Sweden is to take the biggest energy step of any advanced western economy by trying to wean itself off oil completely within 15 years — without building a new generation of nuclear power stations. The attempt is being planned by a committee of industrialists, academics, farmers, car makers, civil servants and others, who will report to Parliament in several months.

The acting Israeli Prime Minister, Ehud Olmert, said on Tuesday that he plans to annex the Jordan Valley and major Jewish settlement blocks to Israel in drawing new borders, according to a television station that recorded an interview with him. Channel 2 television said that he made clear he intends to carry through his predecessor’s vision of creating an emasculated Palestinian state on Israel’s terms.

It is called the CSI effect and it is being taken seriously by police officers and prosecutors across the country. Murderers are getting better at covering their tracks, by watching the hit television series CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, in which police forensics experts track down killers with state of the art equipment.

Feuding leaders of Zimbabwe’s main opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) party on Tuesday momentarily forgot their differences to reject unanimously claims by South African President Thabo Mbeki that they had agreed on a new Constitution with the ruling Zanu-PF party two years ago.

To real enthusiasts — they call themselves transhumanists — humanity is on the point of being liberated from its biology. They believe that humans are on the brink of a huge leap in development, leaving behind the sick, weak, fallible creatures we have been up to now. We will be, as their slogan goes, ”better than well”’.