Firefighters say the potentially lethal drought conditions caused by unusually warm spring weather sparked several wildfires including one at the country's largest cemetery. Large fires were reported across the south-east, and parts of North Yorkshire, Lancashire, Wales and Scotland. One blaze raged over 17 acres of the 500-acre Brookwood Cemetery near Woking, Surrey, with more than 40 firefighters battling to bring the flames under control.

It came amid warnings from fire chiefs that a lack of wet weather combined with dry conditions throughout the South East were the ''perfect recipe'' for wildfires. It comes after the biggest wild fires for years threatened homes and left this trail of devastation in South Wales. Fire crews who battled dozens of fires said the warm weather had left the grass "dry enough just to ignite itself".

It incurred net claims of £12.9 billion in the year, including £4.6 billion of catastrophe claims. Catastrophes during the year included flooding in Australia and Thailand, the earthquake and tsunami in Japan and the earthquake in New Zealand. "Make no mistake, 2011 was a difficult year for the insurance industry," said Lloyd's chief executive Richard Ward.

"I am disappointed that, given the exceptional level of catastrophes in 2011, insurance rates have not responded more positively." Lloyd's of London is a market, in which syndicates meet brokers and agree to take on particular risks. Its chairman said that the market was still in a strong financial position, but warned that 2012 would be another challenging year.

The landmark decision is binding on Ontario courts and sets up a final showdown at the Supreme Court of Canada next fall or in early 2013. Ontario Attorney-General John Gerretsen said on Monday that he intends to discuss appealing the decision with his federal counterparts. “Our main concern is that people feel safe in their communities, feel safe in their homes, and this kind of issue may very well need legislative action,” he said. The five-judge appellate panel said unanimously that prostitutes may set up brothels and hire staff to protect them.

They said that it is senseless to have a law that compels prostitutes to work in dangerous isolation, given that prostitution itself is legal. Nikki Thomas, executive director of SPOC, (Sex Professionals of Canada) told reporters that prostitutes will be normal citizens who file income taxes, purchase investments and quietly go about their work. “We are not going to have fire and brimstone and sex workers raining down from the sky,” she said.

The Environment Agency will today announce that parts of Yorkshire, the largest county, are officially in drought following the hottest March for seven years. That could mean 4.7 million households will be hit by hosepipe bans by the summer.

And experts warn the entire country could face similar water restrictions in a matter of weeks. Trevor Bishop, the Environment Agency’s head of water resources, said they were striving to balance the water needs of the community and of the environment.

He said: “We are working with businesses, farmers and water companies to plan ahead to meet the challenges of a continued drought.”

Wildlife experts warn that some species, including dragonflies and water voles, could lose their habitats. The official drought zone now includes parts of North Yorkshire, East Yorkshire and South Yorkshire, as well as a whole swathe of the country stretching from Bournemouth on the south coast to Scarborough, affecting 27 million people. That is already more than half of England’s 52 million population.

This comes after a public outcry following revelations in November that a neo-Nazi cell had apparently been able to go on a nationwide spree of racially motivated murders over several years, under the noses of the German intelligence services. The group of three are being held responsible for the deaths of eight Turkish and one Greek immigrant between 2000 and 2006, as well as a German policewoman in 2007.

Yet the existence of the group, dubbed the Zwickau cell after the name of the town where they spent most of their time in hiding, only came to light in November when two of its members died in an apparent joint suicide or murder-suicide and the third handed herself in to the authorities. The NPD has been linked to the group, though the allegations have yet to be accepted in a court of law.

The story of the killers has dominated headlines in Germany for months now and given rise to one of the biggest scandals in post-war Germany. It turns out intelligence agencies had had the group under surveillance for years, and even found a bomb-making factory in their garage back in 1998. So why were the trio not stopped earlier? Why were they allowed to disappear and then stay underground? And why was it that security services blamed the murders on the Turkish mafia at the time? A right-wing motive was never investigated.

‘Martin’, a former neo-Nazi said, “The leadership is always trying to attract members of the so-called upper classes and students who, one day, can act as lawyers or doctors for the far right”

South Korean President Lee Myung-bak said nuclear terrorism remained a "grave threat", while US President Barack Obama said action was key. The meeting was dominated by North Korea's plan to launch a rocket. North Korea says the long-range rocket will carry a satellite when it goes up in April. The US says any launch would violate UN resolutions and constitute a missile test.

Iran's nuclear programme was also on the minds of the summit participants, with Mr Obama pledging to meet the leaders of Russia and China on the sidelines to work towards a resolution.

Although the exact number of nuclear weapons in each country's possession is top secret, the Federation of American Scientists has made best estimates about the size and composition of national nuclear weapon stockpiles based on publicly available information.

Russia 10,000

US 8,500

France 300

China 240

UK 225

Israel 80

Pakistan 110

India 100

North Korea Fewer than 10

His weight dropped from 210 pounds to just 140 pounds (64 kg), he couldn't work, and was constantly borrowing money. One night last July, Coomer tried something new - OPANA, A POWERFUL OPIOID PAINKILLER CONTAINING OXYMORPHONE. He overdosed and died at the age of 24. "It's a nightmare every single day," said his mother, Melissa Himmelheber, 43, who wiped away tears as she showed pictures of her lost son. "This is a family that was extremely close. Now we're just picking up the shattered pieces."

Prescription drug abuse is the new scourge of rural America. It now leads to more deaths in the United States than heroin and cocaine combined, and rural residents are nearly twice as likely to overdose on pills than people in big cities, according to the Centers for Disease Control.

Neither Japanese nor US authorities issued a tsunami warning, though a small change in sea levels may follow. No damage or injury from Tuesday's quake has been reported. Tokyo Electric Power Co (TEPCO) and Tohoku Electric say no abnormalities at nuclear plants across the region have been registered, including those in the province of Fukushima. Fukushima nuclear facilities, which were severely damaged just a year ago by a magnitude 9.0 quake and a massive tsunami that followed, became an epicenter of one of the worst nuclear crises in global modern history.

Since that disaster, which left some 19,000 people dead or missing in Japan, there has been A FIVE-FOLD INCREASE IN EARTHQUAKES IN THE TOKYO METROPOLITAN AREA, says the Tokyo University Earthquake Research Institute as reported by Reuters.

Sources urged drivers not to hoard petrol, but said they should take ‘prudent’ steps to ensure they have a full tank over the next week or so. When asked if the Government would advise drivers to fill up, Downing Street’s official spokesman said: ‘People will draw their own conclusions.’ But with the AA warning against filling up tanks in case it caused a shortage, Labour accused Downing Street of stoking the risk of a mass rush to the pumps.

‘It’s the height of irresponsibility for Downing Street to give the impression that people should be panic-buying. They should be using all their efforts to get a settlement,’ a spokesman said. Labour leader Ed Miliband has so far refused to condemn the strike threat, with the Unite union behind the ballot being the party’s largest paymaster.

Petrol stations up and down the country saw unusually big queues of motorists filling up their cars or buying petrol cans. A walkout of drivers could take place as early as April 3, but ministers believe it is more likely to begin around April 8 or 9, causing massive disruption over the Easter weekend.

The head of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development claimed that to survive the euro needs to boost its financial firewall to at least €1 trillion to return to growth. Angel Gurria, the secretary-general of the Paris-based international development body, said current commitments to the rescue funds, which are limited to €500 billion ($664 billion), are not enough to restore market confidence in the eurozone.

Europe needs "the mother of all firewalls," he said at a news conference in Brussels, where he was flanked by Olli Rehn, the EU's economic affairs commissioner, who has also been pushing for a larger bailout fund. Germany yesterday signaled its intent to come to the aid of ailing eurozone countries such as Spain and Italy in order to keep the euro afloat. Both Spain and Italy are struggling to keep up with debt repayments which together have more than 2.5 trillion euros worth of debt.

The Book of Exodus describes the miraculous splitting of the Red Sea to allow the Jews to cross it while walking on dry land, thereby escaping the Egyptians. "In our lifetimes, we have witnessed some of the most remarkable miracles of Jewish history," the Rabbi said. "After the devastation of the Holocaust, a rational observer could have said, 'that is a death blow for the Jewish people. They're finished. What sort of future can there be?'"

"Yet within three years of that, Jewish sovereignty is established in the land of Israel. In 1948, on a tiny strip of land, six hundred thousand Jews joined by millions of Holocaust survivors had to ward off ferocious attacks by enemies on all sides - and did so in one military victory after another. With great miracles and signs and wonders... The reunification of Jerusalem, the recapture of the Temple Mount. And in the midst of all of these military dangers, absorbing millions of immigrants from all over the world... from Russia, from Ethiopia."

“Building a thriving economy… becoming leaders in technology and medicine – and all fields of human endeavor,” Rabbi Goldstein proclaims, "What a remarkable divine miracle from Hashem before our very eyes!"

The 17-country eurozone is under pressure to raise the firewalls to boost confidence in the struggling countries, despite uncertainty over the ability of Rome and Madrid to repay their debts. Finance ministers are due to meet to discuss their next move in Copenhagen on Friday. German Chancellor Angela Merkel, speaking in Berlin, said her country could be willing to temporarily increase the eurozone's bailout funds to €700 billion.

But, it is questionable whether a temporary increase to €700 billion - of which some €200 billion have already been committed to previous bailouts - will be enough to convince the rest of the world that the eurozone is doing enough to stop its debt crisis from spreading.

However, funding costs for Spain in particular have gone up again over the past weeks amid doubts whether the recession-ridden country can cut its large deficits. FxPro economist Simon Smith said: “The relative calm that has emerged in the eurozone fiscal situation has been shattered.”

“The data highlights the knife-edge that the eurozone is operating on, with even core countries struggling to grow at a sufficient pace to compensate for the ongoing recessions in several peripheral nations.” ING economist Peter Vanden Houte warned: “THE DEBT CRISIS COULD COME BACK WITH A VENGEANCE.”

The controversial measure, the latest in a long line of interfering legislation from the EU, is being driven by a so-called fight against pollution. The European Commission will take the first step to a total ban next month by publishing a report on plastic packaging. One of the key proposals will be a recommendation for mandatory charging for plastic shopping bags.

The proposals were met with fury last night by retailers and politicians and added to the GROWING SUPPORT FOR OUR CRUSADE TO GET BRITAIN OUT OF THE EU. Writing in the Daily Express today, UKIP MEP Paul Nuttall said it would alienate consumers and do little to boost the EU’s stuttering economic growth.

“Whether anybody in Brussels has noticed or not, the economy, both here in the UK and across the continent, is hardly surging forward,” he says. “Millions have lost their jobs and millions have never had a job. Businesses are closing down and those lucky enough to be in work are having to tighten their belts as prices rise and salaries stagnate. So you would think that now would not be the time to introduce a new tax on commerce.”

Fears over Europe’s debt crisis were heightened by the region’s purchasing managers’ survey, which showed manufacturing in decline in powerhouses Germany and France. With China’s manufacturing sector also shrinking in March, investor confidence which had built up following the European Central Bank’s injection of more than €1 trillion (£830 billion) into the eurozone banking system evaporated. The FTSE 100 fell 46.3 to 5845.6, while leading European stock markets were down by more than 1.5 per cent.

“The data highlights the knife-edge that the eurozone is operating on, with even core countries struggling to grow at a sufficient pace to compensate for the ongoing recessions in several peripheral nations.”