The Irish Times notes that Judge Herbert Landau said new EU powers in criminal justice affected "core issues" of German legislative authority. "These are issues affecting the shared values of a people," he said. According to Euobserver, Judge Udo Di Fabio, who will deliver the judgement on the Treaty, asked whether the transferral of powers to the EU really means more freedom for EU citizens, asking "Is the idea of going ever more in this direction not a threat to freedom?" Judge Rudolf Mellinghoff asked whether the Treaty was already "in an extensive way" being applied when it comes to the area of criminal sanctions in environment issues.

The Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung noted that the judges were united on one issue: that the treaty is not a work of high literature. Less-than-clear passages from the treaty were read out aloud, guaranteeing a laugh, noted the paper.

Suedeutsche Zeitung notes that the Court may ask for a referendum if it finds that the Treaty detrimentally affects the German Constitution. The paper notes that "if the judges intervene... it will be because important transfer of powers to the EU is not followed by a corresponding increase in democracy. Europe suffers from lack of democracy".

The warning was a particular shock after Lloyds chairman Sir Victor Blank recently told Sky News he believed all the bad news about HBOS had already come out. In fact, the new estimate is several billion pounds worse than the markets had expected. The fall came despite the fact the group, which is 43%-owned by the taxpayer, expects pre-tax profits of around £2.4bn for Lloyds TSB.

Market confidence in HBOS collapsed last autumn and the Government waived competition rules to allow the bank to be taken over by Lloyds TSB, creating a UK "super-bank". The taxpayer has pumped a total of £17bn into the two banks to shore up their balance sheets. The massive write-downs at HBOS throw a fresh spotlight on the handling of risk at the bank.

The baby, who weighed in at seven pounds and three ounces when she was born Monday, was conceived after just one night of unprotected sex, the paper said. Alfie was 12 years old at the time. In theory, police could have brought a prosecution for under-age sex, but they said they would not be pressing charges.

"Sussex Police Child Protection Team were aware of a 14-year-old girl that had become pregnant as the result of a relationship with a 12-year-old boy," said a spokeswoman for Sussex Police. "A joint agency investigation with East Sussex County Council Children's Services has taken place which has considered the needs of both individuals and there will be continued support for these two young people in the future."

Update - The Daily Mail reports - "The teenage sister of the boy who became a father at 13 had a baby when she was the same age!"

Black-clad youths gathered at the city's main train station, waving black and black-white-and-red German nationalist flags as hundreds of police wearing body armor separated them from angry protesters, many of them screaming 'Nazis out!'

"THERE'S NOTHING IN GERMANY THAT COULD COMPARE TO THE SCALE OF THIS NAZI MARCH," said Robert Kusche, an activist with Kulturbuero Sachsen, which organized one of the counter- demonstrations. For 10 years, anti-immigrant and skinhead groups have marked the anniversary of the bombing of Dresden in Allied air raids, which took place February 13-15, 1945, at the end of World War II. Their aims have been bolstered since the NPD entered the Saxony state assembly in 2004.

"They're trying to link the victims of Dresden with the victims of Auschwitz," Hajo Funke, an expert on neo-Nazis at the Free University in Berlin, said in a phone interview. "THEY REPRESENT A CALL FOR REVIVING THE GERMAN REICH, ANTI-AMERICANISM AND ANTI-SEMITISM."

The total U.S. obligations, including Social Security and Medicare benefits to be paid in the future, effectively have placed the U.S. government in bankruptcy, even before new continuing social welfare obligation embedded in the massive spending plan are taken into account. The real 2008 federal budget deficit was $5.1 trillion, not the $455 billion previously reported by the Congressional Budget Office, according to the "2008 Financial Report of the United States Government" as released by the U.S. Department of Treasury.

"Put simply, there is no way the government can possibly pay for the level of social welfare benefits the federal government has promised UNLESS THE GOVERNMENT SIMPLY PRINTS CASH AND DEBASES THE CURRENCY, which the government will increasingly be doing this year," Williams said, explaining in more detail why he feels the government is now in the process of monetizing the federal debt.

The $65.5 trillion total federal obligations under GAAP accounting not only now exceed four times the U.S. gross domestic product, or GDP, THE $65.5 TRILLION DEFICIT EXCEEDS TOTAL WORLD GDP. "THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT IS BANKRUPT," Williams told WND. "In a post-Enron world, if the federal government were a corporation such as General Motors, the president and senior Treasury officers would be in federal penitentiary."

According to the Archbishop of Westminster, the economic downturn could be the very thing that brings us to our senses. "It's the end of a certain kind of selfish capitalism," Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O'Connor said. He told The Times that he had advised Gordon Brown to complement his National Economic Council with a moral one, to "rediscover the things that make for a healthy society. LET'S FACE IT, WE NOW HAVE A 'ME, ME' SOCIETY, a more consumerist society, a utilitarian society, and our values and virtues have become diminished."

"Maybe the Church lost a bit of confidence. We should have said more. [The recession] is not a punishment of God but the consequences of living a certain way of life. If you live a life that is consumed by overindulgence and greed, you eventually pay a price." The Sixties had a lot to answer for. "Liberalism is fine as long as it doesn't become libertine. Casual sex is very dangerous. I get so angry about schools. They all seem keen to teach everything about sex. When I go into schools and talk to girls and boys, they say, 'When I grow up I want to settle down, marry and have a family.' It is good to encourage that, not to say you must have sex right, left and centre and it will all be fine. It won't."

Catholic adoption agencies should, he said, be allowed to turn down gay couples who want a child - something that is now banned under equality legislation. "I am against discrimination against homosexuals but... we think the best way of bringing up a child is with a father and mother. [THE LAW] IS POLITICAL CORRECTNESS GONE MAD. Religious bodies and voluntary agencies shouldn't be discriminated against."

The Church of England should be disestablished, he said. "If they think they are freer to preach the gospel by being disestablished, then I think they should disestablish." WOULD THE ANGLICAN AND CATHOLIC CHURCHES MERGE AGAIN? "THAT'S WHAT WE'RE WORKING FOR," he said, "but not in my lifetime. Henry VIII really was terrible. I blame him for a lot."

Only one in 50 single women now marries each year, and only one in 43 single men. Those are the lowest marriage rates since they were first calculated in 1862. At that time weddings were largely the preserve of the wealthy, with everyone else settling for common law marriages.

Data due in June is now expected to show only 48.8 per cent of the over 16 population had marriage status in 2007, according to analysis conducted by The Times. When these records first began in 1971, more than 68 per cent of the adult population were married. It would be the first time that the married proportion of the adult population has been recorded as dropping below 50 per cent.

There were only 231,450 marriages in 2007, down 3.3 per cent on the year before. The only year that has had a smaller number of weddings was 1895, the first year a count was made, when there were 228,204. The figures, for England and Wales, have been released by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) a week after a report from a leading children's charity said that a third of 16-year-olds were living with one parent, and that children of separated parents were far more likely to perform poorly at school and suffer behavioural problems.

A spokesman for the Ministry of Justice said: "The Government supports marriage in principle and in practice BUT ACCEPTS THAT STABLE FAMILIES MAY COME IN A VARIETY OF FORMS AND SOME PEOPLE MAY CHOOSE TO COHABIT. The Government will continue to work to strengthen the family unit in whatever form it may take."

On his Telegraph blog Bruno Waterfield writes that, "The figures, contained in a secret European Commission paper, are startling. THE DODGY FINANCIAL PACKAGES ARE ESTIMATED TO TOTAL £16.3 TRILLION IN BANKS ACROSS THE EU."

He notes that the "impaired assets' may amount to an astonishing 44 per cent of EU bank balance sheets" and that "the secret 17 page paper warned THAT GOVERNMENT ATTEMPTS TO BUY UP OR UNDERWRITE THE ASSETS COULD PLUNGE THE EU INTO A DEEPER CRISIS, ONE THAT THREATENS THE UNION."

Also in the Telegraph, Ambrose Evans-Pritchard notes that proposals for some form of 'debt-agency' or mechanism for the EU to raise bonds, is "a move seen by diplomats as A PLOY TO AMBUSH GERMANY INTO ACCEPTING SHARED RESPONSIBILITY FOR EU DEBTS - ANATHEMA TO BERLIN."

The 38-year-old, from Crediton, Devon, works at Landscore Primary School and claims headteacher Gary Read told her he was not happy about Jasmine making religious statements. Mrs Cain said after the meeting she emailed 10 friends from her church congregation asking them to pray about the situation and was shocked to discover that Mr Read had managed to obtain a copy of the email.

She was summoned to a second meeting and told she was being investigated for professional misconduct for allegedly making claims against the school and its staff. The Christian Institute is providing legal support for Mrs Cain as the investigation could result in disciplinary action, including dismissal.

Spokesman Mike Judge said: "A five-year-old girl and her mother have been slammed for nothing more than expressing their Christian faith. I am particularly concerned about the way in which Mrs Cain's private email to her church friends ended up in the hands of the headteacher. THIS IS THE LATEST IN A SERIES OF CASES WHERE CHRISTIANS ARE BEING PERSECUTED FOR THEIR RELIGIOUS BELIEFS."
Mr Read said the school will be releasing a statement later.

With reference to protectionist ambitions in certain EU states, Czech Prime Minister Mirek Topolanek underlined the importance that "all measures taken in member states need to respect common rules." Libération blogger Jean Quatremer notes that Topolanek called this conference "because he had little choice," under pressure from French President Nicolas Sarkozy and despite Germany's reluctance to attend a new summit.

The summit has been called amid an increasingly tense relationship between Prague and Paris. Meanwhile, on his BBC blog, Mark Mardell reports that the Czech EU Presidency has called a second emergency EU summit in Prague in May to examine jobs and unemployment.

"Most of the obstacles preventing us from consolidating an agreement have already been solved," Nunu said, adding that the agreement would ensure an end to the fighting with Israel and the opening of the crossings into Gaza. Hamas would accept an 18-month truce if Israel stopped its "aggression," i.e. attacks, lifted its blockade and opened the Israeli border crossings with the Gaza Strip, the official said earlier Thursday.

Hamas was trying to find out which specific construction and agricultural materials Israel plans to bar from entering the Gaza Strip. Israel is concerned the raw materials will be used to manufacture weapons and bunkers. In addition, Hamas is interested in securing a written agreement with Israel, while Israel wants an oral agreement.

The delegation "has decided to stay until the Egyptian side gets answers from the Israelis about all their questions and demands," he said.

The US Geological Survey said the 7.0-magnitude quake struck at 1:34 am (1734 GMT; 2:34 pm Wednesday EST) approximately 195 miles (315 kilometers) from Manado, the northernmost city on Sulawesi island. It was centered 20 miles (30 kilometers) beneath the ocean floor and followed by several aftershocks.

The temblor was felt strongest on the nearby island of Talaud. Rustam Pakaya, a government crisis center official, said all the injuries and most of the damage occurred in Melonguane and Kabaruan towns. Patients in one hospital had to be evacuated to a clinic after one of the corridors collapsed, he said. Elsewhere, a church tower came tumbling down. More than 30 other buildings and homes sustained cracks.

There are few left who don't think the current economic crisis is bad. Still, there is still room for surprise when it comes to degree. When it comes to the economy in the European Union, new evidence published on Thursday shows that THE CRISIS HAS HIT THE INDUSTRIAL SECTOR WITH UNFORESEEN FORCE.

Eurostat, which compiles statistics on the European Union economy, announced that production had plummeted at the end of 2008. In December, the amount of goods rolling off the conveyor belts was 2.6 percent lower than November - and fully 12 percent lower than during the same time period a year ago.

The numbers confirm a Financial Times Deutschland article, citing an internal EU report, that both construction and manufacturing in Europe were being hit hard. In describing the downturn, Günter Verheugen, the European Union's Industry Commissioner, did not mince words: "THE EXTENT AND SPEED OF THE CRISIS IS COMPLETELY NEW," he told the paper.

The Dow Jones Industrial average fell almost 400 points Tuesday on the news, and the Asian equity markets followed. This steep decline is symptomatic of THE UNEASE THAT PERMEATES FINANCIAL MARKETS.

It's not just the amount of money that is troubling. The MARKETS WERE ALSO DISTRESSED BY A LACK OF DETAIL, especially on how to deal with so-called toxic assets - loans with diminished and uncertain value. The previous Treasury secretary, Henry Paulson, proposed to buy toxic assets, then discovered the difficulties of pricing and so switched to purchases of banks' preferred stock to infuse capital into the banks.

Geithner promised "to consult closely with Congress" as he moved forward, but Congress has not held hearings on implementing the program, even though it would leverage $1 trillion of Federal Reserve funds and close to that in private-sector funds. The public fears that the $2 trillion dollar bank bailout fund would be just throwing good money after bad.

The implicit reason for going beyond Congress is: "TRUST US, WE KNOW WHAT WE ARE DOING." YET GEITHNER UNDERMINED THAT MESSAGE BY STATING THAT ALL OF THIS IS UNCHARTED TERRITORY AND THAT MISTAKES WOULD CERTAINLY BE MADE. Neither the message nor the messenger reassures financial markets. Quite the opposite.

"There would be great unease" at the prospect of such a government, said one Capitol Hill source. He predicted that a governing coalition of parties from the Right could embolden the left flank of the Democratic party and turn up pressure, particularly in the US Congress, to pass measures that made clear demands on Israel. He distinguished, however, between a Netanyahu-led right-wing coalition and Netanyahu-led national unity government.

Still, many political analysts say there's no doubt the Obama administration would prefer to see a national-unity government headed by Livni. "The impression in Israel is that the Obama administration has already made its preference known and that its preference is for Kadima - and that impression isn't going anywhere," said Georgetown University professor and Israel expert Michael Oren. "They'd rather work with a centrist government than a right-wing government."