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McDonald's logo is going green to promote a more eco-friendly image in Europe. It is swapping its traditional red backdrop for a deep green. The company says about 100 German McDonald's will make the change by the end of the year. Some franchises in Great Britain and France already have started using the new color scheme. And our last word in business today: emerald arches.

'A VICTORIA Cross that sold for a world record of £348,000 belonged to one of Glasgow's greatest war heroes. An anonymous bidder paid the whopping sum for a collection of honours for Flight Lieutenant Bill Reid's service to the nation. Son of a Baillieston blacksmith, Flt Lt Reid was awarded the VC - Britain's highest gallantry prize - for his incredible courage during a raid over Germany in 1942. Aged just 21, he continued on his RAF mission despite wounds to his head, shoulders and hands and in a plane left defenceless by damage. Flt Lt Reid died in 2001...

World powers united in condemnation of Iran's nuclear activities yesterday in a rare show of international consensus on the threat posed by Tehran's continued nuclear defiance. China and Russia joined the United States, Britain, France and Germany in backing an International Atomic Energy Agency resolution censuring Iran and ordering it to halt construction of a secret uranium enrichment plant. The resolution, the first since February 2006, passed with 25 votes and six abstentions. Only Malaysia, Venezuela and Cuba supported Iran. ...China, which has shared Moscow's reluctance to take a hard line with Tehran, was reportedly persuaded to support the resolution...

PORT OF SPAIN (AFP) – Commonwealth leaders representing two billion people on the planet on Saturday threw their combined weight behind upcoming climate talks, driving momentum towards a new carbon-cutting treaty. "We, as the Commonwealth, representing one third of the world's population, believe the time for action on climate change has come," Australian Prime Minister Rudd said as he unveiled an agreement struck at a summit in Trinidad. The Port of Spain Climate Change Consensus, backed by all 53 member states of the Commonwealth, supported the December 7-18 climate talks in Copenhagen and committed to seeking a legally binding treaty...

"Another symptom of the U.S.' political collapse, [also linked] to our burning region... "Abu Mazen counted on his friendship with the U.S. when he [tried to] persuade its leaders to pressure Israel to at least freeze the Zionist settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories... "Another collapse was in Somalia... The Somali president, whom the U.S. considers [politically] desirable, promised that he would regain control of the capital Mogadishu from the armed Islamic movements. This is a news item that should be noticed, because it is a man-bites-dog situation. It makes sense to see the end of the attacks by these...

PORT-OF-SPAIN, Trinidad — The leaders of Britain and France gave their backing Friday to a global fund that would provide billions of dollars to poor countries to help them reduce the output of greenhouse gases linked to climate change. British Prime Minister Gordon Brown and French President Nicolas Sarkozy said the wealthiest nations should set aside the money as part of a climate agreement at next month's U.N. summit on the issue in Copenhagen. Sarkozy told reporters at a Commonwealth heads of government meeting in Trinidad that the fund should provide $10 billion annually for the next three years to...

Countless red dots scattered across the world map on the wall of a NHS hospital reveal the story of the changing face of Britain. Each dot denotes the background of a mother with a baby in the neonatal ward of London's Chelsea and Westminster hospital. The map was put up by hospital administrators to 'celebrate the ethnic diversity' of the sick children treated there, each at a cost of £1,400 a day. It shows dramatically how the NHS now treats patients from every corner of the globe. The 243 mothers are from 72 different nations. They include Mongolia, the remotest...

The amount spent on employing managers has risen by a quarter, or £78 million, in the past two years, the study shows. NHS Trusts blamed Whitehall targets for the increase. It comes a day after NICE, the drugs rationing watchdog, refused funding for life-prolonging bowel cancer drug Avastin, saying it was not cost effective. Pulse, a magazine for GPs, found that projected spending on management salaries has increased by 25 per cent between 2007/08 and 2009/10 in primary care trusts, which look after community services. It was up from £312million to £390million. But the true figure is likely to be...

No apologies for revisiting Climategate, for this is the exposé of the can of worms that is the AGW mindset that just keeps giving. Now, what would you say if I were to tell you that the BBC News website is running a story on Professor Michael Mann, of Pennsylvania State University, one of the boys in Phil Jones’s gang hut at CRU East Anglia? “B****r me!” you would probably respond. “Don’t tell me the BBC has finally caught up with Climategate.” Relax. I’m not telling you that; and it hasn’t. Instead, the BBC “News” site is running a story...

The first woman in the Royal Navy to be awarded the Military Cross collected her bravery medal today from Buckingham Palace today. Medical Assistant Kate Nesbitt was honoured for her heroism by the Prince of Wales. The 21-year-old from Plymouth, Devon, braved Taliban fire to tend to a comrade shot in the neck during a gun battle in Afghanistan in March. Brave: Medical Assistant Kate Nesbitt receives the Military Cross from the Prince of Wales during investitures at Buckingham Palace in London today She dressed the wound on L/Cpl John List's neck and kept him from losing blood while bullets...

The invasion of Iraq was legal but of "questionable legitimacy" because the US and UK had failed to persuade other countries of the need for war, the then-British ambassador to the UN told the Chilcot inquiry today. Sir Jeremy Greenstock said: "I regard our participation in the military action in Iraq in March 2003 as legal but of questionable legitimacy in that it did not have the democratically observable backing of the great majority of [UN] member states, or even perhaps of the majority of people inside the UK." Earlier, Greenstock told the inquiry that he had threatened to resign...

70 deaths on ward of shame: Patients neglected by lazy nurses in a filthy, blood-spattered casualty unit, says damning report By Daniel Martin Last updated at 9:39 AM on 27th November 2009 Dozens of patients died needlessly as a result of filthy conditions in an NHS hospital, a shocking report said last night. Appalling nursing care in Basildon University Hospital contributed to a mortality rate that was more than a third higher than the national average. At least 70 people may have died who should have been saved. It is the latest example of patients paying the ultimate price for...

SCROLL DOWN TO THE BOLDFACED RESPONSE FROM CRU DR. PHIL JONES!!! This is not just trivial gamesmanship, this is central to the very idea of scientific inquiry. This is an attack on the heart of science, by keeping people who disagree with you from ever checking your work and seeing if your math is correct. As far as I know, I am the person who made the original Freedom Of Information Act to CRU that started getting all this stirred up. I was trying to get access to the taxpayer funded raw data out of which they built the global...

As Britons, we tend to think about our economy in the same way as our national sports teams. We know we should be world-beaters, but deep down suspect we're doomed to perennial disappointment...As the official statistics confirmed yesterday, ours is the only one of the world's top seven economies still stuck in recession. You might have been aware that Britain was one of the world's biggest chemical producers, thanks to companies such as GlaxoSmithkline, AstraZeneca and the thriving biotech firms that cluster around universities. You probably knew we sold plenty of Scotch and ale overseas. But did you know that...

In my column this morning on manufacturing (Shock news – Britain still makes things) I didn’t have space to mention one other important misconception about manufacturing: that just because something is “made in China” or somewhere else in the emerging world doesn’t necessarily mean that the money from its construction goes to that place alone. This helps explain why, in broad terms, a developed economy does not need a trade surplus (or even a balance) in order to survive.

If Britain's Got Talent, Why Are We Being Run By Foreigners? Jeff Randall wonders why so few of this country's top companies have home-grown bosses. 26 Nov 2009 At a recent dinner party, the conversation turned to the few private-sector companies in Britain that represent something more than vulgar profits or embarrassing losses. These are the businesses that are woven into our national self-esteem, organisations for which there is loyalty and affection beyond reason. They carry a peculiarly British burden: a demand for success which soon becomes a sense of betrayal if expectations are not met in full. After much...

Hundreds of patients may have died needlessly at an NHS hospital due to appalling standards of care, a damning report has found. Poor nursing care, filthy wards and lack of leadership ... Among the worst failings discovered by the Care Quality Commission were a lack of basic nursing skills, curtains spattered with blood on wards, mould in vital equipment and patients being left in A&E for up to ten hours. Concerns about death rates at the foundation hospital trust were first raised a year ago, but an internal investigation failed to find anything wrong and managers dismissed the concerns. But...

The UK Independence Party is set to head in a fresh direction, fighting radical Islam, with the election today of a replacement for Nigel Farage as its national leader. The two favourites to take over from Mr Farage are committed to adding the battle against Islamic fundamentalism to the party’s main goal of withdrawing Britain from the European Union. Mr Farage resisted strong grassroots pressure during his three-year leadership to broaden UKIP’s focus to include actively campaigning against Islamism and immigration. But both Lord Pearson of Rannoch and the London MEP Gerard Batten — the two front-runners in a field...

Climate sceptics have lied, obscured and cheated for years. That's why we climate rationalists must uphold the highest standards of science. I have seldom felt so alone. Confronted with crisis, most of the environmentalists I know have gone into denial. The emails hacked from the Climatic Research Unit (CRU) at the University of East Anglia, they say, are a storm in a tea cup, no big deal, exaggerated out of all recognition. It is true that climate change deniers have made wild claims which the material can't possibly support (the end of global warming, the death of climate science). But...

Sarah Foss, 39, got pregnant at age 16 and was so traumatized by the birth, she swore off kids for another 10 years. After having her second child in 1996, Foss has gotten pregnant every year since then. Now Foss is pregnant with her 14th child and vows to keep her OB-GYN busy, until he places a set of twins in her arms. The Derby, UK, "mum" says, "All I've ever wanted is twins or triplets. It's my biggest wish, and I'm going to keep trying until I do it. It would be fantastic. In fact, I won't stop trying...

Gerd Leipold, the outgoing leader of Greenpeace, admitted that his organization's recent claim that the Arctic Ice will disappear by 2030 was "a mistake." Greenpeace said in a July 15 press release that there will be an ice-free Arctic by 2030 because of global warming. BBC reporter Stephen Sackur on the "Hardtalk" program pressed Leipold until he admitted the claim was wrong. http://eclipptv.com/viewVideo.php?video_id=6933

www.catholicnewsagency.com EU commission strikes down British religious freedom exemptions from anti-discrimination law London, England, Nov 26, 2009 / 01:06 pm (CNA).- The European Union has compelled the British government to remove religious freedom exemptions from an anti-discrimination bill. The move will forbid church bodies from declining to employ homosexual staff. The National Secular Society had argued that the exemptions went further than was permitted under an EU directive and created “illegal discrimination against homosexuals,” the Observer reports.The EU commission agreed, ruling that the exemptions are “broader than that permitted by the directive.”The British government must now redraft anti-discrimination laws....

Borders, which has around 45 Borders and Books Etc stores across the UK, lodged a notice of intent to appoint administrators on Monday following the reported collapse of takeover negotiations. The company is not taking orders on its website and has launched "closing down sales" at some stores. Borders has struggled with "severe" cash flow pressure this year as sales falls accelerated, said administrators. Stock levels were also hit as several of the company's suppliers stopped or reduced its credit limits, while a number of credit insurers have also reduced their cover for the firm. Joint administrator Phil Duffy said:...

The Catholic Church in Ireland covered up widespread allegations of sexual abuse of children by priests for four decades, a damning official report released on Thursday said. Four archbishops routinely protected abusers and failed to enforce the law, the three-year investigation into the Dublin Archdiocese, the country's largest, found. "The Dublin Archdiocese's pre-occupations in dealing with cases of child sexual abuse, at least until the mid-1990s, were the maintenance of secrecy, the avoidance of scandal, the protection of the reputation of the Church, and the preservation of its assets," the report said. It added: "All other considerations, including the welfare...

Wednesday November 25, 2009 Britain's Chief Rabbi Warns of Fall of Europe due to Demographic Collapse By John-Henry WestenLONDON, November 24, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Speaking at the Annual Theos Lecture in London on November 4, Britain's Chief Rabbi Johnathan Sacks, warned that Europe was bound to meet the same fate as ancient Greece due to its abysmal failure to inspire larger families. "Parenthood involves massive sacrifice: of money, attention, time and emotional energy," he said.  "Where today, in European culture with its consumerism and its instant gratification 'because you're worth it,' in that culture, where will you find space...

CLAIRE BERLINSKI Government Motors 1975 America should learn from Britain’s disastrous takeover of its biggest auto company. PETER MARLOW/MAGNUM PHOTOS Striking became a way of life for British Leyland autoworkers during the seventies. After the Second World War, the United Kingdom’s newly elected Labour government resolved to build of Britain a New Jerusalem. It nationalized the commanding heights of the economy and inaugurated the cradle-to-grave welfare state. By the 1970s, the UK faced an economic crisis unrivaled since the Great Depression. Shabby and hopeless, Britain had become, in Henry Kissinger’s words, a “tragedy” of a nation, reduced to “begging, borrowing,...

Retail sales rose at their fastest pace in two years in November and retailers expect a further rise next month, according to a survey on Thursday that will boost hopes of a strong Christmas shopping period. However, much of the recent improvement has been driven by temporary factors such as record-low interest rates and a cut in value-added tax. "Despite the more upbeat mood, and pre-Christmas sales growth, consumers are still worried about job losses and a weak economy. In 2010 the high street will find that recovery is fragile and slow," Andy Clarke, chief operating office of Asda and...

HUNTSVILLE, AL, Nov. 25 Christian Newswire -- Two creation films called "inappropriate" were denied the opportunity to be shown in government facilities this week--which marks the 150th anniversary of the publication of Charles Darwin's "Origin of Species". While the intelligent design film "Darwin's Dilemma: The Mystery of the Cambrian Fossil Record" has not been granted permission for a showing in California, "The Mysterious Islands", a new 90-minute Vision Forum film that challenges Darwin's evolution by taking audiences back to engage the enchanted Galapagos Islands, has enjoyed a victory and will premiere as previously scheduled tonight, Nov. 25, at 6:30 PM, at...

3 Trees Said to Prove Warming! --snip-- That's another thing, folks. People said, "I don't get why you believe in God, Rush. Your belief in God, how does that tell you that global warming is a hoax?" Well, belief in God is a very personal thing, but I happen to believe in a loving God of creation -- and I just intellectually cannot accept the fact that a loving God which has created all this beauty and has blessed this country -- I cannot believe that a God like that -- would punish the human being he created for progress,...

CNN correspondent Max Foster’s short report about Richard Dawkins on Tuesday’s Situation Room played more like a commercial which promoted the militant atheist’s new book. Despite Dawkins’s past inflammatory statements about Christianity, Foster only labeled him “an outspoken critic of creationism....[whose] atheist views have put him at the center of controversy” [audio clip available here]. Anchor Suzanne Malveaux’s introduction for the correspondent’s report highlighted the 150th anniversary of the printing of Charles Darwin’s “On the Origin of Species,” and how Dawkins was a “controversial successor [to Darwin] carrying the torch for evolution.” Foster gave a very basic description of Dawkins’s...

November 25, 2009 Gordon Brown To Push For Royal Roman Catholics Law Change Philip Webster, Political Editor Gordon Brown today sparked controversy on the eve of the Commonwealth summit by suggesting he backs the sweeping away of 300-year-old laws that prevent Roman Catholics ascending to the Throne. Mr Brown is also keen to change the ancient rule of primogeniture, which stipulates that men must always take precedence over a woman in line to the throne. The Prime Minister is expected to raise the issue with heads of government in the "margins" of the Commonwealth summit that begins in Trinidad on...

The career of a married religious education teacher was in tatters today after she was jailed for having sex with a 15-year-old grammar school pupil. Madeleine Martin, 39, seduced the boy via the social networking site Facebook after being appointed to mentor him at school. They exchanged a series of emails and had sex three times in the back of her car at a country park, a shopping centre and at her home during their brief relationship.

Novel U.K. AESA Approach Brings Benefits Nov 24, 2009 Douglas Barrie/London,Andy Nativi/Edinburgh, Scotland & Robert Wall/Dubai The results of a still mainly classified U.K. program are spurring the Defense Ministry and industry to pursue a novel design of active, electronically scanned array (AESA) radar for the Eurofighter Typhoon. The AESA design is already earmarked for the Saab Gripen NG. A Selex Galileo prototype AESA for the Gripen NG demonstrator has been installed on the aircraft. The full design includes the company’s so-called swashplate architecture that allows the angled antenna face to be rotated. This addresses coverage and performance-degradation issues encountered...

ONE in 20 British schoolkids thinks war-mongering dictator Adolf Hitler was a German football coach, a shock survey has revealed. The same number thought the Holocaust was a celebration at the end of the war. One in six youngsters believed the notorious Auschwitz concentration camp was a theme park - and one in 12 thought the Blitz was a European clean-up operation following World War II. The embarrassing findings are contained in a poll for the veterans' charity Erskine, which asked 2,000 kids aged nine to 11 about the two world wars. Twenty-five per cent said they did not think...

Gordon Brown today sparked controversy on the eve of the Commonwealth summit by suggesting he backs the sweeping away of 300-year-old laws that prevent Roman Catholics ascending to the Throne. Mr Brown is also keen to change the ancient rule of primogeniture, which stipulates that men must always take precedence over a woman in line to the throne. The Prime Minister is expected to raise the issue with heads of government in the "margins" of the Commonwealth summit that begins in Trinidad on Friday. It is not a formal item on the agenda of the gathering, which will be dominated...

Secret correspondence between the exiled Duke and Duchess of Windsor and their confidant Kenneth de Courcy has revealed a dastardly scheme to change the course of British history by denying Queen Elizabeth II the crown, says royal biographer Christopher Wilson. The Sunday Telegraph can reveal that amid the deteriorating health of the Duke’s brother King George VI, furtive discussions began among rattled courtiers and senior politicians to the possibility of a “caretaker” monarch. The natural successor, and heir apparent, was the then Princess Elizabeth. But in the spring of 1949, when the plot was at its height, she was just...

To propel themselves through this economic downturn, media and advertising executives are turning to a phrase meant to soothe another troubled populace: the British during World War II. “Keep calm and carry on,” a British government propaganda poster created in 1939, is now decorating offices. Those offices include that of David Lubars, chairman and chief creative officer at BBDO North America; Edward Menicheschi, Vanity Fair publisher; Reto Gregori, Bloomberg News chief of staff; Peter Macey, a Wired ad sales director; the headquarters of the branding firm Redscout; and the copy department of BusinessWeek. “It looks quiet and nice and sort...

Husband Slaughters Wife Then Leaps In Front Of Train Leaving Their Two Children Orphaned [Pic of Couple in URL] ANDY DOLAN and FAY SCHLESINGER 25th November 2009 A managing director stabbed his estranged wife to death before jumping in front of a train after she fell for a younger man. Mark Findlay, 41, murdered his wife Helen, 36, with a hammer and a knife at their home and then walked to the local train station and killed himself, leaving their two young children orphaned. Five days earlier, Mrs Findlay had called the police after glue was squeezed into her car...

Disillusionment with Woodrow Wilson changed the American Left forever. In 1916, German saboteurs destroyed Black Tom Island in New York Harbor.Click for Bettmann/Corbis pic. Today’s state-oriented liberalism, we are often told, was the inevitable extension of the pre–World War I tradition of progressivism. The progressives, led by President Woodrow Wilson, placed their faith in reason and the better nature of the American people. Expanded government would serve as an engine of popular goodwill to soften the harsh rigors of industrial capitalism. Describing the condition of his fellow intellectuals prior to World War I, Lewis Mumford exclaimed that “there was scarcely...

Pro-Darwin consensus doesn't rule out intelligent design --snip-- (CNN) -- While we officially celebrate the 150th anniversary of the publication of Charles Darwin's "On the Origin of Species" on November 24, celebrations of Darwin's legacy have actually been building in intensity for several years. Darwin is not just an important 19th century scientific thinker. Increasingly, he is a cultural icon. Darwin is the subject of adulation that teeters on the edge of hero worship, expressed in everything from scholarly seminars and lecture series to best-selling new atheist tracts like those by Richard Dawkins and Christopher Hitchens. The atheists claim that...

FOR years they lay forgotten, gathering dust in a drawer. But now a war hero's diaries recording the daring plot that inspired epic film The Great Escape have been revealed for the first time. Flight Lieutenant Ted Nestor spent 18 months in the notorious Stalag Luft III compound in Poland, from where brave Allied troops carried out their legendary bid for freedom. And during his long captivity, the RAF navigator from Stockport, Gtr Manchester, recorded his moving and often humorous experiences. Ted had been captured after his Stirling bomber was shot down during a raid over Nuremberg in August 1943....

It has been described as the "greatest scientific scandal of modern age." The story broke last Thursday when a person unknown -- some say it was a hacker, others an inside-leak job -- broke into the servers at Britain's Climate Research Unit at the University of East Anglia and published at least 61megabytes of confidential data on a Russian website. Despite efforts in liberal quarters to play the story down as a criminal issue of no great consequence, the blogosophere almost instantly recognized it as political dynamite: perhaps even the final nail in the coffin of Al Gore's increasingly expensive...

“Would it not be easier,” wrote Bertolt Brecht after the East German uprising in 1953, “for the government to dissolve the people and elect another?” The thought has occurred to several governments over the years, and I don’t mean the dictatorships. Andrew Neather, a former speechwriter for Tony Blair, wrote a piece for the London Evening Standard the other day and, considering he’s one of those quintessentially slippery New Labour spinmeisters, it was disarmingly insouciant in its straightforwardness. When Labour came to power in 1997, the number of work permits issued each year quadrupled and immigration exploded. Mr Neather revealed...

Bob Ainsworth, the defence secretary, has blamed Barack Obama and the United States for the decline in British public support for the war in Afghanistan. Mr Ainsworth took the unprecedented step of publicly criticising the US President and his delays in sending more troops to bolster the mission against the Taliban. A “period of hiatus” in Washington - and a lack of clear direction - had made it harder for ministers to persuade the British public to go on backing the Afghan mission in the face of a rising death toll, he said. Senior British Government sources have become increasingly...

Britain has built the world's biggest DNA database without proper political debate and police routinely arrest people just to get their DNA profiles onto the system, the genetics watchdog said in a report on Tuesday. The Human Genetics Commission, which advises the government on the social, legal and ethical aspects of genetics, called for a review of the database and said new laws must be passed to govern its use. In a damning report, the commission said "function creep" had transformed the system from a DNA store for offenders into a database of suspects. More than three-quarters of young black...

”I have chosen to speak because to look on us as husband and wife was an understatement. He said we were a unit. ”In my eyes my husband, my son’s father, was a warrior. Warrior are unique; our protectors, not destroyers. "Oz and troops like him join to serve traditional warrior values; to passionately protect the country they love, its ideals, and especially their families, communities and each other.

We've posted before at Before It's News about the fact that the emails from the University of East Anglia Climate Research Unit (CRU) demonstrated the intent to deceive, but now that the blogosphere is starting to go through the actual models that were built to make predictions, the extent of this scandal will be known. As the email said, "to hide the decline" -- what does that actually mean? It means using hidden mathematical trickery to obfuscate the reality of what is really happening and to adjust the outcome to support your thesis. In science, this is called fraud. It's...

EasyJet recalls magazine with Holocaust memorial fashion shoot Published: 24 Nov 09 10:14 CETOnline: http://www.thelocal.de/society/20091124-23481.html British discount airline easyJet has recalled some 280,000 copies of its in-flight magazine after complaints about a fashion shoot staged at Berlin’s Holocaust memorial, daily Financial Times Deutschland reported on Tuesday. ADVERTISING Heavy wind storms rage through Germany - National (24 Nov 09)Berlin plans 'integration contract' for immigrants - Politics (23 Nov 09)Antique car dealer finds Hitler's Mercedes - Society (23 Nov 09) The November edition of “easyJet Traveller,” which features a fashion section with fashion models in provocative poses amid the pillars of the...

British climate centre reeling over Internet posting of sensitive material. The online publication of sensitive e-mails and documents from a British climate centre is brewing into one of the scientific controversies of the year, causing dismay among affected institutes and individuals. The tone and content of some of the disclosed correspondence are raising concerns that the leak is damaging the credibility of climate science on the eve of the United Nations climate summit in Copenhagen in December. The Climatic Research Unit (CRU) at the University of East Anglia (UEA) in Norwich confirmed on 20 November that it had had more...

Climate scientists are reeling this week from the discovery that someone has hacked into the email archive of one of their most prestigious research centres, the Climate Research Unit (CRU) of the University of East Anglia, UK, custodian of the most respected global temperature record. Climate sceptics have gleefully blogged that the emails, now widely published on the internet, reveal extensive data manipulation and expose a conspiracy behind global warming research. An analysis by New Scientist finds scant evidence of data abuse, but does show persistent efforts to suppress work by climate sceptics. Mostly the researchers are exposed as doing...