The paper's Wednesday edition reported that the US Ambassador in Paris, Craig Stapleton - a friend and business partner of former US president George Bush - urged Washington in 2007 to penalise the EU and particularly countries which did not support the use of GM crops. "Country team Paris recommends that we calibrate a target retaliation list that causes some pain across the EU since this is a collective responsibility, but that also focuses in part on the worst culprits."

"The list should be measured rather than vicious and must be sustainable over the long term, since we should not expect an early victory. Moving to retaliation will make clear that the current path has real costs to EU interests and could help strengthen European pro-biotech voices," said Stapleton, who co-owned with Bush the Texas Rangers baseball team.

Germany, along with many European neighbours, opposed the use of the US biotech firm's genetically-modified corn, MON 810 and eventually banned the corn in 2009.

The numbers, revealed in a study by multi-faith group Faith Matters, have led to claims that the country is undergoing a process of 'Islamification'. Lauren Booth, the sister-in-law of former Prime Minister Tony Blair, attracted a lot of publicity when she announced she had adopted the Islamic faith last year.

But the organisation's report argued that most converts saw their religion as 'perfectly compatible' with living in Britain. It said: 'Converts do not represent a devious fifth column determined to undermine the Western way of life - this is a group of normal people united in their adherence to a religion which they, for the most part, see as perfectly compatible with Western life.'

The survey, conducted by Kevin Brice from Swansea University, asked converts for their views on the negative aspects of British culture. They identified alcohol and drunkenness, a 'lack of morality and sexual permissiveness', and 'unrestrained consumerism'. More than one in four accepted there was a 'natural conflict' between being a devout Muslim and living in the UK. Nine out of ten women converts said their change of religion had led to them dressing more conservatively. More than half started wearing a head scarf and 5 per cent had worn the burka.

The birds found in Beebe, Arkansas, three days earlier, were thought to have died from blood clots and internal injuries that were blamed on a fireworks display. It is not known whether the Louisiana birds suffered the same fate. The discovery, along a stretch of road a quarter of a mile long in Pointe Coupee Parish, has only deepened the mystery.

Scientists are still trying to find out what killed over 100,000 fish that washed up on the River Arkansas around 100 miles away just two days before the bird incident. Nancy Ledbetter, of the Arkansas Game & Fish Commission, said officials were awaiting test results. She said: "We still don't believe the (fish and bird deaths) are related." She also said that she did not believe the incidents in Louisiana and Arkansas were related.

One former oil man warned then-candidate Obama back in 2007. "I said, Senator, if you don't do something in your first term, if you're successful, to increase hydrocarbon production in this country you will be on your knees in 2012," said John Hofmeister, former president of Shell Oil.

But Hofmeister says the administration has punted on domestic production. Instead of expanding it, the oil industry says the administration has roped off some 85 percent of the outer continental shelf, leaving the industry few places to go. The president of the American Petroleum Institute, Jack Gerard, argues that "if we open areas that are currently off limits to development, we could create more than 500,000 jobs throughout the economy, and generate an additional $150 billion in government revenue by 2025."

There is one inescapable fact. The US now uses about 20 million barrels of oil a day but produces only 7 million. Hofmeister argues that bolstering that sum to 10 million barrels per day of domestic production would help hold down the price of oil. "Every sector of the economy depends on affordable energy - every business owner, every worker, every household and family member, and every consumer depends on affordable, reliable supplies of oil and natural gas," Gerard said.

Global energy consumption is predicted to grow by 50 percent in the next 25 years, which will keep prices rising unless supply increases.

Although these tags indicate that the bird was part of a long-term research project into migration patterns, residents and local reporters told Saudi Arabia's Al-Weeam newspaper that the matter seemed to be a 'Zionist plot.' The accusations went viral, with hundreds of posts on Arabic-language websites and forums claiming that the 'Zionists' had trained these birds for espionage.

The Sinai regional governor last month suggested that a shark that killed and maimed tourists on its Red Sea port may have been intentionally released by Israeli agents in order to sabotage the country's tourist industry. 'What is being said about the Mossad throwing the deadly shark in the sea to hit tourism in Egypt is not out of the question. But it needs time to confirm,' Mohamed Abdel Fadil Shousha said, according to the Sun.

Over the past year the oil import costs for the 34 mostly rich countries that make up the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development have soared by $200 billion to $790 billion at the end of 2010, according to an analysis by the International Energy Agency. The increase, due to high crude prices, is equal to a loss of income of about 0.5 per cent of OECD gross domestic product, according to the IEA. "Oil prices are entering a dangerous zone for the global economy," said Fatih Birol, the IEA's chief economist. "The oil import bills are becoming a threat to the economic recovery. This is a wake-up call to the oil consuming countries and to the oil producers."

Oil prices have edged closer to $100 a barrel in recent weeks and Brent crude hit $95 a barrel for the first time in 27 months on Monday as the economic recovery has gathered pace. OECD countries account for about 65 per cent of all global oil imports, he said. "Oil exporters need clients with healthy economies but these high prices will sooner or later make the economies sick, which would mean the need for importing oil will be less."

In the very short term, therefore, "it may not be a bad idea that the producers are ready to increase production and show their understanding that these high prices are not good for the global economy," he added. "It is a very telling story. 2010 rang the first alarm bells and 2011 price levels could bring us to the same financial crisis times that we saw in 2008."

The Met Office eventually issued a public warning about the early onset of winter a month later, just days before snow and ice covered much of Britain and temperatures plummeted to the lowest on record. Motoring organisations and passenger groups said yesterday that the delay hampered preparations for winter. It has also been disclosed that the BBC is so concerned about the accuracy of the Met Office's predictions that it has decided to publish independent assessments of the forecasters' performance on its website

Roger Harrabin, an environment analyst at the BBC, told the Radio Times: "The trouble is that we simply don't know how much to trust the Met Office. How often does it get the weather right and wrong. And we don't know how it compares with other, independent forecasters. Can we rely on them if we are planning a garden party at the weekend? Or want to know if we should take a brolly with us tomorrow? Or planning a holiday next week?"

"In a few year's time hopefully we'll all have a better idea of whom to trust. By then the Met Office might have recovered enough confidence to share with us its winter prediction of whether to buy a plane ticket or a toboggan." The decision to publish the assessment was welcomed by rival forecasters. The Met Office stopped making its long-term forecasts public in March after a series of major gaffes. In 2009 a predicted "barbecue summer" became a washout, while a subsequent forecast of a "mild winter" turned out to be one of the coldest in 30 years.

According to eyewitnesses, a green Skoda car pulled up outside the church shortly after midnight. Two men got out, one of them talked shortly on his mobile phone, and the explosion occurred almost immediately after they left the scene. On the back of the Skoda was a sticker with the words "the rest is coming".

It was reported that the bomb, locally made, had 100kg of explosives in addition to having nails, glass and iron balls inside. The strength of it not only caused glass panes to be shattered in all the neighborhood, but also made body parts fly into the building's fourth floor, and to the mosque facing the church.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility but officials hastily blamed either Al-Qaida or the Israeli Mousad of being behind the blast, but none of them mentioned the Egyptian state security which is viewed by Copts as the real culprit. After the blast, traumatized Copts were angered by chants of "Allah Akbar" from Muslims and began hurling stones at the mosque. Immediately security forces which were absent during the car blast and the ensuing events, appeared and starting shooting tear gas at the Copts, and they in turn hurled stones at them, said an eyewitness. Fifteen Copts were rounded up from their homes by the authorities.

US Environmental Services workers wore hazmat suits and gas masks as they picked up the dead birds on Sunday.

An area used by the birds to roost was unaffected, leading officials to conclude that the birds could not have died from an illness or have been targeted for poisoning. Lightning, fireworks and high-altitude hail have been forwarded as possible culprits. "I've been to Iraq and back and not seen nothing like this," Beebe resident Jeff Drennan told local Fox16 News on Sunday.

"You know my kids are out here playing and you don't know, is it safe?" he added. "They're walking around with chemical suits picking them up with gas masks and everything." In a related story, 100,000 fish were found dead in Northwest Arkansas. "They were found along a 20-mile stretch between the Ozark Dam and Highway 109 Bridge in Franklin County," reports Today's THV 11.

The Muttahida Qaumi Movement, the second largest party in the ruling coalition, said Sunday it would join the opposition, leaving Premier Yousuf Raza Gilani's government short of majority support in parliament.

The political crisis could distract the government from its alliance with the US against Islamist militants in neighboring Afghanistan, though security is largely the purview of the powerful military. But the turmoil also all but guarantees lawmakers will make no progress anytime soon on solving the critical economic problems that have forced the country to rely on $11 billion in loans from the International Monetary Fund. The IMF has demanded that Pakistan significantly reform its economy, including slashing its deficit, in order to keep the loan program going. The international assistance took on added importance after the massive floods of late 2010 that affected some 20 million people.

But the economic reforms, notably a revised general sales tax, are unpopular and have given the opposition - as well as the MQM and the JUI - something to rail against. Many analysts speculate the parties could be using the crisis as a tactic to win concessions from the ruling party.

For ordinary Pakistanis, it's inflation, chronic power outages and other daily hardships that are the biggest concern. Failure to make gains on such domestic issues does not bode well for the long-term stability of this impoverished, nuclear-armed nation.

The inflation rate in Pakistan is above 15 percent, according to government statistics, and the poorest are feeling the pain most. One unclear factor is where the military stands on the latest political wrangling.

Army chief General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani is reported to be unhappy with the current leadership, but not enthusiastic about its possible replacement. The army, under the leadership of retired General Pervez Musharraf, ousted the PML-N's Sharif, who was then prime minister, in a coup in 1999. But Kayani has not indicated any interest in staging a coup if the current government is toppled.

"People's retirement savings are a convenient source of revenue for governments that don't want to reduce spending or make privatizations. As most pension schemes in Europe are organised by the state, European ministers of finance have a facilitated access to the savings accumulated there, and it is only logical that they try to get a hold of this money for their own ends. In recent weeks I have noted five such attempts: Three situations concern private personal savings; two others refer to national funds."

"The most striking example is Hungary, where last month the government made the citizens an offer they could not refuse. They could either remit their individual retirement savings to the state, or lose the right to the basic state pension (but still have an obligation to pay contributions for it). In this extortionate way, the government wants to gain control over $14 billion of individual retirement savings."

The article goes on to detail other pension grabs in Bulgaria, Poland, France and Ireland. Obviously, this is a cautionary tale for America. If fiscal austerity becomes a real issue in the US the way that it's been reaching critical mass in Europe - don't think that US lawmakers regard either your personal wealth or money they might owe you as sacrosanct. Government has a habit of looking out for itself.

Fifty rainstorms were created last year in the state's eastern Al Ain region using technology designed to control the weather. The sand dunes of the United Arab Emirates sees no rain at all for months. Now a secret project has brought storms to Abu Dhabi. Most of the storms were at the height of the summer in July and August when there is no rain at all. People living in Abu Dhabi were baffled by the rainfall which sometimes turned into hail and included gales and lightening.

The scientists have been working secretly for United Arab Emirates president Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan. They have been using giant ionisers, shaped like stripped down lampshades on steel poles, to generate fields of negatively charged particles. These promote cloud formation and researchers hoped they could then produce rain.

In a confidential company video, the founder of the Swiss company in charge of the project, Metro Systems International, boasted of success.

Helmut Fluhrer said: 'We have achieved a number of rainfalls.' It is believed to be the first time the system has produced rain from clear skies, according to the Sunday Times.

In the past, China and other countries have used chemicals for cloud-seeding to both induce and prevent rain falling. Last June Metro Systems built five ionising sites each with 20 emitters which can send trillions of cloud-forming ions into the atmosphere. Over four summer months the emitters were switched on when the required atmospheric level of humidity reached 30 per cent or more. While the country's weather experts predicted no clouds or rain in the Al Ain region, rain fell on FIFTY-TWO occasions. The project was monitored by the Max Planck Institute for Meteorology, one of the world's major centres for atmospheric physics.

The savings using the Weathertec technology are huge with the system costing 6 million pounds a year while desalination is 45 million pounds.

Building an ionising system is about 7 million pounds while a desalination plant would be 850 million pounds and costs a lot more to run.

It took just 7 months for the National Debt to increase from $13 trillion on June 1, 2010 to $14 trillion on December 31. It also means the debt is fast approaching the statutory ceiling $14.294 trillion set by Congress and signed into law by President Obama last February. The federal government would have to stop borrowing and might even default on its obligations if Congress fails to increase the Debt Ceiling before the limit is reached.

Some Republicans in the new Congress have said they'll seek to block an increase in the Debt Ceiling unless a plan is in place to significantly reduce federal spending and unfunded government liabilities on entitlement programs such as Social Security and Medicare. White House economic adviser Austan Goolsbee warned yesterday that it would be "catastrophic" if the US Government were to default on its financial obligations. "That would be the first default in history caused purely by insanity," said Goolsbee of plans to block an increase in the Debt Ceiling.

The German presence in Afghanistan is one sign of how the Bundeswehr is throwing off the constraints imposed after its disgrace and defeat in 1945. The end of conscription, due in July, is another. After the end of World War II, the idea was that a military of the people would not bow easily to another dictator.

Inside and outside Germany the mantra was: "No German boots on foreign soil." It was also part of the constitution. German forces would be purely defensive, and defensive at the border. But in the new world, two decades after the end of communism, the military is being re-formed. Conscription is due to disappear in July as the military prepares to step a little further afield. Now the country has decided to get more involved partly because that is what its allies want.

"We can't say, as we did before, that nobody wants German boots on their territory. Even Israelis have said that they would prefer German soldiers in peacekeeping missions in the region. We were not prepared to do this at that time but in the future we will be a normal partner among others like France or Britain."

While the original idea of conscription was to build a military that reflected wider society, German leaders now feel that democracy is so embedded that constraints on its role can be loosened. The economic giant will start to punch its weight - though carefully. According to the thinking in Berlin, there will be more German boots on foreign soil, but they will tread with sensitivity.

Investigators from local and state agencies took samples from the affected area. Stephens says fish kills occur every year, but the magnitude of this one is unusual, and disease could be the cause. A pollutant would have affected cross species. Stephens says, "Ninety-nine percent of them were Drum, which is a bottom feeder. It's not a game fish in Arkansas." Some fish collected were alive and visibly sick. They have been taken to the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff for testing. As for clean up, nature is taking its course. "We'll have raccoon and birds and things like that will take care of it so there is really no clean up, it's really too big. It's contained along the river channel."

Just 150 miles away, bemused US officials are looking into why more than 1,000 blackbirds crashed from the sky in Arkansas on the final day of 2010. In scenes reminiscent of the FlashForward drama series, state wildlife employees were searching the town of Beebe after scores of birds fell to the ground late on New Year's Eve, continuing into the early hours of the morning. High winds and tornadoes swept through Arkansas on New Year's Eve, killing seven people, and state staff believe the bizarre incident could be down to the severe conditions.