A senior European defence official told The Daily Telegraph that North Korea had invited a team of Iranian nuclear scientists to study the results of last October's underground test to assist Teheran's preparations to conduct its own possibly by the end of this year.

There were unconfirmed reports at the time of the Korean firing that an Iranian team was present. Iranian military advisers regularly visit North Korea to participate in missile tests.
Now the long-standing military co-operation between the countries has been extended to nuclear issues.
As a result, senior western military officials are deeply concerned that the North Koreans' technical superiority will allow the Iranians to accelerate development of their own nuclear weapon.

"The Iranians are working closely with the North Koreans to study the results of last year's North Korean nuclear bomb test," said the European defence official.
"We have identified increased activity at all of Iran's nuclear facilities since the turn of the year," he said.
"All the indications are that the Iranians are working hard to prepare for their own underground nuclear test."
Intelligence estimates vary about how long it could take Teheran to produce a nuclear warhead. But defence officials monitoring the growing co-operation between North Korea and Iran believe the Iranians could be in a position to test fire a low-grade device less than half a kiloton within 12 months.

The precise location of the Iranian test site is unknown, but is likely to be located in a mountainous region where it is difficult for spy satellites to pick up any unusual activity. Teheran successfully concealed the existence of several key nuclear sites including the controversial Natanz uranium enrichment complex until their locations were disclosed by Iranian dissidents three years ago.

The Iranians are reported to have been encouraged by the fact that no punitive action was taken against North Korea, despite the international outcry that greeted the underground firing. This has persuaded the Iranian regime to press ahead with its own nuclear programme with the aim of testing a low-grade device, which would be difficult for international inspectors to detect.

Dr Georgia Duckworth, a hospital infection expert at the HPA, said: "While there are some encouraging signs in today's figures, there clearly remains much to be done. "Cases of Clostridium difficile infection continue to rise - there may be some slowing down in the rate of increase, but it is too early to say for sure.

And Graham Tanner, of the patients group, the National Concern for Healthcare Infections, said: "It should be remembered that each of these statistics represents a person and family who suffer the contraction of a healthcare infection that they probably did not have on admittance to hospital. Sadly in a large number of cases people will have lost their lives as a consequence of these infections."

C. difficile is a bacterium found in the gut of up to 3% of healthy adults and 66% of infants, where it rarely causes problems. However, it can cause illness when its growth goes unchecked. For example, treatment with certain antibiotics can disturb the balance of "normal" bacteria in the gut, allowing C. difficile to thrive. It can cause mild or severe diarrhoea, or in some cases severe inflammation of the bowel which can be life threatening.

GSK told Panorama: "GSK utterly rejects any suggestion that it has improperly withheld drug trial information."
GSK has always been strongly conscious of the duty it owes to the millions of patients who suffer from depression

GSK faces action in the US where bereaved families have joined together to sue the company. As a result, GSK has been forced to open its confidential internal archive. Karen Barth Menzies is a partner in one of the firms representing many of the families. She has examined thousands of the documents which are stored, box upon box, in an apartment in Malibu, California.

She said: "Even when they have negative studies that show that this drug Seroxat is going to harm some kids they still spin that study as remarkably effective and safe for children." GSK's biggest clinical trial of Seroxat on children was held in the US in the 1990s and called Study 329.

Child psychiatrist Dr Neal Ryan of the University of Pittsburgh was paid by GSK as a co-author of Study 329. In 2002 he also gave a talk on childhood depression at a medical conference sponsored by GSK. He said that Seroxat could be a suitable treatment for children and later told Panorama reporter Shelley Jofre that it probably lowered rather than raised suicide rates.

In amongst the archive of emails in Malibu, Shelley was surprised to find that her own emails to Dr Ryan from 2002 asking questions about the safety of Seroxat had been forwarded to GSK asking for advice on how to respond to her. She also found an email from a public relations executive working for GSK which said: "Originally we had planned to do extensive media relations surrounding this study until we actually viewed the results.

"Essentially the study did not really show it was effective in treating adolescent depression, which is not something we want to publicise." But the article was published in the Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry which says it ranks as number one in child mental health in the world. The editor in chief of the British Medical Journal, Fiona Godlee, said that what she calls the "blind-eye culture of medicine" should be exposed by professionals.

She has written in response to the Panorama film: "We shouldn't have to rely on investigative journalists to ask the difficult questions. "Reputations for sale are reputations at risk. We need to make that risk so high it's not worth taking." What is even more depressing is that such behaviour is still so widely tolerated within medicine
Fiona Godlee, BMJ

The Medicine and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) began a criminal investigation into GSK three years ago but no action has been taken yet. A spokesperson told Panorama that the investigation has been given substantial additional resources and remains a high priority. Seroxat was banned for under 18s in 2003 after the MHRA, revealed that GSK's own studies showed the drug actually trebles the risk of suicidal thoughts and behaviour in depressed children.

Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O'Connor said he was disappointed, but said he hoped there might still be some way the agencies could "continue their work". Cardinal Murphy-O'Connor, the head of Catholics in England and Wales, told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: "Some legislation, however well intended, in fact does create a new kind of morality, a new kind of norm - as this does."

He added: "It does seem to me we are having a new norm for what marriage is, because I think normally children should be brought up by a father and a mother and I think that we hold that that is extremely important. "The government has a right to legislate and homosexual couples are also able to adopt in other agencies but we want to hold onto this principle." He said the move risked forcing religious people out of public life.

"Here the Catholic Church and its adoption services are wishing to act according to its principles and conscience and the government is saying: 'No, we won't allow you to ... you have no space, you have no place in the public life of this country.' "Now that seems to me to be just one step and there will be further ones."

The Equality Act, due to come into effect in England, Wales and Scotland in April, outlaws discrimination in the provision of goods, facilities and services on the basis of sexual orientation. It means Catholic adoption agencies would be forced to consider gay people as prospective parents - currently they are referred to other agencies.

The row was said to have split the Cabinet and was opposed by the Catholic Church, backed by the Church of England and some other religious groups. There may well be some way in which without breaking the law, our Catholic services can continue in their work

On Monday, Prime Minister Tony Blair said he had found a "sensible compromise", allowing faith-based agencies 21 months to adapt to the new rules - monitored by independent assessors. The proposed measures are likely to face a vote in Parliament next month before coming into effect on 6 April. But Cardinal Murphy-O'Connor told the BBC: "I'm very disappointed that we haven't been given the exemption that we desired."

He said that he hoped Catholic adoption agencies could still operate once the transition period was over.
"There may well be some way in which, without breaking the law, our Catholic services can continue in their work according to Catholic principles."

The report was compiled by the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), and published by The Age newspaper. The Great Barrier Reef is regarded as the world's largest living organism.
It is Australia's number one tourist destination, attracting a million visitors a year, and is home to sharks, turtles and numerous brightly coloured fish.

The IPCC - widely seen as the world's most authoritative body on global warming - is releasing a report later this week in Paris, summarising the scientific basis for climate change.

GREAT BARRIER REEF
More than 2,000 km long
Home to 1,500 types of fish
Only living thing the naked eye can see from space

In the coming months, the panel will also release two more reports, detailing the consequences of global warming and suggesting possible ways forward. The draft document obtained by The Age, which is due for official release in April, includes a chapter on Australia. It warns that the Great Barrier Reef will become "functionally extinct" because of coral bleaching - which occurs when the plant-like organisms that make up the coral die, leaving behind a white limestone skeleton.

It takes at least a decade for coral to start recovering from severe bleaching. But the reef may not have the chance to recover, scientists warn, as temperatures continue to rise and the sea becomes more acidic. This raises the risk that the coral will die outright.

Water is already recycled in places like Singapore and the UK, but the idea is still unpopular in Australia. But the country is currently suffering from a severe drought - the worst on record. Last week Prime Minister John Howard declared water security to be the biggest challenge currently facing Australia, and he announced a A$10bn ($7.7bn; £3.9bn) package to tackle the problem.

Mr Beattie said that falling water levels had left his state administration with no option but to introduce recycled water in south-eastern Queensland, starting from next year. "We're not getting rain; we've got no choice," he told ABC radio. "These are ugly decisions, but you either drink water or you die. There's no choice. It's liquid gold, it's a matter of life and death," he said. Mr Howard supported Mr Beattie's comments, telling a Sydney radio station: "I've advocated recycling for a long time... I am very strongly in favour of recycling, and Mr Beattie is right."

The report's lead author, Munira Mirza, blamed government policy for a growing split between Muslims and non-Muslims. She said ministers should engage with Muslims as citizens. The survey of more than 1,000 Muslims from different age groups in the UK, found:

71% of over-55s compared with 62% of 16 to 24-year-olds feel they have as much, if not more, in common with non-Muslims in Britain than with Muslims abroad

19% of over-55s compared with 37% of 16 to 24-year-olds would prefer to send their children to Islamic state schools

17% of over-55s compared with 37% of 16 to 24-year-olds would prefer living under Sharia law than British law

28% of over-55s compared with 74% of 16 to 24-year-olds prefer Muslim women to choose to wear the hijab

3% of over-55s compared with 13% of 16 to 24-year-olds admire organisations like al-Qaeda that are prepared to fight the West

Ms Mirza said the government should stop emphasising differences between Muslims and non-Muslims. "The emergence of a strong Muslim identity in Britain is, in part, a result of multicultural policies implemented since the 1980s, which have emphasised difference at the expense of shared national identity. "Religiosity amongst younger Muslims is not about following their parents' cultural traditions, but rather, their interest in religion is more politicised. "Islamist groups have gained influence at local and national level by playing the politics of identity and demanding for Muslims the 'right to be different'."

Conservative leader David Cameron said the poll was extremely worrying. "It shows the extent to which multiculturalism has failed, because what the poll showed is that these young people feel more separated from Britain than their parents did," he told BBC News.

The UK, Czech Republic and Poland want the constitution replaced by a new, slimmed-down mini-treaty. French and Dutch voters rejected the constitution in referendums in 2005. Spain's Foreign Minister Miguel Angel Moratinos told the meeting in Madrid the constitution was "a magnificent document" that should be "complemented rather than carved up".

"Is the only way out of the constitutional impasse the wholesale dismantling of the constitutional treaty? By cutting it into little pieces?" he asked. The new constitution was drafted to streamline decision-making within the growing EU and would create a permanent president and foreign ministry.

The BBC's Oana Lungescu in Madrid says Spain now seems set on a collision course with opponents of the constitution. Belgium and Luxembourg have expressed views similar to Spain's. The German Chancellor, Angela Merkel, whose country holds the rotating EU presidency, aims to bring both camps together by June.
But our correspondent says that will not be easy.

Wary of dividing the EU even more, Germany only sent an observer to the Madrid meeting of "the friends of the constitution". Germany did back the constitution in a parliamentary vote, but has not yet formally ratified it. The countries represented in Madrid were: Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Estonia, Finland, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia and Spain.

The conservative contender in the French presidential race, Nicolas Sarkozy, was the first to call for a mini-treaty that would be ratified by parliament, not through another referendum.

A mini-treaty would cut the existing constitution into bits and preserve only the technical changes that would allow the EU to work more effectively and admit further new members.
The Europe ministers of Spain and Luxembourg, who organised the conference, say the countries that have approved the constitution - with a combined population of more than 270 million - want their voice to be heard.

In a joint article published in a number of European newspapers, Spain's Alberto Navarro and Luxembourg's Nicolas Schmit say that in today's globalised world "a united and capable Europe is more necessary than ever. "We cannot resign ourselves to Europe being no more than a huge market or a free trade area," they write.

"Be joyous my heart, miracles of the Messiah will soon be here," reads a poem used to conclude the first broadcast. "The scent of breaths of the One we know comes from near. Grieve not of sorrow and melancholy, as assured I was
? last night that a Savior will come, it's clear."

After the coming of the 12th imam, or Mahdi, "liberal democratic civilization" will be found only in "history museums," explained the program.

"Contrary to the views of western theoreticians, who usually depict an ambiguous and dark future for mankind, Muslim experts believe human history, despite its many ups and downs, has a very auspicious fate," explained the program. "Muslims believe hopes for the realization of such a happy ending for the world are called 'Awaiting Redemption,' and means waiting for man's problems to be solved by the Savior at the end of time. This awaiting influences many, and inspired them with activity and enthusiasm in confronting darkness and oppression for changing the existing situation."

This messianic figure will be a direct descendant of Muhammad, according to the broadcasts.

"In short, when he reappears, peace, justice and security will overcome oppression and deceit and one global government, the most perfect ever, will be established," it said.

The Mahdi will appear suddenly, according to the report, in Mecca. Though no one can know the day, Shiites believe, the report actually suggests possibilities in the Muslim calendar.

The Mahdi will lead a cataclysmic battle against a descendant of Muhammad's archenemy, Abu Sofyan, culminating in the cities of Kufa and Najaf. His enemy, though, is destroyed later in Jerusalem.

"Another beautiful moment of the Savior's appearance is the coming down of Prophet Jesus (PBUH) from heaven," says the report. "Hazrat Mahdi receives him courteously and asks him to lead the prayers. But Jesus says you are more qualified for this than me. We read in the book Tazkarat ol-Olia, 'the Mahdi will come with Jesus son of Mary accompanying him.' This indicates that these two great men are (sic) complement each other. Imam Mahdi will be the leader while Prophet Jesus will act as his lieutenant in the struggle against oppression and establishment of justice in the world. Jesus had himself given the tidings of the coming of God's last messenger and will see Mohammad's ideals materialize in the time of the Mahdi."
As WND reported last month, in a greeting to the world's Christians for the coming new year, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said he expects both Jesus and the Mahdi, to return and "wipe away oppression."

"I wish all the Christians a very happy new year and I wish to ask them a question as well," said Ahmadinejad, according to an Iranian Student News Agency report cited by YnetNews.com

"My one question from the Christians is: What would Jesus do if he were present in the world today? What would he do before some of the oppressive powers of the world who are in fact residing in Christian countries? Which powers would he revive and which of them would he destroy?" asked the Iranian leader.

"If Jesus were present today, who would be facing him and who would be following him?"

Ahmadinejad's mystical pre-occupation with the coming of the Mahdi is raising concerns that a nuclear-armed Islamic Republic could trigger the kind of global conflagration he envisions will set the stage for the end of the world.

The launcher is a version of the Shahab 3 missile that has a range of 800 to 1,000 miles, the magazine said, citing unidentified U.S. agencies. A missile of its kind could reach Saudi Arabia and as far west as Turkey, the report said.

Additionally, improvements in space launches could help Iran build an intercontinental ballistic missile with a range of almost 2,500 miles, according to the magazine.A satellite launch by Iran would likely increase concern by the United States and Europe about its strategic capabilities and intentions, the magazine said.

Iran has long been at odds with the United States and Europe, pushing ahead with plans to enrich uranium as part of what Tehran calls a peaceful energy program. The West has feared that Iran instead was trying to develop nuclear weapons.

London-based forecaster Tropical Storm Risk on Tuesday said the six-month season, which begins on June 1, was expected to bring 17 tropical storms, of which nine will strengthen into hurricanes with winds of at least 74 miles per hour .Four of those are expected to become more destructive "intense" hurricanes, TSR said.
But TSR said current and projected climate signals indicate that Atlantic basin and U.S. landfalling hurricane activity will be 75 percent above the 1950-2006 average in 2007.

TSR had predicted in December that Atlantic basin and U.S. landfalling hurricane activity would be just 60 percent above average this year. It raised the projected activity level because of the sudden dissipation in February of last year's El Nino weather phenomenon.

An unusual warming of the eastern Pacific waters, El Nino events tend to suppress Atlantic storm activity. Other experts, including hurricane forecast pioneer Dr. William Gray and his team at Colorado State University, have also warned that the 2007 hurricane season is likely to be busier-than-average.

The relative calm of last year's hurricane season, which forecasters had mistakenly predicted would be busy, came on the heels of a record 28 storms and 15 hurricanes in 2005 and only a slightly less furious season in 2004.

US military unveils heat-ray gun

The US military has given the first public display of what it says is a revolutionary heat-ray weapon to repel enemies or disperse hostile crowds.
Called the Active Denial System, it projects an invisible high energy beam that produces a sudden burning feeling, but is said to be harmless.

Military officials believe the gun could be used as a non-lethal way of making enemies surrender their weapons. Officials said there was wide-ranging military interest in the technology. "This is a breakthrough technology that's going to give our forces a capability they don't now have," defence official Theodore Barna told Reuters news agency. "We expect the services to add it to their tool kit. And that could happen as early as 2010."

US 'plans stealth shark spies'

Pentagon scientists are planning to turn sharks into "stealth spies" capable of tracking vessels undetected, a British magazine has reported.
They want to remotely control the sharks by implanting electrodes in their brains, The New Scientist says.

It says the aim is "to exploit sharks' natural ability to glide through the water, sense delicate electrical gradients and follow chemical trails".

US military looks to 'black ice'

The plastic-like substance, the brainchild of the US Defence Advanced Research Projects Agency (Darpa), would be used to force slip-ups from enemies. The "polymer ice" would be designed for hot, arid environments, "as found in Iraq and Afghanistan", it said.

A spray-on "reversal agent" could be incorporated into boots and tyres to prevent friendly forces sliding around. In a document published on the agency's website, officials point out that "to get from point A to point B, one must have sufficient traction with the ground". Darpa believes a polymer-based compound could replicate the properties of black ice - a thin, translucent slippery coating, typically found on roads in winter - to reduce traction.

The villagers do not seem to see any link between their large appetite for firewood and the advancing sand dunes. They keep cutting down trees in the vicinity and using sun-dried branches as wood fuel or even as an income earner.

Further east in a village called Damasak, Sani Yunusa, 56, says the sand dunes were "not so strange". He claims he had witnessed something similar as a child. "The sand should not prevent people from cutting down trees as they have been doing for centuries," he says. "Desertification is just nature at work and it will reverse itself when it is ready."

But Mr Yunusa is no expert on desertification and the experts say that the march of the sand towards Nigeria's south has become almost irreversible. And the more trees villagers in Bulamadu and Damask cut down, the faster the sand dunes gallop towards the coastline to the country's south.

Earlier this month, Mr Bush announced the deployment of over 20,000 more troops in a bid to end the violence.
Site - a Washington-based organisation that analyses militant networks - posted the video and transcript on its website, but did not say how it obtained it. In the tape - 14 minutes of footage with English subtitles - Zawahiri said that Mr Bush's strategy in Iraq was going to fail.

"I ask him, why send 20,000 (troops) only - why not send 50,000 or 100,000?" he said. "Aren't you aware that the dogs of Iraq are pining for your troops' dead bodies?" He said that al-Qaeda and the Taleban were regaining control in Afghanistan, and called on all Muslims to bear arms or support those bearing arms to defend Islam. The message is the first apparent reaction by al-Qaeda to Mr Bush's planned "surge" in Iraq.

On 5 January, Zawahiri appeared in an audiotape posted on a website urging Somalia's Islamist militias to carry out attacks against Ethiopian troops.

He said he might have had to sanction the removal of a child from its natural family into the care of a gay couple. Mr McCormick said his request to avoid such cases had been refused. That left him with no option but to resign, he claims.

Mr McClintock, a member of the Christian People's Alliance council, said new rules on same-sex couples contradicted both his personal religious beliefs and his duty as a magistrate to put the child's welfare first.
Last year Mr McClintock, a former manager in the steel industry and now a self-employed logistics consultant, said he thought it was wrong for the government to use disadvantaged children as "guinea pigs".

He said placing them with gay couples was an "experiment in social science". The tribunal, which is expected to last three days, is due to begin in Sheffield. His case is to be heard as the Roman Catholic church mounts a campaign to be exempt from laws on adoption by gay couples.

Catholic leaders in England and Wales said its teaching prevented church adoption agencies placing children with homosexuals and they would have to close if bound by the rules.