Belgian Prime Minister Herman van Rompuy was unanimously selected today to be the first permanent, full-time president of the European Council, after the UK said it was no longer pushing for former Prime Minister Tony Blair to get the post. Instead, the other top post created by the Lisbon Treaty - High Representative for Foreign Affairs - went to the UK's EU Trade Commissioner, Baroness Catherine Ashton. More from the BBC:

"Mr Van Rompuy, 62, had crucial French and German support. He has a reputation as a coalition builder, having taken charge of the linguistically divided Belgian government and steered it out of a crisis.

'Every country should emerge victorious from negotiations,' he told a news conference after his appointment.

'Even if unity remains our strength, our diversity remains our wealth,' he said, stressing the individuality of EU member states.

...The idea under Lisbon is to give the EU more coherence and continuity in key policy areas. Up until now the presidency has been held by member states in turn, on a six-month rotation."

The pair begin their new jobs on Dec. 1. BBC has profiles of Van Rompuy and the baroness here.

(Photo by Mark Renders/Getty Images)

Their reasoning goes like so: less reproduction, fewer people, less climate change. More:

"The battle against global warming could be helped if the world slowed population growth by making free condoms and family planning advice more widely available, the U.N. Population Fund said Wednesday.

The agency did not recommend countries set limits on how many children people should have, but said: 'Women with access to reproductive health services ... have lower fertility rates that contribute to slower growth in greenhouse gas emissions.'

'As the growth of population, economies and consumption outpaces the Earth's capacity to adjust, climate change could become much more extreme and conceivably catastrophic,' the report said.

The world's population will likely rise from the current 6.7 billion to 9.2 billion in 2050, with most of the growth in less developed regions, according to a 2006 report by the United Nations.

The U.N. Population Fund acknowledged it had no proof of the effect that population control would have on climate change. 'The linkages between population and climate change are in most cases complex and indirect,' the report said."

It's a good thing it didn't get into countries limiting how many children people can have, because that wanders -- a la China -- into some serious human-rights issues.

(Photo by Ulet Ifansasti/Getty Images)

Remember those images of Capt. Richard Phillips, seized by pirates and held adrift in a lifeboat this past April after the Somali rogues attacked the Maersk Alabama? After a five-day standoff, Phillips was rescued, the pirates didn't get a dime, one got taken to New York for trial, and three pirates were killed.

Some just don't learn.

From the AP:

"Somali pirates attacked the Maersk Alabama on Wednesday for the second time in seven months, though private guards on board the U.S.-flagged ship repelled the attack with gunfire and a high-decibel noise device.

A U.S. surveillance plane was monitoring the ship as it continued to its destination on the Kenyan coast, while a pirate said that the captain of a ship hijacked Monday with 28 North Korean crewmembers on board had died of wounds.

...Phillips was not at the helm this time. He was due in Norfolk, Va., for a museum event opening for a piracy exhibit where he will also thank his rescuers from the destroyer USS Bainbridge, who are based in the city.

...Four suspected pirates in a skiff attacked the ship again on Wednesday around 6:30 a.m. local time, firing on the ship with automatic weapons from about 300 yards away, a statement from the U.S. Fifth Fleet in Bahrain said."

Phillips had no comment on the incident. "I'm not involved in it this time, so I don't want to speculate on things I don't know."

(Photo by Jon Rasmussen/U.S. Navy via Getty Images)

Vladimir Putin -- currently Russian prime minister and, in the eyes of many, puppetmaster -- has shown that he's highly adept at promoting a hip, fly, and macho-enough-to-lead-Russia image, be it through his judo book, getting up close with lions, or shirtless photos fishing (the shirted photo is Putin catching a big one with the Bushes) and horseback riding. As the Daily Telegraph puts it today, "there appears to be no sporting or cultural activity where Vladimir Putin is not an Alpha male or a renaissance man." That would include -- look out, Jay-Z -- the world of rap and hip-hop. More:

"Mr Putin's surprise appearance on a music channel to hand out awards came as a shock even to the journalists his minders handpick to follow him around not to mention the audience of baseball cap-wearing adolescents.

Dressed in a polo-neck jumper and a sports jacket, Mr Putin, 57, looked distinctly awkward among a crowd of head-bobbing hand-waving teenagers. As the crowd around him writhed to a noisy rap song, he stood motionless with his hands stiffly at his sides while his security detail mingled among the audience 'in youth disguise'.

Mr Putin then took to the stage himself and spoke out against drugs and vodka, doing his best to show he knew about what he called 'mass youth culture'. 'Rap, even urban rap and street rap, is kind of crude, but is already filled with social content and addresses the problems of youth,' he told an open-mouthed audience. 'Graffiti is becoming a real art form - refined and polished. Break dancing is something completely unique.'"

Word, Pooty-Poot.

(Photo by Eric Draper/White House via Getty Images)

I recently visited a basilica where visitors were greeted by a big bottle of hand sanitizer, in hopes that swine flu wouldn't be spread along with the sign of peace. There are similar concerns about the communal fonts of holy water into which parishioners dip their fingers and make the sign of the cross, but one Italian inventor is now going to the bank with his solution. From Reuters in Rome:

"The terracotta dispenser, used in the northern town of Fornaci di Briosco, functions like an automatic soap dispenser in public washrooms -- a churchgoer waves his or her hand under a sensor and the machine spurts out holy water.

'It has been a bit of a novelty. People initially were a bit shocked by this technological innovation but then they welcomed it with great enthusiasm and joy. The members of this parish have got used to it,' said Father Pierangelo Motta.

...Luciano Marabese, who invented the dispenser, said he did so out of concern that fear of swine flu was eroding traditions.

And he is now blessing himself all the way to the bank.

'After all the news that some churches, like Milan's cathedral, were suspending the use of holy water fonts as a measure against swine flu, demands for my invention shot to the stars. I have received orders from all over the world,' he said."

As yours truly currently has swine flu, I say more power to him.

(Photo by Sean Gardner/Getty Images)

John Allen Muhammad, who terrorized the D.C. suburbs in 2002 along with accomplice Lee Boyd Malvo in a three-week span of sniper attacks that killed 10, was put to death by lethal injection Tuesday night in Virginia. From CNN:

"The mastermind behind the Washington-area sniper attacks of 2002 that terrorized the nation's capital was declared dead at 9:11 p.m. ET, said Larry Traylor, director of communications for the Virginia Department of Corrections.

'There were no complications; Mr. Mohammad was asked if he wished to make a last statement,' Traylor told reporters outside the the Greenville Correctional Center. 'He did not acknowledge this or make a last statement whatsoever.'

In fact, Mohammad, 48, said nothing from the time he entered the death chamber accompanied by guards at 8:58 p.m., Traylor said.

'After he was placed on the gurney and strapped down, he was very emotionless,' Traylor said."

Malvo was 17 years old at the time of the shootings, and thus serving a sentence of life in prison.

(Photo by Virginia Department of Corrections via Getty Images)

Thousands cheered the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall on Monday, watching a trail of 1,000 huge styrofoam dominoes collapse along a one-mile route where the nefarious barrier between communism and the Western world once stood. But there was a very special guest in attendance, too, reports the AP:

"Chancellor Angela Merkel and 78-year-old Gorbachev stood shoulder to shoulder as they crossed a former fortified border crossing point between East and West Berlin to cheers of 'Gorby! Gorby!'

'Looking back, we can see many causes that led to the peaceful revolution, but it still remains a miracle,' German President Horst Koehler told the leaders of all 27 European Union countries, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton.

Merkel -- Germany's first chancellor to be raised in the former communist East -- called the events of Nov. 9, 1989 an "epic" moment in history.

'For me, it was one of the happiest moments of my life,' Merkel told a crowd of tens of thousands packed around the Brandenburg Gate."

World leaders gathering for the celebration included French President Nicolas Sarkozy, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev. Noticeably absent was U.S. President Barack Obama, who is scheduled to attend a memorial for the Fort Hood massacre victims tomorrow but who RSVP'd "no" even before Thursday's tragedy. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton attended instead, in a glaring absence of a leader from one of the key countries to have brought down the Iron Curtain. Obama instead sent a video message that was screened at the festivities.

Relive that moment two decades ago with this classic Peter Jennings clip. And enjoy more photos from the festivities here.

(Photo by Andreas Rentz/Getty Images)

The Gulf Coast is bracing for Hurricane Ida in, compared to recent years, what has felt like a slow storm season for those along America's south and eastern coastlines. The season used to end on Halloween, according to the Atlantic Oceanographic and Meteorological Laboratory, but has gradually been stretched to encompass June 1 to Nov. 30. More on Ida from CNN:

"Hurricane Ida moved into the southern Gulf of Mexico on Sunday, prompting a declaration of emergency in Louisiana and a hurricane watch for parts of the U.S. Gulf Coast.

The storm regained hurricane intensity overnight, becoming a Category 2 hurricane, but forecasters said it is expected to weaken as it moves north. Ida drenched Nicaragua after making landfall last week as a Category 1 hurricane, then weakened to a tropical storm before intensifying.

In El Salvador, at least 91 people died in flooding and mudslides, according to the government, but a low-pressure system out of the Pacific -- not Hurricane Ida -- triggered the disaster, forecaster Robby Berg of the National Hurricane Center said Sunday.

The U.S. watch -- meaning hurricane conditions are possible within 36 hours -- extends from Grand Isle, Louisiana, eastward to Mexico Beach, Florida, forecasters said. It does not include the city of New Orleans, Louisiana, the hurricane center said."

Look back on when the Gulf Coast braced for Hurricane Gustav and Hurricane Ike' last year.

Learn about the world's worst hurricanes here.

Paris. New York. Milan. Karachi?

Yes, in the face of the usual irritated fundamentalists, Pakistani designers finally got to send their creations down in the catwalk in that country's first ever fashion week. And perhaps that bravery makes the clothes even more beautiful. More:

"Some women strode the catwalk in vicious spiked bracelets and body armor. Others had their heads covered, burqa-style, but with shoulders -- and tattoos -- exposed. Male models wore long, Islamic robes as well as shorts and sequined T-shirts.

As surging militant violence grabs headlines around the world, Pakistan's top designers and models are taking part in the country's first-ever fashion week. While the mix of couture and ready-to-wear fashions would not have been out of place in Milan or New York, many designers made reference to the turmoil, reflecting the contradictions and tensions coursing through this society.

The four-day event, which was postponed twice due to security fears and amid unease at hosting such a gathering during an army offensive in the northwest, is aimed at showing the world there is more to Pakistan than violence and at helping boost an industry that employs hundreds of thousands of people, organizers said.

Many of the models, designers and well-heeled fashionistas packing out each night said the gathering was a symbolic blow to the Taliban and their vision of society, where women are largely confined to the house and must wear a sack-like covering known as a burqa.

'This is our gesture of defiance to the Taliban,' said Ayesha Tammy Haq, the CEO of Fashion Pakistan Week. 'There is a terrible problem of militancy and political upheaval ... but that doesn't mean that the country shuts down. That doesn't mean that business comes to a halt.'"

View a gallery of some of the couture from Fashion Pakistan Week here.

(Photo by Daniel Berehulak/Getty Images)

Here's a good story from the AP: A Vietnamese child flees the fall of Saigon, then returns to his homeland as an adult... and as the commander of a U.S. Navy destroyer. Especially as we approach Veterans Day here in the U.S. -- and are reeling from the tragedy of an Army major taking 13 lives in a bloodbath at Fort Hood -- it's uplifting to read this tale of a man returning to Vietnam in service of the country that took his family in decades ago. More:

"...Le piloted the USS Lassen on Saturday into Danang, home of China Beach, where U.S. troops frequently headed for R&R during the war, which ended on April 30, 1975, when the southern city of Saigon was taken by communist troops from North Vietnam.

That was the day Le and his family embarked on an uncertain journey in a fishing boat piloted by Le's father, who was a commander in the South Vietnamese navy. They were rescued at sea by the USS Barbour County, taken to a U.S. base in the Philippines, a refugee camp in California and finally to northern Virginia, where they rebuilt their lives.

Le returned on the Lassen, an $800 million, 509-foot destroyer equipped with Tomahawk missiles and a crew of 300. The ship and the USS Blue Ridge, the command vessel for the U.S. Navy's 7th Fleet, are making the latest in a series of goodwill visits to Vietnam, which began in 2003 when the USS Vandergriff paid a port call to Ho Chi Minh City, the former Saigon.

'I thought that one day I would return but I really didn't expect to be returning as the commander of a Navy warship,' Le said after stepping ashore Saturday. 'It's an incredible personal honor.'

'I'm proud to be an American, but I'm also very proud of my Vietnamese heritage,' said Le, who spoke a few halting words in Vietnamese."

Read the whole thing here.