There is a new commandment in the land: "THOU SHALT NOT DRINK BOTTLED WATER." It is taken as an indisputable truth that anyone who has a proper regard for his or her health will drink eight glasses of water a day. Given that the average glass will hold about eight ounces of water, this is frequently described as the "rule of 8x8".

As Rose Shapiro notes in her new book, Suckers, the bottled drink industry has warmly endorsed the ludicrous PSEUDO-MEDICAL FAD which suggests that we are at great risk of dangerous levels of dehydration unless we spend much of our day glugging down water.

This organised panic about dehydration seems to stem from a misreading - quite possibly deliberate - of guidelines from the US Food and Nutrition Board in 1945. These stated that "a suitable allowance of water for adults is 2.5 LITRES DAILY in most instances. An ordinary standard for diverse persons is one millilitre for each calorie of food. MOST OF THIS QUANTITY IS CONTAINED IN PREPARED FOODS." As Shapiro notes, the last sentence of that advice is always left out, leading to the idea that we need an extra eight glasses of water over and above our actual requirements.

Other commodities traded mixed, with crude oil retreating from $100 a barrel and agriculture futures rising. The dollar's decline versus the 15-nation euro has been a major driver of precious metals, which are seen as safer alternative investments used to hedge against inflation and economic and political uncertainty. Platinum has gained 38 percent this year, gold 11 percent and silver 19 percent.

GOLD Jumped on the dollar's drop, with the April contract rising $11.40 to settle at $949.20 an ounce on the New York Mercantile Exchange, after earlier touching an all-time high of $958.40. Gold broke the $950 barrier for the first time Wednesday, raising expectations that the metal could breach the psychologically important $1,000 mark in coming weeks or months.

SILVER rose to its highest level since 1980, with the March contract hitting a record $18.075 an ounce on the Nymex before settling at $17.835, up 19 cents.

PLATINUM also extended its record-setting rally amid supply concerns fed by a power shortage in South Africa. An ounce of platinum for April delivery surged $49.40 to settle at $2,188.20 on the Nymex, after earlier pushing to an all-time high of $2,194.80.

Nymex COPPER for March delivery added 10.20 cents to settle at $3.8105 a pound after falling back from a record $3.8465.

ANTIQUES DEALER ARRESTED AT GUN POINT UNDER EUROPEAN ARREST WARRANT ON BASELESS GROUNDS
Antiques Trade Gazette - reports how a London-based antiques dealer Malcolm Hay was seized under a Greek-issued European Arrest Warrant, having been unwittingly caught up in a case of stolen Greek artefacts simply by doing business with a regular customer, a registered antiques dealer based in Athens. At one point Hay was arrested at gunpoint at London's City Airport and spent two days in custody before being taken before an extradition tribunal. Following his arrest and remand in custody, Hay was released on a £20,000 bail and spent the next six months fighting extradition in the English courts and simultaneously charges of theft in the Greek criminal court relating to the 1999 transaction. His eventual discharge from the Warrant in England came on January 9 after UK magistrates ruled that the Crown Prosecution Service had failed to clarify whether or not the Warrant was valid because of the lack of a formal summons in the Greek courts.

GOVERNMENT ADMITS IT UNDERESTIMATED NEW LISBON TREATY POWERS
Europe Minister Jim Murphy has issued a statement saying that the Lisbon Treaty will introduce majority voting in 51 areas, as opposed to 50 as previously claimed. He said, "The Explanatory Memorandum on the Lisbon Treaty stated that the Treaty extended qualified majority voting (QMV) in a total of 50 articles. It should have stated that there were 51 articles, including the move to QMV on the statute, seat and operational rules of the European Defence Agency (EDA)."

BROWN ON "SYMBOLIC" VISIT TO BRUSSELS
The IHT reports that Gordon Brown is today making his "symbolic" first visit to the EU institutions in Brussels, since he took office. He is expected to meet with the Competition Commissioner, Neelie Kroes to discuss whether Britain's plan to nationalise Northern Rock complies with EU state-aid rules.

MIGRANTS MUST EARN CITIZENSHIP, SAYS BROWN
Gordon Brown and Home Secretary Jacqui Smith will outline a system of "earned citizenship" for new migrants to Britain, aimed toward enhancing integration of individual migrants into British society, reports the Guardian. The new scheme would create a more rigorous five-year probationary period for migrants before they can apply for citizenship, which will emphasise English language acquisition, obedience to the law, and payment of taxes, and may include periods of community and voluntary work.

According to a report in German daily Die Welt, politicians from the Left Party as well as Peter Gauweiler, a centre-right politician from one of the governing parties - the CSU - are examining the text of the EU treaty to see if they can bring a case before the country's constitutional court. Their move could mean that the final formal step of ratification is delayed.

Mr Gauweiler had complained that the EU constitution took too much power away from the country's national parliament, arguing that the document overstepped the boundaries that the German constitution provides for the integration of state institutions in the EU.

So far Hungary, France, Slovenia, Malta and Romania have ratified the text, which needs to be approved by all EU member states for it to come into force. A delay in ratification by Germany would be embarrassing for chancellor Angela Merkel, who was largely responsible for getting a new treaty into shape again following the rejected constitution.

In a strategy some Western diplomats admit could badly backfire, the Bush administration has made clear it wishes to continue to support Mr Musharraf even after Monday's election in which the Pakistani public delivered a resounding rejection of his policies. "[The US] does not want some people pushed out because it would lead to instability. In this case that means Musharraf," said one Western diplomat.

Officials say the policy is driven by concern about possible instability in the aftermath of the election in which the president's parliamentary allies were soundly beaten. In such circumstances US and its Western allies are urging the election's winners - the late Benazir Bhutto's Pakistan People's Party (PPP) and Nawaz Sharif's Pakistan Muslim League-N (PML-N)- to quickly move forward and form a coalition that includes all "moderate" elements.

But along with Mr Musharraf's future, the reinstatement of sacked Chief Justice Minister Iftikar Chaudhry and other Supreme Court justices - sacked by the president when they refused to ratify his imposition of a State of Emergency last November - has rapidly emerged as one of the most contentious issued in the aftermath of Monday's vote, as the PPP and PML-N negotiate to form a coalition government. Mr Sharif, whose party secured the second most number of seats, built his campaign around the reinstatement of Mr Chaudhry and has repeatedly insisted Mr Musharraf should stand down.

The West's approach has already drawn criticism. Ali Dayan Hasan of Human Rights Watch, said: "How is it that the US believes Musharraf can be the guarantor of any sort of stability when he is the source of instability?"

The embassy was closed and unprotected at the time. Reports say the Croatian and UK embassies were also attacked. The violence follows a peaceful protest by at least 150,000 people outside the main parliament building against Kosovo's declaration of independence. The US, the UK, Germany and Italy are among those to have recognised Kosovo.

The attacks overshadowed the earlier peaceful demonstration, when Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica addressed protesters in the main square, saying Kosovo would always be Serbian. Most Serbs consider Kosovo their religious and cultural heartland. In the coming weeks, an almost 2,000-strong EU mission will be deployed to help the country develop its police force and judiciary.

Former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif said he had agreed "a common agenda" with the party of assassinated opposition leader Benazir Bhutto. He had been in talks with Ms Bhutto's widower, Asif Zardari, the new leader of the Pakistan People's Party (PPP). Such a government could put renewed pressure on President Pervez Musharraf.

He said the two parties had agreed that the country's chief justice minister, sacked by President Musharraf in November, should be immediately reinstated. Mr Zardari said there was "a lot of ground to cover" between the two parties, but "in principle, we have agreed to stay together". Doubts remain about who will emerge as a possible prime minister.

Mr Sharif has been deeply critical of the president and says he wants "to rid Pakistan of dictatorship forever". Mr Musharraf has said he will not resign or retire, but instead wishes to work towards stable democratic government in Pakistan. Mr Musharraf seized power in a military coup in 1999 and was re-elected to the presidency in October in a parliamentary vote boycotted by the opposition as unconstitutional.

The economic and social cost associated with the "trauma and physical injury" suffered by victims is £7 billion a year and employers lose £2.1 billion through time taken off work, say the estimates. Violent crimes fell from 20,400 to 19,200 last year - a drop of 5.9 per cent. Overall crime levels were down 8.5 per cent. The NAO figures show nearly half of the perpetrators of violent crimes were thought to be drunk and 17 per cent under the influence of drugs at the time.

Firearms offences almost doubled between 1998 and 2006, from just over 5,000 to about 11,000, although there was a fall of more than 1,000 last year. Last year, guns were involved in 413 serious injuries and 58 homicides. Knife crime also fell last year, after doubling among 15- to 17-year-olds in the previous decade.

Weapons of some type were involved in a quarter of violent crimes, with knives the most common, followed by glass and bottles. There were 755 homicides last year, 636 attempted murders and 480 deaths involving a vehicle.

With Harare's shop shelves bare of basic commodities and prices rising daily, it is a wonder that inflation can be calculated at all, but the Central Statistical Office's work is a marvel of precision. "The year-on-year inflation rate for the month of January 2008, as measured by the All-items Consumer Price Index, stood at 100,580.2 per cent," it said in a statement yesterday. Independent observers believe the true figures are even higher. A single cigarette now costs Z$500,000.

Mr Mugabe blames hyperinflation on exploitative businessmen who are part of a Western plot to destabilise his country. His critics point instead to widespread economic mismanagement, corruption and the government's policy of printing ever more money to satisfy its needs. "It's going to get worse because they have to print even more money to pay the army and to pay for the elections," said Dr Daniel Ndlela, an economist based in Zimbabwe. "The economic instability will increase every day." At independence in 1980 the Zimbabwe dollar was one of the strongest currencies in Africa.

On Tuesday the rate stood at Z$8million to the US dollar. Yesterday morning it was Z$9million. By the afternoon it had reached Z$10.5million.

Military operatives had only a 10-second window to hit the satellite - USA 193 - which lost control shortly after it was launched in December 2006. Officials said they were worried fuel on board could pose a threat to humans.
But Russia suspects the operation was a cover to test anti-satellite technology under the US missile defence programme. The US denies the operation was a response to an anti-satellite test carried out by China last year, which prompted fears of a space arms race.

The BBC's Jonathan Beale in Washington says this operation was hugely ambitious - like trying to fire a missile through the eye of a needle. The operation went ahead hours after the space shuttle Atlantis landed, removing it as a safety issue for the military. The satellite - believed by some commentators to be a radar imaging reconnaissance satellite - was passing about 130 miles (210km) over the Pacific.

On Tuesday, a US State Department spokesman stressed that the action was meant to protect people from the hazardous fuel and was not a weapons test. The US government has also denied claims that the main aim of the operation was to destroy secret components on USA 193. Officials say classified parts would be burned up in the atmosphere and, in any case, that would not be a reason for shooting down the satellite.

Colin Cook, who formerly taught English at the King Fahad Academy in Acton, West London, told a tribunal how pupils as young as five were taught from Arabic textbooks describing Jews as "monkeys" and Christians as "pigs". Under public pressure, the academy agreed to destroy the books - but not before photocopying them for future use, he told the Watford tribunal.

He also claimed that headteacher Dr Sumaya Alyusuf had given a false assurance that the school did not use objectionable parts of the book. Dr Alyusuf said on BBC's Newsnight: "There are chapters from these books that are used and that will serve our objectives. But we don't teach hatred towards Judaism or Christianity - on the contrary." But Mr Cook told the tribunal: "I discovered that race hate was being taught in textbooks at the academy. The race hate included test questions asking pupils to list the reprehensible qualities of Jews and described Christians as 'pigs'. It was appalling."

Father-of-three Mr Cook, 58, of Feltham, is claiming unfair dismissal, race discrimination and victimisation, which the school denies. He was earning £35,000-a-year and is seeking £135,000 for lost earnings, injury to feelings and aggravated damages. The tribunal heard that pupils at the private Muslim faith school included the five children of jailed, hook-handed cleric Abu Hamza and those of Abu Qatada, alleged to be Osama bin Laden's right-hand man in Europe.

"Based on strikingly irrational beliefs and emotions, modern liberals relentlessly undermine the most important principles on which our freedoms were founded," says Dr. Lyle Rossiter, author of the new book, 'The Liberal Mind: The Psychological Causes of Political Madness'. "Like spoiled, angry children, they rebel against the normal responsibilities of adulthood and demand that a parental government meet their needs from cradle to grave."

Rossiter says the kind of liberalism being displayed by the two major candidates for the Democratic Party presidential nomination can only be understood as a psychological disorder.

"A social scientist who understands human nature will not dismiss the vital roles of free choice, voluntary cooperation and moral integrity - as liberals do," he says. "A political leader who understands human nature will not ignore individual differences in talent, drive, personal appeal and work ethic, and then try to impose economic and social equality on the population - as liberals do. And a legislator who understands human nature will not create an environment of rules which over-regulates and over-taxes the nation's citizens, corrupts their character and reduces them to wards of the state - as liberals do."

Dr. Rossiter says the liberal agenda preys on weakness and feelings of inferiority in the population by:
- creating and reinforcing perceptions of victimization;
- satisfying infantile claims to entitlement, indulgence and compensation;
- augmenting primitive feelings of envy;
- rejecting the sovereignty of the individual, subordinating him to the will of the government.

"The roots of liberalism - and its associated madness - can be clearly identified by understanding how children develop from infancy to adulthood and how distorted development produces the irrational beliefs of the liberal mind," he says. "When the modern liberal mind whines about imaginary victims, rages against imaginary villains and seeks above all else to run the lives of persons competent to run their own lives, the neurosis of the liberal mind becomes painfully obvious."

Lunar eclipses have long been associated with superstitions and signs of ill omen, especially in battle. The defeat of the Persian king Darius III by Alexander the Great in the Battle of Gaugamela in 331 BC was foretold by soothsayers when the Moon turned blood-red a few days earlier.

And an eclipse is credited with saving the life of Christopher Columbus and his crew in 1504. Stranded on the coast of Jamaica, the explorers were running out of food and faced with increasingly hostile local inhabitants who were refusing to provide them with any more supplies. Columbus, looking at an astronomical almanac compiled by a German mathematician, realised that a total eclipse of the Moon would occur on February 29, 1504. He called the native leaders and warned them if they did not cooperate, he would make the Moon disappear from the sky the following night. The warning, of course, came true, prompting the terrified people to beg Columbus to restore the Moon -- which he did, in return for as much food as his men needed. He and the crew were rescued on June 29, 1504.

The Moon will be in total eclipse from 0301 GMT to 0351 GMT. This will be visible east of the Rocky Mountains in North America, as well as in all of Central and South America, West Africa and Western Europe. The zenith of totality is close to French Guiana.

It will be in partial eclipse from 0143 GMT to 0301 GMT, visible west of the Rockies and from the eastern Pacific, and from 0351 GMT to 0509 GMT, visible across the rest of Africa and Europe and much of South and West Asia.

The 225-issue Nikkei Stock Average shed 447.54 points, or 3.25 percent, from Tuesday to 13,310.37, declining for the first time in three trading sessions. The broader Topix index of all First Section issues on the Tokyo Stock Exchange was down 42.57 points, or 3.16 percent, to 1,302.72. In line with equity tumbles across Asia, Tokyo stocks fell almost across the board with the heaviest falls seen in real estate, warehouse and harbor transport services, and banking issues.

Combined with a recent hike in iron ore prices, jitters hit the Tokyo and Asian markets after the price of oil ended above $100 per barrel in New York for the first time Tuesday. "It is hard to deny that rising prices of raw materials will squeeze earnings of Japanese companies," said Norihiro Fujito, a senior investment strategist at Mitsubishi UFJ Securities Co.

That makes advocates happy: Cloning enables the livestock industry to do in a fraction of the time what breeders have been doing throughout history, narrowing the gene pool to its most desirable genes. Beyond that, say cloners, future benefits include production of genetically engineered animals that could offer a variety of benefits - more nutrient-rich milk, for example, for people without adequate access to food.

Cloned-animal products aren't on store shelves yet - the industry won't begin selling them for at least a few months, after a government-recommended "transition period" - but when they finally do appear in supermarkets you may not even notice, because they won't be labeled. "The FDA does not require labeling if there [are] no food safety issues," said Dr. Stephen Sundlof, director of the Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition, at a January press conference.

There are about 4,000 cloned cattle on the planet, and 600 of them in the U.S. They are used primarily for breeding purposes, and as yet, their products aren't officially sold anywhere - though there is anecdotal evidence that cloned food products have made their way into the market in the past. Currently the U.S., E.U., Australia, China, Japan and New Zealand all use cloned cattle and pigs. ViaGEN, a cloning and animal genetics company based in Austin, Tex., produces some 150 cloned cattle annually, which it sells to meat suppliers, primarily for breeding.