They were camped out next to the Interior Circle, or Gamal Abdel Nasser Square, in the capital. At nightfall, police attempted to disperse the youths and cut off electricity on the square around 11:00 pm (2100 GMT), an AFP journalist witnessed.

"A group of nearly 50 loyalists who were gathered not far from them (the students) took advantage of the power cut to throw rocks at the youths," one of the protesters, Moaz Kassrawi, told AFP. "Most of those injured suffered head wounds and had to be hospitalised," he said. According to another witness, police who had surrounded the sites did not intervene.

The White House signalled it was preparing for a change in power in Yemen, where it has been allied with the government of Ali Abdullah Saleh, president. Nato allies reached a deal in which the alliance will take over command of the Libyan no-fly zone, although responsibility for strikes on forces loyal to Colonel Muammer Gaddafi will not immediately come under the Nato umbrella.

Drawing a parallel between the unrest in Syria and the protests that unseated Hosni Mubarak, Egypt's former president, Mr Gates said: "I've just come from Egypt, where the Egyptian army stood on the sidelines and allowed people to demonstrate and in fact empowered a revolution. The Syrians might take a lesson from that."

His comments came as thousands of people marched on Thursday in Dara'a, southern Syria, where at least 44 people are now thought to have been killed in a week of protests, and as Mr Assad announced salary increases and promised greater freedom. "I would say that what the Syrian government is confronting is in fact the same challenge that faces so many governments across the region, and that is the unmet political and economic grievances of their people," Reuters quoted Mr Gates as saying during a trip to Israel.

Egypt is due to hold parliamentary elections in September, but the young political activists who launched the revolution have been pressing for a longer transition to allow them to organise. Politicians and analysts say only the Muslim Brotherhood opposition and remnants of Mr Mubarak's National Democratic Party are sufficiently prepared for elections.

Iron Dome is designed to defend against rockets at a range of 4-70 km and each battery consists of a multimission radar manufactured by Israel Aerospace Industries and three launchers, each equipped with 20 interceptors named Tamir. The main problem is that the Defense Ministry has so far only purchased and received two Iron Dome batteries, each of which can protect an urban area of approximately 100 square kilometers.

Since the escalation in hostilities in the South, Deputy Chief of General Staff Major-General Yair Naveh has held a number of discussions with IAF and Operations Directorate representatives in an effort to speed up the deployment and begin to use the system to protect Israeli civilians. On Thursday, the IDF decided to speed up the deployment of the system, possibly as early as next Sunday or Monday.

"Roads are also closed. According to the information that we have, more than 130 buildings collapsed because of the quake. There might be more casualties and damage." The BBC understands that the districts of Baan Thadeua and Baan Laen, within a 40km radius of Tachilek, have been worst hit. Cracks are visible in roads and rice fields have been wrecked by rising silt and water.

On the Thai side of the border, paddy fields and temples from Chaengsaen to Mae Sai have been damaged. A Burmese official told AFP news agency that 25 people had been killed in the town of Tarlay alone. The official said five monasteries and 35 buildings in the town had collapsed and that roads in the area had been damaged, making access for rescue parties difficult. The BBC's Rachel Harvey in Bangkok said it could be a while before the extent of the damage is known.

"While [the case] involves home schooling, it is not about the merits of home verses public schooling," stated the justices in their opinion. "We affirm the decision on the narrow basis that it represents a sustainable exercise of the trial court's discretion to determine the educational placement that is in daughter's best interests."

Alliance Defense Fund (ADF) attorney John Anthony Simmons, who represented the mother, who is divorced from the father, argued that the burden of proof was on the father to prove harm in order to change the schooling arrangement. Because no harm was demonstrated and the girl was acknowledged to be academically superior and socially interactive, even by the court, Simmons argued that the homeschooling arrangement should not have been changed. However, in the original order issued in July 2009, Judge Lucinda V Sadler reasoned that the girl's "vigorous defense of her religious beliefs to [her] counselor suggests strongly that she has not had the opportunity to seriously consider any other point of view."

"Parents have a fundamental right to make educational choices for their children," responded Simmons. "Courts can settle disputes, but they cannot legitimately order a child into a government-run school on the basis that her religious views need to be mixed with other views. That's precisely what the lower court admitted it was doing. The lower court held the Christian faith of this mother and daughter against them," Simmons said. "Unfortunately, the Supreme Court bypassed this issue and wrote this off as a 'parent versus parent' issue without recognizing the very real underlying threat to religious liberty."

The northern Thai city sustained a little damage, according to Thai television, following the earthquake which struck at 8:25pm local time on Thursday (1355 GMT). The 6.8-magnitude quake was just six miles deep, according to the US Geological Survey.

At that strength and depth, the monitor said 600,000 people would have experienced 'strong to violent' shaking. Buildings are considered vulnerable, so moderate to very heavy damage is expected in homes. A woman in an area north of Chiang Rai, just two miles from the border, died when a brick wall collapsed on her, according to police Captain Weerapon Samranjai.

There were no immediate reports of damage from the Burma side, which is a remote area where communications, even in the best of times, are difficult. The country's military-controlled government also tightly controls information.

Buildings swayed in Bangkok, about 480 miles south of the epicentre. It was initially thought two earthquakes, only seconds apart, had struck, but it was later clarified that only one had occurred. Max Jones, an Australian resident of the Thai capital, was in his 27th-floor apartment when his building started swaying so hard he had to grab the walls to keep from falling. 'It was scary, I can tell you,' he said. Mr Jones said he could smoke rising from nearby buildings and people running in the streets.

More than half the wheat fields and pastures were rated in poor or very poor condition on March 20. Dry conditions extending to Oklahoma, Kansas and Colorado may cut crop yields in the US, the world's largest exporter, as too much moisture threatens fields in North Dakota and in Canada. Wheat futures in Chicago are up 50 percent in the past year, after drought in Russia and floods in Australia hurt output and sent global food prices surging. Wholesale beef reached a record this week, and the US cattle herd in January was the smallest since 1958.

"We're probably already seeing some damage, but in the next couple of weeks, we'll surely go downhill major if we don't get some rain," said David Cleavinger, who is irrigating 75 percent of his 1,000 acres (405 hectares) of wheat in Wildorado, Texas. "With the prices we're seeing, we're trying to hold on, but there's nothing that takes the place of a rainstorm." Cleavinger, 53, has a 3,500-acre farm that includes corn and cotton.

Parts of Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas and Colorado had less than 25 percent of normal precipitation in the past 30 days, National Weather Service data show. The region may get some help from storms beginning March 26, which may drop about a half an inch of rain, said Joel Widenor, a meteorologist at the Commodity Weather Group LLC in Bethesda, Maryland.

"In a lot of places, there's very little moisture in the ground," said Nielsen-Gammon, the state climatologist who also is a professor of atmospheric sciences at Texas A&M University in College Station. Low subsoil moisture "will make us very susceptible to drought this summer if we have extended patches of dry weather," he said. Wheat prices on the Kansas City Board of Trade, which track the hard-red winter variety grown in the southern Great Plains, have surged 71 percent during the past year. Futures for May delivery closed yesterday at $8.30 a bushel.

It said the quakes struck seconds apart at 8:25 pm on Thursday (1:55 pm British time) and were centred 69 miles (111 km) north of Chiang Rai in neighbouring Thailand. The first one was very shallow, at a depth of 6.2 miles (10 km), while the second one was deeper at 142.5 miles (230 km). It is a sparsely populated, hilly area best known as the Golden Triangle, which is a traditional source of illicit opium.

The warning comes after a vote in the Portuguese parliament rejected a proposed package of tax increases and spending cuts, leading to the resignation of the prime minister Jose Socrates. All opposition parties united to defeat Mr Socrates' proposals, saying the belt-tightening went too far. Mr Socrates said in a televised statement: 'The opposition parties took away the government's ability to continue running the country. As a consequence, I have tendered my resignation to the president.'

The EU is likely to draw up a massive rescue package similar to those in Greece and Ireland. An Open Europe spokesman said: 'Portugal will inevitably ask for a bail-out. But the cases of Ireland and Greece clearly illustrate that the EU's strategy - to throw good money after bad - is failing. Rather than simply taking a bail-out, it would be better in the long run for Portugal to restructure its debt now.'

'The UK may be forced to contribute to a bail-out of Portugal, since it doesn't have a veto over the EU bail-out fund that it's liable for. 'However, a Portuguese bail-out without a restructuring wouldn't be in the UK's interest, as it fails to tackle the long-term problems of both Portugal and the eurozone.'

"These are not two separate stories, Britain has a higher budget deficit, more debts in that respect every year than countries like Portugal and yet we manage to keep our interest rates right down to those closer to Germany's because we have got a credible plan." On Wednesday, Portuguese Prime Minister Jose Socrates submitted his resignation to the president after parliament rejected new austerity steps that he had hoped would convince markets Lisbon was getting to grips with its budget deficit.

On the same day, Osborne said he was sticking to his government's strict austerity measures.

The parliament's rejection of austerity measures - as well as Socrates' resignation - comes just a day before a European summit. Socrates has said rejection of the austerity plan would force the debt-laden country to follow Greece and Ireland and seek an international bailout, which he opposes.

The rejection will "provoke an election," Cabinet Minister Pedro Silva Pereira told parliament shortly before the vote. "The government does not fear the judgment of the Portuguese people." The vote prompted the euro to extend losses against the dollar after trading lower all Wednesday on wariness before the Portuguese vote and on news of a delay in increasing a euro zone bailout fund. Portuguese stocks fell and bond yields shot up.

Large protests have been held against austerity on the past two weekends and on Wednesday train drivers went on strike to demand higher wages, creating traffic chaos around Lisbon as commuters were forced to take their cars to work.

On April 8, a group he's funded with $50 million is holding a major economic conference and Soros's goal for such an event is to "establish new international rules" and "reform the currency system." It's all according to a plan laid out in a November 4, 2009, Soros op-ed calling for "a grand bargain that rearranges the entire financial order."

The event is bringing together "more than 200 academic, business and government policy thought leaders' to repeat the famed 1944 Bretton Woods gathering that helped create the World Bank and International Monetary Fund. Soros wants a new 'multilateral system," or an economic system where America isn't so dominant.

More than two-thirds of the slated speakers have direct ties to Soros. The billionaire who thinks "the main enemy of the open society, I believe, is no longer the communist but the capitalist threat" is taking no chances. Thus far, this global gathering has generated less publicity than a spelling bee. And that's with at least four journalists on the speakers list, including a managing editor for the Financial Times and editors for both Reuters and The Times. Given Soros's warnings of what might happen without an agreement, this should be a big deal. But it's not.

A plume carrying trace amounts of radioactive iodine has been detected in Iceland, the country's Radiation Safety Authority said. However, it added, the concentration was "less than a millionth" of what was found in European countries in the wake of the 1986 Chernobyl disaster that spewed radiation over a large distance.

Recollections of the accident's aftermath continue to haunt many Europeans, putting them on edge as they watch the Japanese nuclear crisis unfold. "We thus conclude that there is no reason to worry about radioactivity levels in Iceland, nor anywhere in Europe, resulting from the nuclear accident in Japan," said Sigurdur Emil Palsson, head of emergency preparedness.

The International Atomic Energy Agency said Wednesday that the overall situation at the Fukushima plant remains of serious concern. The deposition of radioactive iodine and cesium varies across 10 prefectures on a day to day basis but "the trend is generally upward," said Graham Andrew, senior adviser to IAEA chief Yukiya Amano.

In contrast, environmental radiation monitoring in the Fukushima prefecture outside the 20 kilometer evacuation zone shows mostly decreasingly values, he added.

Based on the four-pack price for Charmin double rolls Tuesday at a midtown Hy-Vee, such a tax would add more than 10 percent to the per-roll price, pushing it over a buck. The idea came from a failed 2009 House measure by an Oregon congressman to help cities and the environment. "I heard about it and said, 'Well, this is simple. Let's put it on the table,'" said Suttle. "It doesn't mean I endorse it."

The mayor says Omaha needs help with the metro area's $1.7 billion bill for federally mandated sewer improvements. The work must be done by 2024. Suttle talked about the mandate at a Tuesday meeting held by the US Conference of Mayors. He didn't mention the toilet paper tax but said later that he's open to that and other ways to cover the sewer bill.

Julia Plucker, a lobbyist for Kellogg's and Skinner Baking, says food industries carry an unfair portion of the increases. A toilet paper tax? Sure. "I did chuckle when I first heard about it," Plucker said. "But this is a serious problem. We would love to take a look at any more equitable solution."

"Al-Qaida has their own agents and their own people in the region who are propagating their own Islamic ideas and their agenda. At the right time they will make the move, and we will see the emergence of Islam and Shariah in that particular region," Choudary said.

"The power vacuum is very useful for anyone who has an agenda and an alternative system to put in its place," he said.

"Al-Qaida is in fact a philosophy and an idea which is franchised now all around the world. You don't necessarily have to be a member of al-Qaida. If you believe in the Shariah and if you believe in the concept of jihad, and you want Islam to be implemented, then you are adhering to the same ideas as the people of al-Qaida," said Choudary. "This is widespread throughout Africa and the more these people resist against oppression, the more they see the Americans, the British and the French bombing Muslims, the more they will be drawn towards Shariah as an alternative," Choudary said.

Florida Security Council President Tom Trento agrees. "He is telling the truth, because North Africa from Cairo going West has deep penetration by the Muslim Brotherhood. We also know that Gaddafi is hated by and hates the Brotherhood and al-Qaida," Trento said. "We also know that al-Qaida has their heart set on controlling petroleum. Libya is the No. 4 producer. There is no bigger prize in northern Africa than Libya right now," Trento said.