Professional musicians will make a first pre selection, before a vote by the YouTube audience takes place in February 2009.

There are many advantages to having an independent central bank run by professionals who can keep their distance from politicians.

As for Al Jazeera's journalistic performance, it is past time that the station be judged by respected professional journalists, not by US or other officials with a policy axe to grind.

Doctors and engineers, after all, are professionals. They are well off, well established members of society, not marginal figures whom we might expect to be drawn to desperate acts of violence.

Either because of staffing constraints or inadequate recognition by management of the importance of this function, it would seem that very few of these offices have specialized or professional procurement personnel and that the functions are performed by and large by clerical staff, as part of their other administrative duties.

A noble dream just several years ago, the elimination of nuclear arms is no longer the idea only of populists and pacifists it has now been adopted by professionals politicians known for their realism and academics known for their sense of responsibility.

As for Al Jazeera's journalistic performance, it is past time that the station be judged by respected professional journalists, not by US or other officials with a policy axe to grind. A major university department of journalism working with Arab media critics, for example, could provide a much more honest analysis of the station's work.

They are well off, well established members of society, not marginal figures whom we might expect to be drawn to desperate acts of violence. Moreover, they come from a scientific background, and science is usually not associated with religious zeal or political fanaticism.