Rare New Year's Eve PBlue Moon" To Ring In 2010

By ALICIA CHANG, AP Science Writer Alicia Chang, Ap Science Writer – Tue Dec 29, 7:03 pm ET

LOS ANGELES – Once in a blue moon there is one on New Year's Eve. Revelers ringing in 2010 will be treated to a so-called blue moon. According to popular definition, a blue moon is the second full moon in a month. But don't expect it to be blue — the name has nothing to do with the color of our closest celestial neighbor.
A full moon occurred on Dec. 2. It will appear again on Thursday in time for the New Year's countdown.

"If you're in Times Square, you'll see the full moon right above you. It's going to be that brilliant," said Jack Horkheimer, director emeritus of the Miami Space Transit Planetarium and host of a weekly astronomy TV show.
The New Year's Eve blue moon will be visible in the United States, Canada, Europe, South America and Africa. For partygoers in Australia and Asia, the full moon does not show up until New Year's Day, making January a blue moon month for them.
However, the Eastern Hemisphere can celebrate with a partial lunar eclipse on New Year's Eve when part of the moon enters the Earth's shadow. The eclipse will not be visible in the Americas.

A full moon occurs every 29.5 days, and most years have 12. On average, an extra full moon in a month — a blue moon — occurs every 2.5 years. The last time there was a lunar double take was in May 2007. New Year's Eve blue moons are rarer, occurring every 19 years. The last time was in 1990; the next one won't come again until 2028.
Blue moons have no astronomical significance, said Greg Laughlin, an astronomer at the University of California, Santa Cruz.
"`Blue moon' is just a name in the same sense as a `hunter's moon' or a `harvest moon,'" Laughlin said in an e-mail.

The popular definition of blue moon came about after a writer for Sky & Telescope magazine in 1946 misinterpreted the Maine Farmer's Almanac and labeled a blue moon as the second full moon in a month. In fact, the almanac defined a blue moon as the third full moon in a season with four full moons, not the usual three.
Though Sky & Telescope corrected the error decades later, the definition caught on. For purists, however, this New Year's Eve full moon doesn't even qualify as a blue moon. It's just the first full moon of the winter season.

In a tongue-in-cheek essay posted on the magazine's Web site this week, senior contributing editor Kelly Beatty wrote: "If skies are clear when I'm out celebrating, I'll take a peek at that brilliant orb as it rises over the Boston skyline to see if it's an icy shade of blue. Or maybe I'll just howl."

"Monster" Iceberg Shedding Hundreds of Offshoots

'Monster' iceberg shedding hundreds of offshoots

SYDNEY (AFP) – An island-sized iceberg is breaking up as it drifts closer to Australia, producing hundreds of smaller slabs spread over a massive area of ocean, experts said Monday.
The 140-square-kilometre (54-square-mile) block of ice, known as B17B, was seen some 1,700 kilometres (1,054 miles) south-southwest of Australia's western coast on December 9, prompting a maritime alert for vessels in the area.
But as it has tracked further north and east the iceberg has shrunk to some 115 square kilometres -- still formidable at about twice the size of Manhattan.
"There are now many more smaller icebergs calving off B17B, measuring up to several kilometres in length, and spread over more than a thousand kilometres of ocean," said Australian Antarctic Division glaciologist Neal Young.
Young, who has tracked B17B using satellite images from NASA and the European Space Agency, said the iceberg was some 400 square kilometres in area and 40 metres high when it first broke off from Antarctica.
"If you didn't know about the early picture you would still say it's a monster," Young told AFP.
Young said he expected B17B to totally dissolve but was unable to predict when this would happen.
"Might be two weeks, might be several weeks. The key thing at the moment is it's getting thinner," he said.
"It's got its feet in what it thinks is warm water -- about six to eight degrees Celsius (45 F) -- we think that's freezing cold but for an iceberg that's quite warm.
"So it's thinning from the bottom and that's what's going to lead to it breaking up."
The iceberg, which calved from the eastern end of the Ross Ice Shelf nearly 10 years ago, is expected to continue tracking in a more easterly direction.
Australian authorities last week issued a shipping alert over the possible hazard from icebergs.

End of Year Sky Show: Geminid Meteor Shower

Geminid Meteor Shower

The popular Perseid meteor shower may get the fair-weather attention, but the real show comes in winter.

Most amateur stargazers huddle by the fireplace in December, when the Geminids rain debris above the Earth's atmosphere. A winter wallop has dropped temperatures to freezing in some parts of the nation, but don't let a difference of a few degrees Fahrenheit keep you from seeing the night show that NASA considers the "best meteor shower of 2009."

The shower (nearly) ends a stellar year for skywatching on a high note—which is appropriate, given that 2009 is the International Year of Astronomy. Meteor showers and plenty of other space-related phenomena captured cyberspace imagination this year. Just a few:

Annular solar eclipse—just a partial (January 26)
Poor little Mars rover Spirit gets stuck (April 23...and still spinning its wheels)
Hubble Space Telescope, repaired (May 18)
Six crew members emerge from isolation on a fake spacecraft (July 14)
Remembering the first step: Apollo mission's 40th anniversary (July 20)
Solar eclipse spurs parties and prayers (July 22)
Perseids keeps stargazers' necks happily craned (August 12-13)
A deliberate crash landing on the moon (October 9)
Pool party! There's water on the moon (November 13)
Leonids light up the sky (November 17)


Catching the Last Shooting Stars
As for the Geminids, patient stargazers might've already caught its beginnings on December 6, but the meteor shower reaches its peak on the nights of December 13 and 14. For those disappointed by November’s Leonid show, the outlook for the current Geminid shower, which lasts until December 18, is good.

Astronomers believe the Geminids are increasing in intensity every year, yielding 120-160 meteors per hour during the shower. Astronomy magazine expects great conditions for viewing "100 'shooting stars' per hour—an average of nearly two per minute." People in China and Indonesia have the orchestra seats for the Geminid show, and might be able to see more than "300 meteors per hour."

You don’t need a telescope to see the streaks shooting across the heavens. For optimal viewing, NASA pinpoints 12:10 a.m. EST/9:10 p.m. PST, and suggests going somewhere away from the “light pollution” of cities and towns, to an area dark enough to see the stars clearly. Keep your eyes roaming all areas of the sky to spot a meteor. (And dress warmly, bring a blanket, and fill up on hot drinks.)

No Comet Here
At their best, meteor showers provide an intense display of the violence of the cosmos, at a safe distance for earthlings to watch. Meteors are streaks of light created by particles of debris from comets and other celestial bodies hitting the Earth's atmosphere. These particles, called meteoroids, can measure as small as a grain of sand to as large as a boulder.

Usually that space-dust dance comes from lively comets. The Geminid meteors are an exception: They emanate from a dead comet called 3200 Phaethon. As for their name, it's derived from the constellation Gemini, the area of the sky from which the meteors appear to originate.

Astronomical Anniversary
Four hundred years ago, Galileo Galilei invented the telescope and Johannes Kepler came out with his 650-page documentation of Martian motion. That, according to the United Nations, is reason enough to call for a year-long celebration. The International Year of Astronomy hosted events all over the world, and the heavens apparently joined in and threw their own 2009 shows, like the solar eclipse that darkened the skies over Asia.

In the United States, NASA underwent a lot of scrutiny. But even as the bosses were evaluating its core mission, the agency got a few projects literally off the ground—and lots of Web attention: The buzziest may have been the highly risky (and rousingly successful) mission to repair the Hubble Space Telescope. The oddest may have been a March contest for naming a wing of the International Space Station: NASA opted for Tranquility over the more popular "Stephen Colbert," but the satirical TV host got a space-station treadmill named after him.

The Americans weren't the only busy ones: Selected Russian and European volunteers willingly isolated themselves for 105 days here on Earth, to prove their Mars mettle (and next year, the lucky crew gets to spend 520 days in isolation). And tourists who can afford the airfare to the International Space Station always get lots of envious queries—the first clown in space proved no exception this year.

Once in a Blue Moon
The sky shows aren't over yet. The Ursid meteor shower gets its turn December 22, the Pleiades will brighten up the night on December 29, and a blue moon will entertain New Year's Eve revelers. (And no, the moon doesn't turn a shade of turquoise: The phrase just means a second full moon appears in the same month. But don't let that stop you from singing its praises.)

Winning entries in the Caption Competition.

This week, the strange spiral lights in the sky over Norway. It's not the Northern Lights. Guesses include a UFO, a failed Russian missile launch, or one of those laser pointer thingees popular with ravers. But what's being said?

Thanks to all who entered. The prize of a small amount of kudos to the following:

6. LaurenceLane
Guess who got Photoshop for their birthday?

5. Raven
God zaps Gene Roddenberry for his split infinitive.

4. SimonRooke
"Sven, I told you the caravan was too heavy for the Volvo, now just dip your lights."

3. j-o-n-a-t-h-a-n
"That's enough showing off Rudolph. Now let's get on with these deliveries."

2. Beth Pilgrim
"No Björn... THIS (dramatic pause)... is a smoke ring."

1. laendler_leonard
God tried his best to make sure that the three wise men found Bethlehem.

What are the cultural highlights of the decade?

As we enter the last few weeks of the 2000s, the Magazine is asking readers to tell the story of the last 10 years, based on five themes. Jasper Rees, founder of online magazine The Arts Desk, picks some cultural events and trends.

In years to come, when they look back on the culture of the Noughties, no one will struggle to identify the overarching theme.

This has been the decade in which the professional, the trained talent, has had to budge up and make room.A decade ago, who'd have imagined that the biggest stars in pop would be sourced from a Saturday night talent show?

That they'd be casting West End shows by public vote? Or that a plinth in Trafalgar Square would be given over in hourly slots to anyone who fancied making an artistic statement?

But then reality has been the dominant force of the decade.

While out in the really real world the decade was bookended by terrorist atrocity and financial Armageddon, television tried to keep our spirits up by asking which of us wanted to be a millionaire.

Answer: anyone and everyone who queued to be on Big Brother, X Factor, Britain's Got Talent and reality TV's other offshoots.

The most controversial television show of the 1990s even found its cast of brawling attention-seekers turned into an all-cussing, profanity-packed stage show, Jerry Springer - The Opera.

Not that stardom necessarily came via television exposure. YouTube ensured that anyone could be the leading character in their own room.

MySpace helped a new generation of indie musicians to bypass the music industry's front entrance. And thanks to the rise of the iTunes download, the streaming site Spotify and the consequent collapse in CD sales, they now all have to tour if they want to make money, giving rise to a teeming summer festival culture.

In another blow for democracy, the podcast and the iPlayer allowed people to consume The Office and Little Britain and The Ricky Gervais Show on their own terms, not to a timetable imposed from on high. The viral phenomenon of the internet validated everyone's opinion via social networking and chatrooms.

The big losers of the decade were newspapers. With readers migrating online, they are still wondering how to charge for usage to keep themselves afloat.

As people stopped wanting to pay, the freesheet became a common sight on trains and platforms. If the book trade has remained healthier, it's partly down to the rise of the celebrity confessional, memoirs about childhood trauma and several Harry Potter doorstoppers as much as quirky successes like Schott's Miscellany and Lynne Truss's book in praise of punctuation, Eats, Shoots and Leaves.

Meanwhile, attendances for live performance and museums have never been higher. But even in the higher arts the biggest stories have been about people who have clawed their way up from under.

Who is counting the bodies in Iraq?

We don't do body counts." These were the words of Gen Tommy Franks, the man in charge of the US-led invasion of Iraq.

But more than six-and-a-half years after the invasion, the body count has become a critical measure of success and failure in Iraq.

In November, officials announced that violent deaths were at their lowest since 2003. That was an important example of progress in Iraq, according to the Iraqi government.
Smoke billows after an explosion in the Iraqi capital Baghdad on 8 December 2009.
Most of the big explosions since August occurred near official buildings

Eight days after the announcement, five massive explosions went off almost simultaneously in different parts of Baghdad, killing and wounding hundreds.

These well-co-ordinated, sophisticated attacks targeted symbols of the state - not only government buildings but also universities and state-run institutions.

The explosions were similar in scale to devastating bomb attacks in August and in October.

The country's commander-in-chief and Prime Minister, Nouri al-Maliki, is now under increased pressure to provide better security for the capital.

After all, that's what he is credited with doing best.
Serious questions

Mr Maliki's political reputation was built largely on his apparent success in bringing violence levels down following the US troop surge in 2007.

HISTORY OF BIG ATTACKS
Mar 2004: 171 killed in bombings in Baghdad and Karbala
Nov 2006: 202 killed in multiple blasts in Baghdad
Mar 2007: 152 killed in lorry bombing in Talafar
Apr 2007: 191 killed in car bombings in Baghdad
Aug 2007: More than 500 killed in attacks on villages near Sinjar
Aug 2009: 95 killed in lorry bombs in Baghdad
Oct 2009: 155 killed in twin lorry bomb attacks in Baghdad
Dec 2009: 127 killed in a series of car bombs in Baghdad

Source: News agencies, BBC

Now, this image of a man who could keep Baghdad safe has been tarnished.

Across the city, as dust settled over the bomb sites and grief took the place of the initial shock and panic, some serious questions began to emerge.

One of them is how many died in the explosions?

The number, according to the international and independent Iraqi media is more than one hundred, but the official toll is 77.

There are plenty of examples of similar discrepancies in numbers.

Round-up

Two days before the big bombings, explosives went off in a school in Sadr City, a Shia suburb of Baghdad.

The crater left by a bomb at a Baghdad school
We go to the bomb sites - we know how many people really die
Hindt al-Bedeiri
Iraqi journalist

Police sources told us that six children were killed, but Iraqi officials said one student had died.

There was a real difference in coverage of the event as well.

It grabbed international headlines, but Iraqi state TV led on political progress and the achievements of the government.

The school explosion was mentioned in a 40-second round-up at the very end of the news bulletin.

"The government is manipulating the figures," says journalist Hindt al-Bedeiri who writes for the pro-opposition al-Mashraq newspaper.

"Politicians are lying to us because they are worried about the election. They are looking after their own interests. We go to the bomb sites - we know how many people really die," she says.

Official numbers

But the government insists that its numbers are correct.

We are not lying... There is no justification to distorting this kind of information. It's disrespectful. Every death, every person matters
Saad al-Mutalibi
Government adviser

"The media are interested in blowing the situation out of proportion, and certain networks and channels are trying to boost the numbers," says Saad al-Mutalibi, an adviser to the Iraqi government.

"I believe these official numbers because they come from the Ministry of Health".

For their part, health authorities receive their figures from hospitals.

Shortly after Tuesday's bombings, the BBC visited one of Baghdad's hospitals.

The total number of injured given by administrative staff was significantly lower than the estimates provided by doctors who were receiving patients.

One of the doctors, surgeon Tara Barki, said she believed the government was trying to downplay violence.

"We have explosions every day, but most of them are small and scattered and so they either receive no media attention or are camouflaged by the government," Dr Barki said.

'Deaths matter'

But the government denies manipulating figures.

"We are not lying, and I can guarantee you that the office of Prime Minister Maliki would never lie about the figures," said Mr Moutalibi, the government adviser.

COUNTING THE DEAD
In October 2009, the Iraqi government reported that 85,000 Iraqis (civilians, military and police) died in violence between 2004 and 2008
Iraq Body Count: Campaign group counts from media reports and official figures. It says that 94,705 - 103,336 civilians have died since invasion
Lancet study in October 2006 estimated 655,000 people died in Iraq as a result of the invasion

"There is no justification to distorting this kind of information. It's disrespectful. Every death, every person matters."

The government says these explosions should not undermine the progress it has made.

In December, and after months of political wrangling, Iraqi politicians finally agreed to have an election on 7 March.

The deal was hailed as a big political achievement, crucial to the future of Iraq.

But violence, it seems, could still be dictating the rules of the game.

The outcome of the election, the timing of the US withdrawal and Iraq's ability to attract much-needed investment, could all depend on how safe this country is - or is perceived to be.

Statistics are irrelevant for mothers who are still losing their children in Iraq.

But whatever Gen Tommy Franks said nearly seven years ago, today Iraq's politicians are indeed doing a body count.

Beyonce and Taylor Swift lead Grammy nominations

Beyonce is leading the field in the nominations for the 52nd Grammy Awards with 10 nominations, followed by country star Taylor Swift, with eight.

The pair go up against Black Eyed Peas - who have six nominations - Lady Gaga and Dave Matthews Band for best album.

R&B singer Maxwell and rapper Kanye West also earned six nominations each.

Britons Depeche Mode, Coldplay and singer-songwriter Imogen Heap picked up two nods each, while The Tings Tings are nominated for best new act.

The Salford duo go head to head to with Zac Brown Band, Keri Hilson, MGMT and Silversun Pickups.

'Not eligible'

The major categories were revealed during a televised concert in Los Angeles, hosted by rap star LL Cool J. Nominees for the rest of the 109 awards were announced later.

Winners will be announced on 31 January at the city's Staples Center.

Beyonce is nominated for song of the year for Single Ladies (Put A Ring On It) and record of the year for Halo - both taken from album I Am… Sasha Fierce.

Beyonce
Beyonce's I Am... Sasha Fierce is nominated in the best album category

Swift will also go up against Beyonce for song and record of the year for You Belong With Me, from her second album Fearless.

The 19-year-old country star is the biggest-selling artist in the US this year, excluding the late Michael Jackson.

Also up for the coveted record of the year are The Black Eyed Peas with I Gotta Feeling, Use Somebody by rockers Kings Of Leon and Lady Gaga's Poker Face.

Lady Gaga, who has become a major player in the global album and singles charts this year, was not eligible for best new act because her debut single, Just Dance, was nominated for best dance recording last year.

US Recording Academy president said there would be "some changes so that particular situation won't repeat itself".

U2 nominations

British nominees will hope to emulate the success earlier this year of artists including Robert Plant - who took five awards for his collaboration with Bluegrass singer Alison Krauss - and fellow prize winners Adele, Duffy, Radiohead and Peter Gabriel.


Imogen Heap
Essex singer Imogen Heap has had more success in the US than the UK

Talking Shop: Imogen Heap

Coldplay, winners of song of the year in February, are nominated for best rock performance by a group with vocals, and best video for their song Life In Technicolor II.

They will go up against Depeche Mode's Wrong for best video. The Essex electro-pop outfit are also nominated for Sounds Of The Universe in the best alternative music album category.

Fellow Essex musician Imogen Heap is nominated for best pop instrumental The Fire and best non-classical engineered album.

Ellipse, her third solo album, was a number five record in the US but only reached 39 in the UK charts.

Britons Eric Clapton and Steve Winwood also earned two nods including one for best rock album for their live concert at Madison Square Garden, in New York.

Elvis Costello was nominated for best contemporary folk album for Secret, Profane and Sugarcane while Yes, by the Pet Shop Boys, will go up against Lady Gaga's The Fame for best electronic dance album.

There were also best pop vocal nominations for Hometown Glory by Adele - who won the best new artist Grammy in February - and Seal's If You Don't Know Me By Now.

Black Eyed Peas
Black Eyed Peas were among performers on the night

And Birmingham band Judas Priest have earned a nod for best metal performance for the song Dissident Aggressor, taken from their album A Touch of Evil - Live.

Britain was well represented in the classical categories with conductor Simon Rattle among the nominations.

Irish rockers U2 have been nominated for three awards.

The nominations concert featured presenters including singer Katy Perry - nominated for best female pop vocal performance - former Beatle Ringo Starr and Motown legend Smokey Robinson.

Maxwell, who released album Black Summers' Night this year after an eight-year absence from the music scene, was among other performers on the night, singing the late Michael Jackson's The Lady In My Life.

There were also performances from Nick Jonas, of the Jonas Brothers, and Black Eyed Peas.

First draft on climate change unveiled

Copenhagen conference - draft deal
First draft on climate change unveiled

The first official draft for a deal on combating climate change has been unveiled at the Copenhagen summit next week. The blueprint limits global warming to 1.5 to two degrees Celsius. Meanwhile European Union nations have promised 7.2 billion euros in climate change aid.

The draft document, seen by the AFP news agency, is expected to be submitted to environment ministers with the aim of reaching agreement at a summit on 18 December. If endorsed, it will take over from the Kyoto protocol in 2013.

Island states and African nations are backing the lower figure, with some telling the Guardian newspaper that they will not sign a deal which goes higher.

But most rich or emerging countries back a two degree target.

The agreement, put forward by the Ad-hoc Working Group on Long Term Co-operative Action, is likely to be followed by talks in 2010 to decide on the details.

While it contains many brackets which denote disagreement,the draft insists that, “parties shall co-operate to avoid dangerous climate change”.

“The increase in global average temperature above pre-industrial levels ought not to exceed two to 1.5 Celsius,” it adds.

The draft text proposes three possible targets for the reduction of emissions by 2020, compared with 1990 levels: by 50 per cent, 80 per cent or 95 per cent.

Meanwhile, European Union countries have agreed to give 7.2 billion euros to developing countries to deal with the affects of climate change.

Voluntary pledges from all 27 EU member states equal around 2.4 billion euros a year and are intended to help developing countries adapt to global warming.

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown and French President Nicolas Sarkozy also demanded that an agreement in Copenhagen be legally binding within six months. They called for 30 per cent lower carbon emissions by 2020 and 25 per cent reduction in deforestation by 2015.

The two leaders also said they would increase their pledges “if others are equally ambitious in Copenhagen”.

Sarkozy said, “what’s expensive is doing nothing […] what is costly is immobility, is failure”.

Brown denies over-ruling Darling on pre-Budget report

Prime Minister Gordon Brown has denied over-ruling Chancellor Alistair Darling on how tough the pre-Budget report (PBR) should be on spending.

The BBC understands the Treasury had wanted a tougher approach to public spending in order to lend credibility to its plan to cut the deficit.

Mr Brown said it was "completely wrong" to suggest he over-ruled Mr Darling.

He said the PBR was both a plan for deficit reduction and for getting resources to front-line services.

The prime minister told a news conference in Brussels: "Alistair Darling and I have worked together for many, many years, and we worked closely together and continue to do so."

Downing Street said Mr Brown and Mr Darling "see eye-to-eye" on the PBR, and the need to protect frontline services such as schools, the NHS and Sure Start, and international development.

A spokeswoman refused to say whether the Treasury had resisted the real terms increase in the schools budget.

Deficit promise

The government is compelled to halve the post-war record deficit within four years, under the Fiscal Responsibility Bill. Wednesday's PBR announced belt-tightening measures including a public sector pay cap and a rise in National Insurance, but both of these come in from 2011.

BBC Political Editor Nick Robinson said the disagreement between the Treasury and No 10 was not about the speed at which the budget deficit should be reduced, or Alistair Darling "siding with the Conservatives" in arguing for the deficit to be cut sooner and faster.

It was, instead, about how to ensure that the government appeared to have a credible and convincing plan to achieve its stated objective of cutting the deficit in four years.

Mr Robinson said: "The pre-Budget report actually increased the spending plans the chancellor had previously set out in his Budget, despite the fact that Britain faces the worst peacetime deficit in its history.

"One reason for this is an aggressive public and private campaign by [Schools Secretary] Ed Balls for a real-terms increase in school spending.

"He wanted to create a political 'dividing line' with the Conservatives, who have promised to increase spending on health in real terms but have made no similar pledge about education.

"The prime minister sided with the man who was his Treasury adviser during his long period as chancellor. Although Mr Balls didn't get as much as he wanted, he did get agreement for a 0.7% increase in school spending."

'Issue ducked'

The Treasury has denied a report in the Guardian newspaper suggesting that No 10 blocked a plan to impose a VAT rise above 17.5%, saying that was never an option.

The Conservatives claim the Treasury privately backed their calls for a "more credible plan" to reduce the deficit to gain credibility with the markets, amid fears of a run on the pound leading to increases in interest rates.

Shadow chief secretary to the Treasury Philip Hammond told the BBC News channel: "The chancellor had the opportunity on Wednesday to set out clear future departmental spending plans showing where the reductions in public spending would come, so that people could see that he was really serious about this."

But he said Mr Darling "ducked the issue and went along with the prime minister's proposals simply to try and create some political dividing lines rather than doing things the British economy needed done in order to support the recovery".

Thursday saw one of the biggest sell-offs of gilts - the bonds the government sells to raise money - as investors fretted about the long-term outlook for the UK's public finances.

It came as leading economists warned that not all the cuts needed to reduce the deficit had been outlined by the chancellor.

The Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) says public spending is facing a £36bn squeeze from 2011 - with £15bn of the cuts needed yet to be identified.

Poll findings

With health and education protected, the axe could fall on defence, housing, transport and higher education.

The think tank predicted "severe cuts" of the kind not seen in the UK since the late 1970s.

But Justice Secretary Jack Straw said the IFS had not taken into account savings already made by the government due to lower than expected increases in unemployment.

Lib Dem Treasury spokesman Vince Cable, who argues that no areas of public spending should be off limits when it comes to cuts, called for a "proper debate" on where the axe should fall.

"Because they are not discussing priorities openly a great deal of damage is being done," he told BBC News.

Meanwhile, an opinion poll for the BBC suggests Mr Brown and Mr Darling are less trusted to steer Britain's economy through the economic downturn than Conservative leader David Cameron and shadow chancellor George Osborne.

The poll, for BBC Two's Daily Politics programme, was carried out by ComRes after the PBR.

A third (33%) of those questioned said they trusted Mr Cameron and Mr Osborne most on the economy.

That compared with 26% saying they trusted Labour's Mr Brown and Mr Darling - a lead of seven percentage points for the Conservatives.

In a similar poll conducted in April, Mr Brown and Mr Darling had a lead of three points.

The Liberal Democrats recorded their highest rating yet to this poll question - with 16% saying they trusted party leader Nick Clegg and Mr Cable most. This compared with the April figure of 10%.

Robert Gates

Gates predicts new sanctions against Iran
December 11, 2009 6:02 a.m. EST

Defense Secretary Robert Gates says he expects Iran to face "significant" sanctions by the international community.

STORY HIGHLIGHTS
• Defense Secretary Robert Gates says Iran will face new sanctions over nuclear program
• Iran acknowledged existence of nuclear facility earlier this year
• Western countries fear Iran is developing nuclear weapons

RELATED TOPICS
• Robert Gates
• Iran
• Nuclear Proliferation
Baghdad, Iraq (CNN) -- U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates said he expects Iran to face "significant" new sanctions over its nuclear program.
Gates, who was visiting northern Iraq on Friday, held a town hall meeting with about 300 soldiers and airmen in Kirkuk. He arrived in the country Thursday after a two-day trip to Afghanistan.
At the meeting, Gates discussed Iran's nuclear program.
"I think you are going to see some significant additional sanctions imposed by the international community," he told the troops.
His comments came a day after the United States and other envoys warned that Iran faced tougher sanctions if it did not comply with U.N. Security Council resolutions. The envoys slammed Iran for transporting arms and ammunition to Syria, saying the clock is ticking for the Islamic republic.
"Patience is running out," said Mark Lyall-Grant, the British ambassador to the United Nations. "If there is no change of approach, then clearly the Security Council will need to look again at further sanctions against Iran in the new year."
Iran shocked the world in September with the revelation of a nuclear facility it had been building secretly in the holy city of Qom. Since then, it has allowed inspectors from the U.N. nuclear watchdog agency to visit the plant.
Western powers fear Iran is intent on developing nuclear weapons, a claim Tehran denies.
Before meeting the troops, Gates met with Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, who had canceled a meeting with him a day earlier so he could discuss a devastating bombing with Iraqi lawmakers.
At least 127 people died in a string of five suicide car bombings in Baghdad on Tuesday, and 448 were wounded. A group linked to al Qaeda said it carried out the attacks.