Also by saunvedan

When Mark Owen-Lloyd, head of power trading at energy company E.ON said last week that the worst-case scenario for his company in the current difficult economic conditions was "more money for us", he was quick to assure people that he was only joking. If so, against a background of rapidly rising fuel bills and predictions of a harsh winter on the way, it's a joke that seemed to many people to be in spectacularly bad taste.

In a word, yes. A marine ecologist in New Zealand has won a top award by showing how deforestation has affected marine ecosystems such as cutting down of the once intact rainforest in the country's South Island. As this latest research shows, not only do forests regulate the climate but also provide for plant and animal species in the water as well as on land.

NATO and Russia facing off, plans for star wars causing political ructions – its almost like the 80’s all over again. Without the ra-ra skirts. Which can only be a good thing.

So finally Poland has signed an agreement to host part of the US missile defence system on its soil. With just parliamentary approval to leap (and a supportive parliament in place) it seems the US's Son of Star Wars dreams have advanced apace.

In return for hosting ten US missile interceptors the ex communist, now NATO, country gets 100 US troops stationed on its soil, US patriot missiles and ‘assistance in modernising its military’ and (ahem) help with ‘responding to the threats of the 21st century’.

More breaking news on nuclear safety from Nuclear Reaction this morning; we found the Olkiluoto 3 construction site in Finland, where they are building the so-called state of the art European Pressurised nuclear Reactor (EPR), to be unsafe after examining leaked documents from Areva, the French company building it. Olkiluoto 3 is a white elephant whose construction has been mired with 1,500 flaws, is £1.5 billion over budget and is already running 2-3 years late.