from Fan Fare:

Ringo Starr gets his Hollywood star at low-wattage ceremony

If the stars come out at night, they failed to illuminate Ringo Starr's Hollywood Walk of Fame induction ceremony on Monday, the first time a star has been unveiled at night.

A surprisingly low-wattage assortment of celebrities showed up to see the former Beatles drummer get his star outside the Capitol Records building, most of them holdovers from Roy Orbison's ceremony 10 days ago such as Joe Walsh, Jeff Lynne, David Lynch, Eric Idle and Barbara Orbison. 

Walsh, who recently became Starr's brother-in-law, addressed the 500-or-so fans, as did producer Don Was and folk musician Ben Harper (pictured at left with Was, Starr, Walsh and Starr's wife Barbara Bach). A chorus of loud boos greeted Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, who stood in front of the press photographers after they had finished snapping him. 

When George Harrison got his star last year, Paul McCartney, Tom Hanks and Tom Petty topped the crowded VIP list. But McCartney was in England on Monday, Starr told the crowd, in between frequent flashes of the peace sign. Hollywood was represented this time by, er, "ER" veteran Noah Wyle.

from Ask...:

Would you buy a Toyota?

With Toyota preparing a global recall of its new Prius and rolling out a fix to eight other models with a brake problem, the world's largest automaker has its work cut out to regain the confidence of consumers.

The company has already reported a 16 percent sales drop for January, allowing Ford and GM to surge past it in the U.S. market. And the news has only got worse for Toyota this month.

So we're curious: who would buy a Toyota right now? Take our polls and leave us a comment. If you're sticking with the brand, tell us why.

from Global News Journal:

Cometh the hour, cometh Van Rompuy?

Three months ago, Herman van Rompuy might have struggled to be recognised on the streets of his native Belgium, let alone Paris or London. The bookish former prime minister, a fan of camping holidays and Haiku poetry, was nothing if not low-key; a studious consensus builder in the world of Belgian politics.

Three months on and Van Rompuy, 62, may not outwardly have changed much, but his title and the expectations surrounding him certainly have. In November he was chosen to be the first permanent president of the European Council, the body that represents the EU's 27 leaders, and on Thursday he will host those heads of state and government at an economic summit in Brussels -- the first such gathering he has chaired.

With Greece under extreme pressure with its mounting deficit and debt problems, and Portugal, Spain and Italy threatening to go the same way, the summit comes at a critical time. It is perhaps the most serious test of Europe's monetary union since the euro single currency was introduced 11 years ago.

"Cometh the hour, cometh the man", some might say, even if one wonders whether Van Rompuy would have been the first name on most European leaders' lips at such a pressing time.  But Van Rompuy it is, and he has his work cut out if he is going to seize the moment and tackle one of the EU's biggest problems.

Closer ties, but different political colours

Second only to body language, the colour of a politician’s tie can speak volumes.

Northern Ireland’s political leaders are particularly careful about the message they send out in a community in which green represents the mostly Roman Catholic aspiration for a united Ireland and orange symbolises centuries of Protestant affinity to British rule.

The atmosphere of good humour and relief that accompanied a deal to devolve all-important police and justice powers to Belfast was not quite enough to persuade the rival parties to switch sartorial allegiances.

Northern Ireland’s Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness of nationalist party Sinn Fein began his address to a crowded news conference with a speech in Irish.

Climate scientists seek to calm storm of doubt

If the scientific evidence for manmade global warming is so compelling, why do so many people still have their doubts?

Why do politicians and the media often discuss global warming with such certainty, ignoring the scientists’ carefully worded caveats?

And how much harder will it be to persuade the sceptics after the uproar over whether scientists exaggerated unreliable evidence or colluded to withhold information to strengthen their case?

Those tricky questions were raised at a sometimes fractious news conference in London to discuss the future of climate science.

Hoping for a vibrant London 2012 legacy

Mud and concrete do not make an inspiring sight on a grey February day. We are told the London 2012 Olympics will be a great colourful event as well as the biggest sporting show on earth, but perhaps its construction site is best seen on a sunny afternoon. 

Entering from the north, the first thing that comes into view is the concrete carpark put aside for the 20,000 reporters and broadcasters who are expected to be covering the Games. You then see the warehouse where they will work – a giant grey shed. Apparently it will be so big you could fit five jumbo jets side-by-side. That’s a lot of grey.

Last year, the Olympic panel of the government’s design advisers CABE initially refused to support the proposed designs for the International Broadcast Centre/Main Press Centre (IBC/MPC) complaining about  a “paucity of imagination” and a ”large monolithic block”.

Work then followed on the external appearance, and bright blocks of colour will go up on part of the building. 

from Left field:

What are the odds on getting the Six Nations winner right?

Picking the winner of the Six Nations championship is always a tricky task as the vagaries of form and the fixture list ensure that no two seasons are the same.

France, who finished third last season, are rated 6/4 favourites by Ladbrokes while grand slam champions Ireland are only second-best at 9/4.

Wales, who had their own clean sweep in 2008, are considered a pretty long shot at 5-1 while England, who they have beaten three times in a row, are above them at 9/4.

from Global News Journal:

Does Washington care about the EU?

Try as it might, the European Union's efforts to act like a bigger player in world affairs keep running into obstacles.

The latest setback is a report that President Barack Obama won't be able to make it to the annual EU-U.S. summit this year, pencilled in for Madrid in May. A hectic domestic agenda and the fact the U.S. president made 10 foreign trips last year -- more than any other president in his first year in office -- means staying at home is the priority and the Europe Union will have to wait.

President Obama, apparently not pointing in Europe's direction

Spanish officials -- Spain holds the rotating six-month presidency of the EU and is hosting the summit -- say the White House has not officially withdrawn his attendance. As far as they are concerned Obama is still coming, even if the dates for the meeting have not yet been finalised. 

from Pakistan: Now or Never?:

In Afghanistan: fighting over the terms of a settlement

At last week's London conference, two of the great truisms of warfare punched their way to the surface. The first is that wars are fought as much on the home front as on the battlefield. With public support for the war in Afghanistan ebbing away, the United States and its allies in NATO have shifted from seeking outright victory to looking for an exit strategy that will allow them to start bringing home their troops next year.  Rather as the British did after their two failed invasions of Afghanistan in the 19th century, they are sending in reinforcements in a display of military might which they hope will secure better terms in an eventual settlement.

The other truism is that if you can't win outright victory on the battlefield, then you have to negotiate with your enemies. President Hamid Karzai set the ball rolling by announcing he would hold a peace council to which, according to an Afghan government spokesman, the Taliban leadership would be invited.  Karzai has made such suggestions before, and it is by no means clear the Taliban leadership will send representatives. What was different this time, however, was the context.  Karzai's suggestion no longer met with the same resistance from war-weary governments, who stressed that it was up to the Afghans themselves to lead the process of reconciliation.  He also coupled his call for a peace council with an appeal to Saudi Arabia and Pakistan to bring peace to Afghanistan. Saudi Arabia is a trusted interlocutor between the Afghan government and the Taliban leadership; Pakistan is the only country which still has some measure of leverage over them. Thus Karzai's call for a loya jirga, though not dramatic in itself, became emblematic of a broader shift towards seeking a political settlement to end the war.

What happens now is so complicated and so delicate, that no one can predict the outcome. Just as western governments have little clear idea about who might buy into a political settlement and on what terms, nor do the insurgents themselves. Contacts with various insurgent groups are expected to follow many  different tracks,  so that everyone -- on all sides -- is going to be watching what everyone else does to try to maximise their advantage.

The warlord Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, whose men play a powerful role in the insurgency in eastern Afghanistan, has shown some signs of flexibility, according to the Wall Street Journal. In a video leaked to the WSJ, he said that "we have no agreement with the Taliban - not for fighting the war, and not for the peace."

from Left field:

Federer beats Murray in Australian Open final — how it happened

Roger Federer's stunning victory over Andy Murray ... as it happened.