One ship left port on Sunday and another will depart by Friday, loaded with food, construction material and toys, the report said. The boats would be part of international efforts to break Israel's isolation of the Gaza Strip. "Until the end of the Gaza blockade, Iran will continue to ship aid," said an official at Iran's Society for the Defence of the Palestinian Nation.

While Israel has long suspected Iran, which rejects the Jewish state's right to exist, of supplying weapons to Hamas, Tehran says it only provides moral support to the group. Israeli troops two weeks ago boarded a flotilla of Turkish aid ships heading to Gaza on May 31 and killed nine pro-Palestinian activists, most of them Turks.

Public opinion in Muslim countries was outraged by the killings. An official of the Iranian Red Crescent Society's youth organisation said some 100,000 Iranians had volunteered as potential crew for aid ships, Iran Daily reported. A senior Iranian official said earlier Iran's elite Revolutionary Guards were ready to provide a military escort to aid ships heading to Gaza if Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei so commands.

Senior space agency scientists believe the Earth will be hit with unprecedented levels of magnetic energy from solar flares after the Sun wakes "from a deep slumber" sometime around 2013. In a new warning, Nasa said the super storm would hit like "a bolt of lightening" and could cause catastrophic consequences for the world's health, emergency services and national security unless precautions are taken.

Scientists believe it could damage everything from emergency services' systems, hospital equipment, banking systems and air traffic control devices, through to "everyday" items such as home computers, iPods and Sat Navs. Due to humans' heavy reliance on electronic devices, which are sensitive to magnetic energy, the storm could leave a multi-billion pound damage bill and "potentially devastating" problems for governments.

"We know it is coming but we don't know how bad it is going to be," said Dr Richard Fisher, the director of Nasa's Heliophysics division. "It will disrupt communication devices such as satellites and car navigations, air travel, the banking system, our computers, everything that is electronic. It will cause major problems for the world. Large areas will be without electricity power and to repair that damage will be hard as that takes time." In an interview with The Daily Telegraph, he added: "Systems will just not work. The flares change the magnetic field on the earth that is rapid and like a lightening bolt. That is the solar affect."

The government has said it was aware of the threat and "contingency plans were in place" to cope with the fall out from such a storm. These included allowing for certain transformers at the edge of the National Grid to be temporarily switched off and to improve voltage levels throughout the network. The National Risk Register, established in 2008 to identify different dangers to Britain, also has "comprehensive" plans on how to handle a complete outage of electricity supplies.

According to regulatory filings, RawStory.com has found that Goldman Sachs sold 4,680,822 shares of BP in the first quarter of 2010. Goldman's sales were the largest of any firm during that time. Goldman would have pocketed slightly more than $266 million if their holdings were sold at the average price of BP's stock during the quarter.

If Goldman had sold these shares today, their investment would have lost 36 percent its value, or $96 million. The share sales represented 44 percent of Goldman's holdings - meaning that Goldman's remaining holdings have still lost tens of millions in value. Other asset management firms also sold huge blocks of BP stock in the first quarter - but their sales were a fraction of Goldman's. Wachovia, which is owned by Wells Fargo, sold 2,667,419 shares; UBS, the Swiss bank, sold 2,125,566 shares. Wachovia and UBS also sold much larger percentages of their BP stock, at 98 percently and 97 percent respectively.

The mineral wealth, discovered by a team of Pentagon officials and US geologists, is scattered throughout the country including in the south and east along the border with Pakistan, where the Taliban-led insurgency is the most intense. Afghanistan does not have any mining industry or infrastructure, so it will take decades for the country to exploit its mineral wealth fully, the paper quoted US officials as saying.

The report about the country's untapped wealth is likely to intensify competition among regional players such as China, India and even Russia for a greater role in exploiting those resources. Two Chinese firms have committed themselves to a $4 billion investment in the vast Aynak copper mine, south of Kabul, the biggest non-military foreign investment so far in the country.

Another big contract to mine an estimated 1.8 billion tons of high-quality iron ore in the remote mountainous region of Hajigak is expected to open for international bidding this year. Firms from India and China are eyeing the contract, which the Afghan mines ministry says is the largest unmined iron deposit in Asia.

According to the US study, the biggest deposits discovered so far are of iron and copper and the quantities are large enough to make Afghanistan a major world producer. Other finds include large deposits of niobium, a soft metal used in producing superconducting steel, rare earth elements and large gold deposits in Pashtun areas of southern Afghanistan.

Scotland Yard said it was not aware of a specific threat against the family but admitted that there was 'concern' over inflammatory postings on social networking sites. Yesterday a woman phoned the Radio 4 programme Any Answers to say she had heard from friends and relatives in Hackney that Mr and Mrs Koupparis were being 'harangued and besieged' by animal rights activists. The caller also said there were messages on internet sites, allegedly accusing the family of seeking publicity after their ordeal.

Another group, calling itself 'Urban Fox Defenders', has attracted more than 500 members. One, who gave her name as Alison Smith, wrote: 'I really can't see how a fox could be SO brazen as to go into a house, up the stairs, past adults, and go for two children. There is something here that simply does not add up!'

Lola left hospital on Friday and Mrs Koupparis, 41, said: 'We've gone through every emotion imaginable.'

Isabella, who was the more badly hurt of the pair, has been transferred from Great Ormond Street children's hospital to the Royal London, which is nearer her home. A police spokesman said: 'There has been some concern about things that have been said on social networking sites.'

The 64-year-old star of Absolutely Fabulous is worried that the vermin will be culled after a fox savaged baby twins as they slept in their cots in east London last weekend. "Obviously, it was horrific what happened, and I am very sorry for the family involved, but we have to keep this in perspective," the actress insists to Mandrake. "Most foxes are very timid and keep well clear of human beings."

"I feed the foxes which I see in my garden in south London and they get along perfectly well with my cats. Foxes are beautiful creatures - very graceful - and they normally pose no danger at all to humans. It'd be a tragedy if, on account of this one isolated incident, we set about their wholesale elimination."

Pauline Koupparis, whose nine-month-old daughters, Lola and Isabella, were attacked at their home in Hackney, has demanded action from local authorities against the urban scavengers. The fashion designer was supported by Boris Johnson, the Mayor of London, who called for a greater focus to control the "pests" in the capital.

The head of Britain's largest abortion provider said many young women were living chaotic lives that meant they could not organise contraception. Christian doctors said the statistics demonstrated the failure of liberal sex education policies. The Department of Health figures for 2009 show that, for the first time, more than a third (34 per cent) of abortions were performed on women who had already ended one or more pregnancies.

Across all ages, more than 1,000 women or girls were on at least their fifth termination, including 214 on their sixth, 70 on their seventh and 48 who underwent the procedure for at least the eighth time. Ann Furedi, the chief executive of the British Pregnancy Advisory Service, said repeated pregnancies among teenage girls were often caused by chaotic lifestyles and difficulties they had in using contraception.

She said: "With teenage girls, often they feel able to handle sex, emotionally and physically, yet aren't able to handle the planning that comes with contraception." Dr Peter Saunders, from the Christian Medical Fellowship, which represents Christian doctors, said that the figures were profoundly depressing. "It is increasingly clear that abortion is simply being used as a form of contraception by a growing percentage of girls and women, and that tired policies of values-free sex education, condoms and morning-after pills are not working," he said.

The total number of abortions in England and Wales last year, 189,100, fell slightly on the previous year. Of those, 63,390 involved women who had previously ended a pregnancy, compared with 51,987 a decade ago - a rise of 22 per cent. Almost 18,000 abortions were carried out on girls aged under 18, including more than 1,000 on girls aged 14 or under. The statistics follow controversy last month about Britain's first television advertisement for abortion services.

The focus of the tremor was 25 miles below sea level off the east coast of Fukushima prefecture, on Japan's main island of Honshu, about 150 miles northeast of Tokyo, the Japan Meteorological Agency said. No tsunami warning was issued and there were no early reports of damage. Earthquakes are common in Japan, one of the world's most seismically active areas. The country accounts for about 20 percent of the world's earthquakes of magnitude 6 or greater.

South Korea's preparation for psychological warfare, is a "direct declaration of a war" against the North, the general staff of the communist state's military said today in a statement on KCNA. The North's military retaliation may turn Seoul into "a sea of flame," the statement said. The South has already installed loudspeakers in 11 places along the border and is attempting to set up electronic displays, according to the statement.

Tensions have risen on the Korean peninsula since an international panel concluded on May 20 that the North was behind a torpedo attack that sank the Cheonan warship, killing 46 of the South's sailors. South Korea's president Lee Myung Bak has taken the case to the United Nations Security Council, backed by the US and Japan, to seek a resolution condemning North Korea.

The North says the allegations are fabricated and has threatened to retaliate over any punitive action taken against it.

Multiple teams went into the Albert Pike Recreation Area at daylight Saturday and additional crews were expected to boat up and down the Little Missouri River from entry points at the campground itself, Highway 70 and Highway 84. The campers were swept away when heavy rains caused a 20-foot surge in the Little Missouri river over just four hours early Friday morning.

The strong currents destroyed cabins, overturned trailers, ripped pavement from the ground and even lifted and washed a full-size gravel truck into a wooded ditch. At least two dozen people were hospitalized. Authorities had rescued dozens more before suspending their search at nightfall Friday.

To ensure the Israeli bombers pass unmolested, Riyadh has carried out tests to make certain its own jets are not scrambled and missile defence systems not activated. Once the Israelis are through, the kingdom's air defences will return to full alert.

"The Saudis have given their permission for the Israelis to pass over and they will look the other way," said a US defence source in the area. "They have already done tests to make sure their own jets aren't scrambled and no one gets shot down. This has all been done with the agreement of the [US] State Department."

Sources in Saudi Arabia say it is common knowledge within defence circles in the kingdom that an arrangement is in place if Israel decides to launch the raid. Despite the tension between the two governments, they share a mutual loathing of the regime in Tehran and a common fear of Iran's nuclear ambitions. "We all know this. We will let them [the Israelis] through and see nothing," said one.

The four main targets for any raid on Iran would be the uranium enrichment facilities at Natanz and Qom, the gas storage development at Isfahan and the heavy-water reactor at Arak. Secondary targets include the lightwater reactor at Bushehr, which could produce weapons-grade plutonium when complete.

The targets lie as far as 1,400 miles (2,250km) from Israel; the outer limits of their bombers' range, even with aerial refuelling. An open corridor across northern Saudi Arabia would significantly shorten the distance. An airstrike would involve multiple waves of bombers, possibly crossing Jordan, northern Saudi Arabia and Iraq. Aircraft attacking Bushehr, on the Gulf coast, could swing beneath Kuwait to strike from the southwest.

Thousands of ethnic Uzbeks have been fleeing what they say are ethnic Kyrgyz gangs in the southern city of Osh. Almost 1,000 people were also hurt in the worst unrest since President Kurmanbek Bakiyev's overthrow in April. Russia says it does not plan to intervene despite a Kyrgyz request.

And without international assistance there are fears the interim authorities in Kyrgyzstan may struggle to contain the conflict, the BBC's Rayhan Demytrie reports. The south of Kyrgyzstan, an ex-Soviet Central Asian state of 5.5 million people, is home to an ethnic Uzbek minority of almost one million. The latest violence has become the biggest challenge for the new government so far.

A decree from the interim government authorised security forces to shoot to kill in the Osh and Jalalabad regions. Lethal force was permitted in areas placed under a state of emergency in order to defend civilians, in self-defence, and in the event of mass or armed attacks, the decree said.

The report's author spoke to nine Taliban field commanders in Afghanistan earlier this year. He concludes that Pakistan's relationship with the insurgents runs far deeper than previously realised. Some of those interviewed suggested that the ISI even attends meetings of the Taliban's supreme council. They claim that by backing the insurgents Pakistan's security service is trying to undermine Indian influence in Afghanistan.

The report concludes that without a significant change in approach by Pakistan, both the Afghan government and international community will find it impossible to end the insurgency in Afghanistan.

The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center initially issued a warning for the entire Indian Ocean region. The agency later downgraded the warning to India only, before cancelling the alert altogether. "Sea level readings indicate that a significant tsunami was not generated," the Hawaii-based centre said.

No damage was reported in the Andaman and Nicobar islands, although a total blackout sparked panic in the capital, Port Blair, witnesses said. More than 350,000 people live on nearly 600 islands in the remote archipelago. In 2004, a powerful earthquake off Sumatra's coast triggered a tsunami that killed more than 220,000 people around the rim of the Indian Ocean.

Details of the spending - which saw public expenditure rise by 15 per cent over two years - are contained in a vast Treasury database which the Coalition has made public. The first comprehensive analysis, by software firm Rosslyn Analytics for the Daily Mail, shows that even as the economy was spiralling into recession, Labour kept the spending taps on - sanctioning expenditure that ranged from the sublime to the ridiculous.

They show that the department run by former Children's Secretary and Labour leadership hopeful Ed Balls lavished nearly 50 million pounds on programmes for ballet, dance and music in schools. The National Measurements Office, which orders retailers to weigh their goods in kilograms rather than pounds, in line with EU diktats, cost 150 million pounds. Another quango, Natural England, cost 442 million pounds.

The Department for Environment also spent 95 million pounds on an obscure 'National Environment Enjoyment programme'. Initially staff could not say what the money was spent on.

The Electoral Commission, which has been widely criticised for its handling of the election and its failure to prevent postal voting fraud, cost 48 million pounds to run over two years. And while Britain is struggling with a recession, the Labour Government continued to send money abroad.

Around 1.6 billion pounds was given to the European Union to distribute to poor countries, despite the UK already having its own Department for International Development (DfID). A further 1.3 billion pounds was spent on 'reducing poverty in Asia', the continent that has seen the largest surge in economic growth in the past decade.