"It is absolutely shameful that the Irish Government has gone along with this,’ Ms McDonald added, and indeed that Irish Commissioner David Byrne, who is one of the foremost advocates of GM, is using his final days in office to push through these new measures against the stated wishes of EU consumers and above all against the best interests of Irish agriculture which is based on the production of safe high quality conventional food products renowned throughout the world. If GM seed is introduced to this country, there will be no realistic method of preventing conventional and organic crops being contaminated and that may have disastrous consequences for our food industry. Within Europe Sinn Féin will continue to strenuously oppose the introduction of GM, and in Ireland we will be pressing ahead through our elected representatives throughout Ireland to have the entire island made GM free."

The failure to agree on thresholds for seed contamination is seen as positive by anti-GMO activists and politicians in Brussels, and not only because at worst it means further delay. High hopes are placed on the woman nominated for the position of EU Agriculture Commissioner Danish liberal Mariann Fischer Boel. Although Ms Fischer Boel has shied away from making any policy statements, given Denmark's generally lukewarm attitude to agricultural biotech – equally evident during her tenure as agriculture minister – it seems possible that she will bring less enthusiasm to the job of forcing Europeans to eat food they do not want than have her predecessors. In April, in her role as Denmark’s representative on the EU Agriculture Council, Ms Fischer Boel argued for the contamination threshold to be set at the 0.1% which is the "detectability limit" called for by groups such as Save Our Seeds. She is also believed to favour strong rules to protect conventional and organic crops from contamination.

The nominee will soon have to face a hearing at the European Parliament, where she can expect a grilling on these issues from anti-GMO MEPs from the United Left, social democratic, liberal and Green groups. Her credentials are encouraging, but then so were those of the last Environment Commissioner, Margot Wällstrom, who has been a major disappointment to those still capable of harbouring illusions in the EU. Ms Wällstrom favours a contamination limit of 0.3%, which would quickly translate into mass contamination of Europe’s food crops.

The promised referendum in the Netherlands now looks set to go ahead around the middle of next March. Although this awaits official confirmation, the three centre-left opposition parties which have brought the measure before parliament have been told that this is the likelihood. It also appears increasingly likely that Belgium and Luxembourg will hold referenda on the same day.

In addition to the three Benelux countries, France, Ireland and Denmark will hold referenda in the near future, while Poland, Spain and the Czech Republic now seem certain to follow them, with the UK holding its vote in 2006.

In Britain, a new think-tank called the "Centre for a Social Europe" (CSE) this week launched a campaign which will attempt to put forward a centre-left argument against the Constitution.

It issued a pamphlet arguing "The Constitution represents a missed opportunity to create a more efficient, transparent, accountable and sustainable EU".

"We recognise that good Europeans must provide alternatives", it says.

Sources close to the campaign have indicated that they intend to expand the centre-left argument against the Constitution to other EU member states.

The group is thought to have links in Sweden and Denmark, the Netherlands and France already, and is preparing to forge links with the Left in Spain, Italy and Germany. French social democratic leaders have already indicated that they have reservations about the proposed Constitution, and that they will support it only under certain conditions.

At the end of her tenure on 25 August, then President of Panama Mireya Moscoso, granted amnesty to four terrorists. They were immediately welcomed to the United States, the country that claims to be leading an international "war on terrorism".

Luis Posada Carriles blew up a passenger aircraft of the "Cubana de Aviación" airline, on 6 October 1976, killing 73 people. Sentenced and imprisoned in Venezuela, he managed to escape in 1985, and continued his attacks, most notably against the tourist infrastructure in Havana, causing the death of an Italian, Mr Fabio Di Celmo. Guillermo Novo is the assassin of the former Chilean chancellor Orlando Letelier. - Pedro Remón murdered the Cuban diplomat Felix Garcia. Gaspar Jimenez Escobedo murdered the Cuban sports technician Artagnan Díaz. All four, who are linked to extreme-right Cuban groups, have continued to attack progressive activists in Latin America. In November 2000, they were arrested in Panama in possession of 9 kilos of explosives with which they were preparing an attack against President Fidel Castro during an Ibero-American Summit.

Condemning the releases, the United Left Group of 41 Euro-MPs has put forward a Resolution to the European Parliament urging "a swift reaction from the European authorities."

A spokesperson for the Group said "These criminals must be held to account. The struggle against terrorism does not take sides."

Spiralling Economic Insecurity Threatens Global Crisis: Report

A new study by the International Labour Office (ILO) says an estimated two million workers die each year from work related accidents and disease, while just 8% of people across the world have favourable economic security, cautioning that rising insecurity spawns anger and anxiety and blocks development.

The report, entitled Economic Security For A Better World is the first such effort to measure global economic security as perceived by the common man, woman and child. It is based on detailed household and workplace surveys covering over 48,000 workers and more than 10,000 workplaces worldwide.