As many as 18 British and French helicopters will be deployed to support rebels trying to consolidate gains against Gaddafi's forces. The helicopter operation - expected to be supported by Special Forces troops - will take the allies closer still to a full ground operation in Libya.

Whitehall officials said that later this week, the Apaches will begin flying missions in from HMS Ocean, a helicopter carrier in the Mediterranean. Their use was authorised by David Cameron at a meeting of the National Security Council after the Prime Minister asked military chiefs for new ways to increase the pressure on the Libyan regime.

"We are constantly looking for ways to intensify the diplomatic and military pressure on the Libyan regime," said a spokesman for Mr Cameron. One of the helicopters' principal tasks will be to enforce a 16-mile buffer zone around the beseiged city of Misurata.

The ease with which six Taliban militants stormed the PNS Mehran base in Karachi, close to the city's busy commercial airport, and destroyed two newly US-supplied P-3C Orion maritime surveillance aircraft has unnerved Pakistan's military establishment

The militants held off security forces for more than 16 hours, killed 12 naval personnel and injured 14. Their primary objective appeared to be some of the military's most sophisticated electronic warfare equipment, as they wiped out Pakistan's anti-submarine warfare capability in a single stroke. Ghazanfar Ali, a former brigadier general, said the Taliban attack would "hurt Pakistan's reputation as a nuclear weapons state" in the eyes of the international community, by emphasising the country's vulnerability.

In its arms race with arch-rival India, Pakistan developed nuclear weapons in the 1990s and carried out its first nuclear tests in 1998. Pakistan's security establishment insists that the nuclear arsenal is carefully guarded. Some analysts, however, argue that nuclear material used in the earlier phases of weapons production is more vulnerable.

Maleeha Lodhi, a former senior Pakistani diplomat, said there was considerable pressure on General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, head of the country's military, from the US after the Bin Laden raid and from within his own ranks. Militants also blew up a bridge on a highway from Islamabad to Peshawar. The road had been considered one of the most secure in Pakistan.

ABC News spoke with lead forecaster Greg Carbin of the National Weather Service's National Severe Storm Laboratory and asked him why the 2011 tornado season has been so extraordinarily devastating. Is the death toll in 2011 significantly higher than previous years? Short Answer: Yes. The average death toll is normally 60 to 70.

Meteorologist Greg Carbin: "In the past decade the average annual death toll from tornadoes has been around 60 to 70 people. The average killer tornado claims about two lives and so what's going on this year is something well above that. ...We're now approaching about 500 fatalities for the year to date, just under that. That is something we have not experienced in this country in over 35 years and it still looks like we're still around the number nine as far as the deadliest year on record. So there have been many years in the past over the past couple of generations in which we've exceeded 500 fatalities in a year, it's just that they haven't occurred recently."

Have there been more tornadoes in 2011 than previous years? Short Answer: No, the tornadoes are just hitting populated areas.

Carbin: "There is no indication of an upward trend in either intensity or numbers. We've had a lot more reports of tornadoes, but most of those tornadoes are actually the weak tornadoes, the F-0. When you take out the F-0 tornadoes from the long-term record, there is very little increase in the total number of tornadoes, and we don't see any increase in the number of violent tornadoes. It's just that these things are coming, and they're very rare and extreme, and they happen to be hitting populated areas. So right now, no indication of an upward trend in the strong to violent tornadoes that we're seeing."

Large corporations that have boomed in India amid the country's nimble economy have been drawn to the US where unemployment has soared. Struggling residents desperate for work are paid between $12 and $14 a hour to be stationed in tiny cubicles for long shifts of telesales work.

Once the employees are established, many are offered the chance to be flown to India themselves - the same tactic Western countries have done in India. Experts said that the phenomenon, which could become more widespread in the coming years, is partly due to Indian workers demanding higher wages and higher living standards.

'The US became the fastest-growing location for us last year. We expect that to continue this year,' Genpact chief executive VN 'Tiger' Tyagarajan said. Joseph Vafi, an analyst at Jefferies & Co in San Francisco told the Washington Post: 'What you have going on in India are salary hikes. As these companies get larger and larger, it just makes sense for them to do some hiring in the States.' But compared with Indian workers, managers have complained that those from the US are 'spoiled' and 'lazy'.

An analysis has found that the official cost of the war so far - 100 million pounds - is a massive underestimate. Francis Tusa, editor of the Defence Analysis newsletter, said the true cost of all the bombs and sorties flown, up to the end of April, was about 300 million pounds.

But if the air campaign goes on for six months, as military chiefs have acknowledged is likely, Mr Tusa said the bill is likely to exceed 1 billion pounds by September. This is far higher than the 'tens of millions' that Chancellor George Osborne said would be spent back in March. One defence analyst told The Guardian: 'The final cost will depend on whether the Treasury is prepared to pay for replacements for all the bombs and missiles that have been used so far.'

Up to May 5, the British had flown 25 per cent of nearly 6,000 sorties over Libya - second only to the US forces. About 1,000 Britons are involved in the operation. The American total was inflated by a high number of sorties in the first week of the operation. In the five weeks up to May 5, Britain had flown more sorties than any other country.

A former Royal Navy admiral has attacked Nato's campaign in Libya, saying it risks becoming another open-ended commitment like Afghanistan and Iraq. Rear Admiral Chris Parry said the campaign 'defies strategic logic' and needs to be completely rethought before Libya descends into anarchy. He added that, just like Iraq and Afghanistan, it is a 'classic example of how to act in haste and repent at leisure'.

"Right now, socially, we are disintegrating," ElBaradei said on CNN's "Fareed Zakaria GPS," scheduled to air Sunday. "Economically we are not in the best state. Politically it's - it's like a black hole. We do not know where we are heading." ElBaradei said many Egyptians don't feel secure as the country struggles to create a new government after former president Hosni Mubarak was forced from power by protests earlier this year.

"People do not feel secure," ElBaradei said. "They are buying guns" to protect themselves, he said. ElBaradei said he wasn't sure when a presidential race could begin because there aren't any laws that outline "how to run a campaign, how you raise funds" or when candidates can become official. "What kind of state or regime we are going to have?" ElBaradei asked. "Is it a presidential system? Is it a parliamentary system? When are we going to have a new constitution?"

He also expressed concern about the influence of the Islamic group the Muslim Brotherhood, which has had longer to organize than other nascent political contenders. ElBaradei said the election may slip to next year given the uncertainty.

"We have asked our Chinese brothers to please build a naval base at Gwadar," Chaudhary Ahmed Mukhtar, Pakistan's defence minister, told the Financial Times, confirming that the request was conveyed to China during a visit last week by Yusuf Raza Gilani, Pakistan's prime minister. Hitherto, China has shied away from moves that might alienate the US and Beijing's neighbours, such as India, Malaysia and Indonesia. "China's rise is a beneficial force for peace and we have no hegemonic ambitions," said a Chinese official familiar with Beijing's security policy.

But Christopher Yung, senior research fellow at National Defense University in Washington, said in a recent paper "the nature and degree of China's access to out-of-area bases will be the ultimate indication and warning" of its eventual intention to become a global military power. A Pentagon official said: "We have questions and concerns about this development and China's intentions. But that is why we believe it is important to have a healthy, stable and continuous military-to-military relationship."

A senior Pakistani official familiar with Sino-Pakistani discussions on naval co-operation said: "The naval base is something we hope will allow Chinese vessels to regularly visit in the future and also use the place for repair and maintenance of their fleet in the [Indian Ocean region]." Such a foothold would be the first overseas location offering support to the People's Liberation Army navy for future out-of-area missions and so would be likely to reinforce international concerns over Beijing's longer-term military ambitions.

We tested out the example they provided - a query which attempted to convert 215 Euro to dollars - as well as several similar conversions and found that the results were just as Sophos Labs described them: A quick search [through the results] finds a number of other webpages which don't just use keywords related to currency conversion, but also other terms - "dirty sexist jokes", for instance.

What is occurring here is SEO poisoning, where bad guys create poisoned webpages related to certain search terms in the hope that you will come across them and infect your computer.

So what can you do? You can use security or filtering software - naturally Sophos Labs suggests that you use its own product, but there are plenty of options - and keep up your guard. Take a closer look at search results before you follow links. Consider if something seems strange or whether there is a trusted website you could go to instead.

Voting took place amid mass protests against high unemployment and the government's handling of the economy. Young demonstrators holding sit-ins in Madrid and other cities said rallies would continue for another week. Mr Zapatero said three years of economic crisis had taken their toll.

"It destroyed thousands of jobs. It is a crisis that had profound effects on citizens' morale. I know that many Spaniards suffer great hardship and fear for their futures," he said. "Today, without doubt, they expressed their discontent," he added. However, he vowed to pursue job-creating reforms until the end of his mandate. At this point, a general election must be held by March of next year.

Spain's overall jobless rate soared to 21% in the first quarter of this year, the highest in the industrialised world. Youth unemployment stands at 45%. Meanwhile, thousands of young protesters remain camped out in squares across the country.

Commissioners are being asked whether to continue an indefinite ban on the ordination of gay ministers until a report next year. Another option is to lift the ban but await a separate report which would be published in two years. For two years, since it confirmed the Reverend Scott Rennie's appointment to Queen's Cross Church, the Kirk has been consulting widely with its officials and congregations on the issue of the ordination of gay ministers.

One in five members of Kirk sessions have said they would leave if it is agreed that gay ministers can be ordained, while one in 10 have said they would leave if the Kirk rules they can not be ordained.

Dr Bill Naphy, from Aberdeen University, warned that it was a "very divisive issue" but said he believed the Church of Scotland faced losing whole congregations if it approved the ordinations. He added: "The very fact that the Kirk has spent two years debating an issue that relates to a handful of verses in the Bible must seem a very peculiar thing for the Kirk to spend its time on. In actual fact the Bible doesn't say a great deal about sexuality at all."

In 1961, for every 1,000 boys under the age of seven, there were 976 girls. Today, the figure has dropped to a dismal 914 girls. Although the number of women overall is improving (due to factors such as life expectancy), India's ratio of young girls to boys is one of the worst in the world after China.

Many factors come into play to explain this: infanticide, abuse and neglect of girl children. But campaigners say the decline is largely due to the increased availability of antenatal sex screening, and they talk of a genocide. "Whatever measures have been put in over the past 40 years have not had any impact on the child sex ratio," Home Secretary GK Pillai said when the census report was released.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh described female foeticide and infanticide as a "national shame" and called for a "crusade" to save girl babies. Until 30 years ago, he says, India's sex ratio was "reasonable". Then in 1974, Delhi's prestigious All India Institute of Medical Sciences came out with a study which said sex-determination tests were a boon for Indian women. It said they no longer needed to produce endless children to have the right number of sons, and it encouraged the determination and elimination of female foetuses as an effective tool of population control.

"By late 80s, every newspaper in Delhi was advertising for ultrasound sex determination," said Mr George. "Clinics from Punjab were boasting that they had 10 years' experience in eliminating girl children and inviting parents to come to them." Today, there are 40,000 registered ultrasound clinics in the country, and many more exist without any record.

The Grimsvotn volcano is experiencing its largest eruption in 100 years. It comes a year after ash from the Eyjafjallajokull eruption reached Europe, closing much of its airspace. A spokesman for the Met Office, which runs Europe's Volcanic Ash Advisory Centre, said: "This is a very different situation to last April."

"The weather is much more changeable and there's a lot more uncertainty. There's no risk of the ash moving across the UK in the next day or so. But there is a possibility that we'll see some volcanic ash towards the end of the week." Icelandic air traffic control has created a no-fly zone around the volcano, closed Keflavik airport, the country's main hub, and cancelled all domestic flights.

Last month tornadoes and storms killed at least 350 people in Alabama and six other southern states. John Miller, a freelance photographer for the Springfield News-Leader newspaper, described widespread damage in Joplin. "The Home Depot is levelled. The Walmart is destroyed. Gas stations, buildings. Everywhere I could see was either heavily damaged or completely destroyed," he said. "I saw firefighters and paramedics pull a young girl out of a car at the Home Depot. Part of the building had fallen on the car."

Power lines and phone lines in the city are down, reports say. Witnesses said ambulances lined the street near a Walmart store amid reports that hundreds of people were trapped inside. Officials at St John's Hospital in Joplin said the building had been badly damaged and windows blown out. A resident living 45 miles away said debris from the hospital had landed in his yard, including medical supplies and X-rays. Newton County Coroner Mark Bridges told Reuters by telephone that at least 30 people had been killed.

Governor Nixon said storms had caused extensive damage across Missouri. He warned that the storms were not finished. "I urge Missourians to keep a close eye on the latest weather information and to follow the instructions and warnings of emergency personnel as these deadly storms continue to move through our state," he said.

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In an unusually sharp rebuke to Israel's closest ally, Netanyahu insisted Israel would never pull back to its 1967 borders - which would mean big concessions of occupied land - that Obama had said should be the basis for negotiations on creating a Palestinian state.

"Peace based on illusions will crash eventually on the rocks of Middle East reality," an unsmiling Netanyahu said as Obama listened intently beside him in the Oval Office after they met for talks. Netanyahu insisted that Israel was willing to make compromises for peace, but made clear he had major differences with Washington over how to advance the long-stalled peace process.

Despite assurances of friendship by both leaders, this week's events also appeared to herald tense months ahead for US-Israeli relations, even as the Arab world goes through political tumult and Palestinians prepare a unilateral bid this fall to seek UN General Assembly recognition for statehood. Obama and Netanyahu, meanwhile, appear to have reached an impasse after two and a half years of rocky relations. The Obama White House was angered when Netanyahu refused a US demand to halt building Jewish settlements in the West Bank.

Some Israelis have never felt entirely comfortable with Obama, unnerved by his early attempts to reach out to Iran and his support for popular Arab revolutions that have unsettled Israel. In a pointed comment clearly aimed at Obama's new approach to the long-running conflict, Netanyahu said: "The only peace that will endure is one that is based on reality, on unshakable facts."

Obama on Thursday also delivered a message to the Palestinians that they would have to answer "some very difficult questions" about a reconciliation deal with Hamas, the Islamist group that runs Gaza and which the United States regards as a terrorist group.