Speaking in the European Parliament in Strasbourg on Wednesday (4 February), Mr Abbas said the time had come for the international community to step in, detailing the suffering of Gazan civilians during the January offensive by the Israeli military.

"I would like to stress again our request for the sending of international forces in order to protect our people," he said. "Until when will Israel retain a free hand to destroy the assets and infrastructure of our people?" Mr Abbas asked. He also pointed out that some of the infrastructure destroyed during the three weeks of fighting was paid for by the European Union. "We must not deal with Israel as if it is a state above accountability, above international law," Mr Abbas said.

He also criticised Hamas for bringing destruction to Gaza and said that the movement's leader, Khaled Mashaal, could be taken to court in another country for "drawing his people to this destruction." Rights activists say Gaza's Hamas rulers and other Palestinian groups committed war crimes by targeting Israeli civilians with rockets. They also say Hamas' use of human shields, as alleged by Israel, would constitute war crimes.

Now, in "Religion of Peace? Islam's War Against the World," author and filmmaker Gregory M. Davis reveals why. Setting out the shocking teachings of the Qur'an and other Islamic holy books, Davis shows that the MUSLIMS WHO COMMIT VIOLENCE IN THE NAME OF ISLAM ARE NOT DISTORTING THE TEACHINGS OF A GREAT RELIGION - IN FACT, THEY'RE CARRYING THEM OUT FAITHFULLY. Davis proves beyond any shadow of doubt that the jihadists the Leftist media has assured us are "extremists" are actually in the mainstream.

In traditional, mainstream Islam, he explains, religion and politics have from the beginning been intertwined and inseparable - and no higher law exists beyond Muhammad's bloody teachings and example. Davis details how Islamic theology divides the world into two spheres locked in perpetual combat: the "House of Islam" and the "House of War."

He shows why Islam is not a religion in the way Westerners usually understand the term, but rather a form of totalitarianism, a cruel and ferocious belief system that orders its adherents to conquer and subdue all those outside the fold. He demonstrates that Muhammad's words and deeds, and the ISLAMIC LAW that has been formulated from them, have FAR MORE IN COMMON WITH NAZISM THAN WITH THE TENETS OF CHRISTIANITY OR JUDAISM.

It comes after Carol Thatcher was axed from her role on a BBC show for referring to a tennis player as a golliwog in a private conversation. A spokesman for the estate said: "The management of the shop have said they did not intend to offend anyone by selling this product and have apologised if any offence has been caused. The shop will immediately review its purchasing policy." The male and female dolls cost £9.99 and were available at the shop for more than a year.

The Queen is not personally involved in deciding what is sold in the shop. Sandringham has been the private home of four generations of British monarchs since 1862. Its visitor centre, which includes the gift shop as well as a restaurant and plant centre, has more than 250,000 visitors a year.

Turning the sea into drinking water is at the heart of Western Australia's multi-faceted approach to satisfying the thirst of a booming population that lives on the edge of a desert. The corporation opened the southern hemisphere's first desalination plant, south of Perth, in November 2006. Powered by a wind farm, the move was prompted by the driest winter ever recorded in Western Australia (WA) - a region that was among the first to see the effects of a shifting climate.

"2001 was the winter from hell, and we only get our rainfall in winter," Dr Gill told BBC News. "It was unbelievably dry, and we postulated the scenario of another two or three years like that and frankly we were going to have to shut Perth down."

For 20 years, Ernie Bridge, a former state minister for water resources, has championed the idea of channelling supplies through a 2,200km pipe from the Kimberley region. "It would shore up Perth for the next 100 years and would be a pretty easy project to construct," he asserted. "I can never understand a country like Australia seriously turning to desalination when you've got that abundance of surface water available to us in the north."

The Office of State Flood Control and Drought Relief Headquarters posted a notice on its Web site calling it A DROUGHT "RARELY SEEN IN HISTORY." President Hu Jintao had called on provincial officials to fight the drought and ensure that there is a summer grain harvest, the notice said.

China suffers from an uneven distribution of its water resources. Weather patterns in the arid north and flood-prone south cost the government tens of millions of dollars in lost productivity each year. The latest drought began in November and has affected 24 million acres (9.73 million hectares) of crops, one-third of them seriously, the official Xinhua News Agency said. Most of the hardest-hit provinces were in northern China, with several in the east. In recent days, news broadcasts have shown dry, cracked farm fields and crops withering in the ground.

Almost half of the wheat-growing areas in the eight provinces — Hebei, Shanxi, Anhui, Jiangsu, Henan, Shandong, Shaanxi and Gansu — were threatened, Xinhua said, WHILE NEARLY 4 MILLION PEOPLE LACKED PROPER DRINKING WATER.

The oceanside enclave in Marin County has enacted some of the state's toughest water restrictions. Each customer - with the exception of schools and some businesses - may use no more than 150 gallons a day, about 4,500 gallons each month. A third violation of the order would allow the Bolinas Community Public Utility District to cut off water.

Without drastic cutbacks, officials say, the community of 1,200 could run out of water by the end of April. The town on the southern end of the Point Reyes Peninsula already is drawing from two emergency reservoirs, one of which is effectively empty. "People are worried," said Jennifer Blackman, general manager of the utility district, which authorized the measures last week. "IT'S UNSETTLING TO BE INFORMED THAT A RESOURCE WHICH IS NECESSARY TO LIFE IS LIMITED IN THIS WAY."

"It's August out here," said Bill Pierce, chief water and wastewater operator for the utility district. "The hills are brown - they should be green. The stream flows are a trickle, people don't understand how bad this is going to get."

Obama announced the dramatic new government intervention into corporate America at the White House, with Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner at his side. The president said the executive-pay limits are a first step, to be followed by the unveiling next week of a sweeping new framework for spending what remains of the $700 billion financial industry bailout that Congress created last year.

The executive-pay move comes amid a national outcry over huge bonuses to executives heading companies seeking taxpayer dollars to remain afloat. The demand for limits was reinforced by revelations that Wall Street firms paid more than $18 billion in bonuses in 2008 even amid the economic downturn and the massive infusion of taxpayer dollars.

"This is America. We don't disparage wealth. We don't begrudge anybody for achieving success," Obama said. "But what gets people upset - and rightfully so - are executives being rewarded for failure, especially when those rewards are subsidized by U.S. taxpayers."

By 1993, then-President Carlos Salinas de Gortari stripped three zeros from the currency and renamed it the Nuevo (or New) Peso. The transition from worthless to one Nuevo Peso to one U.S. dollar was done in three years from January 1, 1993 to January 1, 1996. The word "nuevo" was removed from the currency and it returned to be called "peso".

NOW IT IS 2009 AND WHAT APPEARS TO BE LOOMING, according to one authoritative press report this weekend, IS A MASSIVE PRE-EMPTIVE DEVALUATION OF THE U.S. DOLLAR as Team Obama readies itself to announce the "Big Bang" – a gigantic bailout of the frozen U.S. economy involving trillions of dollars. So far, Washington has allocated US$750 billion for banking rescues and another US$825 billion for job creation projects.

It's ironic that the "Big Bang" was used to describe this comprehensive re-regulation and restructuring of a broken financial system worldwide. The first "Big Bang" in the late 1980s started in the UK and led to a massive deregulation and restructuring of financial markets that probably led to the bad practices that are now being dealt with.

The vote could see the first European Union government - and the second in Europe after Iceland - felled by the financial and economic turmoil that has hit Latvia harder than most other states in the 27-member bloc. On Tuesday, the country's agriculture minister resigned in the wake of farmer protests that blocked the main road around the capital, Riga, and saw the agriculture ministry building surrounded by tractors. The farmers lit bonfires outside the ministry building and demanded the minister resign.

In imitation of similar actions by Greek farmers in recent days, thousands of tractor-driving farmers headed to Riga, bringing traffic to a halt on a number of motorways - the second such action in a week. The government convened an emergency meeting out of which emerged €34 million (22m lats) in fresh aid for the farmers. Shortly after Prime Minister Ivars Godmanis announced the decision, the agriculture minister, Martyns Roze, fell on his sword.

Ms Johnson, 32, took the puppies home, then passed them on to an RSPCA centre where staff treated the dogs and are now looking to find them new homes. She said: 'I just could not believe the cruelty being shown by these kids. If I hadn't turned up, I think they would have burned the dogs alive. I heard yelping and saw a group of children standing around a small bonfire. I ran over the bridge to them and saw one of the pups being kicked and the other being held over the fire'.

'Most of the kids were aged 12, 13 or older. But some were as young as 10'. RSPCA animal shelter manager Jean Spencer said: 'The puppies are only seven weeks old. The fur on one of them was singed and the other has a small hernia. Fortunately, they are going to be fine. The lady who brought them in was in quite a state when she got here. She walked here with a puppy under each arm and was clearly very distressed'.

The group, which owns stakes in Hamleys, Whistles, Iceland (the UK food chain), House of Fraser, Debenhams, French Connection and Karen Millen among others, has an initial three weeks to find a solution to its problems.

But experts have warned that the group's current woes could mean a fire-sale of its UK retail assets, including many major retailers and department stores. The company's investments are exposed to a weakening UK high street and its problems were compounded by the crisis which saw the nationalisation of Iceland's major banks last October.

Baugur has majority stakes in fashion chain Whistles and toy store Hamleys as well as minority shares in a host of others. It owns 34 per cent of House of Fraser, 14 per cent of Iceland (the UK food chain) and 36 per cent of fashion label All Saints. The firm's interests also include other names including Coast, Karen Millen, Oasis, Principles, Warehouse and Shoe Studio, as well as equity stakes in other listed retailers such as French Connection and department store chain Debenhams.

A European Commission spokesman said it was the "worst possible signal". However, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said President Obama had assured her the US would not follow protectionist policies. The continuing wrangles over the Buy American clause come as hundreds of workers at UK power stations continue wildcat strike action in protest at the employment of Italian and Portuguese workers at a Total oil refinery. Union leaders have denied accusations that the strikers are guilty of xenophobia.

Instead they say the UK workers are unfairly being denied the right to carry out work, because contracts are being awarded to foreign firms who bring in their own staff. Despite this argument, the Italian and Portuguese governments have called for an end to the protests. "We want to underline the responsibility of government to avoid this protectionist, xenophobic, nationalistic trend," said Portugal's Foreign Minister Luis Amado.

The couple became the public face of the debate in the state and married the first day same-sex marriages became legal. The divorce case was filed last week in Suffolk Probate and Family Court and was not unexpected. The couple announced they were separating in 2006.

Last week, North Korea said it was scrapping all agreements with South Korea in a move analysts said was aimed at pressuring Seoul and grabbing the attention of new US President Barack Obama. Unnamed government sources in South Korea said the North had been moving equipment used in the launch of its Taepodong-2 missile, which Pyongyang last test-fired in July 2006.

Much of the preparation needed to get it ready can be seen by spy satellites and aerial reconnaissance. North Korea has more than 800 ballistic missiles with ranges that can hit all of South Korea and most of Japan.

The article further notes, "Concerns about protectionism were stoked by the European Union's decision to reintroduce subsidies for its dairy industry, a move that would be banned under a Doha pact. On Saturday, the EU put an 85 per cent import duty on screws, nails and bolts from China, a step expected to provoke retaliatory action from Beijing."

Meanwhile, a leader in the Mail notes that "Every family in Britain pays £375 a year extra for their food because of the protectionist Common Agricultural Policy. Scrapping FORTRESS EUROPE would go some way towards easing the impact of the credit crunch. Now why didn't anyone say that in Davos?"