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Toxic fuel closes in on French, Portuguese coasts
It is now the turn of Portugal and France to go onto high alert as the risks of their own ecological disasters mount. Oil slicks from the Prestige, which are already driving Galician fishermen to despair, and sending them out in small boats to try and scoop up the deadly sludge that is threatening their livelihoods, are creeping closer to the French and Portuguese coasts. Some slicks are now only thirty kilometres from northern Portuguese beaches, and key sectors of the fishing industry, home to valuable baby eels and lamprey. One of Spain's Deputy Prime Ministers, Mariano Rajoy, is to go in front of a Spanish Parliamentary commission to explain the action his government's taking. "What action?" angrily retort many Galicians, even if Rajoy says everything is being taken care of. Some local politicians, now sensing they may be in for a hammering in local elections in the spring, are starting to admit they may not have handled the crisis as well as they should. Meanwhile a tanker of a similar size, age, and, allegedly, state of repair to the sunken Prestige is anchored in Rotterdam, and is being hounded by environmental activists as well as the French, Spanish, and Portuguese governments. They have banned the Byzantio from entering their waters. The ship was last here three weeks ago, when it passed all safety checks, but was detained in an Irish port in August after failing port inspection. From Sangatte to England legally
From Sangatte to England legally It is "next stop Britain" for a group of around 40 immigrants, at last free to leave the Sangatte camp in France for their destination of choice. Great Britain has agreed to take all the Iraqi and Afghan nationals in the Red Cross centre due for imminent closure, and supply them with provisional documents allowing them UK residency. Up to one thousand Iraqi Kurds and two hundred Afghans will be allowed into Britain, with those who have no family willing to take them being looked after in London or Sheffield for at least the first three months. No such luck however for illegal immigrants from Romania, who have found themselves going in the other direction, back home. In the first of what may be many forced repatriations, eighty-five were sent back to Romania in a charter plane, a group from Sangatte joining a plane from Madrid at Roissy airport, as Spain and France joined forces to expel unwanted immigrants from their territory. Europe's economic magnetism being what it is however, many may soon be heading back. Germany and France take joint position on Turkey
Germany and France are to join forces to advance Turkey's ambitions of becoming a member of the EU. That was the message coming from a meeting between Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder and the French President Jacques Chirac in eastern Germany. The country's candidature will be among the top items at an EU summit in Copenhagen next week. The German leader said last week that Berlin would push for a strong signal of encouragement for Turkey at the gathering. "There's no doubt France and Germany will take a common position at the summit in Copenhagen". Schroeder also warned the two countries would resist any attempts reopening the debate on the financing of EU enlargement, particularly as it applies to agriculture. Despite such back backing a number of EU states are likely to remain doubtful that the union can and should admit Turkey. Saddam Hussein gives UN inspectors a chance
Iraqi President Saddam Hussein has made his first public comment on UN weapons inspectors. Just one day after his vice-President described them as spies, Saddam says he is willing to give the experts a chance to prove that the regime is not hiding any weapons of mass destruction. By allowing the inspectors in Saddam explained he wanted to keep his people out of harm's ways. Vice President Taha Yassin Ramadan however has denounced the experts as US and Israeli spies. "Regardless of what they find" he said "America intends to go to war." Meanwhile the UN Security Council has voted unanimously to extend the oil-for-food programme for another six months. Washington agreed only after ensuring that a list of certain goods imported in the scheme would be reviewed. Sharon sets out vision of Palestinian state
Israeli tanks and infantry have entered the Gaza Strip, and the house of a Palestinian activist has been dynamited close to the Jewish colony of Netzarim. This latest incursion into Palestinian-controlled territory comes just hours after Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon made his first-ever proposals as leader on the extent of a future Palestinian state. His vision of the state is the forty percent of the West Bank currently under theoretical Palestinian control, and seventy percent of the Gaza Strip, once Israeli army reoccupation of certain zones had ended and certain conditions like Palestinian political reform had been met. His Foreign Minister Benjamin Netanyahu quickly rejected this aligning himself more with Israel's extreme right. This proposition was immediately rejected by Yasser Arafat, who said it gave less than the Wye river agreement offered the Palestinians and was "totally unacceptable ... containing nothing new". Palestinians wanted a definitive agreement and this was only the offer of a new interim deal. On the eve of end of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, there are few signs of sunshine breaking the clouds over the Palestinian community. Few people are out in Bethlehem's normally busy streets, which faces the prospect of a second year running without tourism revenues, adding to the economic hardship that has crippled the Palestinian and Israeli economies. Who sunk the Bismarck?
An American deep sea explorer is quickly sinking a British legend, it seems the Royal Navy did not sink the Bismarck. The giant warship was the pride of Nazi Germany's fleet. For sixty-one years Britons have been convinced they sank it. US Captain Fred McClaren has just completed the first manned expedition to the Bismarck lying 300 nautical miles off the Irish coast. He claims there are no signs of a torpedo and the hull is untouched. In fact he believes the ship was scuttled. Hundreds of Bismarck survivors who were taken as prisoners of war have always insisted that they sank the ships themselves. According to McClaren it may be time for Britain to rewrite its history books. Of mice and men
They are small and furry and look anything but human, but their genetic blueprint shows there is little difference between mice and men. Almost the entire genetic make up of the mouse has now been plotted - a major scientific breakthrough, says Francis Collins from the National Human Genome Research Institute. He told a press conference: "We can imagine this mouse being able to do much, much more to assist our understanding of the causes and cures of disease. So this is not Mickey Mouse science, this is the mouse that roared." Although you have to go back 75 million years to find a common ancestor, 99 per cent of a mouse's genes are similar to ours - including genes that cause mice to have tails. And 90 per cent of genes associated with disease are identical, making the mouse even more important in the laboratory.
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