers can get it

It's low in fat, low in food miles and completely free range. In fact, some claim that Sciurus carolinensis - the grey squirrel - is about as ethical a dish as it is possible to serve on a dinner plate.

The grey squirrel, the American cousin of Britain's endangered red variety, is flying off the shelves faster than hunters can shoot them, with game butchers struggling to keep up with demand. 'We put it on the shelf and it sells. It can be a dozen squirrels a day - and they all go,' said David Simpson, the director of Kingsley Village shopping centre in Fraddon, Cornwall, whose game counter began selling grey squirrel meat two months ago.

By Hannes Artens

No doubt, this Sunday's parliamentary elections in Serbia are the most decisive in the country's short but turbulent democratic history. Never since the fall of Slobodan Milosevic the stakes have been so high and prospects so ominous. In two days, the Serbian people will decide on whether they still envision a future in the European family of nations for their nation or decay into self-inflicted isolation and the status of a Trojan Horse for Russian great power aspirations. For the European Union, the elections will determine whether it can count on having an interlocutor in Belgrade to negotiate with past May 11, or face up to a nationalist Serbia acting as a permanent spirit of discord for the entire Western Balkans.

The unilateral declaration of independence of Kosovo on February 17, sent shockwaves through the country that not only culminated in the ravage of several Western embassies and brought the government down, but also dominates this election campaign right down to the last comma on every stump. The collective national trauma of having ultimately lost the very territory mystified as the cradle of the Serbian nation and the impolitic signals the EU sent out over the last weeks render a radical-nationalist landslide a given. According to most recent polls, the nationalist bloc could bank on winning a super-majority of 55%, relegate all reform-minded powers into opposition, and set off to permanently disengage Serbia from Europe.

May 8

Independent - Home Secretary Jacqui Smith vowed today to "turn the tables" on troublemakers, urging police to crack down on individuals who ignore warnings over their anti-social behaviour.

Building on a scheme piloted in Essex, officers will be told to give those who persistently make their neighbours' lives hell "a taste of their own medicine" by subjecting them to repeated visits, checks and warnings.

And their details could be shared with other Government agencies, so they can be targeted for checks on whether they have paid their road tax, car insurance, TV licence and council tax.

Ms Smith also said that parents have a greater role to play in controlling young people.

She told GMTV today: "Parents have to take more responsibility. If we get to the stage where we have to give someone an ASBO, we should consider putting alongside that a parenting order so that the parents take responsibility for the young person's actions."

Silvia Aloisi | Rome | May 7

Reuters - Italy's prime minister-elect Silvio Berlusconi on Wednesday unveiled one of the country's most right-wing governments since World War Two.

The 71-year old conservative read out his cabinet list to reporters after meeting with the head of state at the presidential palace.

Giulio Tremonti will return as economy minister and Franco Frattini will leave his post as European commissioner to become foreign minister in the 21-member cabinet.

The election produced a purge of smaller parties, with only six winning seats versus more than 20 in 2006. One casualty was Berlusconi's estranged Christian Democrat allies, who gave his last government a centrist counterweight to the right.

Its absence, plus the League's surprise gains, appeared to have produced one of the most right-wing governments since fascist dictator Benito Mussolini.

When Nicolas Sarkozy was elected president one year ago today, the US media were full of praise for him and expected a big improvement in transatlantic relations.

Sarkozy's pro-American rhetoric was very much appreciated, because it was a big contrast to Gerhard Schroeder's US critical election campaigns. With Schroeder replaced by Angela Merkel and Chirac now replaced by Sarkozy, many Americans were looking forward to a new era in transatlantic relations led by a younger generation of pro-American leaders in Europe.

I did not find this much convincing, but have been very critical of Sarkozy (and to a lesser extent of Merkel). In the last few months, however, President Sarkozy announced some policy changes that indicate more support for US interests, so perhaps I should reconsider my position on Sarko.

Gaelle Fisher has written a very balanced analysis on the question "Has Sarkozy truly improved the state of transatlantic relations and earned his reputation as the most pro-American president France has ever had?" She presents three arguments in favor and three against in a pro & con feature on Atlantic Community: Sarkozy l' Américain? Here is a snippet:

Sarkozy has agreed to increase France’s contribution to the war effort in Afghanistan by adding 1500 to 1700 to the existing French contingent of 1600, sending combat troops to the East, and providing military arsenal. Yet the main new element of French military cooperation with the United States is Sarkozy’s commitment to reintegrating France into NATO’s military wing.

On Sarko’s first anniversary in power, the French are very critical of his domestic policies (and his style), but I wonder what Americans think of his foreign policy. Has he met your expectations? Has he repaired the damage in transatlantic relations as expected by many in the US media?

David Leigh & Rob Evans | May 7

The Guardian - · Claims 'cast doubt' over company, says report
· Lord Woolf sets out 'road map' to bolster standards

It was last updated at 00:09 on May 07 2008. BAE Systems, the arms giant accused of making corrupt payments worldwide to win lucrative contracts, has admitted it acted unethically in the past.

The admissions were made by BAE executives to Lord Woolf, the former lord chief justice, who was hired by the company to review its conduct. BAE promised to improve its behaviour when seeking to win future contracts.

Britain's biggest defence company had been forced to hire Woolf last summer after it suffered bad publicity over corruption allegations. There had been an outcry after Tony Blair's government halted a Serious Fraud Office investigation into allegations of huge bribes in a Saudi arms deal. That deal is being investigated by the US Department of Justice and is the subject of a House of Lords appeal.

BAE is also being investigated by the Serious Fraud Office over claims it paid bribes to secure contracts in a number of other countries, including Tanzania and the Czech Republic.

May 7

BBC - Tony Blair appears to have lost the French president's backing

Nicolas Sarkozy has withdrawn his backing of Tony Blair to become the first president of the European Union, senior sources have told the BBC.

The French president is understood to have changed his mind after meeting German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

It is thought he feels EU opposition to the former UK prime minister is too strong because he backed the Iraq war.

Owen Bowcott | May 6

The Guardian - Use of CCTV images for court evidence has so far been very poor, according to Detective Chief Inspector Mick Neville, the officer in charge of the Metropolitan police unit.

Massive investment in CCTV cameras to prevent crime in the UK has failed to have a significant impact, despite billions of pounds spent on the new technology, a senior police officer piloting a new database has warned. Only 3% of street robberies in London were solved using CCTV images, despite the fact that Britain has more security cameras than any other country in Europe.

The warning comes from the head of the Visual Images, Identifications and Detections Office (Viido) at New Scotland Yard as the force launches a series of initiatives to try to boost conviction rates using CCTV evidence. ...

   Link to this audio - Owen Bowcott on why CCTV is catching few criminals

NATO deserves attention both in terms of its current activities in Afghanistan and because of the current debates revolving around NATO expansion to Ukraine and Georgia. NATO’s quest for a new identity since the end of the Cold War has rightly resulted in much debate about the utility of the Alliance in a world with contemporary threats that can no longer be defined by East and West. Several articles published recently at the Atlantic Community provide an excellent framework for anchoring discussions around NATO.

Andre Kelleners, a member of the Atlantic Community, argues that rather than sidelining Russia, NATO membership states should consult with Russia to determine a common understanding of NATO’s role. It makes sense, he contends, for Partnership-for-Peace countries to eventually join the alliance as full members, but only together with and at the same time as Russia. It is in all parties’ best interest for NATO and Russia to share the same vision.

Andreas Umland of the National Taras Shevchenko University of Kyiv, continued the debate about when and how to offer a Membership Action Plan (MAP) to Ukraine. He highlighted the February 2008 statistics which revealed that a staggering 53% of Ukraine’s population were against NATO membership and only 21% in favor. He blames NATO rather than Germany for this statistic, saying that NATO “has done too little too late in terms of explaining to Ukrainians what NATO is about. Instead, Ukraine's political and public discourse remains corrupted by Soviet legacies.”

Timo Noetzel and Benjamin Schreer of the German Institute for International and Security Affairs in Berlin focus the discussion around NATO on the difficulties which NATO is currently facing in Afghanistan and argue that the chances are high that the Alliance will fail. NATO, they contend, is both politically and militarily ill-prepared to execute the required counter-insurgency strategy in Afghanistan. An Afghan disaster might not be a death sentence for the Alliance, but would certainly have major repercussions.

Deborah Summers, Patrick Wintour & Andrew Sparrow | London | May 2

The Guardian - Gordon Brown today acknowledged a "bad night" for Labour after the party's national share of the vote plummeted to 24% - its lowest level since the 1960s – in his first electoral test as prime minister.

With about two thirds of the results declared, the Conservatives had 44% of the national share of the vote – enough to give David Cameron a landslide majority if it were replicated in a general election.

Sharon Smyth | Madrid | April 30

Bloomberg - Over the past decade, developers built about 100,000 illegal homes in Spain, and consumer advocates say thousands of those are now threatened with demolition as regional governments try to deter clandestine construction. The crusade may discourage the foreign buyers who fueled Spain's housing boom, deepening a slump that began last year.

``The problem is very serious,'' says Rafael Pampillon, an economics professor at the Instituto Empresa in Madrid. ``When a country has a system or set of institutions that allow illegal houses to be built and corruption to exist then evidently foreign investment is going to flee.''

Ian Cobain | Rawalpindi, Pakistan | April 29

The Guardian - British agents alleged to have questioned men at Pakistani interrogation centre after they had been brutally mistreated

Officers of the Security Service, MI5, are being accused of "outsourcing" the torture of British citizens to a notorious Pakistani intelligence agency in an attempt to obtain information about terrorist plots and to secure convictions against al-Qaida suspects.

A number of British terrorism suspects who have been arrested in Pakistan at the request of UK authorities say their interrogation by Security Service officers, shortly after brutal torture at the hands of agents of Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence agency (ISI), has convinced them that MI5 colluded in the mistreatment.

Dublin | April 28

AFP - Ireland, which has seen an immigration surge in recent years, has a new foreigner on its shores, scientists said Monday: the greater white-toothed shrew.

The mammal, Crocidura Russula, has been discovered in parts of the midlands and south-west of the republic. Its natural range is in parts of Africa, France and Germany.

Professor Ian Montgomery, head of the School of Biological Sciences at Queen's University in Belfast, says the animal is likely to have been introduced recently to Ireland and the discovery of a new mammal species in Ireland is extremely rare.

"Most species which occur in Ireland also occur in Britain but the nearest this species of shrew has been found is on the Channel Islands and the Scilly Isles."

Berne | April 28

BBC - Key United Nations development agencies are meeting in Switzerland to try to develop solutions to ease the escalating global food crisis.

Led by secretary general Ban Ki-Moon, officials want to mitigate the impact of the steep rise in staple food prices and prevent food shortages worsening.

Richard Osley & Brian Brady | UK | April 27

Independent - Britain's motorists faced rationing at petrol stations yesterday, as major suppliers tried to stop them hoarding fuel. Concern over supplies as the Grangemouth refinery in Scotland closed down led to fuel queues on forecourts across Scotland, the north of England and parts of Wales.

Jason Burke | April 27

The Observer - Nicolas Sarkozy came to power a year ago promising radical change. Now even his supporters are disillusioned. Jason Burke journeys through France's heartland to chart the end of an infatuation

Leaning against the bar of the grubby Buffet de Rail in the northern town of St Omer, Mathieu Blanc offered his vision of French politics to the half a dozen coffee- and beer-sipping clients and a single bored barman.

'The problem with Nicolas Sarkozy is that everyone talks about him and no one talks about France or people like us,' the soldier turned chef said, pointing to the picture of the President beneath a local newspaper headline revealing a national approval rating of just 28 per cent. 'Do I think things are going to get better? No, it will probably get worse.'

April 26

AFP - A North Sea pipeline which supplies around 40 percent of Britain's oil and gas as well as international markets will shut down within hours because of a strike, operator BP said Saturday.

The Forties pipeline in Grangemouth, west of Edinburgh, Scotland, is being closed as a knock-on effect of industrial action by 1,200 workers at a neighbouring oil refinery in a row over pensions.

The pipeline cannot function without electricity and steam generated by the refinery, which has already closed ahead of the strike Sunday and Monday.

BP executives are currently holding meetings to decide when the pipeline should be shut down.

Elizabeth Rosenthal | Civitavecchia, Italy | April 23

NYT - At a time when the world’s top climate experts agree that carbon emissions must be rapidly reduced to hold down global warming, Italy’s major electricity producer, Enel, is converting its massive power plant here from oil to coal, generally the dirtiest fuel on earth.

Over the next five years, Italy will increase its reliance on coal to 33 percent from 14 percent. Power generated by Enel from coal will rise to 50 percent.

Mark Townsend | April 20

The Observer - Customs probe reveals sanctions-busting sales of arms, missile technology and nuclear components

Investigators have identified a number of British arms dealers trading with Tehran, triggering alarm among government officials who fear Iran's nuclear programme may be receiving significant support from UK sources.

The probe by customs officers suggests that at least seven Britons have been defying sanctions by supplying the Iranian air force, its elite Revolutionary Guard Corps, and even the country's controversial nuclear ambitions.

Officials say they are perturbed by the number of British dealers who appear to be trading with Tehran, despite a third round of restrictions being recently imposed by the United Nations on exporting arms and components to Iran. However, investigators argue that it is the generous riches being offered by Iran, not any shared ideology, that is seducing the dealers.

Nicholas Watt | Boston | April 19

The Guardian - PM uses Boston speech to bury Blair's doctrine of liberal interventionism

Gordon Brown and his wife Sarah meet Ted Kennedy during their visit to the John F. Kennedy memorial library in Boston. Photograph: Adam Hunger/Reuters

Europe and the US will face "terrifying risks" if they fail to join forces to fight global terrorism by combating poverty and disease, Gordon Brown warned yesterday in a speech on foreign policy in Boston.

The prime minister voiced the hope that a "new dawn of collaborative action" would be ushered in next year with the election of a new US president.

On the final leg of his three-day trip to the US, during which he met George Bush and the three presidential candidates, Brown said that American leadership would always be indispensable.

But he made clear that he hopes for a more consensual style of US leadership when either Barack Obama, John McCain, or Hillary Clinton enters the White House next January. Brown indicated that this would allow Europe and the US to move on from the divisions over Iraq.

Alok Jha | April 18

The Guardian - Fears that the rapid draining of water from the top of Greenland's ice sheet may be contributing to the rise of global sea levels have been allayed by new research. Though scientists confirmed that the water can drain away faster than Niagara Falls, it did not seem to accelerate the movement of the ice sheet into the ocean as previously thought.

Receding ice sheets are of major concern to climate scientists because the melting water could lead to a rise in sea levels. In addition, the melting can encourage feedback mechanisms that amplify the warming effects of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere: ice and snow reflect sunlight, so less of them means more heat is absorbed by the Earth. Observations have already shown that the speed at which glaciers at the edge of Greenland are moving into the sea has doubled in the past two decades.

Thousands of lakes form on top of Greenland's glaciers every summer due to the increased sunlight and warmer air. Satellite observations have shown that these lakes often disappear, often in as little as a day, but no one knew where the water was going or how quickly it moved.

Meg Carter | April 18

Independent -

It all started with a failed attempt to secure a plot on a local allotment. "After four years, I was still only 22nd on the waiting list," says Sebastian Mayfield, co-founder of Food Up Front. "So I began looking for an alternative closer to home. And then it dawned on me while lying in the bath one day, why don't we make better use of the space we already have?"

Mayfield's Eureka moment led him to petition a small group of locals living in the streets neighbouring his home in Balham, south London, to join him growing vegetables in front gardens or on their window sills, balconies and roofs. The idea was simple: by pooling resources and sharing expertise, participants could eat local by growing their own.

Twelve months on and Food Up Front is now signing up people for year two. It has a network of more than 30 street rep co-ordinators, and has attracted the interest of would-be urban farmers from neighbouring boroughs and beyond.

For a contribution of just £20 towards running costs, each will receive a starter pack including growing containers, locally-produced organic compost, a selection of seeds and a basic planting and harvesting guide.

Jerome Taylor | Britain | April 17

Independent - The price of farmland is rising at its fastest rate for more than 30 years as wealthy city dwellers and overseas buyers seek a slice of idyllic rural England and jittery investors rush to move their money out of stocks and shares because of the global credit crunch.

In contrast to falling residential and commercial property values, the average price of farmland rose by more than 10 per cent in the first quarter of 2008, according to a study of agricultural property sales which will be published this month. Arable land, in particular, has become so profitable that its average price has soared from £4,000 an acre in January last year to £5,500 an acre today.

Angela Balakrishnan | Potsdam, Germany | April 16

The Guardian - NASA has been outsmarted by a German schoolboy who corrected its estimates of the chances of an asteroid colliding with Earth, it was reported today.

The German Potsdamer Neueste Nachrichten newspaper said 13-year-old Nico Marquardt came across the NASA miscalculation after conducting a study as part of a regional science competition.

Richard O'Mara | Baltimore, MD | April 15

CSM - Deciphering latent script on ancient parchment makes curator Will Noel's job an Indiana Jones-style adventure

This is about an ancient book called The Archimedes Codex, bought for $2.2 million in October, 1998, at an auction in New York City by an anonymous collector who sent it to the Walters Art Museum, here to be restored, conserved, and probed for its content. It was thought to contain mathematical theses conceived by the genius of Syracuse (287-212 BC), whose name it bears, ideas not found anywhere else in the world.