It comes as members of the country's army units have reportedly clashed with each other over the crackdown on protesters in the city of Deraa - the heart of the popular uprising. More than 500 people have been killed across Syria - about 100 in Deraa alone - since the revolt against President Assad began in mid-March, according to human rights groups.

Ausama Monajed, a spokesman for a group of opposition figures in Syria and abroad, said the clashes among the troops have occurred since President Assad sent the army into the city on Monday. He said: "There are some battalions that refused to open fire on the people. Battalions of the 5th Division were protecting people, and returned fire when they were subjected to attacks by the 4th Division." The 4th division is run by the president's brother, Maher.

The Syrian government has denied there have been clashes between army units. The reported infighting in Deraa does not indicate any decisive splits in the military. But the development is being seen as significant because President Assad's army has been seen as a bastion of support for the regime. The Assad regime has been heavily criticised internationally and the US is considering tightening sanctions against the country.

European governments will discuss the situation on Friday

Egypt's new Foreign Ministry heads plan to normalize ties with Iran, according to spokeswoman Mena Bakhoum. "All the world has diplomatic ties with Iran with the exception of the United States and Israel," she said this week. "We look at Iran as a neighbor in the region that we should have normal relations with." Iran is currently perceived as neither enemy nor friend, she added. During anti-regime protests in Egypt, Iran encouraged protesters and expressed hope that a "new Egypt" would become part of an Islamic revolution in the Middle East. Iran has since called for stronger ties with Egypt.

Gulf regimes have expressed concern over Cairo's warmer ties with Iran. Bakhoum also announced that Egypt intends to completely open its border with Gaza. She termed the one-time blockade on Hamas "shameful." Egypt previously put in place a blockade of Hamas more stringent that Israel's, as Israel allowed humanitarian goods to enter through its borders. However, over the past two years Egypt has increasingly allowed people and goods to pass through its border with southern Gaza. Israel has relaxed its policy as well, but continues to forbid the import to Gaza of weapons or dual-purpose materials.

Most of the weapons in Gaza are believed to have entered the region via smuggling tunnels under the Egyptian border. Israel has relied on Egypt to fight smuggling and the weapons trade in the Sinai Peninsula. Egypt showed its new approach to Hamas during talks for Palestinian Authority unity held with Hamas leaders and leaders of the rival Fatah faction. Hamas representatives were invited to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and met with senior leaders, including interim head of state Mohamed Tantawi.

The source of the River Thames has dried up after the UK experienced the lowest recorded rainfall in March since 1929. The Thames head spring in Trewsbury Mead near Cirencester, Gloucestershire, has stopped flowing after the driest March in more than 80 years. It was fed from deep underground and joins with the River Churn to make up the waters of the Thames that stretches for 215 miles (346 km).

But a stone placed in the meadow three miles south of Cirencester to mark the source of the infamous river is as dry as a bone. Experts are warning that the lack of rainfall is likely to lead to hosepipe bans and the possibility of droughts through the summer. The parched start to spring has left rivers across England and Wales 'exceptionally low' for the time of year, putting wildlife at risk and raising the prospect of hosepipe bans.

Forecasters say this month is on course to be one of the warmest and driest on record - and follows the driest March in 60 years.

At least 13 rivers are experiencing the kind of low levels seen in April only once every 20 years.

Ranchers were struggling to feed and water cattle, and farmers were left to watch their crops shrivel into the dusty soil. Some experts estimated that PRODUCERS WERE GIVING UP ON AS MUCH AS 70 PERCENT OF THE STATE'S WHEAT ACREAGE. "There are some scary things going on in Texas," said Brian Fuchs, climatologist with the National Drought Mitigation Center, which released its weekly drought analysis Thursday morning.

The National Oceanic Atmospheric Association said this week that the drought appeared to be the worst since at least 1967. Lost agricultural production in Texas was estimated to top $3 billion, which compares with $4 billion in losses in 2006 and $3.6 billion in 2009. The dramatically lower-than-normal amount of moisture in the soil has caused widespread crop failures, including to the state's hard red winter wheat crop.

Texas is a key production area for wheat. The losses there and in parts of the US Plains hit by drought will aggravate already short supplies around the world. The drought in Texas and the Southwest comes at the same time that violent storms are spawning flooding and deadly tornadoes through parts of the Midwest and Southeast. The excessive rainfall has slowed the planting of corn in the Midwest and could threaten other crops like soybeans.

Under pressure from Ahmadinejad the intelligence minister, Heydar Moslehi, a close ally of the supreme leader, stepped down on 17 April but was reinstated when Khamenei asked him in a letter to stay. The president has not publicly shown his support for that decision and on Wednesday he refused for the second time to chair a cabinet meeting in which Moslehi was present. Ahmadinejad also reportedly cancelled an official visit to the holy city of Qom prompting reactions among conservatives that "the president was sulking".

Under Iran's constitution, the president is in charge of appointing cabinet ministers who will hold the ministerial office after the approval of the parliament but an unwritten law requires all officials to abide by the supreme leader. Iran's opposition has speculated that Khamenei is worried about the increasing power of Ahmadinejad and especially his chief-of-staff Esfandiar Rahim Mashaei. Khamenei is believed to be particularly concerned about two key positions in the cabinet, the ministry of foreign affairs and the intelligence ministry, where he traditionally has influence. Ahmadinejad's administration is also accused of losing billions of dollars of Iran's oil revenues in recent years.

Khamenei has tried to play down his confrontation with Ahmadinejad in recent days. In an official visit to the southern province of Fars last Saturday, he praised the achievements made by Ahmadinejad's government and told the crowd he only intervenes in the government's affairs when he feels that "the expediency is ignored". He added: "I won't allow as long as I'm alive, an iota of deviation of this massive movement of the nation."

Even if rain were to fall at a normal rate for the remainder of the spring, the consequences of what has already happened in the Midwest will affect the way of life, property, agriculture and travel/shipping/navigation for weeks in the region. While the amount of evacuees currently numbers in the hundreds, it could soon number in the tens of thousands as levees are topped or breached and rivers expand their girth into more farming communities, towns and cities.

The flooding problem is not only for the major rivers in the long term, but flooding could repeat later this season for the smaller rivers feeding into the Mississippi and Ohio rivers as well as the multitude of small streams that feed into the rivers. The Black River flooded areas around Poplar Bluff, Missouri, while rising waters along a stream overtook the town of Johnson, Arkansas, early this week. A several-day stretch of rain-free weather is forecast by AccuWeather.com meteorologists to continue into the first part of the weekend. However, more rain and perhaps severe thunderstorms may return by early next week.

"There's a pretty good chance some of these were a mile wide, on the ground for tens of miles and had wind speeds over 200 mph," said Harold Brooks of the National Severe Storms Laboratory in Norman, Oklhoma. It may have been a single long-ranging twister that battered Tuscaloosa, Alabama, and then covered the 60 miles to Birmingham, Brooks said.

Most tornadoes are weak, so most reasonably built structures survive them. The typical tornado is on the ground for a couple of miles and is a couple hundred yards wide with half the wind speed of the storms that barreled through the region on Wednesday. It was the deadliest day for tornadoes since a series of twisters killed more than 300 people in 11 states in 1974, Brooks added. The death toll from Wednesday has surpassed 250 and is rising. The worst day in recorded history for storm fatalities is March 18, 1925, with 747 deaths.

As day broke Thursday, people in hard-hit areas surveyed obliterated homes and debris-strewn streets. Some told of deadly winds whipping through within seconds of weather alerts broadcast during the storms Wednesday afternoon and evening. Alabama's state emergency management agency said it had confirmed 162 deaths, while there were 33 in Mississippi, 33 in Tennessee, 13 in Georgia, eight in Virginia and one in Kentucky.

President Barack Obama said he would visit Alabama Friday to view damage and meet with the governor and families devastated by the storms. Obama has already expressed condolences by phone to Governor Robert Bentley and approved his request for emergency federal assistance. The storm system spread destruction from Texas to New York, where dozens of roads were flooded or washed out.

The governors of Alabama, Mississippi and Georgia issued emergency declarations for parts of their states. Tornado watches were in effect Thursday for some areas from Georgia to Maryland.

Despite "damning evidence" of a serious problem, little progress had been made in tackling the unsustainable situation, the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Homeland Security said. They urged the Government to tackle the issue on campuses with "utmost urgency". Such extremism "endangers our security at home and has international implications that are serious enough to threaten our alliance relationships", said the group, which includes the former home secretary Lord Reid.

Secret files obtained by The Daily Telegraph and WikiLeaks disclosed this week that at least 35 terrorists held at Guantanamo Bay were indoctrinated by extremists in Britain. The leaked documents, written by senior US military commanders, illustrated how Britain effectively became a crucible of terrorism over the course of two decades.

Universities UK, which represents vice-chancellors, said it could do very little about extremism on campus. Instead it issued new guidance on the importance of freedom of speech. Their report followed the attempt by Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, a former student at University College London, to blow himself up using a bomb in his underpants as a flight came in to land at Detroit on Christmas Day, 2009. Abdulmutallab, an engineering student, was the Islamic Society president from 2006 to 2007.

Fatah loyalists have often been unable to hide their hatred of fundamentalist hard-liners in Hamas who took control of Gaza in 2007. But Palestinian unity is a goal cherished by most people in Gaza and the West Bank, who say that the four-year split has seriously undermined and harmed chances of the creation of an independent Palestinian state.

But there is still a long way to go. Elections would have to be held in Gaza and the West Bank, presumably later this year for a new Palestinian parliament and the presidency. Also, as Hamas is proscribed as a terrorist organisation by many Western countries, it is difficult to see how they could co-operate with any future administration unless Hamas formally changes its attitude and constitution vis-a-vis Israel.

US President Barack Obama has approved emergency aid for Alabama, including search and rescue assistance. Eleven more people were killed in storms earlier this week in the South. The storms also killed 11 people in Mississippi, two in Georgia and one in both Arkansas and Tennessee. The current storm system was forecast to hit North and South Carolina on Wednesday evening, before making its way further north-east.

Governors in Alabama, Arkansas and Tennessee have each declared a state of emergency as a result of the newest round of heavy winds, rains and tornadoes. President Obama declared a state of emergency for Alabama, releasing federal aid money. "While we may not know the extent of the damage for days, we will continue to monitor these severe storms across the country and stand ready to continue to help the people of Alabama and all citizens affected by these storms," Mr Obama said in a statement on Wednesday night.

Storm systems have pummelled states across the southern US for weeks, with severe weather being blamed for the deaths of 10 people in Arkansas and one in Mississippi earlier this week.

"The security services have demolished the values with which grew up. We denounce and condemn everything that has taken place and announce with regret our resignation from the party," they said in a signed statement. "Practices of the security services against our unarmed citizens... are against all human values and the slogans of the party," they wrote. The Baath party signatories from the Banias region condemned "the house raids and the indiscriminate use of live fire against people, homes, mosques and churches."

The warning over the debt limit is the strongest yet to come from Wall Street, highlighting growing nervousness among investors about the US political system's ability to forge a consensus on fiscal policy. The most pressing budgetary issue confronting Congress and the Obama administration is the need to raise the US debt ceiling, which stands at $14,300 billion.

That threshold will be reached by May 16 and the Treasury department has said that in the absence of congressional action, the world's largest economy could default by early July. Although such a scenario is still likely to be avoided, the looming deadline is stoking concerns within the financial industry.

"Any delay in making an interest or principal payment by Treasury even for a very short period of time would put the US Treasury and overall financial markets in uncharted territory and could trigger another catastrophic financial crisis," said Matthew Zames, a JPMorgan executive, in a letter to Tim Geithner, the Treasury secretary, this week.

Israel immediately said that the Palestinian Authority could not have peace with both Hamas and Israel. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said: "I hope the Palestinian Authority will make the right choice - peace with Israel." Hamas has carried out bombings and rocket attacks against Israel for years and does not recognise its right to exist.

The US responded to the news by saying that any Palestinian unity government would have to renounce violence and recognise Israel. Thousands of Palestinians protested in Gaza this month, calling for reconciliation. The protests were inspired by uprisings elsewhere in the Middle East and North Africa. The split between Fatah and Hamas occurred when violence erupted a year after Hamas won Palestinian elections in 2006. Hamas seized control of Gaza in 2007.

The BBC's Jonathan Head in Cairo says that if the deal goes ahead, it will end the bitter hostility between the two sides and remove a significant barrier to the Palestinian campaign for statehood. But he says there are many difficult issues to resolve - such as how the two factions will share security, how Gaza and the West Bank, separated by Israeli territory, will be governed, and whether the international donors will be willing to recognise Hamas.

In Britain, judges rejected the case for inmates being allowed to vote in parliamentary elections, but their verdict was overturned in Europe. Mr Clarke, who is attending a meeting of European justice ministers in Turkey, also appeared to rebuke the court for the poor standard of its judges - many of whom have no prior judicial experience in their homeland.

It will be seen as a hardening of the position held by Mr Clarke, who had previously indicated that rulings of the Strasbourg court must be respected. Tory MPs will now hope that the Government will press for proper reform of the European court when Britain takes over the rotating chairmanship of the Council of Europe in November. One possible option is to make the UK's Supreme Court the final court of appeal. Currently, a claimant can lose at every stage in Britain, only to be triumphant in Europe.

Europe has consistently rode roughshod over the wishes of Parliament over prisoner voting rights. In 2005, it ruled it was unlawful for convicted axe killer John Hirst to have been denied the vote. Last week, senior LibDem peer Lord Carlile said rulings by judges in Strasbourg are having a 'chilling effect' on public safety in Britain. He attacked the way the European Convention on Human Rights was blocking the removal of foreign criminals and terror suspects.