Mr Reid said the European Union needed to develop its counter-terror policies in response to the evolving threat. He said the talks had discussed practical measures in four areas:

Tackling liquid explosives
Co-ordination of transport security
Exchange of intelligence
The nature of European Islam

The world was faced by a form of "intolerant and violent totalitarianism", he added, which was subverting a religion, Islam, whose very name stood for peace. Justice Commissioner Franco Frattini said he would be presenting concrete proposals on detection of liquid explosives to a forthcoming meeting of all EU interior ministers in Finland. He also called for a crackdown on internet sites used to incite terrorism.

Veto move

The 7 July bombings in London last year pushed counter-terrorism up the EU agenda, and helped former Home Secretary Charles Clarke clinch a deal to force companies to retain telephone and e-mail data for use in investigations. We came to the conclusion that a united Europe will win the battle with the terrorists
Finnish Interior Minister Kari Rajamaeki

The European Commission is currently trying to persuade governments to give up their veto powers in the area of criminal justice, arguing that it will help the anti-terrorism effort.
The London meeting was attended by Finnish Interior Minister Kari Rajamaki, whose country holds the EU presidency, and ministers from France, Germany, Portugal and Slovenia, which hold the presidency in 2007 and 2008.

"That is important because the threat is an enduring threat and will require therefore an enduring response," Mr Reid said.

Europe was up against people who were abusing its open society and its freedoms and adapting the latest technology to their "evil intent", he said.

Mr Rajamaeki said the UK had the "solidarity and support" of the whole European Union. He added: "We came to the conclusion that a united Europe will win the battle with the terrorists."

A meeting of European aviation security and counter-terrorism experts which was due to have been held later in the week has been postponed. The UK security threat level was raised to "critical" last week amid fears of the plot. On Monday it was downgraded to "severe", meaning an attack is now considered highly likely but not imminent.

Here are Britain's main proposals for new Europe-wide measures:
Counter the newly identified threat from liquid explosives. Britain has set an example by barring passengers from taking liquids including drinks and cosmetics into plane cabins. Others have not yet followed suit.
Step up security at European airports, as well as rail networks and other public transport systems. The strict rules at British airports have caused massive disruption, but Dr Reid says terrorists must not be able to get round them by going instead to airports in Germany or France.

Swap intelligence better among EU security agencies. On the UK's initiative, EU intelligence chiefs will meet later this month to follow up the British investigation into the alleged plot uncovered last week.
Muslim alienation. The European Commissioner for Justice and Home Affairs, Franco Frattini, promised quick action. Within days, he promised to present detailed plans, including:

New measures to detect and protect travellers against liquid and other explosives, at airports and other key points.
More exchanges of passenger lists and other information among EU states.
New EU-wide schemes to counter the recruitment of Muslim youths into extremist groups. Imams may be trained in a peaceful "European" brand of Islam; schoolteachers from across Europe will be asked to work together to reverse the alienation now apparent among many Muslim youths.

All 25 EU Interior ministers may decide to implement parts of this package of steps when they meet in Finland on 20 September. It looks like a formidable array of anti-terrorist defences.

Other far-reaching EU policies are also under consideration to cut illegal immigration, speed up deportations of terrorist suspects and make wide use of biometric systems for identity checks. But the tally of past EU efforts to build strong anti-terrorist defences suggests that this time, too, results may be slower to arrive than politicians' resounding words suggest:

The European Arrest Warrant system, a key part of Europe's counter-terrorism strategy,has speeded up extraditions within Europe; but it took much longer to bring into force than at first planned.
The European Evidence Warrant, aimed at further breaking down national barriers to crime and terrorism investigations, is not due to take effect until next year.

The EU's special Counter-terrorism Coordinator, Gijs De Vries, cautioned after the London meeting against exaggerating the prospects for finding cure-all defences against would-be terrorists. The EU, he said, must not compromise its values of individual liberty, which set it apart from the values of the terrorist; it must also take care not to imply that Islam contains inherent dangers.
'Common and real threat' Anyway, Gijs De Vries says, the EU has limited powers of action. National governments are still responsible for the main decisions about protecting their own citizens.

Even so, this meeting showed European states - including the "Big Three" of Britain, France and Germany, in unusual accord in the face of a "common and very real" threat.
And the EU's much-derided systen of six-monthly rotating presidencies is being put to a useful purpose: the ministers represented all the EU countries that will chair EU business from now until the end of 2008 - including the current holder Finland, as well as Portugal and Slovenia.

Europe is planning for a long campaign of self-defence against those who threaten its populations with death and destruction.

The government is appealing to Muslim figures to work harder to prevent extremist views from taking root in their communities, particularly among young people.

Shari'a is controversial because it provides for punishments including limb amputation for theft and death for apostasy. The legal code is applied in varying degrees in countries including Saudi Arabia, Iran, Sudan, Libya, Nigeria, Pakistan and Indonesia.

Shari'a in family affairs deals with issues such as dowry, inheritance and sharing of assets. In some traditions it also allows men to beat wives who refuse to obey them and won't submit to non-physical admonition, and to end a marriage by declaring "I divorce you" three times.

Pasha said Muslim leaders were ready to cooperate with the government, but wanted a partnership."They should understand our problems then we will understand their problems."

Other Muslim leaders, however, disagreed. Khalid Mahmood, one of four Muslim lawmakers in the House of Commons, said shari'a could not apply in Britain because it was not an Islamic state.

Take Jessica Knowles of San Antonio whose entire family ? even her dogs ? have been battling on-again, off-again staph infections for several years.

"I've had it probably four to five times now. It's embarrassing, very embarrassing especially when it starts getting on my face," Knowles said. "It starts out feeling like you got bit by something, and you see a red spot like a pimple. It oozes. It doesn't stop."

Or Brandon Kafka of Seattle, who has battled several severe skin infections, including one that broke out across his face after he'd shaved. "[It] hurt worse than anything I have ever felt," he said.

Their infections were caused by a bacterium called methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, or MRSA. Once confined mostly to hospitals and prisons, MRSA has branched out into the general population. It often infects people without warning, and is commonly mistaken as a spider bite.
A study published today in the New England Journal of Medicine shows just how widespread the bug has become. Researchers took hundreds of skin samples from patients who'd visited 11 emergency rooms in the United States with skin or tissue infections. Laboratory analysis showed that 59 percent of the time the culprit was MRSA, meaning the bug has reached broadly into the general community and that's bad news in the fight against antibiotic resistance.

"This underscores the need to avoid overuse of antibiotics in general so as to avoid the development of antibiotic resistance," said Dr. Greg Anderson, at the Mayo Clinic.

The new findings come of no surprise to people who have dealt with a staph infection. It is often a frustrating and ongoing ordeal: Since staph is a notoriously adept and common bacteria, the infection doesn't go away easily. It lives naturally in most people's noses, and for unknown reasons, it can suddenly turn against its host and start infecting the skin.

Once it takes hold, it is easily transmitted among family members, co-workers or schoolmates. And because doctors often unwittingly prescribe an ineffective antibiotic which occurred 57 percent of the time in the study it often lingers.

A 'Major Problem' for Kids

"MRSA has blossomed over the last few years," said Dr. John J. Messmer, an associate professor of family and community medicine at Penn State College of Medicine. "As the study discussed, staph organisms transfer the genetic ability to resist antibiotics to one another." While the infection can hit anyone, it is a "major problem" among kids, said Dr. William Schaffner, chairman of the department of preventive medicine at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine in Nashville.

"About six years ago, Vanderbilt investigators cultured the noses of many healthy Nashville children ? only 1 percent carried MRSA," Schaffner said. "When the study was repeated in 2004, 9 percent were carriers. You can see that the problem has exploded."
Solid numbers on MRSA are hard to come by. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention doesn't require that doctors report community-acquired MRSA infections the way they're required to with most communicable diseases.
This infuriates Joy Smith of Stevenson, Ala., whose grandson has MRSA in both of his ears, which came from having tubes placed in his ears. "This is something that the public needs to be more aware of, and the medical community needs to take a more proactive approach," she said.

By - Pierre Rehov, documentary filmmaker On July 15, MSNBC's "Connected" program discussed the London attacks.
One of the guests was Pierre Rehov, a French filmmaker who has filmed six documentaries on the intifada by going undercover in the Palestinian areas.
Pierre's upcoming film, "Suicide Killers," is based on interviews that he conducted with the families of suicide bombers and would-be bombers in an attempt to find out why they do it. Pierre agreed to a request for a Q&A interview here about his work on the new film.
Q - What inspired you to produce "Suicide Killers," your seventh film?
A - I started working with victims of suicide attacks to make a film on PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder) when I became fascinated with the personalities of those who had committed those crimes, as they were described again and again by their victims. Especially the fact that suicide bombers are all smiling one second before they blow themselves up
Q - Why is this film especially important?
A - People don't understand the devastating culture behind this unbelievable phenomenon. My film is not politically correct because it addresses the real problem, showing the real face of Islam. It points the finger against a culture of hatred in which the uneducated are brainwashed to a level where their only solution in life becomes to kill themselves and kill others in the name of a God whose word, as transmitted by other men, has become their only certitude.
Q - What insights did you gain from making this film? What do you know that other experts do not know?
A - I came to the conclusion that we are facing a neurosis at the level of an entire civilization. Most neuroses have in common a dramatic event, generally linked to an unacceptable sexual behaviour.
In this case, we are talking of kids living all their lives in pure frustration, with no opportunity to experience sex, love, tenderness or even understanding from the opposite sex. The separation between men and women in Islam is absolute. So is contempt toward women, who are totally dominated by men. This leads to a situation of pure anxiety, in which normal behaviour is not possible. It is no coincidence that suicide killers are mostly young men dominated subconsciously by an overwhelming libido that they not only cannot satisfy but are afraid of, as if it is the work of the devil. Since Islam describes heaven as a place where everything on Earth will finally be allowed, and promises 72 virgins to those frustrated kids, killing others and killing themselves to reach this redemption becomes their only solution.
Q - What was it like to interview would-be suicide bombers, their families and survivors of suicide bombings?
A - It was a fascinating and a terrifying experience. You are dealing with seemingly normal people with very nice manners who have their own logic, which to a certain extent can make sense since they are so convinced that what they say is true. It is like dealing with pure craziness, like interviewing people in an asylum, since what they say, is for them, the absolute truth. I hear a mother saying "Thank God, my son is dead." Her son had became a shaheed, a martyr, which for her was a greater source of pride than if he had became an engineer, a doctor or a winner of the Nobel Prize. This system of values works completely backwards since their interpretation of Islam worships death much more than life. You are facing people whose only dream, only achievement goal is to fulfil what they believe to be their destiny, namely to be a Shaheed or the family of a shaheed. They don't see the innocent being killed, they only see the impure that they have to destroy.
Q - You say suicide bombers experience a moment of absolute power, beyond punishment. Is death the ultimate power?
A - Not death as an end, but death as a door opener to the after life. They are seeking the reward that God has promised them. They work for God, the ultimate authority, above all human laws. They therefore experience this single delusional second of absolute power, where nothing bad can ever happen to them, since they become God's sword.
Q - Is there a suicide bomber personality profile? Describe the psychopathology.
A - Generally kids between 15 and 25 bearing a lot of complexes, generally inferiority complexes. They must have been fed with religion. They usually have a lack of developed personality. Usually they are impressionable idealists. In the western world they would easily have become drug addicts, but not criminals. Interestingly, they are not criminals since they don't see good and evil the same way that we do. If they had been raised in an Occidental culture, they would have hated violence. But they constantly battle against their own death anxiety. The only solution to this deep-seated pathology is to be willing to die and be rewarded in the afterlife in Paradise.
Q - Are suicide bombers principally motivated by religious conviction?
A - Yes, it is their only conviction. They don't act to gain a territory or to find freedom or even dignity. They only follow Allah, the supreme judge, and what He tells them to do.
Q - Do all Muslims interpret jihad and martyrdom in the same way?
A - All Muslim believers believe that, ultimately, Islam will prevail on earth. They believe this is the only true religion and there is no room, in their mind, for interpretation. The main difference between moderate Muslims and extremists is that moderate Muslims don't think they will see the absolute victory of Islam during their lifetime, therefore they respect other beliefs. The extremists believe that the
fulfilment of the Prophecy of Islam and ruling the entire world as described in the Koran, is for today. Each victory of Bin Laden convinces 20 million moderate Muslims to become extremists.
Q - Describe the culture that manufactures suicide bombers.
A - Oppression, lack of freedom, brain washing, organized poverty, placing God in charge of daily life, total separation between men and women, forbidding sex, giving women no power whatsoever, and placing men in charge of family honour, which is mainly connected to their women's behaviour.
Q - What socio-economic forces support the perpetuation of suicide bombings?
A - Muslim charity is usually a cover for supporting terrorist organizations. But one has also to look at countries like Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and Iran, which are also supporting the same organizations through different networks. The ironic thing in the case of Palestinian suicide bombers is that most of the money comes through financial support from the Occidental world, donated to a culture that utterly hates and rejects the West (mainly symbolized by Israel).
Q - Is there a financial support network for the families of the suicide bombers? If so, who is paying them and how does that affect the decision?
A - There used to be a financial incentive in the days of Saddam Hussein ($25,000 per family) and Yasser Arafat (smaller amounts), but these days are gone. It is a mistake to believe that these families would sacrifice their children for money. Although, the children themselves who are very attached to their families, might find in this financial support another reason to become suicide bombers. It is like buying a life insurance policy and then committing suicide.
Q - Why are so many suicide bombers young men?
A - As discussed above, libido is paramount. Also ego, because this is a sure way to become a hero. The shaheed are the cowboys or the firemen of Islam. Shaheed is a positively reinforced value in this culture. And what kid has never dreamed of becoming a cowboy or a fireman?
Q - What role does the U.N. play in the terrorist equation?
A - The U.N. is in the hands of Arab countries and third world or ex-communist countries. Their hands are tied. The U.N. has condemned Israel more than any other country in the world, including the regime of Castro, Idi Amin or Kaddahfi. By behaving this way, the U.N. leaves a door open by not openly condemning terrorist organizations. In addition, through UNRWA, the U.N. is directly tied to terror organizations such as Hamas, representing 65 percent of their apparatus in the so-called Palestinian refugee camps. As a support to Arab countries, the U.N. has maintained Palestinians in camps with the hope to "return" into Israel for more than 50 years, therefore making it impossible to settle those populations, which still live in deplorable conditions. Four hundred million dollars are spent every year, mainly financed by U.S. taxes, to support 23,000 employees of UNRWA, many of whom belong to terrorist organizations (see Congressman Eric Cantor on this subject, and in my film "Hostages of Hatred").
Q - You say that a suicide bomber is a 'stupid bomb and a smart bomb' simultaneously. Explain what you mean.
A - Unlike an electronic device, a suicide killer has until the last second the capacity to change his mind. In reality, he is nothing but a platform representing interests which are not his, but he doesn't know it.
Q - How can we put an end to the madness of suicide bombings and terrorism in general?
A - Stop being politically correct and stop believing that this culture is a victim of ours. Radical Islamism today is nothing but a new form of Nazism. Nobody was trying to justify or excuse Hitler in the 1930s. We had to defeat him in order to make peace one day with the German people.
Q - Are these men travelling outside their native areas in large numbers? Based on your research, would you predict that we are beginning to see a new wave of suicide bombings outside the Middle East?
A - Every successful terror attack is considered a victory by the radical Islamists. Everywhere Islam expands there is regional conflict. Right now, there are thousands of candidates for martyrdom lining up in training camps in Bosnia, Afghanistan and Pakistan. Inside Europe, hundreds of illegal mosques are preparing the next step of brain washing to lost young men who cannot find a satisfying identity in the Occidental world. Israel is much more prepared for this than the rest of the world will ever be. Yes, there will be more suicide killings in Europe and the U.S. Sadly, this is only the beginning.

Amidst the heightened security measures imposed at UK airports last week restrictions were placed on what passengers could carry on to flights. Items such as liquids and electronic devices were not allowed in hand luggage because the authorities claimed they could be used to blow up planes.

One item that was allowed was passengers' passports, including the new ePassports that contain an RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) chip. Interestingly however security analysts Flexilis have demonstrated that such passports can be used to detonate explosives. In their findings the group said: "it may be possible to determine the nationality of a passport holder by 'fingerprinting' the characteristics inherent in each country's RFID chips.

Taken to a logical extreme, this security vulnerability could make it possible for terrorists to craft explosives that detonate only when someone from the U.S. is nearby". The group have released a video that demonstrates their findings.

Weather, not pollution, appears to be the culprit, scientists said, and no relief is in sight. However, some said there is no immediate sign of long-term damage to the crab fishery in the dead zone, a 70-mile stretch of water along the Continental Shelf between Florence and Lincoln City.

Oregon State University scientists looking for weather changes that could reverse the situation aren't finding them. They say levels of dissolved oxygen critical to marine life are the lowest since the first dead zone was identified in 2002. It has returned every year.

Strong upwelling winds pushed a low-oxygen pool of deep water toward shore, suffocating marine life, said Jane Lubchenco, a professor of marine biology at OSU.

She said wind changes could help push that water farther out, but current forecasts predict the opposite.

After a recent trip to the dead zone and an inspection via camera on a remote-controlled submarine, she said, "We saw a crab graveyard and no fish the entire day.

"Thousands and thousands of dead crab and molts were littering the ocean floor. Many sea stars were dead, and the fish have either left the area or have died and been washed away."

The effect on the commercial fishery isn't yet known, said Hal Weeks, a marine ecologist with the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife. He said the last two years were record-breaking for the Dungeness crab despite dead zones.

"In that fishery, there has been no apparent effect," he said. "That doesn't mean there won't be."

Weeks said crab populations fluctuate wildly for reasons not well understood. Whether any harvest decline is a result of normal fluctuation or the effects of the dead zone is hard to say, he said.

He said some reports indicate the loss of fin fish may be due to their movement to areas with more oxygen rather than to mortality.

Al Pazar, chairman of the Oregon Dungeness Crab Commission and a crab fisherman, said this season is shaping up to be the second-best ever, around 28 million pounds, but that most crabs are caught in the six or eight weeks following the season's winter opening, well ahead of the appearance of the dead zones.

Few boats are fishing now, he said, and the season closes at midnight Monday. But he said the affected area is a major crab producer, "right in the thick of it."

The 2002 dead zone was the worst until this year's, he said. After 2002, he returned to the area when the season reopened and had good results.

"They do move back in," he said.

Oregon State scientists working with the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife used a remote-control device Aug. 8 to check biological impact and continue oxygen sampling.

Dissolved oxygen readings off of Cape Perpetua north of Florence are between 3 percent and 10 percent of levels needed for survival and near zero in some areas.

A reef near Yachats normally swarms with rockfish, but they are gone. Dead Dungeness crab, sea stars and other marine life carpet the ocean floor.

Similar but lesser zones have been found elsewhere along the Oregon and Washington coasts. Scientists say they don't yet know how widespread it is.

Some dead zones been caused by agricultural runoff. Those similar to Oregon's have been found off Africa in the Atlantic and Peru in the Pacific.

During the night, police arrested a number of people in London after a counter-terrorist operation they said had lasted several months.

Security at all airports in the UK has been tightened and delays are expected.

Scotland Yard said in a statement: "We would like to reassure the public that this operation was carried out with public safety uppermost in our minds.

"This is a major operation which inevitably will be lengthy and complex."

The Department for Transport set out the details of the security measures at UK airports.

Passengers will not be allowed to take any hand luggage on to any flights in the UK, the department said.

Only the barest essentials - including passports and wallets - will be allowed to be carried on board in transparent plastic bags.

"We hope that these measures, which are being kept under review by the government, will need to be in place for a limited period only," the statement said.

BBC journalist Joe Lynam encountered the increased security measures at Gatwick airport.

"I was handed a piece of paper saying that pretty much nothing could be taken on board the plane," he said.

"Everything had to be checked in and that includes mobile phones, ipods, wallets - even spectacle cases had to be checked in."

ISRAEL
Israel sees this war as another part of its long effort to establish itself in the region. It has treaties with Egypt and Jordan and would like one with Lebanon.

However this war has put that prospect off, possibly for many years given the level of casualties in Lebanon. In the meantime, Israel wants Hezbollah removed as a threat since Hezbollah is hostile to Israel's existence.

Israel says the Lebanese government should do this but it is prepared to enforce what it identifies as its own interests anyway.

Israel sees the hand of mainly Iran but also Syria behind Hezbollah, especially in the supply of the thousands of rockets Hezbollah has acquired. One strategic Israeli aim in the war and one shared by the United States is to weaken those links and so weaken the influence of Iran and Syria in Lebanon and the region.

On the other hand, Israel itself will suffer a loss of power and prestige if it cannot show a clear victory.

LEBANON
The government fears that the Israeli onslaught will put all the progress Lebanon has made in recent years at risk and that there could be a return to civil war and strife and a return of Syrian influence.

Lebanon therefore wants an immediate end to the fighting and says that a political agreement should come afterwards, based on Security Council resolution 1559. Passed in September 2004, this called on all militias in Lebanon to be disbanded and the authority of the government extended to the border. Easier said than done, has proved to be the experience.

The Lebanese coalition government was formed after the Cedar Revolution of 2004 which led to the removal of Syrian forces from the country. Hezbollah has two seats in the cabinet even though it opposed the Cedar Revolution. However, Hezbollah feels it can act unilaterally, hence its cross-border raid to capture two Israeli solders. The conflict will help determine its future status in Lebanon.

HEZBOLLAH
Hezbollah, the Shia 'Party of God' in Lebanon, is determined to come out of the conflict in a stronger position. It also seeks wider support in Lebanon, which will make it harder for the Lebanese government to bring it under closer control afterwards.

Hezbollah sees itself as in the vanguard of the opposition to the state of Israel, which it regards as a Zionist intrusion into Muslim lands. It was instrumental in making Israel withdraw from southern Lebanon in 2000 and sees in this war a chance for it to diminish Israeli power.

Hezbollah's fate will affect the future influence of Iran and Syria in Lebanon and the region. It is closely supported by Iran, which holds similar views about Israel and which has supplied missiles to its Shia brethren. Syria's interests are more to do with trying to maintain an influence in Lebanon and in supporting an opponent of Israel.

IRAN
Iran's President Ahmadinejad has said that the "elimination" of Israel is the solution to the Middle East's problems so clearly Iran would like to see Israel (and through Israel, the United States) diminished by the conflict and Hezbollah strengthened.

In that way, its own influence would grow not just in Lebanon but also in the region and among the Middle East's Shia population. Some think that Iran sees in the conflict a welcome distraction from its own nuclear programme. However that issue will return.

Equally, if Hezbollah's power is eventually reduced, so too will Iran's, since Iran is Hezbollah's principal backer.

SYRIA
Syria lost out in Lebanon during the Cedar Revolution and probably knows that it cannot return to its former position, even though at heart it regards Lebanon, for historical reasons, as basically part of Syria and certainly part of its sphere of influence. However it probably sees an opportunity to regain some influence through Hezbollah if Hezbollah emerged intact.

It would like the US to recognise it as a power-broker in the area but so far Washington has refused to do so.

Syria does not want to get drawn into a war, even a limited encounter with Israel. It could not win. It prefers to play a very long game.

PALESTINIANS
The Palestinians never quite know how Israel's battles and deals with others will affect them. Over the years they have concluded that they will have to make their own arrangements so when the dust has settled from this war, their own struggle will come to the fore again though of course it has not gone away.

A key issue for them is whether the Israeli Prime Minister Olmert's plan to leave further parts of the West Bank and consolidate in others will now be abandoned.

The prospect for the Palestinians is that despite the international talk of resolving the fundamental issue of who owns which part of the land, nothing much will be done in practice.

UNITED STATES
The Bush administration sees the battle against Hezbollah in the wider context of its effort to promote what President Bush called in 2003 a "Forward Strategy of Freedom to Promote Democracy in the Middle East".

This means that it wants Hezbollah to be destroyed as a military force. It would see this as an important milestone in its "war on terror".

The risk for the US is that its efforts are seen as aggressive by some and might be counter-productive in that they could provoke more opposition to US policy.

The US wants to see Iranian and Syrian influence reduced as well. Iran, with its nuclear programme at issue, is seen by the US as a potential threat and anything that undermines Iran is useful in American eyes. However, Israel's own strategic relations with the US might also come under close examination if the conflict ends without Israel achieving its stated aims.

FRANCE AND BRITAIN
France has emerged with increased influence. It has capitalised on its traditional links with Lebanon and has taken a leading role in the negotiations for ceasefire. It has also maintained its philosophical opposition to the Bush administration while forcing the US to take it seriously.

Britain has generally followed US policy. It has thereby attracted criticism but hopes to recoup some of it losses if a long-term agreements can be made.

The Organisation of the Islamic Conference (OIC) is expected to call for an immediate ceasefire. The leaders are also likely to back an international force for Lebanon.

The presidents of Iran and Indonesia and the prime ministers of Pakistan, Bangladesh, Turkey and Azerbaijan are among the representatives of 18 Islamic countries at the emergency one-day summit, which was called last week.

'Outrage'

"Until now, unfortunately, the international community is in paralysis," said Malaysian premier Abdullah Badawi, the current OIC chairman, in a speech opening the talks.

"The Security Council could not even muster the moral courage to condemn Israel for the attack on Qana or the killing of UN observers at Khiam," he said.

He also urged Muslim nations to offer troops for a multinational stabilisation force for Lebanon.
Pakistan's Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz said the failure to halt the violence was "adding to popular anger" and could have "incalculable consequences for long-term peace" in the Middle East.

He also called for all prisoners in the conflict - Lebanese, Palestinian and Israeli - to be returned.

The OIC's Secretary General, Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu, said the Islamic world is "outraged" over international "double standards" on the Israeli offensive in Lebanon.

"I am afraid that the anger of the Muslim masses is being transformed into permanent hatred against the aggressors and their implicit and explicit protectors," he said.

Malaysia is also seeking support for an international commission to investigate what it describes as Israeli "war crimes".

In addition, last year there were 7,937 abortions for non-residents of England and Wales, mostly women from Ireland, which takes the overall total for the year to 194,353. The great majority of abortions, 89%, were carried out before 13 weeks gestation; 67% were before 10 weeks. There were 137 abortions carried out for pregnancies beyond the 24th week.

Overall, the abortion rate was 17.8 per 1,000 resident women aged 15-44. In terms of age distribution the abortion rate was highest, at 32.0 per 1,000, for women in the 20-24 age group.

The government, through the National Health Service, paid for 84% of abortions carried out in 2005. The majority, 79%, were carried out on single women, a proportion that has been on the rise since 1995, when it was at about two-thirds.

"The high percentage of abortions -- 66% -- within the first nine weeks of pregnancy is clear evidence, if any were needed, that abortion is provided on demand in the UK," said Julia Millington of the ProLife Alliance. "And the marked increase in the number of early abortions make[s] it difficult to regard this as anything other than abortion being treated as a method of contraception," she added in her reaction to the data in a press release July 4.

Another concern raised over the figures regards abortions carried out on young girls. In 2005 there were 1,083 abortions performed on girls under age 15. The Department of Health grouped together the statistics for the last three years regarding abortions on girls under age 14. In 2003-2005, there were 33 abortions performed on girls under age 13, and 409 abortions on girls aged 13.

"It is shameful that the government should promote secret abortions for girls under the age of consent and insist that their parents aren't told," said John Smeaton, national director of the Society for the Protection for Unborn Children (SPUC).

In the meantime, efforts by activists to use some of the more graphic tactics common in other countries to protest abortion have run into legal obstacles. Edward Atkinson, a 74-year-old pro-life campaigner was jailed for four weeks after sending "offensive" pictures of mutilated fetuses through the mail, reported the Independent newspaper on May 8. The photos showed severed limbs and a fetus without its head.

The target of the photos, the Queen Elizabeth Hospital, also punished Atkinson, by removing him from a waiting list for a hip replacement. Showing people the graphic results of laws that allow the killing of hundreds of thousands of unborn babies is, it seems, too much for British sensibilities.

The Shijian-8, a recoverable satellite, will be launched at the beginning of September aboard a Long March 2C rocket.

The two-week mission will expose 2,000 seeds to cosmic radiation and micro-gravity.

The space seed experiments come as the nation seeks ways to feed its 1.3 billion people amid a rapid decline in farm land due to swift industrialisation.

Sun Laiyan, head of the China National Space Administration, said the "seed satellite" would enable scientists to try to cultivate high-yield and high-quality plants.

Exposed to special environment such as cosmic radiation and micro-gravity, it is hoped that some seeds will mutate to such an extent that they may produce much higher yields and improved quality.

Nine categories of seeds, including grains, cash crops and forage plants will be aboard the satellite.

Vitamin content

China has been experimenting with space-bred seeds for years, with rice and wheat exposed to the atmosphere resulting in increased yields.

Space-bred tomato and green peppers seeds have resulted in harvests between 10% and 20% larger than ordinary seeds, while vegetables grown from space-bred seeds have a higher vitamin content.

The satellite will be the first dedicated specifically for seeds.

The nation already produces genetically modified tomatoes, soy beans and corn, and is considering plans to approve the production of genetically modified rice.

( These two letters give an insight as to what is happening in the new Europe, which recieves little attention in the media. Ed)

Sir George Soros is undoubtedly very sharp-eyed when dealing with financial markets (Soros attacks EU for failure to stand up to America, 16/17 July). But when he looks at the European Union, he seems to put on rose-tinted spectacles, as he says The European Union has a mission: the spread of peace, freedom and democracy. What do we mean by "freedom and democracy?

There is one conception of freedom and democracy which, alongside one-person-one-vote, includes habeas corpus and trial by independent jury and other legal safeguards against arbitrary and wrongful arrest and imprisonment, but this is limited to the English-speaking nations. We English-speakers consider these safeguards to be part of our bedrock, core values.

In the other conception, which prevails on the European continent, there is a career judiciary that controls every phase of criminal investigation, prosecution, arrest, trial, verdict and sentence, and a suspect can spend months on end, or even longer, in prison, being interrogated in secret hearings, and waiting while the prosecutors try to build a case against him.

The lack of habeas corpus means that a suspect has no right to an immediate public hearing after arrest, and there is no obligation on the prosecution to exhibit any evidence against him, before he actually comes up for the trial proper, which can be months or years later. In this system the prosecutors are colleagues of the judges, who also control the verdict, and who have never acted as defenders, whereas the defenders belong to a completely separate professional body. Hardly anyone in Britain is aware of these radical differences, since there are no university chairs of comparative law that study comparative criminal law and procedure.

The European Commission's project for an embryo criminal code, corpus juris, planned for all Europe including the British Isles, is based entirely on this continental inquisitorial system. It will introduce a European Public Prosecutor, with fearsome powers, and will explicitly scrap our habeas corpus and trial by jury rights. At the seminar in Spain where this project was presented by the Commission in 1997, I asked why they had made this choice, rather than say, adopting habeas corpus and trial by jury and introducing them to the continent. There was no answer; those present simply changed the subject.

The Commission has asked the member states to relinquish the veto on Justice and Home Affairs (JHA), the British government has said it is open to considering this possibility, and in September a decision will be taken. Up to now corpus juris has been kept at bay by a British pledge, made in December 1998 by Kate Hoey, Home Office Minister at the time, to veto it if it were ever presented formally. There can be no doubt that once the veto is gone, the tarpaulin will be taken off and corpus juris will be wheeled out again in all its glory, and rammed down our throats.

With JHA becoming an EU competence, the EU will have taken the power to put people in prison, and thereby will have become to all intents and purposes, a state, since only a state can wield this power. Europol will surely be beefed up too, and we shall see armed foreign policemen in funny uniforms, controlled from Brussels, on our streets, to enforce the new laws on us (armed because all continental police forces have always carried guns).

When Soros asks, Are they doing as much as they could to change the world? The answer is yes. But when and if they succeed in this particular project, it will not feel like an extension of freedom and democracy to us Brits. Nor will it appear as such to the Americans who, for all their faults, do share these basic values with us.

Doubtless Mr Soros, like the vast majority of people in Britain, is completely unaware of all this, and yet as someone born in Hungary who sought refuge in US citizenship, he will surely appreciate the safeguards we enjoy against arbitrary arrest and imprisonment.

Could someone please tell him about the EU plans to take them away from us?

Torquil Dick-Erikson,
Rome, Italy
info@iEnglish.co.uk

Sir, It appears that George Soros is under an illusion in his thinking that the European Union is about peace, freedom and democracy. It is not, it only says it is. In spite of two major countries democratically rejecting the proposed EU Constitution, the EU has decided to incorporate certain parts of that constitution as well as new agencies, which, without the constitution, some do not have the correct legal base".

The EU is not about freedom: our freedom went out of the window when it was proposed that ID cards were to be introduced. We were promised freedom to go from one country to another (open borders) but many people have been penalised for not carrying or being able to produce ID Cards when asked to do so. So much for freedom. Peace? Because of the EU and its policies, its takeover against the people's wishes, there is more likelihood of war (civil and otherwise) more so now than for the past 30-odd years we have been in the EU. We have seen in the recent past what happens when people just stand by and watch while others are taken away to be imprisoned without trial or evidence, particularly when Britain is a country that had habeas corpus against such a procedure. Just saying a wrong word, perhaps thoughtless word, can bring a prosecution. They will not stand by forever.

The EU Constitution ended the illusion that the EU is simply nation states working together, as we here in the UK have been told so often. The EU wants to become one state in its own right, that dream of it's founders has gone, shattered beyond repair. We have our own Constitution and it is to that our politicians, who were once trusted with the guardianship of, will have to answer to one day.

Anne Palmer
Cannock Road ,Westcroft
Wolverhampton

One of the makers of the technology, Micro Librarian Systems (MLS), say they have sold about 1,000 systems to schools in the UK and abroad.

One mother from London told BBC News Online she was horrified when her son came home and told her he had been finger-printed at his primary school.

She said: "I consider that this was an infringement of my son's civil rights and a breach of trust on the part of the school.

"This should not have been done at all, and certainly not without our consent, or indeed knowledge.

"If my child had been arrested, I believe the police would not have a right to take fingerprints without our consent and access to a solicitor."

She said the new system may have been mentioned in a newsletter when her son was off sick, but she was never asked for consent.

The school has now removed her son's details from the system and says it will respect the wishes of other parents who want it to do the same.

Simon Davies, of the campaign group Privacy International says the practice of finger-printing children in this way is "dangerous, illegal and unnecessary".

He says the use of the technology should be banned in schools.

"It de-humanises our children and degrades their human rights," he said.

"Such a process has the effect of softening children up for such initiatives as ID cards and DNA testing.

"It's clearly a case of 'get them while they're young'.

"They are seen as a soft target for this technology".

Encrypted

Manufacturers MLS say it would be very difficult for a third party to access the prints and make use of them.

The company's technology director Stephen Phillips said: "The system does not store the actual fingerprint, but a map of it which takes in the print's key features.

"The image is then compressed and encrypted, so it would take a lot of effort to use it.

"People who have nothing to hide - why would they worry?"

Mr Phillips said the company advised schools to consult or inform parents before they used the technology.

He said only two parents had complained about the use of the technology to the company.

Privacy International says it expects there to be legal challenges to the use of the technology in schools.

But the government's information commissioner does not believe the system is breaking any laws or conventions.

Assistant to the commissioner, Phil Boyd said: "It is not in breach of the data protection act and it does not contravene the human rights act."

He said officials had been to check the system and thought it was impressive in terms of the security of the data.

"If it was being used to track pupils it would be different, but this use of the technology is fine," he said.

Officials at the Department for Education said the matter was one for head teachers and governing bodies, who had to ensure they stayed within the law.

The move will have little practical effect for church-going Methodists, a denomination that split from Anglicanism.

Benedict is also seeking more cooperation with the Orthodox churches, the eastern Christians who split from Rome in the 11th century, and will visit their Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew in Istanbul in November.

"We welcome this agreement with great joy... It is our deep hope that in the near future we shall also be able to enter into closer relationships with Lutherans and the Roman Catholic Church," the World Methodist Council said in a statement.

"Today is one of the most significant dates in the history of our churches," Walter Kasper, Vatican cardinal in charge of the 1.1 billion-strong Catholic Church's relations with other Christian churches, said in Seoul before a signing event on Sunday.

Methodist leaders unanimously passed the resolution to join the Catholic-Lutheran agreement last week during a global conference in Seoul.

"The three parties commit themselves to strive together for the deepening of their common understanding of justification in theological study, teaching and preaching," the statement said.

The issue of justification, simply put, what Christians must do to get to Heaven -- was the central dispute in the Reformation that split western Christianity and plunged Europe into the Thirty Years' War.

As Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, Benedict played a key role in drawing up the Catholic-Lutheran declaration that revoked heresy charges against reformer Martin Luther and said disputes that led to the Reformation over four centuries ago were null and void.

Luther, a German monk who posted his famous 95 Theses on the door of the Castle Church at Wittenberg in 1517, held people could be saved not by faith and good works, but by faith alone.

Luther was angered by the Catholic Church's teaching that good works could also lead to salvation, a view that was corrupted into the practice of selling indulgences to those seeking absolution for their sins.

The 1999 statement satisfied both Lutherans and Catholics, saying that salvation is achieved through God's grace and this is reflected in the good works a person does.

The signing does not mean that Catholic, Lutheran and Methodist churches are moving towards any kind of reunification, a step that deep historical divisions make highly unlikely.

But it could encourage them to take more common positions on issues of concern to Christians.

This week, for example, the Vatican supported an Orthodox project on protecting the world environment, saying believers should unite "to safeguard the habitat that the Creator prepared for mankind".