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Dec 19, `07 — In a year when Al Gore won the Nobel Peace Prize and green became the new red, white and blue; when the combat in Iraq showed signs of cooling but Baghdad’s politicians showed no signs of statesmanship; when China, the rising superpower, juggled its pride in hosting next summer’s Olympic Games with its embarrassment at shipping toxic toys around the world; and when J.K. Rowling set millions of minds and hearts on fire with the final volume of her 17-year saga—one nation that had fallen off our mental map, led by one steely and determined man, emerged as a critical linchpin of the 21st century. Says Time Magazine, about its Person of the Year 2007, Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Richard Stengel of Time further writes, “No one would label Putin a child of destiny. The only surviving son of a Leningrad factory worker, he was born after what the Russians call the Great Patriotic War, in which they lost more than 26 million people. The only evidence that fate played a part in Putin’s story comes from his grandfather’s job: he cooked for Joseph Stalin, the dictator who inflicted ungodly terrors on his nation.

When this intense and brooding KGB agent took over as President of Russia in 2000, he found a country on the verge of becoming a failed state. With dauntless persistence, a sharp vision of what Russia should become and a sense that he embodied the spirit of Mother Russia, Putin has put his country back on the map. And he intends to redraw it himself. Though he will step down as Russia’s President in March, he will continue to lead his country as its Prime Minister and attempt to transform it into a new kind of nation, beholden to neither East nor West.

TIME’s Person of the Year is not and never has been an honor. It is not an endorsement. It is not a popularity contest. At its best, it is a clear-eyed recognition of the world as it is and of the most powerful individuals and forces shaping that world—for better or for worse.

It is ultimately about leadership—bold, earth-changing leadership. Putin is not a boy scout. He is not a democrat in any way that the West would define it. He is not a paragon of free speech. He stands, above all, for stability—stability before freedom, stability before choice, stability in a country that has hardly seen it for a hundred years. More at Time.

DAMASCUS, Syria — Dec 07, ‘07 — Syrian authorities have blocked Facebook, the popular Internet hangout, over what seems to be fears of Israeli “infiltration” of Syrian social networks on the Net, according to residents and media reports, the Associated Press reports.

Residents of Damascus said that they have not been able to enter Facebook for more than two weeks. An Associated Press reporter got a blank page when he tried to open Facebook’s home page Friday from the Syrian capital.

Lebanon’s daily As-Safir reported that Facebook was blocked on Nov. 18. It said the authorities took the step because Israelis have been entering Syria-based groups.

Human rights groups have regularly criticized Syrian authorities for blocking opposition sites and Internet sites critical of President Bashar Assad’s government.

Former President Hafez Assad’s death in 2000 after three decades of authoritarian rule raised hopes of a freer society under his British-educated son and successor.

But the younger Assad cracked down on political opponents and human rights activists, putting many of them in jail. More at IHT.

Khartoum, Sudan — Dec 03, ‘07 — Sudan’s president Omar al-Bashir on Monday pardoned a British teacher jailed after letting her students name a teddy bear Muhammad, and officials said she would be released and would fly back to England later in the day.

Lord Nazir Ahmed and Baroness Sayeeda Warsi, met with Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir Monday at his presidential palace to plead for Gillian Gibbons’ pardon.

Gibbons had been sentenced Thursday to 15 days in prison and deportation for insulting Islam because her students gave the teddy bear the same name as Islam’s revered prophet - a violation under Sudan’s Islamic Sharia law.

The jailing of Mrs Gibbons has led to an international outcry and has embarrassed the government. The case inflamed passions among many in Sudan, where demonstrators called for her to be put to death.

Lord Ahmed thanked the president for granting the pardon and said both he and Baroness Warsi were proud to have been able to help Mrs Gibbons.

“This is a case which is unfortunate, unintentional, innocent misunderstanding, and as British Muslim Parliamentarians we, Baroness Warsi and myself, we feel proud that we’ve been able to secure Gillian Gibbon’s release.”

In a written statement released by the presidential palace and read by Warsi to reporters, 54-year-old Gibbons said she was sorry if she caused any “distress.”

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown welcomed the news, saying that “common sense has prevailed.” “She will be released into the care of our embassy in Khartoum after what must have been a difficult ordeal,” Brown said in a statement released by his office.

More at BBC News.

London — Dec 02, ‘07 — Leading British firms and government agencies have been warned Chinese state organisations may be spying on them.

UK intelligence network MI5 has contacted 300 chief executives and security experts at banks and financial institutions to raise the concerns.

It is alleged that UK organisations may suffer a concerted cyber attack to gain commercially-sensitive data.

Recently, the head of MI5, Jonathan Evans, said that Britain faces a threat from digital espionage.

Experts say there have been unprecedented waves of attacks on computer systems worldwide in the last year.

A number of countries have accused China of trying to hack into their systems. It is believed many major developed nations engage in very similar behaviour. China’s highly sophisticated technologies make it a world leader in computing. More at BBC News.

WASHINGTON — The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is moving toward resurrecting a proposal that would limit the size cable operators could reach on a nationwide basis, agency officials said Thursday, Nov 29, the AP and Reuters are reporting.

FCC Chairman Kevin Martin is circulating the proposal among his fellow commissioners for a possible vote at the agency’s next meeting, scheduled for Dec 18 and has enough support on the five-member commission to pass a measure that would bar cable companies from owning systems that have more than a 30-percent share of U.S. multichannel video subscribers, according to one FCC source.

Martin, fresh off a marathon meeting that featured a bruising battle with the cable industry, also wants commissioners to vote on a number of media ownership issues, including his proposal to allow one company to own both a newspaper and a radio or television station in the nation’s 20 largest markets.

Fearing the potential monopoly power of cable television companies, Congress in 1992 directed the FCC to establish limits on how many customers cable television companies could reach nationwide. The FCC settled on a 30 percent cap, but the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit rejected the rule in 2001, saying the agency had failed to adequately justify its reasoning.

The issue has remained largely dormant since then as direct broadcast satellite providers — and more recently, traditional telephone companies — have continued to cut into the market share of the nation’s major cable television companies.

The immediate impact of such a cap would appear to be negligible. Comcast Corp., the nation’s largest cable company, reported 26.2 million subscribers to the FCC through Sept. 30, for a nationwide market share of all pay-television subscribers of 27 percent. More at AP, Reuters.

Dec 02, ‘07 — Two UK Muslim peers who are in Sudan to lobby for a jailed British teacher to be released will meet the president on Monday, a presidential aide has said.

Baroness Warsi and Lord Ahmed have delayed their return to the UK and Lady Warsi said they had “made progress”. But she would not confirm the aide’s announcement of a presidential meeting.

Gillian Gibbons, 54, of Liverpool, was jailed for 15 days on Thursday for insulting religion by letting her pupils name a teddy bear Muhammad.

Baroness Warsi,  a Conservative peer, travelled to Sudan with Labour’s Lord Ahmed on Saturday in the wake of Gibbons’ imprisonment for allowing her pupils to name a teddy bear Mohammad. Some Islamists considered the decision an insult as the Muslim Prophet is also called Mohammad.

In her first public comment since her arrest, Mrs Gibbons said she had been treated well and made a light-hearted comment that she been given so many apples that she “could set up my own stall”.

However despite her apparent good spirits, she is being held in secret due to fears for her safety after crowds of protesters marched in the capital Khartoum on Friday demanding a tougher sentence. Some called for the death penalty.

More at Reuters, BBC News.

Nov 29, ‘07 — BBC news is reporting on this shocking story of a British teacher being found guilty in Sudan of insulting religion after she allowed her primary school class to name a teddy bear Muhammad.

Gillian Gibbons, 54, from Liverpool, has been sentenced to 15 days in prison and will then be deported. She had been accused on three counts of insulting religion, inciting hatred and showing contempt for religious beliefs.

The Foreign Office said it was extremely disappointed by the verdict. Her lawyer says she will now appeal. The prime minister, Sudanese embassy officials in London and UK Muslim organisations all expressed the hope that Mrs Gibbons would be released.

But Sudan’s top clerics had called for the full measure of the law to be used against Mrs Gibbons and labelled her actions part of a Western plot against Islam. She could have faced up to 40 lashes.

In September, Mrs Gibbons allowed her class of primary school pupils to name the teddy bear Muhammad as part of a study of animals and their habitats. More at BBC News. Photo Credit: BBC.

WASHINGTON — Nov 28, ‘07 — The Federal Communications Commission on Tuesday backed away from a proposal by the agency’s chairman that would open the door to broader regulation of cable TV operators.

FCC Chairman Kevin Martin announced last night he was tabling his drive to expand the agency’s authority over cable companies after failing to win enough support from fellow panel members. The FCC will revisit the issue after obtaining more data from cable companies.

Commissioners including Republican Robert McDowell and Democrat Jonathan Adelstein said the draft report behind the regulatory push was based on questionable figures. The report said more than 70 percent of U.S. households have access to at least 36 cable channels, and more than 70 percent of those homes subscribe to a service.

The FCC balked at a finding proposed by FCC Chairman Kevin Martin that cable companies subscribership levels had risen enough to justify sweeping regulation of the industry, voting instead to postpone a decision and approve more limited restrictions on the industry.

The restrictions include a measure that would limit the rates that cable operators can charge to lease spare channels to independent programmers.

But Martin was forced to drop other new regulations he had proposed to impose on cable, including one sought by the NFL that would have given broadcasters more leverage in negotiations with cable operators.

Martin, a Republican, had earlier proposed that, as part of an annual report on video competition, the agency issue a finding that U.S. cable subscribership figures exceeded 70 percent in areas where the service is available.

Under U.S. law, that finding would give the agency more authority over companies such as Comcast and Time Warner Cable.

But the idea ran into resistance from Martin’s two fellow Republicans on the commission. They questioned the way Martin had arrived at the subscriber figures, saying they conflicted with previous reports on the issue.

On top of that, lobbyists with the cable industry waged a fierce campaign against Martin’s initiatives, including meetings with White House officials.

Martin has criticized the cable TV industry over steeply increasing rates, over programming that some viewers find offensive and its reluctance to let customers choose individual channels on an a la carte basis.

Martin proposed to have the report rely on data from a communications industry trade publisher, which put U.S. cable subscribership at 71.4 percent.

Under the compromise, the FCC will try to settle the dispute by seeking more data from the cable operators. Cable companies would have 60 days to provide the additional data.

Washington — Nov 27, ‘07 — Federal Communications Commission Chairman Kevin Martin delayed a vote on a report that would give the agency more power over the cable television industry, signaling he may lack support to pass the measure.

Martin was forced to delay a 9:30 a.m. EST public meeting at which the commissioners were scheduled to vote on the issue. The meeting was postponed to give the five commissioners more time to reach agreement.

FCC members are deciding whether to vote later today on requiring cable companies to submit subscriber data for review, Martin said. The commission, which had been set to meet at 11 a.m., may still vote later on the competition report, he said

The draft report, backed by Martin, found cable companies such as leader Comcast Corp. control enough of the pay-TV market to warrant more oversight. More than 70 percent of U.S. households have access to at least 36 cable channels, and more than 70 percent of those homes subscribe to a service, the report showed.

Under U.S. law, that finding would give the agency more authority over companies such as Comcast and Time Warner Cable.

But the idea ran into resistance from Martin’s two fellow Republicans on the commission. They questioned the way Martin had arrived at the 70 percent figure, saying it conflicted with previous reports on the issue. The FCC’s two Democratic commissioners also had reservations.

Beyond doubts over the data, many Republicans, including lawmakers who have written to the FCC, have fundamental objections to imposing new federal regulations on an industry they say is competitive.

The two Democrats on the FCC, meanwhile, had come under pressure from consumer groups, who support Martin’s 70 percent finding and say previous estimates undercounted the number of cable subscribers.

Consumer advocates say the FCC should adopt rules to spur competition among pay-TV providers. The cable industry surpassed the 70/70 threshold as early as 2005, said Andrew Schwartzman, president of the Washington-based Media Access Project.

“The cable industry has been exercising monopoly power,” Schwartzman said yesterday in an interview. “Cable rates have been rising far in excess of inflation and it’s time to do something about it.”

The proposed compromise to collect more data from the cable operators “would be a reasonable step for the commission to take,” Martin said.

Martin has criticized the cable TV industry over steeply increasing rates, over programming that some viewers find offensive and its reluctance to let customers choose individual channels on an a la carte basis.

In his comments to reporters on Tuesday, Martin said he had not given up on the data he originally cited in the report, gleaned from a communications industry trade publisher, that put U.S. cable subscribership at 71.4 percent.

WASHINGTON — The head of the Federal Communications Commission is struggling to find enough support from a majority of the U.S. agency’s commissioners to more tightly regulate cable television companies. Reports the International Herald Tribune.

The IHT further writes, “the five-member commission is set to vote Tuesday on a report proposed by Kevin Martin, the agency’s chairman, that would give the commission expanded powers over the cable industry after making a formal finding that it had grown too big.

After news reports earlier this month that Martin supported the finding - along with the commission’s two Democrats - the cable industry heavily lobbied the commission and allies in Congress to kill the proposal. Those efforts may be paying off.

One of the Democrats, Jonathan Adelstein, recently joined with one of the Republican opponents of the measure to unsuccessfully try to postpone the vote, commission officials said.

Without Adelstein’s support, Martin’s proposal would almost certainly fail. I don’t think the FCC should be voting this on what’s expedient, but what the facts are,” Adelstein said.

A defeat would be a major blow to consumer groups and a setback for Martin, who has led the commission in an effort to more tightly regulate the cable industry.

Last month, the commission approved his proposal to strike down exclusive contracts that a particular cable company could have to service an apartment building.” More at IHT.

Beijing, China — Nov 26, ‘07 — French industrialists visiting China with President Nicolas Sarkozy say they have finalised trade deals worth almost $30 billion (€20bn).

These include a delivery of 160 Airbus passenger planes to the value of about $15 billion (€10bn euros). And state-owned French energy firm Areva said it had signed a contract to build two nuclear reactors in China.

The Airbus deal to supply 110 of the firm’s single aisle A320 jet and 50 of the slightly bigger A330 plane will be welcome news to the European planemaker, which has struggled in the face of delays to new models and the weakening dollar.

The announcements came as Mr Sarkozy held a second meeting with his Chinese counterpart Hu Jintao.

The reactors will be built in six years’ time in the south of the country and will start generating power in 2014.

They will be operated by a new company set up by Areva and its Chinese partner, China Guangdong Nuclear Power Corp, until 2026.

China is increasingly looking to nuclear energy to meet its growing demand for power and France is keen to make sure that it is involved in this process.

Airbus and its American archrival Boeing Co. predict China will become the world’s second-biggest aircraft market after the United States, with airlines buying 1,900 to 2,600 planes over the next two decades.

Airbus’ final assembly line in the Chinese city of Tianjian is due to deliver its first aircraft in early 2009. The plant is expected to be able to produce four A320s a month by 2011 and a total of about 300 A320 planes by 2016.

Following the signing of these deals, President Sarkozy will carry on with his official visit, his first to Asia since his election in May.

According to critics, the French President should be doing more during the trip to pressure China over its human rights record and use of the death penalty.

Some observers are calling on China to take a harder line with Iran over its nuclear programme. Mr Sarkozy has warned that it would be unacceptable if Tehran acquired nuclear weapons. Photo Credit: The AP.

NEW YORK — Nov 26, ‘07 — International Herald Tribune is reporting on ABC News joining hands with popular social networking site, Facebook.

“ABC News and Facebook have formally established a partnership - the site’s first with a news organization - that allows Facebook members to follow ABC reporters, view reports and video and participate in polls and debates, all within a new “US Politics” category.

To underscore their collaboration, the two organizations plan to announce Monday that they are jointly playing host to Democratic and Republican presidential debates in New Hampshire on Jan. 5, three days before the state’s primary elections.

The announcements are another sign that news organizations are looking to capitalize on the potential power of Facebook, which began as a database of college friendships, and other social networking sites.

Media companies like The New York Times, which owns the International Herald Tribune, and The Washington Post have produced program applications on Facebook and some newspapers, magazines and television stations have recently invited users to join fan pages. But ABC’s new relationship is intended to be deeper.

The collaboration between ABC News and Facebook started quietly several weeks ago, with personal pages of network reporters like Rick Klein, the author of ABC’s widely read political newsletter The Note, and Sunlen Miller, who has been following the Barack Obama campaign.

For ABC News, the collaboration puts political content on a site with 56 million active users. For Facebook, it adds an authoritative source and fresh content for the site’s political section.” More at IHT.

Nov 23, ‘07 — The Danish government has said it would like to hold a fresh referendum on whether to adopt the Euro. Back in 2000, the Danish people voted by 53% to 47% not to join the single currency and instead keep the krone, but recent opinion polls show a narrow majority were now in favour of switching to the Euro.

Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen, whose centre-right government was re-elected last week, said that the opt-outs harmed Danish interests and should be reconsidered once the country has ratified the new EU treaty.

The current arrangement was secured fourteen years ago, a year after Denmark shocked the rest of Europe by rejecting the Maastricht treaty, and allow Denmark to stay outside the development of the EU in four specific areas: the euro, defence, justice and home affairs.

“It is the government’s view that the people in this parliamentary term should have the opportunity to take a stance on the Danish EU opt-outs,” said Mr Rasmussen. The referendum will take place at some stage in the next four years, he indicated.

A member of the European Parliament for the opposition Social Democrats, Dan Jorgensen, said his party had been asking for a vote for several years but it was a difficult thing to do in Denmark and its leaders had tended to avoid taking the risk because “the EU is always controversial”.

Denmark previously raised the issue of a fresh referendum on the euro in 2003, but it did not come to anything on that occasion.

The European debate in Denmark is closely followed by UK politicians. When Denmark rejected Maastricht it is thought to have emboldened Conservative eurosceptics to cause trouble for John Major as he tried to steer European legislation through the House of Commons.

Finland is the only Nordic country to have joined the euro. Sweden rejected the single currency in a referendum in 2003 and Norway is part of the European Economic Area rather than the EU.

Denmark joined the European Economic Community, the precursor to today’s European Union, in 1973, at the same time as the UK and the Republic of Ireland.

A Chinese mining company has won a tender to develop one of the world’s largest copper mines in Afghanistan. The state-owned China Metallurgical group says it will invest nearly $3bn in the mine at Aynak in the province of Logar, south of Kabul.

Officials say it will be the largest foreign investment in Afghan history and will employ 10,000 people. When construction is complete the company will pay the Afghan government $400m a year.

The Afghan government wants to attract foreign companies to make mining a key sector of an economy that is on a slow recovery after three decades of war.

The Aynak copper deposits in Logar province were first explored by Soviet geologists in the 1970s. But then the Soviet invasion of 1979 and years of warfare put an end to plans to develop them. Officials say the area contains an estimated 13 million tonnes of copper, making it a world-class site.

It is also in a relatively safe area, not far from the capital. The $3bn that the China Metallurgical group is to invest in Aynak compares with a total of $4bn which the Afghan government says foreign companies have invested in the country since the overthrow of the Taleban six years ago.

Once it goes into operation in five years’ time, the mine will provide hundreds of millions of dollars of much-needed revenue for the cash-starved Afghan government. It will also provide thousands of jobs in a land where unemployment is one of the most pressing problems.

Kabul hopes to attract more foreign mining firms. The Aynak tender was hotly contested by companies from Canada, Australia and Russia, as well as China.

Experts say Afghanistan’s mountains are rich in minerals, which could become a significant base for the revival of the country’s shattered economy. Apart from copper, there is coal, iron, gas and oil.

There is also a sparkling assortment of gemstones - emeralds, tourmalines and garnets, and the lapis lazuli mines which provided jewelry for the Egyptian pharoahs three thousand years ago.

London, UK — Nov 20, ‘07 — The BBCNews is reporting on Animal rights activists are thought to being the first Britons to be asked to hand over keys to data encrypted on their computers to the Police. 

Excerpts from the article: “The request for the keys is being made under the controversial Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act (RIPA). Police analysing machines seized during raids on activist’s homes carried out in May have asked for the keys. The activists could face jail if they do not comply and snub a further formal request to hand over the keys.

Case law
In early November about 30 animal rights activists are understood to have received letters from the Crown Prosecution Service in Hampshire inviting them to provide passwords that will decrypt material held on seized computers.

The letter is the first stage of a process set out under RIPA which governs how the authorities handle requests to examine encrypted material. Once a request has been issued the authorities can then issue what is known as a Section 49 notice demanding that a person turn the data into an “intelligible” form or, under Section 51 hand over keys.

Legal row
The section of RIPA that deals with decryption requests was controversial when it was drawn up and debated. Peers, academics and cryptographers called the proposals “flawed” when invited to comment on them by the Home Office.

Commentators pointed out that sSection III, which is aimed at serious criminals, such as paedophiles and terrorists, is flawed because those involved would much rather serve a few years for refusing to hand over keys than provide them and potentially incriminate themselves.

Others were simply likely to say that they had forgotten the complicated passphrase they used when encrypting material. Under certain circumstances RIPA allows this to be a plausible defence”. More at BBCNews.

GENEVA –  Nov 19, ‘07 – The appointment of a Chinese judge to the highest court in the World Trade Organization (WTO) has been blocked by Taiwan in a surprise decision. Taiwan lodged its objection citing fears of bias and the step forced a meeting on the matter to be adjourned.

China’s Zhang Yuejiao was among four candidates nominated to the WTO’s seven-member Appellate Body in June. She would have been China’s first judge on the body, which rules on trade disputes between WTO member states.

The WTO dispute settlement body had been due to approve the appointment of four new members of the WTO’s appellate body, but Taiwan asked for that item to be removed from the agenda, WTO officials said.

Beijing regards the island of Taiwan - which has been under self-rule since the end of the civil war in 1949 - as a renegade province which should eventually be reunified with China.

It consistently blocks Taiwanese attempts to join United Nations bodies, but has made an exception for economic organisations such as the WTO.

Other members including the United States, Japan and the European Union insisted it should be included, and the chairman of the meeting, Australia’s WTO ambassador Bruce Gosper, was forced to adjourn it to find a way out of the impasse.

Taiwan — according to a copy of its statement made available by its WTO mission — said it could not agree to the agenda “because we have deep concerns on the question of impartiality and qualification of one of the recommended candidates to serve the Appellate Body.”

WTO sources said they believed it was the first time the appointment of an appellate judge had been blocked in this way.

The judges play an important role settling trade disputes worth billions of dollars between the WTO’s 151 members.

Dispute settlement is at the heart of the multilateral trading system and its system of rules which are umpired by the WTO to ensure that countries can trade fairly with each other.

Chinese espionage poses “the single greatest risk” to the security of US technology, US-China Economic and Security Review Commission has told Congress.

Washington — Nov 15, ‘07 – China is pursuing new technology “aggressively”, it says, legitimately through research and business deals and illegally through industrial espionage.

China has also “embraced destructive warfare techniques”, the report says, enabling it to carry out cyber attacks on other countries’ infrastructure. A foreign ministry spokesman in Beijing denied any spying activities by China.

The advisory panel, appointed by Congress, recommended that US security measures and intelligence be stepped up to try to prevent the theft of military technology, in particular. “Chinese espionage activities in the United States are so extensive that they comprise the single greatest risk to the security of American technologies,” the report said.

It urged Congress to study “military, intelligence and homeland security programmes that protect critical American computer networks and sensitive information, specifically those charged with protecting networks from damage caused by cyber attacks”. The report also identified other grounds for concern, such as the fact that the Chinese are manufacturing “sophisticated weapon platforms” speedily and efficiently.

The unexpected pace of China’s military development has fuelled analysts’ suspicions that it is being helped by stolen information, the commission said. In addition, the Chinese media - firmly under state control - are being used to create “deep feelings of nationalism”, it said. In an international crisis, the panel warned, that could turn misunderstanding into conflict.

The report also criticised Chinese economic policy, saying that small and medium-sized American businesses “face the full brunt of China’s unfair trade practices, currency manipulation and illegal subsidies for Chinese exports”.

In September, the Chinese government denied reports that its military had hacked into the computer network of the US defence department in Washington. Chairman Carolyn Bartholomew’s opening statement on the release of the 2007 Annual Report to Congress (in PDF).

NEW YORK — November 11, ‘07 — Jon Friedman of Foxbusiness reports on the lunch and panel talk he attended by Time magazine to discuss possibilities for its Person of the Year issue.

In his words, “After attending Time’s discussion of who should be the magazine’s Person of the Year, I reached two conclusions:

Al Gore looks like a shoo-in. Time is blowing a major journalistic and marketing opportunity by bestowing only one award.

Gore, 59, looms as a timely and popular selection. Through his respected documentary, “An Inconvenient Truth,” and his presentations, he has sparked interest in global warming and the environment. He has jump-started America’s “green” movement more significantly than any other individual. That alone is noteworthy.

But over the past few years, Gore has come a long way. In 2006, the puffy ex-presidential hopeful looked like little more than a prime candidate for a Weight Watchers commercial. Then, in only the past nine months, he has accepted an Oscar and a Nobel Peace Prize.” More at Foxbusiness.

Beijing, China – Nov 09, ‘07 — A Chinese official gave the clearest sign yet that Beijing will reject binding caps on greenhouse gas emissions at a global meeting next month, saying developing countries must be allowed to raise emissions to fight poverty.

Beijing is about to overtake the United States as the world’s top greenhouse-gas producer. It is under pressure from Washington to accept binding limits at a meeting in Bali, Indonesia of environment ministers from 80 nations to discuss a possible replacement to the 1997 Kyoto Protocol on emission reductions.

Nations agreed in Kyoto to cut output of carbon dioxide and other heat-trapping gases to below 1990 levels by 2012. But China, India and other developing economies are exempt.

“Climate change is caused mainly by developed countries,” Vice Foreign Minister Zhang Yesui said. “They should have the main responsibility for climate change and to reduce emissions.”

“Most developing countries are in the process of industrialization and urbanization, and they face the arduous task of poverty reduction,” Zhang said. “So they need a large period of time for continuous energy demand growth with the growth of greenhouse gas emissions.”

Zhang did not say directly what Beijing’s position would be at the meeting on the Indonesian island of Bali, and he did not take questions from reporters.

A European Union official who met this week with Chinese leaders said they told him in private meetings that Beijing could not accept any binding obligations.

Santiago, Chile — Nov 05, ‘07 –A hacker broke into the Web page of Chile’s presidency and planted the flag of neighboring Peru, leaving the site inoperable for about 18 hours until it was restored Monday.

The intruder left a message - “Long live Peru,” followed by an expletive - as well as the flag around midday Sunday. Officials took the site down a few minutes later, leaving a notice: “Because we want to give a better service, we are working for you.”

Carlos Portales, political director of the Chilean foreign ministry, said the incident is being investigated. “It has happened with other Web pages, including some from the United States government, the Vatican,” Portales told reporters.

The Santiago daily El Mercurio on Monday reported that officials believe the hacker was a Peruvian.

While Chile and Peru have generally friendly relations, tension sporadically breaks out over the aftermath of two 19th century wars between the countries and a dispute over maritime boundaries has been developing.

Reuters reports this breaking news: “OSLO (Reuters) - Former U.S. Vice President Al Gore and the U.N. climate panel won the Nobel Peace Prize on Friday for their part in galvanising international action against global warming before it “moves beyond man’s control”.Gore and the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) won “for their efforts to build up and disseminate greater knowledge about man-made climate change, and to lay the foundations for the measures that are needed to counteract such change”, the Norwegian Nobel Committee said.

They were chosen to share the $1.5 million (740,088 pounds) prize from a field of 181 candidates. “He is probably the single individual who has done most to create greater worldwide understanding of the measures that need to be adopted,” the committee said of Gore.

“The IPCC has created an ever-broader informed consensus about the connection between human activities and global warming,” it said.

“Action is necessary now, before climate change moves beyond man’s control,” the citation said of rising temperatures that could bring more droughts, floods, rising seas. It was the second prize to a leading U.S. Democrat during the presidency of Republican George W. Bush. The 2002 prize went to former President Jimmy Carter.”

More at Reuters