Fire crews inched closer to getting some of the largest of 1,420 blazes surrounded, according to the state Office of Emergency Services. Some 364,600 acres - or almost 570 square miles - of forest, grass and brush had burned. A "RED FLAG WARNING" - REPRESENTING THE MOST EXTREME FIRE DANGER - was still in effect for extreme North Eastern California, northwest Nevada and eastern Oregon, the National Weather Service said. Lower-than-average rainfall and record levels of parched vegetation likely mean a long, fiery summer throughout northern California, according to the Forest Service's state fire outlook, released last week.

The fires were mostly started by lightning storms that were unusually intense for so early in the season. But summer storms will probably be even fiercer, according to the Forest Service. "Our most widespread and/or critical lightning events often occur in late July or August, and we have no reason to deviate from that," the agency's report said.

"The probability of an earthquake of a magnitude of up to six on the Richter scale, originating in Lebanon and being felt in Israel has increased," the health ministry said in a letter sent to medical officials in northern Israel. Since February, abnormal seismic activity has been noted in southern Lebanon, which had suffered some 500 minor earthquakes in a three-month period, health ministry director-general Avi Yisraeli said in the letter. "In May, the tremors have become more intense and were felt in northern Israel," he said adding that "should an earthquake of such magnitude hit northern Israel, it may cause substantial infrastructural damage in the area."

The secretary general of the centre, Moueen Hamz, told AFP in Beirut that 800 tremors ranging in magnitude from 2.3-5.1 degrees on the Richter scale had shaken the south Lebanon regions of Tyre and Nabatiyeh since February 12. "The tremors increased significantly in May and June," he said.

Some seismologists in Israel say that quakes have historically rocked the region every eight decades, and the last one was nearly 81 years ago. About 300 people were killed in Jerusalem and nearby Jericho by the July 11, 1927 temblor. A similar quake measuring seven on the Richter scale and with an epicentre in the Hula Valley, today in northern Israel, devastated the town of Safed and killed some 4,000 people in 1837.

In a widely expected move, Tehran said it would use the euro for all future commercial transactions overseas. The US, which accuses Tehran of supporting terrorism and trying to obtain nuclear weapons, has sought to limit the flow of dollars into Iran. It wants the United Nations Security Council to impose sanctions on Iran.

Analysts said Tehran had been steadily shifting its foreign-held assets out of dollars since 2003 and that Monday's announcement was unlikely to affect the value of the dollar, which has weakened significantly in recent months.

An Iranian spokesman said all its foreign exchange transactions would be conducted in euros and its national budget would also be calculated in euros as well as its own currency. "There will be no reliance on dollars," said Gholam-Hussein Elham. "This change is already being made in the currency reserves abroad."

In an article posted on The Discovery Institute's evolution news website, Crowther wrote, "The law is needed for two reasons. First, around the country, science teachers are being harassed, intimidated, and sometimes fired for trying to present scientific evidence critical of Darwinian theory along with the evidence that supports it. Second, many school administrators and teachers are fearful or confused about what is legally allowed when teaching about controversial scientific issues like evolution. The Louisiana Science Education Act clarifies what teachers may be allowed to do."

Specifically, the act allows teachers in the state's public schools to present evidence both for and against Darwinian theories of evolution and allows local school boards to approve supplemental materials that may open critical discussions of evolution, the origins of life, global warming, human cloning and other scientific theories.

However - Marjorie Esman, state director of Lousiana's ACLU told the New Orleans Times-Picayune, "TO THE EXTENT THAT THIS MIGHT INVITE RELIGION IN THE PUBLIC SCHOOL CLASSROOM, WE WILL DO EVERYTHING WE CAN DO TO KEEP RELIGION OUT."

Tensions were further heightened by a suggestion from former US ambassador to the UN John Bolton that the US and Israel could attack Iraq's fledgling program between the time a new president was nominated in November and the date the incumbent, George W. Bush, left office in January.

Mr Bolton's remarks signal the first time a regime figure from either country has been prepared to put a time frame on a mooted strike. They also mark a sharp escalation in Israeli - US rhetoric against the Islamic republic, which is refusing to bow to international demands that it stop its nuclear program, and its efforts to enrich uranium.

As the European Union moved Monday to suspend the operations of Iran's largest bank in Europe, Israeli policy-makers were putting in place a clear shift in their stance towards Iran. Politicians and defence officials are now openly bullish about the chance of a strike against Iran. Pentagon officials earlier this week provided apparently White House-sanctioned details about a large Israeli military operation in the eastern Mediterranean in June, in which more than 100 jets trained for long-range missions.

As mortgage foreclosures continue rising month on month, growing numbers of middle-class professionals are losing their homes and downsizing from four bedrooms to four wheels. With numbers rising, New Beginnings, a homeless agency in Santa Barbara, California, has launched a Safe Parking Programme, aiming to provide a refuge of sorts for those who have nowhere to go other than their vehicle.

Guy Trevor lost his job as an interior designer when the market contracted, thanks to the mortgage foreclosure crisis. With his furniture sold and his belongings in storage, he now lives in his car, spending the nights in one of the 12 gated parking lots in Santa Barbara run by New Beginnings.

Los Angeles has the highest number of homeless in the US, with an estimated 73,000 people living rough. Of more than 3,000 homeless people surveyed last year, around 250 were sleeping in their cars.

"NO BEES, NO CROPS," North Carolina grower Robert D. Edwards told a House Agriculture subcommittee. Edwards said he had to cut his cucumber acreage in half because of the lack of bees available to rent. About three-quarters of flowering plants rely on birds, bees and other pollinators to help them reproduce. Bee pollination is responsible for $15 billion annually in crop value.

In 2006, beekeepers began reporting losing 30 percent to 90 percent of their hives. This phenomenon has become known as Colony Collapse Disorder. Scientists do not know how many bees have died; beekeepers have lost 36 percent of their managed colonies this year. It was 31 percent for 2007, said Edward B. Knipling, administrator of the Agriculture Department's Agricultural Research Service.

"IF THERE ARE NO BEES, THERE IS NO WAY FOR OUR NATION'S FARMERS TO CONTINUE TO GROW THE HIGH QUALITY, NUTRITIOUS FOODS OUR COUNTRY RELIES ON," said Democratic Rep. Dennis Cardoza of California, chairman of the horticulture and organic agriculture panel. "This is a crisis we cannot afford to ignore." Food prices have gone up 83 percent in three years, according to the World Bank.

"TWO-HUNDRED DOLLAR OIL WOULD BREAK THE BACK OF THE GLOBAL ECONOMY. Next step after $200 would be global recession and bad news for everybody."

Sieminski's comments come after Goldman Sachs Group Inc. forecast oil may rise to between $150 and $200 within two years as supply growth, especially from producers outside the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, fails to keep pace with demand. Deutsche Bank is due to release its oil-price forecast on June 27.

Oil doubled in the past year, touching a record $139.89 a barrel on June 16. Crude oil for August delivery was at $136.84 a barrel, down 16 cents, at 7:08 p.m. Tokyo time in after-hours trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

Chaim Richman is a director at the Temple Institute in Jerusalem. "The Temple Institute is actively engaged in the research and preparation of the resumption of service in the holy temple to the extent of actually preparing operational blueprints for the construction of the temple according to the most modern standards," he said.

The menorah is just one of several vessels being created for the next temple. It's covered with 95 pounds of pure gold and has a price tag of $2 million. Piece by piece, the third temple is taking shape, with priest's garments, vessels of copper, gold, and silver, and a new generation of Levite priests specially trained for temple service.

"WE HAVE ENOUGH IN PLACE NOW TO RESUME DIVINE SERVICE and to build the temple," Richman said. "But obviously, a lot of things have to happen in order for this to happen."

Mindful of the disaster of 1984, when more than a million starved to death, and well aware of the erratic effects of global climate change on previously predictable weather patterns, the government has invested heavily in preparing for fresh crises. But this year a "perfect storm" of factors, fed in large part by soaring world food and fuel prices, has pushed large parts of the country to the edge once again.

Families have sold what they could: a goat, if they owned one, farm tools if they had them, and used the money to buy food in the market. BUT THE PRICES ARE NOW BEYOND MOST PEOPLE'S REACH. The rains due to start now are forecast to be above average. But what appears to be good news could in fact exacerbate the current crisis. Army worms, pests which feed on immature crops, flourish with heavy rain. Too much rain fall could also lead to flooding, destroying the promised crop and bringing illness.

The organisation created by traditionalists - called the Gafcon movement after the Global Anglican Future Conference which led to its creation - will retain ties with Dr Rowan Williams and will technically remain within the global Anglican Communion.

But it is also likely to lead to orthodox Anglicans severing all links with the main churches in America and Canada, whose liberal leaders are blamed for sparking the current crisis by breaking with the Bible's teaching and by consecrating openly gay clergy and blessing gay "marriages".

The movement's leaders will include at least two Church of England bishops as well as the heads of leading African, South American and Australian churches, and it is said to represent 35 million worshippers worldwide and so spell an end to the "colonial" domination of Canterbury.

The report in the conservative Jam-e-Jam newspaper comes after the disclosure of a recent Israeli military exercise over the Mediterranean Sea that was seen as sending a message to Iran to curb its nuclear ambitions. Gen. Mohammad Ali Jafari said there were strong deterrents against striking Iran, including the country's missile power, the vulnerability of Israeli and U.S. forces in the region and the low probability of a successful attack.

Iran has spread its nuclear facilities across the country and has built key portions underground to protect it from airstrikes. But Jafari warned that if attacked, Iran would strike back, INCLUDING CHOKING OFF THE STRATEGIC STRAIT OF HORMUZ, a narrow outlet for oil tankers leaving the Persian Gulf.

"Naturally, any country coming under attack will use all of its capacity and opportunities to confront the enemy. GIVEN THE MAIN ROUTE FOR ENERGY TO EXIT THE REGION, ONE OF IRAN'S STEPS WILL DEFINITELY BE TO EXERCISE CONTROL ON THE PERSIAN GULF AND THE STRAIT OF HORMUZ," Jafari told Jam-e-Jam, which is affiliated with Iran's state-run radio and television network.

On Saturday, President Bush issued an emergency declaration for California and ordered federal agencies to assist in firefighting efforts in many areas. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger had made the request on Friday. More than 17,000 firefighters, 1,500 fire engines and bulldozers, and more than 80 helicopters and aircraft were fighting more than 1,000 fires Saturday, said state emergency services spokesman Kelly Huston.

"THE SUMMER HAS JUST BEGUN, AND FIRE CONDITIONS WILL ONLY GET TOUGHER," Ruben Grijalva, director of the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, warned in a weekly radio address on behalf of the governor. "Air pollution readings in the region are two to 10 times the federal standard for clean air," said Dimitri Stanich, spokesman for the California Air Resources Board. SOME AREAS ARE EXPERIENCING THE WORST AIR QUALITY ON RECORD, with the smoke hanging down to the ground like a fog.

"OIL PRICES ARE EXPECTED TO REACH $170 as demand for fuel is growing in the U.S. during the summer period and the dollar continues to weaken against the euro," Khelil said today in a telephone interview. The leader of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries also serves as Algeria's oil minister. Political pressure on Iran and the depreciation of the U.S. currency have caused a surge in oil prices, Khelil said. New York- traded crude has more than doubled in a year and touched a record $142.99 a barrel yesterday on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

OPEC ministers generally say that oil output is sufficient, even as Saudi Arabia, the biggest producer, pledged to pump an extra 200,000 barrels a day next month to calm the market. "The market is completely supplied," Venezuelan Oil Minister Rafael Ramirez said yesterday. Libya announced possible production cuts, calling the market oversupplied.

The rising cost of crude is not linked to supply, Khelil said today. "There is more than enough oil in the market to meet the international demand," added the OPEC president, who will take part June 30 in an international energy forum in Madrid.

Lord Carlile, QC, said that senior police officers had "real anxiety" about the possibility of terror "vehicle bombs" to target the public. Such attacks would be "relatively simple" to orchestrate, Lord Carlile said in a report on how Britain is dealing with the terrorism threat. He said that the thousands of small, rented planes capable of travelling at high speed between the Continent and Britain should be subjected to far stricter checks.

The warning, contained in a 60 page report, will prompt fears that Britain has been left open to a terrorist outrage similar to the September 11, 2001 attacks on New York and Washington. Lord Carlile said he had raised concerns with Google over the availability of terrorism-related material on the internet. The European Court of Human Rights announced it would investigate the Government's plans to hold terrorist suspects for up to 42 days. The Government announced it would build a specialist detention centre for suspected terrorists.

There are an estimated 8,500 private aircraft and up to 500 "landing sites" in Britain, ranging from farmers' fields to regional airports. A plane flying from outside the European Union could touch down on an airfield in the EU and be regarded by British authorities as coming from within the EU. "This is self-evidently unsatisfactory," Lord Carlile said.