"Westboro Baptist Church, the small Topeka, Kansas, church that pickets funerals of American soldiers to spread its message that God is punishing the country for being tolerant of homosexuals, has vowed to hold a Quran burning if Gainesville's Dove World Outreach Center calls its off" (www.ocala.com).

The founder of the Wyoming Tyranny Response Team plans to burn a copy of the Quran on the steps of the State Capitol on Saturday.

Duncan Philp said he will protest the location of a proposed Islamic Center near Ground Zero in New York City. He also will protest President Barack Obama's support for the location (www.wyomingnews.com).

The latest entrant is the Happy Meal Project, a burger and a packet of fries that have soldiered on undecayed for 143 days. Started by New York photographer Sally Davies, as a part-art, part-food science experiment, the Happy Meal Project involves Davies documenting a Happy Meal every few days until it spoils. At day 137, the meal still looks pretty great. For its part, McDonald's has remained largely silent. The fast food giant's Chinese arm released a statement this May to counter the hysteria over Joann Bruso's year-long experiment. It announced that all its patties are made of 100 percent USDA-approved beef and are completely preservative-free. Sneakily, though, it made no mention of its fries, bread, cheese or sauce.

McDonald's French fries, for example, which have repeatedly proven their hardiness to spoilage, contain citric acid as a preservative. But a bigger factor might be the fat content of the fries. About 50 percent of the total 250 calories contained in a small order of fries come from fat. McDonald's fries are also coated in a nice, thick layer of salt, something we've been using as a natural preservative for the last 2,500 years. The beef patty is also high in fat - varying between 37 and 54 percent of the total caloric content - and has been cooked at a high temperature. "It's also very thin, which once again means high heat per surface area," says Sean O'Keefe, a professor of food science at Virginia Tech. Davies noted that over time, her patty just shrank and hardened, losing whatever moisture it once contained.

Ultimately, says O'Keefe, the McDonald's haters have gotten their science wrong. "The ingredients are similar to anything you'd see in processed fast food," he says. For better or for worse, McDonald's is no more a chemical laboratory of secret compounds designed to embalm us from the inside than any other processed food maker. A Happy Meal manages to stay unspoiled because it is fatty, salty and practically empty of nutrients - which, really, are all good reasons to avoid it anyway.

"WBC burned the Koran once - and if you sissy brats of Doomed America bully Terry Jones and the Dove World Outreach Center until they change their plans to burn that blasphemous tripe called the Koran, then WBC will burn it (again), to clearly show you some things," the church announced in a news release this week.

In April, a handful of Westboro members picketed outside of the University of Florida Hillel, the Jewish student center, and Trinity United Methodist Church, and Jones and about 30 members of his congregation joined the WBC members outside of Trinity United.

While officials from President Barack Obama to Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton have condemned Jones' plan, Fox News reported Thursday that a White House spokesman said the administration is considering contacting Jones to urge him to call it off.

President Hamid Karzai said the stunt had been an insult to Islam, while Indonesia's president said it threatened world peace. Pastor Terry Jones told US breakfast TV he currently had no plans to do it. Mr Jones, pastor of the previously little-known Dove World Outreach Center in Gainesville, Florida, announced on Thursday that he was putting on hold his plan for an "International Burn a Koran Day".

In an Eid message, President Karzai said: "We have heard that in the US, a pastor has decided to insult Korans. Now although we have heard that they are not doing this, we tell them they should not even think of it. By burning the Koran, they cannot harm it. The Koran is in the hearts and minds of one-and-a-half billion people. Insulting the Koran is an insult to nations."

The president of Indonesia, the world's most populous Muslim country, warned in a nationally televised address on Friday that Mr Jones's plan threatened world peace. In a speech marking the end of Ramadan, President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono said: "I'm of course aware of the reported cancellation of the deplorable act by Terry Jones. However, none of us can be complacent until such a despicable idea is totally extinguished."

These highly disturbing video games encourage players to shoot innocent bystanders to win points and to commit acts like using shovels to decapitate people, so dogs can then fetch their chopped-off heads. If you find that shocking to read, just imagine how much more shocking it is for a 7-year-old to see it acted out in gory graphics and to win points for committing such crimes.

Other scenes include having sex with prostitutes and then killing them or committing heinous acts of terrorism. These deadly role-playing games not only desensitize and reward players for acts of extreme violence, but are highly addictive. Parental control isn't the solution, because parents typically have no way to fully review these games before giving or denying permission to their children to play them. Some games are programmed to become more violent while the game is being played, and parents usually don't or can't play the games.

Children don't necessarily know the difference between fantasy and reality. Brain research indicates that teenagers' brains, as well as children's brains, are still developing and may store violent images as real memories. Virtually every school massacre can be traced to the young killers' addiction to violent video games. The video game industry reaps tens of billions of dollars in revenue and now even surpasses Hollywood in profits, revenues and influence.

A case challenging a law limiting the sale of these violent video games to children is now pending before the US Supreme Court. This case reached the high court because a couple of lower federal court judges, the kind we call supremacists, ruled that these games are entitled to as much free speech protection as, for example, Shakespeare, and laws limiting sales to children are unconstitutional. The video game industry is trying to wrap its evil products in the First Amendment. The industry is asking the high court to create a new type of free speech that would make it impossible to put any limit on this victimizing of children.

Italian Father Gheddo is a highly respected figure from the Vatican's Pontifical Institute for Foreign Missions, a society of missionaries. He blamed Christians for failing to live up to their own beliefs and creating a 'religious vacuum' which was being filled by Islam. 'The challenge must be taken seriously,' he said.

'Certainly from a demographic point of view, as it is clear to everyone that Italians are decreasing by 120,000 or 130,000 persons a year because of abortion and broken families - while among the more than 200,000 legal immigrants a year in Italy, more than half are Muslims and Muslim families, which have a much higher level of growth.' He added: 'If we consider ourselves a Christian country, we should return to the practice of Christian life, which would also solve the problem of empty cradles.'

The Bank of Japan agreed at an emergency meeting to boost its special loan facility by 10 trillion yen to 30 trillion yen (220.7 billion pounds). "We need to watch out more carefully for downside risks to Japan's economy," said Governor Masaaki Shirakawa, who cut off his trip to the Jackson Hole forum in the US.

"Several weak US figures came out, while the yen rose and stock prices fell. When we saw this, we decided that we need to take more precautions." Premier Naoto Kan said Tokyo would tap into its reserve fund for a 920 billion yen spending package on jobs and investment. "We want to take swift measures as the second pillar of stimulus to support easing by the bank," he said. The sums are tiny, a sign of Mr Kan's limited room for manoeuvre as public debt reaches 225 percent of GDP. Rating agencies are already circling ominously.

Haunted by memories of Japan's hyperinflation, the bank is moving gingerly. Even so, it is the first central bank to start loosening again. While the Bank of England has hinted at more quantitative easing, and the Fed is taking steps to avoid "passive tightening", neither has yet launched fresh QE.

Equity investors learned this week that they had misjudged the risk of a relapse as fiscal stimulus wears off, and misread the willingness of the US Federal Reserve to respond. Wrongly viewing Ben Bernanke's Fed as a soft touch, they took a fresh blast of quantitative easing for granted before it was agreed.

What has emerged since the acrimonious Fed meeting on August 10 is that Bernanke was unable to marshal a consensus behind fresh QE. Seven members argued that Fed should not take such a drastic step until the economy was in serious trouble, according to Wall Street Journal Fed-watcher Jon Hilsenrath. They settled on a compromise that the Fed should roll over holdings of bonds as they reach maturity to avoid passive tightening. But there was no deal on further action. Philadelphia's Charles Plosser grumbled that the Fed had sent "a garbled message".

Market tensions have been simmering for days. They erupted on Tuesday when Japan's yen smashed through resistance against all major currencies, reaching a 15-year peak against the US dollar. The Nikkei index buckled below 9,000 as yen strength pushed Japan's export industry deeper under water. "This has been one of the most interesting days in finance ever," said Andrew Roberts, head of credit at RBS. "We are right at the tipping point. Yields are about to collapse even further, equities are about to turn over. THE END GAME APPROACHES, PROBABLY IN NEXT FEW WEEKS."

"The policy of forced 'internal devaluation', deflation, and depression could risk driving Greece to the edge of a civil war. It is impossible to cut wages and prices by 30 percent without major riots," he said, speaking at the elite European House Ambrosetti forum at Lake Como. "Greece would have been bankrupt without the rescue measures. All the alternatives are terrible but the least terrible is for the country to get out of the eurozone, even if this kills the Greek banks," he said.

Dr Sinn said Greece is an entirely different case from Spain and Portugal, which still have manageable public debts and can bring their public finances back into line with higher taxes. "Greece would have defaulted in the period between April 28 and May 7, had the money not been promised by the European Union," he said, describing the failure of the EU's bail-out strategy to include a haircut for the banks as an invitation to moral hazard. "There should be a quasi-insolvency procedure for countries. Creditors have to accept a haircut before any money flows for rescue plans, otherwise we'll never have debt discipline in the eurozone," he said.

Dr Sinn said Germany is now super-competitive after clawing back 18 percent in competitiveness during its long slump. "We're in a new phase of history. The toggle switch has turned and we are going to see a mirror image of the last 15 years. This time it is Germany that will have an internal boom," he said. Germans will not recyle their savings in the Club Med region. They will invest at home.

"More quantitative easing (bond purchases) by the Federal Reserve is not going to make any difference. Treasury yields are already down to 2.5 percent yet credit spreads are widening again. Monetary policy can boost liquidity but it can't deal with solvency problems," he told Europe's policy elite. Dr Roubini said the US growth rate was likely to fall below 1pc in the second half of the year, despite the biggest stimulus in history: a cut in interest rates from 5 percent to zero, a budget deficit of 10 percent of GDP, and $3 trillion to shore up the financial system.

The anaemic pace compares with rates of 4-6 percent at this stage of recovery in normal post-war recoveries. "We have reached stall speed. Any shock at this point can tip you back into recession. With interbank spreads rising, you can get a vicious circle like 2008-2009," he said, describing a self-feeding process as the real economy and the credit system hurt each other. "There is a 40 percent chance of double-dip recession in the US, and worse in Japan. Even if it is not technically a recession it will feel like it," he added.

Hans-Werner Sinn, head of Germany's IFO Institute, said the US would have to purge its debt excesses the hard way. "The bitter truth is that there is no way out of this with monetary and fiscal policy. They will just have to see their living standards go down. I see a decade of difficulties for the US," he said.

Students taking English 333 will watch 16 classic zombie films and read zombie comics. As an alternative to a final research paper they may write scripts or draw storyboards for their ideal zombie flicks. The university isn't the first to have a class on the undead. Columbia College in Chicago has offered a course on Zombies in popular media for years, and at Simpson College in Iowa students spent the spring semester writing a book on "The History of the Great Zombie War."

The activists are angry at government plans to overhaul pensions and raise the retirement age from 60 to 62. France's retirement age is lower than many countries in Europe, but analysts say the issue is polarising politics in the country. Labour Minister Eric Woerth introduced the pensions bill to the National Assembly, warning of dire consequences if it did not pass. "If we don't modify our pension plan, then tomorrow there will be no money left to pay the French pensions," he told parliamentarians.

Under current rules, both men and women in France can retire at 60, providing they have paid social security contributions for 40.5 years - although they are not entitled to a full pension until they are 65. The government says it will save 70 billion euros (58 billion pounds) by raising the retirement age to 62 by 2018, the qualification to 41.5 years, and the pension age to 67. President Nicolas Sarkozy says reforms are needed to cope with an ageing population and the country's budget deficit.

The official census figures released Monday state the number of Israeli Jews at 5,770,900, an increase of nearly 67,000 over the previous year. The remainder of the total population of 7,645,000 includes 1,559,100 Arabs, an increase of 23,000. The Jewish birth rate rose to 2.9 percent from 2.88, while the Muslim birth rate dropped from 3.84 to 3.73, a continuing trend that belies the claim that Jews will be a minority in the future.

The 1.7 percent growth in the Jewish population was mostly internal, as the once-massive number of new immigrants from the former Soviet Union has dwindled over the past several years. Despite this, the number of new immigrants during the past year was 14,572, a 65 percent increase over the previous year. The Muslim population grew by 2.8 percent, while the Christian population increased by only 1 percent.

The State of Israel, now 62 years old, remains a young country, with nearly 28 percent of its residents under the age of 15, providing a base for continued economic growth as opposed to the aging population in other countries such as the United States.

The Exeter University academic also urged manufacturers to cut down on BPA in food packaging and containers. BPA is used to harden plastics and is found in baby bottles, CD cases, plastic knives and forks and the lining of food and drink cans. Because the chemical mimics the female sex hormone oestrogen, many scientists believe it interferes with the way hormones are processed by the body.

Although some animal studies have indicated it is safe, others have linked injections of BPA to breast cancer, liver damage, obesity, diabetes and fertility problems. Experts estimate that BPA is detectable in more than 90 per cent of people. Earlier this year, Denmark banned the chemical in food and drink containers for the under-threes. A study by Professor Melzer, an epidemiologist, found changes in sex hormones associated with exposure to BPA in men.

He told a briefing at the Royal Institution in London: 'Millions of pounds of this compound are being produced every day, but we still don't know how it gets into humans. 'I think small effects for large numbers of people matter and it's reasonable that a tiny proportion of the costs of BPA should be put to human drug trial-type assessments to settle once and for all whether this compound is bio-active in humans.

"This one was really terrifying," said Anissa Siregar, 30, as she and her two sleepy children arrived by truck at an emergency shelter near the base, adding that the whole mountain shook violently for at least three minutes. "It just keeps getting worse."

The volcano in North Sumatra province erupted last week for the first time since 1600, catching many scientists off guard. With more than 129 active volcanoes to watch, local vulcanologists had failed to monitor it for rising magma, slight uplifts in land and other signs of seismic activity. There are fears that current activity could foreshadow a much more destructive explosion in the next few weeks or months, though it is possible, too, that the mountain will go back to sleep after letting off steam.

More than 30,000 people living along the volcano's fertile slopes have been relocated to cramped refugee camps, mosques and churches in nearby villages.