Currently, four plant species - wheat, maize, rice and potato - provide more than half of the plant-based calories in the human diet, while about a dozen animal species provide 90% of animal protein consumed globally. WE HAVE ALREADY LOST THREE-QUARTERS OF THE GENETIC DIVERSITY OF AGRICULTURAL CROPS.

As the agricultural frontier has expanded, those farmers previously dependant on a more diverse source of livelihood have converted to cash crops. AS TRADITIONAL VARIETIES AND BREEDS DIE OUT, SO TOO DO THE TRADITIONAL KNOWLEDGE AND PRACTICES OF LOCAL FARMERS. Those same practices could now be critical in adapting to climate change. The focus on agricultural commodities rather than on food production to meet the basic needs of people has undermined diversity and self-reliance, and left farmers vulnerable to volatile markets, political instability and environmental change.

In Britain, studies have shown that hay production is higher in meadows with a greater number of species. "Amazingly, there is very little attention being paid to what fundamentally underpins all of our food systems - biodiversity and the services provided by ecosystems" In Australia, crop yields are higher in regions where native biodiversity has been preserved. In the seas, too, areas with a higher number of conserved species generate more fish for humans to catch and eat.

Amazingly, there is VERY LITTLE ATTENTION BEING PAID TO WHAT FUNDAMENTALLY UNDERPINS ALL OF OUR FOOD SYSTEMS - biodiversity and the services provided by ecosystems, such as soil, water and resilience to disasters.

Gonzalo Oviedo is senior advisor on social policy with IUCN (formerly the World Conservation Union)

Current legislation requires the exact location of GM crop trials to be publicly available. But according to those engaged in active research, that information is invariably used by anti-GM protesters to disrupt experiments. The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra), which licenses open air trials commented: "EU legislation says that we must disclose GM trial locations to the public.

"We are awating a European Court of Justice ruling, likely later this year, on a French legal case that should clarify how the EU law in this area can be interpreted by Member States."

The plantation would be the first attempt to cultivate GM trees in the UK since 1999, when activists destroyed 115 plants in Berkshire. Campaigners warned that allowing the move to go ahead would be "an unknown and worrying risk" for Britain's ecosystems.

Clare Oxborrow, a GM campaigner for Friends of the Earth, said: "Our concerns with GM trees are even more serious than crops because trees are very long lived. They are inherently geared up for spreading seeds and pollen because of the way they reproduce. THERE'S A HUGE POTENTIAL FOR CROSS-POLLINATION."

University officials were unavailable for comment.

"We believe there is a possibility of a real economic downturn here and further continued difficulties in the credit market," Sants told the BBC." If you look at the consensus forecasts there's a strong possibility of further declines in UK house prices and this type of scenario needs to be built into firms' business models.

"When we come through that, history tells us that's not something that's going to play through in months. It's going to be well through the year-end." Asked whether the downturn could be on the scale of the recession of 1990s when the economy took up to three years to recover, Sants told the financial industry to plan for the long rather than the short term.

Dramatic gains by the dollar that took it to its highest for five months against a broad range of currencies sparked predictions from economists that it is embarked on a long-term recovery, after a five-year run of unrelenting weakness. The rally in the dollar in yesterday's frenetic trading triggered the steepest one-day losses for the euro for four years, sent US blue-chip shares soaring and fuelled sharp falls in oil prices of more than $4 a barrel.

Earlier, the newly vulnerable euro tumbled by more than 1.8 per cent to five-month lows just above $1.50 – leaving it almost 10 cents below its record high of $1.6028 struck less than a month ago. It lost nearly 5 cents during the past 24 hours alone.

THE POUND ALSO TUMBLED AGAINST THE RESURGENT GREENBACK, PLUNGING MORE THAN 2.8 CENTS TO 17-MONTH LOWS BELOW $1.92, TO CLOSE IN LONDON AT $1.9159. Economists said that the dollar's surge came after a barrage of bleak news over the eurozone's economic outlook combined with more upbeat developments in the United States to lead global markets into a drastic reassessment.

The Bishop of Durham, Dr Tom Wright, who is the Church's fourth most senior cleric, headed the list of bishops who signed a letter to The Times protesting at the "gross misrepresentation" of Dr Rowan Williams.

The bishops admit that many among them do not agree with Dr Williams's contention that a same-sex relationship "might... reflect the love of God in a way comparable to marriage". But they defend his right to differentiate between his role as theologian and church leader and to uphold "WHAT HAS BEEN RECEIVED IN FAITH FROM SCRIPTURE AND TRADITION".

They also defend him against accusations of pragmatism in putting church unity first. The bishops say that his prioritising of church unity over his own beliefs "expresses what Jesus himself taught: the fundamental and deeply biblical teaching on the vital importance of church unity and of working for that unity by humility and mutual submission".

The Middletown School District, in partnership with MAP Information Technology Corp, has launched a pilot program to implant RFID chips into the schoolbags of 80 children at the Aquidneck School. Each chip would be programmed with a student identification number, and would be read by an external device installed in one of two school buses. The buses would also be fitted with global positioning system (GPS) devices.

Parents or school officials could log onto a school web site to see whether and when specific children had entered or exited which bus, and to look up the bus's current location as provided by the GPS device. The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) has criticized the plan as an invasion of children's privacy and a potential risk to their safety.

"There's absolutely no need to be tagging children," said Stephen Brown, executive director of the ACLU's Rhode Island chapter. According to Brown, the school district should already know where its students are. "THIS PROGRAM IS A SOLUTION IN SEARCH OF A PROBLEM," BROWN SAID.

A little under a year ago an organisation called the Tax Payers' Alliance commissioned a study which revealed that BRITISH TAXPAYERS PAID OUT TEN BILLION POUNDS PER YEAR MORE THAN WAS THE ENVIRONMENTAL COST OF OUR CARBON FOOTPRINT - or, as they put it, every British family was overpaying £400 per year in green taxes. By 'green' taxes the organisation meant fuel levies, vehicle excise duty, landfill tax and the EU emissions programme.

The group reported statutory pre-tax losses of £692 million for the six months to June 30 - which compares with profits of £5 billion the previous year. Chief executive Sir Fred Goodwin, who was forced to launched a £12 billion rights issue earlier this year to shore up the firm's balance sheet, said the loss was a "chastening experience" that "I and my colleagues regret very much".

NatWest owner RBS had already alerted investors to a £5.9 billion credit crunch writedown when it launched the rights issue in April.

Fannie Mae reported a net loss of $2.3 billion in the second quarter that followed a first-quarter loss of $2.2 billion. The second-quarter loss of 2.54 dollars per share was more than triple most analysts' forecasts of 69 cents. Fannie Mae plans to slash its dividend, raise fees and end home loans known as Alt-A, considered riskier than prime loans but less risky than the subprime loans at the epicenter of the housing market crisis.

The company blamed the second-quarter losses mainly on a sharp hike in its provision for credit losses in the deepening housing slump. The market has been in freefall since early 2006 after the collapse of a speculative housing boom fed by easy credit.

The embattled government-sponsored, shareholder-owned company and its twin Freddie Mac underpin $5.2 trillion in home loans, nearly half the US housing market. Freddie Mac reported Wednesday a second-quarter loss of $821 million, also more than triple market expectations.

Mayo said households were suffering because foreign companies – often owned by the state – faced no competition at home. "Closed and protectionist European energy markets end up picking the pockets of consumers in this country," he said. FRENCH CONSUMERS ARE PROTECTED BY A STATE PRICE CAP, MEANING THAT BRITISH CONSUMERS END UP SUBSIDISING LOWER BILLS IN FRANCE.

Neil O'Brien of Open Europe is quoted, saying that the price of gas flowing to Britain from France was "kept artificially high" by French operators restricting supplies. He added that, "People in Britain are paying more because other EU countries are rigging the market." Vince Cable, the Liberal Democrat Deputy Leader and former oil economist, said, "Even people who are supportive of the European Union are embarrassed at its failures over energy. The failure to liberalise energy markets and the extreme reluctance of the French and, to a lesser extent, the Germans and the Dutch, has prevented the free flow of energy and especially gas, in a way that is very damaging to the interests of consumers."

EDF Energy, which sells gas and electricity in both countries, blamed the disparity on the British government's failure to invest in new nuclear power stations.

The centrepiece of Tisha B'Av mourning is the destruction of the Holy Temple (Beit HaMikdash). Among the many groups that have sprouted over the past several years promoting awareness of the Beit HaMikdash is one named "SECULAR JEWS FOR THE TEMPLE."

Ahuvyah Tabenkin of left-wing Kibbutz Ein Harod has nationalist, political and historical reasons why the Temple and the Temple Mount are important. Asked if he has religious considerations as well, Tabenkin told Arutz-7's Ariel Kahane, "Well, the word 'religious' can be the subject of long discussions. Look, the Gerrer Rebbe once said, 'When the Haskalah [Enlightenment] came to the world, with science, physics, etc., we [the religious] left it for the secular Jews; when Zionism came to the world, we gave that too to the secular; and now we have also left the Repentance Movement for the secular.' Accordingly, it looks like we [the secular] will also have to build the Beit HaMikdash."

Asked whether he calls for the actual construction of the Temple, he said, "There are many religious authorities, including Maimonides, who say that the Temple must be rebuilt, and so I think it should be done... AS A FIRST STEP, WE MUST SHOW THAT WE CONTROL THE TEMPLE MOUNT... I call upon all of Israel to come to the Mount on [Tisha B'Av] and show that it belongs to the Jewish nation."

Political controversy has dogged Beijing since it was awarded the Games seven years ago, but the opening gala on Friday aimed to shift the focus towards themes of sport and friendship with its spectacle of fireworks, drums and dancers. "It was spectacular, really unbelievable," said First Lady Laura Bush, who attended with President George W. Bush.

But pro-independence Taipei Times slammed the entire Games as a series of broken pledges by an authoritarian regime. "It started with grim paramilitary goons in blue track-suits accompanying the Olympic torch on its embarrassing tour of democratic countries," the English-language daily said. "And now the Games begin with broken promises on press freedom and shipping in party members to forcibly replace ordinary Chinese hoping to see the torch relay."

Overseas, SOME ASKED WHETHER IT WAS RIGHT TO INCLUDE GOOSE-STEPPING SOLDIERS from China's People's Liberation Army. In Australia, the Sydney Morning Herald wondered if Zhang Yimou, the Chinese filmmaker who directed the show, was misguided in SHOWCASING CHINA'S MILITARY STRENGTH at a time the country is trying to reassure the world about its rapid rise. "THE HEAVY PRESENCE OF CHINESE (PEOPLE'S) LIBERATION ARMY OFFICERS THROUGHOUT THE PROCEEDINGS LEFT MANY WONDERING EXACTLY WHAT IMAGE THE HOSTS WERE INTENDING TO PROJECT TO THE INTERNATIONAL COMMUNITY," the newspaper said.

The behavior was documented in photographs of an event called 'Up Your Alley,' which is sponsored by the same group that organizes the city's fall 'gay-fest' the Folsom Street Fair, on which WND has reported. "Consider how liberal government authorities like Mayor [Gavin] Newsom have corrupted the men in blue by stipulating that police not prosecute public nudity and indecency at homosexual festivals," said a report from Americans for Truth on the graphic activities documented at the event.

"What honor can there be in protecting the public practice of heinous perversions and nudity in the city's streets? The shame of pandering politicians is transferred to the cops who were intended to be guardians of the law and public order," said the organizer's chief, Peter LaBarbera.

"Perverse events like 'Up Your Alley' …mock any notion of right and wrong – as the reckless pursuit of anything -goes 'tolerance' leads governmental authorities to enable and promote evil, turning freedom into sexual anarchy while causing a breakdown in law and order."

The day after the World Trade Organization (WTO) talks collapsed amid squabbling last Tuesday, with the limousines already lined up along Geneva's lakeside promenade, the participants to the conference suddenly appeared to have found agreement after all - at least when it came to their choice of words.

Indonesian Minister of Trade Mari Elka Pangestu said that she was "deeply disappointed." Kamal Nath, the Indian industry minister, also expressed his "deep disappointment." And when US Trade Representative Susan Schwab spoke of a "very disappointing turn of events," European Trade Commissioner and avowed cynic Peter Mandelson couldn't help but echo the general sense of official mourning over the conference. It was "heart-breaking," Mandelson said of the meeting's outcome.

The countries most in need of economic recovery are also negatively affected. The weaker a country is economically, the less leverage it has in bilateral negotiations. But even the industrialized nations face hard times ahead. The collapse of the WTO talks means an end to the trade-war truce agreed to by countries around the world. EXPERTS ANTICIPATE THAT THE CURRENT CONFLICTS BETWEEN AVIATION GIANTS BOEING AND AIRBUS COULD NOW LEAD TO A TRADE WAR BETWEEN THE UNITED STATES AND EUROPE.