As early as 29 May 1974, the Federal Constitutional Court decided in its famous Solange judgment that THE COMMUNITY LACKED A PARLIAMENT LEGITIMIZED BY DIRECT DEMOCRATIC MEANS and that it would reserve the right to review the compatibility of secondary Community law with the fundamental rights guaranteed by the German Constitution.

On 22 October 1986, in a follow up judgment dubbed Solange II, it halted this review but retained the right to resort to it should it be needed. Seven years later, on 12 October 1993, in its landmark Maastricht judgment, the Federal Constitutional Court emphasized the central role of the Bundestag within the EU institutional setup. It claimed that "it is first and foremost THE NATIONAL PEOPLES OF THE MEMBER STATES who, through their national parliaments, HAVE TO PROVIDE DEMOCRATIC LEGITIMACY" and that "functions and POWERS OF SUBSTANTIAL IMPORTANCE MUST REMAIN FOR THE GERMAN BUNDESTAG".

Internet innovators, from Google to Skype to web-based start-ups are afraid that in the rush to get a deal on a telecoms package through the European institutions before the June parliamentary elections, so-called net neutrality is being left by the wayside. Currently, wherever data comes from, whether from a silver-surfing Latvian granny blogging about her favourite traditional recipes or a multinational corporate content provider, the packets of information are treated equally, or neutrally, hence 'net neutrality'.

Amendments to a proposal on the minimum levels of service provision by network operators backed by some centre-right MEPs however would permit telecoms companies and internet service providers to block or degrade some of the data passing through its lines while privileging other data. Opponents of the amendments fear that this WOULD INSTANTLY DELIVER TWO OR MORE TIERS TO THE INTERNET, WITH SOME PROVIDERS PAYING PREMIUM FEES TO PRIORITISE THEIR DATA.

Moreover, telecoms and ISPs may choose to block or otherwise restrict the data of providers of competing services or competitors or their partners. Not co-incidentally, the provision of free or extremely cheap internet telephony from companies such as Skype, are the telcos' major competitors. Indeed, analysts believe internet telephony is digging the grave of the large telcos. Jean-Jacques Sahel of Skype told Euobserver: "In a time of economic crisis, the EU should be enabling this sector to be more competitive and innovative as possible and this is going in the opposite direction. It protects the big boys and shuts out the small-time innovators."

US President Barack Obama made net neutrality a key issue while on the campaign trail, and at the beginning of March appointed Julius Genachowski, a strong backer of net neutrality, as the country's top telecommunications regulator. THE BIG US TELCOS SEE THE WRITING ON THE WALL, AND SO THE BATTLEFIELD HAS SHIFTED ACROSS THE ATLANTIC. "If they can deliver a result here in Europe that goes their way, this is something they can use to pressure policymakers with back in the US," said Mr Sahel.

A POTENTIAL BREAK-UP OF THE EUROZONE, a topic of speculation in financial circles, could have a significant impact on European security and defence, the head of the Dutch think-tank said at the event. "We don't know yet what the outcome of the financial and economic crisis would be. IF THE EUROZONE BREAKS UP - THERE IS THIS POSSIBILITY - then it will surely affect defence and security in Europe. But the crisis could also lead to more integration. It could go both ways," said Rob de Wijk, the director of the Hague Centre.

Mr de Wijk later told EUobserver that TALK ABOUT A EUROZONE BREAKUP WAS "NO LONGER AS TABOO as it was two to three months ago" and is being debated in the financial world. Such fears mainly revolve around the troubles that Ireland and southern members of the single currency – Portugal, Spain, Italy and Greece, have in selling bonds and stabilising their growing deficits.

The Dutch think-tank is closely following the security impact of the financial crisis, particularly in terms of a power shift from the West to the East, NOTABLY DUE TO CHINA'S RISING FINANCIAL POWER, he explained.

The Federal Reserve's decision earlier this month to buy more than $1 trillion in long-term U.S. debt to push down rates drove the dollar sharply lower, though Asian officials said the actions were unsurprising given how much private lending has slowed. Much more unanticipated was China's unusually aggressive push last week to replace the U.S. dollar as the top central bank reserve currency, they said.

Officials with direct knowledge of reserve management issues in Japan, India and South Korea, which together hold some $1.5 trillion in currency reserves, were SKEPTICAL THAT SUCH AN OVERHAUL OF THE GLOBAL MONETARY SYSTEM COULD HAPPEN SOON. They acknowledge, however, that the sheer size of their dollar holdings made their substantial reduction problematic.

In contrast, Malaysia and Indonesia, which have smaller reserve stockpiles and hold a combined $145 billion, were already gearing for a change in the reserve currency regime. China, with the world's largest reserves at $2 trillion - the bulk of it widely believed to be in U.S. Treasuries - demonstrated last week that it is confident about using economic might to protect its interests, Asian officials said.

Police have also raided the offices and houses of the group's leaders in four states in connection with the ban. The HDJ said it was a "youth group for environment, community and homeland". But at its special holiday camps, children were taught elements of "racial ideology", including the "purity of blood" and "the continuation of the German race", WITH THE AIM OF FORMING A NEO-NAZI ELITE, the interior ministry said.

"With today's ban we're putting an end to the nauseating activities of the HDJ," Interior Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble said. "We will do everything in our power to protect our children and youth from these Pied Pipers," he added, referring to the legend of a man who lured the rats, and later the children, out of the German town of Hamelin by playing a pipe.

The interior ministry said the HDJ had several hundred members and was a cornerstone of the far-right movement, with ties to the National Democratic Party (NPD).

Few Australians had even heard of Ravensthorpe up until two months ago, but now it is synonymous with the end of the country's resources boom. In January, the Anglo-Australian mining giant, BHP Billiton announced the closure of its nickel mine. Remarkably, it had only been operational for eight months. BHP Billiton blamed the slump in global commodities prices, which is due partly to the slowdown in China.

The price of nickel, which is used to make stainless steel, has nose-dived since its high in 2007. THEN IT COMMANDED A PRICE OF $51,000 A TONNE. NOW IT CAN BE BOUGHT FOR A FIFTH OF THAT AMOUNT. The closure of Raventhorpe has meant 1800 jobs losses among BHP staff and contractors.

BUT ITS KNOCK-ON EFFECTS ON THE LOCAL COMMUNITIES ARE INCALCULABLE. The nearest towns are Ravensthorpe itself, a once-tranquil country town, and the unfortunately named Hopetoun on the coast. Both communities bought the BHP Billiton pitch, that the mine would generate profits for at least the next 25 years. They had planned, and more importantly invested, accordingly. New suburbs sprung up, their cul-de-sacs lined with expensive homes. Boutique cafes. Shops. A state-of-the-art car wash. A pharmacy. Wind turbines to provide electricity. A brand, spanking new school.

But with no alternative employment in these towns, people drawn here by the promise of prosperity are now trying to flee. As a result, property prices have fallen by up to 50% and their hard-pressed owners are saddled with debts. AUSTRALIA HAS ENJOYED SEVENTEEN YEARS OF UNINTERRUPTED ECONOMIC GROWTH, and much of it has been underwritten by the booming mining sector. The hope that China's continued growth would grant Australia a measure of immunity has been dashed. Ravensthorpe is in a remote corner of a remote country, but neither distance nor its abundant resources have offered it any protection from the global downturn.

Major General Andy Salmon will transfer authority for what will become Multi-National Division South to US Major General Michael Oates. MOST OF BRITAIN'S 4,000 TROOPS WILL LEAVE BY 31 MAY, the official end-of-combat date. About 400 will stay after that, either in HQ roles or to train the Iraq Navy.

Lieutenant Colonel Johnson told the BBC: "The bottom line, the aim of the transition itself is to make sure it's seamless and that there's generally no perception that the US army is here and they are going to do things different than the British did when they were here."

The Americans are also reducing their numbers, with two brigades due to leave the province of Al-Anbar, once the heartland of Al-Qaeda in Iraq. However, the bulk of US troops are not due to leave until the end of 2011.

"We have received proposals from our colleagues in China, detailed proposals," President Dmitry Medvedev's top economic adviser Arkady Dvorkovich said. "OUR POSITIONS ARE VERY SIMILAR. We have similar positions on the development of the international financial architecture," he told reporters. Ahead of the Group of 20 summit in London later this week, the Kremlin has published a raft of proposals to overhaul the global economic order, including plans for a supra-national currency that could replace the US dollar. China has come forward with similar ideas.

The Telegraph reports that Arkady Dvorkevich, the Kremlin's chief economic adviser, said Russia would favour the inclusion of gold bullion in the basket-weighting of a new world currency based on Special Drawing Rights issued by the International Monetary Fund. Mr Dvorkevich said it was "logical" that the new currency should include the rouble and the yuan, adding that "we could also think about more effective use of gold in this system".

The Gold Standard was the anchor of world finance in the 19th Century but began breaking down during the First World War as governments engaged in unprecedented spending. It collapsed in the 1930s when the British Empire, the US, and France all abandoned their parities.

It was revived as part of fixed dollar system until US inflation caused by the Vietnam War and "Great Society" social spending forced President Richard Nixon to close the gold window in 1971. THE WORLD'S FIAT PAPER CURRENCIES HAVE LACKED ANY EXTERNAL ANCHOR EVER SINCE. It is widely argued that the financial excesses and extreme debt leverage of the last quarter century would have been impossible - or less likely - under the discipline of gold.

BRITAIN'S LARGEST WINDFARM COMPANIES ARE PULLING OUT OF WIND AS FAST AS THEY CAN. Despite 100 per cent subsidies, the credit crunch and technical problems spell an end to Gordon Brown's £100 billion dream of meeting our EU target to derive 35 per cent of our electricity from "renewables" by 2020.

Meanwhile the Government gives the go-ahead for THREE NEW 1,000 MEGAWATT GAS-FIRED POWER STATIONS IN WALES. Each of them will generate more than the combined average output (700 megawatts) of all the 2,400 wind turbines so far built. The days of the "great wind fantasy" will soon be over.

If one thing more than any other is used to justify proposals that the world must spend tens of trillions of dollars on combating global warming, IT IS THE BELIEF THAT WE FACE A DISASTROUS RISE IN SEA LEVELS. The Antarctic and Greenland ice caps will melt, we are told, warming oceans will expand, and the result will be catastrophe.

Although the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) only predicts a sea level rise of 59cm (17 inches) by 2100, Al Gore in his Oscar-winning film An Inconvenient Truth went much further, talking of 20 feet, and showing computer graphics of cities such as Shanghai and San Francisco half under water. We all know the graphic showing central London in similar plight. As for tiny island nations such as the Maldives and Tuvalu, as Prince Charles likes to tell us and the Archbishop of Canterbury was again parroting last week, they are due to vanish.

But if there is one scientist who knows more about sea levels than anyone else in the world it is the Swedish geologist and physicist Nils-Axel Mörner, formerly chairman of the INQUA International Commission on Sea Level Change. And the uncompromising verdict of Dr Mörner, who for 35 years has been using every known scientific method to study sea levels all over the globe, is that ALL THIS TALK ABOUT THE SEA RISING IS NOTHING BUT A COLOSSAL SCARE STORY.

DESPITE FLUCTUATIONS DOWN AS WELL AS UP, "THE SEA IS NOT RISING," HE SAYS. "IT HASN'T RISEN IN 50 YEARS." If there is any rise this century it will "not be more than 10cm (four inches), with an uncertainty of plus or minus 10cm". And quite apart from examining the hard evidence, he says, the elementary laws of physics (latent heat needed to melt ice) tell us that the apocalypse conjured up by Al Gore and Co could not possibly come about.

THE REASON WHY DR MÖRNER, FORMERLY A STOCKHOLM PROFESSOR, IS SO CERTAIN THAT THESE CLAIMS ABOUT SEA LEVEL RISE ARE 100 PER CENT WRONG IS THAT THEY ARE ALL BASED ON COMPUTER MODEL PREDICTIONS, WHEREAS HIS FINDINGS ARE BASED ON "GOING INTO THE FIELD TO OBSERVE WHAT IS ACTUALLY HAPPENING IN THE REAL WORLD".

It is an important test for the new US president. During his campaign, BARACK OBAMA PROMISED FUNDAMENTAL CHANGE, pledged to steer a determined course in combating the global economic crisis and said he would seek greater international cooperation. It was, he said, to be a "New Deal." This week, an important international summit meeting is about to begin, and the time has come for Obama to demonstrate that he can deliver on his promises. At their meeting in London, the representatives of the world's leading industrialized nations will discuss the global recession, a financial industry in disarray and a sharp drop in world trade.

At issue is the steepest economic downturn in decades, and everyone is waiting to see what the new man in Washington will do. WILL HE BE RESPONSIVE TO THE EUROPEANS' INSISTENCE ON A NEW GLOBAL FINANCIAL ORDER? Or will he focus instead on stimulating growth in his own country? The president who determined the fate of the London Monetary and Economic Conference in 1933, at the height of the world economic crisis, was Franklin D. Roosevelt. HIS EVENTUAL DECISION TO DISTANCE HIMSELF FROM THE CONFERENCE AGGRAVATED THE GLOBAL TRADE WARS AND DEEPENED THE GREAT DEPRESSION.

Seventy-six years later, another international crisis conference is now set to begin. Once again, banks have collapsed and millions of people have become unemployed. In the wake of sharp declines in the securities markets and a sell-off in the financial industry, the world faces the prospect of widespread hardship. As the representatives of the leading nations meet in London once again, ALL EYES ARE FOCUSED ON THE AMERICAN PRESIDENT.

Britain will get its first chance to see Barack Obama this week when a White House cavalcade - complete with armoured limousines, helicopters, 200 US secret service staff and a six-doctor medical team - sweeps into the UK. Obama will fly into London for his first visit to the UK as president of the United States on Tuesday to take part in the G20 summit in the capital's Docklands area. He will not be travelling light.

More than 500 officials and staff will accompany the president on his tour this week - along with a mass of high-tech security equipment, including the $300,000 presidential limousine, known as The Beast. Fitted with night-vision camera, reinforced steel plating, tear-gas cannon and oxygen tanks, the vehicle is the ultimate in heavy armoured transport.

In addition, a team from the White House kitchen will travel with the president to prepare his food. As one official put it: "When the president travels, the White House travels with him, right down to the car he drives, the water he drinks, the gasoline he uses, the food he eats. AMERICA IS STILL THE SOLE SUPERPOWER AND THE PRESIDENT MUST HAVE THE ABILITY TO HANDLE ANY CRISIS, ANYWHERE, ANY TIME."

Today the nonprofit Center for Consumer Freedom (CCF) published documents online showing that People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) killed 95 percent of the adoptable pets in its care during 2008. Despite years of public outrage over its euthanasia program, the animal rights group kills an average of 5.8 pets every day at its Norfolk, VA headquarters. According to public records from the Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services, PETA KILLED 2,124 PETS LAST YEAR AND PLACED ONLY SEVEN IN ADOPTIVE HOMES. Since 1998, a total of 21,339 dogs and cats have died at the hands of PETA workers.

DESPITE HAVING A $32 MILLION BUDGET, PETA does not operate an adoption shelter. PETA employees make no discernible effort to find homes for the thousands of pets they kill every year. Last year, the Center for Consumer Freedom petitioned Virginia's State Veterinarian to reclassify PETA as a slaughterhouse. CCF Research Director David Martosko said: "PETA HASN'T SLOWED DOWN ITS HYPOCRITICAL KILLING MACHINE ONE BIT, BUT IT KEEPS BROWBEATING THE REST OF SOCIETY WITH A PHONY 'ANIMAL RIGHTS' MESSAGE. What about the rights of the thousands of dogs, cats, puppies, and kittens that die in PETA's headquarters building?"

Martosko added: "Since killing pets is A-OK with PETA, why should anyone listen to their demands about eating meat, using lab rats for medical research, or taking children to the circus?" CCF obtained PETA's "Animal Record" filings since 1998 from the Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services. Members of the public can see these documents at PetaKillsAnimals.com. In addition to exposing PETA's hypocritical record of killing defenseless animals, the Center for Consumer Freedom has publicized THE ANIMAL RIGHTS GROUP'S TIES TO VIOLENT ACTIVISTS, AND SHED LIGHT ON ITS AGGRESSIVE MESSAGE-MARKETING TO CHILDREN.

Mr Obama is preparing to outline terms for offering more help to GM and fellow car giant Chrysler. The two firms have already received $17.4bn (£14.4bn) in bail-outs. Chrysler has requested a further $5bn while GM says it needs $16.7bn more. Reports have suggested that a frustrated Mr Obama will reject GM and Chrysler's turnaround plans as unrealistic, raising the risk of the carmakers' bankruptcy.

The auto task force appointed by Mr Obama released two reports on Monday on the financial health of both carmakers, saying that Chrysler was "not viable" in its current form. It demanded a merger with Italy's Fiat or another carmaker if Chrysler was to survive and said the Obama administration would only provide the company working capital for the next 30 days. It also said that it would pledge to fund GM's operations for the next 60 days only, requiring the carmaker to come up with another plan detailing further restructuring.

"While Chrysler and GM are different companies with different paths forward, both have unsustainable liabilities and both need a fresh start," the task force said. "THEIR BEST CHANCE AT SUCCESS MAY WELL REQUIRE UTILISING THE BANKRUPTCY CODE IN A QUICK AND SURGICAL WAY."

According to the Denver Post, when White House officials heard about the program, it was put on overdrive. SO FAR, 45 IVY LEAGUE GRADS, FORTUNE 500 EXECUTIVES AND GOVERNMENT OFFICIALS HAVE BEEN SUBMITTED FOR CONSIDERATION. J. Saleh Williams, program coordinator for the Congressional Muslim Staffers Association, sifted through more than 300 names as part of the search.

"It was mostly under the radar," Williams said. "We thought it would put (the president) in a precarious position. We didn't know how closely he wanted to appear to be working with the Muslim American community." ELLISON IS SERIOUS ABOUT HIS FAITH. He made the pilgrimage to Mecca with the sponsorship of the Muslim American Society, an offshoot of the Muslim Brotherhood.

In 1991, Mohamed Akram wrote a memo for the leadership of the Muslim Brotherhood that explained its work in America as "A KIND OF GRAND JIHAD IN ELIMINATING AND DESTROYING THE WESTERN CIVILIZATION FROM WITHIN and 'sabotaging' its miserable house by their hands and the hands of the believers so that it is eliminated and God's religion is made victorious over all other religions."