Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel would respond "aggressively" to any attack. Hezbollah leader Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah said militants would not "stand idle" if Israel attacked again. In a speech transmitted via video link to thousands of supporters massed in Hezbollah's stronghold in Beirut's southern suburbs, Sheikh Nasrallah said his militants had been ready to fight in the border clash, but that he had ordered them to stand down to avoid an escalation.

The Lebanese army says Israeli soldiers crossed the border to uproot a tree which was blocking their view near the Lebanese village of Adaysseh. A Lebanese army spokesman said troops had fired warning shots and Israel had responded with fire from artillery positions and helicopters. However, UN peacekeepers in southern Lebanon said later on Tuesday there was no evidence that Israeli soldiers had crossed the border, the BBC's Wyre Davies reports.

An Israeli army spokeswoman told the BBC that two officers had been attacked by "snipers from the Lebanese armed forces" in a "well-planned ambush" during maintenance operations on Israel's side of the border, near the town of Kiryat Shemona. Earlier, the head of Israel's Northern Command, Major-General Gadi Eizenkot, said the officers had been standing between 300 metres and 400 metres from the border, observing Israeli soldiers removing bushes near the border fence. "Sniper fire was directed at their position and as a result two commanders were injured as a result of the firing," he said.

Concerns are growing that the rise will lead to an increase in prices of flour-related products such as bread and biscuits. Gary Sharkey, head of wheat procurement at Premier Foods, which makes Hovis bread, told the Financial Times that the industry would be "unable to ignore a 50% rise in wheat prices". Russia was the world's fourth largest wheat exporter in the 12 months to June behind the US, the EU and Canada, according to the US Department of Agriculture.

And along with other former Soviet Republics such as Kazakhstan, it accounted for about 25% of the world's wheat exports last year, said Richard Feltes, senior vice president and director of commodity research at Chicago-based MF global. He added that while there was uncertainty over the volumes of crops being lost, such drastic change in production would severely cut into global supply.

"This is a big event, the most serious since 1975," he told the BBC News website. "The end user globally is very exposed here." Martin Deboo from Investec said it would have an effect on both food prices and food company profits. "Generally the wheat content of a loaf of bread is probably about 12-15 pence a loaf [in the UK]. So if this wheat cost increase has to be passed on then we're talking about 5p on a loaf of bread."

He added that the price of other food products could also go up. "Animals are fed on wheat or wheat derivatives and therefore this will feed through indirectly into meat and poultry prices, so this will have a significant effect on food price inflation generally."

For most comics, topicality hasn't been a problem. Whether the issue is the Nazi menace or Communist spies, crack cocaine or civil rights, at least a few superheroes have always been willing to jump into the cultural fray.

But Archie comics have been an exception. Originally based on the Bronx's upscale Riverdale neighborhood, Archie's gang actually lives in a mythical ur-suburbia where they rarely have to deal with anything more troublesome than Jughead's rumbling stomach or the sneaky schemes of Reggie Mantle. Although the series has evolved to absorb the trappings of various eras, Archie's world still evokes a comfortable 1950s ideal, where boys fix up jalopies and play football while girls scheme to get dates for Saturday night.

Because of this simple, sunny perspective, Archie comics have found a niche among conservative families, whose parents can comfortably hand their kids an Archie book without fear that it will contain challenging or upsetting themes. The series has encouraged this connection: In the 1970s, publisher John H Goldwater allowed one of his artists, Al Hartley, to produce religion-themed Archie comic books for Spire Christian Comics. The series, with titles like Archie's Clean Slate and Archie's Parables, feature the entire Archie cast addressing social ills and touting the positive power of Christianity.

In addition to spicing up the Archie-Veronica-Betty love triangle that has sold comics for the last 69 years, the interracial romance broke a barrier for the series, inspiring online rants and heated debate. The series' latest move is even more bold: In an upcoming issue of Veronica, the series' first gay character, Kevin Keller, will make his debut. Blond-haired, blue-eyed, and eminently stylish, Kevin quickly catches the eye of perennial Archie crush Veronica. Hijinks ensue as Jughead convinces Kevin to keep his sexual preference under wraps while Veronica becomes increasingly desperate in her pursuit.

While Archie's recent moves are tame by the standards of contemporary society, they're radical in the context of the brand, and they're likely to alienate some conservative fans.

The Food Standards Agency watchdog doesn't even know where the cows at the centre of the investigation are, it has emerged, because the body responsible for registering all pedigree cows and bulls on farms, Holstein UK, would not disclose the information. The Mail revealed yesterday that milk from the direct offspring of a clone had been put on shelves, despite this being illegal.

Eight of these direct offspring of the same cloned cow have been born in Britain, and they have gone on to produce a further 97 animals, and very probably more. Worryingly for opponents of clone farming, there is currently no legislation against meat and milk from this next generation being supplied to UK consumers without special labelling.

Animals descended from clones of prizewinning cattle are sought after by some farmers because they are supersized and able to produce vast quantities of milk. But critics claim the health effects on humans of clone or clone-descended produce are not yet clear. There are also ethical and animal welfare arguments against remodelling nature in the laboratory.

Sultanas and dates have shown similar jumps in price after a series of poor harvests in Turkey, the main growing area for many dried fruits. The Middle Eastern country produces 20 per cent of the world's apricots but suffered flash floods during the spring. The increases come just as suppliers and retailers firm up their plans for dealing in dried fruit over Christmas, according to trade magazine The Grocer.

Eat Natural, which makes fruit and nut bars in Halstead, Essex (UK), said it had avoided passing the increases on to customers, but will be forced to if profit margins continue to fall. Praveen Vijh, co-founder of the company, said: 'Prices have been climbing steadily for the last three years. It significantly puts up our ingredient costs and comes just as chocolate prices are going haywire. 'We're trying very hard not to put up our prices. But there will have to come a point when we will have to, if these ingredient costs continue at this rate.'

Aisha is a victim of Taliban brutality, her nose and ears barbarically hacked off by her own husband in a warped punishment for attempting to flee her cruel in-laws. Held down by her brother-in-law, the young bride endured the agony of the man she married disfiguring her face with a knife. Aisha's striking image stares out from the cover of US news magazine Time.

The photograph is a stark reminder of the fate awaiting independent-minded women if the Taliban regain power.

The magazine is running the front page, with the headline 'What Happens if We Leave Afghanistan', as coalition countries set a timetable for the withdrawal of international forces from the country.

An interminable sawing, screeching, drilling and hammering rips through the oppressive summer heat and humidity in the northern Chinese city of Tianjin. Here, on the city's dusty outskirts, hundreds of new apartment buildings and houses in every imaginable style are springing up.

In an air-conditioned showroom, salespeople in yellow uniforms take potential buyers on tours of the facility. "In one year, we already sold 90 percent of North America, Asia and Europe," customer consultant Qi Yunbu says proudly. "Now we're preparing Africa, Oceania and South America for sale."

"Xingyao Wuzhou," loosely translated as "Shining Star over Five Continents," is the name of this Chinese blend of Dubai and Disneyland, a 2.3 billion euros ($3 billion) development designed to imitate the world map. The gigantic residential and leisure complex is being built around and within an artificial lake.

The developers apparently want to make sure that the residents of this aquatic paradise will lack for nothing. The plans include the world's largest indoor ski center, golf courses, a seven-star hotel, the world's largest musical fountain and miniature replicas of famous structures like the Tower Bridge in London and San Francisco's Golden Gate Bridge.

Calculated optimism forms the fragile base on which similar projects are thriving all across China. Doubts are taboo, especially now that the mood is beginning to shift, at least outside the flashy showrooms. There is more and more talk of the bubble bursting soon, with some saying that the tipping point has already been reached - with uncertain consequences for the rest of the global economy.

Chen Lei, a senior official at the China Three Gorges Corporation, told the China Daily that 3,000 tons of rubbish was being collected at the dam every day, but there was still not enough manpower to clean it all up. "The large amount of waste in the dam area could jam the miter gate of the Three Gorges Dam," Chen said, referring to the gates of the locks which allow shipping to pass through the Yangtze River.

The river is a crucial commercial artery for the upstream city of Chongqing and other areas in China's less-developed western interior provinces. Pictures showed a huge swathe of the waters by the dam crammed full of debris, with cranes brought in to fish out a tangled mess, including shoes, bottles, branches and Styrofoam.

Some 50,000 square meters of water (more than half a million square feet) had been covered by trash washed down since the start of the rainy season in July, the report said. The trash is around 60 centimeters (two feet) deep, and in some parts so compacted people can walk on it, the Hubei Daily added.

The Three Gorges Dam is the world's largest hydropower project, and was built partly to tame flooding along the Yangtze, which killed over 4,000 people in 1998 and countless more over the centuries. Enormously expensive and disruptive, the dam has cost over 254 billion yuan ($37.5 billion) and forced the relocation of 1.3 million people to make way for the reservoir. Towns, fields and historical and archaeological sites have been submerged.

The leaked comments by Barak cast doubt on how much Israel is willing or able to reconcile with Turks outraged at its navy's killing of nine of their compatriots aboard an aid ship that tried to run the Gaza Strip blockade on May 31. Until relations soured, Turkey had been the Muslim power closest to the Jewish state, a friendship largely based on military cooperation and intelligence sharing.

In a closed-door briefing to activists aligned with his centre-left Labour Party at a kibbutz near Jerusalem on July 25, Barak still called Turkey a "friend and major strategic ally". But he described Hakan Fidan, the new head of its National Intelligence Organisation, as a "friend of Iran".

"There are quite a few secrets of ours (entrusted to Turkey) and the thought that they could become open to the Iranians over the next several months, let's say, is quite disturbing," he said in a segment of the speech broadcast by Army Radio.

The pastor voiced his concern on Friday at a raucous special City Council meeting at which East St Louis Mayor Alvin Parks announced that the city will layoff 37 employees, including 19 of its 62 police officers, 11 firefighters, four public works employees, and three administrators. The layoffs take effect on Sunday.

Parks said the weak economy has robbed the city of badly needed money. For example, revenue from the Casino Queen was $900,000 below budget expectations last year. "There are no signs of improvement," Parks said. "I want our citizens to know we have some of the bravest police officers and firefighters in the country but we don't have the money to pay them. We have to have fiscal responsibility."

City officials wanted police and fire unions to accept a furlough program that would have required employees to take two unpaid days in each twice monthly pay period. If accepted, emergency responders would have seen a pay cut of about 20 percent for the rest of the year.

"What's very troubling is the fact that at a time when we in law enforcement and our state need help from the federal government, instead of sending help they put up billboard-size signs warning our citizens to stay out of the desert in my county because of dangerous drug and human smuggling and weapons and bandits and all these other things and then, behind that, they drag us into court with the ACLU," Babeu said.

The sheriff was referring to the law suits filed by the American Civil Liberties Union and the US Department of Justice challenging the state's new immigration law. "So who has partnered with the ACLU?" Babeu said in a telephone interview with CNSNews.com. "It's the president and (Attorney General) Eric Holder himself. And that's simply outrageous."

Last week, US District Judge Susan Bolton placed a temporary injunction on portions of the bill that allowed law enforcement personnel during the course of a criminal investigation who have probable cause to think an individual is in the country illegally to check immigration status. The state of Arizona filed an appeal on Thursday with the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals.

"Our own government has become our enemy and is taking us to court at a time when we need help," Babeu said. According to US Customs and Border Protection (CBP), about 250,000 people were detained in Arizona in the last 12 months for being in the country illegally. Babeu said that that number only reflects the number of people detained and that thousands more enter the country illegally each year. The CBP also reports that 17 percent of those detained already have a criminal record in the United States.

The Russian emergencies ministry said 500 new blazes had been discovered over a 24-hour period, but most had been extinguished. Homes have been burnt in 14 regions of Russia, the worst-hit being Nizhny Novgorod, Voronezh and Ryazan. Nineteen of the 40 deaths recorded were in Nizhny Novgorod, the health ministry said.

The state of emergency was announced in a decree that also restricted public access to the regions affected. Moscow is again shrouded in smoke from peat and forest fires outside the city. The fires, caused by record temperatures and a drought, have affected cereal harvests, driving wheat prices up.

Prime Minister Vladimir Putin saw some of the fire damage for himself in Nizhny Novgorod region last week. On Monday, he held meetings with regional leaders in Moscow to discuss further help for affected communities. Russians are bracing themselves for another week of high temperatures, with forecasts of up to 40C (104F) for central and southern regions.

Officials also expect stronger winds in some regions, which will fan the flames. By Sunday night, wildfires were still raging across some 128,000 hectares (316,000 acres). Thousands of people have lost their homes and nearly a quarter of a million emergency workers have been deployed to fight the flames.

"In the worst-affected areas, entire villages were washed away without warning by walls of flood water," the Red Cross said in a statement. There are fears diarrhoea and cholera will spread among the homeless. Food is scarce and water supplies have been contaminated by the floods. Mian Iftikhar Hussain, the Information Minister of Khyber-Pakhtoonkhwa (formerly North West Frontier Province), one of the worst-hit regions, said rescue teams were trying to reach 27,000 stranded people, including 1,500 tourists in the Swat Valley, the scene of a major military offensive against the Taliban last year.

"We are also getting confirmation of reports about an outbreak of cholera in some areas of Swat," he added. The Pakistani military says it has committed 30,000 troops and dozens of helicopters to the relief effort, but winching individuals to safety is a slow process. The army - which says it has rescued 28,000 people in recent days - predicts the initial search and rescue operation will take up to 10 days, says the BBC's Orla Guerin, who has been on board a military helicopter over the Swat Valley. But the army says rebuilding the damaged areas could take six months or more.

A spokesman for the UK-based charity Save the Children told the BBC that the infrastructure damage in Swat may be worse than in the earthquake which devastated the region in 2005. "We fear that in places that have not been accessed as yet there are people that were trapped, and there is a possibility of more deaths taking place," the spokesman said.

'I don't want my grandchildren or yours to come along and say to me, "Why the hell didn't you come and do something about this? You knew what the problem was". That is what motivates me. 'I wanted to express something in the outer world that I feel inside... We seem to have lost that understanding of the whole of nature and the universe as a living entity.'

His impassioned comments come during a film about his belief that unbridled commerce has led to the destruction of farmland and countryside. The documentary, called Harmony, is due to be aired on the US network NBC in November to coincide with the launch of a book of the same name by the Prince. Charles is understood to have waived his author's fee, and all royalties will go to his charity, the Prince's Trust.

But the Prince has previously come under fire for hypocrisy over his eco-values. Last year he commandeered a jet belonging to the Queen's Flight to attend the Copenhagen climate change summit, generating an estimated 6.4 tons of carbon dioxide - 5.2 tons more than if he had used a commercial plane. Critics condemned his words as 'delusional'.

New fires are appearing as temperatures in central Russia approach 40 degrees Celsius (104 degrees Fahrenheit) and winds reach 20 meters per second (45 miles per hour).

Fourteen regions have declared a state of emergency after wildfires engulfed entire villages, leaving 28 people dead and thousands homeless, state-run broadcaster Rossiya-24 reported today. Almost 30,000 rescuers are battling the fires, aided by 18 aircraft, according to the Emergency Situations Ministry.

Moscow has already broken several heat records this season and a drought in agricultural regions has scorched more than 10 million hectares of cropland. High temperatures of at least 36 degrees Celsius are forecast for Moscow in the coming week, according to Gidromettsentr, the state weather service.