Reading the Islamic religion's holy book - considered by Muslims to be the exact words of God - ensured he remained 'faith-literate', the former Labour leader said. In an interview with the Observer magazine, published yesterday he said: 'To be faith-literate is crucial in a globalised world, I believe.

'I read the Qur'an [Koran] every day. Partly to understand some of the things happening in the world, but mainly just because it is immensely instructive.' Mr Blair believes that a knowledge of the faith informs his current role as Middle East envoy for the Quartet of the United Nations, United States, European Union and Russia. The former PM's work, which has cost British taxpayers more than 2 million pounds, aims to help resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Mr Blair has previously praised the Muslim faith as 'beautiful' and said the Prophet Mohammed had been 'an enormously civilizing force'. In 2006 he said the Koran was a 'reforming book, it is inclusive. It extols science and knowledge and abhors superstition. It is practical and way ahead of its time in attitudes to marriage, women and governance'.

The main way to do this is boosting photosynthesis in rice, the scientific equivalent of bolting on a turbo-charger. A global project is trying to do just that, with the aim of genetically enhancing rice to double yields and become as productive as corn. In nature, some plants are much more efficient in the way they grow because they have a genetically superior form of photosynthesis, which involves using the Sun's energy to convert carbon dioxide sucked into the leaves and creating sugars and other organic compounds for the plant to grow.

Corn, sugar and sorghum possess this more efficient C4 photosynthesis in their leaves. Rice and wheat have the more primitive C3 pathway. In a hot climate, corn yields can be 50 percent more than rice, have double the water-use efficiency and use about 40 percent less nitrogen. Achieving these benchmarks in rice would revolutionise the production - and food security - of a staple on which about a third of humanity relies. The project, led by the International Rice Research Institute in the Philippines, and involving a team of scientists around the globe, is trying to crack the genetic code that will supercharge photosynthesis in rice.

Turkey, a NATO ally with a mostly Muslim population, stands out in a region buffeted by popular uprisings as a rising power with traditional Western alliances as well as growing ties in the east and elsewhere. In the past decade, the government has sharply reduced the political clout of the military, and taken some steps to ease restrictions on minorities, though reforms have slowed in recent years.

Erdogan has promised that a new constitution would include "basic rights and freedoms," replacing a constitution implemented under the tutelage of the military in 1982. However, he has provided relatively few details on a possible new draft. The government has Islamic roots, long a source of suspicion among secular circles that once dominated Turkey and fear that Erdogan seeks to impose religion on society.

Turkey's leaders describe themselves as moderates and "conservative democrats" who are committed to the ideals of Western-style democracy. After winning election in 2002, they implemented economic reforms that pulled the country out of crisis. The growth rate last year was nearly 9 percent, the second highest among G-20 nations after China.

About 50 million Turks, or two-thirds of the population, were eligible to vote. NTV television said turnout was 84.5 percent. For all of Turkey's challenges, Sunday's vote was an indicator of stability in an increasingly confident country. Most voting was peaceful and orderly, with large crowds gathering early to cast ballots.

The story of America's Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender (LGBT) community is the story of our fathers and sons, our mothers and daughters, and our friends and neighbors who continue the task of making our country a more perfect Union. It is a story about the struggle to realize the great American promise that all people can live with dignity and fairness under the law. Each June, we commemorate the courageous individuals who have fought to achieve this promise for LGBT Americans, and we rededicate ourselves to the pursuit of equal rights for all, regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity.

Since taking office, my Administration has made significant progress towards achieving equality for LGBT Americans. Last December, I was proud to sign the repeal of the discriminatory "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy. With this repeal, gay and lesbian Americans will be able to serve openly in our Armed Forces for the first time in our Nation's history. Our national security will be strengthened and the heroic contributions these Americans make to our military, and have made throughout our history, will be fully recognized.

My Administration has also taken steps to eliminate discrimination against LGBT Americans in Federal housing programs and to give LGBT Americans the right to visit their loved ones in the hospital. We have made clear through executive branch nondiscrimination policies that discrimination on the basis of gender identity in the Federal workplace will not be tolerated. I have continued to nominate and appoint highly qualified, openly LGBT individuals to executive branch and judicial positions. Because we recognize that LGBT rights are human rights, my Administration stands with advocates of equality around the world in leading the fight against pernicious laws targeting LGBT persons and malicious attempts to exclude LGBT organizations from full participation in the international system. We led a global campaign to ensure "sexual orientation" was included in the United Nations resolution on extrajudicial execution - the only United Nations resolution that specifically mentions LGBT people - to send the unequivocal message that no matter where it occurs, state-sanctioned killing of gays and lesbians is indefensible. No one should be harmed because of who they are or who they love, and my Administration has mobilized unprecedented public commitments from countries around the world to join in the fight against hate and homophobia.

At home, we are working to address and eliminate violence against LGBT individuals through our enforcement and implementation of the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr Hate Crimes Prevention Act. We are also working to reduce the threat of bullying against young people, including LGBT youth. My Administration is actively engaged with educators and community leaders across America to reduce violence and discrimination in schools. To help dispel the myth that bullying is a harmless or inevitable part of growing up, the First Lady and I hosted the first White House Conference on Bullying Prevention in March. Many senior Administration officials have also joined me in reaching out to LGBT youth who have been bullied by recording "It Gets Better" video messages to assure them they are not alone.

This month also marks the 30th anniversary of the emergence of the HIV/AIDS epidemic, which has had a profound impact on the LGBT community. Though we have made strides in combating this devastating disease, more work remains to be done, and I am committed to expanding access to HIV/AIDS prevention and care. Last year, I announced the first comprehensive National HIV/AIDS Strategy for the United States. This strategy focuses on combinations of evidence-based approaches to decrease new HIV infections in high risk communities, improve care for people living with HIV/AIDS, and reduce health disparities. My Administration also increased domestic HIV/AIDS funding to support the Ryan White HIV/AIDS Program and HIV prevention, and to invest in HIV/AIDS-related research. However, government cannot take on this disease alone. This landmark anniversary is an opportunity for the LGBT community and allies to recommit to raising awareness about HIV/AIDS and continuing the fight against this deadly pandemic.

Every generation of Americans has brought our Nation closer to fulfilling its promise of equality. While progress has taken time, our achievements in advancing the rights of LGBT Americans remind us that history is on our side, and that the American people will never stop striving toward liberty and justice for all.

NOW, THEREFORE, I, BARACK OBAMA, President of the United States of America, by virtue of the authority vested in me by the Constitution and the laws of the United States, do hereby proclaim June 2011 as Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Pride Month. I call upon the people of the United States to eliminate prejudice everywhere it exists, and to celebrate the great diversity of the American people.

IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this thirty-first day of May, in the year of our Lord two thousand eleven, and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and thirty-fifth.

BARACK OBAMA

Germany is by far the most important economic power in the European Union. The EU would be unthinkable without its German engine, just as the euro debt crisis cannot be resolved without active German involvement. Berlin wants a permanent seat on the United Nations Security Council and German soldiers fight alongside those of other NATO countries in the struggle against international terrorism in Afghanistan.

But these facts and goals have little to do with Germany's current standing in the European Union and on the global stage. In the orchestra of great powers, Berlin has not had an instrument to play for months. Paris and London are making the music and giving the cues. This country, represented by its government, has become a bystander to world politics while others show the way. How long has it been since Berlin had something to say and others actually listened? Former Chancellor Gerhard Schroder - and even Angela Merkel - once commanded attention, if not always deference, from Germany's partners.

Perhaps the chancellor simply lacks the courage to say out loud that Germany has responsibilities in Europe and the world? That the nation cannot shirk its duties and simply disengage from global affairs? It's not enough to let Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle and Defence Minister Thomas de Maiziere set foreign policy as they please. Angela Merkel has to show leadership and determine where Germany's interests in the EU and at the UN lie. She can no longer afford to sit on the sidelines.

The aggressive enterohaemorrhagic E. coli (EHEC) bacteria can cause haemolytic uraemic syndrome (HUS), a potentially fatal kidney complaint. The killer bug has claimed at least 33 lives and has left some 3,000 people ill across 14 countries. Lauterbach warned that further epidemics could not be ruled out. "EHEC pathogens are on the rise throughout the world. And Germany will also see repeated EHEC outbreaks in the future."

Tensions between China and Vietnam continued to rise over the weekend, ahead of live-fire drills planned by Vietnam's navy on Monday on an islet around 20 miles from the coast of central Vietnam, which Hanoi described as "routine". Stirred by a number of maritime confrontations with China over recent weeks, hundreds of Vietnamese took part in rare anti-China protests on Sunday for the second straight weekend, with the usually draconian police allowing the demonstrations to take place.

"China is running an information campaign to blind people," said Pham Gia Minh, a 55-year-old investment consultant who attended a protest outside the Chinese embassy in Hanoi. "We have to let people understand that we want peace but when the aggressor comes we will stand up to them."

In addition to China and Vietnam, Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines and Taiwan claim some or all of the territory in the contested area of the South China Sea, which is believed to contain vast oil and gas reserves and incorporates key trade routes and abundant fish stocks.

In a declaration outlining its vision for a political solution, the National Coordination Committees said power must be handed to the army and an internationally supervised conference should convene within six months to write a new constitution and "stop Syria from sliding into chaos and guarantee a peaceful transfer of power."

"The regime... has forced the army into a confrontation with its own people, as if Syria did not have land under occupation (to be liberated). It has worked on stirring sectarian fears without any consideration for national cohesion," it said. The conference would include "regime politicians with no blood on their hands," representatives of the opposition and activists on the ground, the statement said.

"Syria is a civic nation, not the ownership of an individual, a family or party. It is not a possession to be bequeathed," it said, referring to 41 years of Assad family rule.

In total 10 people were injured and St John's Ambulance reported that six were taken to hospital. Two people were rescued from a collapsed building, and 54,000 homes lost power. The first quake to strike was measured at a magnitude of 5.2 and caused buildings to be evacuated. An hour and twenty minutes later, the US Geological Survey measured the biggest tremor at 6.0.

It struck at a depth of 5.6 miles and some nine miles from the country's second largest city. Much of the centre of the city is still sealed off because of the precarious state of many damaged buildings from four months earlier. That disaster was technically an aftershock from an earthquake last September, and for nine months its residents have endured thousands of tremors.

The aftershock prompted police to evacuate parts of the damaged central city known as the red zone, while rock falls had closed several bridges and prompted the closure of one police station. Eastern suburbs were badly affected by flooding and liquefaction - mud oozing from below the surface and covering roads. Christchurch's cathedral, which only had one wall left standing following February's quake, has suffered further extensive damage.

These days, the public clamour for quick solutions has over-ridden outmoded concepts such as accuracy and proof. The result is a 134 million pounds compensation tab, to be shared by all members of the European Union, including Britain, after what was denounced as a deadly consignment of Spanish vegetables turned out to be nothing of the sort.

'We have to restore the honour of the cucumber,' said Spanish MEP Francisco Sosa-Wagner, holding one aloft at a meeting of agriculture ministers in Luxembourg. Too late, mate. Already the unwitting dupe of a thousand sight gags, the cucumber is to suffer further indignity this summer, considered untrustworthy and shunned by consumers. Serious health warnings as good as stamp a skull and crossbones on every item, so information released to the public must be correct. Too often, it is not.

Edwina Currie blithely announced that 'most' egg production in Britain was infected with salmonella in 1988. She was wrong and later resigned, but not before four million hens were destroyed, along with 400 million unwanted eggs. We have got out of old habits that used to protect us: washing food at home, for instance. Now, it is washed on site and often packed wet, far likelier to cause contamination. And vegetables grow, regardless. No farmer can press a button to halt production when there is a sudden, unexpected, decline in sales.

Those who insist compensation is unwarranted and insurance policies are the answer haven't thought it through. A calamity that runs into hundreds of millions, that costs jobs and businesses, would be uninsurable; certainly to the small producer, likeliest to suffer from a rash assertion. And insure against what exactly? A minister with a big (mouth) or a scientist enjoying five minutes of fame?

Market concerns were compounded by new figures showing Greece's economy slowed faster than expected in the first three months of 2011. The figures put the annual pace of the downturn at 5.5 per cent rather than 4.8 per cent as previously estimated as public sector cuts and higher indirect taxes hit the economy.

However, Greek exports, including petroleum products, increased by 31.5 per cent during the January-March period, according to the Panhellenic Exporters Association. Experts said the country, struggling under 340 billion euros (301 billion pounds) of debt, was likely to stay in recession in 2011 for the third year in a row. There were further strikes on Thursday as Greece's prime minister George Papandreou sought to get further austerity measures approved by the Cabinet.

Meanwhile, there was gathering support for Germany's stance to force bondholders to extend the terms of their loans in order to avert a default. Moody's warned that if Greece defaults, the risk increases of defaults in Ireland and Portugal. Andrew Bosomworth, head of portfolio management at the Munich office of Pimco, said: "I am in favour of participation by the private sector simply on the grounds of fairness."

"Trying to figure out where they are going to hit is next to impossible," Stevens County Undersheriff Lavonne Webb said Thursday. "Nobody is claiming ownership of any animals involved in the pack." In their most recent attack, the dogs killed a 350-pound llama earlier this week. They've also killed goats and other farm animals.

So far, no humans have been attacked. But authorities are warning residents to take whatever steps are necessary to protect their families and animals because the dogs appear to be killing for fun rather than food. "We have this pack that is out there killing for the sake of killing," Webb said in a telephone interview from Colville. "What is going to happen if they come across a small child?" Officers have tried to track the pack but had little success because the dogs seem to hunker down during the day and move only at night, Webb said.

"We've only had one or two sightings during daytime hours," she said. Webb added she has worked for the sheriff's office since the 1970s and not encountered a similar problem before. "It's become a major issue because of the number of kills," she said. Since the end of March, there have been 15 separate attacks in the county that have killed about 100 animals, Webb said. The dogs killed a number of goats last week and the llama on Tuesday night.

Either way, forests across the West that once had 50 trees per acre (half-hectare) now have hundreds, sometimes thousands, and much of the landscape is choked with tinder-dry brush. The density of the growth has fueled immense conflagrations in recent years like the 525-square-mile blaze now burning in the Apache-Sitgreaves National Forest northeast of Phoenix. "I think what is happening proves the debate," said state Senator Sylvia Allen, a Republican from rural Snowflake.

In the past, a 30-square-mile fire was considered huge. "And it used to be the loggers got right on it. Never in the past have you had these huge fires." Today, it's not uncommon for fires to exceed 150 square miles. On Thursday, the huge blaze known as the Wallow Fire was still burning completely out of control and had charred more than 386,000 acres with no containment in sight. After reportedly being sparked by a campfire, it has become the second-largest wildfire in state history and is still growing. An extremely dry late winter and spring contributed to the fire conditions.

More than 525 square miles have been blackened, and thousands of people have been forced to flee from mountain resort communities and two large towns at the forest's edge. Many in Arizona blame the legal battles that have erupted over old-growth logging that threatened endangered species such as the Mexican spotted owl. Since those disputes prevented regular logging that would have thinned the number of trees, the forests became overgrown, they say.

In the drought-affected areas, Anglian Water and Cambridge Water say there is no threat to public water supplies. But Severn Trent Water says there may be restrictions if rainfall stays low. Both the south-east and central-southern regions of England have had their driest spring on record. Across England and Wales as a whole it has been the driest spring since 1990.

Environment Secretary Caroline Spelman is set to hold a second drought summit to review the impacts of the continuing dry weather. She said: "Water companies are confident that supplies are high enough so that widespread restrictions to the public are unlikely. We're doing all we can to reduce the impact on agriculture and wildlife, but everyone can play their part.

"Households know how to use less water and everyone can do their bit to use water more wisely, not only through the summer, but throughout the year." Low levels of water are causing considerable problems for farmers, with crop yields being hit. In parts of the Fens, some farmers and growers have volunteered to irrigate only at night to reduce evaporation, and co-operatives have formed to share limited amounts of water available.

But according to a Pentagon memo which includes a detailed update on the progress and pace of operations, by mid-May US operations in Libya had cost $664 million, a figure confirmed by the Department of Defence. The document, entitled the "United States Contribution to Operation Unified Protector'', adds that US costs are running at a rate of about $2 million a day or $60 million a month. The memo has been circulating on Capitol Hill since last week. The DoD declined to comment on the increased costs of the operation.

Although it is working under Nato, the US is by far the largest contributor to operation Unified Protector. As of mid-May it was conducting 70 per cent of reconnaissance missions, over 75 per cent of refuelling flights and 27 per cent of all air sorties. The US has about 75 aircraft, including drones, involved in the operations and since the end of March has conducted about 2,600 aircraft sorties and about 600 combat sorties.

In addition the US military can call on a number of naval assets in the Mediterranean. As well as its contribution to the Nato operation, US spending on Libya includes its twelve day operation Odyssey Dawn that took place before Nato took over. In total the US military has fired about 228 missiles as of mid-May. For comparison the US Navy plans to buy 196 or so missiles this year for about $300 million or about $1.5 million each, according to US budget documents.