The development is thought to reflect a trend for adult or teenage criminals to conceal illegal items such as guns, knives and drugs on young children in a bid to avoid detection. Forces across Britain confirmed they used the power on under-fives on 288 occasions. It has previously emerged that police have used the tactics against children as young as two or three. It included at least two searches where officers cited “reasonable suspicion” that drugs were hidden on the child and three searches for weapons.

Some criminals mistakenly believe that if they force children under 10 - the age of criminal responsibility - to carry illegal items on their behalf that they cannot be prosecuted. In fact, although charges cannot be levelled against the infant, the police are usually able to bring a prosecution against the person who imposed the items upon their child, sibling or friend.

Besides, had any of them bothered to read the actual piece, they would have realised that it is Sir Elton, not Mr Dolce, who is guilty of bigotry and intolerance. Dolce, 56, was merely expressing his personal view. Which is that children need a mother — something that many will agree with.

Predictably a raft of celebrities — headed by Victoria Beckham — grabbed their pitchforks and piled in to support Elton. Courtney Love was so cross — ‘beyond words and emotions’, as she put it — she even threatened to cut up all her D&G goodies (oh, the sacrifice). Of course, none could just quietly disagree with D&G. The point is, the man should be able to express his views without having his reputation — and his business — dragged through the mud.

Free speech is not a box of chocolates: you can’t just choose the ones with the soft centres. For Sir Elton to use his considerable star power to harass a man simply because he fails to conform to a pre-approved, rubber-stamped, vanilla-scented liberal PC agenda is not only outrageous; it’s the worst kind of liberal fascism.

It’s also exactly this sort of attitude that earlier this week prompted Trevor Phillips, former head of the Commission for Racial Equality, to speak out against the ‘intimidation’ and fear which he said had shut down all rational debate on race in Britain. This has had devastating consequences, Phillips said, from the failure to save Victoria Climbie to the child-grooming scandals in Rotherham and Rochdale to the young British Muslims running away to join Islamic State.

The comments will do little to boost belief in the Prime Minister’s EU reform plans ahead of the election on May 7. The UK Independence Party have warned Mr Cameron cannot be trusted to deliver real changes in Britain’s terms of membership ahead of a proposed In/Out referendum by the end of 2017.

Mr Cameron has said his plans to curb immigration from Europe demanded treaty change – which would need the backing of all 28 EU nations. “I have no doubt that we have to help in a limited and rational framework. We have to help David Cameron because he is obviously pro-European. I am sceptical when it comes to changing the treaty,” Mr Tusk told the Guardian.

However he added: “My intuition is that treaty change is close to mission impossible today because it’s not only about rationality, about good argument. We need unanimity between 28 member states, in the European parliament, in 28 national parliaments in the process of ratification. To say that it is a Pandora’s Box is too little.”

The convoy is "a highly visible demonstration of US commitment to its NATO allies and demonstrating NATO's ability to move military forces freely across allied borders in close cooperation," US Army Europe spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Craig Childs, said in a statement.

The troops and vehicles involved will be moving from training exercises conducted as part of Operation Atlantic Resolve in Estonia, Lithuania and Poland, the report said. They'll move through Latvia and the Czech Republic as they make their way to Vilseck, Germany, about a 40 miles drive from the Czech border.

The campaign asks Jewish women (and men) around the world to raise their voices on gender equality this month by describing a specific moment or experience when they realized gender mattered to them as Jews and by noting one thing they can do to advance equality in Judaism.

The campaign kicked off with an animated video titled, "The Click Moment." It’s a thought-provoking jaunt through the Jewish past from Miriam the Prophet to feminist leaders of the 20th century to modern-day tweeters, showing the development of Jewish feminist consciousness.

The conference convened a conversation that cut across denominations, gender, sexual identity, and race, and included elements of visual and performing art, film, media, academia and theology. Nearly 300 participants gathered to educate themselves and commit to agitate for change leading to a more just and inclusive Judaism.

Netanyahu's remarks in an interview with the NRG website - which is owned by casino mogul Sheldon Adelson and tied with the settler newspaper Makor Rishon - were a last-minute attempt to pull right-wing voters away from Habayit Hayehudi. "I think that anyone who moves to establish a Palestinian state and evacuate territory gives territory away to radical Islamist attacks against Israel," Netanyahu said. "The left has buried its head in the sand time after time and ignores this, but we are realistic and understand."

During the interview, Netanyahu declared that if the Zionist Union were to win the elections, "it would attach itself to the international community and do their bidding," including freezing construction in West Bank and East Jerusalem settlements, and cooperate with international initiatives to return Israel's borders to the 1967 lines.

During a visit to the East Jerusalem settlement of Har Homa earlier Monday, Netanyahu warned that if he were not elected, "Hamastan B" would be established in Jerusalem. “If Tzipi [Livni] and Bougie [Isaac Herzog] form a government, Hamastan B will be established here.”

Instead of a bailout, Greece needed a debt "haircut" like the one Germany's creditors had to accept in 1953, Kammenos proposed. He also argued that Berlin should pay World War II reparations to Athens. "All European countries have been compensated for crimes committed by Nazis, except for Greece," Kammenos said, referring to the gold Nazi soldiers brought back from Athens during the war.

The defense minister also accused Germany of "interfering" in its domestic affairs. His criticism was aimed at German Finance Minister Schäuble, who earlier warned of a "Grexident" which could push Athens out of the euro.

"I don't understand why he turns against Greece every day in new statements. It's like a psychological war and Schäuble is poisoning the relationship between the two countries through that," he said.

Greece Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis and Germany's Schäuble are both unrelenting in their positions.

The massive outdoor altar, which took several years to build, can be operational at little more than a moment’s notice, reported the Israeli magazine Matzav Haruach. The altar is the last major component needed for the long-obstructed sacrifices to resume in a future Jewish temple. Ultra-Orthodox Jews pray daily for its reconstruction atop the holy hill known as Mount Moriah or the Temple Mount.

Carl Gallups, a Baptist pastor in Florida, Bible prophecy expert and author of “Final Warning: Understanding the Trumpet Days of Revelation,” told WND the announcement about the altar will be seen by many Christians as a huge step toward fulfillment of Bible prophecy.

“This announcement will surely excite prophecy watchers around the world,” he said. “Regardless of one’s eschatological leanings, every sincere student of the Word of God knows there are at least hints, if not clear declarations, of something happening just before the return of the Lord that involves altar sacrifices and the distinct possibility of a rebuilt temple on the Temple Mount.”

"There will be continued advances in software that we see throughout our entire life," Rothblatt told a packed audience in the cavernous Exhibit Hall 5 during her keynote speech. "Eventually, these advances in software will rise to the level of consciousness."

Rothblatt is the founder of Sirius Satellite Radio, current chief executive of United Therapeutics and was recently named by Forbes as the highest-paid female CEO in America. She is a transgender activist and a trans-humanist philosopher who believes technology will one day grant humans eternal life.

On crucial issues — from fighting the Islamic State to fielding integrated defense systems, which share information and operate together, to standing firm against Russian aggression in Ukraine — President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his government either are not cooperating fully or are acting in outright defiance of NATO’s priorities and interests. Add the fact that Turkey under Mr Erdogan has become increasingly authoritarian, and it becomes apparent that the country is drifting away from an alliance whose treaty says it is “founded on the principles of democracy” as much as defense.

For months, the Western allies have pressured Turkey to close its porous border, which has allowed thousands of jihadists to cross into Syria to join the Islamic State, also known as ISIS or ISIL, and has enabled ISIS to smuggle in weapons and smuggle out oil on which it relies for revenue.

Although the Turkish government has taken some steps to make transit harder, it has been unwilling, or unable, to stem the flow, according to Tim Arango and Eric Schmitt’s reporting in The Times. One smuggler said that while his job has become more difficult, sometimes the Turkish border guards look the other way.

Completely shutting down the long border may be impossible, but given the country’s large military and well-regarded intelligence service, it is inexcusable that Turkey is not doing a better job. Turkey should also be making military bases and troops available to the American-led coalition, but James Clapper Jr, the director of national intelligence, told Congress recently that he was not optimistic that Turkey would do more against ISIS because it had “other priorities and other interests.”

It is being reported that the state only has approximately a one year supply of water left in the reservoirs, and when the water is all gone there are no contingency plans. Back in early 2014, California Governor Jerry Brown declared a drought emergency for the entire state, but since that time water usage has only dropped by 9 percent. That is not nearly enough.

The state of California has been losing more than 12 million acre-feet of total water a year since 2011, and we are quickly heading toward an extremely painful water crisis unlike anything that any of us have ever seen before.

Needless to say, along with any water crisis comes a food crisis. Virtually everything that we eat requires a tremendous amount of water to grow. And at this point, the world is already eating more food than it produces most years. So what is going to happen to us as this water crisis gets even worse?

Martin Wheatley, the chief executive of the Financial Conduct Authority, said that the new Senior Managers' Regime (SMR) for banks and building society would "create a more resilient and publicly trusted industry". The FCA, along with the Bank of England, is working on the finer points of the SMR, under which top bankers can be found guilty of a new criminal offence of reckless misconduct, and can face up to seven years in jail.

The regime follows a number of high-profile bank scandals such as PPI mis-selling and market rigging, but few senior bankers have been personally censured.

The participants, holding the national flags of Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia, walked through the city to the Monument of Freedom, where they lay flowers. Many veterans wore uniforms of the legion and pre-war uniforms. The use of Nazi and Soviet symbols was forbidden in the parade and the participants were not allowed to veil faces. The annual march causes controversy among various social groups. Anti-fascist and Jewish organizations, such as the Simon Wiesenthal Center, believe such rallies glorify Nazism.

The Latvian legion of the Waffen-SS consisted of almost 150,000 Latvians and was split into two divisions. The legion was created in 1943 on the orders of Adolf Hitler. In March of the same year, the legion was already battling the Soviet Red Army near the town of Pskov. It was among the last of the Nazi forces to surrender in 1945.

“We won the day Europe and US dreamt of reclaiming Tal Hamis, Mosul, Sinjar, Tikrit, Qaim, Derna, Tell Abyad, and more,” stated the ISIS mouthpiece, as transcribed by Ynet News. “We — with Allah’s help — want Paris, before Rome and Islamic Iberia and after we blow up the White House, Big Ben, and the Eiffel Tower before Paris, and Rome,” al-Adnani warned. “The Muslims will return to power, to be the vanguard and lead in every place.”

The Islamic State’s al-Adnani gave Jews and Christians the ultimatum that they could either “convert to Islam or pay the ultimate price when your armies are expelled from Muhammad’s peninsula, from Jerusalem, and all Muslim lands,” Ynet news translated. He warned Christians and Jews they would soon be unable to stop the jihadi advance to the caliphate, saying, “The Jews and the Crusaders are scared and weak.”

The ISIS spokesman reiterates that the extremist group will ultimately prevail in its destructive plan despite its recent losses. “We took you by surprise,” the spokesman said, asserting that Islamic caliphate rule would soon spread to Saudi Arabia and Jerusalem by threatening the region to convert to Islam or pay the jizya poll tax – a mark of religious inferiority.

Abed further slammed America for calling Operation Inherent Resolve "the war on ISIS," but also fighting other jihadists in Iraq and Syria, for example Al Qaeda's Al-Nusra Front. "They are bombing the very idea of a Caliphate, which has taken root among the people of Syria, Iraq, and other Muslim nations," he added. He then went on to suggest that ISIS is the only vehicle for "freeing Palestine," as it were.

"Oh nation of Islam, only a real Caliphate is capable of satiating your hunger, of defending you and your honor, and of liberating your Al-Aqsa Mosque from the filth of defilers," he said. In a separate sermon, he slammed Iran for agreeing to nuclear talks, asking, "Do you think America loves you more than it loves Israel?" He intimated that the US has agreed to the talks and re-established a measure of diplomatic relations with Iran out of fear from ISIS. "America will be trampled by the hooves of the horses of the Caliph of Muslims, Allah willing," he concluded.