Cold and grey

Yesterday we saw that the government of India's Andhra Pradesh state plans to make it compulsory for couples to take an HIV test before marriage. A good idea? Would you be happy to be tested? The debate's been going for a while.

Another story already being debated on the web site is the report by a leading UK think tank declaring that Tony Blair's time as prime minister will be overshadowed by the "disaster" of Iraq and his failure to influence US policy.

The invasion and the post-war "debacle" have damaged the UK's global influence, said the Chatham House report.

And what about the news in The Washington Post that US President George W Bush is considering a short-term increase in the size of the US force in Iraq? Mr Bush also said he planned to expand the size of the military to deal with the broader, long-term fight against terrorism. Is he moving in the right direction?

Something else that's been much-reported on the BBC this morning is Newsnight's exclusive investigation into how billions of pounds donated to charities for victims of the tsunami has not been spent.

The Red Cross explained what was going on - and it made sense to me - so far more interesting is the record of governments. This is from the Newsnight article:

According to the UN DAD database Spain promised $60m and delivered less than $1m. France pledged $79m and came up with just over $1m. The Chinese promised even more - $301m - and delivered - just $1m. In the Maldives, Kuwait allocated just under $10m but they have yet to spend a single cent and in Indonesia America promised over $400m and so far has delivered less than $70m.

Following up our item on Jessica Lal from Monday, her killer (the son of a governing party politician) has been sentenced to life imprisonment. We won't go back to it, but just to let you know. For closure.