The Vermont Legislature considered a GE food labeling bill this session but Democratic leaders decided not to pursue the plan because of fears that the legislation would result in A LENGTHY AND EXPENSIVE LEGAL FIGHT WITH A NUMBER OF MAJOR CHEMICAL COMPANIES.

Michigan Democrat Debbie Stabenow is the chair of the Senate Agriculture committee. She opposed the plan because she was concerned that it would interfere with the development of drought resistant crops. "Consumers certainly need to have available information. We need to make sure it's accurate according to the FDA after they determine that and I would make one other point," said Stabenow. "You know, American farmers are feeding the world, with 7 billion mouths to feed this is harder every day. Science innovation is very important to that."

"The greens use guilt. You can’t win people round by saying they are guilty for putting CO2 in the air. Now at the UN Earth Summit, even the image of Christ has been made a forcible convert to the eco-faith, as the city of Rio is bathing the iconic statue of Christ the Redeemer (Christo Redentor) in green light." They highlight how Jesus is signifying a shift to a 'green religion', and that perhaps even obligations such as recycling, paying carbon taxes, or living with smart meters could be seen as "religious duties of the faithful".

The left-wing National Religious Partnership for the Environment has been working for years in the US to make green tenets a staple of religious life in America. A bizarre eco-version of the Ark of the Covenant is making its way around the globe. And a “Green Bible” is now available at your local Christian bookstore.

Is all this ecclesiastical symbolism at an eco summit indicative of a shift towards religious dogma? If so, it encompasses not just modern Christianity, but also ancient beliefs and gods. Some would say the "new age" green religion we are being offered is actually an echo of an old one.

The move, which has been discussed between Riyadh and senior officials in the US and Arab world, is believed to be gaining momentum as a recent flush of weapons sent to rebel forces by Saudi Arabia and Qatar starts to make an impact on battlefields in Syria. Officials in the Saudi capital embraced the idea when it was put to them by Arab officials in May, according to sources in three Arab states, around the same time that weapons started to flow across the southern Turkish border into the hands of Free Syria Army leaders.

Turkey has also allowed the establishment of a command centre in Istanbul which is co-ordinating supply lines in consultation with FSA leaders inside Syria. The centre is believed to be staffed by up to 22 people, most of them Syrian nationals. The Free Syria Army says its members are almost exclusively Syrian nationalists who disavow the world view of jihadists who flocked to neighbouring Iraq from 2004-07. It acknowledges that some foreign Arab fighters have travelled to Syria to join its ranks, particularly in Homs and in Douma near Damascus, but claims they do not play a decisive role.

Intelligence officials say a power vacuum would provide an attractive environment for militants who espouse a global jihad world view. "The next three to six months are crucial in Syria," one official said. "The ingredients are right for them [jihadists] to turn up and start acting decisively. That would not be a good outcome."

This additional debt crisis could have a material impact on our profitability as it affects the largest supplier of goods for resale to the US: China. There is a debt crisis in China no one is talking about. Let’s take a closer look at it. China is a huge country. With a population of nearly 1.34 billion people spread out across 3.7 million square miles, managing China is no easy task. Over the past 10 years, Chinese cities have seen a tremendous population boom as people from the country moved in search of economic opportunity. In 1978 approximately 17 percent of the population lived in urban areas.

Today, nearly half the population lives in urban areas. The scale and speed of this urbanization is unprecedented. While this has helped shape China’s economic rise, it has also taken a tremendous toll on municipal governments. Managing this growth through the expansion of services and infrastructure has cost a great deal of money. They obtained the money by borrowing it. Lots of it.

According to a study by Standard Chartered Bank, local governments in China owe the equivalent of an estimated $1.5 to $2.1 trillion. This debt burden is putting tremendous pressure on local governments across China. Interest payments alone total $7 billion to $10 billion per month. The problem is so extensive that it is unlikely that tax increases and the sale of municipal-owned land to private investors can solve the problem. Making matters worse is that most of this money is owed to local and national banks across China. Municipal governments could soon start violating loan covenants or missing payments outright.

This will negatively impact the financial integrity of banks that aren’t receiving what they are due. As banks weaken, depositors may worry that their money is at risk and go to withdraw it. This could lead to runs on banks. It could also lead to banks making knee jerk reactions and freezing their lending to other customers in order to preserve their capital. This has all the ingredients of a crisis in the making.

Spain's Economy Minister Luis De Guindos said in the letter to Eurogroup chairman Jean-Claude Juncker that the final amount of the financial assistance would be set at a later stage but should be enough to cover all banks' needs plus an additional security buffer. He also confirmed his intention to sign a Memorandum of Understanding for the package, which would include full details, by July 9.

Mr Mursi could be sworn in on 30 June, although questions remain over the extent of his authority. The ruling military council has taken control of many of the president's powers and has dissolved parliament. In his victory speech on Sunday, Mr Mursi, 60, urged Egyptians "to strengthen our national unity" and promised an inclusive presidency. "There is no room now for the language of confrontation," he said, after the election authorities declared that he had won 51.73% in the 16-17 June presidential run-off.

Mr Mursi will now have to begin building a civilian administration and the focus will now turn to his choice of prime minister. The BBC's Jon Leyne in Cairo said there was some talk of him having discussions with Nobel peace-prize winner Mohamed ElBaradei, which would provide reassurance to non-Islamists. Mr Mursi has also promised to appoint a range of vice presidents and a cabinet of "all the talents".

Field Marshal Mohamed Hussein Tantawi, Egypt's military ruler, was among the first to congratulate him on his victory. But the BBC's Jon Leyne says the question remains how much real power Mr Mursi will have when he swears the oath of office. He will not have a sitting parliament or a permanent constitution to define his powers or duties. Israel responded to the result, saying that it "values the democratic process" and expected to "continue co-operation" with Egypt's government on the basis of the 1979 peace accord.

Hot, dry and gusty conditions are expected to continue into Sunday after fueling the two fires that erupted a day earlier. At least seven wildfires are now burning across Colorado, where officials have been challenged by one of the most severe wildfire seasons in recent memory. The larger of the two new fires Saturday was the Waldo Canyon Fire near Colorado Springs, which flared up around noon. The Colorado Springs Gazette reported early Sunday that the 5,000 residents of Manitou Springs, just several miles west of Colorado Springs, were ordered to evacuate.

Evacuation orders also had been in place on the west side of Colorado Springs and in the towns of Cascade and Ute Pass. In some neighborhoods, Colorado Springs police cruisers rolled down streets, issuing the order to leave through a loudspeaker. "Colorado Springs Police Department," an officer said. "This is a mandatory evacuation notice. Evacuate now." Hundreds of other residents were under voluntary evacuation orders and have been packing up, the newspaper reported.

Elsewhere in the West, firefighters made progress against wildfires in Utah, New Mexico and California. In Utah, about 2,300 Utah wildfire evacuees were allowed to return to their homes Saturday evening after officials determined the blaze no longer posed a threat to them. The decision came after the fire had burned Friday within a quarter mile of some homes in Saratoga Springs and Eagle Mountain, about 40 miles south of Salt Lake City, Bureau of Land Management spokeswoman Teresa Rigby said. The fire that officials believe was started Thursday by target shooters was 30 percent contained Saturday evening, with full containment expected Tuesday.

Crews also were battling a 16,500-acre brush fire on high desert near the town of Delta in central Utah. In California, a wildfire that broke out about 60 miles north of Los Angeles has triggered evacuations of campgrounds around an off-road recreation area. The Ventura County Fire Department says the fire was reported shortly after noon Saturday near the Hungry Valley State Vehicular Recreation Area. It has burned at least 400 acres. The cause of the fire is under investigation. Hungry Valley is located along the Interstate 5 corridor, in Gorman.

In New Mexico, a lightning-caused wildfire that destroyed 242 homes and businesses is 90 percent contained after crews got a break in the weather. Heavy rain Friday helped crews increase containment lines on the 69-square-mile fire near Ruidoso that began June 4. Meanwhile, the more than 464-square-mile Whitewater-Baldy blaze, the largest in state history, is 87 percent contained. It began May 16 as two lightning-caused blazes that merged to form one fire.

Every serious proposal to resolve the euro crisis since 2009 – haircuts for bank bondholders, more realistic fiscal consolidation targets, jointly guaranteed eurobonds, a pan-European bailout fund, quantitative easing by the European Central Bank – has been vetoed by Germany, and this pattern looks likely to be repeated next week. Nobody should be surprised that Germany has become the greatest threat to Europe. After all, this has happened twice before since 1914.

To state this unmentionable fact is not to impugn Germans with original sin, but merely to note Germany’s unusual geopolitical situation. Germany is too big and powerful to coexist comfortably with its European neighbors in any political structure ruled purely by national interests. Yet it isn’t big and powerful enough to dominate its neighbors decisively, as the US dominates North America or China will dominate the Far East.

Wise German politicians recognized this inherent instability after 1945 and abandoned the realpolitik of national interest in favor of the idealism of European unification. Instead of trying to create a “German Europe” the new national goal was to build a “European Germany.” Unfortunately, this lesson seems to have been forgotten by Angela Merkel. Whatever the intellectual arguments for or against German-imposed austerity or the German-designed fiscal compact, there can be no dispute about their political import. MERKEL’S STATED GOAL IS NOW TO CREATE A “GERMAN EUROPE,” WITH EVERY NATION LIVING, WORKING AND RUNNING ITS GOVERNMENT ACCORDING TO GERMAN RULES.

Merkel doubtless believes that she is helping Europe when she maternally instructs the Greeks, Italians and Spaniards to “do their homework” and so become good little Germans. But like its less benign predecessors, this effort to impose German hegemony is guaranteed to fail. Europe’s leaders must therefore start considering a previously unmentionable question, perhaps as soon as next week’s summit, if the euro crisis intensifies. This question is not whether Europe will agree to live under German leadership, BUT WHETHER GERMANY WILL AGREE TO LIVE UNDER EU LEADERSHIP – or whether the other nations must form a united front against Germany to prevent the destruction of Europe, as they have repeatedly in the past.

To be specific, the euro’s only chance of survival now depends on a decisive move toward political and fiscal union. Angela Merkel plays lip service to such political union, even claiming that democratic accountability is her main condition for financial rescues; but what she means is accountability to German voters, German newspapers and German constitutional judges. SHE PROMISES TO “DO WHATEVER IT TAKES TO SAVE THE EURO” BUT VETOES ANYTHING THAT MIGHT ACTUALLY WORK, claiming deference to German public opinion or national interests.

Europe must now call this bluff.

“The Islamic Revolution enjoys high capability, and if the Zionist regime wants to take an action against us, it will cause its imminent end,” said Major General Mostafa Izadi, the country’s deputy chief of staff. Izadi was speaking to the state-run Fars News Agency, which published his interview Saturday.

Talks between Tehran and six Western powers to curb Iran’s nuclear program ended last week, after several rounds and little headway. Western and Israeli officials have said they prefer diplomacy and sanctions to military action, but would leave all options, including a military strike, on the table. Iran maintains its nuclear program is peaceful, a claim which Israel and most Western countries, including the US, challenge.

In the interview, Izadi added that Iran could outmatch Israel militarily and otherwise. “In addition to military capabilities, we also have many other capabilities and possibilities which are way beyond the Zionist regime’s abilities and capabilities,” he said.

In some places the water was waist high and emergency services had to rescue people by boat. As many as 500 homes were flooded on Friday night, with many more under threat as the rains were due to return on Saturday night. The Environment Agency had 151 flood warnings and alerts in place yesterday as shop keepers and home owners cleaned up and assessed the damage.

“It was a pretty devastating picture,” said Simon Young, a councillor in the town on Mytholmroyd in West Yorkshire, where the River Calder overflowed. “Countless homes and businesses were under water in the centre. A lot of a people cannot remember anything like this in the last 24 years.”

Along the river in Hebden Bridge, many more traders had lost their stock. The rising waters forced sewage into the guest house run by David and Sally Henry, who said they faced being “ruined”. Mr Henry said: “It will take six months to clean this up, everything’s contaminated.” South west Scotland and Northern Ireland continued to endure torrential rain yesterday, while the Isle of Wight festival was a mud bath. But it was the north of England that suffered most.

Forecasters said Saturday the storm has maximum sustained winds of 50 mph (80 kph). A tropical storm warning has been issued for part of the Louisiana coast. The storm is moving north at 6 mph (10 kph). The center of Debby is expected to be moving over the northern Gulf during the next few days.

The National Hurricane Center says this is the first time four tropical storms have been recorded before July 1 during the Atlantic hurricane season since record keeping began in 1851. Alberto was the first storm this year. It formed off the South Carolina coast on May 19.

Mr Peña Nieto, currently ahead of the other two candidates by a comfortable 12 points, has been accused by his critics of taking Mexico back to the dark days of the past, when his party was notorious for corruption, autocratic rule and shady deals. His main opponent is already claiming electoral fraud - a precursor to challenging the result, say his supporters.

Earlier Mr Peña Nieto, a handsome 45-year-old former governor of Mexico State with a soap opera star wife, had fought his way through screaming fans to punch the air and chant "Yes we can", telling 15,000 flag-waving aficionados that his party would restore security to Mexico after 12 years in opposition. Why does he think Mexico appears ready for a change? "The answer is obvious," he told The Sunday Telegraph after the raucous rally. "Mexico is in a situation in which society is weakening. There is a lack of growth and employment for Mexican people. Above all there is a climate of insecurity, which evidently Mexicans just do not want."

Indeed, exhausted by six years of bloody drugs wars, Mexico looks likely to usher in a new era of rule by his centrist Institutional Revolution Party (PRI) – the party which governed the country for 71 years until 2000. In the eyes of many, this amounts to relinquishing attempts at political pluralism in exchange for a return to stability.

In a televised statement issued as tens of thousands of Brotherhood protesters poured into Tahrir Square in central Cairo, SCAF warned that the military and police would respond “firmly” to attempts to “harm public and private interests”. The Muslim Brotherhood is convinced that its candidate, Mohamed Morsi, won but fear that the military intends to hand victory to his rival, Ahmed Shafiq, a former air force commander who also served in the regime of the ailing former president Hosni Mubarak.

Mr Morsi condemned what he said was an attempt by the military “to mislead public opinion” and denied that the Muslim Brotherhood would orchestrate or condone a campaign of violent protest. “This [plan for violence] does not exist, will not exist, cannot exist and there is no scope for it to exist,” he said, surrounded by secular politicians including young activists who launched the uprising that unseated Mr Mubarak last year.

Casting himself as the standard bearer of the revolution against an entrenched military elite, the Islamist leader reiterated his rejection of new measures announced last week by SCAF which are widely seen as a “soft coup”. He vowed that peaceful protests would continue until the changes have been rescinded but, striking a conciliatory tone, also said had no problems with “the patriotic armed forces.”

After five years of declining property taxes, massive layoffs and questionable spending, leaders of the blue-collar, family-oriented city outside Las Vegas declared a state of emergency, invoking a rarely used state law crafted for unforeseen disasters.

No matter that the statute, which allows municipalities to suspend union contracts and avoid paying scheduled salary increases, doesn't actually include fiscal emergencies among the list of potential disasters. "It says, in case of 'emergency such as.' You can't list how many different types of emergencies there are in the world," City Council member Wade Wagner said of the move, which will save the city $9 million.

For nearly two years, the city, where residents have long paid the highest tax rate in southern Nevada, has teetered on the edge of insolvency. One in every 195 homes is in foreclosure, the state's highest rate. Once the nation's fastest growing city, it lost more than 3,000 businesses in three years after the recession hit in 2007. Its total revenue has plunged from $817 million in 2009 to $298 million this year.

Israeli security chiefs held a series of emergency consultations on Saturday — including a meeting of defense chiefs with Defense Minister Ehud Barak — and decided to try to avoid a further escalation of hostilities. Amid reports from Gaza Saturday night that Hamas was now seeking a ceasefire, security sources said “quiet will be met with quiet, but further rocket fire will be met with further fire [from Israel].” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was also involved in the consultations.

The sources said Israel had no interest in a major military response to the upsurge in rocket fire, given the current sensitivities in the region including the tension surrounding Egypt’s elections, the ongoing violence in Syria and Russian President Vladimir Putin’s visit to Israel this week.

A senior IDF official also speculated that Hamas wants to stop an escalation of hostilities in Gaza. He said that the group aims to prevent the launching of long-range rockets, despite pressure from other Islamist groups in Gaza to act otherwise. He summed up the nature of the ceasefire terms as “Quiet met by quiet, and fire met by fire.”