Professor Eckart Stratenschulte continues, "The problem is that one cannot subject a contract with 413 articles to a referendum. In Ireland, for example, the whole campaign was based on emotions and slogans. The result was based on uneasiness and a lack of trust in the motives of the European Union. I think you can only have a referendum where the answer is 'yes' or 'no'. THE REAL QUESTION SHOULD BE, 'DO YOU WANT TO REMAIN IN THE EUROPEAN UNION?' That is the decision that all nations have to make.

The Economist notes that euro membership will not insulate countries from a crisis that "combines problems in the financial system with a nasty recession." ITALY HAS NOW FOLLOWED GERMANY INTO RECESSION, with official data confirming that its economy shrank by a larger-than-expected 0.5% in the June-to-September period. This follows a contraction in the previous three months of 0.4%. Separate figures showed that the SPANISH ECONOMY SHRANK IN THE THIRD QUARTER for the first time since 1993. In the three months to September, the eurozone's fourth-largest economy contracted by 0.2%.

In the FT, Martin Wolf argues, "The issue [for the UK] is, it should be stressed, that of fundamental fiscal solvency. Membership of the eurozone would also do nothing to improve this, UNLESS ONE EXPECTS EUROZONE TAXPAYERS TO BAIL OUT THE BRITISH. I SUSPECT THE FORMER ARE FAR TOO WISE TO TAKE THE UK ON ANY SUCH TERMS."

In an open letter to the G20, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said, "If hundreds of millions of people lose their livelihoods and their hopes for the future are dashed because of a crisis they have absolutely no responsibility for, THE HUMAN CRISIS WILL NOT REMAIN JUST ECONOMIC."

The tradition comes from Bahar al-Anvar (meaning Oceans of Light) by Mullah Majlisi, a magnum opus in 132 volumes and the basis of modern Shiite Islam. According to the tradition, Imam Ali Ibn Abi-Talib (the prophet's cousin and son-in-law) prophesied that at the End of Times and just before the return of the Mahdi, the Ultimate Saviour, a "TALL BLACK MAN WILL ASSUME THE REINS OF GOVERNMENT IN THE WEST." COMMANDING "THE STRONGEST ARMY ON EARTH," the new ruler in the West will carry "a clear sign" from the third imam, whose name was Hussein Ibn Ali. The tradition concludes: "SHIITES SHOULD HAVE NO DOUBT THAT HE IS WITH US."

In a curious coincidence Obama's first and second names - Barack Hussein - mean "THE BLESSING OF HUSSEIN" in Arabic and Persian. His family name, Obama, written in the Persian alphabet, reads O Ba Ma, which means "HE IS WITH US," the magic formula in Majlisi's tradition. Obama has abandoned claims by all U.S. Administrations in the past 30 years that Iran is "a state sponsor of terrorism." Instead, he uses the term "violent groups" to describe Iran-financed outfits such as Hamas and Hezbollah.

OBAMA HAS ALSO PROMISED TO ATTEND A SUMMIT OF THE ORGANIZATION OF THE ISLAMIC CONFERENCE WITHIN THE FIRST 100 DAYS OF HIS PRESIDENCY. Such a move would please the mullahs, who have always demanded that Islam be treated differently, and that MUSLIM NATIONS ACT AS A BLOC IN DEALINGS WITH INFIDEL NATIONS. The Iranian leader's entourage also point out that Obama copied his campaign slogan "YES, WE CAN" from Ahmadinejad's "We Can," used four years ago.

Seen from Tehran, Obama's election would demoralize the U.S. Armed forces by casting doubt on their victories in Iraq and Afghanistan, if not actually transforming them into defeat. American retreat from the Middle East under Obama would enable the Islamic Republic to pursue hegemony of the region. TEHRAN IS ESPECIALLY INTERESTED IN DOMINATING IRAQ, thus consolidating a new position that extends its power to the Mediterranean through Syria and Lebanon.

During the World Without America conference, several speakers speculated that Obama would show "understanding of Muslim grievances" with regard to Palestine. Ahmadinejad hopes to persuade a future President Obama to adopt the "IRANIAN SOLUTION FOR PALESTINE," WHICH AIMS AT CREATING A SINGLE STATE IN WHICH JEWS WOULD QUICKLY BECOME A MINORITY.

The proposal is seven pages long and states: "THE WORLD ORDER HAS CHANGED. IN IT, THE EUROPEANS WANT TO PLAY THEIR ROLE ALONGSIDE THE AMERICANS." The plan, created under the auspices of the European Union rotating presidency of French President Nicolas Sarkozy, is to be discreetly delivered to the Obama team.

According to information obtained by SPIEGEL, it has four central areas where closer cooperation is foreseen: Reform of the United Nations and the G-8, the conflicts in the Middle East and Afghanistan/Pakistan as well as the approach to Russia. On those issues, the Europeans are seeking equal footing with the Americans. "We have to work with each other and not against each other," the document states.

"Americans and Europeans must and can complement each other and take care of common responsibilities together," the paper, which also has German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier's stamp on it, states. It also says THE EUROPEANS WANT TO MORE STRONGLY PURSUE TALKS WITH SYRIA together with America and that Europe will "immediately reengage in Iraq."

With even a mild drought, Water Authority spokesman Uri Schor told The Jerusalem Post on Sunday night that water for gardening will be cut off and the country's gardens will turn brown. The forecasts are not good for this coming winter, nor for the next two years, he said. ISRAEL HAS ALREADY EXPERIENCED FOUR STRAIGHT YEARS OF BELOW-AVERAGE RAINFALL, BRINGING THE NATURAL WATER SOURCES DANGEROUSLY CLOSE TO BECOMING CONTAMINATED.

Farmers will be the first to feel the cuts - severe reductions in water for agriculture are a serious possibility, the cabinet was told. National Infrastructures Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer described the potential cuts as a "death blow" to agriculture and warned his fellow ministers that the government should be prepared to compensate the farmers.

The situation has become so dire that the cabinet voted unanimously to do away with the tender process for a desalination plant in Ashdod to be built by the Mekorot national water company, to speed up its construction. Earlier this year, the government approved a massive increase in desalination, to 750 million cu.m. per year, as quickly as possible. Six hundred million should be available by 2013. In comparison, current desalination capability stands at about 150 million cu.m. per year.

In his first television interview since the election, Mr Obama told CBS he would PULL TROOPS OUT OF IRAQ, SHORE UP AFGHANISTAN, AND CLOSE GUANTANAMO BAY. "I'M GOING TO MAKE SURE THAT WE DON'T TORTURE," he said of the prison camp. Mr Obama also promised to do "whatever it takes" to stabilise the US economy, including rescuing the struggling auto industry and assisting homeowners.

On Saturday, he said the US was facing "the greatest economic challenge of our time" and urged Congress to help with "at least a down-payment on a rescue plan that will create jobs". His advisers later said he would support the co-ordinated response to the global financial crisis agreed by the G20 on Saturday.

When asked about his promise to withdraw from Iraq, he said that as soon as he takes office he will "call in the Joint Chiefs of Staff, my national security apparatus, and we will start executing a plan that draws down our troops. Particularly in light of the problems that we're having in Afghanistan, which has continued to worsen. We've got to shore up those efforts," he added.

Mr Obama also said a top priority would be "TO STAMP OUT AL-QAEDA ONCE AND FOR ALL" and that capturing or killing Osama Bin Laden was "critical" to US security. He later confirmed that he intended to close the detention centre at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba, and "make sure that we don't torture. THOSE ARE PART AND PARCEL OF AN EFFORT TO REGAIN AMERICA'S MORAL STATURE IN THE WORLD," he explained.

Obama intends to throw his support behind a 2002 Saudi peace initiative endorsed by the Arab League and backed by Tzipi Livni, the Israeli foreign minister and leader of the ruling Kadima party. The proposal gives Israel an effective veto on the return of Arab refugees expelled in 1948 while requiring it TO RESTORE THE GOLAN HEIGHTS TO SYRIA AND ALLOW THE PALESTINIANS TO ESTABLISH A STATE CAPITAL IN EAST JERUSALEM.

On a visit to the Middle East last July, THE PRESIDENT-ELECT SAID PRIVATELY IT WOULD BE "CRAZY" FOR ISRAEL TO REFUSE A DEAL THAT COULD "GIVE THEM PEACE WITH THE MUSLIM WORLD", according to a senior Obama adviser. The Arab peace plan received a boost last week when President Shimon Peres, a Nobel peace laureate and leading Israeli dove, commended the initiative at a Saudi-sponsored United Nations conference in New York. Peres was loudly applauded for telling King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia, who was behind the original initiative: "I wish that your voice will become the prevailing voice of the whole region, of all people."

Brent Scowcroft, a Republican former national security adviser, joined in the appeal. He said last week that the Middle East was the most troublesome area in the world and that an early start to the Palestinian peace process was "a way to psychologically change the mood of the region". Advisers believe the diplomatic climate favours a deal as Arab League countries are under pressure from radical Islamic movements and a potentially nuclear Iran. Polls show that Palestinians and Israelis are in a mood to compromise. THE ADVISERS HAVE TOLD OBAMA HE SHOULD LOSE NO TIME IN PURSUING THE POLICY IN THE FIRST SIX TO 12 MONTHS IN OFFICE WHILE HE ENJOYS MAXIMUM GOODWILL.

As a matter of fact, they had. At this point we should recall the words of Lord Laming on the response of Haringey's social services to his investigations into the murder in 2000 of the eight-year-old Haringey resident Victoria Climbié: "TOO OFTEN THEY ATTEMPTED TO JUSTIFY THEIR POSITION IN TERMS OF BUREAUCRATIC ACTIVITY RATHER THAN IN OUTCOMES FOR CHILDREN."

In this country two children a week, on average, are killed as a result of physical abuse in the home. It is only the most horrific that impinge on the public consciousness. The only politician who put his finger on the point last week was Iain Duncan Smith. He observed that: "The growth in broken families has been mirrored by the huge increase in THE NUMBER OF CHILDREN CONSIDERED TO BE 'AT RISK' – 1.5M FALL INTO THIS CATEGORY. CHILDREN LIVING WITH THEIR NATURAL MOTHER AND A GUESTING FATHER ARE EIGHT TIMES MORE LIKELY TO BE ON THE AT-RISK REGISTER."

The "family" that did for P is a classic of the genre. The MOTHER HAD BEEN ON BENEFITs for her entire adult life and apparently spent much of HER DAYS ABSORBED BY PORNOGRAPHIC DATING WEBSITES. The so-called "stepfather" was also on benefits: the outlet for his otherwise unexpended energy was, as we now know, "training" – that is to say, torturing – his "stepson". The other assailant, described rather euphemistically as "the lodger", shared a room in the same council house with a 15-year-old girl.

When I asked a former child protection officer how Haringey's social workers could have felt that it was in P's best interests to remain in such a menagerie, he said that "YOU BEGIN TO BECOME ACCUSTOMED TO THESE SITUATIONS AND YOU SEE CHILDREN WHO ACCEPT SUCH A STATE OF AFFAIRS AS ABSOLUTELY NORMAL".

We need a new term for this human zoo: welcome to the wel-feral state.

The leaders of the world's 20 leading economies promised to instruct their ministers TO SEEK A NEW DOHA TRADE DEAL BY THE END OF THE YEAR and to co-ordinate interest rate and tax cuts to soften the severity of the global recession. They also agreed NEW INTERNATIONAL REGULATIONS OF BANKS to be finalised at a second summit, possibly in the UK, in March next year.

The communiqué released at the end of the Washington summit said that more action was needed to address the "serious challenges to the world economy and financial markets." World leaders agreed the need for "closer macroeconomic co-operation" and said there was an immediate requirement to "use fiscal measures to stimulate domestic demand to rapid effect." The wording will help Mr Brown and Alistair Darling, the Chancellor, defend a package of giveaways to be unveiled in the pre-Budget report a week on Monday. Mr Brown yesterday gave a heavy hint that he intends to raise tax credits for lower income workers to help Britain's faltering economy.

At a press conference in the immediate aftermath of the summit Mr Brown drew attention to the passage of the communiqué relating to stalled world trade round. A new World Trade Round by the end of the year would help usher in the "OPEN AND INCLUSIVE FORM OF GLOBALISATION" needed TO PREVENT A DAMAGING WAVE OF PROTECTIONISM, he said.

The government also wants more school-based clinics to administer the jabs, WHICH CAN MAKE GIRLS INFERTILE FOR UP TO THREE MONTHS. Teenagers can receive the injections or implants without their parents' knowledge. Critics warn that the controversial move will promote promiscuity and that injections and implants will NOT PROTECT AGAINST THE RAMPANT SPREAD OF SEXUALLY TRANSMITTED DISEASE. Some health experts also say that the drugs are unsuitable for girls who are still growing.

In letters demanding "urgent action to accelerate progress to the 2010 target", health and education ministers tell the heads of councils and primary care trusts to establish more "school-based contraception clinics" and bring about "an overall increase in the uptake of long-acting reversible contraception (LARC)".

But some health experts oppose the move. Dr Hans Christian Raabe, a GP and medical coordinator of the Council for Health and Wholeness, a Christian organisation, said: "There are concerns that using them over long periods might have an impact on bone growth. The other issue is it gives an impression of safety that is not there. Girls will think 'Nothing can happen to me because I can't get pregnant.' BUT THE RATES OF SEXUALLY TRANSMITTED DISEASES ARE FRIGHTENING. There has been an explosion and yet young people are given a false sense of security.

Crowds gathered near public buildings in small communities and major cities including New York, San Francisco and Chicago to vent their frustrations, celebrate gay relationships and renew calls for change. "Civil marriages are a civil right, and we're going to keep fighting until we get the rights we deserve as American citizens," Karen Amico said in Philadelphia, holding up a sign reading "Don't Spread H8".

"We are the American family, WE LIVE NEXT DOOR TO YOU, WE TEACH YOUR CHILDREN, WE TAKE CARE OF YOUR ELDERLY," said Heather Baker a special education teacher from Boston who addressed the crowd at Boston's City Hall Plaza. "We need equal right across the country."

But anger over the ban and its backers was evident at the protests. One sign in Chicago read: 'Catholic Fascists Stay Out of Politics'. "I just found out that my state doesn't really think I'm a person," said Rose Aplustill, 21, a Boston University student from Los Osos, Calif., who was one of thousands at the Boston rally. The idea rapidly spread online and Join the Impact predicted that Saturday's protests would involve tens of thousands of people in hundreds of communities.

This was startling. Across the world there were reports of UNSEASONAL SNOW AND PLUMMETING TEMPERATURES last month, from the American Great Plains to China, and from the Alps to New Zealand. China's official news agency reported that Tibet had suffered its "WORST SNOWSTORM EVER". In the US, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration registered 63 LOCAL SNOWFALL RECORDS AND 115 LOWEST-EVER TEMPERATURES FOR THE MONTH, and ranked it as only the 70th-warmest October in 114 years.

So what explained the anomaly? GISS's computerised temperature maps seemed to show readings across a large part of Russia had been up to 10 degrees higher than normal. The reason for the freak figures was that scores of temperature records from Russia and elsewhere were not based on October readings at all. FIGURES FROM THE PREVIOUS MONTH HAD SIMPLY BEEN CARRIED OVER and repeated two months running.

GISS claimed to have discovered a new "hotspot" in the Arctic - in a month when satellite images were showing Arctic sea-ice recovering so fast from its summer melt that three weeks ago it was 30 per cent more extensive than at the same time last year. A GISS SPOKESMAN LAMELY EXPLAINED THAT GISS DID NOT HAVE RESOURCES TO EXERCISE PROPER QUALITY CONTROL OVER THE DATA IT WAS SUPPLIED WITH. This is an astonishing admission: the figures published by Dr Hansen's institute are not only one of the four data sets that the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) relies on to promote its case for global warming, but they are the most widely quoted, since they consistently show higher temperatures than the others.

Yet last week's latest episode is far from the first time DR HANSEN'S METHODOLOGY HAS BEEN CALLED IN QUESTION. In 2007 he was forced by Mr Watts and Mr McIntyre to revise his published figures for US surface temperatures, to show that the hottest decade of the 20th century was not the 1990s, as he had claimed, but the 1930s. Another of his close allies is Dr Rajendra Pachauri, chairman of the IPCC, who recently startled a university audience in Australia by claiming that global temperatures have recently been rising "very much faster".

In fact, as many of his audience were aware, they have not been rising in recent years and since 2007 have dropped. DR PACHAURI, A FORMER RAILWAY ENGINEER WITH NO QUALIFICATIONS IN CLIMATE SCIENCE, may believe what Dr Hansen tells him. But whether, on the basis of such evidence, it is wise for the world's governments to embark on some of the most costly economic measures ever proposed, TO REMEDY A PROBLEM WHICH MAY ACTUALLY NOT EXIST, is a question which should give us all pause for thought.

The exchange invited Grandma the Clown and Master of Ceremonies Carrie Harvey to both honor the circus' 31st season of entertainment and perhaps bring a bit of Main Street levity to traders battered by a collapsing market. After ringing the bell, Harvey and Grandma wandered the floor trying to spread joy and merriment, placing funny red noses on exchange officials to touch the funny bones of even the most shaken traders.

But by the end of a roller-coaster day of trading that saw the Dow Jones industrial average whipsaw from 300 points down to just above even and then right back down to finish off 337 points, good humor was in short supply. "What can I say? THE MARKET ENDED DOWN NEARLY 350 POINTS. EVEN THE BIG APPLE CIRCUS CLOWNS COULDN'T HELP," said Eckhart & Co. trader Peter Costa as he trudged off the floor.

Some analysts said the attempt by the NYSE to send in clowns to brighten the grim mood was childish. "IT'S LIKE THEY'RE TRYING TO BE THE MAKE-A-WISH FOUNDATION, CHEERING UP A TERMINALLY ILL CHILD," said Bill King, chief market strategist of M. Ramsey King Securities in Chicago. "IT'S A GREAT METAPHOR FOR A FINANCIAL SYSTEM THAT HAS BECOME A JOKE. It's great to try to create some levity, but there is DEFINITELY SOME UNINTENDED SYMBOLISM HERE."

It was a rich-country affair with Russia invited in during in the 1990s - but that was to tackle international political issues, not for the sake of a contribution to the economic discussions. How times have changed. A GLOBAL ECONOMIC PROBLEM needed a presence from developing country leaders.

There is without doubt going to be an economic downturn - a recession in many countries and period of slower economic growth for most, perhaps all others. A co-ordinated response is likely to be more effective in limiting its severity and duration. There has already been co-ordination between central banks. If this summit means more co-operation, it might help.

The G20 was already up and running as a forum for finance ministers with the big developing economies as members - China, India, Russia, Brazil, Saudi Arabia and others. And so they came to Washington, as countries hit by the developed world's financial crisis and, in some cases, as countries that might be able to help fix it. It has certainly changed the cast of characters we are going to have to look to in the future to address the world's economic problems.

US President George W Bush said that finance ministers would now work on detailed reform proposals, and then report back. Leaders of emerging economies said THE SUMMIT MARKED A HISTORIC SHIFT OF POWER AWAY FROM THE RICHER COUNTRIES. Mr Bush's successor in the White House, Barack Obama, said in a statement that he was ready to work "together on these challenges" with the G20 when he takes office in January.

"The president-elect believes that the G20 summit… is an important opportunity to seek a coordinated response to the global financial crisis," said a statement issued in his name. The meeting brought together leading industrial powers, such as the US, Japan and Germany, and also emerging market countries such as China, India, Argentina, Brazil and others - representing 85% of the world economy. Brazil's President, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, said: "WE ARE TALKING ABOUT THE G20 BECAUSE THE G8 DOESN'T HAVE ANY MORE REASON TO EXIST."

The G20 group of countries consists of 19 LEADING INDUSTRIALISED AND DEVELOPING COUNTRIES, AS WELL AS THE EUROPEAN UNION. G20 leaders say they will meet again by 30 April, 2009, to review progress. Although no formal decision has been announced, France's President, Nicholas Sarkozy, made it clear that he expects London to be chosen as the venue.