Mr Benn said the speed with which the second outbreak was identified showed measures to control the disease were working. He said vets first spotted signs of foot and mouth in the animals on the farm close to Wolford Farm, near Guildford - the first infected location - on Monday. "A swift decision was taken to cull them, the tests were done overnight," he added. He urged farmers to continue to examine their stock.

Microbiologist Professor Hugh Pennington said people should not read too much into the second cull because the government would now be acting on even the "slightest whiff" of further infection. But farmer Laurence Matthews, who owns the land where the second outbreak struck, said the farmer whose cattle were culled, and his family, were "absolutely devastated". "We were starting to think that maybe this virus had been contained... now with this second outbreak this has set us back again," he told BBC Radio 4's Today programme.

"Most farmers... are very, very scared and all activity on farms has almost come to a standstill."

Chief veterinary officer Debby Reynolds has said it was possible recent floods may have contributed to an accidental release of the virus from one of the labs.

IT IS THOUGHT CONTAMINATED WATER MAY HAVE BEEN INCORRECTLY DISPOSED OF DOWN A DRAIN WHICH SUBSEQUENTLY OVERFLOWED DURING HEAVY RAIN AND CARRIED THE CONTAMINATED WATER ON TO FARMLAND. Ms Reynolds said no decision had been made on vaccines for livestock, but 300,000 doses had been ordered from private firm Merial.

Mr Benn, defending that decision, said: "In order to consider [vaccination] as an option, we've got to have the vaccine ready. "It's the best place we can go if we take the decision that we want to do it." HE WOULD NOT COMMENT ON THE SUGGESTION THAT MERIAL SHOULD BE STRIPPED OF SUBSEQUENT PROFITS IF IT WAS FOUND TO BE RESPONSIBLE.

PLANS FOR NEW EU POSTS TO BE FILLED BEFORE CONSTITUTION IS APPROVED
The Mail reports that THE EU WANTS TO FILL THE POSTS IN THE CONSTITUTIONAL TREATY - such as the EU Foreign Minister - BEFORE THE TEXT HAS BEEN APPROVED. The small print of the revised EU Constitution says that appointees should take up their positions "as soon as the Treaty is signed".

EU THREATENS PACIFIC COUNTRIES WITH 50% CUT IN AID UNLESS THEY SIGN TRADE OPENING DEAL
South Pacific trade ministers said yesterday they will halt all talks with the European Commission for a new trade deal if EU development aid remains conditional on the signing of an Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA). In a message to the trade ministers, the EC said that if a goods-only economic agreement is signed, aid funding would be cut by 26 percent, from £95 million (US$130 million) to £70 million (US$95 million). If no deal is signed, the funds would be reduced by 48 percent, to £49 million (US$67 million).
IHT

SARKOZY TO SCRAP COMPULSORY REFERENDUMS ON NEW EU ACCESSIONS?
According to Euobserver, Nicolas Sarkozy is reportedly considering scrapping France's constitutional commitment to compulsory referendums on new EU accessions. The article notes that the referendum clause - which could lead to a series of French "no" votes against new states knocking on the EU's door - is reportedly disliked not only by Mr Sarkozy, but also by large parts of the country's political establishment.
Euobserver

EU CAPS ON MILK PRODUCTION FORCE UP PRICES
Experts say the only way to increase global milk yields without breaking the EU milk quotas is to encourage the breeding of cows outside the EU, with the result that GERMAN FARMERS HAVE STARTED SELLING THEIR BEST HIGH-PERFORMANCE MILK COWS TO CHINESE FARMERS.
Guardian

THE BUSINESS: BROWN SHOULD WITHDRAW FROM EU TRADE POLICY
A leader in The Business calls for Gordon Brown to establish a "new world order". It argues that "If he were truly serious about free trade, he would put the new European constitution to a referendum and then use the inevitable, resounding 'no' as an excuse to renegotiate Britain's relationship with the EU, making it much looser. This would allow him to pull out of the common agricultural policy, which he rightly hates, and start unilaterally cutting tariffs, which he supports but cannot presently do."
Business

EU WELCOMES CONSTITUTION'S RATCHET CLAUSE
The Telegraph article notes that EU officials have welcomed a "simplified revision procedure" taken from clauses of the old Constitution - sometimes described as the "ratchet clause." THE RATCHET CLAUSE WILL ALLOW MEETINGS OF EUROPEAN LEADERS TO SCRAP INDIVIDUAL NATIONAL VETOES, WITHOUT THE NEED FOR WHOLESALE TREATY CHANGE.
Telegraph Mail

MALLOCH BROWN CALLS FOR SINGLE EU SEAT AT THE UN
Foreign Office Minister Lord Malloch Brown has called for THE UK TO GIVE ITS SEAT ON THE UN SECURITY COUNCIL TO THE EU. Last October, when he was Deputy General Secretary of the UN, he told Brussels diplomats that the EU was heading toward one single seat within the UN institutions. He said: "I think it will go in stages. We are going to see a growing spread of it institution by institution. It is not going to happen with a flash and a bang." He added that he hoped that it would happen - "as quickly as possible. I'm a huge fan of it." William Hague used the comments to step up pressure on the Government to hold a referendum.
Sunday Telegraph

Like the National Identity Register - the linked databases at the heart of the ID cards scheme - ContactPoint will contain significant amounts of personal information ON EVERY CHILD IN THE UK. Over 300,000 people will have access to the system, which is intended to be up and running by next year. WE UNDERSTAND THAT THE DETAILS OF CELEBRITIES' AND PUBLIC FIGURES' CHILDREN MAY BE KEPT HIDDEN, A TWO-TIER PRIVACY POLICY THAT DEMONSTRATES THE VERY REAL SECURITY RISKS SUCH A SYSTEM INTRODUCES.

Each child will be given an ID number, and their record will contain details about their parents, doctor, health visitor, midwife and/or school nurse, school and/or college, services they have accessed - specifically flagging up vulnerable children who have accessed "sensitive services", e.g. to do with sexual or mental health - and a link to a new social services assessment, the eCAF*.

FAR FROM REDUCING RISKS TO CHILDREN, CHILD PROTECTION SPECIALISTS HAVE EXPRESSED ALARM THAT PRACTITIONERS WILL BE SO OVERWHELMED WITH LOW-LEVEL DATA ABOUT ALL 11 MILLION CHILDREN IN THE COUNTRY THAT THOSE AT RISK OF HARM WILL IN FACT BE LESS LIKELY TO BE NOTICED.

MPs Debate Child Fingerprinting

On July 23rd Greg Mulholland MP introduced an adjournment debate to an almost empty House of Commons on biometric data in schools. The debate coincided with the release of guidelines by the British Education Communications and Technology Agency (BECTA). Mr Mulholland said: "The collection of biometric data in our schools is unnecessary, intrusive and insecure. A can of worms has been opened and, as yet, the Government have failed adequately to close it."

The Minister for Schools and Learners (Jim Knight) replied that: "It is not '1984' by the backdoor. There are no sinister forces at work here, and I would argue that it is irresponsible to suggest otherwise to get some cheap headlines." He went on to point out that "the guidance specifically recommends that schools give pupils and parents with genuine concerns the opportunity to opt out. Those who choose to do so should be offered an alternative means of accessing the same services."

The government's focus has been solely on data protection issues whilst disregarding whether it is morally acceptable for a society to allow widespread fingerprinting of children. The guidelines state: "There is nothing explicit in the Data Protection Act to require schools to seek the consent of parents before implementing a biometric technology system."

Intelligent Optical Systems, Inc., of Torrance, Calif., has been granted a contract by the Department of Homeland Security to develop what it calls the "LED Incapacitator," according to a DHS online newsletter. The handheld device using light-emitting diodes to emit super-bright pulses of light at rapidly changing wavelengths, causing disorientation, nausea and even vomiting in whomever it's pointed at.

"There's one wavelength that gets everybody," says IOS President Bob Lieberman. "Vlad [IOS top scientist Vladimir Rubtsov] calls it 'the evil color.'"

Phase 1 of the contract - creating a working prototype - has already been completed, and Phase 2 will begin this fall as researchers at Penn State's Institute of Nonlethal Defense Technology put the puke-saber through its paces.

"Phase 3 will be our shrink phase," Lieberman said, admitting that the prototype, 15 inches long with a 4-inch lens, is too large and heavy to be comfortably carried on a belt.

DHS hopes to equip police, Border Patrol agents and National Guardsmen with the barf-beamers by 2010.

Cattle, within the 3km protection zone set up around the farm where the first outbreak occurred, are being culled as a precaution. Chief veterinary officer Debby Reynolds said they had found something "suspect" and the animals were being culled to "minimise any chance of spread".

A report, due on Tuesday, will establish if it is another outbreak. The BBC understands the new foot-and-mouth cull will affect between 50 and 100 cattle. Dr Reynolds said the second potential outbreak site was a "small number of kilometres" from Wolford Farm, near Guildford, the first infected premises.

Vets identified clinical signs of the disease in a herd on one of their regular visits to farms in the protection zone.

Fear of a bank run spread throughout the United States. The young country fell into a 7 year depression. How could two decades of prosperity end so suddenly? According to America: A Narrative History: "monetary inflation had fuelled an era of speculation in real estate, canals, and railroad stocks."

Cracks in the dam were visible much earlier, as the stock market peaked in inflation-adjusted value three years prior. According to Rolf Nef, debt levels in the private sector rose to 150% of GDP. In late 1836, the Bank of England concerned with inflation raised interest rates. As rates rose in England, credit tightened, and U.S. asset prices began to fall.

On May 10, investors panicked and scrambled for cash. "By the fall of 1837 one third of the work force was jobless, and those still fortunate to have jobs saw their wages fall 30-50% within 2 years. At the same time, prices for food and clothing soared."

WE CAN EXPECT A SIMILAR SCENARIO IN THE VERY NEAR FUTURE. As Edward Chancellor, author of "Devil Take the Hindmost: A History of Financial Speculation" says: "The growth of credit has created an illusory prosperity while producing profound imbalances" in the American economy." At some point the system will have to adjust "to face a new reality. The process of adjustment is likely to be painful. It may well end in either an extraordinary deflation...or an extraordinary inflation."

Get ready. The credit boom is coming to an end.

"The markets are just responding to the growth in the money supply which is in double-digits just about everywhere around the world. When there are more dollars chasing the same number of assets---stocks go up. It's just that simple. What we're seeing isn't the result of investor confidence or industrial output. Heck no! Stocks are rising because our $800 billion current account deficit is recycling into the stock market. WHAT WE ARE REALLY SEEING IS THE FIRST SIGNS OF INFLATION--- GALLOPING INFLATION WHICH WILL SOON SPILL OVER INTO THE BROADER ECONOMY."

"Currently, THE US GOBBLES UP TWO-THIRDS OF THE WORLD'S CREDIT EACH YEAR WITH NO CONCEIVABLE WAY OF PAYING IT BACK. That won't last much longer. Central banks around the world are increasingly hesitant to accept our flaccid greenbacks and the Chinese are the only ones who are still buying our Treasuries. That's mainly because it gives them power over political decision-making in Washington. THE TRUTH IS THE CHINESE ARE PLANNING TO SEND THE US INTO RECEIVERSHIP AND TAKE OVER AS THE WORLD'S BANK. With dollar-backed reserves of $1.3 trillion, their plan appears to be going "full-steam ahead".

"THE BOTTOM LINE IS THAT WE ARE BURIED BENEATH A $9 TRILLION MOUNTAIN OF DEBT AND THERE'S NO WAY TO DIG OUT. If there's a break in the liquidity-flows to our stock market---stocks will crash, unemployment will soar, and we'll be pulled into a deflationary downspin."

Consider these comments from Princeton University economist Alan Blinder, who recently attended the business summit at Davos, Switzerland: (summarized by Rep. Ron Paul)

"WORD HAS IT THAT THERE MAY BE PLANS YET AGAIN TO "OUTSOURCE" HIGHLY SKILLED AMERICAN JOBS TO OTHER COUNTRIES. Approximately 40-million American jobs could be at stake and yet US workers have not been told or consulted about it, until now. Just to put the number of 40 million into perspective, that is more than twice the amount of people that are employed in manufacturing." According to Alan Blinder, "The 'choice' jobs of skilled Americans could be lost and given to foreign countries within the next decade or two." 40 MILLION HIGH-PAYING US JOBS WILL BE OUTSOURCED TO LOWER-WAGE COUNTRIES WITHIN THE DECADE?!? THIS IS A BLUEPRINT FOR THE ECONOMIC DESTRUCTION OF AMERICA!

Thorsten Polleit of the Mises Institute explains it like this in his article "The Dark Side of the Credit Boom":

"Today's government-controlled paper-money systems have decoupled credit expansion from the economies' productive capacities: 'circulation credit' feeds a "credit boom" that is doomed to end in severe economic, social and political crisis. Austrian economists of the Mises Institute fear that the collapse of the credit boom will lead to the destruction of the currency through a deliberate policy of (hyper-) inflation, destroying the free-market order."

"DESTRUCTION OF THE CURRENCY"; IS THAT TOO STRONG? NO. IN FACT, THE UNITED NATIONS ISSUED THIS GLOOMY STATEMENT JUST LAST WEEK: "THE UNITED STATES DOLLAR IS FACING IMMINENT COLLAPSE IN THE FACE OF AN UNSUSTAINABLE DEBT".

America's current account deficit is now a matter of international concern.

Thousands of soldiers and 500 combat vehicles will take part in "Peace Mission 2007", organised by the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) in the Chelyabinsk region of Russia. Russian officials have also proposed an alliance between the SCO and a body representing most of the former Soviet republics.

Scores of Russian and Chinese aircraft begin joint exercises tomorrow before a week of military manoeuvres from Thursday that will include Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan. At least 6,500 troops are involved in what is described as an antiterror exercise.

Colonel-General Vladimir Moltenskoi, the deputy commander of Russian ground forces, said: "The exercise will involve practically all SCO members for the first time in its history.

Leaders of SCO member states will meet in Bishkek, the Kyrgyz capital, next week for their annual summit. TURKMENISTAN WILL ALSO ATTEND FOR THE FIRST TIME, WHILE MONGOLIA, IRAN, INDIA AND PAKISTAN HAVE OBSERVER STATUS.

Igor Ivanov, the head of Russian security, played down concerns in May that the SCO was evolving into a military alliance to counter the expansion of Nato into Asia as part of the War on Terror. But MPs on the Foreign Affairs Select Committee expressed fears last year that the West could be on a collision course in the struggle for energy resources with "an authoritarian bloc opposed to democracy" that was based on an alliance between China and Russia.

A newly assertive Russia, flush with oil and gas revenues, is moving rapidly to increase its military capability amid tensions with the West over missile defence and Nato expansion. ALMOST £100 BILLION HAS BEEN SET ASIDE FOR RE-ARMAMENT OVER THE NEXT EIGHT YEARS.

Mr Gates said on NBC's Meet the Press there was a possibility that the US could begin to withdraw forces by the end of this year. But he also made clear that any decision would depend on the outcome of a progress report by General David Petraeus, the senior military commander in Iraq, and Ryan Crocker, the US ambassador, which is to be released to Congress in September.

The US defence secretary reiterated that he was disappointed with the resignation of Sunnis from the Iraqi cabinet last week and admitted that the administration had underestimated the deep mistrust between Iraq's sectarian factions.

But Mr Gates said that he disagreed with the recommendation by the bipartisan Iraq Study Group last year that the US reduce military and economic support for the Iraqi government if it failed to make substantial progress towards national reconciliation.

Both sides have suggested they are ready to try to sketch at least a partial outline for a peace deal. Palestinian officials said such an outline could be presented to the international conference, which is likely to be held in November. During a recent trip to the Middle East, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice sought to gauge the support of moderate Arab states for a conference, and was told it must yield concrete results. She has assured Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas that the gathering would have substance.

The Monday meeting will take place in the West Bank town of Jericho, said Abbas aide Nabil Amr. Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's office said Saturday night that he would be meeting Abbas soon but staffers would not give a time or place. A meeting in Jericho would mark the first time Olmert visits a Palestinian town as prime minister. Abbas and Olmert have met periodically in recent months, to improve relations soured by seven years of fighting and to explore ways of resuming peace talks.

In the past week, Olmert said he is ready to discuss issues of substance, signaling a softening of positions. Israel had long insisted that Abbas rein in militants before peace talks resume. Since the radical Islamic Hamas group seized control of Gaza in June, Olmert has faced international pressure to help shore up Abbas and his West Bank-based government of moderates.

By the weekend, it had left at least 7.5 million people and 5 million head of livestock short of drinking water, according to figures from the Office of the State Flood Control and Drought Relief Headquarters (SFDH).

The figures also show the sustained drought has affected 11 million hectares of arable land, 1.7 million more than the same period of last year. Among the affected, about 9.8 million hectares, or 89 percent, are crop fields.

Enemies of the state are interrogated, a sex scandal engulfs the church and freak weather tests the nation's endurance. Such were the issues of the day - 320 years ago.

A diary discovered in a London research library has provided a fascinating insight into life in the late-17th century. And while the cast of characters - and the language used to describe them - has changed, it shows that the topics in the news were remarkably similar to today. Such is the detail in the 1,500-page memoir by Roger Morrice, it has been compared to the diaries of Samuel Pepys, who wrote at around the same time.

Historians at Cambridge University revealed extracts from the diary yesterday after spending seven years cracking the shorthand code in which much of it was written. One entry by Morrice, a Puritan priest who became a political reporter after being persecuted under Charles II, describes the arrest of suspected plotters against the King in October 1684.

In a scene bearing striking similarities to the alleged treatment of modern-day terrorist suspects, soldiers were ordered to keep one victim "from sleeping, which they did without intermission for nine or ten days". Writing of the winter of 1683-4, when the Thames froze over, Morrice writes: "Whole street on the Thames and booths set up.

"There were several bear-baitings and a whole ox was roasted. The king came to eat some of it." There is also the London sheriff's decision on hangman Jack Ketch's expenses claim for 'quartering of traitors, boiling their bodies'. "The sheriff thought it was very exorbitant and refused to pay it," he records.

The un-Christian behaviour of one of the country's most senior clergymen is exposed in the line: "The Bishop of London has lain in a bawdy house."

IN TOTAL, A RECORD 18,619 UNDER-18S HAD TERMINATIONS - despite a multimillion-pound Government campaign to bring down the numbers. ONE 18-YEAR-OLD HAD HER SIXTH ABORTION IN 2006. Another 135 girls under 14 terminated their pregnancies. The statistics - released by the Department of Health after a freedom of information request - show the number of teenage abortions has increased by more than 2,500 each year since Labour came to power.

Critics say they prove the Government's strategy, which focuses on sex education and easy access to morningafter pills, is failing. A spokesman for anti-abortion charity Alive and Kicking said: "THESE FIGURES ARE THE RESULT OF THE MODERN ATTITUDE TO SEXUALITY - THAT SEX IS JUST A RECREATIONAL ACTIVITY. The Government never addresses the problem at its roots; it just has the sticking plaster attitude of making abortions easy. ITS SEX EDUCATION CLASSES ARE CLEARLY NOT ENCOURAGING RESPONSIBILITY."

Professor David Paton of Nottingham University Business School said the figures were particularly disappointing "considering the millions that have been spent by the Government over the past few years on their teenage pregnancy strategy".

Reassuring because if the multinational firm Merial Animal Health Labs was responsible for the outbreak, then scientists will know exactly which strain of the virus is responsible and will have a vaccine readily available - indeed, the cause of the outbreak would have been the very foot and mouth vaccines that the scientists are producing in huge quantities. What's more, it will be known exactly where the outbreak began, and when.

Thanks to the prompt action by Surrey organic beef farmer Roger Pride (who should receive a medal for his vigilance), the source of the outbreak has been pinpointed immediately, reducing massively the chance of a nationwide epidemic. We might yet avoid a repeat of the terrible scenes of six years ago. But the news is also worrying because it highlights the fact that huge quantities of viruses and bacteria are held in laboratories all over Britain which we have been led to believe are safe. They include germs which have the potential to cause economic devastation and much worse.

According to Professor John Oxford, one of Britain's leading virus experts, outbreaks from labs are extremely unlikely. His own biosecure laboratory at Queen Mary College in London contains samples of the SARS virus (which killed several hundred people in Asia five years ago) and also the H5N1 bird flu virus which some scientists say has the potential to mutate into a virulent, infectious strain which could kill millions of humans worldwide.

What would be the chances of, say, an animal rights extremist or Islamist terrorist getting a job as a lab assistant or even researcher in the laboratory, smuggling out avian flu or something equally nasty, and causing havoc? "The rules are extremely strict," Professor Oxford says. "I would never allow a student into my lab. I have only three members of staff who are experienced enough to go in there, and they are all personally known to me."

We must assume, and hope, that similar rules are in place at other research establishments where such micro-organisms are kept. It is tempting to say that we should simply close these labs and that the risk they pose is too great. But, of course, such a proposal would leave us in far, far more danger. "You have got to grapple with infectious diseases," says John Oxford. "You can't grapple with them on the Moon, you have to do it on Earth."

The Prime Minister feared a public backlash if too many migrants were allowed to settle, and believed the country was storing up problems for the future. The papers, released yesterday by the National Archives in Kew, west London, show that the debate over what has become one of the nation's hottest political issues actually began half a century ago. At the time, large numbers of immigrants from Commonwealth countries such as the West Indies, India and Pakistan were heading to Britain to find work as the country struggled with the the post-war labour shortage.

Churchill's Cabinet papers gave a figure of 40,000 immigrants living in Britain in 1954, compared with 7,000 before the Second World War. Today, around 6million people living in Britain were born overseas, or one in ten. They include more than 600,000 migrants from Eastern Europe alone. On February 3, 1954, under the Cabinet agenda item 'Coloured Workers', Churchill is quoted as saying: "Problems will arise if many coloured people settle here.

"Are we to saddle ourselves with colour problems in UK? Attracted by Welfare State. Public opinion in UK won't tolerate it once it gets beyond certain limits." Mr Maxwell-Fyfe raised the possibility of immigration control.