But he shifted blame for the misunderstanding onto Tony Blair, saying greater emphasis had been placed on the 45-minute claim because Mr Blair’s foreword to the dossier was “overtly political”.

Serbia’s ambassador to France, Dusan Batakovic, said the February 2008 independence declaration challenged his country’s sovereignty and undermined international law by breaching U.N. Security Council resolutions that set up a U.N.-backed provisional administration in Kosovo.

Batakovic was speaking on the first morning of nine days of hearings on the legality of Kosovo’s independence.

Kosovo is expected to argue later Tuesday it was never part of Serbia, but Batakovic cast the ethnic Albanian-dominated region as Serb heartland.

The 15 judges are being asked to render their legal opinion on the validity of Pristina’s declaration, which has been recognized by 63 countries but not by the Security Council. The opinion has no binding effect, but other countries with potential breakaway regions, like the Basque district of Spain, are closely watching the outcome.

Another of Serbia’s lawyers, Malcolm Shaw, said recognition by other nations was irrelevant.

“What is illegal cannot subsequently be rendered legal by the action of third parties,” he told the judges.

Many Zimbabweans hoping to start a new life in the continent’s economic powerhouse find themselves without shelter, employment and access to basic services. In addition, they often become the target of the hostility of locals who don’t fancy waves of newcomers in a country plagued by chronic unemployment.

As the regional power, South Africa carries a double responsibility: It must ensure that Zimbabwean migrants are treated fairly here but it must also pressure its northern neighbor to resolve its ongoing political and economic crisis. U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said as much when she visited South Africa in early August.

“South Africa is very aware of the challenges posed by the political crisis in Zimbabwe because South Africa has 3 million refugees from Zimbabwe,” said Clinton.

The quote comes from Tom Fletcher, Brown’s private secretary, who tells the FT that he heard the French president tell Brown at the height of the crisis:

You know, Gordon, I should not like you. You are Scottish, we have nothing in common and you are an economist. But somehow, Gordon, I love you ... But not in a sexual way.

The whole piece is headlined “His finest moment”. The phrase comes from a quote in the final paragraph, which is also worth repeating because it contains what may turn out to be the most apposite verdict on the whole affair.

He’s the son of middle-class, college-educated engineers; he studied at a good university and became a truck sales manager in Moscow. He’s also a 28-year-old heroin addict.

In the years since the U.S.-led invasion of Afghanistan triggered a sharp increase in poppy cultivation, Russia has been flooded with heroin. The drug has crept along a trail stretching from Afghanistan through Tajikistan and other Central Asian nations and over the Russian border, turning this country into the world’s top consumer of heroin, the government says.

The drug has spread like fire through a country uniquely unqualified to cope with its dangers: Narcotics were largely absent during Soviet times, and most people are still unaware of the risk of heroin addiction, even as an estimated 83 Russians a day die by overdosing on the drug, government figures show.

A book published by a prominent Church group invites those setting out on married life to recite the specially-composed Prayer Before Making Love.

It is aimed at ‘purifying their intentions’ so that the act is not about selfishness or hedonism.

But rarely is it so clear what that cost is. Residents of an affluent suburb in Southampton have decided to pay £3.15 a week to fund a private security force to patrol the streets.

Hundreds of residents who have ‘lost faith in the police force’ have clubbed together to hire the private team of uniformed officers to protect them from crime in the area.

The fire broke out around 8 p.m. (1800 GMT) Thursday and quickly sent thick, black smoke through the sprawling facility where some 100 retirees receive care.

Officials said the fire was likely accidental.

“A piece of equipment overheated or imploded and very quickly there was dense smoke everywhere,” said city alderman Frederik De Buck.

Most of the retirees on the wing where the fire broke out were already asleep, with their doors open on a day that temperatures topped 30 degree Celsius (85 degrees Fahrenheit). Only a few on the wing who were still awake were able to get outside in time, De Buck said.

Part of the barracks facade collapsed into the street when the bomb went off around 4.30 a.m. (10:30 p.m. EDT). A spokeswoman for the Civil Guard, Spain’s paramilitary police force, said the attack was probably carried out by Basque separatist rebels ETA.

Most of the injuries were cuts and bruises and no one was in serious condition, although 38 had been transferred to hospital in the historic cathedral town, according to the emergency services spokesman.

“All the windows are broken. It’s very damaged so it’s almost a miracle no one was hurt more seriously,” he said, adding that the barracks had been evacuated and fire fighters were going through the building.

“There is no other capital city in peacetime Europe that is being subjected to such devastation for the sake of earning a fast megabuck,” the Moscow Architecture Preservation Society stated in its report. The authors said that hundreds of important buildings – from 19th-century palaces to masterpieces of Stalinist architecture – were being neglected or demolished.