HE SAYS HIS COUNTRY HAS BEEN TURNED INTO A "PANTOMIME VILLAIN" BY BRITONS WHO DENY IT HAS ANY RIGHT TO EXIST, while terror attacks on Israeli citizens are ignored by both the media and public opinion. Mr Prosor, a senior diplomat who became Israel's ambassador to Britain last year, is particularly scornful of the academics who want to boycott Israeli universities over the country's treatment of Palestinians.

He was a spokesman for the Israeli Embassy in London between 1995 and 1998, and says while living here he came to appreciate the country's reputation for cherishing liberty and human rights, earned following its fight against the "dark forces" of the Nazis in World War Two. But he says he has been "dismayed" by what he has seen since returning to the country in November.

In 2007 members of the University and College Union (UCU) voted to sever links with Israeli universities in a move which provoked outrage from politicians and academics around the world, and prompted Jewish leaders to condemn it as a "frightening assault" on academic freedom.

As a billionaire who had made his name and fortune steering the Texas oil riches of Fort Worth's Bass family into lucrative non-energy investments like Disney stock, Rainwater had the wherewithal to act on his conviction. So he plunked down about $300 million of his own money on energy-company stocks and oil and gas futures. Rainwater's energy bet came to look like one of the better investment calls of our time. It has netted him about $2 billion, vaulting him from the mid-200s on Forbes magazine's 1999 list of the 400 richest Americans to No. 91 last summer (with $3.5 billion overall). Now he has sold everything!

This news, disclosed here for the first time, is a big deal. Lots of Wall Streeters - loudest among them the hedge-fund legend George Soros - HAVE BEEN WARNING LATELY THAT SPECULATION HAS INFLATED OIL PRICES INTO A SOON-TO-POP BUBBLE. But talk is cheap - this is something more. ONE OF THE BIGGEST OIL WINNERS OF THE PAST DECADE HAS DECIDED TO GET OUT.

All Rainwater expects is a "little lull" in energy prices; after that, "I will reload, and then I'll go off again." He is vague about what exactly would prompt this reload. "I'd like to re-enter at a good price, and I'd like to re-enter at a good time, and I'd like to make another couple billion dollars," he says.

That is because fares, especially on less crowded routes, are rising fast, and some flights may just disappear. Analysts say that for the airlines, the new pricing power is long overdue -- and CONSUMERS WILL JUST HAVE TO ACCEPT THAT CHEAPER AIR FARES HAVE DISAPPEARED FOR NOW. "THE DAYS OF AFFORDABLE FLYING ARE OVER FOR NOW, AND LEISURE TRAVEL COULD BECOME A LUXURY," said Vicki Bryan, a bond analyst at Gimme Credit.

Experts generally agree that U.S. airlines must cut capacity 20 percent and raise fares 20 percent just to stabilize. Lehman Brothers analyst Gary Chase said the U.S. airline industry is undertaking a restructuring twice as large as it did in the years following the attacks of September 11, 2001. In a recent note, Chase wrote that he expects the airline industry will need to raise almost $3 billion in new equity over the next 12 to 18 months to shore up liquidity.

Murphy added that major carriers will now focus on their hubs, international routes and business travelers. "For them, it's just hunker down and hold on and hope they can hold on to their cash longer than their competitors," said Murphy. "Most of them feel they have enough cash to get through the year but if fuel continues to climb and doesn't let up, even the major carriers at some point could run out of cash."

The pope usually receives heads of state in his private study in the Apostolic Palace, overlooking St Peter's Square. But Vatican spokesman Federico Lombardi said the change was to repay Bush for "the cordiality of the meeting at the White House" when the pope visited the United States in April.

St. John's Tower is a round structure on a hilltop inside the Vatican gardens that is sometimes used as a residence for important guests. After their private talks, Bush and the pope will stroll in the gardens to see a statue of the Madonna.

Bush will be in Rome from Wednesday to Friday as part of a trip to Slovenia, Germany, Italy, France and Britain.

At a meeting chaired by King Abdullah, the Saudi cabinet restated its view that the leap in prices that saw New York's benchmark contract hit a record 138.54 dollars on Friday was UNJUSTIFIED BY FUNDAMENTALS.

But it added that it had asked Oil Minister Ali al-Nuaimi to "convene a meeting soon of representatives of producer and consumer nations and firms operating in the production, export and trading of oil to discuss the jump in prices, its causes and how to deal with it objectively".

"Saudi Arabia ... has notified all oil companies with which it does business, as well as consumer nations, of its readiness to provide them with any additional quantities of oil they need," added the cabinet statement carried by the official SPA news agency.

The study, released Monday, says about 26 percent of New York City adults have genital herpes, compared to about 19 percent nationwide. The department says genital herpes can double a person's risk for contracting HIV. Herpes can cause painful sores, but most people have no recognizable symptoms. Among New Yorkers, the herpes rate is higher among women, black people and gay men.

According to a report in the Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper, vets were asked to treat an adult, female giraffe at Israel's largest zoo, the Safari Park in Ramat Gan. The team, led by Professor Zohar Amar, took a routine sample of milk and found that it clotted in the way required by Jewish law for kosher certification.

The giraffe belongs to the family of grazing animals that have CLOVEN HOOVES AND CHEW THE CUD, thereby making them consistent with kosher rules, but the milk test was the final confirmation. "Indeed, the giraffe is kosher for eating," Rabbi Shlomo Mahfoud, who accompanied the researchers in their work, said. "The giraffe has all the signs of a ritually pure animal, and the milk that forms curds strengthened that."

But Dr Yigal Horowitz, the zoo's chief vet, said this did not mean there would suddenly be a surge in demand of giraffe food products in Israel. "This does not mean that tomorrow we are going to drink giraffe milk or eat soup made from giraffe necks," he said. "After all, this is an animal in danger of extinction."

He is shown lying motionless in the street, ignored by bystanders and other drivers, who swerved to avoid his body but did nothing to help. The one-minute clip from a surveillance video has been made public in the hope of catching the unidentified driver but also to highlight the lack of humanity in modern-day America.

"At the end of the day we've got to look at ourselves and UNDERSTAND THAT OUR MORAL VALUES HAVE NOW CHANGED," said Police Chief Daryl Roberts. "WE HAVE NO REGARD FOR EACH OTHER."

The film shows nine cars driving past Mr Torres's prostrate body while several pedestrians stop and stare. ONE RIDER ON A MOPED EVEN CIRCLED HIM FOR A CLOSER LOOK BEFORE DECIDING TO DRIVE ON. He lay crumpled on the Tarmac without anyone rushing to his aid until a police car - reportedly responding to an unrelated call - arrived on the scene.

About 120 guests gathered at St. Paul's Church in New Hampshire for Saturday's ceremony for Bishop Gene Robinson and his partner of more than 19 years, Mark Andrew. THE EVENT WAS KEPT PRIVATE OUT OF RESPECT FOR NEXT MONTH'S WORLDWIDE ANGLICAN CONFERENCE, Robinson's spokesman, Mike Barwell, said on Sunday.

"It was absolutely joyful," Barwell said by telephone. "A lot of his supporters and friends were there, including many members of the gay and lesbian community." The 77 million-member Anglican Communion, a global federation of national churches, has been in upheaval since 2003 when the Episcopal Church consecrated Robinson as the first bishop known to be in an openly homosexual relationship in more than four centuries of church history.

The Episcopal Church is the U.S. branch of the worldwide Anglican Communion. Disputes over scriptural authority, the blessing of gay unions and other matters have become a worldwide issue and THREATEN TURMOIL THIS SUMMER WHEN ANGLICANS GATHER FOR THEIR ONCE-A-DECADE LAMBETH CONFERENCE IN BRITAIN.

"I FORESEE THE PRICE OF OIL REACHING AROUND 150 DOLLARS A BARREL by the end of the summer," the state broadcaster's website quoted Mohammad Ali Khatibi as saying. His comments came after New York's main oil futures contract, light sweet crude for July delivery, on Friday leapt 10.75 dollars a barrel - its biggest one-day jump ever - to close at a record 138.54 dollars. The rise was partly fuelled by a warning by an Israeli minister about a possible military strike on Iran over its contested nuclear programme.

Iran, OPEC's number two exporter and the fourth biggest worldwide, has rejected calls from oil consuming nations for a hike in the output quota of the cartel, saying the high prices are not driven by fundamentals. Iranian Oil Minister Gholam Hossein Nozari has said THE MARKET IS CURRENTLY OVERSUPPLIED WITH OIL and a production hike from the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries would have no effect on prices.

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has also said oil is priced too low and that the commodity "SHOULD FIND ITS REAL VALUE."

Airlines, package shippers and car owners are no longer the only ones being squeezed by the ever-mounting price of oil, which shot up almost $11 a barrel Friday, to a record $138.54. Companies that make hard goods using raw materials derived from oil, like tires, toiletries, plastic packaging and computer screens, are watching their costs skyrocket, and they find themselves forced into unpleasant choices: Should they raise prices, shift to less costly procedures, cut workers or all three?

THE SENSE THAT MANY COMPANIES MAY BE HITTING A WALL IS PALPABLE. U.S. corporate profits peaked last spring and have shrunk since then, Moody's Economy.com reports, drawing on U.S. Commerce Department data. The housing crisis and the weakening U.S. economy are big reasons, but oil prices are adding greatly to the pressure on profits AS U.S. RETAILERS FAIL TO PASS ALONG HIGHER PRICES TO CONSUMERS. That helps to explain why expensive oil has not yet pushed up the inflation rate.

Besides the severe weather threat, A SERIOUS FLOOD SITUATION HAS DEVELOPED ACROSS THE MIDWEST as well. Meanwhile, SEARING HEAT AND HUMIDITY WILL CONTINUE TO BLAST THE SOUTH AND THE EAST into the early part of the week. The Severe Weather Center reports that strong to SEVERE STORMS WILL CONTINUE TO BATTER AREAS FROM TEXAS NORTHEASTWARD INTO THE GREAT LAKES region into the week. A clash of very hot, humid air to the south and cooler air to the north will provide energy for the dangerous storms.

The storms are expected to aggravate already record flooding and cause more trouble from the Plains to the Midwest with locally heavy downpours expected. The threat for flooding will run high with soil already saturated and streams already swollen. THE MIDWEST REGIONAL NEWS STORY REPORTS THAT OTHER THREATS FROM THE STORMS WILL INCLUDE HAIL, DAMAGING WINDS AND EVEN DANGEROUS TORNADOES.

The heat wave over the East is another dangerous situation. High pressure remains parked off the Southeast coast, and this is forcing hot, sticky air from over the Gulf of Mexico into the East. Temperatures will continue to soar into the 90s all across the region. Some parts of the Southeast will hit in the 100s.

A quarter of a century after the outbreak of Aids, the World Health Organisation (WHO) has accepted that THE THREAT OF A GLOBAL HETEROSEXUAL PANDEMIC HAS DISAPPEARED. In the first official admission that the universal prevention strategy promoted by the major Aids organisations may have been misdirected, Kevin de Cock, the head of the WHO's department of HIV/Aids said there will be no generalised epidemic of Aids in the heterosexual population outside Africa.

Dr De Cock, an epidemiologist who has spent much of his career leading the battle against the disease, said understanding of the threat posed by the virus had changed. Whereas once it was seen as a risk to populations everywhere, it was now recognised that, outside sub-Saharan Africa, it was confined to high-risk groups including men who have sex with men, injecting drug users, and sex workers and their clients.

Any revision of the threat was liable to be seized on by those who rejected HIV as the cause of the disease, or who used the disease as a weapon to stigmatise high risk groups, he said.

Gordon Brown has ruled out a public vote, saying the treaty does not alter the UK's constitution. But Mr Wheeler, 73, has won the right to a judicial review of that decision. He says the public had "A LEGITIMATE EXPECTATION" OF A REFERENDUM. The government has said it is "confident" its case is strong.

The Bill - now in the Lords - will ratify the Lisbon Treaty, which was drawn up to replace the EU constitution after that was rejected by French and Dutch voters in 2005. Conservative Party donor Mr Wheeler claims a referendum was promised on the constitution and as, in his eyes, the Lisbon Treaty is virtually identical, it too should be put to a vote. The two-day review will be heard just days before voters in Ireland, the only EU state holding a referendum, go to the polls.

Mr Wheeler said in a statement that he hoped to prove the refusal to hold a referendum was "not only immoral but illegal, too". "This was a referendum the people of Britain were promised well before the last election, during it, and after it," he said. "But instead of fulfilling that promise, GORDON BROWN HAS TRIED TO PUSH THE CONSTITUTION IN VIA THE BACK DOOR BY REBRANDING A DOCUMENT AND PRESENTING IT AS A COMPLETELY DIFFERENT TEXT. This is a ridiculous argument."

"If Iran continues its nuclear weapons programme, we will attack it," said Shaul Mofaz, who is also transportation minister. "OTHER OPTIONS ARE DISAPPEARING. The sanctions are not effective. There will be no alternative but to attack Iran in order to stop the Iranian nuclear programme," Mofaz told the Yediot Aharonot daily.

He stressed such an operation could only be conducted with US support. A former defence minister and armed forces chief of staff, Mofaz hopes to replace embattled Ehud Olmert as prime minister and at the helm of the Kadima party.

UPDATE:- Israel yesterday attempted to play down a warning from a senior government minister that an attack on Iran was "unavoidable" if Tehran continued to develop nuclear weapons. THE THREAT CONTRIBUTED TO FRENZIED BUYING in the financial markets, where oil prices soared to a record $139, and sparked an international furore.