The Irish Times reports that Vote No to Lisbon, formerly the Campaign Against the EU Constitution, yesterday opened its campaign in Dublin in the run up to the second referendum on 2 October. Speaking at the press conference Socialist Party MEP Joe Higgins urged Irish voters to reject the Lisbon Treaty based on its content, rather than a desire to "kick the Government out of office", the Irish Independent reports. Higgins said that it was false "through and through" to portray the Lisbon Treaty as a solution to the economic crisis: "Lisbon is a treaty for decades, not for one or two years and therefore it shapes the Europe we will have to live in."

People Before Profit Alliance Councillor Brid Smith said the 'guarantees' obtained by the Irish government did not change the Lisbon Treaty by "one iota". She said, "WE BELIEVE THAT IRISH VOTERS ARE BEING THREATENED, CAJOLED AND LIED TO."

Writing in the Irish Independent, Irish Foreign Affairs Minister Micheal Martin responds to an article by Bruce Arnold, which argued that the government's recent White Paper on the Lisbon Treaty "IS A FLAWED DOCUMENT, CONTAINING SOME SERIOUS DISTORTION OF FACT. It is unbalanced and heavily politicised, presenting a case that favours the defeated minority in the referendum of last year."

The move is expected to cost the hotel industry about 40 million kroner in lost revenue, calculated by each night in a hotel room costing about 2,000 kroner, reports Business.dk.

Reservations in a number of hotels across Zealand and parts of Skåne in southern Sweden have been cut from 120,000 to 100,000 overnight stays. The two-week conference in December is expected to attract between 12,000 and 15,000 participants.

Earlier, the first hurricane of the 2009 Atlantic season had eased in strength from a Category 4 to a Category 3, and it was churning over the open sea with winds near 120 miles per hour (195 km per hour). The US National Hurricane Center said that at 11 am EDT (1500 GMT), the eye of Hurricane Bill was about 695 miles south-southeast of Bermuda.

Bill did not threaten US oil facilities but was forecast to reach CANADA'S ATLANTIC MARITIME PROVINCES by Sunday.

Of course, the new Israeli government headed by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu repeatedly has declared that a primary foreign policy objective is to prevent Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons capability. That's because, as Corsi points out, ISRAEL IS A "ONE-BOMB STATE" – just one nuclear weapon, even a relatively low-yield bomb of the type the United States dropped on Hiroshima or Nagasaki in World War II, would destroy the modern Jewish state as we know it today.

In press conferences and speeches, Obama has openly acknowledged the US government now believes Iran is pursuing a nuclear weapons program. An Israeli first-strike on Iran's nuclear facilities becomes increasingly likely to the extent Israel feels isolated from the world community and concludes there is no chance the Obama administration will ever be able to induce Iran to stop enriching uranium, regardless of how seriously the president intends to push direct negotiations as a strategy.

"We have already seen two wars launched by Israel against terrorist surrogates financed and supported by Iran: the 2006 war against Hezbollah in Lebanon and the 2008 war against Hamas in the Gaza Strip," says Corsi. "Now, a war between Israel and Iran is on the near horizon, POSSIBLY FATED TO OCCUR BEFORE THE END OF 2009."

In July, the World Health Organization issued a warning that this vaccine-spread virus might extend beyond Africa. So far, 124 Nigerian children have been paralyzed this year — about twice those afflicted in 2008. The polio problem is just the latest challenge to global health authorities trying to convince wary citizens that vaccines can save them from dreaded disease. For years, myths have abounded about vaccines — that they were the Western world's plan to sterilize Africans or give them AIDS. THE SAD POLIO REALITY FUELS MISGUIDED FEARS AND UNDERSCORES THE CHALLENGES AUTHORITIES FACE USING A FLAWED VACCINE.

Nigeria and most other poor nations use an oral polio vaccine because it's cheaper, easier, and protects entire communities. But it is made from a live polio virus — albeit weakened — which carries a small risk of causing polio for every million or so doses given. In even rarer instances, the virus in the vaccine can mutate into a deadlier version that ignites new outbreaks.

In 2007, health experts reported that amid Nigeria's ongoing outbreak of wild polio viruses, 69 children had also been paralyzed in A NEW OUTBREAK CAUSED BY THE MUTATION OF A VACCINE'S VIRUS.

Roundup Ready 2 Yield soybeans will cost farmers an average of $74 an acre in 2010, and original Roundup Ready soybeans will cost $52 an acre, St Louis-based Monsanto said today in presentations on its website. SmartStax corn seeds, developed with Dow Chemical Co, will cost $130 an acre, 17 percent more than the YieldGard triple-stack seeds they will replace.

SmartStax corn seed will be planted on as many as 4 MILLION ACRES IN 2010, its first year on the market, with A POTENTIAL FOR AS MANY AS 65 MILLION ACRES IN THE US eventually, the company said. The new seed boosts yields 5 percent to 10 percent compared with other products, partly by reducing the amount of land that must be planted with conventional corn to 5 percent from 20 percent, Monsanto said.

Pricing for SmartStax is at the high end of expectations, Laurence Alexander, a New York-based analyst at Jefferies & Co, said by telephone. Roundup Ready 2 Yield soybean seeds were planted on 1.5 million acres this year and will be planted on as many as 8 million acres next year in the US with a potential to one day reach 55 million acres, Monsanto said.

One nurse told the magazine: 'I would not be willing to put myself at risk of unknown long-term effects to facilitate a short-term solution.' Another added: 'I have yet to be convinced there is a genuine health risk and it's not just Government propaganda.'

And Chief Nursing Officer Christine Beasley insisted: 'Frontline nurses will be absolutely crucial in the height of a pandemic without them, patient care will suffer and the NHS will be stretched. Getting the vaccine will protect nurses and their patients. That's why we're offering frontline nurses the vaccine as a top priority.' The jab, currently being fast tracked, will not be fully tested before it is administered.

THERE WILL BE NO TESTS AT ALL CARRIED OUT ON CHILDREN UNDER THREE, EVEN THOUGH BABIES AND CHILDREN AT HIGH RISK WILL BE AMONG THE FIRST TO GET THE VACCINE. There are also concerns the jab can cause Guillain Barre Syndrome, which can lead to paralysis and even death.

A confidential letter from the United Kingdom Health Protection Agency was sent to about 600 neurologists alerting them to WATCH FOR AN INCREASE IN GUILLAIN-BARRE SYNDROME (GBS) as a result of the swine flu vaccination. GBS can be fatal as it attacks the nerve lining, causing paralysis and suffocation – as those affected are unable to breath.

The UK Daily Mail reported on the July 29 letter and pointed to a similar US swine flu vaccination used in 1976 when:

"More people died from the vaccination than from swine flu;
500 cases of GBS were detected;
the vaccine may have increased the risk of contracting GBS by eight times;
the vaccine was withdrawn after just 10 weeks when the link with GBS became clear;
The US government was forced to pay out millions of dollars to those affected."

So, instead of giving warnings to the people who'll be vaccinated, SECRET LETTERS WERE SENT TO NEUROLOGISTS TO KEEP TRACK OF THE NUMBER OF HUMAN GUINEA PIGS WHO CONTRACT THE DREADFUL GBS WITHOUT KNOWING THE RISK.

Yesterday's F2A radio program featured Barbara Loe Fisher, the president of the National Vaccine Information Center, who reported there were 470 DEATHS FROM THE SWINE FLU in the United States compared to 36,000 ANNUAL INFLUENZA-RELATED DEATHS from the "regular flu." That's right, the "regular flu" is far more lethal. Yet by calling the "swine flu" a "Public Health Emergency," billions of our tax dollars were spent to rush massive "emergency" vaccinations WHILE THE PHARMACEUTICAL COMPANIES RECEIVE BLANKET IMMUNITY.

But things must be "really bad" in other countries, right? The CDC reported that the United States has the "largest number" of H1N1 cases, noting, "however, most people who have become ill have recovered without requiring medical treatment." In Monday's Financial Times, Dr Richard Halvorsen, author of "The Truth About Vaccines," said: "...in most cases this is a mild virus which needs a few days in bed. I'D QUESTION WHY WE NEED A VACCINE AT ALL."

The ship was found today 300 miles off the West African coast and the crew was safe, BUT A TEAM OF SPECIALISTS IN LOCATING NUCLEAR SUBSTANCES WAS DISPATCHED FROM MOSCOW TO THE SCENE. The possibility that the ship was carrying a lot more than the lumber that it was reported to hold coincided with bin Laden's most recent public claim that he will "soon have a nuclear weapon in my hands."

In a series of developments described as highly unusual the Arctic Sea, a Russian-crewed cargo vessel, vanished some two weeks ago when it passed through the English Channel, one of the busiest shipping lanes in the world. The 4,000-ton ship set sail from the port of Pietarsaari in Western Finland with timber valued at more than $1.3 million, apparently bound for Algeria.

This weekend it has emerged that radiation tests have been carried out at the port of Pietasaari after MI6 and officers of the FSB, the Russian security service, arrived at the harbor. The results of those tests remain a secret. Meanwhile the Russian Navy has dispatched five warships equipped with special equipment – SENSORS THAT CAN LOCATE NUCLEAR MATERIAL – to the Atlantic. The possibility that nuclear material was hidden aboard the Arctic Sea also was heightened by the report that fissionable material disappeared some weeks ago from a nuclear-storage depot in the Ural Mountains in Russia.

UPDATE: DAILY MAIL - Russia has been accused of a cover-up over the cargo ship which vanished last month. One theory is that the Russian secret service was using the freighter to smuggle equipment, possibly nuclear. But it feared that a Western intelligence service had found out, meaning the ship had to be boarded to prevent the equipment falling into Western hands.

Shipping expert Mikhail Voitenko said THE HIJACKING WAS BEYOND THE MEANS OF CRIMINAL GANGS. 'I believe states, state interests, were involved,' he said. The eight suspects were detained by a Russian naval ship without a shot being fired, according to the country's defence minister Anatoly Serdyukov.

Japan and the UK - second and third largest holders of US debt - increased their holdings over the same period. In recent months the US government's budget deficit has widened thanks in part to the Obama administration's costly stimulus plan.

Our correspondent in Shanghai says that China is worried about this, and fears the stimulus efforts will fuel inflation in the US, reducing the value of the dollar. This would then erode the value of the debt China holds in the US currency. In June, China cut its holdings of US securities by about $25bn, a fall of 3.1%.

"China has said it would like to establish an alternative to the US dollar as the world's favoured currency for foreign exchange reserves," said our correspondent. "So far there is no evidence that there is a suitable alternative. But these figures suggest they are exploring ways to diversify their investments where they can."

Khamenei, through his spokesman Ali Saeedi, specifically beckoned the nations of Turkey, Iraq, Lebanon, Pakistan and Afghanistan to join together with Iran in preparation for the Mahdi's soon coming. THE PURPOSE OF UNITING NOW, A REPORT IN AL ARABIYA EXPLAINED, IS TO FIGHT ISRAEL AND THE US – seen as the two greatest obstacles to the coming of the Mahdi and the age of Islamic "justice" that would ensue.

"We have to train honest forces that can stop the obstacles that may hinder the coming of the Mahdi like the United States and Israel," Saeedi stated. Saeedi also emphasized that THE IRANIAN REVOLUTIONARY GUARD POSSESSED A SPECIAL RELIGIOUS AUTHORITY TO PREPARE THE WAY FOR THE MAHDI. Iran also recently concluded its fifth Annual Conference on Mahdism doctrine in the Iranian city of Qom, from which Shi'a Muslims believe the Mahdi will emerge.

MAHDISM IS NOW INCREASINGLY BEING USED AS A POLITICAL TOOL by appealing to the religious and nationalistic tendencies of various Muslims groups. This particular call for Islamic unity stands out because of its pan-Islamic, cross-sectarian appeal.

DR MOSTAFAVI ALSO OFFERED A WILDLY DISTORTED VERSION OF THE CHRISTIAN END TIME NARRATIVE. Claiming that Christians are making efforts to bring about the Battle of Armageddon, he stated: "In order to make this war happen they consider brutality, war and violence allowed and in their propaganda, they ask Christians and especially soldiers to create a situation for Jesus to reappear. These soldiers would be considered martyrs if they are killed in this way and would be in the circle of Messiah's Twelve disciples," Dr Mostfavi explained. "These evangelists try to reinforce their belligerent notion ideologically even by mentioning verses from Gospel.

One speaker at the conference, Abdollah Adam Gaya from Nigeria, spoke about the need to export Mahdism to the West: "[In order] to fight against the [Western] cultural invasion against Islamic Shiite values, WE MUST ALSO EXPORT THE MAHDISM CULTURE TO THE WEST... Imperialist powers fear the growth of that culture and therefore they are after attacking it..." Gaya also explained that the vehicle of Mahdism was the most effective tool to unite not only all Muslim countries, but also the whole world:

"PROPAGATING AND DEFINING THE MAHDISM CULTURE ARE THE MOST EFFECTIVE STEPS IN ORDER TO ESTABLISH UNITY AMONG MUSLIM NATIONS OF THE WORLD because not only Messianism and Mahdism are the common grounds for understanding between all Muslims but between all religions in the world," he added.

In the first of three Reduced Service days, rubbish collections were suspended and libraries and health centres were closed. Workers have been asked to take an enforced unpaid holiday in a move the authorities hope will save $8.3m. Chicago's Mayor Richard M Daley thanked state employees for their "sacrifice".

"Every dollar we save from these measures helps to save jobs, and in the long-term, maintain service for Chicagoans," he said. "This plan engages most civilian employees to accept cuts and to be part of the solution to our budget crisis."

Two more Reduced Service days are planned on November 27, the day after Thanksgiving and Christmas Eve. The total savings are expected to be $34m, but the mayor's office said that despite "efforts to reduce costs and better manage government", the city's shortfall in 2009 will still be about $300m.

Microscopic traces of glycine were discovered in a sample of particles retrieved from the tail of comet Wild 2 by the NASA spacecraft Stardust deep in the solar system some 242 million miles (390 million km) from Earth, in January 2004. Samples of gas and dust collected on a small dish lined with a super-fluffy material called aerogel were returned to Earth two years later in a canister that detached from the spacecraft and landed by parachute in the Utah desert.

The initial detection of glycine, the most common of 20 amino acids in proteins on Earth, was reported last year, but it took time for scientists to confirm that the compound in question was extraterrestrial in origin. "We couldn't be sure it wasn't from the manufacturing or the handling of the spacecraft," said astrobiologist Jamie Elsila of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, the principal author of the latest research.

Chains of amino acids are strung together to form protein molecules in everything from hair to the enzymes that regulate chemical reactions inside living organisms. But scientists have long puzzled over whether these complex organic compounds originated on Earth or in space.

They say countries in South and East Asia must spend billions of dollars to improve antiquated crop irrigation to cope with rapid population increases. That estimate does not yet take into account the possible impact of global warming on water supplies, they said. Asia's population is forecast to increase by 1.5bn people over the next 40 years.

The findings are published in a new joint report by the UN Food and Agricultural Organisation and the International Water Management Institute (IWMI). They suggest that Asian countries will need to import more than a quarter of their rice and other staples to feed their populations. "Asia's food and feed demand is expected to double by 2050," said IWMI director general Colin Chartres.

"Relying on trade to meet a large part of this demand will impose a huge and politically untenable burden on the economies of many developing countries. The best bet for Asia lies in revitalising its vast irrigation systems, which account for 70% of the world's total irrigated land," he said.

One contributor to the paper, the Finnish Defence Minister, writes: "From the beginning of Finland's EU membership it has been clear to us that THE EU ALSO INCLUDES A SECURITY DIMENSION... Our citizens expect a security dividend from the EU... The EU is likely to have a much stronger security and defence dimension in 2020 than it has now."

The publication recommended that the EU should commit itself to have a sizeable force ready to deploy at any time - over 100,000 in a constant state of readiness, or 300,000 troops allowing for rotation, by 2020. A common budget should also be established, AND THE POSSIBILITY OF LAUNCHING MISSIONS BEFORE ALL POLITICAL DECISIONS HAVE BEEN TAKEN "TO MINIMISE CRITICAL PROCEDURAL DELAYS" should be considered.

Mean while, writing in the FT, Charles Grant, the Director of the Centre for European Reform, argues that "The EU needs to accept that building a defence policy with 27 countries will never work." He adds, "When it comes to organising missions that may require the use of force, those countries with robust strategic cultures should form their own body under an EU umbrella."