Britain’s main opposition Conservatives are taking a commanding lead in the key seats they must gain to form a majority at the looming general election, a newspaper survey said on Saturday.

A YouGov poll for The Daily Telegraph put the Conservatives on 39 per cent, Prime Minister Gordon Brown’s governing Labour Party on 29 per cent and the Liberal Democrats on 19 per cent. If those figures were translated uniformly into seats in parliament’s lower House of Commons, the centre-right Conservatives would fall just short of a majority, which stands at 326 seats.

However, in 32 key northern English marginal seats held by Labour, the Conservatives lead the centre-left party by 42 per cent to 36 per cent — enough for all of them to fall into Conservative hands. The Conservatives need to hold all their seats and gain 117 more for a majority at the next general election, due by June.

British general elections are done on a first-past-the-post system. While commonplace in many other European countries, hung parliaments and coalition governments are rare in Britain. The Conservatives have been ploughing resources into the key marginal seats in a bid to help secure a majority. “A minority government, or the cobbling together of a coalition, would be a wretched result,” The Daily Telegraph said in its editorial.

“When marginal voters were reminded that their seat could decide the election, the Tory lead rose from six to eight points. “Many people assume their votes do not count — but, told that they can help change the government, they seize the opportunity with alacrity.”

Meanwhile, the new leader of the United Kingdom Independence Party, which advocates Britain’s withdrawal from the European Union, said UKIP offered not to stand against the Conservatives at the general election if they pledged to hold a referendum on the new Lisbon Treaty.

Agence France-Presse

Add President Obama and the first lady to the long list of people in the nation\'s capital mourning the death of Washington Wizards owner Abe Pollin.

Pollin, widely credited for revitalizing downtown DC, died Tuesday of complications from a rare brain disease.

The president said in a statement Wednesday that Pollin was \"a giant in the world of professional sports and someone I was proud to call a friend.

\"Abe was a man who knew that being an owner wasn\'t just about winning championships,\" said Obama, who took in a Wizards-Chicago Bulls game last season at the Verizon Center arena that Pollin built.

Courtesy : USAToday

President Barack Obama had a message for his political friends and foes late on Monday — “just because I’m skinny doesn’t mean I’m not tough.”

Obama was in Miami raising $1.5 million for Democratic congressional candidates for the 2010 elections, in which Democrats are seeking to hold onto their strong majorities in the House of Representatives and the Senate.

After weeks in which he has been angrily criticised by some on the right, to the point of creating a poster image of him with a Hitler mustache, Obama told a fund-raising event that some of his supporters have been expressing concern to him.

“I’ve tried to explain ... just because I’m skinny doesn’t mean I’m not tough. I don’t rattle. I’m not going to shrink back, because now is the time for us to continue to push and follow through on those things that we know have to be done but have not been done in decades,” he said.

And he had tough words for those Republican critics who he says are not helping solve some of the problems that festered when they were in control of the White House and Congress. “Lately I feel like somebody made a big mess and I’ve got my mop and I’m mopping the floor and the folks who made the mess are there (saying) ‘you’re not mopping fast enough. You’re not mopping the right way. It’s a socialist mop.’”

The president also used speeches at two Miami political events to contest the notion circulated by some political commentators and Republican critics that he has little show in the way of accomplishments during his nine months in office. He reeled off a string of legislative achievements, starting with the $787 billion economic stimulus he credited with helping stop the bleeding in the US economy.

Republicans, on the other hand, contend the spending has done little to restrain the 9.8 per cent US jobless rate. Among other items Obama listed: Lifting the Bush ban on using federal funds for stem cell research, signing legislation to ensure women gain equal pay as men for the same work, banning housing fraud, toughening credit card regulations and bringing the country close to a massive healthcare overhaul.

Abroad, Obama said he had put the United States on a path to getting US troops out of Iraq and is working on a new strategy for Afghanistan. “Here’s my main message to you. We’re just getting started,” he said.

More than one million people took to the streets of Madrid to condemn plans by Spain\'s socialist government to liberalise abortion laws
in the overwhelmingly Catholic country, organisers said.

In warm autumnal sunshine, protesters staged an early evening march across the city behind a huge banner reading \"Every Life Matters\" to protest the plan, which would allow girls of 16 to undergo abortions without their parents\' consent.

The crowd, which included many families and people of all ages, rallied in the central Plaza de Independencia, where pop music blared over loudspeakers and 300 white helium balloons were released yesterday.

\"The presence of each of you here today in this demonstration is a commitment to the fight for life,\" Benigno Blanco, the head of the Forum for the Family, one of the chief organisers, told the crowd.

\"Those of you who govern us must listen to the voice from the streets,\" he said.

A spokesman for another of the organisers, HazteOir (Make Yourself Heard), said 1.5 million people attended the march and rally, while the Madrid regional government estimated the crowd at 1.2 million.

Organisers said 600 buses and several planes were used to bring the supporters of 42 Spanish anti-abortion and Catholic associations to the capital for the protest, which is also backed by the conservative opposition Popular Party (PP) and the Roman Catholic Church.

Children should delay the start of formal schooling to the age of six, a year later than at present, the largest review of primary
education in England for 40 years recommended on Friday.

The 608-page Cambridge University study said introducing children at the age of five into the constraint and discipline of a classroom — a throwback to Victorian days — provided little benefit and could even be harmful.

“They are not going to learn to read, write and add up if you have alienated children by the age of four and five,” said Gillian Pugh, chairwoman of the Cambridge Primary Review’s advisory committee. “That’s the stage at which we are tuning children into learning ... If they are already failing by the time they are 4-1/2 or five, then it’s going to be quite difficult to get them back into the system again,” she added.

The government called the review “disappointing” and out of date. Although the authors of the report stopped short of recommending a rise in the starting age of compulsory schooling from five, they called for an “open debate” on the issue. They said children up to the age of six should instead be given the more informal, play-based education typically found in nurseries. It said England’s tradition of starting school at five, shared in Europe only by Wales, Scotland and the Netherlands, dated from the requirements of Victorian factory owners. Schooling starts at the age of six in 20 out of 34 European countries, with eight nations, including Sweden, waiting until children are seven.

The Cambridge review, based on three years’ research and 31 interim reports, found that primary schools in England were “in good heart and in general doing a good job”. But it found that more than a decade of central policy initiatives under three successive Labour governments had created a “state theory of learning”.

The study called for ministers to step back from trying to control classrooms from Whitehall. Teaching unions welcomed the review and criticised the government’s response.

WASHINGTON/OSLO (Reuters) - Barack Obama won the Nobel Peace Prize on Friday in a stunning decision that honored the first-year U.S. president more for promise than achievement and drew both praise and skepticism around the world.

The bestowal of one of the world\'s top accolades on Obama, who has yet to score a major foreign policy success after nearly nine months in office, was greeted with gasps from the audience at the announcement ceremony in Oslo.

Describing himself as surprised and deeply humbled, Obama said he would accept the award as a \"call to action\" to confront the global challenges of the 21st century.

\"I do not view it as a recognition of my own accomplishments but rather an affirmation of American leadership on behalf of aspirations held by people in all nations,\" he said in the White House Rose Garden.

The Norwegian Nobel Committee praised Obama for \"his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples,\" citing his fledgling push for nuclear disarmament and his outreach to the Muslim world.

Obama, a Democrat who took office as the first black U.S. president in January, has been widely credited with improving America\'s global image after the eight-year presidency of George W. Bush, who alienated both friends and foes with go-it-alone policies like the 2003 U.S.-led invasion of Iraq.

But critics called the Nobel committee\'s decision premature, given that Obama has achieved few tangible gains as he grapples with challenges ranging from the war in Afghanistan and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict to nuclear standoffs with Iran and North Korea.

Obama, told of the prize in a pre-dawn call from his press secretary, now also has the burden of living up to its expectations.

The president, who will travel to Oslo to receive the award on December 10, plans to donate the prize money of 10 million Swedish crowns -- roughly $1.4 million -- to charity, the White House said.

LITANY OF UNRESOLVED PROBLEMS

Obama, 48, has struggled with a litany of foreign policy problems bequeathed to him by Bush, while taking a more multilateral approach than his predecessor.

Obama acknowledged that while winning a prize dedicated to peace, he was commander-in-chief of a country in two wars. \"We have to confront the world as we know it,\" he said.

He won the award on the same day he was convening his war counsel to weigh whether to send thousands more troops to Afghanistan to turn the tide against a resurgent Taliban.

His troubles at home include a battered economy and a fierce debate over healthcare reform that have chipped away at his once-lofty approval ratings and a Republican opposition that has moved well past the honeymoon phase.

\"One thing is certain -- President Obama won\'t be receiving any awards from Americans for job creation, fiscal responsibility, or backing up rhetoric with concrete action.\" Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele said in a statement.

But Obama is still widely seen around the world as an inspirational figure.

\"Very rarely has a person to the same extent as Obama captured the world\'s attention and given its people hope for a better future,\" the Nobel committee said in its citation.

LAST SLAP FOR BUSH?

Some analysts saw it as a final slap in the face for Bush from the European establishment, which had resented what they saw as his arrogant \"cowboy diplomacy\" in world affairs.

U.S. State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley told reporters the prize could stimulate diplomacy.

\"We think that this gives us a sense of momentum when the United States has accolades tossed its way rather than shoes,\" he said.

Crowley\'s remark was an apparent reference to a December 2008 incident in which an Iraqi reporter hurled his shoes at Bush and called him a \"dog\" at news conference, both grave insults in the Arab World.

While the award won praise from statesmen such as Nelson Mandela, Mikhail Gorbachev and Jimmy Carter, all Nobel laureates, it was also attacked in some quarters as hasty and undeserved.

Afghanistan\'s Taliban mocked the award.

Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid, speaking to Reuters by telephone from an undisclosed location, said it was absurd to give a peace award to a man who had sent 21,000 extra troops to Afghanistan, and Obama \"should have won the \'Nobel Prize for escalating violence and killing civilians.\'\"

Despite declining U.S. public support for the war, Obama is considering a request for at least 40,000 more troops from his top commander, who says otherwise the mission could fail.

Nobel Committee Chairman Thorbjoern Jagland rejected suggestions from journalists that Obama was getting the prize too early. \"We hope this can contribute a little bit to enhance what he is trying to do,\" he told a news conference.

Obama is the fourth U.S. president to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize after Carter won in 2002, Woodrow Wilson picked it up in 1919 and Theodore Roosevelt was chosen for the 1906 prize.

TOO HASTY?

Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki called the award premature, but at the same time contrasted Obama with the Bush administration.

\"The decision in this connection was hasty and the granting of this prize was premature,\" Mottaki told the semi-official Mehr news agency. \"If this prize serves as an element of encouragement for the practical negation of the previous U.S. administration\'s war-mongering and unilateral policies with an orientation on a just peace we would not oppose it.\"

Liaqat Baluch, a senior leader of the Jamaat-e-Islami, a conservative religious party in Pakistan, called the award an embarrassing \"joke.\"

But chief Palestinian peace negotiator Saeb Erekat, expressed hope Obama would help achieve Middle East peace.

Lauding Obama, U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said, \"His commitment to work through the United Nations gives the world\'s people fresh hope and fresh prospects.\"

While many Americans voiced pride, some were puzzled.

\"It would be wonderful if I could think why he won,\" said Claire Sprague, 82, a retired English professor as she walked her dog in Manhattan\'s Greenwich Village. \"They wanted to give him an honor I guess, but I can\'t think what for.\"

Obama\'s former Republican presidential rival John McCain said Americans should be pleased for their president, but also insisted he now has \"even more to live up to.\"

The committee said it attached \"special importance to Obama\'s vision of and work for a world without nuclear weapons,\" saying he had \"created a new international climate.\"

On other pressing issues, Obama is still searching for breakthroughs on Iran\'s disputed nuclear program, on stalled Middle East peacemaking and the fight against climate change.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he looked forward to working with Obama on peace efforts, a day after Israel\'s foreign minister said there was no chance of a peace deal for many years.

One of America's pre-eminent political power couples made a rare joint appearance Friday, when Bill and Hillary Clinton took the stage at the former president's Clinton Global Initiative conference.

"I want to begin by expressing my extreme indebtedness to the Clinton Global Initiative, to all of you who participated, for giving me the first chance I have had in a week to see Hillary," Bill Clinton told the audience of social activists and business leaders at the closing session of CGI, a week-long conference designed to find solutions to global problems through public and private partnerships.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was at the session to unveil a new State Department initiative on food security.

As he introduced her, the former president was effusive in his praise for his wife, saying that her approach to food security -- helping farmers around the world grow their own food to earn income and alleviate poverty -- was much smarter than the decades-long policy of simply giving humanitarian aid and food to countries.

"Most of what I know about what I do today, I learned from her and she has become the best public servant our family has produced," he added. "I am very proud of her and honored that she came here."

Hillary Clinton, who received a standing ovation, had equally kind words for her husband.

"It won't surprise you to hear that I am very proud of my husband, and I think what he has invented and brought to life here is extraordinary," she said, adding that the new State Department food initiative, in part, was an idea she developed by seeing the kinds of partnerships the Clinton Global Initiative produced.

The Clintons posed for a photo-op with State Department officials and executives from General Mills and other organizations, who pledged at the conference to start a program to help farmers around the world.

And then, for fans of the former first couple, a rare treat. As she walked off the stage, Bill Clinton drew some more cheers when he gave his wife a kiss.

Bill Clinton continued to read off the million-dollar commitments he received at the conference for additional social programs. Hillary Clinton left to meet with 15 ministers from the Caribbean.

The White House said the address, set for Tuesday, and accompanying suggested lesson plans are simply meant to encourage students to study hard and stay in school.

Many conservative parents aren't buying it. They're convinced the president is going to use the opportunity to press a partisan political agenda on impressionable young minds.

"Thinking about my kids in school having to listen to that just really upsets me," suburban Colorado mother Shanneen Barron told CNN Denver affiliate KMGH. "I'm an American. They are Americans, and I don't feel that's OK. I feel very scared to be in this country with our leadership right now."

School administrators are caught in the middle of the controversy. Some have decided to show the president's speech, while others will not. Many, such as Wellesley, Massachusetts, superintendent Bella Wong, are deciding on a class-by-class basis, leaving the decision in the hands of individual teachers.

"The president of the United States has asked us to facilitate his outreach to students. And in that vein, we have decided to honor the request," Wong told CNN. "We'll trust in his judgment."

Republican leaders have not shied away from the debate. Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty, a possible contender for the GOP's 2012 presidential nomination, said Friday the classroom is no place to show a video address from Obama.

"At a minimum it's disruptive. Number two, it's uninvited. And number three, if people would like to hear his message they can, on a voluntary basis, go to YouTube or some other source and get it. I don't think he needs to force it upon the nation's school children," he told reporters at the Minnesota State fair.

Florida GOP Chairman Jim Greer released a statement this week accusing Obama of using taxpayer money to "indoctrinate" children.

"As the father of four children, I am absolutely appalled that taxpayer dollars are being used to spread President Obama's socialist ideology," Greer said.

"The idea that school children across our nation will be forced to watch the president justify his plans ... is not only infuriating, but goes against beliefs of the majority of Americans, while bypassing American parents through an invasive abuse of power."

Nonsense, the White House replied.

"The goal of the speech and the lesson plans is to challenge students to work hard, stay in school and dramatically reduce the dropout rate," an administration spokesman said. "This isn't a policy speech. It's a speech designed to encourage kids to stay in school."

White House officials noted that Obama's speech, which will be available for anyone to view on the Web on Monday, is not unprecedented. President George H.W. Bush delivered a nationally televised speech to students from a Washington D.C., school in the fall of 1991, encouraging them to say no to drugs and work hard.

In November 1988, President Ronald Reagan delivered more politically charged remarks that were made available to students nationwide. Among other things, Reagan called taxes "such a penalty on people that there's no incentive for them to prosper ... because they have to give so much to the government."

Charles Saylors, president of the national Parent Teacher Association, said the uproar over Obama's speech is "sad."

"The president of the United States, regardless of political affiliation, should be able to have a presentation and have a pep talk, if you will, to America's students," he told CNN.

Some of the controversy surrounding Obama's speech stems from a proposed lesson plan created by the Education Department to accompany the address. An initial version of the plan recommended that students draft letters to themselves discussing "what they can do to help the president."

The letters "would be collected and redistributed at an appropriate later date by the teacher to make students accountable to their goals," the plan stated.

After pressure from conservatives, the White House said that the plan was not artfully worded, and distributed a revised version encouraging students to write letters about how they can "achieve their short-term and long-term education goals."

A number of the president's critics, however, were not placated.

"As far as I'm concerned this is not civics education -- it gives the appearance of creating a cult of personality," said Oklahoma state Sen. Steve Russell, a Republican.

White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs dismissed the whole dispute Friday as part of "the silly season."

The administration, while acknowledging it made a mistake with the initial lesson plan, has been frustrated by the controversy, said CNN Senior White House Correspondent Ed Henry.

It was a much different atmosphere when Bush made similar remarks 18 years ago, Henry noted.

"Let's face it. You didn't really have blogs. You didn't have as many cable networks out there as you do now," Henry said. "I think people just sort of take something and blow it out of proportion in this environment right now."

The controversy is the latest example of how sharply polarized political debate has become.

"Ninety percent of Americans who identify with the president's party approve of him, but 85 percent of those who belong to the opposition party disapprove," said CNN Polling Director Keating Holland.

Is Being Single More Fun?Every time she hung out with her single female friends, the same gripes surfaced. Enough already with the how-to-snag-a-guy advice streaming from anyone and everyone as soon as status single was announced, they said.

Suddenly, Karin Anderson, Ph.D., assistant professor of psychology at Concordia University Chicago, found herself keeping track of what these single women were saying, replacing the strict academic research techniques she was used to with more informal polling.

What she found was a deluge of well-meaning advice being issued to singles that, while offered with the best of intentions, not only wasn't working but was making singles' skin crawl.

"The message to singles tends to be that they're doing something wrong, 'You're too this' or 'You're not enough that.' Being single is treated as this problem that needs to be solved," says Anderson. "That's really bogus. We should be telling single women, 'You're fine. There's nothing wrong. Enjoy your life.'"

These five snippets of well-meaning advice to singles top Anderson's list of worst offenses. Here's why.

1) What's Said: MAYBE YOU'RE NOT TRYING HARD ENOUGH.

What's Heard: "This can come off sounding like you're passing judgment on effort," says Anderson. "It's better to encourage a single person to explore new relationships to the extent they are comfortable and to extend themselves in ways that feel natural and not forced."

2) What's Said: WEAR MORE MAKEUP.

What's Heard: More than implying that the search for Mr. Right is as easy as brushing a spot of color onto the cheeks, this comment offends further by actually attacking a person's core identity. "A woman presents herself according to what she defines as meaningful. Whether her style is glamorous belle or au naturelle, every woman should be allowed to be herself. There's a man out there who is going to be attracted to her style, whatever it is. If she's presenting herself as anyone other than who she really is, that's false advertising and that's going to backfire."

3) What's Said: GET BACK OUT THERE!

What's Heard: This can send the signal that the single person is simply not doing enough speed or Internet or blind dating, or worse, that she isn't living a full enough life. "Singles are not by definition hiding out in their closets curled up in the fetal position all day," says Anderson. "Most are likely working, meeting friends out for dinner and events, working out."


4) What's Said: YOU'RE TOO PICKY.

What's Heard: This implies that at some point, a point that the single friend or loved one has reached, she is no longer allowed to be discriminating, says Anderson. "This sends single women the message that their time to be choosy is up, that it's now time to go out and pick up any chump."

5) What's Said: TONE IT DOWN A NOTCH.

What's Heard: You ask too many questions. You're too intimidating. You're overly opinionated. You're too consumed with work. "This is interpreted by single women to mean that they have to dial down their core identity a notch in order to attract potential suitors and make them feel comfortable," says Anderson. "Suggesting that a woman reduce the fullness of who she is to lure a mate will lead to an inauthentic connection, and is a recipe for a disastrous relationship or marriage. Because really, how long can any person fake it and maintain a facade?"

Property in upmarket suburbs in Australia is continuing to decline but the less popular locations are being boosted by an increased number of first time buyers.

While some analaysts are tracking the decline of the million dollar suburb as property values in some of the country's most prestigious areas slump, real estate owners in outer city areas are making massive gains, it is claimed.

Suburbs such as Mansfield Park and Ottoway, in Port Adelaide Enfield, and Caboolture, north of Brisbane, all had capital gains of more than 20% in the 12 months to May on properties selling for under $350,000, according to figures from RP Data.

Property sales in these areas have been boosted by the government's first home buyer grant which was due to end in June but has just been extended for a second time.

The grant will continue at its present level of $21,000 for new homes and $14,000 for existing homes until the end of September. It will then be stepped down to $14,000 for new homes and $10,500 for existing homes until the end of the year. From January 1 next year, the first-home buyer's grant will revert to its original level, which is $7000 for new and existing homes.

This will boost the lower end of the market even further. According to RP Data suburbs that have previously been unpopular are booming. Low interest rates and people opting for smaller mortgages and smaller homes are also adding to the boom in these locations, said analyst Cameron Kusher.

But the company's data shows the opposite effect at the other end of the market. In the last year there has been a slump in the number of suburbs with a median property price of $1 million or more.

In the year to February, the number of million-dollar suburbs slipped from 151 to 134, with New South Wales experiencing the greatest slump as eight of its suburbs dropped off the list.

'Not a lot of people are looking to spend $1 million on property at the moment. The people who do have that money to spend know that there are not a lot of people in that position, so they can take their time and look around,' said Kusher.

Perth suburbs recorded the greatest overall fall in value, with the six suburbs dropping off the list recording an average 26.4% plunge in value, the figures from RP Data shows.

The shift in property values was not typical of recessions, Kusher said. 'The million-plus market is something that has been sheltered from economic downturns previously. The shift we've seen in the past 12 months is a real change,' he added.