The European Union has called on Israel to scrap plans to build new settlements in the West Bank, saying the settlements are 'illegal'. The EU foreign ministers in a meeting in Stockholm on Saturday called on Israel to halt expansion of its settlements. The Swedish presidency of the EU strongly criticized Israel over its refusal to heed international concerns regarding the expansion of settlements in the occupied West Bank. Swedish Foreign Minister Carl Bildt said Europe had "very strong support for the American approach, notably regarding the settlements. They're illegal; they are an impediment to the peace process." ...Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said he will consider a construction moratorium "for a few months" as demanded by Washington only after the green light is given to build hundreds of new homes in the occupied Palestinian territories in the West Bank.

The operation to free the journalist Stephen Farrell was enmeshed in controversy and recrimination last night as Gordon Brown appeared to distance himself from ordering the rescue bid which ended in British and Afghan deaths. Now the father of Sultan Munadi, the Afghan colleague of Mr Farrell who was killed in the raid, has demanded to know why ongoing negotiations, which he believes could have led to a peaceful outcome, were abandoned in favour of a military strike. Karban Mohammed told The Independent that his son had called him 90 minutes before he was shot to say he was confident that he and Mr Farrell would soon be freed by the Taliban fighters holding them. In the 15-minute telephone call Mr Munadi reassured his family that talks were going well and the likely timing of the release would be when the mourning period was over for the 100 or so people killed in last week's Nato air strikes on hijacked tankers.....On Wednesday, Gordon Brown had basked in the limelight, making a public statement soon after the operation. By yesterday, as anger grew, Downing Street was in contortions, first insisting that the Prime Minister was merely "consulted" over the decision to launch the operation. ....Mr Mohammed, a man of quiet dignity, repeated the question he had been asking himself for the last day. "Why did they do this? Why did the military not wait for the talks? It is not just my son who died, there were others, a young British soldier I am told. His parents must be feeling very sad as well, please send them my sympathy. We are very unhappy about how this was done, they have shown no feeling for us. We would just like an explanation, we deserve an explanation." That explanation has not been forthcoming from Nato, or the Afghan government, or the UN. It is unclear who took the final decision to press General Stanley McChrystal, the US commander of Nato forces in the country, to mount the raid. ....But, among many Afghans, there is a feeling that Afghan lives don't count for as much as Western ones. They point out that while Mr Farrell was whisked to safety, Mr Munadi's body was left abandoned on the ground, to be found by the householder, Mohammed Nabi, who says his sister-in-law was among those killed. Fazul Rahim, an Afghan producer for the American network CBS News, said the foreign forces' actions showed a lack of respect. "It shows a double standard between a foreign life and an Afghan life," he said. Naqibullah Taib, of the Afghan Independent Journalists' Association, called on foreign news organisations to do more for the safety of local staff.

Despite the current clamor for loans, business owners would do well to remember that money is not the mother of invention. On the contrary, capital constraints often spur innovation. Historically, scarce capital has forced many businesses that were founded during downturns -- such as HP (HPQ, Fortune 500), which debuted in 1939 during the Great Depression, and FedEx (FDX, Fortune 500), launched in the oil crisis of 1973 -- to eschew debt and remain agile.....Small business owners should do as much as they can without relying on other people's money, recommends Jim Anderson, an Orange County, Calif. counselor for SCORE, a national nonprofit organization that teams successful small business owners with entrepreneurs who are seeking advice. "People who self-finance generally don't become sloppy," he says. "There is a tendency for people who have borrowed a big chunk of money to relax."....... Some entrepreneurs can take on loans without losing their innovative edge, particularly if they're armed with specific plans for spending the cash and generating enough revenue to pay it back. For everyone else, the era of lazy borrowing is over....In the end, a loan is a debt, not an excuse to let your hair down and party. Note to Wall Street: That advice isn't just for entrepreneurs.

Fast food giant McDonald's today lost an eight-year trademark battle against a Malaysian curry restaurant after the country's highest court allowed the latter to use the prefix 'Mc'. ... McCurry, which is short for "Malaysian Chicken Curry", serves Malaysian staples including fish head curry, according to the company website (www.mccurryrecipe.com ). "We feel great that this eight-year legal battle is finally over, and we can now go ahead with whatever we plan to do such as opening new branches," McCurry owner P. Suppiah told Reuters after the court decision. McDonald's, which has 185 outlets in Malaysia, first sued the curry restaurant in 2001 and a High Court ruled in favour of the international fast food chain in 2006. McCurry then took the matter up to the Court of Appeal, which ruled in favour of the Malaysian restaurant. McDonald's subsequently took the matter to the Federal Court. The McDonald's operation in this country of 27 million people is run as a franchise by prominent businessman Vincent Tan.