The new speaker, Ali Larijani, who resigned as the country's nuclear negotiator in October over differences with Ahmadinejad, is a conservative and an ardent advocate of the Iranian nuclear program but is seen as more pragmatic in his approach and perhaps willing to engage in diplomacy with the West. THE POST OF SPEAKER IS NORMALLY A POWERFUL ONE IN IRANIAN POLITICS, and Larijani's elevation also suggests that the new Parliament will be much more likely than the last one to challenge Ahmadinejad, who is up for re-election in June 2009.

In his first speech Wednesday as speaker, Larijani, who won by a vote of 232-31, said one of Parliament's top priorities would be to strengthen the economy. HIS LOPSIDED VICTORY APPEARED TO BE A REBUKE OF AHMADINEJAD, who has faced growing dissatisfaction over grinding inflation and fresh memories of rolling blackouts last winter that left people without electricity and heat for hours at a time - even as the nation's oil revenues were soaring. The economic problems have apparently deepened tensions between Ahmadinejad and the religious establishment he ultimately answers to, in what seems to be A COLLECTIVE RETHINKING OF HIS STEWARDSHIP.

In Washington, a senior administration official said that THE REAL DECISION MAKER IN IRAN WAS STILL AYATOLLAH ALI KHAMENEI, the country's supreme religious leader.

The decree was written by the Vatican's Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith and published in the Vatican newspaper L'Osservatore Romano, giving it immediate effect. A Vatican spokesman said the decree made THE CHURCH'S EXISTING BAN ON WOMEN PRIESTS MORE EXPLICIT BY CLARIFYING THAT EXCOMMUNICATION WOULD FOLLOW ALL SUCH ORDINATIONS. Excommunication forbids those affected from receiving the sacraments or sharing in acts of public worship.

Rev. Tom Reese, a senior fellow at the Woodstock Theological Center at Georgetown University, said he thought the decree was meant to send a warning to the growing number of Catholics who favor admitting women to the priesthood. "I think the reason they're doing this is that they've realized there is more and more support among Catholics for ordaining women, and they want to make clear that this is a no-no," Reese said.

THE CHURCH SAYS IT CANNOT CHANGE THE RULES BANNING WOMEN FROM THE PRIESTHOOD BECAUSE CHRIST CHOSE ONLY MEN AS HIS APOSTLES. Church law states that only a baptized male can be made a priest. Proponents of women's ordination say Christ was only acting according to the social norms of his time.

The US Geological Survey said the earthquake struck at 1546 GMT at a shallow 6.2 miles (10 km). "It was close to the town of Selfoss and there is apparently, according to the preliminary news, considerable damage in that town," he said. "Iceland is sitting on a plate boundary where the North America and Eurasian plates are drifting apart. So it's a country of volcanoes and earthquakes and so earthquakes are common but large earthquakes are relatively rare," he added.

Iceland, which has a population of about 300,000, is a geologically unstable volcanic island in the north Atlantic. A spokesman for Iceland's Institute of Earth Sciences said the country had been expecting further quakes after a series of tremors in the same area in 2000.

Mr Blair, who is now A PEACE ENVOY TO THE MIDDLE EAST, told Time Magazine that religious belief had given him "strength" while in power. He is launching a "faith foundation" in New York on Friday. Mr Blair, who recently converted to Catholicism, said: "Faith is part of our future, and faith and the values it brings with it are an essential part of MAKING GLOBALISATION WORK."

His foundation WILL ATTEMPT TO BRING RELIGIONS TOGETHER to tackle global issues such as the UN's eight millennium development goals, which range from eradicating extreme poverty to ensuring environmental sustainability. One of its first priorities will be to fight the spread of malaria. Mr Blair said: "If you got churches and mosques and those of the Jewish faith working together to provide the bed nets that are necessary to eliminate malaria, what a fantastic thing that would be."

Mr Blair is not being paid for his work as a Middle East envoy for the "quartet" of the United Nations, United States, European Union and Russia. But he has lucrative consultancy posts with insurer Zurich and merchant bank JP Morgan, on top of a reported £5m deal for his Downing Street memoirs.

It quotes Commission President Jose Barroso warning: "If there was a no in Ireland, it would have a very negative effect for the EU. We will all pay a price for it, Ireland included." A leaked memo revealed how IRELAND'S FOREIGN MINISTER DERMOT AHERN HAD BEEN ASSURED THAT THE EUROPEAN COMMISSION WOULD 'TONE DOWN OR DELAY' ANY ANNOUNCEMENTS 'THAT MIGHT BE UNHELPFUL'.

These issues include defence, farm subsidies, and harmonising company tax. Neil O'Brien is quoted saying, "THIS IS CLASSIC BRUSSELS TACTICS. Stage one is to TRY TO COVER UP WHAT THE GRAND PROJECT REALLY MEANS, THEN BULLY VOTERS INTO ACCEPTING IT."

In the ceremony, the authorities said in a statement, the terms husband and wife will be replaced by "party A" and "party B." The union, in all its effects, WILL IN NO OTHER WAY DIFFER FROM A NORMAL CIVILIAN MARRIAGE OFFICIATED BY STATE AUTHORITIES. In an opinion that could have nationwide implications, the California Supreme Court on May 15 voted 4-3 in favor of plaintiffs who argued that restricting marriage to men and women was discriminatory.

The ruling added that all California couples had a "basic civil right" to marry "without regard to their sexual orientation." California is now only the second US state after Massachusetts to legalize unions between homosexuals. Supreme Court rulings go into effect 30 days after publication, but state authorities set June 17 as the date for the first marriages to be officiated, since the ruling can be appealed up to June 16.

Wednesday's ruling coincided with a Field opinion survey that found Californians in favor of gay marriage OUTNUMBERING THOSE AGAINST BY A 52-41 PERCENT MARGIN, in stark contrast with the 59-28 percent advantage gay marriage opposers had in the first survey the group took on the issue in 1977.

The Bishop of Rochester, the Rt Rev Michael Nazir-Ali, claimed the "social and sexual" revolution of the 1960s had led to a steep decline in the influence of Christianity over society which church leaders had failed to resist. He said that in its place, Britain had become gripped by the doctrine of "ENDLESS SELF-INDULGENCE" which had led to the destruction of family life, rising levels of drug abuse and drunkenness and mindless violence on the streets.

The bishop warns that the modern politicians' catchphrases of respect and tolerance will not be strong enough to prevent this collapse of traditional virtues, and said radical Islam is now moving in to fill the void created by the decline of Christianity. Dr Nazir-Ali claims in the new article that Britain, previously a "rabble of mutually hostile tribes", WOULD NEVER HAVE BECOME A GLOBAL EMPIRE WITHOUT THE ARRIVAL OF CHRISTIANITY.

BUT HE SAID THE CHURCH'S INFLUENCE BEGAN TO WANE DURING THE 1960S, and quotes an academic who blames the loss of "faith and piety among women" for the steep decline in Christian worship. He says Marxist students encouraged a "social and sexual revolution" to which liberal theologians and Church leaders "all but capitulated".

"It is this situation that has created the moral and spiritual vacuum in which we now find ourselves. While the Christian consensus was dissolved, nothing else, except perhaps endless self-indulgence, was put in its place." He said that the Church of England must retain its importance in public life even if it does not remain privileged as the established church. "It is necessary to understand where we have come from, to guide us to where we are going, AND TO BRING US BACK WHEN WE WANDER TOO FAR FROM THE PATH OF NATIONAL DESTINY."

THE VATICAN WELCOMED IT and the Tel Aviv newspaper Yedioth Ahronot reported that Saudi muftis were sending out feelers to Israeli rabbis about attending such talks, a report which was swiftly denied in Riyadh. FaithWorld's take on it at the time was sceptical. As Andrew Hammond in Riyadh wrote: "THE KING IS SEEN IN SAUDI ARABIA AS A REFORMER BUT ONE WHO HAS BEEN OUTMANEUVERED BY THE POWERFUL RELIGIOUS ESTABLISHMENT AND THEIR ALLIES IN THE ROYAL FAMILY. The interfaith conference call may be a kind of trial balloon launched to see what kind of reaction it gets in a country where liberals and religious conservatives are engaged in an ideological struggle for the future of Saudi Arabia."

The World Jewish Congress, after it's latest meeting, issued a statement on Monday welcoming the king's proposal. It quoted WJC President Ronald Lauder as saying many obstacles still stood in the way but "King Abdullah's initiative is a laudable step forward. We hope that other religious and political leaders throughout the world will be encouraged to join." WJC Governing Board Chairman Matthew Bronfman added: "The World Jewish Congress is ready to participate in any serious inter-faith talks that are based on mutual respect."

The idea that Saudi Arabia would invite Christians and Jews to Islam's heartland for "conferences between the religions to protect humanity from folly," as Abdullah put it, is clearly too tempting for the Tel Aviv newspapers to ignore. BUT IS IT REALISTIC TO EXPECT THE SAUDIS TO HOST SUCH TALKS?

Eight farms were infected with the disease and farmers lost millions due to livestock movement restrictions. Investigators concluded the virus had probably escaped from a drain at the government's Pirbright labs in Surrey. But the council says it is impossible to tell which of the bodies using the site was responsible for the leak.

A series of probes found the source was probably a damaged drain shared by the Institute of Animal Health and drug company Merial. But there is no clear evidence of exactly how the leak happened or which organisation was the exact source.

A spokesman for The National Union of Farmers said: "The foot and mouth outbreak had a massive effect on the local and national economy. The NFU is considering the potential civil liability of the two laboratories." He criticised the "creeping degradation of standards" at the site, which he labelled "shabby and dilapidated".

A White House reporter asked deputy press secretary Dana Perino: "WorldNetDaily reports that more than 31,000 U.S. scientists, including 9,000 PhDs, now signed a petition rejecting global warming, the assumption that human production of greenhouse gases is damaging the Earth's climate. My question: What is the White House reaction to these 31,000 scientists?" Perino dismissed the question with an abrupt, "I WOULD SAY THAT EVERYONE IS ENTITLED TO THEIR OPINION. WHAT'S YOUR NEXT QUESTION?"

Although dispute exists over whether there is, in fact, an actual consensus within the IPCC, head counts of scientists seem to be the name of the global warming game. Since that is the case, the 31,000 scientist signatories assembled by the Oregon Institute of Science and Medicine would seem to trump THE 600 OR SO IN THE ALLEGED IPCC CONSENSUS. Sadly, the White House has taken such a beating over the years on climate that FACTS NO LONGER MATTER.

As further evidence of its shell-shocked state of fact avoidance, just last week the Bush administration announced that it was LISTING THE POLAR BEAR AS "THREATENED" under the Endangered Species Act - even though THERE ARE MANY MORE POLAR BEARS TODAY THAN 40 YEARS AGO AND PREDICTIONS OF THE BEAR'S DEMISE ARE ENTIRELY BASED ON POLITICALLY INSPIRED SPECULATION.

Opec's sole member in South East Asia, Indonesia became a net importer of oil in recent times after production fell and it struggled to find new reserves. Soaring oil prices have pushed up inflation in Indonesia and a recent cut to fuel subsidies prompted protests. Indonesia will leave the 13-member organisation when its membership expires later this year. Opec has yet to comment on the development.

The other OPEC nations are - Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Venezuela, Qatar, Libya, UAE, Algeria, Nigeria, Ecuador, Angola.

Kuomintang (Nationalist Party) Chairman Wu Poh-hsiung is in China for a six-day landmark visit to discuss cross-strait transport links. The trip is being seen as another sign of warming ties between the two sides.

Taiwan's new president, Ma Ying-jeou, has called for a new "chapter of peace" to be opened.

King Gyanendra has remained silent as it has become apparent that his days as Nepal's monarch were numbered, and the country's leading politicians have in recent days threatened to remove him from the palace by force if he refused to go peacefully. But, in an apparent bid to defuse the potential stand off, Nepal's newly elected Constituent Assembly will give the king 15 days to vacate the 1970s-era concrete palace in central Katmandu after the country is declared a republic, said Bimalendra Nidhi of the centrist Nepali Congress, the second largest party in the assembly.

There was no immediate reaction from the palace, which has rarely commented on political developments in Nepal since King Gyanendra was forced to end his royal dictatorship and restore democracy after widespread protests two years ago. The Maoists then gave up their 10-year fight for a communist Nepal, and the election of the assembly in April marked the culmination of the peace process with the former insurgents.

The move is being widely anticipated by many Nepalis, and thousands of people were already gathering on the streets of Katmandu early Wednesday to celebrate the "republic day." Authorities have deployed 10,000 policemen in Katmandu to head off more violence and banned rallies around the palace and the convention center where the assembly is meeting.

Mr Barak said he would take his Labour Party out of Mr Olmert's governing coalition if he did not step down. "The prime minister needs to disconnect himself from the day-to-day management of the government," Mr Barak said. Mr Olmert denies claims that he took up to $500,000 (£250,000) in bribes or illegal campaign donations.

Mr Olmert, the head of the Kadima Party, admits accepting funds before he became prime minister in 2006. But he insists they were legal contributions towards his campaigns for re-election as Jerusalem mayor and for the leadership of the Likud party.

UPDATE - jpost.com - Prime Minister Ehud Olmert does not intend to step down from his post, as Defense Minister Ehud Barak called on him to do on Wednesday morning. "I have no intention at all of resigning, and I am not going anywhere," said the prime minister on Wednesday night. He also claimed again that he has done nothing wrong, and that the claims of the media are untrue.

The proposal, which is being pushed by Labour MEP Richard Corbett, could prevent the Conservatives from forming a new group, and would probably prevent eurosceptic groups in the Parliament like UKIP from forming a group and receiving funding.

Corbett argues that "It would prevent single issue politicians from being given undue support from the public purse." He said: "WE WANT TO AVOID THE FORMATION OF A FRAGMENTED PARLIAMENT, deeply divided into many small groups and unable to work effectively." Mr Corbett's proposals will also give the President of the Parliament sweeping powers to approve or reject parliamentary questions.

Current rules allow 20 MEPs from a fifth of the EU's member states to form groupings, giving them a say in the Parliament's administration and power structure. Under the changes, the threshold would become 30 MEPs from one quarter of the EU's member states. The Liberal Democrats, Greens, the far Left, Eurosceptics and other groupings have vowed to oppose the plans during a vote scheduled for July 9.