In fact, scientists writing in the open access journal BMC Biology don't just say that more studies should be done to confirm DEET's potential neurotoxicity to humans. The researchers are calling for more investigations of the chemical to be conducted on an urgent basis. The reason? THEY SUSPECT THAT THE POTENTIAL BRAIN CELL DAMAGING EFFECTS OF DEET COULD BE PARTICULARLY HARMFUL IF USED IN COMBINATION WITH OTHER NEUROTOXIC INSECTICIDES. And that's exactly the way DEET is normally used in products applied to both adults and kids in order to prevent mosquito bites.

French scientists Vincent Corbel from the Institut de Recherche pour le Development in Montpellier and Bruno Lapied from the University of Angers headed a team of researchers who studied the mode of action and toxicity of DEET, also known by the chemical name N,N-Diethyl-3-methylbenzamide. "We've found that DEET is not simply a behaviour-modifying chemical but also INHIBITS THE ACTIVITY OF A KEY CENTRAL NERVOUS SYSTEM ENZYME, ACETYCHOLINESTERASE, in both insects and mammals," Corbel said in a statement to the media.

DEET has been in use since its discovery in l953 and is now the most common ingredient found in insect repellent preparations. It is primarily hyped as a way to keep mosquitoes at bay and doctors and insect repellent manufacturers promote DEET's use through scare tactics, suggesting you are likely to get West Nile fever from mosquito bites unless you use the chemical.

Another study published earlier this summer in the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry, a peer-reviewed journal of the American Chemical Society, showed that a natural substance, cinnamon oil, shows promise as a great-smelling, environmentally friendly pesticide, with the ability to kill mosquito larvae. Historically, cinnamon oil has been used by natural health practitioners and traditional healers to repel mosquitoes and prevent their bites.

Russia's Kommersant daily cited a senior Kremlin source. The revelation appeared to support maritime and military experts who have claimed THE SHIP WAS CARRYING S-300 ANTI-AIRCRAFT MISSILES FOR IRAN, that Mossad, the Israeli intelligence agency, found out, and that the Kremlin was given time and space to stop the delivery and cover it up in order to save face.

Russia's foreign minister has publicly and fiercely denied those allegations, pledging a full investigation into the affair, while Russian investigators say they have found nothing on board the ship except the official cargo of timber worth just over one million pounds. The vessel went missing for almost three weeks in July and August and, according to the official Kremlin version of events, was the victim of what would be the first case of piracy in European waters in the modern era.

But the Kremlin's storyline has failed to convince a European piracy official, an outspoken Russian journalist, and a growing number of so far anonymous political, military and intelligence sources in both Russia and Israel.

Orange County Sheriff's Deputy Ramona Figueroa says nothing surprises her any more but the job is getting worse, and she hopes the downward slide doesn't last too much longer. One common task these days is SERVING EVICTION NOTICES TO PEOPLE WHO HAVE DONE NOTHING WRONG - who rent properties that have fallen into foreclosure, or are repossessed to recover unpaid debts.

"They are shocked and surprised," Figueroa said as she went on her rounds. "And here I am giving them a five-day notice and they explain that just five days earlier the homeowner was at the home collecting rent." With 17,000 HOMES GOING INTO FORECLOSURE IN THIS SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA COUNTY in the first half of 2009, Figueroa has found her caseload in the last year getting heavier and harder to bear.

California is one of the places hardest hit by foreclosures as hundreds of thousands defaulted on the subprime loans that fueled a buying frenzy. But in the year since the collapse of Lehman Brothers, the number of prime borrowers who are overdue or in foreclosure has also skyrocketed to one in 10. "When I first started enforcing court orders, I'd see one foreclosure every four or five years, and now I see a foreclosure every day," said Figueroa, a 25-year veteran of law enforcement.

The White House's decision to disclose the remarks was an embarrassing blow for Mr Brown. Only minutes earlier Downing Street officials had issued a statement which failed to mention that President Obama had voiced dismay at the mass murderer's release. Instead, Number 10 said the phone call was 'warm and substantive', and insisted that the historic 'special relationship' between London and Washington was 'as strong as ever'.

Mr Brown's omission fuelled criticism that he has misled the public about the extent of the Government's secret involvement with Libya over Megrahi's release. Megrahi was released from his Scottish jail cell last month - just eight years into a life sentence for the bombing. But Labour has faced allegations that it included Megrahi in a contentious prisoner transfer deal thrashed out with Tripoli in 2007 TO PROTECT A £15BILLION OIL DEAL SIGNED BY BP.

Tory foreign affairs spokesman William Hague said: 'President Obama is right to express his disappointment at the release of Megrahi. The decision has caused outrage that has crossed continents and damaged our relationship with our closest ally.' US media outlets accused Mr Brown of being 'cowardly, unprincipled, amoral and duplicitous' in his refusal to intervene over Megrahi.

YET, THE EPISODE REVEALS THE POISONED CHARACTER OF OUR POLITICS. We saw it earlier on display in August, when the crowds that came out for town hall meetings to oppose Obama's health-care plans were called "thugs," "fascists," "racists" and "evil-mongers" by national Democrats. We see it as Representative Joe Wilson shouts, "You lie!" at the President during his address to a joint session of Congress.

WE SEEM NOT ONLY TO DISAGREE WITH EACH OTHER MORE THAN EVER, BUT TO HAVE COME ALMOST TO DETEST ONE ANOTHER. Politically, culturally, racially, we seem ever ready to go for each others' throats. One half of America sees abortion as the annual slaughter of a million unborn. The other half regards the right-to-life movement as tyrannical and sexist. Proponents of gay marriage see its adversaries as homophobic bigots. Opponents see its champions as seeking to elevate unnatural and immoral relationships to the sacred state of traditional marriage.

The question invites itself. IN WHAT SENSE ARE WE ONE NATION AND ONE PEOPLE ANYMORE? For what is a nation if not a people of a common ancestry, faith, culture and language, who worship the same God, revere the same heroes, cherish the same history, celebrate the same holidays and share the same music, poetry, art and literature? Yet, today, Mexican-Americans celebrate Cinco de Mayo, a skirmish in a French-Mexican war about which most Americans know nothing, which took place the same year as two of the bloodiest battles of our own Civil War: Antietam and Fredericksburg.

Christmas and Easter, the great holidays of Christendom, once united Americans in joy. Now we fight over whether they should even be mentioned, let alone celebrated, in our public schools. One part of America loves her history, another reviles it as racist, imperialist and genocidal. Old heroes like Columbus, Stonewall Jackson and Robert E Lee are replaced by Dr King and Cesar Chavez.

THE EUROPEAN-CHRISTIAN CORE OF THE COUNTRY THAT ONCE DEFINED US IS SHRINKING, AS CHRISTIANITY FADES, THE BIRTH RATE FALLS AND THIRD WORLD IMMIGRATION SURGES. Globalism dissolves the economic bonds, while the cacophony of multiculturalism displaces the old American culture.

"E pluribus unum" – out of many, one - was the national motto the men of '76 settled upon. One sees the pluribus. But where is the unum? ONE SEES THE DIVERSITY. BUT WHERE IS THE UNITY? IS AMERICA, TOO, BREAKING UP?

Foreign sales were banned by a 1998 law aimed at protecting the "stealth" technology and other high-tech features said to have made the F-22 too good for money to buy. If enacted, the measure adopted by the Senate Appropriations Committee would let the Defense Department prepare a modified F-22 that protects classified and sensitive information, technologies and US war fighting capabilities.

Creating an export version would preserve US jobs and an option to buy more F-22s later, without having to pay the full cost of restarting production. The US Air Force has estimated Japan would have to spend as much as $2.3 billion for development of its own version of the Raptor. For years, Tokyo has sought to buy two squadrons of the F-22, possibly 40 planes, a request that has become more compelling amid tensions with neighboring North Korea.

They face punishment and a criminal record if they have not been vetted first by a massive new government agency. AN ASTONISHING 11.3MILLION PEOPLE - ONE ADULT IN FOUR - ARE LIKELY TO COME UNDER THE WATCHFUL EYE OF THE INDEPENDENT SAFEGUARDING AUTHORITY. Launched next month, it will be the biggest vetting and clearing system in the world. Every person who comes into regular contact with children or the elderly, through work or volunteering, must be approved by ISA officials checking for criminal convictions, disciplinary action and even unproven allegations.

It goes way beyond the current Criminal Records Bureau system, which covers only 6million people. For the first time, 300,000 school governors, dinner ladies and parents who visit schools or nurseries to read to children will be involved. It will even apply to parents who, at the request of organisations like junior football teams or the Guides, give their children's friends lifts to or from events. If they do so without first being vetted by the ISA's 200 staff, they could be fined up to £5,000 and given a criminal record.

The clubs themselves will face a £5,000 fine - potentially enough to ruin them. Parents who host foreign pupils on school exchange trips will also have to be vetted. MPs and academics fear the change will have disastrous consequences. Shadow home secretary Chris Grayling said: 'We are going to drive away volunteers, we'll see clubs and activities close down and we'll end up with more bored young people on our streets.' Liberal Democrat spokesman Chris Huhne said: 'We are in danger of creating a world in which we think every adult who approaches children means to do them harm.'

Registering with the ISA will cost £64 in England and Wales, although unpaid volunteers will be exempt. Those whose jobs involve mandatory enhanced CRB checks will continue to undergo them. An enhanced CRB check costs £36, which means that, on top of the £64 ISA fee, being cleared to work with children could cost £100.

The damning report prepared for the Government, which confirms allegations first revealed at the National Union of Teachers conference in April, says the inexperienced staff regularly teach classes for weeks at a time, putting children's education at risk.

The pattern emerged in a 538-page evaluation of the Government's flagship reforms to teachers' working hours. In response to lobbying from unions, ministers introduced laws to limit their workloads six years ago. But the research team at London Metropolitan University - which surveyed 1,800 headteachers, 3,200 teachers and 2,400 support staff - found 80 per cent of state schools were forced to use unqualified support staff to cover lessons when teachers were absent.

Teachers were also concerned. One told the researchers: 'I feel it's cheap labour.' Some headteachers admitted their use of support staff 'was driven largely by budgetary concerns'. A separate study last week found pupils who spent too long with untrained staff fell behind in class. 'In the end it is the teacher that makes the critical difference. Every child should have the right to a qualified teacher.'

In Scotland alone, one fifth of the main network has been identified as at risk of landslides, with extreme storm rainfall predicted to increase by between 10 and 30 per cent by the 2080s. On Monday, in Argyll, part of a mountainside supersaturated with rain collapsed on to a trunk road, effectively cutting off a vast swath of the county. Exactly the same thing happened, on the same stretch of road, in 2004 and 2007. It will take diggers weeks, possibly months, to stabilise the hillside and clear the road.

Everywhere you go, there is the stink of rot. Timbers are swollen; doors stick; the ground, so engorged it can absorb no more, heaves beneath your feet. Toads claw at night at the back door, looking, I fear, for somewhere dry to go. Small creatures are drowning and dying. Those that can fly away have done so: the eaves are empty, the normally prolific swallows having disappeared weeks before their normal time. Fruit is dropping, half formed and rotting, on to lawns too wet to walk across, let alone cut.

FARMING IS DEVASTATED. With DAIRY COWS ALREADY HOUSED INSIDE, TWO MONTHS EARLIER THAN USUAL, and THOUSANDS OF POUNDS WORTH OF HAY AND GRAIN LYING ROTTING IN SODDEN FIELDS — unreachable, even if it stopped raining, by mechanical means — many farmers are desperate. In Cumbria the ground will be too soft to bear the weight of a combine harvester any time between now and Christmas.

Some pupils from the poorest areas arrive at school UNABLE TO DRESS THEMSELVES OR USE A KNIFE AND FORK, WITH SOME EVEN UNABLE TO USE A TOILET PROPERLY, she said. Lesley Ward, president of the 160,000-strong Association of Teachers and Lecturers, warned that many children were also being relied upon to raise younger brothers and sisters and lacked stable father figures in the home.

In a speech last night, Mrs Ward, a primary school teacher from Doncaster, said Labour had "tried hard on this issue" but had failed to fill the vacuum left by the death of the mining and manufacturing industries in many working-class communities. She said it meant a "small, significant and growing minority" of children were being raised in families with low expectations and a level of poverty "mirroring the times of Dickens".

It was "next to impossible", she added, for schools to counter the effect of serious deprivation, family breakdown and a lack of parenting skills in many communities. Her comments follow the publication of figures showing nearly three million children still live below the poverty line in Britain. Ministers have admitted there is little chance of hitting their target to halve child poverty by 2011. It also comes amid fears that children's education chances are still too strongly linked to family background.

Secret British government documents to be published on Friday reveal the deep anxieties felt by Margaret Thatcher and François Mitterrand, the French president, following the fall of the wall. The documents, published by the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, show that Mr Mitterrand privately warned Lady Thatcher that A REUNITED GERMANY MIGHT "MAKE EVEN MORE GROUND THAN HAD HITLER".

They also show that in January 1990, weeks after the fall of the Berlin Wall, Mr Mitterrand warned Lady Thatcher that the prospect of REUNIFICATION WAS TURNING THE GERMANS INTO THE "BAD" PEOPLE THEY USED TO BE. Mrs Thatcher's deep-seated opposition to reunification, and her disagreement with the Foreign & Commonwealth Office over the issue, also emerges in the 500 published papers.

The Government's decision to publish the papers, ahead of Germany's 20th anniversary celebrations of the fall of the wall, will be seen as an attempt to show that officials were positive about reunification early on, despite Lady Thatcher's personal concerns.

8 February 2007: HSBC WARNS OF SUBPRIME LOSSES - HSBC reveals huge losses at its US mortgage arm Household Finance due to subprime losses, in one of the first signs that the US housing market is turning sour

2 April 2007: NEW CENTURY GOES BUST - New Century Financial, a leading subprime lender, files for bankruptcy. It is the first signal that something is seriously amiss at US mortgage lenders.

9 August 2007: CREDIT MARKETS FREEZE - Credit markets go into freefall after Paribas announces that two of its hedge funds are frozen due to "complete evaporation of liquidity" in asset backed security market.

14 September 2007: RUN ON THE ROCK - Savers in beleaguered UK former building society Northern Rock begin withdrawing their savings after the BBC reveals the bank has received emergency financial support from the Bank of England.

17 March 2008: BEAR STEARNS RESCUE - US investment bank Bear Stearns is rescued by rival bank JP Morgan Chase after the US government provides a $30bn guarantee against its mounting losses.

7 September 2008: FANNIE MAE RESCUE - US government rescues giant mortgage lenders Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, taking them into temporary public ownership after they reveal huge losses on the US subprime mortgage market.

15 September 2008: LEHMAN BROTHERS GOES BANKRUPT - US investment bank Lehman Brothers goes bankrupt after the US government refuses to bail it out. Merrill Lynch is bought by Bank of America after revealing it also is facing huge losses. Insurance firm AIG, which issued credit guarantees for subprime mortgages, is rescued the next day with an $85bn loan from US Treasury.

17 September 2008: LLOYDS TAKES OVER HBOS - Lloyds agrees a £12.2bn takeover of the ailing Halifax Bank of Scotland (HBOS), the UK's largest mortgage lender, after its shares plummet amid concerns over the firm's future.

3 October 2008: $700BN BAILOUT APPROVED BY CONGRESS - The biggest financial rescue in US history is approved after a gruelling debate in Congress, and initial defeat a week earlier.

13 October 2008: UK GOVERNMENT RESCUES RBS AND LLOYDS-HBOS - Two of the UK's major banks, RBS and HBOS, are in major trouble as financial markets collapse.

16 December 2008: FED CUTS KEY RATE TO NEAR ZERO - The US central bank cuts its interest rate to 0-0.25% in an attempt to stem the deepening recession, and begins to consider a programme of quantitative easing to throw money into the economy to help make borrowing easier.

14 February 2009: US CONGRESS PASSES $787BN STIMULUS - President Obama wins his first major victory in Congress as it passes a huge economic recovery plan aimed at preventing the US falling into recession as a result of the credit crunch.

2 April 2009: G20 SUMMIT IN LONDON - World leaders pledge an additional $1.1 trillion to help emerging market countries and promise coordinated action to fight the slump and improve regulation.

22 April 2009: UK BUDGET REVEALS HUGE DEFICIT - The UK Chancellor Alistair Darling reveals that the credit crunch will lead to the largest budget deficit in UK financial history of £175bn, with total government debt set to double to £1 trillion by 2014.

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According to analysts with the Institute of Terrorism Research and Response (ITRR), a recently intercepted jihadist communication declares that "EVERYONE KNOWS" THAT THE "NEXT STRIKE IS VERY NEAR, A STRIKE THAT WILL SURPRISE EVERYONE IN ITS EFFECT, WHICH WILL BE MUCH MORE SHOCKING THAN THAT OF 9/11/2001." The writer of the chilling message notes that this is the Muslim month of Ramadan and that "we pray that it will indeed be in this month."

After referring to a previous boast by Osama Bin-Laden, that the enemy is afraid and unable to prevent the next attack, the communication says: "And the Germans, grandchildren of the Nazis, know more than everyone else that they will be the first ones to taste [the nightmare]. IT IS JUST A MATTER OF TIME - THAT IS, DAYS OR WEEKS - and God willing you'll see things that you've never heard of before."

While Germany and German assets have been singled out in the past, due to that nation's involvement in the war in Afghanistan, the threats have been general and motivational in nature. According to ITRR, the LATEST JIHADIST COMMUNICATION WAS UNUSUAL IN THAT IT WAS VERY EXPLICIT and open in targeting the Germans, in discussing a coming attack, and in specifying its timing. ASIDE FROM RAMADAN, WHICH ENDS 19 SEPTEMBER 2009, the upcoming GERMAN NATIONAL ELECTION ON SEPTEMBER 27 has been marked as a "red flag date" by ITRR. Jihadists keen on disrupting and influencing European foreign policy are likely to attempt attacks around the time of the elections.

German security services have also been cited in local media discussing STEPPED UP JIHADIST CHATTER, threats and intelligence warnings aimed at the German state in recent months. Earlier this year, video messages delivered in German by an al-Qaeda fighter going by the name of Abu Talha, purportedly in Afghanistan, CALLED ON GERMANS TO CONVERT TO ISLAM and remove their several thousand troops from the Afghan theatre. According to a June report by Der Spiegel weekly, AMERICAN INTELLIGENCE AGENCIES BELIEVE THAT AL-QAEDA'S LEADERS HAVE DECIDED TO ATTACK GERMANY, supposedly assigning the job to al-Qaeda of the Islamic Maghreb (North Africa).

"They [financial crises] are all different, but they have one fundamental source," he said. "That is the unquenchable capability of human beings when confronted with long periods of prosperity to presume that it will continue." Speaking a year after the collapse of US investment bank Lehman Brothers, which was followed by a worldwide financial crisis and global recession, Mr Greenspan described the behaviour as "HUMAN NATURE".

Blamed by some for not doing more to prevent the crisis, Mr Greenspan denied any responsibility for the problems gripping the global economy. "It's human nature, unless somebody can find a way to change human nature, we will have more crises and none of them will look like this BECAUSE NO TWO CRISES HAVE ANYTHING IN COMMON, EXCEPT HUMAN NATURE."

The article notes, "no one speaks openly about the preparations while the outcome on Ireland is uncertain. But the timeframe is tight. Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt wants the [EU Foreign Minister] and a new 'EU-President' to be appointed at a Council meeting in Brussels on 29 October. At the same time, a decision will be taken on the format of the new EU Diplomatic Service."

"Sweden is therefore now WORKING DISCREETLY but intensely to draw up the plans for the [EU Foreign Minister]. In fact, it's working on it so intensely that experienced observers express surprise over how much effort Sweden is putting into this."

The article also notes that the Foreign Minister will have his or her own headquarters, where the Diplomatic Service will be built, while the Foreign Minister will also be in charge of "EU embassies" around the world. It's also noted that important aspects of the EU's aid and enlargement policies will fall under the scope of the EU Foreign Ministry, while it's unclear to what extent it will have a mandate over the bloc's trade policy.