"We are trying to find answers for the situation in Gaza without diagnosing the problem," the previous IDF chief said. "What we are witnessing in Gaza is the establishment of a Jihadist Islamic society." Yaalon says that any talk of negotiations and withdrawing to the 1967 borders pushes peace farther away.

"These are movements that are not interested in territorial issues between us and the Palestinians, but in other issues altogether. This was proven with the Disengagement and now is our opportunity to look and learn. It was a victory in their eyes for the global Jihad and gave strength to Hizbullah, Hamas and all the other Islamist groups."

According to the report, the checkpoints in question had been in place for 40 years, ever since the Six Day War. Al-Hiyat also claimed that the IDF was conducted maneuvers on the Golan Heights that foreign journalists were barred from covering.

The newspaper also reported that Israel had blocked access to areas on the Golan Heights from which villages and towns were visible. The report also listed the equipment the IDF had left in place, which included bulldozers and 70 tank outposts.

The report came two days after Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni addressed Syrian concerns that Israel planned to attack the country. Livni said that the IDF was conducting exercises and nothing more. "Israel, unfortunately, has to be constantly prepared. The IDF's job is to protect Israeli citizens, and for this it must train, and for this exercises were created. It would be a shame? to interpret this otherwise," Livni said.

Madonna's carbon footprint is dwarfed only by her ego - she has vowed that she will 'speak to the planet' at Wembley. In fact, an apology might be in order - for the superstar's energy consumption is only the tip of the iceberg in this epic vanity-fest. For her 2006 World Tour, she flew by private jet, transporting a team of up to 100 technicians and dancers around the globe. Waiting in the garage at home, she has a Mercedes Maybach, two Range Rovers, an Audi A8 and a Mini Cooper S.

THE LIVE EARTH EVENT IS, IN THE WORDS OF ONE COMMENTATOR: "A MASSIVE, HYPOCRITICAL FRAUD". For while the organisers' commitment to save the planet is genuine, the very process of putting on such a vast event, with more than 150 performers jetting around the world to appear in concerts from Tokyo to Hamburg, IS SURELY AN EXERCISE IN HYPOCRISY ON A GRAND SCALE.

A Daily Mail investigation has revealed that far from saving the planet, THE EXTRAVAGANZA WILL GENERATE A HUGE FUEL BILL, ACRES OF GARBAGE, THOUSANDS OF TONNES OF CARBON EMISSIONS, AND A MILEAGE TOTAL EQUAL TO THE MOVEMENT OF AN ARMY.

The most conservative assessment of the flights being taken by its superstars is that they are flying an extraordinary 222,623.63 miles between them to get to the various concerts - nearly nine times the circumference of the world. The true environmental cost, as they transport their technicians, dancers and support staff, is likely to be far higher.

The total carbon footprint of the event is likely to be at least 31,500 tonnes of carbon emissions, according to John Buckley of Carbonfootprint.com, THROW IN THE TELEVISION AUDIENCE AND IT COMES TO A STAGGERING 74,500 TONNES. IN COMPARISON, THE AVERAGE BRITON PRODUCES TEN TONNES IN A YEAR. The concert will also generate some 1,025 tonnes of waste at the concert stadiums - much of which will go directly into landfill sites.

MOREOVER, THE POP STARS HEADLINING THE CONCERTS ARE THE ABSOLUTE ANTITHESIS OF THE MESSAGE THEY PROMOTE - WITH MADONNA LEADING THE PACK OF THE WORST INDIVIDUAL ROCK STAR POLLUTERS IN THE WORLD.

Dr Andrea Collins, an expert in sustainability from Cardiff University, has researched the impact of such mass gatherings on the environment. She said, "It is patently absurd to claim that travel of this nature doesn't have an impact. Each person attending the event will have to make a return journey to the venue, be it by air, rail, bus or car. This burns fossil fuel - precisely what we are trying to reduce. "There is also the environmental cost of these artists flying around the world - that is absolutely huge."

The Daily Mail has found that five of the top performing acts together have an annual output of almost 2,000 carbon tonnes. Madonna alone has an annual carbon footprint of 1,018 tonnes, according to John Buckley. Remember, the average Briton produces just ten tonnes.

PLANS TO ASK THE BRITISH PUBLIC TO TURN OFF THEIR ELECTRICAL APPLIANCES DURING THE LIVE EARTH BROADCAST WERE SCUPPERED WHEN THE NATIONAL GRID POINTED OUT THAT AS EVERYONE SWITCHED ON AGAIN, A GIANT POWER SURGE COULD CRIPPLE THE COUNTRY.

So just how does Gore claim that Live Earth will be carbon neutral? He does so by convenient use of 'CARBON OFFSETTING' - A TRENDY NEW METHOD OF ABSOLVING YOURSELF OF GUILT. Carbon offsetting involves 'neutralising' the emissions you are responsible for by buying 'credits'. A spokesperson for Live Earth says: "This might involve buying environmentally sound lightbulbs for a Third World school, planting trees, or installing solar panels in a developing country."

A huge industry has sprung up to provide corporations with carbon credits. However, critics say that the practice is simply a way for consumerist industries and nations to export their responsibility to developing countries. Others say it simply does not work. Dr John Barrett, from the Stockholm Environment Institute at the University of York, says: "There is a huge irony in flying halfway across the globe in a private jet, eating up fossil fuel. "The idea that you can offset the pollution you cause is just ridiculous. What these people at Live Earth have done is defined their boundaries to suit themselves, but there is no sense in which this concert is carbon neutral.

"Planting trees or investing in renewable energy does not reverse the damage of releasing huge quantities of carbon dioxide into the environment. "It is far better not to pollute in the first place. Carbon offsetting can be a removal of guilt, but it is not an effective one." Dr Barrett says: "It would be far better for these celebrities to stay at home. Holding large concerts to highlight environmental concerns and cut carbon emissions just seems ridiculous. What planet do these people live on?"

Oppressive temperatures eased a bit in some parts of the West, but McDonald's central Montana ranch baked under triple-digit heat. Forecasters reported little relief in the days ahead, saying the weather system that brought the high temperatures could last well into next week.

In Montana, where cattle outnumber residents by more than 2 to 1, livestock and people sought shade and drought-weary farmers watched for damage to grain.Warnings of excessive heat were posted Friday for much of Idaho, Nevada, Utah, Oregon and Washington state.

Temperatures were expected to ease slightly in Southern California. Phoenix saw a modest drop, a relatively cooler 111 degrees compared to 115 Thursday. With the approach of Arizona's summer rainy season, humidity levels have started climbing along with power demand.

Officials said the fire season could turn fearsome following the dry heat."It's an early start and a hot start," said National Weather Service meteorologist Chris Velver in Great Falls.The National Forest Service reported at least 16 fires over 500 acres in size burning throughout the West, including three new ones that sparked Thursday.The agency said fire danger was most extreme in Arizona, California, Oregon and Utah - although a "red flag" warning was posted for much of the West.

But the heat will hover over most of the far West through at least the end of next week, said Kelly Redmond, a regional climatologist for the National Weather Service. He said it could migrate further inland and cover more of the West, including Colorado, as the week goes on.

"It looks like it is going to stay place for a good long while," he said.

In a severe weather update to media, the forecaster noted western states currently wilting in temperatures above 100 degrees will get some relief as their weather system moves to the east, but the Midwest will feel the heat over the weekend and the eastern U.S. could see early-week temperatures at 100 degrees.

Texas and Oklahoma will finally get a break from recent rain showers, as an approaching high-pressure system pushes the wet weather into the Tennessee Valley, the forecaster said.

The high, approaching from the Midwest, will finally dislodge the disturbance that has dumped inches of precipitation on the Southern Plains over the past several weeks.

But environmentalists increasingly feel such schemes do nothing to aid the environment and may harm it. Critics say problems with the schemes include trees being planted only to be cut down a little later, and renewable energy schemes which would have happened anyway.

There are concerns that native trees have been felled, so the area could be replanted to qualify for "carbon" money. THE COMMONS ENVIRONMENTAL AUDIT COMMITTEE IS SO WORRIED ABOUT OFFSETTING IT SAID "THE PROCESS SHOULD BE TREATED WITH CAUTION."

The regulated market for carbon credits is expected to more than double in size to about £34bn by 2010, with the unregulated voluntary sector rising to £2bn in the same period. Carbon offsetting allows companies and individuals to carry on producing carbon dioxide from transport and the production of fuel and consumer goods, alleviating the environmental effects by funding schemes, often in developing countries, which absorb emissions.

Jutta Kill, of campaign group SinksWatch, said: "CARBON OFFSETTING IS A DISTRACTION. Many people refer to it as a way of buying time, making people aware. But what awareness is being created? EVEN IN THE BEST-CASE SCENARIO, IT DOES NOT REDUCE EMISSIONS; IT PREVENTS EMISSIONS RISING."

The Live Earth concerts across the world, organised by the former US VICE-PRESIDENT AL GORE, involve performers such as Madonna and the Beastie Boys and aim to raise awareness of climate change. However, Duncan McLaren, the chief executive of Friends of the Earth Scotland, said: "Carbon offsetting schemes are poorly regulated; people should consider that route only if they've done absolutely everything else."

Carbon offsetting is also one of the seven pledges that an estimated two billion viewers of Live Earth will be asked to sign. The pledges also include a demand for an international treaty within two years to cut global warming pollution by 90 per cent in developed countries, and by over half worldwide "in time for the next generation to inherit a healthy Earth".

Six thousand miles away, the flames leap from one of the chimneys at the Grangemouth oil refinery on the banks of the Firth of Forth. BRAZIL-SCOTLAND; REFINERY-RAINFOREST. AT FIRST GLANCE, THE TWO PLACES SEEM TOTALLY UNCONNECTED. BUT GRANGEMOUTH AND SAO JOSE DO BURITI ARE TIED BY A SINGLE THREAD: CARBON TRADING.

BP wanted to offset what it was producing from Grangemouth. So it paid money into a scheme created by the World Bank which would "offset" these emissions by funding schemes elsewhere in the world that would reduce emissions by the same amount. If the scheme works well, so the theory goes, the net emissions will be zero.

The World Bank chose to invest some of the £90 million paid into its Prototype Carbon Fund by BP and other companies in a eucalyptus-planting scheme in Brazil. An iron foundry company, Plantar, threatened to stop using charcoal from eucalyptus trees and turn to coal - a change which would massively increase the company's emissions. The World Bank agreed to fund an expansion of the eucalyptus plantations to ensure the firm did not make the switch. Charcoal has less effect on the amount of greenhouse gas in the atmosphere as the next crop of eucalyptus will soak up carbon.

Norman Philip, 38, who was born and raised in the area, tells how the sky regularly lights up as flares burn off excess gas at the refinery complex, where his father used to work.Now an activist for Friends of the Earth, he is concerned at the levels of sulphur dioxide, nitrogen dioxide and tiny particles - which can cause asthma attacks and other respiratory problems and carry a long-term risk of cancer - in the emissions from the plant. THOSE EMISSIONS MIGHT HAVE BEEN CUT, MR PHILIP ARGUES, IF OIL GIANT BP HAD NOT "OFFSET" THEM BY PAYING INTO THE WORLD BANK'S SCHEME.

But according to local people, interviewed for a documentary, The Carbon Connection - which had its premiere in Edinburgh last month - the scheme had a dreadful environmental cost. Standing in a bone-dry river bed in Sao Jose do Buriti, Synara de Fatima Almedia Thomas made her own video diary for the documentary. She said: "Local people say they used to fish here. You can see that it was a really big stream, but today during the rainy season there is not a drop of water."

In the documentary, one Brazilian woman explains: "In this game of buying and selling carbon credits, the World Bank doesn't factor in the problems caused by eucalyptus monoculture in this region. We tried to tell them, but they don't listen. "Meanwhile, the company continues destroying our community, destroying our citizens, destroying our fauna, destroying our flora, and nobody does anything."

Some office workers were given the option to float on innertubes down the Boise River instead of sitting at stuffy desks, with temperatures in Boise reaching 104 degrees Thursday afternoon. Forecasters predicted a high of 107 on Friday-six degrees higher than the 101 record for that date set in 1985.

"Once it gets that high-105, 107, 109- it just feels hot," said Rick Overton, a copywriter who arranged the float trip for the digital marketing firm Wirestone. "I'm going to keep a tube under my desk for the whole summer and whenever it gets this hot I'm going to escape."

But temperatures in part of the West were climbing so high that authorities warned residents of southern Nevada, southeastern California and northwestern Arizona that outdoor activities could be dangerous except during the cooler early morning hours. Phoenix reached 115 degrees; Baker, Calif., reached 125 degrees.

St George - Utah, hit 115 degrees by 5 p.m., a day after a nearby weather sensor recorded an unofficial reading of 118, which would top the the state's all-time record of 117 set in St. George in 1985. Summer temperatures across Utah are running 10 to 15 degrees above normal, meteorologist Brandon Smith said.

Around Las Vegas - where temperatures reached 116 degrees Thursday afternoon - transformers were overheating and causing electrical pole fires because of all the people switching on their air conditioners, said Scott Allison with the Clark County Fire Department.

In Montana, farmers anxiously watched their crops and thermometers. High temperatures for a handful of days can harm crop yield. Even Stanley, Idaho, which at more than 6,000 feet elevation is routinely the coldest place in the lower 48 states, was seeing record highs, the National Weather Service said. The remote town in the Sawtooth Mountains reached 91 degrees Thursday, and was expected to hit 93 degrees Friday.
In Spokane, Wash., the temperature reached 101 degrees, well above the record-tying 100-degrees.

Northeastern Oregon residents were experiencing what was expected to be the hottest day of the year on Thursday, with temperatures reaching 108 in Pendleton and 107 in Hermiston. The heat and a dry spring raised concern among firefighters. "We're really primed to burn right now," said Dennis Winkler, an assistant fire management officer for the Wallowa-Whitman National Forest. "We're well above average in terms of fire danger for this time of year."

In an exclusive article for The Scotsman, the leader of the Catholic Church in Scotland praised Mr Brown for his stand on poverty in the third world and called on him to take that same respect for life into a "another sphere - the defence of life as yet unborn". It is another attempt by the cardinal to put the issue at the forefront of political debate. He caused controversy earlier this year when he said the equivalent of two Dunblane massacres a day were being carried out, thanks to Britain's abortion laws.

His latest call comes amid a growing clamour from campaigners on both sides of the debate for the abortion laws to be looked at again by Westminster. The pro-choice lobby wishes easier access to abortions while maintaining the upper limit of 24 weeks, while the pro-life lobby wants to see the time limit reduced and tighter control on abortions for what it describes as a "lifestyle choice".

In his article, Cardinal O'Brien challenged Mr Brown to do what his predecessor, Tony Blair, did not do, and reduce the time limit on abortions. He said that in a private meeting with Mr Blair, the former Prime Minister conceded there was a strong argument for a time-limit reduction. He said: "Sadly, he failed to act, allowing an opportunity to pass. I hope our new Prime Minister will not do the same."

The British Pregnancy Advisory Service (BPAS), which provided many of the 214,000 abortions carried out in Britain last year, also favours a review of the current legislation, but for entirely different reasons. Ann Furedi, its chief executive, said: "We believe the current abortion law is out of date and in need of modernisation. The medical and social landscape was very different in 1967 when the Abortion Act was framed. ." The BMA in Scotland said: "In the first three months, abortion should be available on the same basis of informed consent as other treatments, and therefore should no longer need two doctors' signatures."

The threat was found in an Internet chat room run by Younis Tsouli, 23, of London, one of three members of a "cyber-terrorist" gang, according to the Daily Telegraph of London. One message read: "We are 45 doctors and we are determined to undertake jihad and take the battle inside America
"The first target which will be penetrated by nine brothers is the naval base which gives shelter to the ship Kennedy."

The reference apparently is to the USS John F. Kennedy and its home port, the Mayport Naval Base in Jacksonville, Fla., the Telegraph said. The message discussed targets at the base, including gasoline tanks and "clubs for naked women." The head of Scotland Yard's counter-terrorism unit, Peter Clarke, said in a statement after the sentencing that the men, "by their own admission, were encouraging others to become terrorists and murder innocent people."

"This is the first successful prosecution for inciting murder using the Internet, showing yet again that terrorist networks are spanning the globe, Clarke said. "Their terrorist tradecraft was sophisticated, but nevertheless defeated by this investigation."

The Telegraph quoted officials saying it was "definitely spooky" jihadis were discussing the use of doctors up to three years ago. Investigators of the London and Glasgow incidents want to know whether al-Qaida has recruited doctors because they are less suspicious and can move around more easily in Western countries.
The three "cyber terrorists," who had close links with al-Qaida in Iraq, admitted using the Internet to incite Muslims to a violent holy war. The Telegraph said the three men ran the "cyber-jihad" on websites run from their bedrooms. They appeared to lead normal lives, studying and living with their parents.

"Based on current trends, a nuclear terrorist attack on the United States is more likely than not in the decade ahead," says Graham Allison, director of the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government and author of "Nuclear Terrorism: The Ultimate Preventable Catastrophe."

Allison, who has testified before Congress on the subject, says the illicit economy for narcotics and illegal alien trafficking "has built up a vast infrastructure that terrorists could exploit" in delivering a nuclear weapon to its target in the U.S. Al-Qaida, which has threatened to launch an "American Hiroshima" attack on the U.S., remains Allison's No. 1 suspect to pull off such a mission
Allison says there are several viable options open to terrorists determined to secure nuclear weapons.

"They could acquire an existing bomb from one of the nuclear weapons states or construct an elementary nuclear device from highly enriched uranium made by a state," he wrote. "Theft of a warhead or material would not be easy, but attempted thefts in Russia and elsewhere are not uncommon."

Allison says terrorists are capable of building their own nuclear weapons if they can simply secure the fissile material. "Once a terrorist group acquires about 100 pounds of highly enriched uranium, it could conceivably use publicly available documents and items commercially obtainable in any technologically advanced country to construct a bomb such as the one dropped on Hiroshima," he states. The threat is imminent, says Allison.

The admission is contained in an internal document released by the Ministry of Defence after a request under the Freedom of Information Act. The Army also admitted mistakes were made on Bloody Sunday, but only in how it deployed its vehicles.

The 100 page document analyses in detail the British army's role in Northern Ireland over 37 years. The document, obtained by the Pat Finucane Centre, points to a number of mistakes, including internment and highlights what lessons have been learnt. It describes the IRA as "a professional, dedicated, highly skilled and resilient force", while loyalist paramilitaries and other republican groups are described as "little more than a collection of gangsters".

It concedes for the first time that it did not win the battle against the IRA - but claims to have "shown the IRA that it could not achieve its ends through violence".

According to nonclassified documents reviewed by ABC News, and confirmed by multiple sources, both mobile telephones initiated firing mechanisms rigged inside a Mercedes E 300 parked several yards from the front door of Tiger Tiger nightclub failed despite multiple calls to the cell phones designed to remotely trigger the devices.

Had the fuel-air bombs successfully ignited into a superhot fireball filled with roofing nails, casualties were almost a certainty among the 500 or so patrons who partied late at the 1,700-person occupancy nightclub that perhaps best symbolizes London's vital nightlife scene.

Instead, at about 1:42 a.m., a vigilant ambulance crew on an unrelated call spotted a plume of cold propane from a slightly opened window of the car that contained patio fuel cylinders in the foot wells behind the driver and passenger seats, ABC sources said. When a bomb technician in a 90-pound Kevlar suit walked down to the vehicle to examine it, he also found a firing system rigged inside the car and another inside its trunk along with four jugs of gasoline. The technician successfully disarmed the devices..

A second Mercedes rigged with a similar incendiary device was parked several hundred yards away. Several experts on improvised explosives tactics suggested that the second device might have either been meant for patrons who escaped the first or to target rescue workers.

Within 14 hours after the plot failed, the same two men believed to have planted the bombs in London attempted what appears to have been a suicide incendiary attack on the doors to a terminal at Scotland's Glasgow Airport. That attack failed too. The vehicle failed to reach the doors, and its contents failed to ignite even after one of the occupants tried to douse the car in gasoline, setting himself on fire in the process.

Zawahiri's new video, an hour and a half long, has been posted on the internet. The video outlines elements of al-Qaeda's strategy. He claims Iraqis are increasingly supporting the self-styled Islamic State of Iraq, proclaimed in predominantly Sunni areas by an al-Qaeda affiliate. The success of the Islamic State, he says, is crucial to the revival of a global, pan-Islamic caliphate.

The short-term aim, says Zawahiri, is to attack the interests of the "Crusaders and Jews" (the United States, its Western allies and Israel). The long-term aim is to topple what he calls corrupt Muslim regimes - and to use Afghanistan, Iraq and Somalia as training grounds for militants. Technically, the video shows some sophistication.

Zawahiri's statement is interspersed with clips from Arabic and American TV programmes. The al-Qaeda leadership may want to show how closely it monitors world events - everything from the books of Bob Woodward on the Iraq war to the views of Thomas Friedman on globalisation.

He said he agreed with Tory MP Ken Clarke - who claimed a public vote would be"frankly absurd". A leader in the Sun criticises his move arguing that "Labour was re-elected in 2005 on this very pledge". A Mail leader asks, "what has become of Labour's promise of a referendum on the new constitutional arrangements for the EU?"

The Express reports on Luxembourg Prime Minister Jean-Claude Juncker's assertion that there should be public debate on the revised Constitutional Treaty in every country apart from Britain. He said, "Britain is different. Of course there will be transfers of sovereignty. But would I be intelligent to draw the attention of public opinion to this fact?"

The article quotes Open Europe saying, "While other EU leaders have openly admitted that the new EU treaty will be virtually identical to the rejected EU Constitution, our Government is still trying to spin that it is not worth a referendum." In a letter to the Telegraph Mark Wallace from the Freedom Association writes that "Juncker is only the latest in a series of leaders to make clear to their own electorates what our own Government will not confess - this "Reform Treaty" is exactly the same as the previous EU Constitution."