By Toby Helm
Europe
The EU Reform Treaty will be transformed into United Kingdom law by an EU Reform Treaty Bill that is expected to be introduced into Parliament early in the New Year.
Queen's speech coverage in full
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Education | Constitution | Party funding | Transport | PensionsadvertisementThe Treaty will be formally agreed by Gordon Brown and the 26 other EU heads of state and government at a ceremony in Lisbon next month.
After that, the ratification processes will begin in all member states and are expected to be completed well before the end of next year, allowing the Treaty to come into effect across the community.
The Treaty, which will create the new posts of permanent President of the Council of Ministers and a new foreign policy chief with supporting diplomatic service - as well as abolishing vetoes in around 60 policy areas - will come into effect on January 1, 2009.
Its main aims are to make the EU to punch its weight on the world stage and function better with an enlarged membership of 27.
Ministers will set aside between 16 and 20 days of Parliamentary time ...   more »

Iran's nuclear program is "irreversible," President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said on Wednesday, voicing continued defiance in the face of possible new international sanctions on the Islamic Republic.
Ahmadinejad also reiterated that Iran now has 3,000 centrifuges, which are used to enrich uranium. Enriched uranium can fuel power plants but also, if refined further, provide material for bombs.
Western experts say 3,000 machines running smoothly for long periods at supersonic speed could make enough enriched uranium for an atomic bomb in about a year, if Iran wanted, and form the basis for "industrial-scale" nuclear fuel production.
"The Iranian nation has entered the phase of industrial scale of nuclear fuel (production) and the train of the Iranian nation's progress is irreversible," Ahmadinejad told a rally in South Khorasan province broadcast live on state television.
"Today, we've reached 3,000 centrifuges," he said.
Ahmadinejad, who like other Iranian leaders rejects U.S. accusations the country is seeking to develop atom bombs, said in September that Iran had "more than 3,000 centrifuges working" and that more were installed every week.
Original Source

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Iranian president announces Wednesday country's nuclear program has succeeded in making 3,000 centrifuges operational at one of its uranium enrichment plants
Iran has achieved a landmark, with 3,000 centrifuges fully working in its controversial uranium enrichment program, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad announced Wednesday.    
"We have now reached 3,000 machines," Ahmadinejad told thousands of Iranians in Birjand in eastern Iran, in a show of defiance of international demands to halt the program believed to be masking the country's nuclear arms efforts.  
Ahmadinejad has in the past claimed Iran succeeded in installing the 3,000 centrifuges at its uranium enrichment facility at Natanz. Wednesday's claim was his first official statement that the plant is now fully operating the 3,000 centrifuges.  
Centrifuges are used in enriching uranium, a process that can produce either fuel for a nuclear reactor or material for a warhead.  
Visit to Bahrain?
Meanwhile, an embassy official said on Wednesday Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad will visit Bahrain this month, , days after British newspapers quoted the kingdom's crown prince accusing Iran of building a nuclear bomb.
The Times and The Daily Telegraph newspapers on Friday quoted Bahrain's Crown Prince Sheikh Salman bin Hamad al-Khalifa as saying Iran was ...   more »

The latest gloves-off documentary to hit screens predicts a global meltdown as vital fuel runs out
Robin McKie, science editor The Observer Sunday November 4 2007
Oil is 'the bloodstain of the earth's economy' and will soon trigger a global conflict that will cost millions of lives. That is the stark claim of a controversial new film, which says a crash in oil production is about to set off worldwide recession and economic collapse.
A Crude Awakening: The Oil Crash, which opens in UK cinemas this week, shows stark images of rusting Texan and Venezuelan wells and fuel riots in Asia and Africa. Such scenes will be repeated thousands of times around the planet in the near future, argue the film's makers, who say the world is facing changes 'more frightening than a horror movie'.
The film is the latest of several polemical documentaries to achieve nationwide release. Others include Al Gore's An Inconvenient Truth, Michael Moore's Sicko, and the forthcoming Darfur Now, in which Don Cheadle provides a voice-over about the Sudanese civil war.
However, A Crude Awakening has had a boost not available to the rest. Just as its screenings were scheduled to begin here, crude oil prices ...   more »

Permits for work on abortion facility list United Airlines as owner
By Bob Unruh
The Weitz Co., a nationwide construction entity hired to build Planned Parenthood's newest mega-abortion clinic in Denver, has listed United Airlines as the property owner on city permits for work on the 52,000-square-foot project, documents assembled by pro-life activists reveal.
Officials for the Weitz Co. declined to respond to WND's request for comments. But both Denver and United Airlines confirmed that the property was owned by United, then sold to a company set up by Planned Parenthood in January 2007.
United's Megan McCarthy issued a terse: "United Airlines sold the building in question to a real estate firm on January 11, 2007. We do not own this property."
And Sarah Moss, with the city, said her initial inquiries showed United sold the property to Fuller 38 LLC at that time.
Neither the city nor United commented immediately on the appropriateness of listing United as the owner when it no longer was connected to the property, or whether there would be penalties for providing incorrect information.
The apparent deception follows by only weeks the revelations that Planned Parenthood set up a front company, Gemini Office Development, in ...   more »

Chuck Baldwin
Recently, Iowa pastors gathered to hear my presentation in Des Moines on behalf of Republican Presidential candidate Ron Paul. After listening to me, they then heard ten-term Republican Texas Congressman Ron Paul himself.
Consider how Congressman Paul's message impacted Pastor Jim Hartman of the Assembly of God church in Conrad, Iowa. "I've been supporting Mike Huckabee, but I would say I'm leaning real strong toward Ron Paul." Hartman supported President Bush four years ago and explained, "Up until the last six months I had not allowed myself to imagine that we'd been let down by Bush." As for Iraq, he said, "I don't think we were prepared to understand that culture and to work with that culture." He said he now feels "humble and I feel kind of bad that I haven't done a better job of being faithful to Ron Paul's kind of integrity."
Integrity: that is the issue drawing millions to Ron Paul, including young people. The night before I spoke, nearly 700 students gathered at Iowa State University in Ames to hear Dr. Paul. One of those students wrote me recently. His name is Nathan Rockman. He wrote, "As a columnist for the Iowa State ...   more »