The country's most senior civil servant has disclosed that the election of the SNP has brought an end to the informal contacts that used to be commonplace between the Scottish Executive and UK government.
In a development that will alarm unionist politicians at Westminster, Sir John Elvidge has revealed civil servants no longer exchange information informally, as they did in the first eight years of devolution.

The sea change in relations between Edinburgh and Whitehall was revealed as Sir John, the Permanent Secretary at the Executive, said he was pressing ahead with plans to create a separate Scottish civil service, severing the link with Whitehall that has existed for more than a century. In an exclusive interview with The Scotsman, he also hinted that there could be a formal move to drop the title Scottish Executive and replace it with Scottish Government.

I had a delicious South African Viognier the other day and was staggered to find, when I glanced at the label, that it was 15.5 per cent alcohol by volume - nearly as strong as a fortified wine. A glass later and I was feeling the effects. Twenty years ago, the average strength was around 12.5 per cent, whereas today it is nearer 14 per cent.

Avery believes there's a simpler answer. "THE MORE POWERFUL AND CONCENTRATED RED WINES SEEMED TO PLEASE WINE CRITICS AND COMPETITION JUDGES, ESPECIALLY IN THE US," he says. "The resulting high scores encouraged producers to go for higher alcohol levels." Others say improvements in viticulture and vinification led to the hike in alcohol levels.

In the old days, vines were often pretty much left to get on with it. Today, careful pruning allows buds to appear earlier and in greater numbers, and the grapes to then ripen for longer. Riper grapes mean more sugar; more sugar produces a higher alcohol content.

Skinner, too, believes producers are "deliberately making wines that are big, blowsy and very alcoholic to catch judges' attention at wine shows".

Their brief is to confront intractable international problems. The "Elders" as the group is to be known includes Mr Mandela's fellow Nobel peace laureates, the former archbishop of Cape Town, Desmond Tutu, and the former US president, Jimmy Carter, as well as the former UN secretary general, Kofi Annan, and the former Irish president Mary Robinson.

"Using their collective experience, their moral courage and their ability to rise above nation, race and creed, they can make our planet a more peaceful and equitable place to live," the former South African president said at the launch ceremony in Johannesburg. "They don't have careers to build, elections to win and constituencies to please," he added

The initiative was planned by Sir Richard Branson and the singer, Peter Gabriel, who have raised US $18m to fund it for the next three years. The aim is for the group to work behind the scenes to try to resolve problems and crises that have defied the efforts of governments and established institutions such as the UN.

"We don't have a magic wand," said Mr Annan but he and others in the group argued that their experience and their collective ability to pick up the phone to call just about anyone in the world might give them a chance to mediate in crises that were bogged down.

Tokyo Electric Power Co. warned that the nuclear plant shutdown could lead to power shortages in Japan. It has asked six other power companies to consider providing emergency electricity to prepare for rising demand from summer air conditioning, spokesman Hiroshi Itagaki said.

The mayor of Kashiwazaki, a city of 93,500 on the northern coast, called in the head of the nation's biggest power company and ordered the damaged nuclear station closed until its safety could be confirmed, escalating a showdown over a long list of problems at the world's most powerful generating plant.

"I am worried," Mayor Hiroshi Aida said in ordering the closure. "The safety of the plant must be assured before it is reopened." Officials at Tokyo Electric, operator of the plant, said damage caused by the quake posed no danger to people or the environment. But damage was widely visible on the site, from cracked roads and buckled sidewalks to the charred outside wall of an electrical transformer building that caught fire.

Repercussions from the quake also were felt in the business world.

Shares of Tokyo Electric Power Co. fell in trading on Tuesday and Wednesday, and were at 5 percent below their closing price last week. They ended at $29.5 Wednesday - their lowest level since early December - on heavy trading of more than 13 million shares.

The temporary closure of auto parts maker Riken Corp.'s plant at Kashiwazaki forced Toyota Motor Corp., Nissan Motor Co., Mitsubishi Motors Corp. and Fuji Heavy Industries Ltd. to scale back production.

Toyota, Japan's No. 1 automaker and challenging General Motors Corp. for world leadership, will stop production lines at a dozen factories centered in central Aichi prefecture Thursday afternoon and all day Friday, Toyota spokesman Paul Nolasco said.

Several thousand Kashiwazaki residents remained in gymnasiums and civic centers Wednesday night because their homes had either been destroyed or damaged or because water service remained off.
Search teams pulled a 10th body from the rubble Wednesday night, and one man was listed as missing.

Chongqing received 266.6 mm of rainfall between Monday night and Tuesday afternoon, the largest volume since records began in 1892, the municipal meteorological bureau said yesterday. The previous record was set on July 21, 1996, when the city received 206.1 mm of rainfall, it said.

Heavy rain continued to fall in the city yesterday morning. The sky was gloomy and traffic was at a standstill on most urban roads. Landslides and mud-rock flows that hit 29 of Chongqing's 40 counties had claimed 32 lives as of yesterday. Twelve others were missing and hundreds more were injured.

Despite a short intermission in the afternoon, local meteorological stations have forecast more heavy rain for the next two days. The deluge has paralyzed traffic in and around the city and played havoc with the electricity, telecommunications and transport systems, making some suburban counties "isolated islands". The heavy rainfall is in sharp contrast to the severe draught that struck the landlocked city last year. That too was a first for 100 years.

The disastrous weather has also wreaked havoc in the adjacent Sichuan Province, where five people have been killed by landslides and lightning. In addition, in Northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region on Tuesday, the worst rainstorm since records began, disrupted traffic and communications, leaving 1,000 people stranded and thousands of head of livestock dead.

The regional capital Urumqi received 63.2 mm of rainfall between 6 pm on Monday and 11 am on Tuesday, the largest in its history, the municipal meteorological bureau said.

It has emerged today that the Russian tycoon fled his London home, where he lives in self-imposed exile, after Scotland Yard warned him of the threat three weeks ago.

A Russian hitman who intended to shoot Mr Berezovsky at the Hilton hotel, in Park Lane, west London was captured after an operation involving MI5 and MI6, according to the Sun. The newspaper reports that the would-be assassin planned to lure Mr Berezovsky to a meeting and planned to take a child with him in an attempt to appear less suspicious.

The meeting was due to take place during the last two weeks, but the security services and anti-terrorism police mounted a surveillance operation to shadow the gunman and his intended target. The Sun said they took over a room adjoining the meeting place and seized the hitman before he could complete his mission.

Mr Berezovsky said last night he had been warned it was not safe for him to remain in the capital, where he has been living since a 2003 court ruling granted him political asylum. He told the Times: "I was informed by Scotland Yard that my life was in danger and they recommended that I leave the country." I left three weeks ago but have now returned." A spokesman for Scotland Yard said they were not prepared to discuss the matter.

The Russian ambassador denied any involvement, according to the BBC. The billionaire businessman, a friend of the murdered Mr Litvinenko, has survived several attempts on his life.

Britain has twice refused to extradite Mr Berezovsky, who denies charges of tax evasion and embezzlement.
He has since accused Mr Putin of being behind the murder of Mr Litvinenko, who died in November last year when he was poisoned with the radioactive isotope polonium. Appearing on last night's Newsnight on BBC One, he said he was confident he was safe in Britain under the protection of the police.

While heavy downpours caused fresh flooding, a twister struck a Gloucestershire village with such force it lifted A HALF-TON SKIP ALMOST 100 FEET INTO THE AIR. THE METAL CONTAINER WAS CARRIED FOR MORE THAN 300 YARDS BEFORE IT WAS FLUNG INTO A FARM SHED, FLATTENING THE OUT-BUILDING AND SHEARING ELECTRICITY CABLES, CUTTING THE AREA'S POWER SUPPLY.

No one was injured in the freak storm, which hit the village of Tibberton just before lunchtime, as the HEAVY WINDS UPROOTED ANCIENT OAK TREES.

Heavy downpours and thunderstorms continued to drench many areas, with forecasters warning the dismal summer is expected to continue to the end of the month.

Residents were evacuated from a rural market town after a heavy downfall caused widespread flooding. A fire service spokesman said at least ten people had been rescued from homes in Tenbury Wells, Worcestershire. Alec Mackie, from Hereford and Worcester Fire Brigade, said water had reached three feet in the town centre after a heavy burst of rain. It is the second time in only three weeks that the town has been flooded.

"Big Brother" plans to automatically hand the police details of the daily journeys of millions of motorists tracked by road pricing cameras across the country were inadvertently disclosed by the Home Office last night.

Leaked Whitehall background papers reveal that Home Office and transport ministers have clashed over plans for legislation this autumn enabling the police to get automatic "real-time" access to the bulk data from the traffic cameras now going into operation. The Home Office says the police need the data from the cameras, which can read and store every passing numberplate, "for all crime fighting purposes".

But transport ministers warn of concerns about privacy and "the potential for adverse publicity relating to plans for local road pricing" also due to be unveiled this autumn. There are already nearly 2,000 automatic number plate recognition (ANPR) cameras in place and they are due to double as road pricing schemes are expanded across the country.

Douglas Alexander, who was transport secretary until three weeks ago, told the Home Office the bulk transfer of data to the police was out of proportion to the problem and "might be seen as colouring the debate about road charging (that material being collected for traffic purposes is being used for other outcomes)".

Shami Chakrabarti, the director of Liberty, said: "It is one thing to ask the public for special measures to fight the grave threat of terrorism, but when that becomes a Trojan horse for mass snooping for more petty matters it only leads to a loss of trust in government."

The BBC is bracing itself for revelations about two new potential phone-in scandals, it was reported last night.

The daytime antiques show Flog It has also been accused of wrongly editing some footage. A spokeswoman said she could not comment on the reported phone-in scandals.

However, she did confirm the incident involving Flog It, which occurred in 2005. In one auction scene, the cameras appeared to cut away to a woman bidding for a lot. In fact, she had been at an earlier sale bidding for a different lot. The woman's husband complained to the BBC shortly after the episode was screened and the footage was later changed, the spokeswoman said.

He said people were not yet prepared for a system of presumed consent - MEANING PEOPLE WOULD HAVE TO REGISTER THEIR OBJECTION TO BEING A DONOR WHEN THEY DIE, RATHER THAN THE CURRENT SYSTEM OF OPTING IN.

His comments came as Sir Liam Donaldson, England's chief medical officer, said that presumed consent was the only way to combat Britain's transplant crisis, where many die on the waiting list for an organ. Sir Liam said the NHS needed three times the number of organ donors on its register.

After Rajan Zed sprinkled ritual water from the Ganges River around the Senate rostrum, he proclaimed, "We meditate on the transcendental glory of the Deity Supreme, who is inside the heart of the Earth, inside the life of the sky, and inside the soul of the heaven." Hindus believe not just in a god that is one with the universe and with nature but in many gods, BELIEFS THAT ARE COMPLETELY INCONSISTENT WITH A BELIEF IN THE CREATOR GOD OF THE HOLY SCRIPTURES and the Christian faith upon which our nation is founded.

OUR FOUNDING FATHERS KNEW BETTER - AND SO SHOULD OUR SENATORS.
Franklin knew what some of our senators have forgotten: that it was the God of the Bible and not Allah, Buddha or one of the many gods of the Hindu faith who provided and sustained us during our formative years.

On March 3, 1863, during the bloody Civil War, the Senate passed a resolution asking the president to declare a national day of "prayer and humiliation," noting that the Senate "devoutly recognized the supreme authority and just government of Almighty God in all the affairs of men and of nations, and sincerely believed that no people, however great in number, or however strong in the justice of their cause, can prosper without His favor."

But too often today, the public recognition of God is under attack. "One Nation Under God" in our Pledge has been declared unconstitutional by a federal court in California, while our national motto, "In God We Trust," is under scrutiny by another federal court in that state. Sadly, those references to God that courts do allow are permitted only as "ceremonial deism" - that is, a historical tradition that, the courts say, through repetition has lost its "religious significance" and does not really address or recognize the sovereign God. THUS, PUBLIC PRAYERS IN STATE AND LOCAL LEGISLATURES AND IN THE MILITARY ARE APPROVED IF THEY ARE "NONSECTARIAN" IN NATURE AND DO NOT ADDRESS OR NAME A PARTICULAR GOD.

Benjamin Franklin could ask of this country and our Senate what he asked at the Constitutional Convention: "And have we now forgotten that powerful Friend? Or do we imagine that we no longer need His assistance?" Franklin then reminded the Convention of Psalm 127: "We have been assured, sir, in the sacred writings, -THAT EXCEPT THE LORD BUILD THE HOUSE, THEY LABOR IN VAIN THAT BUILD IT."

The surest way for our senators to "labor in vain" and incur the Lord's judgment is to continue the rejection and denial of God at the start of their daily business. Deuteronomy 8:19 warns, "AND IT SHALL BE, IF THOU DO AT ALL FORGET THE LORD THY GOD, AND WALK AFTER OTHER GODS, AND SERVE THEM, AND WORSHIP THEM - YE SHALL SURELY PERISH."

Ironically, on the walls of the chamber in which Mr. Zed gave his Hindu prayer are inscribed the phrases "IN GOD WE TRUST" AND "ANNUIT COEPTIS," LATIN FOR "GOD HAS FAVORED OUR UNDERTAKINGS."
Our senators must acknowledge that one, true God in Whom America has trusted. THE HANDWRITING IS, LITERALLY, ON THEIR WALL.

The last significant quake to strike the region hit in the northern Dead Sea area on July 11, 1927, and left almost 300 people dead.

"The 80-year birthday of the last earthquake brings us into a new period called 'the range of statistical error,'" he said in an interview with the Jerusalem Post. "[From] what we know regarding the previous destructive earthquake, the time that another destructive earthquake will return, like what occurred in 1927, is about 100 years."

The last major quake hit 6.25 on the Richter scale, and killed victims both inside what now is Israel and across the Jordan River. Officials report the three most destructive earthquakes in Israel since the 18th century happened in 1759, 1837 and 1927. The 1837 event "obliterated" Safed and caused more than 5,000 fatalities, officials said.

According to a report from the Jewish Telegraphic Agency at the time of the 1927 quake, there was "not a house in Jerusalem or Hebron" that did not sustain some damage. "Two synagogues, one in Jerusalem, the other in Tiberias, were destroyed," the report said. "In several Palestinian towns the Muslim mosques and the government office buildings were damaged. The house of the British representative in Amman, Transjordania, was totally destroyed. The Church of the Holy Sepulchre, as well as the Greek Choir Chapel and two large domes are damaged."

The damage was estimated at $1.25 million, in 1927 dollars. Earthquakes damaged or destroyed the Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem in 746 A.D., 1033 A.D., 1546 A.D. and in the 1927 event.

BROWN ACCIDENTALLY ADMITS IT IS "THE CONSTITUTION"; but says there is no need for a referendum
The TELEGRAPH notes that Gordon Brown yesterday made a slip when he said he had discussed the "European Constitution" with Bertie Ahern, the Irish Prime Minister, when they met at Stormont. Mark Francois, Shadow Europe Minister said, "Gordon Brown in a Freudian slip referred to the EU constitution yesterday - even our own Prime Minister can no longer keep up the pretence".

THE INDEPENDENT REPORTS that the choice of destination for Brown's first foreign trip has been seen as a clear sign that Brown is reacting to growing public opposition to the war by SEEKING STRONGER TIES WITH EUROPEAN ALLIES, IN PARTICULAR FRANCE AND GERMANY.

MAJORITY OF DANES WANT A REFERENDUM ON NEW EU TREATY, even if government's 'red lines' are met
Danish daily POLITIKEN reports that a new opinion poll shows that 53% of the Danish people want to see a referendum on the EU's Constitutional Treaty, even if the treaty does not involve a sovereignty transfer, as set out by the Danish government's "nine points" (their version of the 'red lines'). 33% want to avoid a referendum.

GRAIN CRISIS TO FORCE COMMISSION TO SCRAP SET-ASIDE RULES FOR FARMERS?
The TIMES looks at the global shortage of grain, which has forced EU Agriculture Commissioner Marianne Fischer Boel to propose scrapping the EU's "set-aside" rule, which prevents farmers from planting crops on one tenth of their land. It is reported that Brussels is becoming seriously concerned about soaring wheat prices and predictions of a weak EU cereal harvest. The EU's 10% biofuel target could become a millstone for the union. The science and economics of biofuels are increasingly being challenged - but like a supertanker the EU is unlikely to change course any time soon.
Times

ITALIAN GOVERNMENT CALLS FOR "EUROPEAN POLICE" FOR PAEDOPHILES
In an interview with LA REPUBBLICA, Italian Communications Minister Paolo Gentiloni calls for a "European police" dedicated to fighting paedophilia as well as Europe-wide black lists of child sex offenders. He said he would discuss the suggestions with EU Commissioner Franco Frattini.
La Repubblica.

Speaking at a Monday conference at the Institute for National Security Studies in Tel Aviv, Gen. (res.) Eyal Ben-Reuven said the IDF is learning the mistakes of last summer's war and is preparing for a comprehensive war. Ben-Reuven said the war in Lebanon was justified, but turned out "bad" for Israel both militarily and politically. "It is not good that we failed," he said.

"The year 2000 is when the problems started," Ben-Reuven said. Israel hurriedly withdrew its forces from Lebanon that year, and Ben-Reuven feels that Israel then began to concentrate mainly on the terrorist threat, as opposed to all-out war. This led, he said, to a wrong deployment of forces for the war with Hizbullah.

"We can deal with Palestinian terrorism in the course of preparing for all-out war," he said, "but we can't prepare for war while dealing only with terrorism. Until now, we thought that our readiness in the campaign against terrorism would help us in all-out war as well, but this is not the case."

"We were not defeated last year," the general said, "but we failed to utilize our strength and meet our objectives, due to faulty leadership... The war gave us a ringing smack, reminding us of the mistake we made in 2000."

Speaking at a meeting of the Centre for European Reform in London on Thursday (12 July) former Italian prime minister Giuliano Amato said: "THEY [EU LEADERS] DECIDED THAT THE DOCUMENT SHOULD BE UNREADABLE. IF IT IS UNREADABLE, IT IS NOT CONSTITUTIONAL, THAT WAS THE SORT OF PERCEPTION".

"Where they got this perception from is a mystery to me. In order to make our citizens happy, to produce a document that they will never understand!" "But, there is some truth [in it]. Because if this is the kind of document that the IGC [intergovernmental conference] will produce, any Prime Minister - imagine the UK Prime Minister - can go to the Commons and say 'look, you see, it's absolutely unreadable, it's the typical Brussels treaty, nothing new, no need for a referendum."

"Nothing [will be] directly produced by the prime ministers because they feel safer with the unreadable thing. They can present it better in order to avoid dangerous referendums". "This is an extraordinary admission from someone who has been close to the negotiations on the EU treaty", said Open Europe director Neil O'Brien.

"THE IDEA OF JUST CHANGING THE NAME OF THE CONSTITUTION AND PRETENDING THAT IT IS JUST ANOTHER COMPLEX TREATY SHOWS A TOTAL CONTEMPT FOR VOTERS."