Last year, 332 MILLION EUROS WERE SPENT ON TRANSLATION ALONE, i.e. about 1 million euros a day. The general director of the EU's translation service has said that it is getting out of control. "IF YOU CAN'T SAY WHAT YOU NEED TO SAY ON 15 PAGES," SAYS JUHANI LÖNNROTH, "THEN IT IS PERHAPS BETTER NOT SAID AT ALL".

His criticism comes as no surprise. There are 23 official languages in the EU now, which makes 506 possible translation combinations, including many absurd ones like from Slovene into Gaelic. THERE ARE 2,500 TRANSLATORS AND THEY PRODUCE SOME 2 MILLION PAGES PER YEAR, costing on average 166 euros per day. Often the texts are very complicated and deal with technical matters which must be very carefully translated. The rate of growth of translation work is growing by 5 per cent a year although the translation budget remains fixed (admittedly at 1.1 billion euros for the period to 2013).

By 2013, Croatia and Macedonia will probably join the EU and conference translators are being trained in those countries already. Further down the line, there will be arguments over whether Serbian and Croatian are the same or different languages, and whether the Albanian spoken in Kosovo is the same as the Albanian in Albania.

"We have to go into this fight as if we are going into combat in order to minimize the population's suffering," said Maj. Roberto Tury, a field hospital commander. The disease has killed 67 people this year in Brazil's Rio de Janeiro state, the state's Ministry of Health reported, and 58 other deaths are under investigation. Almost half of those who died were children under the age of 13, the ministry said.

Dengue, or dengue fever, is common in Brazil and other tropical countries. Yet this outbreak is one of the worst in the region in recent memory, with an average of 1.4 new cases a minute, authorities said. Brazilian authorities call it an epidemic.

Contents of the video - one of six made by the alleged plotters that were discovered by police - were read out and played to the jury in the trial of eight men accused of the planning to kill thousands in a series of simultaneous attacks in late 2006.

Sitting in front of a black flag and wearing a chequered headscarf, Umar Islam's taped statement - discovered during a search of his car by police in 2006 - says that he intended to carry out mass-murder to take "revenge for the acts of the USA in the Muslim lands and their accomplices, such as the British and the Jews".

He said that innocent people deserved to die, because they had not tried enough to get rid of their leaders. He claimed most Britons were "too busy, you know, watching Home and Away or Eastenders" or "complaining about the World Cup" or drinking alcohol. The gang was arrested, said Peter Wright, QC, for the prosecution, as they were in the final stages of planning their operation.

Tanvir Hussain's video was also played to the jury said: "I JUST WISH I COULD COME BACK AND DO THIS AGAIN AND AGAIN AND AGAIN UNTIL PEOPLE REALISE THAT THEY SHOULD NOT MESS WITH THE MUSLIMS". Yesterday, opening his case, Mr Wright said that the eight defendants shared a common interest in "inflicting heavy casualties upon an innocent civilian population, all in the name of Islam". He added that the attacks on seven aircraft, had they taken place, would have had "a truly global impact".

The World Meteorological Organization's secretary-general, Michel Jarraud, told the BBC it was likely that La Nina would continue into the summer. This would mean global temperatures have not risen since 1998, prompting some to question climate change theory.

LA NINA KEY FACTS
La Nina translates from the Spanish as "The Child Girl"
Refers to the extensive cooling of the central and eastern Pacific
Increased sea temperatures on the western side of the Pacific mean the atmosphere has more energy and frequency of heavy rain and thunderstorms is increased
Typically lasts for up to 12 months and generally less damaging event than the stronger El Nino

The poll found that 81 percent of respondents felt "THINGS HAVE PRETTY SERIOUSLY GOTTEN OFF ON THE WRONG TRACK." That was up from 69 percent last year and 35 percent in early 2003. Only 4 percent of survey respondents said the country was better off than it was five years ago, while 78 percent said it was worse, the newspaper said. The Times said Americans were more unhappy with the country's direction than at any time since the survey started in the early 1990s.

The economy has emerged as the biggest issue in this year's U.S. presidential campaign. The country is struggling with a mortgage crisis and many economists forecast a recession this year. Most of those surveyed said they were keeping their heads above water financially, but Americans were concerned about the country's financial footing. According to The Times, only 21 percent of respondents said the overall economy was in good condition, the lowest number since late 1992, when the recession that began in the summer of 1990 had already been over for more than a year. In the poll, nearly two out of three people said they believed the economy was in recession.

When questioned about the mortgage crisis, Americans blamed government officials more than banks or home buyers and other borrowers for the turmoil, the newspaper said. Forty percent of respondents said regulators were mostly to blame, while 28 percent named lenders and 14 percent named borrowers, according to the poll. THOSE SURVEYED SAID INDIVIDUALS, NOT FINANCIAL INSTITUTIONS, SHOULD GET GOVERNMENT HELP. The paper said a clear majority told pollsters they did not want the government to lend a hand to banks, even if the measures would help limit the severity of a recession.

"THE SOVEREIGN CLAIM TO THE MALVINAS ISLANDS IS INALIENABLE," she said in a speech marking the 26th anniversary of Argentina's ill-fated invasion of the islands, located 480 kilometers (300 miles) off shore. The April 2, 1982 invasion prompted then British prime minister Margaret Thatcher to deploy naval forces to retake the Falklands, known as the Malvinas in Spanish. The short, bloody conflict led to Argentina's surrender on June 14, 1982 after the death of 649 Argentines and 255 Britons.

HISTORIANS SAW THE INVASION AS AN ATTEMPT BY ARGENTINA'S RULING MILITARY JUNTA, WHICH WAS THEN IN POWER, TO DIVERT ATTENTION AWAY FROM DOMESTIC PROBLEMS. In her speech Kirchner called for Argentina to strengthen its representation in international bodies to denounce "this shameful colonial enclave in the 21st century." And Vice President Julio Cobos said in the southern city of Rio Grande that "WE MUST RECOVER THIS TERRITORY THAT IS OURS, THAT BELONGS TO US."

THE COMMENTS CAME AS KIRCHNER FACES HER OWN WOES, battling against farmers who have barricaded roads in a protest against a stiff tax hike on soybean exports.

A question-and-answer session with IMAM ABDUL MAKIN in an East London mosque asks why Allah would tell Muslims to kill and rape innocent non-Muslims, including their wives and daughters, according to Islam Watch.

"BECAUSE NON-MUSLIMS ARE NEVER INNOCENT, THEY ARE GUILTY OF DENYING ALLAH AND HIS PROPHET," the Imam says, according to the report. "If you don't believe me, here is the legal authority, the top Muslim lawyer of Britain." The lawyer, Anjem Choudary, backs up the Imam's position, saying that all Muslims are innocent. You are innocent if you are a Muslim," Choudary tells the BBC. "Then you are innocent in the eyes of God. IF YOU ARE NOT A MUSLIM, THEN YOU ARE GUILTY OF NOT BELIEVING IN GOD."

Choudary said he would not condemn a Muslim for any action. As a Muslim, I must support my Muslim brothers and sisters," Choudary said. "I MUST HAVE HATRED TO EVERYTHING THAT IS NOT MUSLIM."

SAUDI ARABIA most likely would develop nuclear weapons if IRAN acquires them, according to a report to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. High-level American diplomats in Riyadh with excellent access to Saudi decision-makers said an Iranian nuclear weapon frightens the Saudis "to their core" and would compel the Saudis to seek nuclear weapons, the report said. The American diplomats were not identified.

TURKEY also would come under pressure to follow suit if Iran builds nuclear weapons in the next decade, said the report prepared by a committee staff member after interviewing hundreds of individuals in Washington and the Middle East last July through December. While Turkey and Iran do not see themselves as adversaries, Turkey believes a power balance between them is the primary reason for a peaceful relationship, the report said.

EGYPT most likely would choose not to respond by pursuing its own nuclear weapons program, said the report prepared in late February and obtained Wednesday. The impact on relations with Israel and the United States were cited as the primary reasons. The spread of nuclear weapons in the Middle East could reduce regional security and endanger U.S. interests, the report said.

The two leaders have also agreed to resume talks on reunifying the island. "This is the first step. We hope many more will follow" said Nicosia Mayor Eleni Mavrou. We are living a historic day today," said an aide to Mr Talat, Osdil Nami, at the Ledra Street reopening on Thursday. "We are witnessing one of the obstacles to a solution come down."

EU Enlargement Commissioner Olli Rehn welcomed the reopening, saying it showed that the two sides were "ready to put aside the difficulties of the past". Greek and Turkish Cypriots have been divided since 1974, when Turkey deployed troops after a coup by Greek Cypriots who wanted union with Greece. Ledra Street had been at the centre of the island's leading shopping district before it was blocked in the middle, with military posts either side of the dividing line.

"We still have a long way to go," said the mayor of Nicosia, Eleni Mavrou. "This is the first step. We hope many more will follow."

Here the BBC's Asia bureau chief Paul Danahar, who is based in Beijing, responds to this criticism and looks at the challenges of reporting in China.

It is a pleasant surprise to be criticised by your readers when you work as a journalist in China. Most of you viewing this page are unknowingly taking for granted a luxury that those of us living behind the "Great Firewall" have to do without. WE ARE IN A BIT OF A VACUUM, CUT OFF FROM NORMAL ACCESS TO THE OUTSIDE WORLD. My TV blacks out when someone says the magic words Tibet or Tiananmen protests; my daily paper is an unsophisticated propaganda tool for the Chinese Communist Party and half the websites I want to read are blocked including, until recently, this one. But when suddenly the English language edition of the BBC News website (the Chinese one is still blocked by the government) became accessible in China, some readers here, but by no means all, took exception to what they saw.

People like Xie Huai from Zhengzhou e-mailed the site saying: "I often find that stories about China diverge from the truth. Why?" THE ANSWER TO THE QUESTION LIES IN THE WORD "TRUTH". Only now are many Chinese getting the chance to debate the "truth" of foreign media publications (and only those not in Chinese) because only now are they getting a point of view on some IMPORTANT TOPICS AT ODDS WITH THE ONE PROVIDED BY THE STATE-CONTROLLED MEDIA. There is, of course, enormous debate on the internet in China about all sorts of controversial issues ranging from politics to sex. But writing about things like Tibet, Falun Gong and the Tiananmen Square protests can land you in jail. The story that raised concerns for some of our new Chinese readers was the rioting last month in Tibet.

The foreign media was accused of misreporting the scale and nature of the trouble there. In fact, during the BBC's total coverage of the disturbances, we managed to upset both sides of the debate. We were the first foreign broadcasters to obtain pictures, filmed by a Chinese camera crew showing the ethnic violence against Han Chinese by Tibetans in Lhasa; events which were verified by the only (non-BBC) Western journalist in Lhasa at the time.

The Dalai Lama then said at a press conference that because of the pictures he had seen on the BBC, he was calling for an end to the violence. However he wondered aloud if we showed them because we were biased towards the Chinese.

The next day we were the first international broadcaster to show images filmed by a Canadian crew showing the Chinese flag being torn apart and replaced with a free Tibet flag by protestors in nearby Gansu province. THAT REPORT SENT THE CHAP WHO PRESSES THE BLACK-OUT BUTTON FOR MY TV INTO OVERDRIVE ALL DAY. People who criticise the media for their coverage in Tibet should acknowledge that we were and still are banned from reporting there. When we tried to report on disturbances outside Tibet that did not require a special permit, we were turned back at armed checkpoints.

And only a select group, not including the BBC, were eventually invited on a strictly controlled visit to Lhasa after the rioting had ended. "It is ironic that China, a country that does not allow the operation of a free press, should accuse the Western media of bias in its coverage of the dramatic events in Tibet, including the use of double standards" - not the words of a Western journalist but of Frank Ching writing this week in the South China Morning Post.

We welcome comments from our readers and particularly those new ones in China, because they help inform what we do. Journalists do make mistakes and when we do we have a responsibility to admit them. "I would sooner have you hate me for telling you the truth than adore me for telling you lies."

Hu Jia, 34, was convicted of "INCITING SUBVERSION OF STATE POWER AND THE SOCIALIST SYSTEM", his lawyer said. He has long campaigned for the environment, religious freedom and for the rights of people with HIV and Aids. His sentence comes a day after a rights group accused China of a campaign to silence dissent ahead of the Olympics. The US was "dismayed" by the verdict, a spokeswoman for the US embassy in Beijing said, while the European Union called for Mr Hu's immediate release. "We said very clearly before the trial that he should not have been detained in the first place and that he should be released and this remains our position," Beijing spokesman William Fingleton told the French news agency AFP.

Chinese state news agency Xinhua said the court had been lenient with Mr Hu because he had admitted his crimes. "HU SPREAD MALICIOUS RUMOURS, LIBEL AND INSTIGATION IN AN ATTEMPT TO SUBVERT THE STATE'S POLITICAL AND SOCIALIST SYSTEMS," Xinhua said, quoting the court ruling. Mr Hu's conviction comes only two weeks after another activist, Yang Chunlin, was jailed on similar charges. On Wednesday, UK-based rights group Amnesty International accused Beijing of carrying out a "wave of repression" ahead of the Olympic Games.

Last month, CHINESE PREMIER WEN JIABAO was asked about Hu Jia's case. He said it should be handled according to the law. "AS FOR CRITICS' VIEW THAT CHINA IS TRYING TO INCREASE ITS EFFORTS TO ARREST DISSIDENTS AHEAD THE OLYMPIC GAMES, I THINK ALL THESE ACCUSATIONS ARE UNFOUNDED," HE SAID.

In an hour-and-a-half-long audio response to questions submitted to the movement on extremist Web sites, Zawahri said: "We promise our Muslim brothers that we will do the best we can to harm Jews in Israel and the world over, with Allah's help and according to his command." Zawahri reassured many of the questioners, who seemed worried about the direction of the organization, that the global jihad was on track and would soon expand elsewhere.

"I EXPECT THE JIHADI INFLUENCE TO SPREAD AFTER THE AMERICANS' EXIT FROM IRAQ, AND TO MOVE TOWARDS JERUSALEM," he said to those asking when attacks on Israel would take place. Zawahri also slammed the UN for "assisting the establishment of Israel," calling the organization an "enemy of Islam."

In a speech at Westminster Cathedral, Mr Blair will say FAILURE TO ENGAGE WITH RELIGIOUS GROUPS WILL DRIVE BELIEVERS TO APATHY OR FUNDAMENTALISM. Mr Blair, who recently converted to Catholicism, will outline the role of his Faith Foundation for young people. Since stepping down as prime minister last summer, Mr Blair has become a ROMAN CATHOLIC and is now a MIDDLE EAST PEACE ENVOY.

In his speech this evening, he will warn that while societies across the world are adapting to meet the challenges of globalisation, religion is coping less well. It faces an internal division between FUNDAMENTALISM and those who believe religion is a spent force.

The archbishop of Westminster, Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O'Connor, said "It is important that the Catholic church engages with society in a positive and creative way and provides a public space for debate about religion. The role of faith in our society cannot be ignored and I hope that the debate these lectures stimulate will highlight the crucial role faith can play in contributing to the common good."

But the Stop the War Coalition say they want to hold Mr Blair to account over his role in the Iraq war with their noisy protest. Pax Christi says its silent vigil will "call to mind and to public attention, Tony Blair's involvement in the Iraq War and ongoing occupation". It also opposes his involvement in the decision to replace Britain's Trident nuclear weapons system "and other aspects of his premiership that have created global polarity".

The unmanned vessel will deliver just under five tonnes of food, water, air, fuel and equipment to the orbiting platform's three astronauts. The Automated Transfer Vehicle will use its own computerised systems to make the attachment. Ground controllers and the station's astronauts will not get involved unless there is a problem.

One of its main tasks will be to raise the roughly 340km-altitude of the station, which has a tendency to fall back to Earth over time as it drags through the top of the atmosphere. Every few weeks the freighter will fire its thrusters to accelerate the platform complex, taking it higher into the sky. As astronauts deplete the ship's supplies, they will fill the empty storage racks with rubbish. In a few months' time, probably in August, Jules Verne will detach from the ISS and take itself and the waste into a controlled burn-up over the Pacific Ocean.

The automated systems that allow it to track down an object (the ISS) moving at 27,000km/h, and attach itself with an accuracy of 2cm, are beyond what other space-faring nations have at the moment - including the Russians and the US. At Esa HQ in Paris, however, space officials have even grander plans.

But Jules Verne's significance goes well beyond mere cargo duties. THEY BELIEVE JULES VERNE'S TECHNOLOGIES COULD EVENTUALLY BE INCORPORATED INTO AN INDEPENDENT EUROPEAN MANNED SPACESHIP - perhaps one that looked similar to the Orion concept now being built by the Americans to replace the shuttle. Europe's space ministers will be asked to consider such ideas at their meeting in November.

The Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) took 99 seats, while President Robert Mugabe's party polled 97. With presidential election results yet to be declared, the MDC said its leader had won, but Zanu-PF denied this. Meanwhile Mr Mugabe's ambassador to the UN told the BBC the president had no intention of leaving the country.

While the parliamentary victory is significant, Mr Mugabe has changed Zimbabwe's constitution several times in the past 28 years to leave most power in the president's hands, says the BBC's Grant Ferrett in neighbouring South Africa. There are real fears of unrest if the presidential contest enters a second round, our correspondent adds.

Zanu-PF has rejected suggestions that talks have been taking place with the MDC on a possible handover of power. MDC sources had earlier told the BBC that the outline of an agreement had nearly been reached for Mr Mugabe to leave office. Mr Mugabe, 84, has not been seen in public since the election but Mr Matonga has denied rumours the president had left the country.

UPDATE - JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe has admitted to his family and advisers that he has lost the most important election of his 28-year rule, South African financial daily Business Day reported on Thursday. "Mugabe has conceded to his closest advisers, the army, police and intelligence chiefs. He has also told his family and personal advisers that he has lost the election," Business Day quoted an unidentified source as saying.