"Yes, a colonial map that made little sense bred conflict, and the West has often approached Africa as a patron, rather than a partner," he told the Ghanaian parliament. "But the West is not responsible for the destruction of the Zimbabwean economy over the last decade, or wars in which children are enlisted as combatants."

Seeking to jolt Africa's politicians out of a complacent belief that his shared ancestry with them would soften his rhetoric, Mr Obama spoke with withering directness. Condemning tyrannical African leaders who "enrich themselves" amid the continent's chronic poverty, he promised fresh "partnerships" only with states that were well-governed. For the kleptocrats and autocrats who still sprinkle the continent, he had a simple message: enough is enough.

"No person wants to live in a society where the rule of law gives way to the rule of brutality and bribery," he said. "That is not democracy, that is tyranny, and now is the time for it to end." Traditional "strong man" rulers must give way to "strong institutions" if they are to benefit from future Western assistance, he said. "Africa's future is up to Africans."

Conservatives in the Church of England are threatening to divide worldwide Anglicanism if the liberal Americans force through radical reforms at a crucial meeting in California this week. Dozens of members of the General Synod have backed a motion that calls on the Church to recognise a breakaway movement in the US opposed to the pro-gay agenda. The Right Reverend Tom Wright, Bishop of Durham, said that the Church of England was considering recognising the new group, in a move which could provoke fury among liberal clergy in this country.

Leading clergy met in London last week to launch the Fellowship of Confessing Anglicans of UK and Ireland TO CAMPAIGN AGAINST ACTIVE HOMOSEXUALITY IN THE CHURCH. The Right Reverend Michael Nazir-Ali, the Bishop of Rochester, is among the group's leaders who said that liberal moves have brought "heartache" and "real problems". The consecration of Gene Robinson, in the US, as the Anglican Communion's first openly gay bishop triggered the biggest crisis in modern Church history.

FOR WHAT PURPOSE ARE THEIR FAMILIES SUFFERING SUCH GRIEF? It is certainly not in the cause of liberating British people living in a British sovereign territory, as during the Falklands War in 1982. Instead, the Prime Minister, other ministers or anonymous spokespersons in the Ministry of Defence (almost certainly civilian bureaucrats) give us various glib, but quite simply unbelievable, justifications for our ever more bloody military entanglement in Afghanistan.

They say our soldiers are dying in order to achieve peace and stability in Afghanistan in time for presidential elections in November, in which that politically impotent clown 'President' Karzai will stand again. These elections are supposed to mark an important step towards the stated long-term Western objective in Afghanistan - a stable democratic regime ruling a united country.

WHAT A HOPE! AFGHANISTAN IS AN ANCIENT SOCIETY OF FIERCE TRIBAL RIVALRIES AND HAS NO DEMOCRATIC 'DNA' WHATSOEVER. How can pursuit of the Western liberal fantasy of Afghanistan as a future democracy justify the loss of a single British soldier's life? No doubt it would take moral courage now to announce that British forces would be permanently withdrawn from combat operations in Afghanistan at the end of the current Panther's Claw campaign. IT MIGHT EVEN REQUIRE THE COURAGE TO TELL THE FRENCH AND GERMANS TO DO A SPOT OF FIGHTING IN OUR PLACE.

But without such a brave decision, British servicemen and women will go on pointlessly dying, while a more and more disillusioned nation simply wants our troops home - not in coffins draped with the Union Flag, but marching through cheering crowds.

Sir Paul Coleridge also took the extraordinary step OF ATTACKING THE BBC FOR SUPPRESSING DEBATE OVER THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN FAMILY BREAKDOWN AND SOCIAL ILLS BY BURYING A TV SERIES on the subject in a late-night slot. The documentary series had already been put on hold until after May's local elections because of its sensitive political nature. The Mail, which for 20 years has passionately argued that THE BREAKDOWN OF THE FAMILY AND MARRIAGE HAVE BEEN HUGELY DAMAGING TO SOCIETY, invited the respected BBC journalist behind the series to reveal his findings.

So is Britain 'broken'? David Cameron thinks so, while Gordon Brown disagrees, having claimed last autumn: 'This country has never been broken by anyone or anything.' However, that's not how his predecessor TONY BLAIR saw it when Labour was in opposition. Back in 1995, he said: 'LOOK AT THE WRECKAGE OF OUR BROKEN SOCIETY. Drugs, violence, youngsters hanging around street corners with nothing to do. We have to have the courage to build a new civic society.'

Yet, after a decade as Prime Minister, Blair chose his words more carefully. Youth violence was no longer a 'metaphor for the state of British society' but a 'specific criminal culture among a specific group of people'. Respected economist Paul Ormerod, founder of the Henley Forecasting Centre, says: 'In terms of pure scientific description, it's hard to avoid the conclusion that we are more fragmented and broken.'

And there's Martin Innes, professor of the Police Science Institute at Cardiff University, who argues: 'WE ARE APPROACHING A POINT WHERE WE CAN EITHER COME BACK FROM THE BRINK,' he says, 'OR WE'RE SAILING OVER THE ABYSS.' It surely doesn't much matter whether we say Britain is 'broken', 'breaking' or 'fragmenting around the edges'. What matters is whether we recognise there are trends in behaviour and values that are taking us in the wrong direction. BRITAIN IS JOSTLING FOR THE DUBIOUS HONOUR OF THE SICKEST LIFESTYLE IN WESTERN EUROPE.

This is despite many of the banks only being able to turn a profit because they have been bailed out with taxpayers' money. Wall Street giant Goldman Sachs is expected to confirm next week that it will pay an average of almost £400,000 in pay and bonuses to each of its 5,500 London-based staff - a total of £2.2billion.

Its profits are soaring on the back of the $6.2billion it received from the US taxpayer last year. Royal Bank of Scotland recently revealed chief executive Stephen Hester was in line for a £9.7million pay package if he brings the bailed-out bank's share price up to 70p. Another bailed-out financial giant, Citigroup, is raising basic pay for many of its investment bankers and traders by up to 50 per cent, to make up for the loss in bonus pay.

Nationalised US insurance firm AIG is planning to pay millions of dollars more in bonuses to dozens of top bosses across the world. Last year it paid out more than £100million despite being rescued by the US government after racking up £60billion in losses from reckless bets on toxic debt. Credit Suisse, Deutsche Bank, JP Morgan, Morgan Stanley and Barclays are also planning major rewards.

THIS IS DESPITE THEIR ACTIONS TRIGGERING A RECESSION WHICH IS EXPECTED TO COST A MILLION BRITONS THEIR JOBS. The return of 'business as usual' to the banking sector makes a mockery of the Government's claim to have stamped out the culture of greed and reckless risk taking in the banking industry.

In the wake of the Moscow summit, Gordon Brown has hinted he may include scrapping or weakening the Trident nuclear deterrent as part of a global agreement on non-proliferation. Eager to please the Obama White House, the Prime Minister has signaled his willingness to reduce Britain's 160 warheads as well as the number of nuclear submarines. This will be music to the ears of left-wing Labour backbenchers eager to see Trident obliterated.

This is all premised on the ludicrous notion that rogue states such as North Korea and Iran will pledge to end their nuclear weapons programmes, DESPITE NOT A SHRED OF EVIDENCE THEY WILL DO SO. It simply beggars belief that both WASHINGTON AND LONDON ARE SEEKING TO REDUCE THEIR DEFENCES AT A TIME WHEN KEY ADVERSARIES ARE SEEKING TO ACQUIRE OFFENSIVE NUCLEAR CAPABILITY, and are test-firing ballistic missiles left right and centre. The Iranians already possess weapons that can strike southern Europe, and it won't be long before they are capable of hitting the West too.

Deciding the future of Britain's defences should not be a faith-based exercise revolving around the false promises of Third world dictators like Kim Jong Il or Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Any agreement signed with them would not be worth the paper it's written on. NOR SHOULD BRITISH DEFENCE POLICY BE DICTATED BY THE HUGELY NAÏVE WORLDVIEW OF BARACK OBAMA, WHOSE VANITY-DRIVEN VISION OF A NUCLEAR-FREE WORLD IS A PIPEDREAM THAT BEARS NO RELATION TO CURRENT REALITY.

There is a clear British national interest in renewing and upgrading its nuclear deterrent, regardless of what the Obama administration decides to do in terms of cutting the US arsenal. Fortunately, Brown is unlikely to remain in power long enough to see through the further degrading of Britain's defences. A Conservative administration must make rebuilding British military power and force projection a top priority, and that includes strengthening the UK's long-term nuclear capability.

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp on Friday was appointed receiver of the failed bank, based in Thermopolis, Wyoming. It had $70 million in assets and $67 million in deposits as of June 30. The FDIC says Central Bank & Trust of Lander, Wyoming, will assume all deposits and purchase about $55 million in assets. The FDIC will retain the remaining assets to sell at a later date.

"I bring you good news from the US, "Gore said on July 7, 2009 in Oxford at the Smith School World Forum on Enterprise and the Environment, sponsored by UK Times. "Just two weeks ago, the House of Representatives passed the Waxman-Markey climate bill," Gore said, noting it was "very much a step in the right direction." President Obama has pushed for the passage of the bill in the Senate and attended a G8 summit this week where he agreed to attempt to keep the Earth's temperatures from rising more than 2 degrees C.

Gore touted the Congressional climate bill, claiming it "will dramatically increase the prospects for success" in combating what he sees as the "crisis" of man-made global warming. "But it is the awareness itself that will drive the change and ONE OF THE WAYS IT WILL DRIVE THE CHANGE IS THROUGH GLOBAL GOVERNANCE AND GLOBAL AGREEMENTS."

Gore's call for "GLOBAL GOVERNANCE" echoes former French President Jacques Chirac's call in 2000. On November 20, 2000, then French President Chirac said during a speech at The Hague that the UN's Kyoto Protocol represented "THE FIRST COMPONENT OF AN AUTHENTIC GLOBAL GOVERNANCE."

The 30-minute meeting Vatican audience was described by both sides as positive — constructive talks between two men who agree on helping the poor and pushing for Middle East peace but disagree on what the Vatican considers prime ethical issues. "It's a great honor," Obama said, greeting the Pope and thanking him for this first meeting.

Afterward, the Vatican said the leaders discussed immigration, the Middle East peace process and aid to developing nations. But the Vatican's statement also underscored the pair's deep disagreement on abortion. Even in his gift to the US leader, the Pope sought to underscore his beliefs. BENEDICT GAVE OBAMA A COPY OF A VATICAN DOCUMENT ON BIOETHICS that hardened the church's opposition to using embryos for stem cell research, cloning and in-vitro fertilization. Obama supports stem cell research.

"Yes, this is what we had talked about," Obama said, telling the Pope he would read it on the flight to his next stop, Ghana. Earlier, the Pope's secretary, the Reverend Georg Ganswein, told reporters the document would "HELP THE PRESIDENT BETTER UNDERSTAND THE POSITION OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH."

US President Barack Obama said the issue of food security was of huge importance to all nations in the world. Richer nations had a moral obligation to help poorer nations, he said. Mr Obama added that the G8 nations had agreed to commit $15bn for the new initiative going into Friday's meeting, but had then promised an additional $5bn in "hard commitments" during the talks.

"We do not view this assistance as an end in itself," he said. "We believe that the purpose of aid must be to create the conditions where it's no longer needed, to help people become self-sufficient, provide for their families and lift their standards of living."

"THEY KNOW THEY'RE GOING TO TAKE DOWN A LARGE NUMBER OF BANKS and they can't do it until they're staffed up," said Mark Dotzour, chief economist and director of research for the Real Estate Center at Texas A&M University. Dotzour expects federal regulators to establish an agency, similar to the Resolution Trust Corp that disposed of assets belonging to insolvent S&Ls in the late 1980s and early 1990s.

"Once they start to sell [foreclosed real estate], we'll find out what the market really is," Dotzour told attendees at an economic summit hosted by a handful of real estate groups in Tampa, Florida. Dotzour blamed federal intervention for the lack of commercial real estate investment activity in recent months, as well as the failure of businesses to make major decisions.

In the meantime, he compared the bad loans that remain on banks' books to a smelly cat litter box and the feds keep throwing more litter on top to mask the smell. But they'll eventually have to remove the organic material to fix the problem.

In fact, the 79-year-old Jackson family patriarch was dumbfounded when he learned his 50-year-old son was being rushed to the hospital after collapsing at home on June 25, he told ABC News' Chris Connelly in an exclusive interview at the Jackson family compound in Encino, Calif. "I just couldn't believe what was happening to Michael," he said.

"I do believe it was foul play," Jackson added. "I do believe that. Yes." Tune in to "Good Morning America" for more, and on "Primetime: Family Secrets" Tuesday, July 14. Speaking amid floral tributes to the late King of Pop, Joe Jackson said he wanted to know why Michael died so suddenly. He added that a second autopsy on his late son commissioned by the Jackson family has yet to reveal any answers.

Testifying before a congressional panel, Kohn sought to beat back a proposed bill that would open the US central bank's policy decisions to audits by a federal watchdog agency. More than half of the members of the US House of Representatives have signed as co-sponsors of the measure. "Any substantial erosion of the Federal Reserve's monetary independence likely would lead to higher long-term interest rates as investors begin to fear future inflation," Kohn told a House subcommittee.

Kohn's testimony comes as Congress debates President Barack Obama's plan for regulatory reform, which envisions the Fed taking on an expanded role monitoring risks across the entire financial system to help ward off future financial crises. The proposal has boosted calls for greater accountability at the central bank, which already faces heavy scrutiny from lawmakers troubled by its role in bailing out Wall Street.

Kohn said the administration's plan would not greatly expand the Fed's power, and said it would work hand-in-glove with monetary policy, not compromise it as some critics contend. Paul denied his bill was about Fed independence. "WE ARE NOT LOOKING TO THE CONGRESS TO RUN MONETARY POLICY. WE JUST WANT TO KNOW WHAT'S GOING ON, AND WHY," he told Kohn.

The Pacific had been in what is called a neutral state. But forecasters at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration say the sea surface temperature climbed to 1.8 degrees Fahrenheit above normal along a narrow band in the eastern equatorial Pacific in June. In addition, NOAA's Climate Prediction Center said temperatures in other tropical regions are also above normal, with warmer than usual readings as much as 975 feet below the ocean surface.

In general, El Nino conditions are associated with INCREASED RAINFALL ACROSS THE EAST-CENTRAL AND EASTERN PACIFIC AND WITH DRIER THAN NORMAL CONDITIONS OVER NORTHERN AUSTRALIA, INDONESIA AND THE PHILIPPINES. A summer El Nino can lead to wetter than normal conditions in the intermountain regions of the United States and over central Chile. In an El Nino year there tend to be more Eastern Pacific hurricanes and fewer Atlantic hurricanes. The forecasters said they expect this El Nino to continue strengthening over the next few months and to last through the winter of 2009-2010.

"Advanced climate science allows us to alert industries, governments and emergency managers about the weather conditions El Nino may bring so these can be factored into decision-making and ultimately protect life, property and the economy," NOAA Administrator Jane Lubchenco said in a statement.

National security adviser Uzi Arad, in comments to Haaretz newspaper, appeared to allude to what is widely believed to be Israel's own nuclear arsenal and a standing policy of "MUTUALLY ASSURED DESTRUCTION" (MAD). He warned other countries they could bring about their own devastation if they launched an attack. Israel has never confirmed it has atomic arms.

In excerpts on Haaretz's English-language website of an interview to be published on Friday, Arad said he feared that if Iran became a nuclear power, five or six other states in the Middle East would follow suit. He called such a prospect a "nightmare" for Israel. "The defensive might we have must be improved and become tremendously powerful, and create a situation in which no one will dare to realise the ability to harm us," Arad said.

"AND IF THEY DO DARE, WE WILL EXACT A FULL PRICE, SO THAT THEY TOO WILL NOT SURVIVE." Israel has three German-made submarines that are widely assumed to carry nuclear missiles. One of the submarines sailed from the Mediterranean, via the Suez Canal, to Israel's Red Sea port of Eilat last week, in what officials called a signal to Iran of the long reach of its arsenal.