This GM soy variety now occupies half the cultivated soy area in the Brazilian state of Matto Grosso, and GM crops occupy half of all agricultural fields in the northern part of the state. The Sinop Rural Union of northern Matto Grosso stated recently that after failing to achieve any positive resolutions through meetings with Monstanto, it is preparing to take the company to court. The union objects to the company's practice of carrying out two separate royalties collections for its patented GM seeds.

In part, they object simply to the high prices Monsanto demands upon purchase of its seeds. "In January they charged R$0.45 (US$0.25) per kilo of seed, which is equivalent to 30 percent of the price of each sack," said the union's president, Antonio Galvan. More fundamentally, however, the union objects to Monsanto's practice of carrying out a second royalties collection at the time of harvest.

The company tests all seeds arriving at warehouses to determine whether they are GM or not, then charges royalties to all farmers who bring in GM seeds and have not paid already. Farmers object that this practice does not account for possible contamination at the warehouse, and penalizes farmers whose seeds have been genetically contaminated through cross-pollination with Monsanto's product.

A second farmers group, the Association of Soya and Corn Producers of Matto Grosso, is also suing Monsanto over excessive royalties, and objects that the company pressures farmers to buy only GM seeds.

In comments posted to the People's Bank of China Web site, the central bank's Deputy Governor Hu Xiaolian said using a basket of currencies from the nation's top trading partners would allow the Chinese yuan to better reflect trading fundamentals. "Compared with pegging to a single currency, the exchange-rate regime with reference to a basket of currencies will help adjust exports and imports, current account, and balance of payment in a more effective manner," she said.

China's central bank currently sets a "central parity rate" against the US dollar each day, with that day's trading range confined to 0.5% above or below that level

North Korea will "legitimately counter with their powerful nuclear deterrence the largest-ever nuclear war exercises to be staged by the US and the South Korean puppet forces," the National Defense Commission said, according to the Korean Central News Agency.

The maneuvers, which involve 20 vessels and 200 aircraft from the US and South Korea, pose a threat to the country's sovereignty and security, Ri Tong Il, an official with North Korea's delegation to the Asean Security Forum, told reporters in Hanoi yesterday.

Ri's comments came after North Korean Foreign Minister Pak Ui Chun sat in the same room with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in Hanoi for a security meeting of Asia's largest powers. Clinton condemned North Korea for being "on a campaign of provocative, dangerous behavior," urging Kim Jong Il's regime to change.

Much of the money went on developing and promoting a green-skinned EU superhero called Mr Fruitness designed to persuade children to eat more fruit. Last night critics said such examples of profligacy go to show that the EU should not be insulated from the kind of spending cuts that member states are making.

A spokesman for Open Europe, the Eurosceptic think-tank, said: 'ridiculous spending like this just goes to show that the EU budget contains plenty of fat that can be trimmed away. In these tough economic times, do we really need an EU-funded superhero to tell us that fruit is healthy?'

The website set up to publicise Mr Fruitness - www.fruitness.eu - describes him as 'a superhero with special powers that come from the nutritional substances in fruit - vitamins and others; key components of an intelligent and conscious diet'.

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.