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.

While economists generally agree the recession would have been worse without the government spending spree, it's a hard sell to voters with unemployment at 9.5 percent and unlikely to fall much by November's congressional elections. "I think it's a very risky strategy to use the term 'recovery' and the promise and claim of recovery when for many Americans, the evidence is simply not there," said Julian Zelizer, a history professor at Princeton University.

White House officials are trying to frame the mid-term elections as a choice between Republicans, whose policies the administration says caused the economic mess, and Democrats, who are trying to dig the country out.

Dana Milbank, a Washington Post columnist, pointed out this wasn't exactly the stuff of catchy bumper sticker slogans. "Vote Democratic. Things might have been even worse without us" probably won't sway voters, he wrote.

The latest foray into this area comes from Alan Brown, global chief investment officer at the large UK fund firm Schroders. But he does it with twist, blaming what he sees as the eventual collapse of the euro zone not on the structure itself nor on the profligacy of peripheral economies, but on Germany's response to the crisis. Brown reckons countries like Greece cannot do what is needed.

If Greece does all that it is asked to do, it's debt/GDP ratio will rise to around 150 percent as debt continues to accumulate and the denominator declines as a result of a renewed recession and deflation. With debt at 150 percent and real interest rates anywhere near today's level, Greece would have to run a primary surplus of around 8 percent of GDP just to stabilise its debt ratio. In the best of worlds, Brown says, German and other northern euro zone countries would solve the problem by stimulating their own economies to offset the deflationary impact of measures to improve public finances in the profligacies.

Increased demand from Germany (and other Northern European countries) would boost demand for goods and services from the South helping to maintain growth in the euro zone region as a whole and to reduce the current chronic current account imbalances. Brown says the trouble is that is not likely to happen. Germany has actually done the opposite, launching its own austerity programme.

As a result, Schroders reckons it is highly likely in the medium term that Germany will break the euro.

Fortunately, this run of unfavorable farming news follows strong harvests that for now should keep grain prices in check, according to the UN Food and Agriculture Organization. But to see the effects of a bad year for food - and what the world could be in for if the present trend persists - one only has to look to 2008.

Two years ago, a confluence of environmental causes compounded by rising fuel costs and a global credit crunch caused food prices to skyrocket an average of 43 percent worldwide, leading to starvation and riots from Mexico to Bangladesh. Some are worried that was just a warning.

In a new book, "Empires of Food," journalist Andrew Rimas and Leeds University agricultural researcher Evan Fraser examine civilizations from Mesopotamia to Rome to Great Britain. They argue that every empire was made possible by agriculture, and that when those agricultural systems failed, the empires they supported failed with them.

Fraser and Rimas worry that the food system in place today is built around nitrogen-based fertilizers that require petroleum to create, as well as good weather that's graced the world since the dust bowl. If fuel prices go up again, or if the weather gets worse, they say, we could see our food empire unravel as well.

Kansas is the third largest cattle state with more than 2 million cattle in feedlots. "It is all cattle in feedlots. It is more the humidity than the heat," Ken Powell, environmental scientist with the Kansas Department of Health and Environment, said of the more than 2,000 cattle deaths.

The cattle deaths have overwhelmed rendering plants and some feedlots are burying the carcasses in accordance with state regulations, said Powell. "From the standpoint of dealing with the disposal of animals, this is the worst I have seen in the almost 17 years I've been here," he said.

Temperatures reached 101 Fahrenheit (38 Celsius) at Garden City in southwest Kansas on Monday, and highs in the region were expected to reach the upper 90s to low 100s F (upper 30s C) through Friday, said Joel Burgio, meteorologist at Telvent DTN.

The government's point man on the disaster, retired Coast Guard Admiral Thad Allen, will decide again later Tuesday whether to continue the test of the experimental cap - meaning the oil would stay blocked in.

He said Monday the amount of oil leaking was so far inconsequential. But ever since the flow of oil was closed off Thursday, engineers have been glued to underwater cameras and pressure and seismic readings, trying to determine whether the cap is displacing pressure and causing leaks underground, which could make the sea bed unstable and cause the well to collapse.

BP and the government had been at odds over the company's desire to simply leave the cap in place and employ it like a giant cork in a bottle until a relief well being drilled deep underground can be used to plug up the well permanently.

Allen initially said his preference was to pipe oil through the cap to tankers on the surface to reduce the slight chance that the buildup of pressure inside the well would cause a new blowout. That plan would require releasing millions more gallons of oil into the ocean for a few days during the transition - a spectacle BP apparently wants to avoid.

They also represent a human tragedy, as if those same numbers lacked limbs or lived in handcuffs. Never mind being cut off from Jane Austen or even Stieg Larsson - these people cannot use the internet, read a newspaper or instruction manual or write a letter. What is happening in our schools that this should be so? The answer, according to an important paper on national literacy by Miriam Gross, published yesterday, is horribly familiar.

Teachers who do not know how to teach, guided by a Left-wing educational establishment ideologically opposed to disciplined learning, are using the wrong methods to instil basic skills in our children. After visiting primary schools, talking to teachers and attending classes, Gross paints a portrait of a mad world dominated by the theory that education must be 'child led'.

Teachers assist illiterate children to cheat their way to passes in the government's SATS assessments at primary school, to sustain the lie of progress. This educational establishment is committed to teach reading and writing by the 'whole word' method - discredited by independent assessors - because it is thought to be 'easier for the kids'. The ideologues stubbornly refuse to accept overwhelming evidence that synthetic phonics - teaching children to link sounds and letters - works much better.

Teachers also reject such obvious disciplines as correcting children's spelling and grammar. The head of a Church of England primary school told Miriam Gross defiantly: 'It's so important not to crush the children's creativity when they write down a story. It would undermine their confidence if we pointed out mistakes.'

But ma'am, how will your pupils learn to do things right if nobody tells them when they do it wrong? What is so shocking about what is happening, or rather not happening, is the arrogance of this Left-wing educational establishment in the face of overwhelming evidence of their failure.

The move, which was described by economists as "very rare", means that Hungary will not have access to standby funds that were secured as part of a 2008 loan deal. The credit line was suspended on Saturday after the European Commission voiced concerns over the newly-elected Hungarian government's budget plans.

The stark move by the IMF and EU will reignite fears in global stock and money markets about the state of Europe's sovereign debt. It could also derail the fragile confidence that has been returning to markets after moves to resolve the economic crisis in Eastern Europe. Hungary's woes come amid fears of a broader bear market developing as investors adjust to signs of a global slowdown led by the US and China. The weekend's events will only add to market jitters.

Economists have argued that the return of confidence to Europe is partly based on the assumption that the IMF and the EU will automatically step in as sugar daddies to save failing economies. The suspension of the review of Hungary's credit line at the weekend will send out an international warning and shows such views to be naive, observers said last night.

The WDM, a London-based non-governmental organisation, on Monday started an on-line campaign to persuade the public to report Goldman to the Financial Services Authority (FSA) as the biggest bank allegedly distorting commodities markets. The organisers said they want to put pressure on authorities to limit the ability of banks and hedge funds to trade in commodity futures. The move came as Armajaro, a hedge fund run by Anthony Ward, was accused of cornering the cocoa market and pushing up prices after buying 650 million pounds, or 240,000 tonnes, of cocoa beans.

The money flowing into commodity index funds and commodity derivatives soared from $46 billion in 2005 to $250 billion in March 2008, according to the report. The authors claim that the flood of cash pushed up food prices across the world, particularly impacting developing countries. The high price of staple foods provoked a wave of riots in cities across the world during 2007 and 2008.

Tim Jones, who wrote the report, told The Daily Telegraph: "In the 1930s, rules were introduced to limit financial speculation in food markets but these were eroded by the banks, in particular by lobbying from Goldman. Although lots of banks and hedge funds are causing the problems, Goldman is the biggest. We estimate the bank made $1 billion profit from trading on food last year."

It was just the sort of photo-op German Chancellor Angela Merkel urgently needs. Peter Loscher, the CEO of electronics giant Siemens, was sitting on a throne-like chair in the governor's palace in the central Russian city of Yekaterinburg. Contracts were being handed to him in brown leather folders, and every time Loscher signed one of the documents with his malachite green pen, the chancellor clapped with delight. The procedure took place four times, and by the time the round of contract signing ended, Siemens had secured Russian orders worth about 4 billion euros ($5.2 billion).

The real purpose of Merkel's five-day visit to Russia and China last week was to hold political talks with the two countries' leaders, but the most important message of the trip was meant for the German people. Look, Merkel seemed to indicating to German citizens, German industry is in demand worldwide, even if the government at home is divided and lacking direction.

The German economy has indeed come roaring back to life this summer. Two years after the outbreak of the financial crisis, the auto industry is adding extra shifts once again. The machine building, electronics and chemical industries are all reporting a rapidly growing number of orders. Total unemployment is expected to drop below the 2.8 million mark this fall, the lowest level since 1991.

For the first time in decades, the former "sick man of Europe" is back to being an engine for economic growth.