Meanwhile, heavy industrial polluters such as Corus received €47m, while cement firms Hanson and Lafarge received €17.3m and €20.2m. Due to the economic downturn, many heavy polluters, such as oil and gas companies and heavy industrials, have been left with a surplus of carbon permits - ESSENTIALLY A FREE ASSET THAT FIRMS CAN SELL ON TO BOLSTER THEIR SHORT TERM PROFITS.

The glut of surplus permits on the market has driven down the price of carbon and led to a sharp increase in the number of permits being traded via carbon exchanges. Open Europe has found that the two largest carbon trading exchanges, European Climate Exchange and Bluenext, which includes members such as Barclays Bank, JP Morgan, Merrill Lynch and Shell, have earned A COMBINED AVERAGE OF €245,000 A DAY FROM THE TRADING OF CARBON PERMITS so far in 2009, in transaction fees alone. In total, they have made over €57m between them in 2009.

"Interest rates were too low for Greece, Portugal, Spain, and Ireland, causing them all to be engulfed in a destructive property and wage boom. The ECB was complicit. IT BREACHED ITS INFLATION AND M3 MONEY TARGET REPEATEDLY IN ORDER TO NURSE GERMANY THROUGH A SLUMP... This was poison for overheating Southern states. The deeper truth that few in Euroland are willing to discuss is that EMU is inherently dysfunctional - for Greece, for Germany, for everybody."

A European Parliament source said the ratification process could take between two to four years. MEPs earn £81,745 from their salary alone, and if the observers receive the other perks and allowances available to MEPs, the 18 extra MEPs will cost the taxpayer more than £6 million a year.

Open Europe Director Lorraine Mullally is quoted saying, "It's typical of the BLOATED EU INSTITUTIONS TO PAY 18 SUPERFLUOUS POLITICIANS TO DO ABSOLUTELY NOTHING AND FOR NO GOOD REASON. We're in the middle of the worst recession since the 1930s and yet here we are paying for nobodies to do nothing in the European Parliament. It's madness. So much for streamlining things - LISBON JUST ADDS TO THE RIDICULOUS WASTE AND BUREAUCRACY AND TAXPAYERS HAVE TO FOOT THE BILL."

Joel Thornton of the International Human Rights Group told WND the government in Salzkotten, Germany, is SENDING THE FATHERS OF THE CHILDREN TO JAIL for terms of one week because they have refused to turn their children over to school officials for mandated sex classes.

Sex education classes in Germany are explicit, and the issue is one of the major reasons why families – and not just Christian families – choose to homeschool their children even though the government has maintained its illegality since the days of Hitler. The students who are being held out of sex education classes also are not being allowed by their parents to participate in a play-acting program called "My Body Belongs to Me," which essentially teaches children how to engage in sex, the report said.

The government's determination is evident, Thornton said, whether parents are objecting to an explicit sex class or whether the family chooses to homeschool their children. "Unlike American officials, German officials do not recognize the right of parents to opt their children out of offensive classes such as sex education which overrides the parent's beliefs or desires for their own children," Thornton said. "One of the reasons for this is that GERMAN OFFICIALS VIEW THE CHILDREN AS BELONGING TO THE STATE, particularly during the time they are in school," he said.

The Bank adds that investors may be demanding 'additional compensation' for purchasing UK gilts, which are the main way the Government finances the gap between tax receipts and public spending. That could drive up its cost of borrowing, making it harder for the Treasury to finance the growing deficit, which was forecast in last week's Pre-Budget Report to be on course to hit £1.5trillion.

Last month the Bank's Governor Mervyn King infuriated Gordon Brown by openly calling for the Treasury to publish 'credible' deficit-reduction plans or risk losing Britain's triple-A credit rating. This top rating enables the Government to borrow more cheaply than less creditworthy nations, but ratings agencies have also warned it could be at risk unless Alistair Darling lays out tougher plans to reduce it.

THE NAME CHANGE FROM "GLOBAL WARMING," came about when the earth did not cooperate with the "global" part of the name, and especially with the "warming" categorization. THE NEW NAME BECAME "CLIMATE CHANGE." Even with the name change, THE EARTH IS STILL IN NON-COMPLIANCE WITH THE SCIENTIFIC AGENDA. It has stubbornly kept to its own schedule of changes of season, instead of warming according to a man-made hockey puck, stick, whatever.

In the interests of brevity, the manipulators of climate will be henceforth known as the GWCC. As the GWCC preached the "religion" of global warming, they got a huge number of world leaders to jump on the "We are all going to die. The earth is warming at an alarming rate" bandwagon! Preparations went very smoothly for the parting of the ocean, and THE FLEECING OF THE SO-CALLED RICH NATIONS. I am still looking for those rich nations. The US is certainly not among those, is it? The US is owned primarily by China and Japan.

Then, in the midst of the lavish preparations, an enterprising hacker or other industrious sort, spilled the e-mails. He, she or they, downloaded tons of e-mails, that purported to show less than honest data in support of the GWCC's contentions. The e-mails apparently show GWCC scientists fudging data that does not fall neatly into their "thesis," of the earth heating up, and attempting to punish/silence their fellow scientists who disagree with them. Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned? Forget that. Hell hath no fury like a scientist about to be debunked!

If we do not find support for human induced climate change, we say so. In fact, the first NIPCC report, of which I was a lead author, was called 'Nature, Not Human Activity, Rules the Climate'. WE SEE NO EVIDENCE IN THE CLIMATE RECORD that the increase in CO2, which is real, has any appreciable effect on the global temperature. IPCC relies heavily on the surface temperature data, WHICH IS DISTORTED BY A DELETION OF A NUMBER OF SURFACE STATIONS. The 'best' stations were kept – the ones around temperature islands and by airports.

Now the Climategate leak has shown that the surface temperature data that IPCC relies on is based on distorted raw data and algorithms that they will not share with the science community. The scientists implicated in Climategate have misused peer review and pressured journal editors to prevent publication of research that questions their research. They have taken control of the IPCC process and they have smeared opponents personally, rather than critiquing the research.

THE TEMPERATURE TRENDS ARE HEADING DOWNWARDS, even as greenhouse gasses like CO2 are increasing in the atmosphere. This negative correlation contradicts the results of the models that IPCC relies on and indicates that anthropogenic global warming is quite small. We are winning the science battle over climate change, because IPCC's fabrication is unraveling, but we have not yet won the war. This will take just a bit more time.

The notes, from Iran's most sensitive military nuclear project, describe a four-year plan to test a neutron initiator, the component of a nuclear bomb that triggers an explosion. Foreign intelligence agencies date them to early 2007, four years after Iran was thought to have suspended its weapons programme. An Asian intelligence source last week confirmed to The Times that his country also believed that weapons work was being carried out as recently as 2007 — specifically, work on a neutron initiator.

The technical document describes the use of a neutron source, uranium deuteride, which independent experts confirm has no possible civilian or military use other than in a nuclear weapon. URANIUM DEUTERIDE IS THE MATERIAL USED IN PAKISTAN'S BOMB, FROM WHERE IRAN OBTAINED ITS BLUEPRINT.

Experts say that, if the 2007 date is correct, the documents are the strongest indicator yet of a continuing nuclear weapons programme in Iran. Iran has long denied a military dimension to its nuclear programme, claiming its nuclear activities are solely focused on the production of energy for civilian use.

The enormous mine they're digging here must be one of the biggest man-made holes in the planet. The mine is big enough to fit a small town into. All around diggers claw at the earth, giant trucks growl to and fro. If you want to know where many of today's carbon emissions come from, this is one place to look.

China's massive use of coal is what makes it THE WORLD'S BIGGEST EMITTER OF CARBON. Coal supplies over two thirds of China's energy needs. Some 40% of the coal mined on the planet is dug out of the ground in China. "We have enough coal here to last 90 years," Mr Huang, a supervisor at the mine tells me as we bump along the rough road cut into the side of the pit.

And that's the real question. What will happen to China's coal industry in the next 20 to 30 years, because China's use of coal could double or even triple. If that's the case, THEN WHAT EVERY OTHER NATION DOES ABOUT CLIMATE CHANGE MAY NOT MATTER IF CHINA DOESN'T CLEAN UP ITS ACT. The nearby power station burns 20,000 tonnes of coal a day. It was built from a Czech design dating back to the 1970s.

Their key demand - separate talks on the Kyoto Protocol - was met. Some delegates talked forlornly of the vast amount of negotiating left to be done before the summit concludes. Earlier, the G77-China bloc, speaking for developing countries, said the Danish hosts had violated democratic process.

But Ms Hedegaard, who will take up the new post of EU climate commissioner after this meeting, said she had told developing countries repeatedly that the Kyoto Protocol was not being sidelined. "They have been assured all the way," she told BBC News. "Yesterday I met with 48 delegations, the main part of those coming from G77 countries."

"I consulted with them on the way forward today, and I heard no objections. That's why it's a bit surprising that we had to spend almost one day on these procedural issues." The G77-China bloc negotiates on behalf of 130 countries - ranging from wealthy nations such as Saudi Arabia, to some of the poorest states - in the UN climate negotiations.

"It's a 'calm spot' where scientists, decision-makers, nonprofit workers, and officials can find all the latest research," says Dan Irwin of NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center. "We unveiled the site at this week's United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen."

A group of US and international organizations, including NASA, USAID1, the National Science Foundation, the Institute for the Application of Geospatial Technology, the University of Alabama-Huntsville, and CATHALAC2 in Panama, developed the site as a "one-stop shop" for the low-down on Earth with a particular emphasis on international development applications.

"Right now, there's so much climate information scattered out there - it's a real challenge to find exactly what you're looking for by just Googling it," says IAGT's Jessica Coughlin. "Climate One-Stop is the place to go for all the information."

Jordan is among the first people in the US to report developing the potentially life-threatening muscle disorder after receiving the H1N1 vaccine this fall. Increased cases of GBS were found in patients who received a 1976 swine flu vaccine. Likewise, a young woman in France has also been diagnosed with GBS after a swine flu shot. The woman, identified only as a health worker, was diagnosed with GBS six days after she received the swine flu shot, according to the French health ministry

Swedish, Japanese, and Chinese health officials have also reported a number of serious side effects, including deaths of people who received the H1N1 vaccine. In China, the Ministry of Health announced that the two people, including one teacher from Hunan province, died hours after receiving their inoculations. Chinese health officials have pulled all vaccines manufactured in the same batch used to inoculate the teacher.

Fifty-four percent of Chinese residents reported in a China Daily survey that they would not get the H1N1 vaccine because of concerns about the shot's safety. Among those inoculated so far in China, more than 1,200 have complained of side effects ranging from sore arms, rashes, and headaches, to anaphylactic shock and sudden drops in blood pressure.

Can we relax? Not yet. Chief medical officer Sir Liam Donaldson says there could be another peak in January or February and, more worrying, THE VIRUS COULD MUTATE. But suppose it does not? Will the WHO have to redefine the term "pandemic virus"? THE ONLY PANDEMIC WE HAVE SEEN SO FAR IS THE ONE AT THE END OF THE VIROLOGISTS' MICROSCOPES. Ok, so it is a completely new flu virus of a kind never seen before – hence its title "Novel H1N1 influenza".

BUT THERE HAS BEEN NO "PANDEMIC", in any clinically relevant sense of the term, anywhere in the world since swine flu first broke out in Mexico last April. We knew it was mild from the beginning but we thought that because it was novel it would spread widely and, even though mild, kill a lot of people by virtue of the sheer numbers infected.

THAT HAS NOT HAPPENED. Estimates of the population potentially infected have been reduced from 30 per cent to 10 per cent – the same as for seasonal flu. It has emerged that people aged over 50 have some immunity because, although the virus itself is novel, proteins on its surface are similar in some respects to those on H1N1 viruses circulating up to the 1960s. If it turns out that we have used a sledgehammer to crack a nut, my question is this: HOW DID THE VIROLOGISTS GET THE SCALE OF THE THREAT SO WRONG?

What's become known as "Climate-Gate" may be about to explode on this side of the pond as well. Chris Horner, a senior fellow at the Competitive Enterprise Institute, has threatened a lawsuit against NASA if by year-end the agency doesn't honor his FOI requests for information on how and why its climate numbers have been consistently adjusted for errors. "I ASSUME THAT WHAT IS THERE IS HIGHLY DAMAGING," says Horner, who suspects, based on the public record, the same type of data fudging, manipulation and suppression that has occurred at Britain's East Anglia Climate Research Unit. "THESE GUYS (NASA) ARE QUITE CLEARLY DETERMINED NOT TO REVEAL THEIR INTERNAL DISCUSSIONS ABOUT THIS."

They may have good reason. NASA was caught with its thermometers down when James Hansen, head of NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies, announced that 1998 was the country's hottest year on record, with 2006 the third hottest. NASA AND GODDARD WERE FORCED TO CORRECT THE RECORD IN 2007 to show that 1934, decades before the advent of the SUV, was in fact the warmest. In fact, the new numbers showed that four of the country's 10 warmest years were in the 1930s.

HANSEN, WHO BEGAN THE CLIMATE SCARE SOME TWO DECADES AGO, was caught fudging the numbers again in declaring October 2008 the warmest on record. This despite the fact that the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration had registered 63 local snowfall records and 115 lowest-ever temperatures for the month, and ranked it as only the 70th-warmest October in 114 years.

The three leaders are listed in a line-up of more than 180 government officials published in a United Nations schedule of speakers. Each head of state will have up to three minutes to address roughly 700 delegates, reporters, observers and civil society groups.

The assistant president of Sudan, Nafie Ali Nafie kicks off the speeches at noon on Wednesday. Nafie chairs the G-77 group, a block of developing nations pushing hard for more money and stricter emissions cuts from rich countries. Mostapha Zaher, director-general of Afghanistan's Environmental Protection Agency, is listed as the final speaker. He'll take the podium slightly before 2 am next Friday.

ROUGHLY 110 WORLD LEADERS PLAN TO ATTEND THE TALKS, AN UNPRECEDENTED NUMBER FOR A CLIMATE CONFERENCE. Typically, only a handful of top leaders attend the negotiations. President Barack Obama is expected at the meeting on Friday.