Many leading figures are concerned about issues such as Jack Straw's observations on Muslim women who wear the veil and criticisms from ministers who say Islamic communities should do more to root out extremists.

Mr Livingstone said: "Over recent weeks we have seen a demonisation of Muslims only comparable to the demonisation of Jews from the end of the 19th century. As at that time, the attack on Muslims in reality threatens freedoms for all of us, which took hundreds of years to win - freedom of conscience and freedom of cultural expression. Every person who values their right to follow the religion of their choice or none should stand with the Muslim communities today."

He linked the criticism of Muslims with the adverse scrutiny accorded to government policy overseas. "I cannot believe it is a coincidence that this entire artificial pseudo-debate has been stirred up at a time when the credibility of the entire war and occupation of Iraq is collapsing before our eyes. Muslims and all of us have a right to call for a different policy within the democratic process."

Shami Chakrabarti, the director of Liberty, will also speak at tonight's event, being held in Westminster.

She said: "Freedom of conscience and religion, like freedom of speech, is essential to any democratic society. We must keep our heads and unite around democratic values, applying them to others as we want them applied to ourselves. We must all be able to think, wear and say what we like, subject only to personal ethics and restrictions truly necessary for the protection of others."

Polling conducted to coincide with the launch shows that 75% of Londoners support "the right of all persons to dress in accordance with their religious beliefs", with 18% against.

Plus, 82% said "everybody in London should be free to live their lives how they like as long as they don't stop other people doing the same"; 76% balked at the idea of the government dictating how people should live their lives; and 94% expressed similar sentiments about media.

Nearly three-quarters (74%) of respondents said it was important that "there are regular events and festivals to celebrate London's different ethnic and religious communities".

The poll was undertaken by Ipsos Mori on behalf of the Greater London Authority.

A project implemented by the European Union is currently seeing seven cities and regions clear-cutting their forest of traffic signs. Ejby, in Denmark, is participating in the experiment, as are Ipswich in England and the Belgian town of Ostende.

The utopia has already become a reality in Makkinga, in the Dutch province of Western Frisia. A sign by the entrance to the small town (population 1,000) reads "Verkeersbordvrij" -- "free of traffic signs." Cars bumble unhurriedly over precision-trimmed granite cobblestones. Stop signs and direction signs are nowhere to be seen. There are neither parking meters nor stopping restrictions. There aren't even any lines painted on the streets.

"The many rules strip us of the most important thing: the ability to be considerate. We're losing our capacity for socially responsible behavior," says Dutch traffic guru Hans Monderman, one of the project's co-founders. "The greater the number of prescriptions, the more people's sense of personal responsibility dwindles."

Monderman could be on to something. Germany has 648 valid traffic symbols. The inner cities are crowded with a colorful thicket of metal signs. Don't park over here, watch out for passing deer over there, make sure you don't skid. The forest of signs is growing ever denser. Some 20 million traffic signs have already been set up all over the country.

Psychologists have long revealed the senselessness of such exaggerated regulation. About 70 percent of traffic signs are ignored by drivers. What's more, the glut of prohibitions is tantamount to treating the driver like a child and it also foments resentment. He may stop in front of the crosswalk, but that only makes him feel justified in preventing pedestrians from crossing the street on every other occasion. Every traffic light baits him with the promise of making it over the crossing while the light is still yellow.

"Unsafe is safe"

The result is that drivers find themselves enclosed by a corset of prescriptions, so that they develop a kind of tunnel vision: They're constantly in search of their own advantage, and their good manners go out the window.

The new traffic model's advocates believe the only way out of this vicious circle is to give drivers more liberty and encourage them to take responsibility for themselves. They demand streets like those during the Middle Ages, when horse-drawn chariots, handcarts and people scurried about in a completely unregulated fashion. The new model's proponents envision today's drivers and pedestrians blending into a colorful and peaceful traffic stream.

It may sound like chaos, but it's only the lesson drawn from one of the insights of traffic psychology: Drivers will force the accelerator down ruthlessly only in situations where everything has been fully regulated. Where the situation is unclear, they're forced to drive more carefully and cautiously.

Indeed, "Unsafe is safe" was the motto of a conference where proponents of the new roadside philosophy met in Frankfurt in mid-October.

True, many of them aren't convinced of the new approach. "German drivers are used to rules," says Michael Schreckenberg of Duisburg University. If clear directives are abandoned, domestic rush-hour traffic will turn into an Oriental-style bazaar, he warns. He believes the new vision of drivers and pedestrians interacting in a cozy, relaxed way will work, at best, only for small towns.

But one German borough is already daring to take the step into lawlessness. The town of Bohmte in Lower Saxony has 13,500 inhabitants. It's traversed by a country road and a main road. Cars approach speedily, delivery trucks stop to unload their cargo and pedestrians scurry by on elevated sidewalks.

The road will be re-furbished in early 2007, using EU funds. "The sidewalks are going to go, and the asphalt too. Everything will be covered in cobblestones," Klaus Goedejohann, the mayor, explains. "We're getting rid of the division between cars and pedestrians."

The plans derive inspiration and motivation from a large-scale experiment in the town of Drachten in the Netherlands, which has 45,000 inhabitants. There, cars have already been driving over red natural stone for years. Cyclists dutifully raise their arm when they want to make a turn, and drivers communicate by hand signs, nods and waving.

"More than half of our signs have already been scrapped," says traffic planner Koop Kerkstra. "Only two out of our original 18 traffic light crossings are left, and we've converted them to roundabouts." Now traffic is regulated by only two rules in Drachten: "Yield to the right" and "Get in someone's way and you'll be towed."

Strange as it may seem, the number of accidents has declined dramatically. Experts from Argentina and the United States have visited Drachten. Even London has expressed an interest in this new example of automobile anarchy. And the model is being tested in the British capital's Kensington neighborhood.

The mine accident, the country's deadliest so far this year, occurred Tuesday night when a methane gas explosion 1,030 meters underground shook the Halemba coal mine in the southern Polish city of Ruda Slaska, some 300 km southwest of Warsaw.

The explosion brought the number of miners killed in 2006 in Poland to 43, according to reports.

There were 31 miners working in the area when the explosion occurred, and eight of them managed to escape from the scene.

Rescue work was temporarily suspended on Wednesday out of fear that the high concentration of methane gas in the mine could trigger a second explosion.

All bodies were recovered after the rescue work resumed. Some of them were charred beyond recognition.

Polish President Lech Kaczynski said on Wednesday that an inquiry into the cause of the accident will be carried out.

The Halemba coal mine, one of the oldest coalmines in Poland, went into operation in 1957. Nineteen miners were killed in an explosion in 1990, and another five were left dead in a 1991 collapse.

Eikka Kosonen said the EU's Finish presidency had not been able to reach agreement with Poland on a mandate for a new agreement at talks on Thursday, a day before the Russia-EU summit in Helsinki.

Russia introduced an embargo on imports of Polish meat and poultry products on November 10, saying it was concerned over violations of veterinary regulations. Russia had already banned agricultural imports from Poland last year, citing health risks.

But Warsaw said the embargo was in retaliation for Poland's support of the "orange revolution" in Ukraine in late 2004, when Western-leaning political forces came to power in the former Soviet state.

The Finnish ambassador to the 25-member EU said work to resolve the issue would continue, given its importance, and that he hoped the situation would be resolved as soon as possible.