BERLIN—As a blockbuster deal to resolve the spreading euro-zone debt crisis eluded European leaders on Wednesday, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and the swooning euro currency got a boost when German lawmakers backed a resolution approving leveraging models for the euro zone's bailout fund. The euro surged in currency trading immediately following the announcement that Germany's Bundestag, or lower house of parliament, approved the resolution with a majority of 503 lawmakers out of a total of 596. Ms. Merkel's own coalition carried the vote with 311 votes, the absolute minimum needed for the coalition to achieve its own majority and not rely on borrowing votes from the opposition. The vote represents broad support for Ms. Merkel to continue pressing for a comprehensive bailout package that includes involvement of private-sector investors and tough economic and fiscal reforms in weakened euro-zone member countries. But it also demonstrates how thin support for further bailouts has become within Ms. Merkel's center-right coalition of Christian Democrats, the Christian Social Union of Bavaria and pro-business Free Democrats. Touching on a theme that she has repeated throughout the crisis, Ms. Merkel said Europe mustn't waste the opportunity it has now to correct mistakes made at the creation of the euro. Germany is pushing for a number of changes to European treaties and the currency union to promote integration of euro-zone fiscal policies and get other euro-zone members to commit to a German-style debt brake that would force national governments to balance their budgets. "We have to seize this opportunity now or never to correct the architectural flaws made when economic and monetary union was created," Ms. Merkel told parliament. "And if we correct these mistakes now, then we will have grasped the opportunity in this crisis." To ensure broad support, Ms. Merkel's conservative alliance reached out to the opposition to draft a multiparty resolution. Lawmakers thus gave broad parliamentary backing for a plan to boost the lending capacity of the European Financial Stability Facility, or EFSF, to more than €1 trillion by allowing the fund to insure new bonds for weakened euro-zone member states and to create an investment vehicle to attract private investment in euro-zone bonds. Lawmakers warned about potential risks and insisted that Ms. Merkel ensure there will be no increase in the €211 billion worth of guarantees that Germany has pledged for the EFSF. Lawmakers also pressed Ms. Merkel to push banks considered systemically relevant to raise core capital to 9% by a deadline of June 30, 2012 and urged her to insist on an end to the European Central Bank's program of purchasing euro-zone bonds on the open market to prop up weakened euro-zone members as soon as the EFSF is launched. German lawmakers also called for a clear European commitment to the ECB's independence. "We don't want the ECB to purchase such bonds in the future," said Volker Kauder, head of the parliamentary group of Ms. Merkel's alliance of CDU and CSU conservatives. In the resolution, which was drafted by all the major parties in the Bundestag, German lawmakers also urged Ms. Merkel to work toward introducing a European-wide financial transaction tax after the meeting of G-20 leaders in Cannes next month. The German vote came as talks between European Union negotiators and European banks appeared to be stuck. At issue was a voluntary writedown on Greek bonds that would hit private-sector investors harder than agreed at a summit in July, a prospect that is meeting with resistance from banks. The deal made in July has been overtaken by economic realities, Ms. Merkel said. The situation in Greece has deteriorated and so the July agreement is no longer applicable, she said. Instead, private investors must bear a larger share of losses and must also increase their capital as a way of creating a firewall against the spread of financial contagion. "Whoever is in favor of having private creditors participate in improving Greece's debt sustainability must also ensure that protection against contagion is also part of the deal. Anything else would be negligent," Ms. Merkel said. "No one should be too big to fail ever again."

Before the NBA lockout began in July, players and their representatives were already repeating the party line: This time, they said, the players would be ready for a long work stoppage.

The last time this happened, in 1998-99, the conventional view is that the players had come back to the table waving white flags—largely because they were running out of money.

The idea that NBA players are better prepared this time around is, for the most part, poppycock. The passage of 13 years has not turned NBA players into CPAs. When this year's lockout ends, it will probably be for the same reason as the last one: On average, NBA players are not particularly good with money, and NBA owners know this.

When sports fans hear reports that suggest athletes are monetary sieves (Latrell Sprewell owes the state of Wisconsin $3.5 million! Antoine Walker squandered $100 million!), their reactions range from bemusement to scorn. Embedded in these reactions is a degree of condescension: "I may not be able to play in the NBA/NFL/NHL, but at least I can balance my checkbook." Fans say things like this for the same reason people revel in the downfall of Britney Spears or Lindsay Lohan; We like our heroes, but we like them to have vulnerabilities.

The problem with this form of gleeful spite, when it comes to the fiduciary faux pas of athletes, isn't that it reveals those doing the criticizing to be ignoble or juvenile (although they are those things). The problem is that it is based on the wrong conclusions.

Most people assume that pro athletes are lousy with money because they're stupid. Some professional athletes aren't very smart, and some of the time, this leads to horrendous financial decisions. But stupidity isn't what usually drives sportsmen to the poorhouse, or, in the case of team leagues, back to the bargaining table during a work stoppage. The trait that causes most NBA players to burn through their savings is the same trait that allows them to become NBA players in the first place: an almost unlimited capacity for irrational behavior.

The desire to become a professional athlete isn't a rational one. Even for someone who grows to the far end of the bell curve in height, strength and spatial awareness, the odds of being able to play the game for a living are remote. There's a reason high-school math teachers put up posters stating that the chances of a high-school athlete making it to the pros are one in a zillion: It's true.

And those are just the odds of making it to the pros. Getting there, then actually succeeding, is an outcome that's even more far-fetched than marrying into British royalty—or writing a bestselling novel that isn't about vampires. The same irrationality that allows a man to believe he'll be good enough to play pro sports manifests itself on the court. Taking that 13th shot after going 0-for-12 isn't a rational act. Neither is swinging for the fences when one has collected one hit in the last 43 at-bats. The same goes for a quarterback who throws into double coverage after three interceptions.

But these actions come naturally to professional athletes. And let's face it: most of us would prefer to keep it that way. The fans like irrational actors. We all but demand to have them. If professional athletes didn't behave irrationally or stubbornly, there would be no surprises. There would be fewer occasions when we get to watch athletes spin straw into gold.

Strange, then, that the people who demand that their favorite players behave like professional gamblers on the field are also surprised when those players spend their money like the world might end tomorrow. This hypocrisy goes beyond money: The fans goad football linebackers into wild acts of aggression on the field, then express shock when those same people get into bar brawls or domestic disputes.

Being a fan isn't exactly an exercise in logic, either. Anyone who backs a sports team knows, on some level, that the players we cheer for don't particularly care about us, and don't always care whether they win the game we're watching them play. Yet we cheer for those players anyhow, setting aside rationality in the hopes that irrationality might allow us to get caught up in the joy of a great play, a great finish, a great game.

In other words, we're all irrational. It's just that we sometimes forget it and decide to apply a rational criterion (how people manage their money) to the most irrational people on the planet (professional athletes).

Sooner or later, this NBA lockout will end. That ending won't come about because owners yield to players' demands. The owners are too smart. (As a group, that is. Left to their own devices, they sometimes make players look brilliant.)

No, the NBA lockout will end because, unlike the rest of us—and thanks to NBA commissioner David Stern's apparent hammerlock on the proceedings—the owners will remain rational. They will turn the screws on those NBA players, not because they think the players are stupid, but because they know the players are irrational actors.

After all, that's why they play the game in the first place.

How far will Ohio go to regulate exotic pets after menagerie shooting?

As dusk fell on the rolling farmland near a private Zanesville, Ohio, animal park on Tuesday, police officers greeted with the stunning sight of growling Bengal tigers, lions, and grizzly bears wandering free were left, they say, with only one option: Open fire.
The tragedy of the Zanesville exotic animals shooting, where 50 of the 56 animals released by owner Terry Thompson were killed by police snipers, drew a visceral and irate national response as the local sheriff received hundreds of angry calls in reaction to photos that showed the bodies of dead tigers and lions lying in a field.

The broader question, however, is whether the backlash to the shootings will force Ohio and other states to address the free-wheeling exotic animal trade in the US, a country which now holds more privately-owned tigers than exist in the wild, and where a tiger cub can be had for $700.

IN PICTURES: Exotic pets

"In every respect this is organized crime," Bryan Christy, the author of an exposé about animal trafficking called "The Lizard King," tells the New Scientist website. "It's just that the commodity makes people smile."

Experts estimate that there are over 5,000 privately-owned Bengal tigers alone in the US, more than a wild population that numbers about 3,600. The breeding, buying, and selling of exotic animals is only loosely regulated in the US and permits are required only when exhibiting animals – a system of loopholes that makes the exotic trade "the most profitable form of trans-boundary trade, bar none," according to Mr. Christy.

In the wake of the Zanesville shootings, animal rights groups stepped up calls for an outright ban on transporting and owning exotic animals. "These animals should not be kept in people's backyards, their basements, or bedrooms," Wayne Pacelle, the CEO of the Humane Society of the United States, said in a conference call with reporters on Thursday.

But groups like the Ohio Association of Animal Owners, Inc., which have successfully fought for the right to own non-native animals, vowed to block new legislation. Exotic pet owners say an outright ban is going too far, and that authorities should focus on shutting down problem facilities like the one Thompson ran outside Zanesville.

As a sign of the power of the exotic animal trade, a federal law limiting the transport of primates in the US failed recently in Congress, and a push to ban the ownership of big, invasive snakes like pythons has found little traction despite several deaths in Florida in recent years.

Seven states, including Ohio, have no direct bans on owning such animals, and federal authorities control only the interstate transfers of big, non-native animals like Bengal tigers.

Just this year, a temporary rule in Ohio that banned those convicted of animal cruelty – which included Mr. Thompson – from owning exotic animals was allowed to lapse by Gov. John Kasich. A Kasich spokesman this week called the previous rule "sloppy" because it didn't include clear authority for the state to regulate non-native animals and didn't stipulate what the state should do with seized animals.

On Friday, however, Mr. Kasich signed another emergency rule, ordering police to identify locations of potentially dangerous animals in the state and to work with zoos to house seized animals. But, more critically, Kasich ordered state wildlife officials to come up with a stronger law that the legislature can address in its next session.

"We will seek statutory authority," Mr. Kasich said on Friday. "Changes must be made in the law."

Although only animals were hurt in Ohio on Tuesday, animal rights groups have counted at least 1,500 incidents in the US of humans being hurt in exotic animal attacks, including a kangaroo attack in Ohio, in September.

For now, the reticence of states like Ohio to close exotic animal trade loopholes means police bear the brunt of complaints as well as public backlash when officers are forced to kill escaped animals. Capture was ruled out for most of the escaped Zanesville animals because night was falling and public safety had become a major concern given the sheer numbers of dangerous animals walking around.

When Mr. Thompson, apparently distraught over financial and relationship problems, let his animals out and then killed himself, the end result hit police officers as hard as the public, said Sheriff Matt Lutz.

“These killings were senseless," he told reporters, noting that Thompson had been allowed to keep his animals despite police being called to the property several times in the past. "For our guys to have to do this, it was crazy…. We don’t go to the academy and get trained on how to deal with 300-pound Bengal tigers. I’m just glad [officers] had the courage to get out of their cars.”

New era close at McCormick Place as tentative union pact reached

The long-running battle to ease labor rules at McCormick Place is close to a settlement, with a tentative pact reached Tuesday with a key union.

Teamsters Local 727 has agreed to a host of changes aimed at cutting exhibitors' costs and keeping Chicago competitive with rival cities, said Brian Rainville, a spokesman for the Teamsters.

The proposal — which would cut crew sizes from three to two workers, give exhibitors the right to unload their own vehicles and lengthen straight-time windows — is similar to legislative changes imposed last year that were later tossed out in court after challenges by the Teamsters and the Chicago Regional Council of Carpenters.

McCormick Place officials are appealing those rulings, but agreements involving both unions could put the lawsuits to rest.

The Teamsters local, which has about 200 members who work in the exhibition hall, will vote on the proposal Thursday.

The deal was brokered, in large part, by Gov. Pat Quinn, Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel and McCormick Place trustee Jim Reilly. Those officials could not be reached for comment.

The carpenters have been in negotiations as well. Terrance McGann, an attorney representing the union, said its leaders are "cautiously optimistic" an agreement will be reached soon.

"We have been working very diligently over the past 48 hours and I think we've made very good progress," McGann said Tuesday afternoon.

Quinn earlier threatened to call lawmakers back to Springfield this fall to try again to revamp show-floor rules if labor agreements couldn't be hammered out. If both unions approve pacts, that step would be unnecessary.

The Teamsters' tentative pact "achieves our goals," Rainville said. "We have a contract, we negotiated the terms and conditions, and we recognized that we're all in the same boat together. It's in all our best interests to have as many quality, big shows in Chicago as possible, and then everybody is working."

The Teamsters are responsible for unloading and moving booth materials on the show floor while carpenters assemble exhibits.

U.S. District Judge Ronald Guzman ruled in the unions' favor in March, saying the National Labor Relations Act pre-empts states from enacting legislation that would interfere with the ability of private-sector employees to negotiate employment terms. Most trade union employees who set up and tear down shows work for private contractors.

Occupy Chicago arrests are seen as a trial run for international summits to come next year

With two international summits coming to Chicago in just seven months, the city got a chance to conduct a trial run early Sunday in arresting a large group of protesters without it escalating into violence.

Throughout Saturday evening, police remained in constant contact with organizers of the Occupy Chicago demonstrations, warning that anyone remaining in Grant Park after the 11 p.m. curfew, violating a city ordinance, risked being hauled off to jail, city officials said.

Mayor Rahm Emanuel was kept abreast of the situation, receiving regular updates from police Superintendent Garry McCarthy, said Chris Mather, the mayor's spokeswoman.

"The mayor made it clear that he wanted protesters to have ample warning that the park was closing as well as time to leave should they choose to do so," Mather said.

Occupy Chicago organizer Kelvin Ho said about 500 protesters who had camped out at the park Saturday night were divided into color-coded groups — red for those who did not want to be arrested, yellow for those who were undecided and green for those who were willing to remain behind and go to jail.

At 12:45 a.m., McCarthy made the call for police to move in and arrest anyone remaining in the park. Shortly after 1 a.m., police began leading 175 people away in handcuffs.

"Demonstrators were in violation of the law, and it is the obligation of police to enforce the law," Mather said.

Police officials determined they could not allow the more than 2,000 protesters to spend the night in the public park because it would be harder to get them out in the coming days, according to a police source familiar with the events.

It also would set a bad precedent for dealing with thousands of demonstrators expected to converge on Chicago from around the world during the G-8 and NATO summits that will be held simultaneously in May, the source said.

The arrests were a stark contrast to the clash that occurred in New York two weeks ago when nearly 700 protesters were arrested on the Brooklyn Bridge.

Chicago police maintained open lines of communication with the group throughout the protest and extended ample time and opportunity for the group to leave the park, said Lt. Maureen Biggane, a police spokeswoman. The group largely complied, she said.

"Police provided repeated notification of the need to comply with the Park District ordinance," Biggane said. "Approximately 90 minutes after the park was officially closed and remaining members made it clear they were not going to disperse in accordance with the ordinance, arrests were made."

The Occupy Chicago protests, one of many that have sprouted up around the world as an outgrowth of the Occupy Wall Street movement, could be viewed as a small-scale practice run for Emanuel, whose leadership skills will be on international display next spring.

The last thing Chicago wants, according to political analysts, is a repeat of the violent confrontations that occurred during the 2000 G-8 summit in Seattle. Chicago also still has the stigma of the bloody riots at the 1968 Democratic National Convention that tainted Mayor Richard J. Daley's image.

"The city administration, with a new police chief and a new mayor, is learning on the job how to deal with these kinds of events," said Dick Simpson, who heads the political science department at the University of Illinois at Chicago. "The fact that the arrests were orderly rather than filled with anger and confrontation shows that things are more positive now."

There is less potential for violence, Simpson said, because the Occupy Chicago movement is about the financial breaks that have been given to Wall Street investors and the very rich, not local police or city government.

"The tension is not there now. But whether it will be there with the G-8 is another issue," Simpson said.

On Sunday night, several hundred Occupy Chicago protesters peacefully marched from LaSalle Street and Jackson Boulevard back to Grant Park. The rally ended with protesters quietly filtering into downtown about 8:45 p.m. There were no arrests reported, according to police.

Emanuel previously has expressed empathy for the Occupy Chicago protesters. During an editorial board meeting with the Tribune last week, he said that although he does not "agree with the methodology or all the claims," he understands the frustration.
"If you can't hear the anguish in people's lives, which they're literally living on a razor's edge, you're too callous for public life," he said.

The arrests that have occurred in Chicago and other major cities, including Denver, Seattle, San Diego and New York, have helped fuel a growing movement. In Chicago, what began as a small protest with only six people three weeks ago grew to an estimated 2,000 people at a rally earlier Saturday, organizer Ho said.
"This is the first time anyone has been arrested in Occupy Chicago, and before yesterday, we had no idea how many people were prepared to get arrested," said Ho, 21, a University of Chicago student. "There were a lot of people ready to go to jail."

While waiting for the police to make their move, the demonstrators sang songs by the Beatles, Marvin Gaye and Roberta Flack. Some shouted that the arrests would violate their civil and human rights.

Around 11 p.m., Ho said, an attorney gave the crowd advice on how to avoid confrontations with the police by offering no resistance.

As it drew closer to the deadline, about 200 people in the red group spilled over to the opposite side of Michigan Avenue and continued protesting, while others linked arms to form a human chain surrounding the area, which included about two dozen tents.

"After the police issued their warning, people who were red knew they should step off on to the sidewalk, and if you were yellow, you could decide later on," Ho said. The group has sponsored training sessions to inform people of their rights and what to expect if they are arrested, he said.

On Sunday morning, bleary-eyed protesters who had been arrested trickled out of the Central District police station in the South Loop area. Some still had numbers, written with black markers, on their hands from police processing. Some had red marks on their wrists from the handcuffs or plastic ties used as restraints.

They also had the phone number of a lawyer they had been instructed to call if they ran into trouble.

Tim Aumiller, 22, of Lincoln Square, said he was asked by organizers if he was "ready to get arrested."

"So we said 'yes,'" he said after being released.

For some, the arrest was a badge of honor, a price to be paid for standing up for what they believe in. Others said it solidified the movement.

"It felt very good," Vince Perritano, 26, an Iraq War veteran from Hoffman Estates, said after his release from custody. "I felt like we were joining the ranks of Martin Luther King."

Cathy Russell, known as Sugar, 33, of Avondale, said it was a bonding moment. "I am expecting to be arrested every time I protest," she said.

And on her Facebook page she wrote: "BEST PARTY I HAVE EVER BEEN TO!!!"

Tribune reporters Dawn Rhodes, Hal Dardick, Jeremy Gorner and Ryan Haggerty contributed.

Young cancer patient pampered with makeover, photo shoot

Four-year-old Carli Highberger has always dreamed of being a princess, but the fantasy faded this summer when her shoulder-length blonde locks started falling out in clumps.

Even with a trim to hide the hair loss, the young cancer patient from Lombard didn’t think she could be royalty anymore. So she asked to shave her head and her parents agreed.

“Having her hair cut short is not what a princess has,” said her mother, Andrea Highberger.

But a non-profit organization was determined to make her dream come true. Carli, along with her parents and 6-year-old brother Ethan, were treated to a complimentary makeover and a black-and-white photo shoot Oct. 11 by Flashes of Hope Photography at Advocate Lutheran General Hospital in Park Ridge.

Carli Highberger and her brother Ethan pose for a photo. (Proto provided by Ann Latinovich Photography)

With the help of some light blush, purple lip gloss and her trusty purple princess hat, Carli resembled a modern-day Cinderella as she posed for portraits and played with her brother. A team of makeup artists and a photographer also pampered and shot photos of other cancer patients and their families for free that day.

Carli was diagnosed with lymphoblastic lymphoma in July after her family noticed she had a swollen face and neck. Within days, she began intense chemotherapy treatments that made her weak, and later caused her hair to become unhealthy and fall out.

The young girl handled the news well, her parents said.

In the beginning, Carli could barely move because she was hooked up to so many monitors. A picture book helped explain how blood transfusions, ports and medication will help. It eased her fears.

“She didn’t even cry,” her mother said. “I had more tears than she did.”

Now in her second phase of treatment, Carli visits the Park Ridge-based hospital once a week for chemotherapy. The bubbly child shuts down when she nears the clinic in the Children’s Hospital, often because she dreads the cancer-fighting process.

Carli has about two years left of treatment and doctors are optimistic the bad blood cells will disappear, family said. So far, the cancerous mass  found inside her body has shrunk and is no longer visible. Though her parents worry she might relapse, they try and make her life as routine as possible.

Some days she sings and dances but at times she feels different knowing she has cancer.

“I think she’s anxious to be normal,” said her mother. “I think she feels different and she’s anxious to not feel different anymore.”

Create Card-Free Rewards Programs with Apps

Cardboard punch cards and laminated key-ring tags are so yesteryear. This batch of apps allows customers to ditch the cards and keep track of their loyalty and purchase-based rewards programs on their smartphones. If your business has such programs in place, take a look at how these apps can help you manage them.
CaptureCode: Merchant functions of this sales-tracking app integrate with social media and many point-of-sale systems to help you get more customers and track their buying habits. Using that information, promotions can then be tailored to individuals specifically. Available for iPhone and Android.


CardStarCardStar: Aggregate offers and track sales habits of individuals. A simple online sign-up gives customers access to information about your business, including contacts, store locators and mobile coupons. Design incentive programs and communicate information that's important to consumers, like product recalls. Available for iPhone, Android, BlackBerry and some Windows and Nokia phones.


Key RingKey Ring: With this app, customers scan all their cards into their smartphones and sync cards among family members, and merchants customize offers and promotions to users. Consumers can join the Key Ring Rx Savings program for discounts on prescription drugs. The free app is available for iPhone, Android, Windows 7 and BlackBerry.

Sympathy for an Assassin: The Worrisome Protests in Pakistan

It isn't hard to find the home of Pakistan's most famous killer. At every corner in this maze of tightly packed streets, mere miles from the army's headquarters, taxi drivers and street vendors readily gesture toward the birthplace of Mumtaz Qadri, the police bodyguard who, nine months ago, pumped 27 bullets into Salmaan Taseer, the Governor of Punjab. Taseer had opposed the country's blasphemy laws, which were, in turn, championed by religious conservatives like Qadri. Along the way, banners hanging from electricity pylons hail the "bravery" and "greatness" of the assassin many in Pakistan chillingly regard as a "hero of Islam."

Nowhere is this status plainer than outside the crowded, 32-room, multi-storey compound where Qadri lived with his wife, now one-year-old son, and 70 other relatives. Vast billboards are mounted on the side, depicting him as a holy warrior astride a white horse. A poster declares the 27-year-old "the Prophet's policeman." Graffiti daubed on a nearby wall salutes him as a ghazi, a title conferred on famed warriors in Islamic history. And in the narrow street, hundreds were gathered to march for his release from prison. While the crowds were not as huge as those that came out to support Qadri when he arrested, their persistence and the wide acceptance of their intolerant attitudes continues to be a worrisome omen. (See "Pakistan's Police and Army: How Many Enemies Within?")

"O, ghazi, when you are taken up to meet the lord," declaims a thickly bearded man with moist eyes and a faint quiver in his voice, "please don't forget about us poor, sinning folk down here!" The crowd around him says they fear Qadri will soon be hanged. Last week, a local terrorism court handed down a death sentence for the self-confessed crime. ("This is the punishment for a blasphemer," Qadri had boasted from the back of a police wagon, smiling sinisterly at cameras, shortly after his arrest.) The judge, Pervez Ali Shah, has since been forced into hiding after extremists last week bayed for his blood. Hefty rewards were offered for a third assassination of its kind this year. In March, two months after Taseer's slaying, Shahbaz Bhatti, the Minorities Minister and the only Christian member of the cabinet was gunned down outside his mother's home in Islamabad.

For Qadri's supporters, any suggestion that Pakistan's blasphemy laws should be amended or repealed is an invitation to murder. "Salmaan Taseer's act was not according to Islam," says Fayaz ul Hassan Chauhan, a former provincial legislator now whipping up the protests. "It was the responsibility of the government to take action. It didn't... So Mumtaz Qadri's act is 100% according to Islam," he adds with a tone of triumph. The blasphemy laws, as human rights campaigners point out, are vaguely worded and often invoked as tools of social coercion. On little or no evidence, the targets of personal vendettas and members of religious minorities are hurled into dark prison cells from where they risk never emerging. (See "The Martyrdom of Pakistan's Advocate of Tolerance.")

Since Taseer's slaying, the blasphemy laws have been put to increasing use. Last month, an eighth grade schoolgirl was beaten and expelled for a mere spelling error. Instead of writing the Urdu word for "hymn," she mistakenly added what appeared to be an extra letter, rendering the word to mean, "curse." She narrowly evaded prosecution. A week later, a madrassa student was arrested for allegedly torching pages from the Koran. Ironically, he had set out to save the torn pages from desecration, and burnt them according to a traditional practice. He was beset by a mob. Some blame the state for this trend. After Taseer's murder, the government capitulated, with many ministers breathlessly vowing never to touch the blasphemy laws. "The government's reaction has been one of appeasement rather than holding people accountable," says Ali Dayan Hasan of Human Rights Watch. "This has promoted a culture of vigilantism. It shows the ethical degradation of state and society that these practices are now acceptable."

As the marchers set out from Qadri's home, they are joined by thickening crowds. The shops are shuttered after local merchants united to call a sympathetic strike. The Friday bazaar has emptied out into the demonstration. Striding out front are bearded men, with tightly wrapped turbans or white skullcaps. Some are clasping sticks. One man carries a rare, black baseball bat. The bulk of the several thousand men who have managed to occupy Islamabad's main highway are ordinary men, who evince no marks of zealotry. That is the most worrying sign of the blasphemy controversy: how many members of mainstream Pakistan have come to accept, or even approve of, Qadri's murderous act.

When the smiling slayer was sentenced last week, the judge won little public support. "Nobody's standing up for this judgment," laments prominent lawyer Babar Sattar. "Everyone's scared. No one wants to support it because they fear they will become marked men." The silence, contrasted with the howls of protest in support of Qadri, could intimidate the next judge who will hear the case on appeal. "The judge who gets assigned the case will be very nervous," adds Sattar. There are grim precedents. Two judges have been killed after ruling in favor of accused blasphemers. (See how the murder of Salmaan Taseer is deepening the religious divide in Pakistan.)

While the blasphemy law's keenest champions have shown they have little patience for due process, law enforcement officials appear only to have displayed a dangerous indulgence for their behavior. On the highway from Rawalpindi to Islamabad, the police maintained a light and discreet presence. A day earlier, they also stood by as 5,000 supporters of a banned sectarian group gathered to chant bloodcurdling anti-Shi'ite slogans in the capital. And in Lahore on Friday, Lashkar-e-Taiba, the terrorist group blamed for the 2008 Mumbai massacre, swelled the ranks of the pro-Qadri protestors.

The sole mercy is that, despite the presence on the streets, the extremists' ranks appear to be smaller. Though the angry attitudes endure, their proponents could only summon a fraction of the numbers they paraded through Pakistan's streets in the aftermath of Taseer's martyrdom. But that will be of little consolation to the late governor's family. Shahbaz, the third of Taseer's four sons, was kidnapped 44 days ago from near their home in Lahore. The abductors still have made not announced their identities or asked for ransom. A senior Punjab police official has told Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani that Shahbaz may be in the hands of militants in Waziristan. And so, while the murderer's family are cheered through the streets, the victim's family remain confined to an emptier home, still hoping for justice.

LAST BLAST OF SUMMER SUNSHINE

AFTER the weekend’s heatwave, the plunge in temperature probably had you scrabbling for extra layers of ­clothing – but Britain’s topsy-turvy weather isn’t finished yet.
hat’s because – wait for it – we are set to enjoy one last blast of balmy Indian summer sunshine next week.

Forecasters said yesterday that parts of the country could see the mercury rise to 73F (23C), well above the 55F average for the time of year.

But, typical of this year’s bizarre climate, it comes as the UK gears up to be battered by gale-force winds today.

A nasty cold snap and even the first snows are also on the way.

Confused? Then spare a thought for Mother Nature. Twin Jacob “spring” lambs have arrived five months early at Keith Saunders farm in Linthwaite, West Yorks.

Mr Saunders said: “I have never seen this before, it is incredibly ­unusual.

“I also have another three heavily pregnant ewes who could give birth very shortly.”
Elsewhere, flowers normally expected to blossom in spring have been bursting into bloom this autumn.

The Royal Horticultural Society said strawberries and rhododendrons were among the plants blooming at its Wisley Garden in Surrey.

Jonathan Powell, of Positive Weather Solutions, said the South, South-east and East will enjoy the best of next week’s new heatwave.

“The high pressure that gave us such good weather is still languishing over the continent, but it is pushing back into the UK,” he explained.

“It is certainly going to be balmy with some above average temperatures.”

* News * UK news * Ministry of Defence Britain's nuclear spending soars amid defence cuts

Government spending on Britain's nuclear weapons programme is defying the swingeing budget cuts being experienced across Whitehall.

As the Ministry of Defence cuts frontline positions in the military, a previously confidential report reveals that the taxpayer is committed to paying almost £750m for the construction of a new enriched-uranium facility at the Atomic Weapons Establishment in Berkshire.

The 32-page MoD report, Defence Equipment & Support … UK Enriched Uranium (EU) Capability Investment Appraisal, spells out the taxpayer's commitment to funding Project Pegasus, which will replace the enriched-uranium facility built at the site in the 1950s.

The report, marked "Secret UK Eyes Only", was published in heavily redacted form earlier this year following freedom of information requests. The Information Commissioner recently ruled that the redaction, hiding the full £747m investment cost of the project, should now be made public.

The huge sum, signed off with little parliamentary scrutiny, has raised questions over the accountability of AWE to the taxpayer and the MoD's priorities. Last week, after announcing that 1,100 naval positions would but cut, the defence secretary Liam Fox attacked how the previous government had run the MoD, allowing "a department of that size to operate without controls on its spending". However, while all armed forces are suffering cuts, the UK's nuclear weapons programme is benefiting from significant increases in spending, even before the government makes a decision on replacing Trident, the ballistic nuclear missile system.

The investment in AWE will benefit AWE Management, the private-sector consortium that has a 25-year non-revokable contract to run the base and comprises US operators Lockheed Martin and Jacobs and the UK's Serco.

The money being spent on Project Pegasus is in addition to the £500m allocated for Project Mensa at nearby AWE Burghfield that will improve its warhead assembly facilities. But there are concerns about how the money is being spent. The MoD's annual report recently revealed that the government has written off £120m spent on Project Hydrus, a plan to build a new hydrodynamics research facility at AWE Aldermaston. The project received planning permission in September 2010 but was cancelled shortly afterwards when the UK and France signed a joint treaty to construct a shared research facility.

The accounts also revealed that the MoD has written off a further £16m following cancellation of a project to construct a "Systems Engineering Facility". Total expenditure at AWE between 2008 and 2011 is about £2.6bn.

The MoD believes the reinvestment programme at AWE is vital to maintain the safety and effectiveness of the current Trident warhead stockpile without recourse to nuclear testing, in compliance with the comprehensive nuclear test ban treaty.

But the costs associated with the various construction projects give an insight into the scale of the "behind the scenes" spending that will be needed to replace Trident.

The initial business case for Trident, published by the government earlier this year, gave a price for replacing the submarines of £25bn. But this does not include the costs of paying for the missiles, warheads, infrastructure or decommissioning costs. Neither does it include the continuing year-on-year costs of operating the system. Greenpeace estimates a "cradle-to-grave" operating cost for the Trident replacement project of £97bn. MoD spending on "big ticket" items came in for criticism last week by the respected defence thinktank, Rusi. It warned that there continues to be a risk the MoD's budget plans could be "blown off course" if the cost of major programmes increases more sharply than planned.

"The costs of major projects remain a major source of potential instability, with particular concerns over the looming costs of Trident renewal," the report's author, Professor Malcolm Chalmers, claimed. "Pressures to bear down on unit costs will continue to be difficult to reconcile with a diminishing number of front-line capabilities, each of which involves significant overhead expenditure."

Peter Burt of the Nuclear Information Service said the huge sums being spent on secretive projects at AWE bases should be a concern to the taxpayer: "The inescapable conclusion is that the Atomic Weapons Establishment has not been delivering value for money to taxpayers in years past."

But an MoD spokeswoman defended the investment at AWE: "This funding, which includes Project Pegasus, was announced six years ago and will ensure we maintain our commitment to providing our vital nuclear deterrent. It is necessary to invest in the facilities at AWE, which will provide assurance that the existing Trident warhead stockpile is reliable and safe."