She will run a new EU diplomatic corps – the European External Action Service (EEAS) – with 7,000 staff and an annual budget of £11 billion. The institution is being referred to as a "foreign ministry". ONE OF THE EEAS'S FIRST ACTS WILL TO GET A UN GENERAL ASSEMBLY RESOLUTION TO RECOGNISE AN EU. With a seat and nameplate in the chamber, the EU foreign minister and his ambassador will be able to take part in debate and to sponsor resolutions but not to vote.

New York's "Union delegation" – one of over 130 around the world – will be upgraded with its staff of UN diplomats increased from 15 to around 50. IN A SIGN OF THE EU'S GROWING MILITARY AMBITIONS, there are plans to set up another Union embassy in Kabul, as Europe's political role in Afghanistan increases.

A letter conferring a full "legal personality" on the Union has been drafted in order for a new European diplomatic service to be recognised as fully fledged negotiators by international bodies and all non-EU countries. The EU "High Rep" will receive a salary of £295,000 – more than twice the sum earned by David Miliband, the Foreign Secretary.
DAILY MAIL:- BARONESS ASHTON HAS NEVER HELD ELECTED OFFICE.

THE MOVE, WHICH WAS WELCOMED BY SCIENTISTS, comes despite a drive to slim down the national curriculum for primary schools and leave teachers greater discretion over what to teach. Church and other faith schools within the state system will have to comply although officials said the theory of evolution could be taught in a context that reflected a school's ethos, in a similar way to compulsory sex education for children aged under 15.

MORE THAN 500 SCIENTISTS AND SUPPORTERS SIGNED AN E-PETITION to Downing Street urging such a change. The new curriculum is to include a requirement "to investigate and explain how plants and animals are 'interdependent' and are diverse and adapted to their environment by natural selection".

THE ROYAL SOCIETY applauded the decision and said that it would send booklets to all teacher training colleges with information and advice for new teachers on how to explain natural selection. Professor Sir Martin Taylor, its vice-president, said: "We are delighted to see evolution explicitly included in the primary curriculum. One of the most remarkable achievements of science over the last 200 years has been to show how humans and all other organisms on the Earth arose through the process of evolution."

"Learning about evolution can be an extraordinary, exciting and inspiring experience for children. TEACHERS SHOULD AIM TO EXPLAIN WHY EVOLUTION BY NATURAL SELECTION IS THE ONLY KNOWN WAY OF UNDERSTANDING ALL THE AVAILABLE EVIDENCE."

Kristen Hemmerechts, a well known Flemish essayist, has compared his looks to the Extra-Terrestrial film character made famous by Steven Spielberg. "I can't look at a picture of him without thinking: ET," she wrote recently. A year ago, Mr Van Rompuy was drifting towards retirement before he was plucked from obscurity by King Albert II in one of the periodic crises that threaten to split the country's Flemish and French-speaking communities apart.

Even then, as opportunity knocked, he was reluctant to step into the limelight as national premier and it took Belgium's monarch 90 minutes to persuade him. MR VAN ROMPUY REMAINED ALMOST COMPLETELY UNKNOWN OUTSIDE BELGIUM'S FRONTIERS until he was anointed as a candidate for President of the Council by Angela Merkel, Germany's chancellor and Nicolas Sarkozy, the French president, at a Brussels summit on October 29.

Mr Van Rompuy is married with four children. His younger brother, Eric Van Rompuy, and his son, Peter, are also Christian Democrat politicians. HIS MAVERICK SISTER, CHRISTINE VAN ROMPUY, IS A MEMBER OF THE MAOIST WORKERS PARTY OF BELGIUM.

BOTH ARE SEEN AS LOW-KEY CONSENSUAL POLITICIANS. Earlier, the UK government said it was no longer pushing for former PM Tony Blair to get the presidency post. Mr Van Rompuy had crucial French and German support. He has a reputation as a coalition builder, having taken charge of the linguistically divided Belgian government and steered it out of a crisis.

The EU leaders had a working dinner together to negotiate the appointments. They were reported to be striving for a balance in the two posts, with one filled by a candidate from one of the bigger EU states, the other from a smaller country. Similarly, the presidency was expected to go to a centre-right politician and the post of foreign affairs chief to the centre-left.

The combination of Mr Van Rompuy and Lady Ashton would also achieve the balance that EU leaders seek, the BBC's Jonny Dymond says. The EU president will chair regular meetings of the European Council at which decisions are taken about the political position of the bloc. However, correspondents say the High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, as the post is officially known, could have an even more powerful role.

The foreign policy chief will have a seat as vice-president of the European Commission, as well as a budget worth billions of euros and a new diplomatic service of up to 5,000 people. MR VAN ROMPUY HAS BEEN DESCRIBED AS A PRAGMATIC RATHER THAN A CHARISMATIC FIGURE.

19/11/09 OPEN EUROPE PRESS SUMMARY REPORTS:- According to a document from the European Council, the new EU President will earn €350,000 a year, taxed at 25 percent, and will have a staff of 22 press officers, assistants and administrators, in addition to 10 security agents. The paper notes that this is double the current salary of the Belgian Prime Minister Herman Van Rompuy, who is the current frontrunner for the post. It also notes that it is significantly more than US President Barack Obama's salary, which is around $400,000 a year or €269,000. The total cost of the President and his team will be €6 million a year.

The new EU Foreign Minister will gain control of A £45BN BUDGET and a staff of 7,000, designed to be "THE BIGGEST ­DIPLOMATIC STAFF IN THE WORLD". It is planned that the EU will have embassies around the world, plus military ­command structures. The article notes that the Foreign Minister and the new EU President will operate from a new £280million HQ in Brussels. The details of the diplomatic corps are revealed in a leaked document from the Swedish EU presidency, obtained by Open Europe. Director Lorraine Mullally is quoted saying, "WHOEVER GETS THIS JOB WILL BE IN CHARGE OF THE BIGGEST DIPLOMATIC SERVICE IN THE WORLD, WITHOUT EVEN HAVING TO GET ELECTED OR ANSWER TO THE PUBLIC. The last thing Europe needs is yet another bloated EU institution, costing billions and WITH NO DEMOCRATIC MANDATE and yet here we are creating a blueprint for a fully-fledged EU Foreign Office.

While the FDA is not required to follow the group's advice, its recommendation moves the company closer to expanding the use of a treatment that RACKED UP MORE THAN $2.7 BILLION IN SALES LAST YEAR AS THE WORLD'S TOP-SELLING VACCINE. "We're very gratified to have achieved a positive recommendation from the committee," said Dr Emilio Emini, Pfizer's chief of vaccine research.

The new vaccine reduces risk of infection from 13 varieties of the disease, which causes thousands of cases of ear infection, meningitis and pneumonia each year. The new version adds protection against six additional strains to the seven covered by the current vaccine. The FDA says the new strains account for more than 60 percent of pneumococcal cases in children younger than 5 in the US.

VACCINES ARE SEEN AS A CRITICAL PATH TO GROWTH FOR DRUGMAKERS, as slowing prescription medicine sales and intensifying generic competition put PRESSURE ON COMPANY BOTTOM LINES.

States typically provide 26 weeks of unemployment insurance for those who lose their jobs through no fault of their own, with weekly checks averaging about $300. Congress on November 6 extended coverage for the fourth time since the recession began, granting 14 to 20 more weeks to try to keep about 1.3 million people who have been jobless for well over a year from running out of benefits before the end of 2009.

That boosted the total number of weeks a person could collect unemployment to as much as 99 in the hardest-hit states. But that legislation didn't address an underlying problem: The emergency unemployment compensation program, including all 73 additional weeks, expires at the end of this year.

If the program isn't renewed, after January 1 recipients who have used up their 26 weeks of state benefits won't get any extra coverage. The National Employment Law Project estimated Wednesday that 450,000 people will fall into that category in January.

They are part of a flotilla of ten vessels refusing to unload their cargo until market speculation has driven up its price to the level they want. And as the value of that cargo is currently rising by over £1million a day, DRIVEN PARTLY BY PROFITEERING TRADERS AND SPECULATORS, it is unlikely to see a petrol station any time soon. With such tactics, it is not hard to see why prices at the pumps are forecast to have risen by 26 per cent in a year by this Christmas.

AA president Edmund King said: 'TRADERS AND SPECULATORS SEEM TO BE STORING UP OIL UNTIL THE PRICE RISES. Drivers can expect more hikes in the pipeline. Motorists are paying the price of this at the pumps.' Residents near Brixham in Devon have watched with growing anger as the tankers have anchored in Lyme Bay for the past two months. The price of a barrel of oil has increased from $40 a barrel a year ago to $80, with the cost expected to soar even higher in the next few months.

Even from the start of the tankers' stay in Lyme Bay, the value of the oil they carry has risen from £313million to £378million - an increase of £65million, OR MORE THAN £1MILLION A DAY. IT MEANS A 21 PER CENT PROFIT FOR DOING NOTHING MORE THAN SIMPLY WATCHING AND WAITING. If the price is not high enough, the tankers simply cruise around the high seas - or park in a safe haven - until it goes up sufficiently high to sell on in the UK or elsewhere.

"He has written what would have happened if Jesus had had a fair trial," a friend told The Daily Telegraph's Mandrake column. "He knows it will be controversial, but he has some serious points to make." Pullman is due to read his "account" of Christ's last days at the Globe theatre on Thursday as part of an event to celebrate the 10th anniversary of Reprieve, an organisation which campaigns for the rights of prisoners.

Books by Pullman, who is AN HONORARY ASSOCIATE OF THE NATIONAL SECULAR SOCIETY, have been criticised by the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights. His critics often cite an interview in which he reportedly said: "I'M TRYING TO UNDERMINE THE BASIS OF CHRISTIAN BELIEF."

The fantasy novels His Dark Materials, with their religious allegories, have been seen as a direct rebuttal of The Chronicles of Narnia by C S Lewis, the late Christian author, which have been criticised by Pullman. The Archbishop of Canterbury, ROWAN WILLIAMS, HAS, HOWEVER, PROPOSED THAT HIS DARK MATERIALS SHOULD BE TAUGHT AS PART OF RELIGIOUS EDUCATION IN SCHOOLS.

In a report entitled "WORST-CASE DEBT SCENARIO", the bank's asset team said state rescue packages over the last year have merely transferred private liabilities onto sagging sovereign shoulders, creating a fresh set of problems. Overall debt is still far too high in almost all rich economies as a share of GDP (350pc in the US), whether public or private.

It must be reduced by the hard slog of "deleveraging", for years. "As yet, nobody can say with any certainty whether we have in fact escaped the prospect of a global economic collapse," said the 68-page report, headed by asset chief Daniel Fermon. It is an exploration of the dangers, not a forecast. Under the French bank's "Bear Case" scenario, the dollar would slide further and global equities would retest the March lows. PROPERTY PRICES WOULD TUMBLE AGAIN. Oil would fall back to $50 in 2010.

GOVERNMENTS HAVE ALREADY SHOT THEIR FISCAL BOLTS. Even without fresh spending, public debt would explode within two years to 105pc of GDP in the UK, 125pc in the US and the eurozone, and 270pc in Japan. Worldwide state debt would reach $45 trillion, up two-and-a-half times in a decade. Mr Fermon said his report had electrified clients on both sides of the Atlantic. "Everybody wants to know what the impact will be. A LOT OF HEDGE FUNDS AND BANKERS ARE WORRIED," HE SAID.

Speaking as Western leaders gathered in Kabul for Thursday's swearing-in of President Hamid Karzai, Mr Obama said his announcement would give a strong sense of how and when troop involvement there will cease. "I am confident that when I announce my decision the American people will have a lot of clarity about what we are doing, how we are going to succeed... and most importantly what's the endgame on this thing," he told CNN.

"Unless you impose that kind of discipline it could end up leading to a multiyear occupation that won't serve the interests of the United States." He added that he was determined to bring the war to an end before leaving office, though he was not asked if he expected that to be after 2012 or 2016.

"My preference would be not to hand off anything to the next president. One of the things I'd like is the next president to be able to come in and say I've got a clean slate," he said. His remarks immediately raised concerns among allies that setting a limit on American military involvement would encourage the Taliban to lie low until US troops had pulled out, rather than forcing them to reconcile with the Kabul leadership.

It should have been a triumphant week of fireworks and celebratory fanfare. The new Lisbon Treaty has been ratified, and the EU is about to embark on a new era, which will finally give Europe an entirely new ability to shape its political future. Only two leading figures are still being sought to add new luster and generate new momentum for the community: a permanent European Council president, who will endeavor to unite the often quarrelsome European club, and a foreign minister, who will represent the Continent on the global stage and act as the voice of the 27 EU member countries.

But it will be a difficult week for Swedish Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt - and for Europe. This week, the EU risks getting egg on its face once again - and Europe will lay the cornerstone for a new mega-bureaucracy. Now it is up to Reinfeldt - who currently holds the six-month rotating EU presidency - to avert the EU's next scandal. The only problem is that some of his colleagues have no desire to allow things to proceed smoothly.

For decades, dedicated Europeans have dreamt of a unified foreign policy. THEY YEARN TO BE ON AN EQUAL FOOTING WITH THE SUPERPOWERS - always available, always capable of action. They finally want to speak with one voice and avoid fiascos, such as during the Iraq war, when the EU was deeply divided in its position on the US-led invasion.

The first "Twilight" made $384 million at worldwide box offices with its tale of high school student Bella (Stewart) falling in love with vampire Edward Cullen (Robert Pattinson). But in "New Moon," he breaks her heart and leaves for Italy. Months pass as Bella sits despondent at her window during the day and screams in her bed at night. In between, she finds solace with her friend Jacob Black, a werewolf.

Later, when an unexpected visitor tells Bella that Edward is in danger, she hops on a plane to Italy to save him. When asked if Bella's actions set a bad example for the 13 year-old girls who will be a big part of its audience, Stewart said she THINKS THE FILM'S MESSAGE IS A GOOD ONE. "BE EXTREME," Stewart said. "Go for it. I think that's the point. I KNOW THAT THIS IS A MOVIE ABOUT IMMORTALITY AND MORTALITY BUT, LIKE, YOU LIVE ONCE."

Nearly two decades since the start of what became known as the Oslo peace process, stagnation appears to be the short-term outlook for the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, even if Washington manages to persuade the two sides to resume some form of talks. THE RISK OF VIOLENCE COULD TURN INTO NEAR-CERTAINTY IN TIME, some Palestinian analysts add, even if there are at present few signs of an appetite for a third Intifada, or uprising, among Palestinians who have lived under Israeli occupation since 1967.

"Either there is a resumption of negotiations, which requires an American initiative, OR THERE WILL BE A POLITICAL VACUUM, WHICH IS DANGEROUS BECAUSE IT WILL MOST LIKELY BE FILLED AT SOME POINT BY CONFLICT," said George Giacaman, a political science professor at Birzeit University near Ramallah. Reflecting its frustration with the stalled peace process, the Ramallah-based Western-backed Palestinian leadership has decided to seek UN Security Council support for establishing a state in the West Bank, Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem. The Hamas Islamists who control Gaza say the plan is a waste of time.

A related appeal to the European Union met with sounds of sympathy from foreign ministers meeting on Tuesday. But the EU said it was not yet time to give up on negotiations with Israel and called recognition of a Palestinian state "premature."

Former UK prime minister Tony Blair had been an early favourite for president. But France and Germany look set to back a less prominent figure, the Belgian Prime Minister Herman van Rompuy. The EU leaders will dine together on Thursday evening before beginning negotiations. They are widely expected to strive for a balance in the two posts, with one likely to be filled by a candidate from one of the bigger EU states, the other from a smaller country.

Similarly, the presidency is expected to go to a centre-right politician and the post of foreign affairs chief to the centre-left. Both jobs were created under the long-stalled Lisbon Treaty, which will come into force on 1 December, and both are meant to give the EU a stronger voice in the world. The EU president will chair regular meetings of the European Council at which decisions are taken about the political position of the bloc.

However, correspondents say the High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, as the post is officially known, could have an even more powerful role. Whoever is chosen will have a seat as vice-president of the European Commission, as well as a budget worth billions of dollars and a new diplomatic service of up to 5,000 people.

President Obama has continued to "reach out to Muslims," as he said in his keynote speech in Cairo last June, and this past week HE SWORE IN A MUSLIM RIGHTS ADVOCATE TO THE HOMELAND SECURITY ADVISORY COUNCIL, shortly after the Fort Hood massacre. HSAC MEMBERS ARE INVOLVED IN EXPERTISE ON NATIONAL SECURITY.

The new member is Syrian-born Kareem Shora, who was the national executive director of the Arab-American Anti-Discrimination (ADC), which previously has called on the United States to stop providing Israel with weapons because of alleged "atrocities" against Arabs. Her background for her new security post is having been a legal counsel and advocate for Muslim civil rights. She also has been a frequent guest on the pro-Hamas al-Jazeera satellite network.

Shora, who has been described as a "devout Muslim, joins another devout member of the faith, Arif Alikhan, who was appointed as Assistant Secretary for Policy Development in the Department of Homeland Security. His qualifications for the job were listed as having been in charge of public safety in Los Angeles during his term of deputy mayor. ONE OF HIS ACTIONS WAS TO REMOVE THE PLAN THAT TRACKED MUSLIMS IN THE CITY WHO WERE SUSPECTED OF TERRORIST ACTIVITIES.