The mostly Shi'ite nation of Iran is an enemy to Al-Qaida, and al-Shehri predicted that after Israel attacked Iranian nuclear installations, Iran would blame Saudi Arabia - which reports say may let Israel fly through its airspace to attack Iran - and use the opportunity to seize the holy cities of Mecca and Medina in Saudi Arabia.

Al-Shehri said Israel would then seize territory from surrounding Arab nations to establish "the greater state of Israel," and the Sunni Arab population of the Middle East would be trapped between the "Jews in the Middle East and Iran in the Peninsula," the Daily Beast reported.

According to the Daily Beast, Al-Qaida would benefit from an Israel-Iran war because if Israel attacked Iran's nuclear installations, Iran would use its proxies to lash back at Americans in the Gulf, Iraq, and Afghanistan.

The Daily Beast is a news aggregator and original content website owned by a former Wall Street Journal editor.

Mr Vahidi, who was speaking during Friday prayers in Tehran, did not say when the launch took place nor did he disclose the precise range of the missile. "The missile has new technical aspects and has a unique tactical capacity," he said on state television, adding that the device was of a "new class".

"Since the surface-to-surface missile has no wings, it has lot of tactical power, which also reduces the chances of it being intercepted," he said. On Tuesday, Mr Vahidi had said that Qiam was to be test fired during the annual government week, the period when Tehran touts its achievements in various fields. This year government week begins on Monday.

The third generation Fateh 110 (Conqueror) missile was also to be test fired during this period. Iran has previously paraded a version of Fateh 110 which has a travel range of 150 to 200 kilometres (90 to 125 miles). Also during government week, the production lines of two missile-carrying speedboats, Seraj (Lamp) and Zolfaqar (named after Shiite Imam Ali's sword) are due to be inaugurated, while a long-range drone, Karar, is expected to be unveiled.

The team said monitoring the free-floating plastic also provided an insight into the behaviour of ocean surface currents. They found plastic, most pieces measuring no more than a few millimetres, in more than 60% of 6,136 samples collected by dragging fine-meshed nets along the ocean's surface.

The researchers - from the US-based Sea Education Association (Sea), Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution and the University of Hawaii - described plastic as a "major contaminant". "Plastic marine pollution is a significant environmental concern, yet a quantitative description of the scope of this problem in the open ocean is lacking," they wrote.

"Their chemically engineered durability and slow rate of biodegradation allow these synthetic polymers to withstand the ocean environment for years to decades or longer."

The goal of the aircraft is to "keep the enemy paralyzed in its bases," he said, adding that the jet is for deterrence and defensive purposes.

The president championed the country's military self-sufficiency program, and said it will continue "until the enemies of humanity lose hope of ever attacking the Iranian nation."

The 4-meter-long unmanned plane, dubbed the Karrar or striker in Farsi, was inaugurated on the national day for the country's defense industry in a ceremony aired live on state TV. Referring to Israel's occasional threats against Iran's nuclear facilities, Ahmadinejad called any attack unlikely, but he said if Israel did, the reaction would be overwhelming.

"The scope of Iran's reaction will include the entire the earth," said Ahmadinejad. "We also tell you - the West - that all options are on the table." Ahmadinejad appeared to be consciously echoing the terminology used by the US and Israel in their statements not ruling out a military option against Iran's nuclear facilities.

On Friday, Iran also test-fired a new liquid fuel surface-to-surface missile, the Qiam-1, with advanced guidance systems. Since 1992, Iran has also produced its own tanks, armoured personnel carriers, missiles, torpedoes and a fighter plane. It frequently makes announcements about new advances in military technology that cannot be independently verified.

In a statement issued after the Islamic Republic celebrated the launch of its reactor in Bushehr, Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Yossi Levy said: "It is totally unacceptable that a country that so blatantly violates resolutions of the (United Nations) Security Council, decisions of the International Atomic Energy Agency and its commitments under the NPT (non-proliferation treaty) should enjoy the fruits of using nuclear energy."

"The international community should increase pressure to force Iran to abide by international decisions and cease its enrichment activities and its construction of reactors," Levy said. The United States, Israel and some other Western countries fear Iran's nuclear aim is to produce atomic weapons. Iran says it wants nuclear power solely for energy production.

Earlier Saturday, Iran's hard-line President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad promised a global response if his country is attacked. "OUR OPTIONS WILL HAVE NO LIMITS... THEY WILL TOUCH THE ENTIRE PLANET," HE SAID.

Also on Saturday, US State Department spokesman Darby Holladay said the reactor "underscores that Iran does not need an indigenous enrichment capability if its intentions are purely peaceful. We recognize that the Bushehr reactor is designed to provide civilian nuclear power and do not view it as a proliferation risk," Holladay said.

Meanwhile, Britain acknowledged Iran's right to build nuclear power stations, but warned that concerns remain about the Islamic republic's atomic program. "We have always respected Iran's right to develop an exclusively civil nuclear power program," Foreign Office minister Alistair Burt said, as engineers began loading fuel into Iran's Russian-built Bushehr plant. "The problem is Iran's continued refusal to satisfy the IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency) and international community that its work on uranium enrichment and heavy water projects are exclusively peaceful."

As prominent GMO opponent and biologist, Dr Mae-Wan Ho of the Institute of Science in London has noted, companies such as Monsanto build into their seeds herbicide-tolerance. The ecological time-bomb that came with the GMO according to Ho, is about to explode. Over several years of constant application of patented glyphosate herbicides such as Monsanto's famous and highly Roundup, new herbicide-resistant "super-weeds" have evolved, nature's response to man-made attempts to violate it. The super-weeds require significantly more not less herbicide to control. ABC Television, a major US national network, made a recent documentary about the super-weeds under the rubric, "super weeds that can't be killed."

They interviewed farmers and scientists across Arkansas who described fields overrun with giant pigweed plants that can withstand as much glyphosate as farmers are able to spray. They interviewed one farmer who spent almost 400,000 euros in only three months in a failed attempt to kill the new super-weeds.

The new super-weeds are so robust that harvester combines are unable to harvest the fields and hand tools break trying to cut them down. At least 400000 hectares of soybean and cotton in Arkansas alone have become infested with this new mutant biological plague. Detailed data on other agricultural regions is not available but believed similar. The pro-GMO and pro-agribusiness US Department of Agriculture has been reported lying about the true state of US crop harvest partly to hide the grim reality and to prevent an explosive revolt against GMO in the world's largest GMO market.

One variety of super-weed, palmer pigweed can grow up to 2.4 meters high, withstands severe heat and prolonged droughts, and produces thousands of seeds with a root system that drains nutrients away from crops. If left unchecked, it takes over an entire field in a year. Some farmers have been forced to abandon their land. To date palmer pigweed infestation in GMO crop regions has been identified in addition to Arkansas, also in Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, Tennessee, Kentucky, New Mexico, Mississippi and most recently, Alabama and Missouri.

Weed scientists at the University of Georgia estimate that just two palmer pigweed plants in every 6 meter length of cotton row can reduce yield by at least 23 percent. A single weed plant can produce 450 000 seeds.

1. Fried foods - Certain foods that are heated to 248 F, such as french fries and potato chips, form a suspected human carcinogen called acrylamide, according to the National Cancer Institute.

2. Heavily salted foods - A Japanese study linked salted foods with a 15 percent increase in cancer. In addition, salt allows cancer-causing Helicobacter pyloric bacteria to thrive in the stomach.

3. Pickled foods - In 2005, a South Korean study found that people who ate high amounts of kimchi (pickled cabbage) had a 50 percent higher risk of stomach cancer than those who ate less.

4. Sugar - A recent Italian study found that people who ranked in the top third of sugar eaters increased their odds of pancreatic cancer by 78 percent compared to those who consumed the least sugar. Scientists believe that sugar influences the body's production of insulin - encouraging the growth and division of cells in the pancreas, and thus encouraging the development of cancerous cells.

5. Charred meats - Cooking meats at high temperatures creates carcinogens called heterocyclic aromatic amines. The longer the meat is cooked at high temperatures, the higher the amounts of these compounds.

6. Alcohol - Excess alcohol consumption has been linked to higher levels of many types of cancer in both men and women. They include cancer of the mouth, liver, colon, and esophagus - which is the fastest growing type of cancer in the United States.

7. Meat and saturated fat - Harvard studies found that those who ate meat every day had three times the colon cancer risk of those who seldom ate meat. And researchers from the University of Texas found that men who had undergone surgery for prostate cancer and had diets high in saturated fats (including steaks, burgers, and cheese) were almost twice as likely to see their cancer progress.

8. Farmed fish - Farmed fish often contain high levels of carcinogens such as polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), a class of man-made chemicals once used as an insulating material in electric equipment. The Environmental Working Group found that farmed salmon had 16 times the amount of PCBs found in wild salmon.

9. Cured meats - Carcinogens called nitrosamines are found in cured meats, such as lunch meats, bacon, and sausage. A study by the University of Southern California School of Medicine found that the mothers of children stricken with brain tumors were much more likely to have eaten large amounts of meats containing nitrates during pregnancy than moms who have healthy children.

"We have inspected many consignments from African countries, especially Ghana, and found that there is not an ounce of gold in them. For importing pure dust or other metals with yellow colour, these traders have paid several million dirhams." Emirates Gold has stopped examining gold imported from Africa. "We send specialists to examine a gold consignment only if it is routed through a local company."

"We don't have time to waste because most of these so called gold imports are fake. The traders got greedy. They thought they were getting gold at a discounted rate." Mohammed said that at least five tonnes of fake yellow metal is lying with Dubai Customs. A tonne of gold will cost approximately $40 million. Merchants estimated that the minimum loss of fake gold imported by local traders is nothing less than $200 million.

Recent media reports suggested that several million dollars worth of gold with the Ethiopian Central Bank turned out to be fake. These bars of gold turned out to be gold plated steel bars. African gold merchants claim to be in possession of large quantities of gold dust or gold bars, which they offer to sell at below market prices.

The would-be buyer is made to send money for travel of the seller, for insurance, for shipping and for refinery assays before they would receive anything of any value. Investors are shown samples, which may be original gold. But when the consignment reaches the port, it will be only mud or sand. Once Dubai Customs tightened controls, fake gold imports started reaching the UAE through other ports.

Less than 2 weeks ago, wild growing canola in North Dakota was discovered to be 86% GMO. Because GMO crops are crossed with herbicide resistant plants (usually weeds), they grow like weeds and contaminate natural plants. Alarmingly, two of the canola samples collected by scientists showed that multiple genes from different species of GMO canola plants cross pollinated without cultivation, and probably for several generations. The implication of this is that GMO seeds can readily contaminate natural seeds and become out of control.

The GMO alfalfa ban lawsuit about contamination was the first GMO case ever heard by the Supreme Court, despite countless lawsuits from farmers whose fields have been polluted by GMOs. The sugar beet ban was overturned, based on a Supreme Court decision (7-1), which lifted the nationwide ban on GMO alfalfa in June.

The Supreme Court ruling stated that the nationwide GMO alfalfa ban was too broad, so it was lifted; an Environmental Impact Report (EIR) to be performed by the USDA is still pending. GMO crops are environmentally dangerous because they can readily spread, as proven by the wild GMO plants found in North Dakota. The Supreme Court never addressed the issue of whether GMO plants contaminate natural plants through cross pollination.

As Iran, with Russia's help, gets ready to flip the switch on its first nuclear reactor, Washington is engaged in a frenzied debate over whether Israel should consider launching an air attack designed to cripple Tehran's nuclear capabilities.

But key military officials and analysts say Iran has already passed the point where a strike would deal its entire nuclear program a fatal blow. The country might be persuaded to abandon any efforts to build a bomb, they say, but - like it or not - Iran is going nuclear. And no number of Israeli F-16s is going to change that.

"We can't stop it. We can slow it down," Representative Adam Smith, Democrat for Washington State, a member of the House Armed Services and Intelligence committees, told FoxNews.com. Smith, in urging caution toward the idea of a military strike, was echoing Defense Secretary Robert Gates, who said last year that an attack could buy time, but it would not halt the program.

But that doesn't mean a strike is off the table, from either the United States or Israel. Admiral Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, stated plainly in an interview on August 1 that the US military has an attack plan for Iran.

Abdul-Aziz al-Mutairi, 22, was left paralyzed and subsequently lost a foot after a fight more than two years ago. He asked a judge in northwestern Tabuk province to impose an equivalent punishment on his attacker under Islamic law, his brother Khaled al-Mutairi told The Associated Press by telephone from there.

He said one of the hospitals, located in Tabuk, responded that it is possible to damage the spinal cord, but it added that the operation would have to be done at another more specialized facility. Saudi newspapers reported that a second hospital in the capital Riyadh declined, saying it could not inflict such harm.

Administrative offices of two of the hospitals and the court in Tabuk were closed for the Saudi weekend beginning Thursday and could not be reached for comment. A copy of the medical report from the King Khaled Hospital in Tabuk province obtained by the AP said the same injury al-Mutairi suffers from can be inflicted on his attacker using a nerve stimulant, and inducing the same injuries in the same locations.

A Saudi newspaper Okaz reported that a leading hospital in Riyadh - King Faisal Specialist Hospital - responded that it could not do the operation. It quoted a letter from the hospital saying "inflicting such harm is not possible," apparently refusing on ethical grounds. Islamic law applied in Saudi Arabia allows defendants to ask for a similar punishment for harms inflicted on them. Cutting off the hands of thieves, for example, is common.

Under the law, the victim can receive a blood money to settle the case. Khaled al-Mutairi said his family is not interested in blood money, and would be ready to send the attacker abroad to perform the operation if it were not possible in the kingdom.

Polling was done before 13 August when Mr Obama defended Muslims' right to build an Islamic centre by Ground Zero. Forty-three per cent of those questioned said they did not know what Mr Obama's religion was. The White House attributed the mistaken beliefs about Mr Obama's religion to a "misinformation campaign" pursued by his political opponents.

"While the president has been diligent and personally committed to his own Christian faith, there's certainly folks who are intent on spreading falsehoods about the president and his values and beliefs," White House faith adviser Joshua DuBois told AFP news agency. The poll found beliefs about the president's faith were closely linked to political judgments about him. It found that people who believe Mr Obama is a Muslim "overwhelmingly disapprove" of his job performance, while a majority of those who identify him as a Christian approve.

News of the poll comes amid fears by some US Muslims that they will be targeted due to the fact that the holiday of Eid falls on 11 September this year, the anniversary of the terror attacks of 2001. Some are concerned that the joyous festivals that mark the occasion will be misconstrued as celebrations of the attacks.

There had already been speculation that large quantities of oil from the spill remained dissolved in the sea at depth. This new research confirms that a plume, or cloud, does indeed exist below the surface. Dr Chris Reddy of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute, who was among those involved in the research, said he was unable to speculate, at this stage, what impact the plume would have on marine life in the area. "I'd [need] a much better inventory of all the molecules that make up the oil before [I could] start to get an idea," he said.

Jane Lubchenco, head of the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), and one of the most senior scientists in the US, commented: "We are all served best by proceeding in a careful, thoughtful, and quantifiable manner, where we can actually document everything and share it publicly." Marine experts said the US researchers' study offered an important insight into the extent of the oil spill's impact on the region's marine ecology.

Dr Benjamin Van Mooy, another principal investigator of the research team, said: "If the oxygen data from the plume layer are telling us it isn't being rapidly consumed by microbes near the well the hydrocarbons could persist for some time. "So it is possible that oil could be transported considerable distances from the well before being degraded." Dr Boxall said it would be important to continue monitoring the region.

The study, conducted by an international team led by Professor Eric Jullo of Nasa's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California, is published in the journal Science. Dark energy makes up three-quarters of our Universe but is totally invisible. We only know it exists because of its effect on the expansion of the Universe.

To work out how dark energy is spread through space, astronomers used the Hubble Space Telescope to observe the way that light from distant stars was distorted around Abell 1689, a nearby cluster of galaxies. Because of its huge mass, the cluster acts as a cosmic magnifying glass, causing light to bend around it.

The way in which light is distorted by this cosmic lens depends on three factors: how far away the distant object is; the mass of Abell 1689; and the distribution of dark energy. The astronomers were able to measure the first two variables using the European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope, enabling them to calculate this crucial third factor.

Knowing the distribution of dark energy tells astronomers that the Universe will continue to get bigger indefinitely. Eventually it will become a cold, dead wasteland with a temperature approaching what scientists term "absolute zero". Professor Priyamvada Natarajan of Yale University, a leading cosmologist and co-author of this study, said that the findings finally proved "exactly what the fate of the Universe will be".

The spokesman said that the Pope's first-day meeting with the queen is "awaited with great intensity and emotion," as is the Scotland leg of the trip. "I would like to remind, moreover, that the day the Pope will be in Scotland is the feast of St Ninian, who is the patron, the evangelizer of Scotland," Father Lombardi noted. "Hence it is a very important day for the Scots."

Then there will be "the Pope's great address in Westminster Hall, the meeting with society, with the world of culture, with all the most active and authoritative components of English society," he continued. "This will certainly be a moment watched with great attention." Father Lombardi added that the ecumenical dimension of the trip should not be discounted. That element includes a meeting between the Pope and the leader of the Anglican Communion, the archbishop of Canterbury.

"The ecumenical celebration certainly has great significance," Father Lombardi contended. "We also know that it is a delicate moment for Anglicanism, because of the internal debates. And it is a delicate moment also for relations with the Catholic Church, because the internal debates are reflected also in the relationship between the Anglicans and the Catholics."