The US inked civil nuclear power deals with Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates last year. Israel had no official response to the Saudi minister's announcement.

Over the last two years, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Bahrain, Oman, Kuwait, the UAE, Yemen, Morocco, Libya, Jordan and Egypt have all indicated an interest in developing nuclear programs, with Israeli officials saying, off the record, that if these countries did not want the programs now for their military capabilities, they wanted the technology in place to keep "other options open" if Iran were to develop a bomb.

Israel has been careful not to take a public stand on civilian nuclear programs in neighboring states, partly because as one of the few countries in the world that has not signed the Non-Proliferation Treaty, it is not keen on lobbying against nuclear know-how for peaceful needs going to countries that are willing to sign the treaty, since that would focus the limelight on Israel's own unique situation.

The worst affected areas are in the country's semi-arid south-east regions as well as some parts of central Kenya. The World Food Programme (WFP) has described the crisis as a "very difficult situation" and appealed to donor countries to offer funds.

Currently some 2.5 million people are receiving emergency food aid in the country but the effect of the drought has meant that a further 1.3 million now also need help. "People are saying it is the worst drought since 2000," said WFP spokeswoman Gabrielle Menezes. The regions affected normally harvest their crops once a year, planting them in April and collecting in September after the rains. But this year those rains have failed to come.

The Kenyan government was supposed to have built up a sizeable stock of maize but, following allegations of a corruption scandal, it only has enough to last another six weeks, says the BBC's East Africa correspondent, Will Ross. Many subsistence farmers are reported to be abandoning rural areas - where they rely on aid - and moving into already over-congested slums in the towns and cities.

The Scottish government released Abdelbaset Ali al-Megrahi, who is 57 and has terminal cancer, on compassionate grounds. US President Barack Obama said the move was "a mistake", and some relatives of US victims reacted angrily. Most of the 270 people who died in the bombing were Americans. In a radio interview, Mr Obama said: "We have been in contact with the Scottish government, indicating that we objected to this. We thought it was a mistake."

In a statement released after his departure from HMP Greenock, Megrahi continued to protest his innocence. He said: "The remaining days of my life are being lived under the shadow of the wrongness of my conviction. I have been faced with an appalling choice: to risk dying in prison in the hope that my name is cleared posthumously or to return home still carrying the weight of the guilty verdict, which will never now be lifted. The choice which I made is a matter of sorrow, disappointment and anger, which I fear I will never overcome."

Cameron said: "You can get to a level of government debt where, not that it becomes certain that people will cease to lend you the money, but you start running risks of them demanding higher premia, higher interest rates. OR YOU RUN THE RISK OF NOT BEING ABLE TO MEET YOUR OBLIGATIONS." Cameron was careful to qualify his remarks after Labour accused him earlier this year of talking down Britain when he warned that Brown could be the second Labour prime minister forced to apply to the IMF for a loan.

"I have never predicted that is going to happen," he said of his warning that Britain could default. "But as government borrowing goes up and up and up, you start running that risk. You should not be running that risk... I'm not saying it's going to happen, but THE GOVERNMENT, WITH THE LEVELS OF INDEBTEDNESS THEY HAVE, THEY ARE RUNNING THOSE RISKS."

"The most difficult phase for financing is going to be in the first and second quarter of 2010," said Hartmut Schauerte, the economic state secretary. "We are working as a government to create instruments that can offset a feared credit crunch or any credit squeeze in sectors of the economy," he said. Mr Schauerte said firms with weak balance sheets may struggle to roll over loans as they come due in coming months. Negotiations with banks could prove "very difficult".

State support is likely to be concentrated on boosting the capital base of German firms and providing credit insurance for exporters, perhaps to the tune of €250bn to €300bn (£256bn). "If this service fails, we are going to see dozens of credit collapses," he said. Axel Weber, Bundesbank chief and a key figure at the European Central Bank, said over the weekend that THE ECONOMY REMAINED FRAGILE AND FUNDAMENTAL PROBLEMS IN THE CREDIT SYSTEM HAD NOT BEEN RESOLVED.

"I must warn that it is too early to talk about the end of the financial crisis. Unemployment is going to rise as 'Kurzarbeit' expires, and that could hurt consumption," he said, referring to the state scheme that subsidises firms to keep idle workers on their books.

The Irish Times reports that Vote No to Lisbon, formerly the Campaign Against the EU Constitution, yesterday opened its campaign in Dublin in the run up to the second referendum on 2 October. Speaking at the press conference Socialist Party MEP Joe Higgins urged Irish voters to reject the Lisbon Treaty based on its content, rather than a desire to "kick the Government out of office", the Irish Independent reports. Higgins said that it was false "through and through" to portray the Lisbon Treaty as a solution to the economic crisis: "Lisbon is a treaty for decades, not for one or two years and therefore it shapes the Europe we will have to live in."

People Before Profit Alliance Councillor Brid Smith said the 'guarantees' obtained by the Irish government did not change the Lisbon Treaty by "one iota". She said, "WE BELIEVE THAT IRISH VOTERS ARE BEING THREATENED, CAJOLED AND LIED TO."

Writing in the Irish Independent, Irish Foreign Affairs Minister Micheal Martin responds to an article by Bruce Arnold, which argued that the government's recent White Paper on the Lisbon Treaty "IS A FLAWED DOCUMENT, CONTAINING SOME SERIOUS DISTORTION OF FACT. It is unbalanced and heavily politicised, presenting a case that favours the defeated minority in the referendum of last year."

The move is expected to cost the hotel industry about 40 million kroner in lost revenue, calculated by each night in a hotel room costing about 2,000 kroner, reports Business.dk.

Reservations in a number of hotels across Zealand and parts of Skåne in southern Sweden have been cut from 120,000 to 100,000 overnight stays. The two-week conference in December is expected to attract between 12,000 and 15,000 participants.

Earlier, the first hurricane of the 2009 Atlantic season had eased in strength from a Category 4 to a Category 3, and it was churning over the open sea with winds near 120 miles per hour (195 km per hour). The US National Hurricane Center said that at 11 am EDT (1500 GMT), the eye of Hurricane Bill was about 695 miles south-southeast of Bermuda.

Bill did not threaten US oil facilities but was forecast to reach CANADA'S ATLANTIC MARITIME PROVINCES by Sunday.

Of course, the new Israeli government headed by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu repeatedly has declared that a primary foreign policy objective is to prevent Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons capability. That's because, as Corsi points out, ISRAEL IS A "ONE-BOMB STATE" – just one nuclear weapon, even a relatively low-yield bomb of the type the United States dropped on Hiroshima or Nagasaki in World War II, would destroy the modern Jewish state as we know it today.

In press conferences and speeches, Obama has openly acknowledged the US government now believes Iran is pursuing a nuclear weapons program. An Israeli first-strike on Iran's nuclear facilities becomes increasingly likely to the extent Israel feels isolated from the world community and concludes there is no chance the Obama administration will ever be able to induce Iran to stop enriching uranium, regardless of how seriously the president intends to push direct negotiations as a strategy.

"We have already seen two wars launched by Israel against terrorist surrogates financed and supported by Iran: the 2006 war against Hezbollah in Lebanon and the 2008 war against Hamas in the Gaza Strip," says Corsi. "Now, a war between Israel and Iran is on the near horizon, POSSIBLY FATED TO OCCUR BEFORE THE END OF 2009."

In July, the World Health Organization issued a warning that this vaccine-spread virus might extend beyond Africa. So far, 124 Nigerian children have been paralyzed this year — about twice those afflicted in 2008. The polio problem is just the latest challenge to global health authorities trying to convince wary citizens that vaccines can save them from dreaded disease. For years, myths have abounded about vaccines — that they were the Western world's plan to sterilize Africans or give them AIDS. THE SAD POLIO REALITY FUELS MISGUIDED FEARS AND UNDERSCORES THE CHALLENGES AUTHORITIES FACE USING A FLAWED VACCINE.

Nigeria and most other poor nations use an oral polio vaccine because it's cheaper, easier, and protects entire communities. But it is made from a live polio virus — albeit weakened — which carries a small risk of causing polio for every million or so doses given. In even rarer instances, the virus in the vaccine can mutate into a deadlier version that ignites new outbreaks.

In 2007, health experts reported that amid Nigeria's ongoing outbreak of wild polio viruses, 69 children had also been paralyzed in A NEW OUTBREAK CAUSED BY THE MUTATION OF A VACCINE'S VIRUS.

Roundup Ready 2 Yield soybeans will cost farmers an average of $74 an acre in 2010, and original Roundup Ready soybeans will cost $52 an acre, St Louis-based Monsanto said today in presentations on its website. SmartStax corn seeds, developed with Dow Chemical Co, will cost $130 an acre, 17 percent more than the YieldGard triple-stack seeds they will replace.

SmartStax corn seed will be planted on as many as 4 MILLION ACRES IN 2010, its first year on the market, with A POTENTIAL FOR AS MANY AS 65 MILLION ACRES IN THE US eventually, the company said. The new seed boosts yields 5 percent to 10 percent compared with other products, partly by reducing the amount of land that must be planted with conventional corn to 5 percent from 20 percent, Monsanto said.

Pricing for SmartStax is at the high end of expectations, Laurence Alexander, a New York-based analyst at Jefferies & Co, said by telephone. Roundup Ready 2 Yield soybean seeds were planted on 1.5 million acres this year and will be planted on as many as 8 million acres next year in the US with a potential to one day reach 55 million acres, Monsanto said.

One nurse told the magazine: 'I would not be willing to put myself at risk of unknown long-term effects to facilitate a short-term solution.' Another added: 'I have yet to be convinced there is a genuine health risk and it's not just Government propaganda.'

And Chief Nursing Officer Christine Beasley insisted: 'Frontline nurses will be absolutely crucial in the height of a pandemic without them, patient care will suffer and the NHS will be stretched. Getting the vaccine will protect nurses and their patients. That's why we're offering frontline nurses the vaccine as a top priority.' The jab, currently being fast tracked, will not be fully tested before it is administered.

THERE WILL BE NO TESTS AT ALL CARRIED OUT ON CHILDREN UNDER THREE, EVEN THOUGH BABIES AND CHILDREN AT HIGH RISK WILL BE AMONG THE FIRST TO GET THE VACCINE. There are also concerns the jab can cause Guillain Barre Syndrome, which can lead to paralysis and even death.

A confidential letter from the United Kingdom Health Protection Agency was sent to about 600 neurologists alerting them to WATCH FOR AN INCREASE IN GUILLAIN-BARRE SYNDROME (GBS) as a result of the swine flu vaccination. GBS can be fatal as it attacks the nerve lining, causing paralysis and suffocation – as those affected are unable to breath.

The UK Daily Mail reported on the July 29 letter and pointed to a similar US swine flu vaccination used in 1976 when:

"More people died from the vaccination than from swine flu;
500 cases of GBS were detected;
the vaccine may have increased the risk of contracting GBS by eight times;
the vaccine was withdrawn after just 10 weeks when the link with GBS became clear;
The US government was forced to pay out millions of dollars to those affected."

So, instead of giving warnings to the people who'll be vaccinated, SECRET LETTERS WERE SENT TO NEUROLOGISTS TO KEEP TRACK OF THE NUMBER OF HUMAN GUINEA PIGS WHO CONTRACT THE DREADFUL GBS WITHOUT KNOWING THE RISK.

Yesterday's F2A radio program featured Barbara Loe Fisher, the president of the National Vaccine Information Center, who reported there were 470 DEATHS FROM THE SWINE FLU in the United States compared to 36,000 ANNUAL INFLUENZA-RELATED DEATHS from the "regular flu." That's right, the "regular flu" is far more lethal. Yet by calling the "swine flu" a "Public Health Emergency," billions of our tax dollars were spent to rush massive "emergency" vaccinations WHILE THE PHARMACEUTICAL COMPANIES RECEIVE BLANKET IMMUNITY.

But things must be "really bad" in other countries, right? The CDC reported that the United States has the "largest number" of H1N1 cases, noting, "however, most people who have become ill have recovered without requiring medical treatment." In Monday's Financial Times, Dr Richard Halvorsen, author of "The Truth About Vaccines," said: "...in most cases this is a mild virus which needs a few days in bed. I'D QUESTION WHY WE NEED A VACCINE AT ALL."

The ship was found today 300 miles off the West African coast and the crew was safe, BUT A TEAM OF SPECIALISTS IN LOCATING NUCLEAR SUBSTANCES WAS DISPATCHED FROM MOSCOW TO THE SCENE. The possibility that the ship was carrying a lot more than the lumber that it was reported to hold coincided with bin Laden's most recent public claim that he will "soon have a nuclear weapon in my hands."

In a series of developments described as highly unusual the Arctic Sea, a Russian-crewed cargo vessel, vanished some two weeks ago when it passed through the English Channel, one of the busiest shipping lanes in the world. The 4,000-ton ship set sail from the port of Pietarsaari in Western Finland with timber valued at more than $1.3 million, apparently bound for Algeria.

This weekend it has emerged that radiation tests have been carried out at the port of Pietasaari after MI6 and officers of the FSB, the Russian security service, arrived at the harbor. The results of those tests remain a secret. Meanwhile the Russian Navy has dispatched five warships equipped with special equipment – SENSORS THAT CAN LOCATE NUCLEAR MATERIAL – to the Atlantic. The possibility that nuclear material was hidden aboard the Arctic Sea also was heightened by the report that fissionable material disappeared some weeks ago from a nuclear-storage depot in the Ural Mountains in Russia.

UPDATE: DAILY MAIL - Russia has been accused of a cover-up over the cargo ship which vanished last month. One theory is that the Russian secret service was using the freighter to smuggle equipment, possibly nuclear. But it feared that a Western intelligence service had found out, meaning the ship had to be boarded to prevent the equipment falling into Western hands.

Shipping expert Mikhail Voitenko said THE HIJACKING WAS BEYOND THE MEANS OF CRIMINAL GANGS. 'I believe states, state interests, were involved,' he said. The eight suspects were detained by a Russian naval ship without a shot being fired, according to the country's defence minister Anatoly Serdyukov.

Japan and the UK - second and third largest holders of US debt - increased their holdings over the same period. In recent months the US government's budget deficit has widened thanks in part to the Obama administration's costly stimulus plan.

Our correspondent in Shanghai says that China is worried about this, and fears the stimulus efforts will fuel inflation in the US, reducing the value of the dollar. This would then erode the value of the debt China holds in the US currency. In June, China cut its holdings of US securities by about $25bn, a fall of 3.1%.

"China has said it would like to establish an alternative to the US dollar as the world's favoured currency for foreign exchange reserves," said our correspondent. "So far there is no evidence that there is a suitable alternative. But these figures suggest they are exploring ways to diversify their investments where they can."