Chris Bryant, another gay minister, said: "If gays vote Tory they will rue the day very soon." But the Tories accused Labour of "name calling" and said David Cameron did not believe in any form of discrimination. Being seen to be more "gay friendly" has been a key part of DAVID CAMERON'S MISSION TO DECONTAMINATE THE CONSERVATIVE PARTY BRAND AND MAKE IT MORE ACCEPTABLE TO YOUNG, SOCIALLY LIBERAL VOTERS.

There are currently two openly gay men on the Conservative front bench - Shadow Justice Secretary Nick Herbert and Shadow Commons leader Alan Duncan. In a symbolic gesture aimed at further healing relations with the gay community and burying the Tories' "nasty party" image, Mr Cameron this week apologised for Section 28 - the controversial law brought in by the Conservatives in 1988 banning local authorities from portraying homosexuality in a positive light.

Mr Cameron, the first Tory leader to speak at a gay pride event, said: "I am sorry for Section 28. We got it wrong. It was an emotional issue. I hope you can forgive us." Labour has also been pushing its gay credentials. THIS SATURDAY IN LONDON, SARAH BROWN WILL BECOME THE FIRST PRIME MINISTER'S WIFE TO TAKE PART IN A GAY PRIDE MARCH. She will be accompanied at the event by veteran gay rights campaigner Peter Tatchell.

A few years ago, continental Europe was busy trying to present itself as a convincing alternative to American neoconservatives and their power-hungry worldview. And, in doing so, "Old Europe" actually experienced a completely unexpected resurgance. In the minds of its inhabitants, the European Union was THE PERFECT ALTERNATIVE TO AN ENORMOUS UNITED STATES THAT WAS DRUNK ON POWER, savouring its "unipolar moment" and not giving a hoot about either its allies or enemies.

Now, there's actually going to be a Lisbon Treaty, a telephone number and a foreign minister to boot (provided that Ireland - which already rejected Lisbon once in a referendum last summer - the Czech Republic and Poland don't pull the plug at the last minute). But, as both those who support and oppose continued European integration will confirm, there's not going to be much more than that. And the reason for that can be found in Tuesday's decision by Germany's Federal Constitutional Court, based in the western city of Karlsruhe. Karlsruhe said "Enough!" and it drew a line in the sand separating Brussels' power from its own.

And it's right: The fact that it only takes 70,000 voters in Luxembourg to get a seat in the European Parliament, while it takes 800,000 German voters to do the same thing, is proof in itself that there is no equality when it comes to voting. Long-standing euro-skeptics like the British will say that, in doing so, Germany has finally made up its mind THAT EUROPE IS AN UNRULY, UNDEMOCRATIC MONSTER. Still others will say that this decision reflects the reality that Europe is not a truly united entity and that, as a result, IT HAS PUT THE KIBOSH ON THE ALTOGETHER TOO AMBITIOUS FANTASIES ABOUT A FUTURE "UNITED STATES OF EUROPE."

The tuna - stocks of which are in global decline - would be raised in farms to meet surging demand around the world for the traditional Japanese delicacy. A team from Japan's Fisheries Research Agency, The University of Tokyo and Kyushu University is close to completing the genome sequence of the bluefin tuna to unravel the secrets of the chemical building blocks of the fish and expects to be able to start a breeding programme next year.

We have already completed two computer sequencing runs and have around 60 per cent of the tuna genome," said Dr. Kazumasa Ikuta, director of research at the Yokohama-based Fisheries Research Agency. "We expect to have the entire sequence in the next couple of months. We plan to use the sequence to establish a breeding programme for bluefin tuna as most aquaculture farmers presently use wild juveniles," he said. "We want to establish a complete aquaculture system that will produce fish that have good strength, are resistant to disease, grow quickly and taste delicious."

Stocks of tuna have declined by as much as 90 per cent in some waters and the World Wildlife Fund has warned that the Atlantic bluefin will have been wiped out within three years unless radical measures are taken to protect stocks.

"You may have green shoots, whatever you want to call them, you may have temporary relief, BUT YOU ARE STILL IN A WORLD THAT'S BREAKING," Taleb said on "Squawk Box." Anything that's fragile like the financial system will eventually crash, he said. "We're in the middle of a crash," Taleb said. "So if I'm going to forecast something, it is that it's going to get worse, not better."

The government needs to deleverage debt and not try stimulus packages that will inflate assets, he said. "What makes me very pessimistic is not seeing any leadership or awareness on parts of government on what has to be done, which is deleverage $40-to-$70 trillion," Taleb said. "The monkey on our back is debt," he added.

The payroll decline was more than forecast and followed a 322,000 drop in May, according to Labor Department figures released today in Washington. The jobless rate jumped to 9.5 percent, the highest since August 1983, from 9.4 percent.

Unemployment is projected to keep rising for the rest of the year just as the income boost from the stimulus package fades, undermining prospects for a sustained rebound in household purchases, analysts said. As companies from General Motors Corp to Kimberly-Clark Corp cut costs, the lack of jobs will restrain growth.

"This will be another jobless recovery," said John Silvia, chief economist at Wachovia Corp in Charlotte, North Carolina. "We may get positive economic growth driven largely by federal spending, but people on the street will say, 'Where are the jobs?'"

It means anti-flu drugs will no longer be given to the close contacts of those infected nor will lab testing be done to confirm cases. The move has been made to relieve the pressure on the health service. The announcement, which comes into effect immediately, has long been expected. It does not mean the pandemic virus is becoming more deadly, just that it can no longer be contained.

Although GPs will have the discretion not to prescribe anti-viral drugs. Some experts believe the drugs should just be targeted at the most vulnerable as the virus is quite mild and overuse can lead to resistance. Ministers rejected this option, but said doctors may want to limit use in certain situations such as where patients are suffering milder symptoms. The need for lab testing had already been lifted in several hotspots, such as London and Glasgow.

But the rest of the UK had been operating a containment strategy, which meant cases had to be confirmed and drugs were also offered to close contacts in a bid to prevent flu developing. It also led the closure of several schools. This will still be an option under the new phase, but shut downs will not be routine.

The figures come on the day new home secretary Alan Johnson makes his first major speech on crime, promising to be tough on loutish behaviour. The Tories said Labour had presided over a decade of spiralling violence. In the decade following the party's election in 1997, the number of recorded violent attacks soared by 77 per cent to 1.158million - or more than two every minute.

The figures, compiled from reports released by the European Commission and United Nations, also show: the UK has the second highest overall crime rate in the EU. It has a higher homicide rate than most of our western European neighbours, including France, Germany, Italy and Spain. The UK has the fifth highest robbery rate in the EU.

It has the fourth highest burglary rate and the highest absolute number of burglaries in the EU, with double the number of offences than recorded in Germany and France. BUT IT IS THE NAMING OF BRITAIN AS THE MOST VIOLENT COUNTRY IN THE EU THAT IS MOST SHOCKING. The analysis is based on the number of crimes per 100,000 residents. In the UK, there are 2,034 offences per 100,000 people, way ahead of second-placed Austria with a rate of 1,677.

Lenders will need to raise $60bn (£37bn) in fresh capital if the "pessimistic scenario" unfolds. Bad loans could reach 40pc, although analysts are flying blind since bank disclosure "does not always capture all asset quality problems." The report follows an equally disturbing (if very different) note on the banks in CHINA, WHERE A "MARGIN SQUEEZE" HAS SET OFF AN EXPLOSION OF UNSTABLE LOAN GROWTH. Some might see this as 'good', ie stimulatory, but since the liquidity is sloshing around a crushed economy that still lives off deflated US and EU export markets, it is largely leaking into asset speculation.

THIS IS MUCH LIKE THE US FROM MID-1928 TO LATE-1929, a strange 15 months, often forgotten. By then the world economy had tipped over. Trade was contracting. Commodity prices were deflating. Yet leveraged funds flooded Wall Street, decoupled from the underlying reality. We all know what happened. THE MARKETS BUCKLED FOR NO OBVIOUS REASON IN SEPTEMBER 1929, THEN CRATERED IN OCTOBER.

In swiftly seizing the valley and holding ground there, commanders hope to accomplish within hours what overstretched NATO troops had failed to achieve over several years, and help secure Afghanistan for an August 20 presidential election after years of stalemate. "The intent is to go big, go strong and go fast, and by doing so we are going to save lives on both sides," Brigadier-General Larry Nicholson, commander of the Marines in southern Afghanistan, told his staff before the operation.

Violence in the Taliban-led insurgency is at its highest since the Taliban's ouster in 2001. The operation marks the first big test of Washington's new regional strategy to defeat the Taliban and its allies and stabilize Afghanistan. With new tactics to win over the Afghan population and new commanders in place, the US military is hoping to turn the tide of A WAR SOME IN WASHINGTON HAVE ADMITTED THEY ARE NOT WINNING.

Since the start of the recession in December 2007, the number of jobless people has risen by 7.2 million, the Department of Labor said. The jobless rate of 9.5% was slightly lower than had been expected, but was still the highest since August 1983.

Average hourly earnings were unchanged at $18.53 (£11.33). A total of 14.7 million people were unemployed in June. The job losses come despite recent signs of optimism from surveys. "The job market is terrible. It's as bad as we've seen in our lifetime," said Keith Hembre, chief economist at FAF Advisors in Minneapolis. "The light at the end of tunnel is that we see some stability in domestic demand and some demand overseas."

Researchers from the Water Technology Centre in Karlsruhe, Germany examined levels of seven common sweeteners - acesulfame, saccharin, aspartame, cyclamate (currently banned in the US and Canada), sucralose, neotame and NHDC - using a new method that enables detection of the substances simultaneously. Analysis of the water samples revealed that up to 80% and 59% of sucralose and acesulfame remained respectively, despite treatment and advanced filtration. Acesulfame was found to be the most treatment resistant sweetener, with several hundred nanograms of saccharin and cyclamate also remaining.

"The persistence of some artificial sweeteners during soil aquifer treatment was demonstrated and confirmed their environmental relevance", wrote the scientific team in the journal Analytical and Bioanalytical Chemistry, before expressing concern that "the occurrence of such sweeteners in the aquatic environment may become an issue for consumers."

THE SWEETENERS UNDER INVESTIGATION IN THE CURRENT STUDY HAVE BEEN CLAIMED TO BE RELATED TO A NUMBER OF PERSISTENT HEALTH CONCERNS. Of the five substances legally available for use in the US, acesulfame and saccharin have caused concerns over being linked to cancer with the former also cited as a cause of excessive insulin secretion. Aspartame and neotame have been linked with neurological illness, while sucralose has been studied in relation to migraine symptoms. Of the banned substances, there are concerns that cyclamate may decrease fertility in men.

The call to the Saudi king came one month after US President Barack Obama, in his Cairo speech to the Muslim world, urged the Arab world to fly the Israeli flag, allow Israel's El Al airplanes to fly over their skies AND RECOGNIZE JERUSALEM AS THE HOME OF THREE FAITHS. "I call on his Excellency, the king of Saudi Arabia, to meet wherever you wish, in Jerusalem, in Riyadh, in this beautiful country of Kazakhstan; we will be able to realize your vision" of peace, the president said.

Muslims consider the Israeli capital to be their third holiest city, but its leaders rarely have visited there or anywhere else in Israel. Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak's only trip to Jerusalem was for the funeral of former Prime Minister Yitzchak Rabin. In his speech, President Peres told the audience, "We must stand up and retract fanaticism. Their god is not our god, the god of killers is not our god."

The state-run unemployment insurance programs are normally financed with payroll taxes paid by employers on each worker. BUT THE FUNDS' TAX REVENUES ARE FALLING AT THE SAME TIME AS BENEFIT DEMANDS ARE RISING. Nine million Americans are receiving jobless benefits, triple the number who got checks at the beginning of the year.

Experts predict the number of recipients will peak sometime this summer as long-term unemployed run out of benefits, which were recently extended and last for 59 weeks in most cases. "I believe I have two months of benefits left," said Czernicki, 44, who was laid off from her Eau Claire, Wisconsin, newspaper editing job last year.

Forty-six states have collective budget deficits totaling at least $130 billion, according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, and lawmakers are having to make unpalatable choices between tax increases and spending cuts.

But of these, a quarter are drinking more than 20 units a week - equivalent to about 10 pints of beer. One in 20 of these drinkers also drink alone, and A QUARTER OF DRINKERS CLAIMED TO REGULARLY BINGE DRINK, the research found. The most popular drinks remained vodka-based alcopops, but cider is also making a comeback - increasing significantly in popularity since 2005.

Trading Standards North West, which carried out the poll, said it intended to write to the firms behind these drinks to "seek clarification of the plans for action to reduce their appeal to young people". The majority of young people said they obtained their alcohol from relatives and friends over the age of 18.

Dr Ruth Hussey, regional director of Public Health, said: "The amount of alcohol consumed by some teenagers is of great concern. Not only does it pose a significant threat to their health, it puts them at greater risk of violence and unplanned pregnancy."

In addition, the percentage of obese and overweight children is at or above 30% in 30 states. The report warns WIDESPREAD OBESITY IS FUELLING RATES OF CHRONIC DISEASE, and is responsible for a large, and growing chunk of domestic healthcare costs. Obesity is linked to a range of health problems, including heart disease, stroke and type 2 diabetes.

Dr Jeff Levi, TFAH executive director, said: "OUR HEALTH CARE COSTS HAVE GROWN ALONG WITH OUR WAIST LINES. The obesity epidemic is a big contributor to the skyrocketing health care costs in the US. How are we going to compete with the rest of the world if our economy and workforce are weighed down by bad health?" The US government has set a target of cutting obesity rates in all 50 states to 15% by next year. However, the report said this target was certain to be missed.

For the fifth year in a row, Mississippi had the highest rate of adult obesity at 32.5%. Three other states - West Virginia, Alabama and Tennessee - also had adult obesity rates in excess of 30%. In just one state - Colorado - was the adult obesity rate below 20%. IN 1991, NO STATE HAD AN ADULT OBESITY RATE ABOVE 20%, AND IN 1980 THE NATIONAL AVERAGE FOR ADULT OBESITY WAS 15%.