Judge Kevin Dougherty was no pushover as he told one 15-year-old that for every lie the boy told, he would get a year in juvenile detention. By the end, the teen got three years in the system, reports the Inquirer. "You all want to play me and say you went down there shopping," Dougherty told the group of teens, according to the Inquirer. "I'm not believing you."

Dougherty gave the others lesser sentences Monday, which ranged from 30 days in boot camp, to home detention, to time in state juvenile detention centers, in connection with the flash mob of mostly teens that descended on the City Hall area on February 16. Police say teens are using social network sites to spread word of massive gatherings. The latest happened Saturday on South Street.

"The lesson these kids are going to learn today is ... the days of being slapped on the wrist are over," Dougherty said.

A 12-year-old girl was charged shortly after the Friday night attack in southwest Philadelphia. The victim was surrounded by children, then punched and hit with sticks, police said. She suffered minor injuries to her knee and head and delayed seeking medical attention to help police with the investigation. Police also plan to charge the boy in an attack on a 73-year-old man who was beaten and robbed in the same area on March 13, Walker said. The victim in that assault, Vincent Poppa, suffered a heart attack and remains hospitalized.

Investigators believe the assaults are part of a game called "Catch and Wreck," which children in the neighborhood described to them after Friday's attack. Children told police the game involves pinpointing passers-by they think are homeless and then beating and robbing them for fun, Walker said. The woman who was attacked, however, said she is not homeless. "We're just hoping it's isolated and that (these arrests) will quickly bring it to a halt," he said.

The Aipac, a powerful lobby group, recently rebuked the Obama administration for its criticism of Israel over the proposed expansion of a Jewish settlement in occupied East Jerusalem. But Mrs Clinton argued that Washington's concern for Israel's ultimate security had led to the clash with Mr Netanyahu. In remarks that earned her one of several standing ovations from an audience of 7,500, she said: "Our commitment to Israel's security and Israel's future is rock solid, unwavering, enduring and forever."

But she received a more guarded response when she outlined the administration's reasoning behind its push for a peace agreement between Israel and the Palestinians. "The conflict with the Palestinians and with Israel's Arab neighbours ... threatens Israel's long-term future as a secure and democratic Jewish state," she said.

Mrs Clinton referred to the "belief among many" that better security and fewer suicide bombings in Israel meant "the status quo can be sustained". But "the dynamics of demography, ideology, and technology make this impossible". The ever-evolving technology of war was making it harder to guarantee Israel's security, she added. "For six decades Israelis have guarded their borders vigilantly. But advances in rocket technology mean that Israeli families are now at risk far from those borders."

The U-turn on the controversial environmental tax come two days after the governing UMP party of President Nicolas Sarkozy suffered a heavy defeat in regional elections. Senior UMP politicians have blamed the defeat in part on the proposed tax, which was due to come into effect on July.

Francois Fillon, prime minister, told a meeting of centre-right parliamentarians that France would not penalise its industry by introducing the tax unilaterally. "All decisions taken on the issue of sustainable development must be analysed in the light of our competitiveness," Mr Fillon told the deputies. "We want the decisions to be taken in common with other European countries otherwise we are going to see a growing shortfall in our competitiveness."

Since an EU-wide carbon tax is unlikely to gain approval in months ahead, if at all - the Swedish government pushed the idea with little success during its EU presidency last year - the French levy has, in effect, been shelved.

Rotarix, made by GlaxoSmithKline, was approved by the FDA in 2008. The contaminant material is DNA from porcine circovirus 1, a virus from pigs that is not known to cause disease in humans or animals, Hamburg said. About 1 million children in the United States and about 30 million worldwide have gotten Rotarix vaccine, she said.

The FDA learned about the contamination after an academic research team using a novel technique to look for viruses in a range of vaccines found the material in GlaxoSmithKline's product and told the company, Hamburg said. The drug maker confirmed its presence in both the cell bank and the seed from which the vaccine is derived, suggesting its presence from the early stages of vaccine development, she said. The FDA then confirmed the drug maker's findings.

GlaxoSmithKline emphasized Monday that the pig virus is not known to cause illness in humans, saying "it is found in everyday meat products and is frequently eaten with no resulting disease or illness." A similar virus, porcine circovirus 2, also does not cause disease in humans, but it does cause disease in its pig host, Hamburg said.

Legislation for England and Wales, which also covers other places of worship, is part of the Equality Bill. Supporters say ministers would not have to act against their conscience. Lord Carey's letter was prompted by Labour peer Lord Alli's amendment to the bill to allow civil partnerships on religious premises. The legislation had its third reading in the House of Lords on Tuesday and it will now go back to the Commons for final approval.

In his letter, Lord Carey says: "How long will it be before church ministers are threatened with legal proceedings if they perform marriages between a man and a woman, but not civil partnerships?"

Lord Carey's intervention is not the first time he has spoken on the subject of civil partnerships. This time, he is being supported by groups such as Christian Concern for our Nation, which on Tuesday handed in a 6,000 protest petition to the Equalities minister Harriet Harman. It calls on the government to vote down the amendment because it threatens religious freedom.

BBC Middle East editor Jeremy Bowen said the person to be expelled is likely to be the London head of Israel's secret service, Mossad. Diplomatic sources stressed the British government has stopped short of accusing Israel of the murder. However Mr Miliband had demanded that Israel co-operate fully with the investigation into how the passports were obtained. The foreign secretary is to make the statement after Britain's Serious Organised Crime Agency found proof of the cloned passports.

The BBC's Jeremy Bowen said the expulsion would send a "very clear message" of British disapproval. "It is a very big step for a government like the British to expel one of the diplomats belonging to one of its important allies," he said.

This might well be one of those bumps in the road that have dogged British-Israeli relations for decades, going back even beyond the founding of the State of Israel in 1948. It has rarely been an easy relationship and has been marked by contradictions, resentment and touchiness on both sides.

The Europeans try to balance their support for Israel as a state with their sympathy for the Palestinians as a people. They also have to be mindful of their relationship with the Arab world as a whole.

Results of the survey point to clear support for Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and criticism of the Obama administration's reaction to Israel's plans to continue building for Jews in a united Jerusalem that the United States and the international community refuse to recognize as being under Israeli sovereignty.

Nearly two-thirds said they support Prime Minister Netanyahu's decision to continue to build in all of Jerusalem, while only 26 percent oppose it even though the majority also expressed the opinion that it will lead to more pressure from the United States.

And her stand attracted a furious response from gay rights campaigners. Last night the Wilkinsons, who are in their 50s, were under siege from abusive phone calls, text messages and emails. Among the messages was a threat to burn down their home in the quiet village of Cookham, Berkshire. She insisted she was not homophobic and would have offered two single rooms, but the guest house was fully booked. Her husband Francis, a former City worker, said it was a question of living by their faith. 'We live according to our values and our Christian beliefs. We are not homophobic,' he said.

But he said he was horrified by the abuse they had received, with 'an email a minute' and so many text messages and calls the couple had been forced to switch off their phones. 'There must have been 900 emails, and I would say half of them are really abusive and threatening,' he said. 'I'm really saddened that so many people have articulated themselves in such a foul way.' He said attempts had been made to have their website taken down, and many messages were so similar he suspected an organised campaign.

Swiss-born Mrs Wilkinson, a former air hostess, said: 'People just take it for granted that their lifestyle will be accepted wherever they go. If they had gone to a hotel I think it would probably be different, but this is my house, we live here with our children - it's our home that's the difference.'

Mr Morgan said he and Mr Black, who live together in Brampton, Cambridgeshire, were considering suing not for money but 'for a principle'.

He added: 'She believes that her convictions are based on her Christian views - well all I can say is that it is very unfortunate that her views come into conflict with the law.' Mr Black said he was horrified by Mrs Wilkinson's 'outdated and abhorrent views'.

The planned 6.5 per cent rise in 2011 breaks a 22 year old promise by the parliament that the cost of MEPs would never add up to more than a fifth of the EU's total administrative budget. The development has drawn an angry reaction from British officials, who are to demand the budget be cut when it is discussed by national governments.

"At a time when governments and public sector organisations across the EU are cutting their spending and when our citizens are losing their jobs, it's impossible to understand why MEPs think they should get to spend more," said a British diplomat. "It does nothing to counter the unfair image that MEPs are just riding the gravy train to Brussels and I hope that they will see sense before they adopt their final 2011 budget estimates - this isn't the moment to fatten up allowances."

Draft budget estimates for next year, seen by The Daily Telegraph, will take the full annual bill for an individual Member of the European Parliament to 2,150,000 pounds, more than four times the cost of a Westminster MP. Marta Andreasen, a Ukip MEP and member of the parliament's budgetary control committee, attacked Brussels "hypocrisy" at a time when the European Union is urging governments to implement cuts to national budgets.

"The European institutions are preaching economy for all except themselves. In difficult financial times, European taxpayers are expected to dig even deeper to finance vanity projects, private cars and more junkets. How much more gravy does Europe want on the gravy train?," she said. The spending allowance for MEP staffing will rise to almost 220,000 pounds, a provision that costs 11.8 million pounds. The figure increased even though MEPs were forced to pay back over 3 million pounds in "unduly paid" claims. Controversial "brown envelope" cash payments, handed out without receipts, to groups visiting the parliament will increase to 26 million pounds, a rise of 4.6 million pounds.

It is feared that terrorists could transport an improvised nuclear device up the Thames and detonate it in the heart of London. Bristol, Liverpool, Newcastle, Glasgow and Belfast are also thought to be vulnerable.

Lord West, the Security Minister, also raised the possibility of terrorists using small craft to enter ports and launch an attack similar to that in Mumbai in 2008, when more than 150 people were killed.

The Government is so concerned about the threat that it is setting up a command centre to track suspicious boats. The terrorism threat level was raised from "substantial" to "severe" in January after the failed attempt to blow up an aircraft over Detroit on Christmas Day. Three separate reviews of the country's ability to prevent a major terrorist attack were published simultaneously yesterday, before an international meeting on nuclear security in Washington next month.

Downing Street released an update to the National Security Strategy in which it stated that "the UK does face nuclear threats now" and added that there was "the possibility that nuclear weapons or nuclear material [could] fall into the hands of rogue states or terrorist groups". The International Atomic Energy Authority recorded 1,562 incidents where nuclear material was lost or stolen between 1993 and 2008, mostly in the former Soviet Union, and 65 per cent of the losses were never recovered.

The decision comes amid heightened tensions between Beijing and Washington over a range of issues, from Internet freedom to the yuan exchange rate, economic sanctions on Iran and US weapons sales to Taiwan. "Google has violated the written promise it made on entering the Chinese market," said an unnamed official from China's State Council Information Office, which helps oversee Internet rules, according to the Xinhua news agency.

"It is totally wrong in halting (censorship) filtering of its search provider," said the official. "We firmly oppose politicizing commercial issues, and express our dissatisfaction and anger at Google Inc's unreasonable accusations and practices," said the official. Google said on January 12 it would no longer censor its China-based Google.cn search portal and was also alarmed by hacking attacks from within China.

Google acted on that threat, throwing the burden on Beijing to apply its own censorship filters to keep Chinese users from seeing banned images and words when rerouted to the company's Hong Kong site, google.com.hk.

The storms are a product of worsening desertification in Inner Mongolia and other Gobi Desert regions hundreds of miles to the north and west of Beijing caused by overgrazing, deforestation, drought and urban sprawl. Strong winds pick up the loose dust and dirt, mixing them with industrial pollution.

Beijing's air quality index was set at Level 4, one grade better than the most serious Level 5 that was reached Saturday as the mixture of sand, dust and pollution blasted the capital. City meteorologists said conditions would improve, but warned the sand would linger through midweek. Record pollution levels were registered in Hong Kong, 1,240 miles (2,000 kilometers) to the south, partly due to the storms. Schools were advised to cancel outdoor activities and at least 20 elderly people sought medical assistance for shortness of breath, Hong Kong's radio RTHK reported.

Across the 100 mile-(160-kilometer)-wide Taiwan Strait, island residents covered their mouths to avoid breathing in the grit that can cause chest discomfort and respiratory problems even in healthy people. Sand covered cars in just 10 minutes and some flights were canceled due to poor visibility caused by the sandstorm. Grit from Chinese sandstorms has been found to travel as far as the western United States.

In the past decade, Beijing has sought to counter the effects of desertification by planting grasses and billions of trees to hold back the desert, mostly to no avail. Along with bringing pollution, the storms underscore a looming water crisis in the north that the government is seeking to head off with a massive project to pump water from the south.

Earlier, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton told the meeting Israel should make "difficult choices" for peace. She said the continued expansion of Jewish settlements in Palestinian occupied territory undermined the US role in the peace process.

The Palestinian Authority is furious at Israel's insistence on building on occupied territory. It sees it as a serious stumbling block to the resumption of talks, which have been stalled for more than a year. Some 500,000 Jews live in more than 100 settlements built since Israel's 1967 occupation of the West Bank and East Jerusalem. They are considered illegal under international law, which Israel disputes.

The country's largest research agency, AC Nielson, estimates that figure will rise to about 25% this year - and the market to be worth an estimated $432 million, an all-time high. With the Indian middle class expected to increase 10-fold to 583 million people by 2025, it looks as if things will only get better. The implicit assumption by many is this: the whiter the skin, the more attractive you are.

Experts say that demand has boomed because of the tendency to discriminate against a person's skin colour, a practice which is still wide across rural India. "But if your complexion is fair, you avoid that pinch. Everyone in India wants to be fairer. At times it is repulsive, worse than chalking of geishas' faces in Japan but everyone wants to have a jar or tube of skin-whitening cream," says fashion designer Rohit Bal who has dressed Bollywood actresses and visited the sets of reality shows.

As a result, the products - priced between 50 cents and $150 a jar/tube - are in great demand countrywide. No study has ever been done to discover what "fairness in four weeks" achieves. Worse, there are several controversies attached to such products. "If you apply anything on the skin, there will obviously be side effects," says Rues VK Sharma, Head of the Dermatology Department at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences. "Very few know that many of these creams contain steroids. Whatever doctors say will always be a drop in the ocean, as advertisements flooding the market have a far larger impact on the minds of people."