Both reports follow by less than a week the Pentagon's confirmation that an unusually large American fleet sailed through the Suez Canal Saturday. Several reports stated that an Israeli ship joined the armada. The Pentagon played down the news, saying the American maneuvers were routine.

However, a report by Iran on Wednesday that it has enriched dozens of pounds of 17 per cent enriched uranium serves as a reminder that time is running out to stop Iran from being able to produce a nuclear weapon. Iran's Fars News Agency said the Israeli military aircraft landed 10 days ago at the Saudi base near the city of Tabuk, located in northwest Saudi Arabia, one of the closest areas in the oil kingdom to Iran.

Fars said that the Tabuk base will be the central station for an Israeli attack on Iran. It quoted an Islamic news site that a commercial airline passenger said the airport in Tabuk was closed to all other traffic during the alleged Israeli landings. The passenger said that "no reasonable explanation" was given for shutting down the airport and those passengers were compensated financially and booked in four-star hotels.

"The relations between Saudi Arabia and Israel have become the talk of the town," the passenger added. The chief authority in Tabuk, Prince Fahd ben Sultan, was reported be coordinating the cooperation with Israel.

He told German weekly Die Zeit: 'German policy is a danger for Europe, it could destroy the European project.' He added he 'could not rule out a collapse of the euro. Right now the Germans are dragging their neighbours into deflation, which threatens a long phase of stagnation.'

'And that leads to nationalism, social unrest and xenophobia. Democracy itself could be at risk,' he said. 'Germany is globally isolated... Why don't they let their salaries rise? That would help other EU states to pick up.' Soros's comments come after Germany unveiled more than 80 billion euros (66 billion pounds) of deficit-slashing plans on Monday. German Chancellor Angela Merkel said: 'Around 80 billion euros must be saved until 2014 in order to put our financial future on a solid footing.'

Paris and Berlin have also clashed recently on the best way to shape Europe's economic architecture in the wake of the debt crisis in Greece. Soros added: 'If the Germans don't change their policy, their exit from the currency union would be helpful to the rest of Europe.'

Announcing the decision in a secularist group's monthly newsletter, Mr Hall said prayers were 'outdated, unnecessary and intrusive' and added they would no longer be said before meetings at Leicester Town Hall. The ban comes days after he refused to attend a service at Leicester Cathedral welcoming him to his role as the city's new lord mayor.

He later told his 123 followers on the Twitter networking site that he was mayor for 'all the people of Leicester and not just those from the Church of England'. The East Midlands city is regarded as the most multi-faith and multi-ethnic outside London, with 36 per cent of residents from ethnic minorities, according to the 2001 census.

Writing in the Leicester Secularist Society's publication, the mayor said: 'I am delighted to confirm that I will be exercising my discretion as lord mayor to abolish this outdated, unnecessary and intrusive practice. I consider that religion, in whatever shape or form, has no role to play at all in the conduct of council business. This particularly applies in Leicester, where the majority of council members, myself included, do not regularly attend any particular faith service.'

Mr Hall was yesterday unavailable to discuss his decision to scrap the prayers, which have been said before meetings since 1997.

Rivers, lakes and reservoirs across the region are at their lowest for the time of year since the 1960s following four exceptionally dry months. The water company United Utilities is due to apply for an official drought order today - giving it the power to remove more water than usual from lakes.

The move follows the driest start to the year across the UK since 1964, and the driest January to May in the North-West since the 1920s. The Environment Agency warned that North Wales was also on the brink of drought - but stressed that water levels in the rest of the UK were safe for now.

Rainfall in May was only 38 per cent of the North-West's long-term average, while June looks likely to turn out just as parched. United Utilities - which made pre-tax profits of 474.2 million pounds last year - has applied to take more water from Ennerdale Water in West Cumbria to supply the Whitehaven area.

Less than two months after celebrating its opening, the Alpha Ventus test wind park in the North Sea is already running into problems. Intended to be the initial thrust in a plan that foresees dozens of new offshore wind parks off the German coast, shoddy building materials have caused two turbines to overheat and fail. An additional four turbines will need to be replaced.

Each of the struggling turbines was manufactured by the French firm Areva, which is responsible for half of the 12 turbines in the four-square-kilometer park (1.5 square miles), located about 45 kilometers (28 miles) north of the island of Borkum. Areva said Friday that overheating was unforeseen and "not sufficiently considered" from the outset. As a result, the company will invest in a facility in Bremerhaven to test its turbines under full-load capacity before sending them out to sea.

The turbines, which had only been in operation for eight months, will be replaced by late summer, according to Areva. The wind park's operators, European energy giants E.on, EWE and Vattenfall, played down the incident in a hurriedly called crisis meeting at the Environment Ministry in Berlin. As a result of the Alpha Ventus embarrassment, they are reviewing the billions of euros they have pledged for the development of other offshore wind parks.

Germany's domestic intelligence agency, the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution, will launch the so-called exit program at the end of June, agency chief Heinz Fromm announced Monday, speaking at the presentation of the service's annual report for 2009 in Berlin. The agency is to set up a telephone hotline that militant Islamists can call if they want to leave radical Islamist groups. Multilingual specialists will be available to give potential quitters advice in Turkish or Arabic, as well as German, Fromm said, without giving further details of the program.

Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere described the scheme as a "valuable preventative effort." Fromm however warned against overly high expectations for the scheme. "We'll have to wait and see if it gets a big response," he said. The agency's programs for neo-Nazis wanting to quit their milieu, which have been running for several years, have only met with moderate success.

There was a small drop in acts of right-wing violence in 2009, down to 891 acts from 1,042 in 2008. De Maiziere stressed that, despite the fall, the threat of far-right violence should not be "neglected."

As the high-stakes dramas unfolded, the political risks from the disaster were underscored by a new poll that showed President Barack Obama's job performance rating has dropped to the lowest level of his presidency.

The worst spill in US history has been thrust to the top of Obama's crowded domestic agenda but the Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll found half of those surveyed disapproved of his handling of the spill. Overall Obama's rating stood at 45 percent in the poll, down 5 points from early last month. For the first time in the survey, more people, or 48 percent, say they disapprove of his job performance.

The administration sought to keep its key responses to the catastrophe in play as it appealed the ruling to lift the deepwater drilling ban after a judge said it was too far-reaching and not adequately justified despite the spill.

Obama said bluntly that General Stanley McChrystal's scornful remarks about administration officials represent conduct that "undermines the civilian control of the military that is at the core of our democratic system." He fired the commander after summoning him from Afghanistan for a face to face meeting in the Oval Office and named Petraeus, the Central Command chief who was McChrystal's direct boss, to step in. Obama had offered the job to Petraeus during a private White House meeting earlier Wednesday, said a senior military official.

The announcement came during what is on pace to be the deadliest month for the US-dominated international coalition in Afghanistan. NATO announced eight more international troop deaths Wednesday for a total of 75 this month - matching the toll of the deadliest month of the nine-year-long war, in July 2009. Forty-five of those killed this month were Americans. The US has 90,800 troops in Afghanistan.

The midday quake was felt in Canada and in a number of US states, including Michigan, Vermont and parts of upstate New York. The USGS said the quake occurred at a depth of about 12 miles (19.2 kilometers). The agency initially said the quake had a 5.5 magnitude, but later reduced it to a magnitude 5.0. The quake occurred at 1:41pm EDT (1741 GMT), the USGS said.

The quake lasted for about 30 seconds, rattling downtown buildings and homes in Ottawa and Toronto, as well as government offices across the Ottawa River in Gatineau, Quebec. Several buildings in Toronto and the Ottawa region were evacuated.

The setback, yet another in the nine-week effort to stop the gusher, came as thick pools of oil washed up on Pensacola Beach in Florida and the Obama administration tried to figure out how to resurrect a six-month moratorium on deepwater drilling.

When the robot bumped the system just before 10am Wednesday, gas rose through the vent that carries warm water down to prevent ice-like crystals from forming, Coast Guard Admiral Thad Allen said. Crews were checking to see if crystals had formed before putting it back on. BP spokesman Bill Salvin could not say how long that might take. "We're doing it as quickly as possible," he said.

Before the problem with the containment cap, it had collected about 700,000 gallons of oil in 24 hours and sucked it up to a ship on the surface. That's oil that's now pouring into the Gulf. Another 438,000 gallons was burned on the surface by a different system that was not affected by the issue with the cap.

But seven of the nine Supreme Court Justices decided that ruling was unconstitutional. The seed is modified to be resistant to Monsanto's brand of weedkiller. The US is the world's largest producer of alfalfa, a grass-like plant used as animal feed. It is the fourth most valuable crop grown in the country.

Environmentalists had argued that there might be a risk of cross-pollination between genetically modified plants and neighbouring crops. They also argued over-use of the company's weedkiller Roundup, the chemical treatment the alfalfa is modified to be resistant to, could cause pollution of ground water and lead to resistant "super-weeds". But Monsanto says claims its products were dangerous amounted to "bad science fiction with no support on the record".

The waterway, a tributary to the River Tees, rises in the Pennine Hills and flows over a bed of porous limestone. During dry spells, the Greta disappears below the ground, reducing the bed to a pile of stones. Last week United Utilities issued drought warnings across the North West after six of the driest consecutive months in 70 years.

Millions of people could have hosepipe warnings within weeks unless the rains return. According to the Centre for Hydrology and Ecology, a leading independent body in the UK for research into and monitoring of freshwater ecosystems, north west England and Wales have had only sparse rainfall since December.

Reservoirs, lakes and rivers across the North West are at their lowest for mid-June since the 1960s. Thirlmere, in the Lake District, is only half full, while Haweswater is 30 per cent below capacity. Levels in Coniston and other lakes are dropping.

The threat of a drought in the North West follows three exceptionally wet summers. Last November, Cockermouth in Cumbria saw some of the worst floods in a century.

This delinquency in understanding Islamic culture and doctrine makes those they consider non-believers - or kafirs - vulnerable both individually and collectively. This is especially true when we examine the Islamic concept of taqiyya. Taqiyya is defined literally as: "Concealing or disguising one's beliefs, convictions, ideas, feelings, opinions, and/or strategies at a time of eminent danger, whether now or later in time, to save oneself from physical and/or mental injury." In essence, taqiyya can be generally defined as the legitimization of deception in times of danger.

Should the situation arise where a practicing Muslim, loyal to the faith, were to be questioned about a suspected terrorist operation or criminal activity being planed or perpetrated by a fellow Muslim - whether here in the United States or anywhere in the world - that Muslim must employ taqiyya. This makes the gathering of credible information from within the Islamic community, regarding the criminal Islamic community, virtually impossible.

This also brings into relevance our government's predisposition toward skepticism when entering into diplomatic negotiations with leaders of predominantly Muslim countries and the assurances they provide. A perfect case in point is the current nuclear proliferation issue with the Islamic Republic of Iran and its leader Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

Ahmadinejad, a most devote Shi'ite, who has indicated without reservation his blind faith to Islam, would be held to the Quranic tenet of taqiyya. This tenet, understood for its true meaning, it would make it impossible for any clear thinking human being to take Ahmadinejad's words of peace at face value, especially in light of his violent declarations toward Israel, the United States, Western civilization and the non-Muslim world.

If the West - and especially the United States - is to survive this very real conflict with Islamofascist aggression, we must educate ourselves on the intricacies of our enemy's beliefs and tactics. To not do so would be the epitome of neglect and a ostentatious display of stupidity.

The US president will host senators from both parties at the White House - including those who have proposed variations on a climate change bill - but analysts are sceptical about whether he can overcome the political impasse on a proposal that is seen as essentially a tax.

"The oil spill has dramatically increased the urgency for the need to act," said Daniel Weiss of the Center for American Progress Action Fund. "But I'm not looking for any breakthrough at the meeting. I think President Obama wants to listen to various concerns and follow up on various ideas." Since he was a presidential candidate, Mr Obama has been promoting legislation that would put a cap on carbon emissions from polluters but allow them to buy permits to emit more.

Mitch McConnell, Republican leader in the Senate, who has called cap-and-trade a "national energy tax", has accused Mr Obama of trying to take political advantage of the oil spill.

Staff admitted they knew there was a family of foxes living under the building but said they had been advised by a wildlife expert that they posed no threat to the children. His father Sam and mother Jacqui, both 35, described him as a 'very brave little boy', with Sam telling today's Sun newspaper: 'He's doing well. It was a bit of a nightmare but he's back on top form as if it never happened.'

'We feel it was not the fault of the fox or Jake but an unfortunate event.' However, the attack will further heighten concerns about the animals after twin girls were mauled by a fox as they lay in their cots a fortnight ago. Playgroup staff have admitted they had been aware of a family of foxes living under the building for a year. The playgroup was closed until further notice yesterday as pest controllers were called in to remove the foxes.