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."

A further 6,000 support troops will be in Iraq until the end of the month, when US combat operations will end. The US military restricted journalists embedded with the brigade from reporting on its movements until they were almost at the border. After crossing the border, US troops told journalists of their relief at leaving Iraq.

"It's just a whole bunch of stress just off my shoulders, but it feels good to be in Kuwait, about to head home," Troy Danahy said. "Best part of getting back to Kuwait? One, I know no one else will get hurt, and two, I'm going home," Timothy Berrenar said.

State Department spokesman PJ Crowley said the US involvement in Iraq was far from over, but that it would be less intrusive and more civilian focused. "We are ending the war... but we are not ending our work in Iraq. We have a long-term commitment to Iraq," he told MSNBC. Mr Crowley said the US had a trillion dollar investment to protect in the country and wanted to honour the memory of the 4,415 US troops who lost their lives in the conflict.

The Charity Commission said gay people were suitable parents and religious views did not justify discrimination. The Leeds-based charity said it was "very disappointed". Catholic Care - which had been placing children with adoptive parents for more than 100 years - was among a dozen Catholic agencies in England and Wales forced to change their policy towards homosexual people by the equality laws passed in 2007. BBC religious affairs correspondent Robert Pigott said the others have either closed or cut their links with the Church.

However, Catholic Care tried to change its constitution so that it would be committed to following Catholic teaching and placing children only with heterosexual parents. Catholic agencies were given a 21-month transition period to comply with the new rules, which ended in December 2008. The High Court told the Charity Commission to reconsider the case, but the commission has now decided that Catholic Care's religious views did not justify its continued discrimination.

THE COMMISSION SAID GAY PEOPLE WERE SUITABLE PARENTS, and that ending the charity's adoption work would not harm the interests of children. In a statement, Catholic Care said: "The charity is very disappointed with the outcome. Catholic Care will now consider whether there is any other way in which the charity can continue to support families seeking to adopt children in need."

However, there has been much debate among Islamic scholars as to whether this goes far enough. This has led to a distinction between the hijab (literally "covering up" in Arabic) and the niqab (meaning "full veil"). Hijab is a common sight among Muslim women, a scarf that covers their hair and neck.

Niqab consists of covering up completely, including gloves and a veil for the face - leaving just a slit for the eyes, or covering them too with transparent material. This form of dress is rarer, although it has been growing in recent years, and it is this which former UK Foreign Secretary Jack Straw says he objects to at face-to-face meetings with his constituents.

Muslim scholars have debated whether it is obligatory to don the niqab, or whether it is just recommended without being obligatory. There have also been more liberal interpretations which say the headscarf is unnecessary, as long as women maintain the sartorial modesty stipulated in the Koran.

But the defence said the jury should be able to watch her facial expressions. The 36-year-old woman's wish to wear the veil was a "preference", said defence lawyer Mark Trowell QC and was "not an essential part of the Islamic faith". He said it was common for women to appear in Islamic courts without the covering, the Herald Sun reported. Judge Shauna Deane ruled the woman should remove the niqab, though stressed she was not making a decision which should stand as a legal precedent.

The judge also rejected the comparison with jurisdictions elsewhere, saying they were irrelevant because this was an Australian and not an Islamic court. The woman is a witness in a case against the head of an Islamic school accused of gaining work funding by inflating student numbers.

In keeping with the recent Moslem line that Judaism is barely linked with the Holy Land, Hussein says that Israel is "working subversively to take over Moslem holy sites," Arab affairs correspondent Dalit HaLevi reports. Speaking with the Arabic-language internet site Ilaf on Tuesday, Hussein said that Israel has invested great efforts to erase the Islamic characteristics of Jerusalem, Hevron and other cities, in order to falsely prove Judaism's connection with these places.

Just a few decades ago, however, it was Jerusalem's Supreme Moslem Council (Waqf) itself that debunked the Arab Moslem position that the Temple Mount is not Jewish. The Waqf published a Temple Mount guide in 1925 in which it stated clearly that the site's "identity with the site of Solomon's Temple is beyond dispute. This, too, is the spot, according to universal belief, on which 'David built there an altar unto the L-rd...'", citing the source in Samuel II 24,25.

The pamphlet also makes reference to the underground area in the south-east corner of the Mount, which it refers to as Solomon's Stables. "Little is known for certain of the history of the chamber itself," the guide reads. "It dates probably as far back as the construction of Solomon's Temple. According to Josephus, it was in existence and was used as a place of refuge by the Jews at the time of the conquest of Jerusalem by Titus in the year 70 AD."

Muhammed Hussein also now denies that Hevron, where the Patriarch Abraham purchased what is now the Machpelah Cave and the area around it, and Bethlehem, where the Patriach Jacob buried his wife, the Matriarch Rachel, are Jewish sites. He said that the recent Israeli decision to include them in the list of special Jewish legacy sites is an "attempt to take over the religious places and create facts on the ground... We are now in a period of war - not one with tanks and rockets, but one of religion, faith, and distorting Islamic history and tradition... This proves that Israel has no cultural roots in this land."

The asset allocation decisions were made during a period in which the Standard & Poor's 500 index - the broadest US equity index - fell 12 percent. The fact that Mr Soros - best known as the man reputed to have made $1 billion by "breaking the Bank of England" during the 1992 fiscal crisis - has decided to make such a concerted shift out of equities will send a clear message to other investors.

Gone are Soros's investments in Petrobras, Brazil's oil giant, with investments in bellwether stocks such as Wal-Mart, JP Morgan Chase and Pfizer drastically reduced, cut by 99 percent, 97 percent and 95 percentc respectively. Of those equities that do remain, the fund's holding in a gold exchange traded fund constitutes his largest investment, some 13 percent of the equity portfolio, worth $638 million.

Although neither Mr Soros or his fund typically do not explain their quarterly investment decisions, it is likely some of the money has been shifted into government bonds, as well as investing in commodities and other safe havens.

Moody's fears that the US will crash through its safety buffer by 2013 if growth falters (adverse scenario), with interest payments topping 14 percent of tax revenues. The debt-to-revenue ratio has already doubled in three years to 430 percent.

The US, UK, Germany, France, and Spain are all at risk of an "interest rate shock", either because they must roll over a cluster of short-term debt (US, France, Spain) or because deficits are so large. Countries that "fail to demonstrate the level of social cohesion required to stabilise debt" will lose their AAA rating. "Intra-generational" conflict between young and old requires careful handling. States that delay pension reform risk spiralling downwards.

Moody's said the world had changed since Europe's debt crisis. None of the large sovereign states can still assume it is credit-worthy. "The burden of proof now falls on governments," it added. Britain has the safety cushion of long debt maturities, but the structural deficit is causing debt "to grow an unsustainable rate" - the UK is clearly one of the weaker countries in the AAA peer group.

The current crisis differs starkly from the "one-off" debt spikes after the Second World War, when young economies were able to outgrow the debt burden. This time the threat lies ahead as the aging crisis drives up pension and health costs on a static tax base. "While the current stock of debt is large, it is dwarfed by the accumulation of future liabilities if policies do not change."

For example at Kensington Palace in London, where the Duke of Gloucester is keeping bee hives, the samples contained large amounts of pollen from rockrose, eucalyptus and elderberry. In contrast bees in the countryside tended to rely on fields of crops. At Nostell Priory in Yorkshire and Barrington Court in Somerset, the samples were heavily dominated by oilseed rape with little other pollen types detectable.

In the last 20 years there has been a dramatic 50 per cent decline in bee numbers in Britain. Climate change, pesticides and even a mystery disease known as 'colony collapse disorder have been blamed'. Experts also believe that intensive farming may have contributed to the decline of bees because it means there are less wild flowers in the countryside to provide the insects with a 'varied diet'.

Matthew Oates, Nature Conservation Adviser at the National Trust, said there are "precious few" pollen sources for bees in the countryside because farmland is either taken over for "monoculture" like wheat or barley or grazed for livestock. He urged farmers to allow more wild flowers on field margins and to plant seed mixes in unused areas.

Admiral Thad Allen said that an earlier successful process sealing the well from above may have wedged cement between two layers of casing, trapping leaked crude inside the void. That has forced officials to put on hold plans to seal the well from below by flushing first a heavy drilling fluid called "mud" and then cement into the damaged structure via an intercept from a second relief well.

"When we do the intercept well and commence pumping mud and cement... it will create pressure," Allen said. "We want to make sure before I give the order and direct BP to do that, that we know the implications of that pressure, and how we will deal with it."

The setback will be disappointing for weary Gulf Coast residents eager for the psychological relief of knowing a final death blow has been struck against a well that has unleashed such economic and environmental catastrophe. The Macondo well has not spilled crude since July 15, when a sealing cap was successfully closed over the leak, providing the first concrete success in efforts to contain the gushing crude.

Health officials said last month that two Tampa-area residents had died from eastern equine encephalitis, a viral disease that inflames the brain. Two additional deaths from the disease known as EEE have since been confirmed, one in the state capital of Tallahassee and one in the northwest Florida town of Sopchoppy.

The disease mostly affects unvaccinated horses but a handful of human deaths are recorded each year, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. There is no human vaccine for the disease, which kills a third of its human victims and often leaves survivors with significant brain damage. The Florida Department of Health is also tracking two other less deadly mosquito-borne diseases, West Nile virus and dengue fever.

EEE and West Nile virus have been detected in 43 of Florida's 67 counties, while dengue cases have been confirmed in two south Florida counties, Monroe and Broward, according to the state Department of Health. The dengue virus began showing up in Florida in 2009 after an absence since its last major outbreak in 1934. At least 28 confirmed cases of domestically transmitted dengue fever have been reported in Florida this year, along with 67 foreign-acquired cases. The disease is more prevalent in Central and South America.

"The two things we try to relay are get rid of mosquitoes and avoid contact," said Blackmore, adding that August and September are peak seasons for most mosquito-borne illnesses. State health officials are urging residents to avoid contact with mosquitoes by wearing protective clothing and using insect repellent, especially products that include DEET. Homeowners are also asked to remove standing water where mosquitoes breed.