AS SHIPS GET BIGGER, THE POLLUTION IS GETTING WORSE. The most staggering statistic of all is that just 16 of the world's largest ships can produce as much lung-clogging sulphur pollution as all the world's cars. Because of their colossal engines, each as heavy as a small ship, THESE SUPER-VESSELS USE AS MUCH FUEL AS SMALL POWER STATIONS. But, unlike power stations or cars, THEY CAN BURN THE CHEAPEST, FILTHIEST, HIGH-SULPHUR FUEL: the thick residues left behind in refineries after the lighter liquids have been taken. The stuff nobody on land is allowed to use.

Thanks to decisions taken in London by the body that polices world shipping, THIS POLLUTION COULD KILL AS MANY AS A MILLION MORE PEOPLE IN THE COMING DECADE – even though a simple change in the rules could stop it.

In London, on the south bank of the Thames looking across at the Houses of Parliament, is the International Maritime Organisation, the UN body that polices the world's shipping. For decades, the IMO has rebuffed calls to clean up ship pollution. As a result, while it has long since been illegal to belch black, sulphur-laden smoke from power-station chimneys or lorry exhausts, shipping has kept its licence to pollute. For 31 years, the IMO has operated a policy agreed by the 169 governments that make up the organisation which allows most ships to burn bunker fuel.

Christian Eyde Moller, boss of the DK shipping company in Rotterdam, recently described this as 'just waste oil, basically what is left over after all the cleaner fuels have been extracted from crude oil. It's tar, the same as asphalt. IT'S THE CHEAPEST AND DIRTIEST FUEL IN THE WORLD'. Bunker fuel is also thick with sulphur. IMO rules allow ships to burn fuel containing up to 4.5 per cent sulphur. That is 4,500 times more than is allowed in car fuel in the European Union. The sulphur comes out of ship funnels as tiny particles, and it is these that get deep into lungs.

Thanks to the IMO's rules, the largest ships can each emit as much as 5,000 tons of sulphur in a year – the same as 50million typical cars, each emitting an average of 100 grams of sulphur a year. WITH AN ESTIMATED 800 MILLION CARS DRIVING AROUND THE PLANET, THAT MEANS 16 SUPER-SHIPS CAN EMIT AS MUCH SULPHUR AS THE WORLD FLEET OF CARS. There are now an estimated 100,000 ships on the seas, and the fleet is growing fast as goods are ferried in vast quantities from Asian industrial powerhouses to consumers in Europe and North America.

In 2010, as PROTECTIONISM AND THE ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL DEPRESSION WILL GAIN MOMENTUM, a large number of States will be compelled to choose between three brutal options: INFLATION, HIGH TAXATION OR DEFAULTING ON THEIR DEBT. A growing number of countries (USA, United Kingdom, Euroland, Japan, China,…) have used all their budgetary and monetary cartridges in the 2008/2009 financial crisis and are now left with no other alternative.

Nevertheless, out of ideological reflex or in an attempt to avoid by any means having to make such painful choices, they will try to launch new stimulus plans (under different names) even though it is now clear that the huge public effort made in the past months to boost the economy is having no impact on the private sector. Indeed the consumer-as-we-knew-him in the past decades is dead, with no hope of resurrection.

Knowing that nearly 30 percent of Western countries' economies are now made of 'economic zombies' (financial institutions, companies and even states, whose signs of life are only due to central banks' liquidity injections), IT IS POSSIBLE TO CONFIRM THE INEVITABILITY OF THE "IMPOSSIBLE RECOVERY". The international and social (within each country) "everyman for himself" rule is beginning to prevail, as well as a general impoverishment of the ex-Western world, with the United States in the first place. IN FACT THE WEST IS BEING SCUTTLED BY LEADERS UNABLE TO FACE THE REALITY OF A POST-CRISIS WORLD, who keep resorting to methods from yesterday's world despite their proved inefficiency.

The only chance for the states to escape those three brutal options would be that either consumption resumes or the private sector starts investing again. But in the absence of one or the other positive dynamic, states will have no other alternative in 2010 than raise taxes to match their huge public deficits, let inflation soar to diminish the relative weight of their debt, or else file for bankruptcy. Some of these countries, the US, UK, Ireland, Argentina, Latvia, or even Spain, Turkey, Dubai or Japan, COULD BE CONFRONTED WITH ALL THREE OPTIONS AT THE SAME TIME.

He will add credence to Mr Barroso's plans, to be formally tabled in the New Year, by arguing for a Euro-version of a "Tobin Tax" – a levy on financial transactions already floated by Gordon Brown as a solution to the international banking crisis. It would result in a stream of income direct to Brussels coffers, FUNDING BUDGETS THAT CRITICS SAY ARE ALREADY RIFE WITH WASTE AND OVERSPENDING.

Mr Van Rompuy, 62, who was appointed to the newly-created £320,000-a-year post at last week's special EU summit, set out his stall on direct Euro-taxes during a private speech at a recent meeting of the Bilderberg group of top politicians, bankers and businessmen. THE GROUP OFFICIALLY MEETS IN SECRET, but when selected details of his remarks leaked out, his office was forced to issue a public statement on his behalf.

"The financing of the welfare state, irrespective of the social reform we implement, will require new resources," he said. "The possibility of financial levies at European level needs to be seriously reviewed."

Police repelled the demonstrators in the town of Farshut using tear gas and also arrested 60 people during the clashes in which seven Coptic Christian-owned shops were destroyed, the official said. The protesters hurled stones at the police station after they heard that a Coptic Christian man accused of kidnapping and sexually assaulting a 12-year-old Muslim was being held there, he said.

Roughly ten percent of Egypt's 80-million-strong population are Coptic Christians, who complain of discrimination and are sometimes the target of sectarian attacks.

In a 60-39 vote on strictly partisan lines, the Senate sent the $848 billion health care bill to the floor for debate after the Thanksgiving break, but not before a clutch of moderates served notice that they couldn't back the bill in its current form. One key provision – for a government-run insurance plan that would allow states to opt-out of coverage – effectively died in the Senate chamber Saturday, as the last two Democratic holdouts demanded changes to the bill.

"I am opposed to a new government administered public health care plan as a part of comprehensive health care reform, and I will not vote in favor of the proposal that has been introduced by Leader Reid as it is written," said Senator Blanche Lincoln (Democrat for Arkansas), the last Democrat to commit to a vote for opening debate. Two hours earlier, Senator Mary Landrieu (Democrat for Louisiana) had said much the same thing.

Their comments signal that weeks of negotiations remain on a bill Obama once hoped to have on his desk by Christmas – and even RAISED THE PROSPECT THAT SPLITS IN THE PARTY OVER THE PUBLIC OPTION, ABORTION AND OTHER ASPECTS OF THE BILL COULD SCUTTLE PASSAGE ALTOGETHER.

Last weekend, Liu Mingkang, China's banking regulator, criticised the US Federal Reserve for fuelling the "dollar carry-trade", in which investors borrow dollars at ultra-low interest rates and invest in higher-yielding assets abroad. Speaking at a banking conference in Frankfurt on Friday, Mr Schäuble said it would be "naive" to assume the next asset price bubble would take the same guise as the last.

He said: "More likely today is a scenario in which excess liquidity globally creates a new [sort of] asset market bubble." He added: "That low interest rate currencies such as the US dollar are increasingly being used as a basis for currency carry trades should give pause for thought. IF THERE WAS A SUDDEN REVERSAL IN THIS BUSINESS, MARKETS WOULD BE THREATENED WITH ENORMOUS TURBULENCE, including in foreign exchange markets."

Mr Schäuble, a political veteran, took over the German finance ministry after Angela Merkel began her second term as chancellor last month.

"I have not seen this many unclaimed bodies in 13 years on the job," said Albert Samuels, chief investigator at the mortuary. "It started happening when the economy went south last year. I have never seen this many people struggling to give people their last resting place." Unburied bodies piling up in the city mortuary — it reached 70 earlier this year — is the latest and perhaps most appalling indignity to be heaped on the people of Detroit. The motor city that once boasted the highest median income and home ownership rate in the US is today in the midst of a long and agonising death spiral.

After years of gross mismanagement by the city's leaders and the big three car manufacturers of General Motors, Ford and Chrysler, who continued to make vehicles that Americans no longer wanted to buy, DETROIT TODAY HAS AN UNEMPLOYMENT RATE OF 28 PER CENT, higher even than the worst years of the Great Depression.

THE MURDER RATE IS SOARING. The school system is in receivership. The city treasury is $300 million (£182m) short of the funds needed to provide the most basic services such as rubbish collection. In its postwar heyday, when Detroit helped the US to dominate the world's car market, it had 1.85 million people. Today, just over 900,000 remain. It was once America's fourth-largest city. Today, it ranks eleventh, and will continue to fall. THOUSANDS OF HOUSES ARE ABANDONED, ROOFS RIPPED OFF, WINDOWS SMASHED. BLOCK AFTER BLOCK OF SHOPPING DISTRICTS LIE BOARDED UP.

Former manufacturing plants, such as the giant Fisher body plant that made Buicks and Cadillacs, but which was abandoned in 1991, are rotting. What has alarmed medical examiners at the mortuary is that MOST OF THE DEAD DIED OF NATURAL CAUSES. It is evidence, they believe, of people who could not afford medical insurance and medicines and whose families can now not afford to bury them.

POPE BENEDICT'S PROPOSAL WOULD ALLOW ANGLICANS TO CONVERT WHILE PRESERVING MANY OF THEIR TRADITIONS AND PRACTICES. The archbishop, Dr Rowan Williams, has said he does not believe the initiative will harm relations. However, some Anglicans have accused the Pope of interfering at a sensitive time for the Church of England.

The Vatican says its invitation came in response to pleas from Anglicans unhappy about the creation of women bishops. BBC religious affairs correspondent Robert Pigott said: "Dr Williams says he accepts it was not intended to poach clergy or undermine relations. DR WILLIAMS HAS SIGNALLED THAT HE WOULD LIKE TO BUILD A NEW RELATIONSHIP, emphasising shared fundamental beliefs rather than "negative" secondary issues such as women clergy," our correspondent added.

Another cause of discord in the worldwide Anglican communion has been the election of an openly gay bishop and the blessing of same-sex unions. Under the terms of the Pope's proposed Apostolic Constitution, groupings of Anglicans would be able to join "personal ordinariates". This would allow them to enter full communion with the Catholic Church, but also preserve elements of the Anglican traditions including the possible use of Anglican prayer books. The first English clergy could convert early next year.

At least the weather in Copenhagen is likely to be cooperating. The Danish Meteorological Institute predicts that temperatures in December, when the city will host the United Nations Climate Change Conference, will be one degree above the long-term average. Otherwise, however, not much is happening with global warming at the moment.

THE EARTH'S AVERAGE TEMPERATURES HAVE STOPPED CLIMBING SINCE THE BEGINNING OF THE MILLENNIUM, and it even looks as though global warming could come to a standstill this year. Ironically, climate change appears to have stalled in the run-up to the upcoming world summit in the Danish capital, where thousands of politicians, bureaucrats, scientists, business leaders and environmental activists plan to negotiate a reduction in greenhouse gas emissions. BILLIONS OF EUROS ARE AT STAKE IN THE NEGOTIATIONS.

The planet's temperature curve rose sharply for almost 30 years, as global temperatures increased by an average of 0.7 degrees Celsius (1.25 degrees Fahrenheit) from the 1970s to the late 1990s. "At present, however, the warming is taking a break," confirms meteorologist Mojib Latif of the Leibniz Institute of Marine Sciences in the northern German city of Kiel. Latif, one of Germany's best-known climatologists, says that the temperature curve has reached a plateau. "THERE CAN BE NO ARGUMENT ABOUT THAT," HE SAYS. "WE HAVE TO FACE THAT FACT."

WASHINGTON DC, USA - An unprecedented coalition of prominent Christian clergy, ministry leaders, and scholars has crafted a 4,700-word declaration addressing the sanctity of life, traditional marriage, and religious liberty. The declaration issues "a clarion call" to Christians to adhere to their convictions and informs civil authorities that the signers will not "under any circumstance" abandon their Christian consciences. THE STATEMENT, CALLED "THE MANHATTAN DECLARATION," HAS BEEN SIGNED BY MORE THAN 125 CATHOLIC, EVANGELICAL CHRISTIAN, AND ORTHODOX LEADERS.

"We are Christians who have joined together across historic lines of ecclesial differences to affirm our right —and, more importantly, to embrace our obligation — to speak and act in defense of these truths. We pledge to each other, and to our fellow believers, that no power on earth, be it cultural or political, will intimidate us into silence or acquiescence," the statement says. "We recognize the duty to comply with laws whether we happen to like them or not, unless the laws are gravely unjust or require those subject to them to do something unjust or otherwise immoral," the signatories explain.

But they also made clear that "we will not comply with any edict that purports to compel our institutions to participate in abortions, embryo-destructive research, assisted suicide and euthanasia, or any other anti-life act; nor will we bend to any rule purporting to force us to bless immoral sexual partnerships, treat them as marriage or the equivalent, OR REFRAIN FROM PROCLAIMING THE TRUTH, AS WE KNOW IT, about morality and immorality and marriage and the family."

The signatories explained that they speak now because in order "to defend principles of justice and the common good that are now under assault. We will fully and ungrudgingly render to Caesar what is Caesar's, BUT WE WILL UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES RENDER TO CAESAR WHAT IS GOD'S."

The signatories of the Manhattan Declaration explain that although public sentiment has moved in a pro-life direction, "pro-abortion ideology prevails in many places of power and influence. Our government promotes and funds scientific research in which the lives of tiny human beings in the early embryonic states of development are treated as disposable research material."

They also contend that "PUBLIC POLICIES CONTRIBUTE TO THE WEAKENING OF THE INSTITUTION OF MARRIAGE, including the discredited idea of unilateral divorce," while "INFLUENTIAL INDIVIDUALS AND ORGANIZATIONS ARE SEEKING TO REDEFINE MARRIAGE to embrace same-sex partnerships and to recognize multiple-party sexual unions that are beyond same-sex marriage."

But the elevation of Lady Ashton - WHO ONLY EIGHT YEARS AGO WAS HEAD OF HERTFORDSHIRE HEALTH AUTHORITY - to EU high representative had been unexpected. Lady Ashton herself was so unprepared for her promotion last night that she had no speech ready when she held a joint press conference with Mr Van Rompuy. YET HER NEW ROLE WILL MAKE HER ONE OF THE WORLD'S MOST POWERFUL UNELECTED FIGURES.

She will also be in charge of thousands of staff and have the run of a grace-and-favour home in Brussels. Lady Ashton helped steer the Lisbon Treaty, which has created her new job, through Parliament without a referendum as Labour leader in the House of Lords. Since then, SHE HAS HAD AN UNIMPRESSIVE SPELL AS EU TRADE COMMISSIONER.

Lady Ashton will head up a 5,000-strong EU diplomatic service with 120 embassies around the globe, and have a say in the allocation of the bloc's £6.5billion foreign aid budget. The job is expected to attract a salary of more than £200,000 a year, along with a grace-and-favour home and lavish expenses. A FORMER EMPLOYEE OF CND, LADY ASHTON WILL NOW BE RESPONSIBLE FOR EUROPE'S SECURITY AND DEFENCE POLICY.

Nigel Farage, leader of the UK Independence Party, said: 'The EU has this evening appointed TWO POLITICAL PYGMIES who have the power to remove the last vestiges of democracy from the UK. BARONESS ASHTON IS IDEAL FOR THE ROLE. SHE'S NEVER HAD A PROPER JOB, AND NEVER BEEN ELECTED TO PUBLIC OFFICE.' Lorraine Mullally, director of the think-tank Open Europe, said: 'THIS IS AN OUTRAGEOUS STITCH-UP BY EUROPE'S ELITE... Meeting over a nice big dinner and behind closed doors 27 people in Brussels will decide on the two biggest jobs in Europe while the 500million citizens they are supposed to represent are expected just to hang on and wait for the outcome.'

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.