Swedish new site Europaportalen has an interview with EU Agriculture Commissioner Mariann Fischer Boel ahead of the Commission's "health check" of the Common Agricultural Policy, which will be published on 20 May. ON THE QUESTION OF THE SURGE IN FOOD PRICES, SHE SAYS, "ISN'T THAT GREAT! Do you know what, prices have fallen for 20 years straight. In Denmark, the average family spends 10% of their income on food - they spend more money on their kitchens. So yes, I'm really happy that prices are going up."

She also "completely discards" the notion that biofuels are behind the global surge in food prices. "THE MOST IMPORTANT FACTOR IS THE CLIMATE", SHE SAYS, ADDING THAT FARMERS IN DEVELOPING COUNTRIES MAY IN FACT BENEFIT FROM HIGHER PRICES.

It notes: "It is common to hear that A NO VOTE IN A SMALL COUNTRY CANNOT BE PERMITTED TO INTERFERE WITH THE SMOOTH RUNNING OF THE EU", but that, "It would be absurd to punish Ireland for voting No. The Irish government is the only one in the EU to have called a referendum on Lisbon. IF THEY WERE HONEST, THE 26 OTHERS WOULD ADMIT THAT THEY WOULD STRUGGLE TO SECURE A YES VOTE, TOO", noting that THE LISBON TREATY IS MERELY A REPACKAGED VERSION OF THE CONSTITUTION SPECIFICALLY DESIGNED TO AVOID REFERENDUMS.

It concludes: "The pro-Lisbon camp faces a dilemma. Hinting that voters will suffer if they reject Lisbon is an obvious way to boost turnout - and a high turnout is key to securing a Yes. But it is hardly a positive argument. True friends do not become pariahs just because they disagree with you. IF NOBODY CAN FIND MORE CONVINCING ARGUMENTS IN FAVOUR OF THE LISBON TREATY, THE EU AS A WHOLE MAY YET FIND ITSELF WHISTLING IN THE DARK."

A U.N. official said MYANMAR'S JUNTA HAS CONFISCATED ALL THE FOOD AND EQUIPMENT that the World Food Program had flown into the country for cyclone victims. WFP spokesman Paul Risley said Friday that the WFP "has no choice" but to suspend further aid shipments until the matter is resolved. Risley said all "the food aid and equipment that we managed to get in has been confiscated." The shipment included 38 tons of high-energy biscuits.

Risley said it is not clear why the material was seized. It was also not clear if the shipment seized was the one that was flown in Thursday or another one. Earlier Friday, the U.N. blasted Myanmar's military government, saying ITS REFUSAL TO LET IN FOREIGN AID WORKERS TO HELP VICTIMS OF A DEVASTATING CYCLONE WAS "UNPRECEDENTED" IN THE HISTORY OF HUMANITARIAN WORK.

While the junta dithered and appeared overwhelmed by Saturday's disaster - the worst in the country's records - MORE THAN 1 MILLION HOMELESS PEOPLE WAITED FOR FOOD, SHELTER AND MEDICINE, many crammed in Buddhist monasteries or just camped in the open.

Ban says it will "STUDY THE ROOT CAUSES OF THE CRISIS," AND PROPOSE SOLUTIONS FOR "COORDINATED GLOBAL ACTION" at a summit of world leaders in June. Ban might want to consider CONVINCING THE OIL-RICH NATIONS OF THE MIDDLE EAST TO PROVIDE MORE THAN THE NEAR-INVISIBLE AMOUNT OF MONEY THEY CURRENTLY GIVE to the World Food Program (WFP), the U.N.'s food-giving arm, which is charged with alleviating the food crisis.

WFP internal documents show that the major oil producing nations of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) GIVES ALMOST NOTHING TO THE FOOD ORGANIZATION, even as skyrocketing oil prices and swollen oil revenues contribute to the very crisis that the U.N. claims could soon add 100 million more people to the world's starving masses.

THE OVERWHELMING BULK OF THE BURDEN IN FEEDING THE WORLD'S STARVING POOR REMAINS WITH THE UNITED STATES AND A SMALL GROUP OF OTHER PREDOMINATELY WESTERN NATIONS, a situation that the WFP has done little so far to change, even as it has asked for another $775 million in donations to ease the crisis. Saudi Arabia, with oil revenues last year of $164 billion, does not even appear on the website donor list for 2008.

It is reported that Peter Struck, the SPD parliamentary group leader and a former Defence Minister, proposed that the common European army should consist of a "combined military", and called for an EU air transport command, a "real" ministerial defence council and the creation of an EU military academy.

The article quotes Hennign Riecke, Head of the European Foreign and Security Policy at the German Council on Foreign Relations, saying that the move towards a combined military SHOULD BE LABELLED AS A PROCESS OF SLOW MILITARY INTEGRATION, with new institutions created that lead to an organic growth toward a common army, IN ORDER TO AVOID RESISTANCE IN SOME MEMBER STATES.

The article also notes that "The EU reform treaty appears to be heading in this direction when it specifies that member states will cooperate to 'take concrete measures to enhance the availability, interoperability, flexibility and deployability of their forces.'"

The Russian leadership has decided to revive the Communist-era custom of featuring military hardware in the annual Victory Day parade. New President Dmitry Medvedev said the army and navy were getting stronger.
Observers say the point of the parade was to demonstrate that Russia is a serious military force. THE KREMLIN INSISTS THE EVENT, WHICH MARKS THE DEFEAT OF NAZI GERMANY IN 1945, IS NOT MEANT TO THREATEN ANYONE.

Marching bands and 8,000 troops goose-stepped across Red Square, and heavy weapons such as Topol-M ballistic missiles and T-90 tanks were on display. The cobbles of Red Square had been reinforced, in advance of the parade, to cope with the tanks and other heavy weaponry.

But analysts say that despite these signs of military might, there is evidence of the Russian army and navy suffering from lack of money, a shortage of training, and low morale. The BBC's Rupert Wingfield-Hayes in Moscow says conscripts in the army can be subjected to shocking brutality. Last year 450 conscripts died from beatings or suicide.

The foreign ministry said Burma was happy to accept aid, but insisted it would control the distribution itself. The statement follows pressure from the United Nations to speed up the issuing of visas to foreign relief experts. The World Food Programme's Paul Risley said the delays were "unprecedented in modern humanitarian relief efforts".

Dozens of aid experts are reported to be waiting for visas in neighbouring Thailand. The UN says that up to 1.5 million people may have been affected by Cyclone Nargis, which devastated the Irrawaddy Delta region on Saturday. Burmese state media say 22,980 people were killed, but there are fears the figure could rise to 100,000.

Hundreds of thousands of people have no food, water or shelter. International aid agencies on the ground say they have reached only 10% of those that need help. In a statement, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon urged the junta to prioritise the aid effort over tomorrow's nationwide referendum on a widely-criticised new constitution. It would be "prudent to focus instead on mobilising all available resources and capacity for the emergency response efforts", he said.

Vikram Pandit, the chief executive, will face investors to announce his turnaround plan for the bank, and is expected to reaffirm his pledge to cut annual expenses at Citigroup by about 20 per cent. Although Citigroup, the largest US bank, has already announced plans to boost its position by offloading assets, SOME ANALYSTS SEE THE SCALE OF THIS POTENTIAL SALE AS CONCERNING.

Jim Huguet, the co-chief executive at the fund manager Great Companies LLC, told Reuters: "THE ONLY REASON YOU'D SELL OFF THAT MANY ASSETS IS YOU HAVE A LOT MORE LOSSES COMING THAN YOU ORIGINALLY THOUGHT."

Citigroup was one of the worst-hit casualties of the credit crunch. Last month it announced a $5.11 billion loss for the first quarter, and its sub-prime related losses and writedowns stand at more than $45 billion. Mr Pandit's predecessor, Charles Prince, was forced to resign in November as the scale of the bank's exposure to the crunch became clear.

The airline has instead switched to a fish pie or chicken dish option for the so-called "cattle class" passengers. BA's second-biggest long-haul market is to India, where the majority Hindu population do not eat beef because of their beliefs. Yet Hindus are tolerant of the beliefs of others and do not expect everyone to stop eating a food because they do not eat it.

In the past three months world beef prices have risen from about £2,500 a tonne to more than £4,000 a tonne, largely because of the weakening dollar and rising feed costs. BA also said that cost is not a reason for the decision to stop serving beef

A proposal drafted by the Ministry of Agriculture would make SUPPORTING OFFSHORE LAND ACQUISITION BY DOMESTIC AGRICULTURAL COMPANIES A CENTRAL GOVERNMENT POLICY. Beijing already has similar policies to boost offshore investment by state-owned banks, manufacturers and oil companies, but offshore agricultural investment has so far been limited to a few small projects.

If approved, the plan could face intense opposition abroad given surging global food prices and deforestation fears. However an official close to the deliberations said it was likely to be adopted. "There should be no problem for this policy to be approved. THE PROBLEM MIGHT COME FROM FOREIGN GOVERNMENTS WHO ARE UNWILLING TO GIVE UP LARGE AREAS OF LAND," the official said.

The move comes as oil-rich but food-poor countries in the Middle East and north Africa explore similar options. Libya is talking with Ukraine about growing wheat in the former Soviet republic, while Saudi Arabia has said it would invest in agricultural and livestock projects abroad to ensure food security and control commodity prices. China is losing its ability to be self-sufficient in food as its rising wealth triggers a shift away from diet staples such as rice towards meat, which requires large amounts of imported feed. CHINA HAS ABOUT 40 PER CENT OF THE WORLD'S FARMERS BUT JUST 9 PER CENT OF THE WORLD'S ARABLE LAND.

China alarmed the world in January 2007 by using a missile to shoot down one of its own disused satellites, demonstrating its burgeoning prowess in space and military hardware. Pacifist Japan's space scientists complain that separation of space development from the military under a policy maintained since 1969 is one reason why its own technological progress has been slower.

Unlike China, Japan has never attempted a manned space flight. Tokyo's spy satellites, launched to keep an eye on neighboring North Korea and controlled by a government department, provide far poorer resolution than other governments' military satellites. The new law would allow Japan's military to launch its own surveillance satellites and an early-warning satellite as part of the missile defense system it is building in cooperation with its top ally the United States, the Asahi newspaper said on Friday.

Acting Undersecretary of State Dan Fried said he does not believe the Russians want to go to war over Georgia's breakaway regions, and is sure that the Caucasus nation does not either. "But what we fear is that with so much tension, so many armed people in close proximity, and a record of provocations, that there could be a spark setting off a wider problem, and suddenly you're dealing with deaths and shooting and an out-of-control incident," he told a hearing of Helsinki Commission on Capitol Hill.

He echoed warnings from the White House a day earlier to Moscow to back down from increasingly provocative actions supporting the separatists in Georgia's breakaway regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia. Georgian authorities say war has only been narrowly averted in recent days.

Abkhazia and South Ossetia threw off Tbilisi's control in the early 1990s. Georgia wants to bring them back under its influence and resents the support and help Russia has offered them for years.

Security sources said the fighting killed at least 10 people and wounded 20. The thud of exploding grenades and crackle of automatic gunfire echoed throughout the night in the worst internal strife since the 1975-90 civil war. HEZBOLLAH LAUNCHED A NEW CAMPAIGN OF STREET PROTESTS ON WEDNESDAY, PILING PRESSURE ON THE GOVERNMENT AFTER IT DECLARED HEZBOLLAH'S COMMUNICATIONS NETWORK ILLEGAL and removed the head of airport security, a figure close to the group, from his post. Supporters of Hezbollah and its allies have blocked roads leading to the airport and other main streets, paralyzing much of the capital.

"Hezbollah needs to make a choice -- be a terrorist organization or be a political party, but quit trying to be both," said a White House spokesman. "They need to start playing a constructive role and stop their disruptive activities now."

Hezbollah has led a political campaign against Prime Minister Fouad Siniora's anti-Syrian cabinet. THE CRISIS HAS PARALYZED MUCH OF THE GOVERNMENT, LEFT LEBANON WITH NO PRESIDENT FOR FIVE MONTHS, AND ALREADY LED TO BOUTS OF VIOLENCE. The group was the only Lebanese faction allowed to keep its weapons after the civil war, to fight Israeli forces occupying the south. Israel withdrew in 2000 and the fate of Hezbollah's weapons is at the heart of the political crisis.

Believers may be partly responsible for the decline in faith by losing sense of the mystery and treating God as a "fact in the world", he said in a lecture. Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O'Connor called for more understanding and appreciation between believers and non-believers. The leader of Roman Catholics in England and Wales said that a "hidden God" was active in everyone's life. The Cardinal's lecture at Westminster Cathedral comes after a spate of public clashes over issues such as stem-cell research, gay adoption and faith schools.

He expressed concern about the increasing unpopularity of the Christian voice in public life, saying: "OUR LIFE TOGETHER IN BRITAIN CANNOT BE A GOD-FREE ZONE and we must not allow Britain to become a world devoid of religious faith and its powerful contribution to the common good." Last year, he complained of a "NEW SECULARIST INTOLERANCE OF RELIGION" and THE STATE'S "INCREASING ACCEPTANCE" OF ANTI-RELIGIOUS VIEWS. "I want to encourage people of faith to regard those without faith with deep esteem because the hidden God is active in their lives as well as in the lives of those who believe."

The Hon. Mr Justice Owen noted in his argument that "IT IS PLAINLY ARGUABLE THAT THERE IS NO MATERIAL DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THEIR PROVISIONS".

Open Europe Chairman Lord Leach has said: "This decision renders the Government's attempt to ratify the Lisbon Treaty sub judice. The Treaty is now in the House of Lords, where it is receiving the thorough scrutiny denied to MPs by the Government's business managers in the Commons. The Government can - and should - now stay its hand pending the outcome of this judicial review."

The judicial review will take place on 9 and 10 June. The Lords are due to vote on the referendum issue on 11 June and the Irish referendum is widely expected to take place on 12 June