Over 3000 government and private firms now are gathering information, mostly on American citizens, supposedly to combat terrorism. All of these report to the President, and Congress has no control over it. America has become a "top-secret" surveillance state.

A two-year investigation by the newspaper found what it called a "Top Secret America" that's hidden from public view and largely lacking in oversight. The newspaper's investigation is based on hundreds of interviews with intelligence, military and other officials, as well as public documents and records.

In its first installment of a series of reports, the Post said there are now more than 1,200 government organizations and more than 1,900 private companies working on counterterrorism, homeland security and intelligence in some 10,000 locations across the US.

Approximately 854,000 people - or nearly 1 1/2 times the number of people who live in Washington - have top-secret security clearance, the paper said.

Through the end of this year, the federal estate tax rate is zero - thanks to the package of broad-based tax cuts that President Bush pushed through to get the economy going earlier in the decade. But as of midnight December 31, the death tax returns - at a rate of 55% on estates of $1 million or more. The effect this will have on hospital life-support systems is already a matter of conjecture.

Resurrection of the death tax, however, isn't the only tax problem that will be ushered in January 1. Many other cuts from the Bush administration are set to disappear and a new set of taxes will materialize. And it's not just the rich who will pay.

The lowest bracket for the personal income tax, for instance, moves up 50% - to 15% from 10%. The next lowest bracket - 25% - will rise to 28%, and the old 28% bracket will be 31%. At the higher end, the 33% bracket is pushed to 36% and the 35% bracket becomes 39.6%.

But the damage doesn't stop there. The marriage penalty also makes a comeback, and the capital gains tax will jump 33% - to 20% from 15%. The tax on dividends will go all the way from 15% to 39.6% - a 164% increase. Letting the Bush cuts expire will cost taxpayers $115 billion next year alone, according to the Congressional Budget Office, and $2.6 trillion through 2020.

Booker estimates that the pool closures alone would save $250,000. He also says that no gas will be purchased for municipal vehicles that are not deemed critically important.

"Taxes can not be the answer," Booker said. Booker says property taxes in Newark have gone up 76 percent in last decade and 19 percent in the past five years.

At the news conference Booker was also quoted as saying, "Call me Mr Scrooge, if you want, but they'll be no Christmas decorations around the city." Booker has proposed a $600 million budget which includes the possibility of laying off as many as 350 police and firefighters.

Temperatures in the capital hit 35 degrees Celsius (95 degrees Fahrenheit) for the first time since 1981, said the Fobos weather forecasting centre, which provides weather data for the country's top media outlets.

Environmental groups including Greenpeace say Russia's heatwave is evidence of global warming, but forecasters with the national weather centre have said it is too early to draw a direct link.

The Russian Grain Union, an industry lobby, said the drought was Russia's worst in 130 years and had already shrivelled grain on 9 million hectares - an area the size of Portugal and about one fifth of the total area sown for this year's harvest. The drought is forcing Russia and neighbouring Ukraine and Kazakhstan to cut their grain production targets, officials said.

Bonnie is the second named storm of the 2010 Atlantic hurricane season, with wind speeds of 40mph (65km/h), the US National Hurricane Center says. Forecasters say the edge of the tropical storm could reach the spill area by early on Saturday. It has already caused flooding in Haiti, Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic and is moving north-west over the Bahamas, according to the National Hurricane Center in Miami.

Admiral Allen said the rig drilling the relief well - which will ultimately be used to block the leaking well permanently - and many other boats would leave the area. Earlier on Thursday, Admiral Allen said increasing confidence in the security of a new cap placed on the leaking well had convinced scientists it would be safe to leave the capped well unmonitored for several days.

Permission for BP to test the integrity of the well was conditional on close seismic, acoustic and visual monitoring - all of which will stop during the evacuation of the site. The first relief well is only 4ft from the damaged well horizontally, but more work needs to be done before it can be used for a "kill" to stop the flow permanently. A final piece of casing needs to be cemented in place at the bottom of the relief well.

Zenit interviewed Monsignor Andrew Summersgill, coordinator for the September 16-19 Papal visit to the United Kingdom, about the preparations and the climate in that region. In this interview, Monsignor Summersgill explained the significance of the invitation to the Pope by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, and he described some of the ways in which Catholics are being prepared for the visit of the Pope.

Monsignor Summersgill said,"The queen is a practicing Christian and quite clearly a woman of faith. You only have to listen to her Christmas broadcast to appreciate this. An invitation to undertake a State visit is unique for the visiting Head of State - it cannot be repeated. So I am sure it is with a personal warmth and welcome that Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II issued the invitation. Though of course in these matters the queen acts on the advice of the government. Both the previous and present government is committed to offering the Pope a welcome as the spiritual leader of approximately ten percent of the UK population, as well as affirming the different areas of cooperation between the UK government and the Holy See, especially in tackling poverty in the world and in the shared commitment to education."

It's going to discriminate against people of faith who are Christians in their worldview, and I believe with all my heart that they have rights too," says Bellevue Baptist Church Pastor Steven Gaines.

The amendment to the city's existing non-discrimination policy, which was presented to the city council Tuesday, would prohibit the city from discriminating based on sexual orientation, gender identity or expression against employees, as well as anyone who has a contract with the city or who uses city facilities. City Councilwoman Janis Fullilove, who sponsored the proposal at the request of gay rights organization Tennessee Equality Project, told the council Tuesday that every human deserves the right to be protected in the workplace.

"All people should be able to make a living, to provide for their families and contribute to their communities without fear of losing their jobs for something that has nothing to do with their job performance," said Jonathan Cole, a spokesman for Tennessee Equality Project. "Right now it's legal in Memphis to be fired simply because someone is gay or lesbian or transgender."

Jonathan Cole, a spokesman for Tennessee Equality Project, told Fox News he respects concerns that some critics have for the pending legislation, but he was especially bothered by the outrage coming from Bellevue Baptist Church. "They really lack moral authority on the issue," he said. "This is the same congregation that can't even share a softball field with a lesbian coach." The church allegedly told a lesbian coach that her team would not be able to play in their church softball league after they discovered her sexual orientation.

Festival director Richard Moore told The Age newspaper he had received a letter from censors rejecting the film by Canadian director Bruce LaBruce. Described by Moore as a "video art zombie film", "L.A. Zombie" stars French porn actor Francois Sagat as a man convinced he is an alien zombie sent to Earth to roam the streets of Los Angeles in search of dead bodies and gay sex.

Australia's film classification board said the movie had been denied an exemption from classification, not banned as Moore had claimed. An exemption would have allowed the film to be shown at the festival, but board director Donald McDonald said he had concluded, from the film's synopsis and the director's previous classification history, that "L.A Zombie" was not suitable for screening. "In the opinion of the director, the film, if classified, would be classified X18+ or RC (refused classification) and, in this circumstance, the law requires the director to refuse an exemption," McDonald said in a statement to AFP.

Moore has defended the festival's attempt to show the film, telling public broadcaster ABC that PEOPLE HAVE A RIGHT TO JUDGE IT FOR THEMSELVES. "They know they're not gonna go and see Fantasia or Bambi," said Moore. "L.A. Zombie" will have its world premiere next week in Locarno, Switzerland.

The star is seen to have a mass about 265 times that of our own Sun; but the latest modelling work suggests at birth it could have been bigger, still. Perhaps as much as 320 times that of the Sun, says Professor Paul Crowther from Sheffield University, UK.

"If it replaced the Sun in our Solar System, it would outshine [it] by as much as the Sun currently outshines the full Moon," the astronomer told BBC News. The stars were identified by Crowther's team using a combination of new observations on the Very Large Telescope facility in Chile and data gathered previously with the Hubble Space Telescope.

The team found several stars with surface temperatures over 40,000 degrees - more than seven times hotter than our Sun. The research shows these young stellar objects to be unbelievably bright, truly massive and also extremely wide - perhaps 30 times the radius of our Sun in the case of R136a1.

A detailed investigation sponsored by the Seoul government, with the involvement of foreign experts, indicated that the vessel had been sunk by a deliberate attack, almost certainly from the North. But the North Koreans still insist that they were not involved. International response to the incident has been mixed. South Korea was determined to take the matter to the United Nations Security Council. This body released a statement on 9 July which condemned the attack but fell short of directly blaming the North Koreans.

There was a huge measure of politics here; none of the key players - Russia, China or the US - wanted to exacerbate tensions further, and it was clear that Moscow and Beijing would not back tougher action. The joint US-South Korean naval exercises, scheduled to begin on 25 July, following on from the high-level diplomacy, are one way for Washington to reassure its uneasy ally.

The growing unease in the region is compounded by what many analysts see as the start of a succession struggle in North Korea, as the ailing leader Kim Jong-il seeks to prepare the way for his successor. The fear is that the North Korean government, which is unpredictable at the best of times, might use the joint US-South Korean naval exercises as a pretext for some further military action. That is one reason why China is so concerned about the naval exercises.

And this is no small war game: the initial phase of the exercise in the Sea of Japan includes the nuclear-powered aircraft carrier the USS George Washington, 20 other ships and submarines, and some 100 aircraft. For Beijing, these waters constitute the vital approaches to its own territory. China is worried by any major foreign naval presence in this area at a time when it is expanding its own maritime operations and reach. It will take a long time for China to be able to rival US sea power in any serious way. But China's naval ambitions are clear.

Stonewall said homophobic bullying in schools was unsurprising when gay people were so often depicted on TV in a derogatory or demeaning way. The report, called Unseen on Screen, says ordinary gay people are almost invisible on the 20 programmes most watched by the young. It says just 46 minutes out of 126 hours' output showed gay people positively and realistically.

The report also said three-quarters of portrayal was confined to just four Channel 4 and ITV1 programmes, which were I'm a Celebrity, Hollyoaks, Emmerdale and How to Look Good Naked. BBC One transmitted 44 seconds of positive and realistic portrayal of gay people in more than 39 hours of output, it added. Stonewall chief executive Ben Summerskill said: "Of course it's welcome that some of the most obnoxious unpleasantness of people such as Jeremy Clarkson is now being edited out before transmission."

"However, it's hardly surprising that there's still almost endemic homophobic bullying in Britain's secondary schools when, even if gay people do appear on TV shows watched by young people, they're depicted in a derogatory or demeaning way. "It's tragic that in 2010 broadcasters are still underserving young people in this way, particularly when young people themselves say they want to see real gay people's lives on TV."

The report says broadcasters should develop guidelines to ensure more positive portrayals, and share good practice. The BBC is conducting its own research into how gay and lesbian people are portrayed in its programmes.

Speaking in an exclusive Radio Red, White and Blue interview on this week's "Eurofile" report, Mr Griffin told interviewer John Walker about a recent sitting of the European Parliament's subcommittee dealing with the matter, which had passed a ruling which in effect placed legal sanction against anyone who dared question the origin, cause or effect of "climate change."

Mr Griffin revealed how he could not get a straight answer out of the committee while it was in session, but that afterwards it was admitted to him that the intention of the rule was to criminalise dissension on the topic of "climate change."

An official warned the spill posed a "severe threat" to sea life and water quality as China's latest environmental crisis spread off the shores of Dalian, once named China's most livable city. One cleanup worker has drowned, his body coated in crude. "I've been to a few bays today and discovered they were almost entirely covered with dark oil," said Zhong Yu with environmental group Greenpeace China, who spent the day on a boat inspecting the spill.

The oil had spread over 165 square miles (430 square kilometers) of water five days since a pipeline at the busy northeastern port exploded, hurting oil shipments from part of China's strategic oil reserves to the rest of the country. Shipments remained reduced Wednesday. State media has said no more oil is leaking into the sea, but the total amount of oil spilled is not yet clear.

"We don't have proper oil cleanup materials, so our workers are wearing rubber gloves and using chopsticks," an official with the Jinshitan Golden Beach Administration Committee told the Beijing Youth Daily newspaper, in apparent exasperation. "This kind of inefficiency means the oil will keep coming to shore. This stretch of oil is really difficult to clean up in the short term."

Flanked by a large security apparatus provided by the Jerusalem Police, Danon ascended to the site to mark the day on which the destruction of the First and Second Temples occurred, and to voice his concerns about the current state of access to the Temple Mount for Jews who wish to visit it for religious reasons.

"Jews wearing kippot - religious Jews - who wish to go up to the Temple Mount can only do so in groups of 10 or 15 people at a time, while Muslim worshipers are allowed free and total access to the site by the thousands," Danon said. "This current situation cannot be allowed to continue," he added. "This place does not belong to the Wakf [the Islamic trust that oversees the administration of Muslim sites on the Temple Mount] it belongs to the people of Israel."

After returning from his nearly hour-long tour of the site, Danon, who said the visit had been "very emotional," told reporters that in addition to his police escort atop the mount, his entourage had been followed by Wakf officials and photographers. "They watched and recorded everything we did," Danon said.

In a conversation with The Jerusalem Post earlier on Tuesday, Danon had said that he saw "no more fitting day" than Tisha Be'av for a trip to the holy site. "This is the day in which the Jewish people mourn the destruction of the two temples that once stood upon that site," Danon said. "And I can think of no better time than today to go there and commemorate this mourning."

The answer may rest, as it so often does, on jobs. If a recent softening in a range of economic data is matched by greater unemployment, the US central bank may be forced to take action, even if its room for maneuver is now limited. Lawmakers, keen to appear proactive ahead of mid-term elections in November, will try to coax Bernanke into backing their respective agendas, with Republicans pressing him on the budget deficit and Democrats on the need for more stimulus.

He will probably stop short on both counts, preferring instead to dwell on the monetary policy options available to the Fed if the economy were to worsen appreciably. Bernanke faces the difficult task of convincing Congress the Fed is not powerless to deal with slower growth, without appearing so worried about the outlook as to suggest further easing may be imminent.

"At this moment, he and the (Fed's policy) committee are not prepared to do anything. They feel they've used up most of their bullets, and they don't want to go there," said Kevin Logan, chief US economist at HSBC.