Some of the plotters say the final straw was Mr Brown's response to the Daily Telegraph's revelations over MPs' expenses. Four ministers, including Hazel Blears, the Communities Secretary, have said they are resigning from the Government, and some MPs believe more could follow them. A letter is circulating among Labour MPs seeking support for a message to Mr Brown asking him to step down for the good of the party and the country.

The organisers say they will not launch their attempted coup unless they get 50 signatures and the outcome of today's elections will be vital to determining whether enough MPs are prepared to sign on. Amid signs that the election results – which will be announced tomorrow and Sunday – will be dismal for Labour, Lord Mandelson, the Business Secretary, has urged Labour MPs to stick with Mr Brown.

"We either live under the light of Islam or we die with dignity... BRACE YOURSELVES FOR A LONG WAR AGAINST THE WORLD'S INFIDELS AND THEIR AGENTS," the militant leader said in an audio tape that was posted on an Islamist website on Thursday. Parts of the tape were aired on Wednesday in which he accused US President Barack Obama of planting the seeds of hatred towards the United States among Muslims.

Speakers at the event included MK Michael Ben-Ari (National Union) and Esther Pollard, the wife of convicted spy Jonathan Pollard. All brought a similar message - THAT THE AMERICAN GOVERNMENT DOES NOT HAVE THE RIGHT TO DICTATE WHERE JEWS MAY OR MAY NOT LIVE WITHIN THE LAND OF ISRAEL.

"Mr Obama, we started demonstrating 16 years ago," said Rabbi Shalom Gold, the founder of Kehillat Zichron Ya'acov in Jerusalem's Har Nof neighborhood, alluding to the early days of the Oslo Accords. "You were in your '30s and you probably didn't know the first thing about Eretz Yisrael... BUT WE'RE PART OF GOD'S DIVINE PLAN, we're here and we're staying here!"

"Be a friend of Israel, but even if you won't be, we have the greatest ally in the world," he said, pointing to the heavens. Esther Pollard followed, telling the crowd that her message to the US President was that "your problem isn't with Prime Minister Netanyahu, nor is it with the People of Israel. Your problem, Mr President, is with the Almighty God of Israel!"

Over the coming days, activists plan to hang posters throughout the country of Obama wearing a keffiyeh, flanked by the words, "Anti-Semite," and "Jew-hater," written in red in both English and Hebrew. Another poster published by the campaign shows Obama shaking hands with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad against a background of a mushroom cloud from a nuclear explosion.

He told the huge crowd at the mausoleum of his predecessor, Ayatollah Khomenei, that action was needed not words. He also demanded calmer exchanges between presidential candidates after a fiery televised debate on Wednesday. Incumbent President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad accused his rivals of corruption, while his leading opponent, Mir-Hossein Mousavi, said Mr Ahmadinejad's foreign policy was undermining the dignity of the Iranian nation.

The Ayatollah's speech came just hours before US President Barack Obama was to deliver a speech in Cairo aimed at establishing a new relationship with the Muslim world after years of tense relations under the Bush administration. "In the past few years, American governments, especially the government of the foolish former President... have occupied two Islamic countries, Iraq and Afghanistan, under the pretext of the fight against terrorism," he said.

"You witness that in Afghanistan, American warplanes bomb people and kill some 150 not once, but 10 and 100 times. THEY KILL PEOPLE CONTINUALLY. SO, TERRORIST GROUPS, DO WHAT YOU ARE DOING THERE," he added. "If the new President of America wants a change of face, America should change this behaviour. Words and talk will not result in change."

He admitted there had been "years of distrust" and said both sides needed to make a "sustained effort... to respect one another and seek common ground". MR OBAMA SAID THE US BOND WITH ISRAEL WAS UNBREAKABLE BUT described the Palestinians' plight as "intolerable". The president made a number of references to the Koran and called on all faiths to live together in peace.

He received a standing ovation at the end of his speech at Cairo University. White House officials had said the speech was intended to start a process to "re-energise the dialogue with the Muslim world". Mr Obama said: "I have come here to seek a new beginning between the United States and Muslims around the world; one based upon mutual interest and mutual respect."

On the Israeli-Palestinian issue, Mr Obama said the bond with Israel was "unbreakable". He said: "Palestinians must abandon violence. Resistance through violence and killing is wrong." But he also said the "situation for the Palestinian people is intolerable. ISRAELIS MUST ACKNOWLEDGE THAT JUST AS ISRAEL'S RIGHT TO EXIST CANNOT BE DENIED, NEITHER CAN PALESTINE'S," Mr Obama said.

The statement said the Israeli government hoped the speech "will indeed lead to a new era of reconciliation between the Arab and Muslim world and Israel". A spokesman for Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas said the speech was a "good start and an important step towards a new American policy".

UK voters will elect 72 MEPs and the Dutch 25 for the 736-member parliament. The rest of the EU's 27 states will vote in the coming days. The first results are expected late on Sunday, the day the bulk of countries go to the polls. But this is the first big electoral test across Europe since the region has been hit by economic meltdown, the BBC's Dominic Hughes in Brussels says.

In Britain, the European election, held at the same time as local elections, follows weeks of scandal over what some MPs have been charging to their expense accounts. Correspondents say no one quite knows how the public will respond.

More than 375 million people are eligible to vote for the 736 seats up for grabs under various forms of proportional representation. Germany, with the biggest population, gets the most seats - 99 - while Malta will have just five. The newly elected MEPs will take their seats in one of Europe's most powerful political institutions, scrutinising and shaping legislation that covers everything from air quality to the cost of mobile phone calls.

Despite all this, in the past Europeans have failed to be moved by the elections, our correspondent says. Last time around in 2004, turnout in the UK was 38% and in the Netherlands 39%.

Some of the pages are marked "highly confidential safeguards sensitive." While there is security at the facilities, the list could presumably be useful for terrorists or anyone else who would like to harm the United States.

The publication of the list was first reported in an online secrecy newsletter Monday. The document details the location of the nuclear sites and what is being done there. For instance, there are nuclear reactors at the Westinghouse Electric Company in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. This facility is currently working on research into what happens when there are accidents with the nuclear reactors. The project started in 2006 and is expected to end in 2012, according to the document.

Boddington's Berries, which produces 200-tons of fruit each season, was told the farm had to install walkways and bridges between each row of strawberries, cordon off potholes in the fields and install handrails near open ditches.

Phil Boddington, 45, who owns the farm in Mevagissey, Cornwall, said: 'When we tell people why we stopped doing pick-your-own, there is a lot of eye-rolling. To us it's a pick-your-own farm but to the insurers and the health and safety people it's a strawberry factory. The insurers want us to cotton wool the place by adding walkways and bridges, and making restricted zones with cordons. They even wanted us to put handrails in. It is a sad day when a pick-your-own farm is closing because of heath and safety fears.'

Ian Johnson, spokesman for the National Farmers' Union, said: 'It's a very sad and unfortunate incident at Boddington's. After such a long time of letting people enjoy coming to pick fruit, they won't be able to do that any more. We live in a very litigious age.'

The swindle was only detected by the Food Standards Agency (FSA) using new scientific techniques because the non-chicken material had been so highly processed it passed standard DNA tests. Thousands of restaurateurs and café owners are likely to have been conned into buying chicken containing the powder – which binds water into chicken breasts – while diners have been unwittingly consuming traces of other animals when eating out.

Britain's two million Muslims, Jews and Hindus are forbidden from eating either pork or beef. Muslims would ordinarily eat halal chicken and Jews kosher chicken sold through approved caterers and butchers.

The Hindu Forum of Britain described news of the adulteration, which will be confirmed publicly today, as "shocking and potentially very distressing". Its secretary general, Bharti Tailor, said: "Eating beef is expressly forbidden because cows are considered to be sacred as they are a representation of the bounty of the gods, even unknowingly. The fact that the protein powders injected into chickens served in restaurants and cafes contain even traces of beef or pork is horrific. And [the fact] that Hindus will have been eating beef contaminated chickens will be mentally agonising. Many will feel that they have broken their religious code of conduct."

The food regulator acknowledged the serious consequences of its findings. "Use of these proteins does not make chicken products unsafe, but it is important that people are given accurate information about their food," the FSA said. The fraud has been taking place for at least the past two years, and still continues because of inaction by the authorities in three EU states, believed to be Germany, Netherlands and Spain.

"We do not intend to bomb Iran, and nobody will solve their problems with our hands," Lieberman told journalists. "We don't need that. Israel is a strong country; we can protect ourselves," Lieberman told reporters. "This is not an Israeli problem."

"But the world should understand that Iran's entrance into the nuclear club would prompt a whole arms race, a crazy race of unconventional weaponry across the Mideast that is a threat to the entire world order, a challenge to the whole international community. So we do not want a global problem to be solved with our hands."

According to a statement by Israel's Foreign Ministry, Lieberman and his hosts agreed to continue promoting economic ties between the two states and cooperation in the realms of space technology and hi-tech, cultural cooperation, and the international law for the protection of investments. Ministers Liberman and Lavrov also signed a Protocol on Consultation between the two foreign ministries for 2010.

Israel, as well as the US and other Western nations are convinced that Iran is developing a nuclear weapon. Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has often referred to the Jewish State as a "malignant growth" that must "vanish from the pages of history."

"I view with great skepticism the powers of the Fed, for example, and also how, within Europe, the Bank of England has carved out its own small line," Ms Merkel said in a speech in Berlin. "We must return together to an independent central-bank policy and to a policy of reason, otherwise we will be in exactly the same situation in 10 years' time." THE PUBLIC CRITICISM IS UNUSUAL - and not only because German politicians rarely talk harshly about central banks in public. When politicians around the world do criticize their central banks, they almost always gripe that they are too tightfisted.

The conservative German leader's comments came as Europe's statistical agency reported that unemployment in the 16 countries that share the euro rose to 9.2% in April - the highest level since September 1999 and still below the 11.5% that the European Commission forecasts for 2010. GERMAN OFFICIALS TRADITIONALLY HAVE BEEN ON THE MORE CONSERVATIVE END OF THE CENTRAL BANKERS' SPECTRUM, partly because the country's hyperinflation of the 1920s is seared into people's memories.

The ECB, the Fed and the Bank of England are increasingly vulnerable to criticism because they have played such a prominent role and CROSSED SO MANY TRADITIONAL LINES in the past several months - even though they do appear to have steered their economies away from a repeat of the Great Depression.

Although the administration of President Barack Obama has carefully avoided criticizing the Fed, Republicans and Democrats in Congress have questioned the wisdom of the Fed's power and its governance AS THEY CONTEMPLATE FAR-REACHING CHANGES TO THE NATION'S FINANCIAL REGULATORY STRUCTURE. Some private economists - and a few inside the Fed - say the Fed's aggressiveness is increasing THE RISKS OF AN OUTBREAK OF INFLATION.

Jacqui Smith, the Home Secretary, dealt the most serious blow to the Prime Minister's authority. It emerged that she will step down from the Cabinet when Mr Brown reshuffles his team after what Labour fears will be its worst performance at the polls for a generation. She had been under pressure for weeks over expenses claims made by her husband on her behalf, including for two pornographic films. However, the public disclosure of her departure before tomorrow's elections threw Mr Brown's reshuffle off course.

ON A TUMULTUOUS AND CHAOTIC DAY AT DOWNING STREET, it was also announced that Beverley Hughes would move aside from her job as Children's Minister and that Tom Watson, the Cabinet Office Minister and key ally of Mr Brown, would leave the Government. With speculation intensifying that Alistair Darling, the Chancellor, will become the most high-profile victim of the reshuffle, and that David Miliband might also be replaced as Foreign Secretary, it raised the prospect that the three great offices of state could change hands.

A GROUP OF OPPOSITION MPS SAID THAT THEY WOULD TABLE A MOTION NEXT WEEK SEEKING AN IMMEDIATE GENERAL ELECTION. Labour sources said that many of the party's MPs were in a state of panic. A private meeting of the Parliamentary Labour Party was described by MPs as "emotional and jittery," with several backbenchers openly accusing Mr Brown of lacking leadership and direction. Some Labour MPs reported that a list could be circulated soon with names OF THOSE WHO WANT MR BROWN TO STAND ASIDE FOR THE GOOD OF THE PARTY.

An interactive map maintained at Slate.com shows that the highest levels of unemployment are in Democratic state urban areas, including Los Angeles, Detroit, Chicago, Cleveland, New York City, Newark and Washington DC – ALL CITIES THAT EXPERIENCED MAJOR RACE RIOTS AT THE END OF THE 1960s. A closer look at BLS statistics shows that unemployment in April 2009 among the white labor force was 8 percent, while unemployment among the black labor force was 15 percent.

In 1968, the National Advisory Commission on Civil Disorders argued that RISING EXPECTATIONS THAT HAD GONE UNFULFILLED WERE A MAJOR CAUSE OF THE 1960S-ERA URBAN RACE RIOTS. "Whether the same phenomenon will be observed with a black president remains to be seen," Corsi wrote. "The concern is that candidate BARACK OBAMA'S PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN THEMES OF "HOPE AND CHANGE" PERMITTED AFRICAN-AMERICANS TO EXPECT IMPORTANT DIFFERENCES IN THEIR ECONOMIC WELLBEING AND POLITICAL POWER would be experienced with President Obama in the White House."

In 1968, the US economy was operating then at what was considered a full-employment level, with white unemployment averaging around 4 percent and BLACK UNEMPLOYMENT AVERAGING AROUND 8 PERCENT. If unemployment numbers continue to escalate throughout 2009, conceivably AFRICAN-AMERICAN UNEMPLOYMENT RATES COULD HIT 20 PERCENT before the end of the year.

WND has provided multiple reports on what is at stake when the Senate considers a national hate crimes proposal that is to add special penalties against individuals guilty of crimes based on ethnic, religious and racial hatred – and new classifications based on sexual orientation. The legislation has been described by critics as "The Pedophile Protection Act."

Operation Save America spokesman Reverend Flip Benham said members of groups he's organized to meet in Washington to oppose the "hate crimes" plan have been threatened with arrest for even going up the Supreme Court's steps while wearing the shirts, and have been forbidden entry in other locations. "There's no way you're going to bring that (shirt) into the halls of the Senate building," he told WND. "If we had a Muslim T-shirt, or a Barack Obama T-shirt, there would be no problem, but it's who we are as Christians," he said. "THESE THINGS ARE NEVER REPORTED THROUGH OUR MAINSTREAM MEDIA, BUT AMERICAN CITIZENS NEED TO KNOW WHAT IS OCCURRING AT OUR FEDERAL BUILDINGS."

As WND has reported, the Local Law Enforcement Hate Crimes Prevention Act of 2009 would provide special protections to homosexual people BUT LEAVE CHRISTIAN MINISTERS OPEN TO PROSECUTION should their teachings be linked to any subsequent offense, by anyone, against a homosexual person. He said the foundational problem with the bill is that it is based on lies: It assumes there's an epidemic of crimes in the United States – especially actions that cross state lines – that is targeting those alternative sexual lifestyles. It turns out there are fewer crimes now than there were 10 years ago."

Critics also have expressed alarm because in committee hearings Democrats admitted that a Christian pastor could be prosecuted under the law if he spoke biblically against homosexuality, someone heard the comments and then committed a crime.

Iran has insisted its nuclear program is aimed at generating electricity. But the US and other Western governments accuse Tehran of seeking atomic weapons. "Without going into specifics, what I DO BELIEVE IS THAT IRAN HAS LEGITIMATE ENERGY CONCERNS, LEGITIMATE ASPIRATIONS. On the other hand, the international community has a very real interest in preventing a nuclear arms race in the region," Obama said.

The comments echo remarks Obama made in Prague last month in which he said his administration would "support Iran's right to peaceful nuclear energy with rigorous inspections" if Iran proves it is no longer a nuclear threat. Iranian state television described the news as Obama recognizing the "rights of the Iranian nation," a phrase typically used to refer to Iran's nuclear program.

Obama left Tuesday evening on a trip to Egypt and Saudi Arabia aimed at reaching out to the world's 1.5 billion Muslims. He is due to make his speech in Cairo on Thursday. He said he hoped to deliver the message that democratic values are principles that "they can embrace and affirm." Obama added that there is a danger "when the United States, or any country, thinks that we can simply impose these values on another country with a different history and a different culture."