A damning report by a Commons committee will warn that the growing shortfall - fuelled by a recruitment crisis - is leaving the military increasingly overstretched in Iraq and Afghanistan. It found the number of RAF servicemen and Army officers returning to civilian life has hit a ten-year high.
Increasingly frequent overseas postings, heavier workloads, poor pay and disruption to family life were the key reasons more troops were quitting the military, MPs found.

Conservative MP Edward Leigh, the committee chairman, said: "The Ministry of Defence has been relying for too long on the goodwill and courageous spirit of our servicemen and women to compensate for the increasing shortages of personnel in all three services.

"There are simply not enough service people to meet levels of military activity planned some years ago, let alone the heightened demands now being placed on them by commitments such as the Iraq and Afghanistan operations. "Let us fervently hope that it will not take some future operational failure on the battlefield for the department to change its mind."

The pound rose to $2.0173 -- its highest level versus the dollar since June 1981 -- in New York trading before retreating to $2.0165. The dollar also dropped to within a cent of its all-time low versus the euro, as rising global interest rates made the currency less attractive to investors.

The 13-nation euro rose to $1.3637, just shy of its April 27 all-time high of $1.3682, before dipping back to $1.3623. Higher interest rates, a weapon against inflation, can bolster a currency by giving better returns on fixed-income investments.

The dollar has been especially weak for so many months, it's difficult to put a finger on a single catalyst for Monday's losses, said David Solin, a partner at Foreign Exchange Analytics in Essex, Conn. "What really triggered this sudden realization that the dollar should be sold off?" he said.

The dollar bought 122.32 yen, down from 123.14 yen late Friday. In other trading, the dollar bought 1.0562 Canadian dollars, down from 1.0626, and 1.2103 Swiss francs, dropping from 1.2219.

VERY STRONG HIGH PRESSURE ALOFT OVER THE SOUTHWESTERN UNITED
STATES WILL CONTINUE TO INTENSIFY INTO THE MIDDLE OF THE WEEK.
THIS WILL PRODUCE VERY HOT CONDITIONS OVER THE SOUTHWEST ARIZONA
AND SOUTHEAST CALIFORNIA DESERTS THE NEXT FEW DAYS.

FORECAST HIGHS ON TUESDAY WILL RANGE FROM 113 DEGREES AT YUMA TO
AROUND 115 DEGREES AT PARKER. IT WILL LIKELY BE A FEW DEGREES
HOTTER ON INDEPENDENCE DAY...WITH EXPECTED HIGHS OF 116 AT YUMA...
117 AT IMPERIAL AND 118 AT PARKER.

Iraqi Bilal Abdullah, who was arrested at Glasgow Airport, worked as a locum doctor at the Royal Alexandra Hospital.

Strathclyde Police said two further men were detained at residences there, though officers would not confirm whether they were doctors. Two controlled explosions were carried out on two vehicles at the hospital. One of the two suspected of driving the flaming Jeep loaded with gas canisters into the arrivals hall at Glasgow Airport, suffered severe burns and remains in a critical condition.

Police investigating failed car bombings at Glasgow airport and London have seized a man at Brisbane airport. The Australian arrest brings the number of people held to eight. PM John Howard said the 27-year-old man was a doctor and that a second doctor was also being interviewed by Australian police.

Mr Howard said Australian police had been acting on information from the UK authorities. The detained man was an Indian national who was arrested while trying to return to India with a one-way ticket, he added.

Security has been stepped up with extra police patrols and vehicle searches taking place at airports and transport hubs. In a Commons statement, Home Secretary Jacqui Smith said the country would not be "intimidated" by "those who wish to destroy our way of life and our freedoms".

Chavez and Iran's Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who both regularly rail against Washington, met during an official visit by the Venezuelan leader to the Islamic Republic. Chavez arrived on Saturday after visiting Russia and Belarus. The Venezuelan leader, who wants to forge an alliance of leftist states to counter U.S. policies, told Ahmadinejad according to the official IRNA news agency:

"Cooperation of independent countries such as Iran and Venezuela has an effective role in defeating the policies of imperialism and saving nations."Ahmadinejad, whose country is embroiled in an escalating standoff with the West over its disputed nuclear programme, took a similar line.

"The pillars of the global arrogance have become shaky and victory (can) be achieved with resistance and standing firm," he told Chavez. "Global arrogance" is a term Ahmadinejad and other Iranian officials use to refer to the United States and its allies, but like Chavez he did not name America in comments on IRNA.

The text is based on the Tridentine Mass promulgated by the Council of Trent in the 16th century. Originally this mass contained a Good Friday prayer for the conversion of "the perfidious Jews." But in the 1960s, after his historic meeting with the historian and Holocaust survivor Jules Isaac, Pope John XXIII ordered this terminology removed, and the version that will be used dates back to 1962, when this phrase had already been eliminated.

Some Catholic circles, particularly those most open to interfaith dialogue, are concerned this change will divide Catholics and undo some of the good work of the Second Vatican Council. Jewish groups are upset that the mass contain a prayer for the conversion of the Jews.

Contemporary Good Friday prayers no longer ask for the conversion of Jews, and in contrast to the old version, the Jewish covenant with God is presented as eternally valid. During Easter celebrations one can hear these words in the modern version: "Lord our God, who chose the Jews before all other men, to receive his word, help them to continue progressing in the love of your name and faithfulness to your covenant." The prayer continues with wishes that Jews may reach "the fulfillment of redemption."

According to officials, HAMAS HAS INVESTED MILLIONS OF SHEKELS IN RECENT YEARS IN JERUSALEM CHARITIES, RELIGIOUS INSTITUTIONS, AS WELL AS IN CONSTRUCTION ON THE TEMPLE MOUNT IN AN EFFORT TO RECRUIT ISRAELI ARAB RESIDENTS OF JERUSALEM INTO ITS RANKS, THUS BOLSTERING ITS PRESENCE IN THE CAPITAL.

The official said that Hamas recently built a bathroom on the Temple Mount and also enlarged a library and prayer halls in Solomon's Stables. "THEIR GOAL IS TO GAIN FULL CONTROL OVER THE TEMPLE MOUNT," a high-ranking security officer said Monday, adding that Hamas also tried to infiltrate members into the Temple Mount as maintenance staff , in addition to its religious leaders who preach, give tours, and teach Koran classes there.

The official said Hamas had taken advantage of the Jordanian Wakf, which is responsible for the holy site. The Wakf has been suffering from finance constraints since 2000, when the Temple Mount mosques were closed to visitors. Officiasl said THE HAMAS TAKEOVER OF THE TEMPLE MOUNT WAS A "STRATEGIC" MOVE TO BOLSTER ITS STANDING IN THE PALESTINIAN TERRITORIES AND THROUGHOUT THE MUSLIM WORLD.

During a year-long operation, Shin Bet arrested 11 Hamas officials based in Jerusalem, 10 of whom held Israeli identity cards. Hamas's Jerusalem headquarters were funded by Hamas headquarters in Syria, as well as a chain of charity institutions based in Saudi Arabia . In addition to Hamas's efforts to take over the Temple Mount, the movement increased in recent years its activity in east Jerusalem, where it had set up religious institutions and used what seemed to be innocent festivities to "brainwash" Muslims with Hamas ideology.

Confidential figures obtained by the Daily Mail show that £36million in 'reward grants' has been promised to English councils in an attempt by Labour to increase adoptions of children by 50 per cent. The money-earning targets were introduced by Tony Blair in 2000 and were intended to lift more older children out of the care system.

But critics say it is the most 'adoptable' babies and children under four who are being removed in the biggest numbers. More than 900 newborn babies are now being taken from their mothers each year, a 300 per cent increase in little more than a decade.

The number of children aged between a week and a month removed from their parents has risen to 1,300 annually, a rise of 141 per cent in the same time. In the past two weeks alone, eight newborn babies have been taken from their mothers at hospitals in Newcastle and North Tyneside.

Liberal Democrat MP John Hemming has demanded an explanation. He said: "We are seeing a massive increase in the forced removal of newborns. Babies are being taken before they can even be breastfed. SOCIAL WORKERS ARE SEIZING VERY YOUNG CHILDREN ON THE FLIMSIEST OF EXCUSES AND GIVING THEM TO OTHER FAMILIES.

"This smacks of social engineering on a grand scale. The offer of monetary rewards for meeting the targets has created a frenzy among social workers. THERE ARE COUNCIL TARGETS FOR RECYCLING RUBBISH AND NOW TARGETS FOR RECYCLING CHILDREN." Critics say very young children are specifically selected - even before birth - by social workers to get the bonuses. IT IS BELIEVED THAT 1,000 EACH YEAR ARE WRONGLY TAKEN FROM THEIR PARENTS.

Beverley Beech, of the Association for Improvements in the Maternity Services - a body which advises new mothers - said: "The Government is denying that social workers are targeting babies for adoption. "But the desperate calls on our helpline from pregnant women who have already been told by social workers, for no good reason, that they will lose their babies immediately they are born, or from mothers of new babies taken for adoption, prove these denials are not true."

Campaigners also want an opening up of family courts, where adoptions are overseen in utmost secrecy. Parents are warned that if they tell anyone - even their closest family - what goes on they could face prison for contempt of court. Family law solicitor Sarah Harman, the sister of Labour deputy leader Harriet Harman, said: "IT'S NOT THE WELFARE OF THE CHILD THAT IS BEING PROTECTED - IT'S THE WELFARE OF SOCIAL WORKERS".

As the destructive pests finish their annual feast and move to the next phase of their metamorphosis, officials in both states say recent airplane inspections have revealed staggering damage. The fuzzy caterpillars have turned brown an area the size of Delaware, leaving miles of forest exposed to increased fire risk and government officials arguing whether enough was done to prevent the devastation.

This year's caterpillars were so voracious that they gobbled the needles off pine trees and the leaves from trees they usually find unappetizing.Ed Lempicki, chief of the New Jersey Forest Service, said he was stunned by his air survey two weeks ago.On a 15-acre expanse in Monmouth County, he said, the caterpillars stripped every leaf from 200-year-old oak, yellow poplar and sugar maples with two- to three-foot diameters.

"It looked like something out of a sci-fi magazine," he said. "Caterpillars were crawling everywhere, all over the trees and buildings. They had completely inundated the area. Now, instead of these gorgeous trees, you have great big dead monstrosities that have to be taken down." Deciduous trees can survive leaflessness for a year, but many of the Monmouth County trees also were stripped last year. Conifers likely will die soon after they're without needles, foresters say.

Joe Zoltowski, chief of the New Jersey Bureau of Plant Pest and Disease Control in the Department of Agriculture, estimates that the caterpillars inflicted fatal damage on more than 17,000 acres of Garden State trees. Many other trees, he said, are so weakened they'll likely die in a few years.

Nine in ten young revellers experience the signs of ear damage after a night out, yet do nothing to prevent it, according to the Royal National Institute for Deaf People. The charity's report, Like it Loud?, reveals that 70 per cent of clubbers, 68 per cent of gig-goers and 44 per cent of those who drink in bars suffer symptoms of hearing damage such as dullness of hearing or ringing in the ears, known as tinnitus.

More than half of the 1,381 respondents, aged between 16 and 30, visited a bar where they had to shout to be heard at least once a week. The same proportion went clubbing at least once a month. But only 25 per cent thought the music was too loud and just one-third thought hearing loss would affect their lives.

The RNID is calling for the establishment of a recommended noise exposure level for audiences attending music venues, and wants the government to educate young people about the issue as a public health risk.
Dr John Low, chief executive of RNID, said: "We are all familiar with messages about practising safe sex and using suncream, but the lack of any guidance on loud music means this generation of music-lovers could be facing a hearing loss time bomb.

"With regular exposure to music at high volumes in clubs, gigs and bars, it is only too easy to clock up noise doses that could damage their hearing forever."

"There is no doubt whatsoever that there will continue to be attacks against the British government, its interests and the home front as long as we see the continued British and American occupation of Muslim land in Iraq and Afghanistan, support for criminal Israel, and draconian measures taken against Muslims in the UK," said Anjem Choudary, founder and former chief of two Islamic groups disbanded by the British authorities under antiterror legislation.

"A war is being waged against Muslims on every level. There are many in Britain who take their ideology from Osama bin Laden and al-Qaida and are ready to carry out many more attacks," Choudary said.
Choudary said the attempted terror attacks the past few days were "probably carried out by local British Muslims."

Choudary currently presents himself as an Islamic lecturer and a leader of Britain's Shariah Islamic court. He is a founder and former chief of Al Muhajiroun, a British group that sought to impose an Islamic state on the UK and that was allied with the goals of al-Qaida.

Al Muhajiroun, officially disbanded by the British government citing antiterrorism laws in 2004, and its main leader, Omar Bakri Muhammad, were banned from the UK in 2005. Choudary then became a leader of Al Ghurabaa, which was reportedly a continuation of Al Muhajiroun. Al Ghurabaa was banned in 2006 by the UK for reportedly supporting terrorism.

Former Al Muhajiroun members led by Choudary reportedly continue their activism at public protests and on Internet forums under a new banner group called Ahlus Sunnah wal Jamaah.
Choudary told WND the perpetuators of the attempted terror attacks in London the past few days "have their own justifications for carrying out their plans."

"Muslims in Britain are under siege. There has been unjustified internment, innocent Muslims are in prison, extradition laws have been applied for made up crimes, individuals are arbitrarily arrested. ... Don't be surprised when Muslims fight back," he said.

Guns and grenades were used in the fighting, with armoured vehicles and helicopters backing police units.
The violence began when more than 1,000 policemen advanced on Alemao, the slum stronghold of a drug-dealing gang.

Rio de Janeiro officials are trying to make the city safer before it hosts the Pan-American games on 13 July. Some 5,500 athletes and around 800,000 tourists are expected to visit the city for the games. The city is also one of the host venues for the global series of Live Earth rock concerts on 7 July.

Victoria state's Gippsland region, which earlier this month was suffering drought and the after-affects of fierce summer bushfires, has been inundated by days of heavy rain.

Scores of Gippsland residents have so far evacuated and about 350 more could be house-bound for three days until the flood waters recede, State Emergency Service (SES) officials said.

A combination of swollen rivers and a high tide caused by Saturday night's full moon resulted in the water peaking, in one area at 1,33m above normal levels.

"We do have a clear, precise and detailed mandate handed down to us. We believe that the conditions and guidelines are set out to us in that mandate," said Portugal's Europe Minister, Manuel Lobo Antunes, yesterday. "WE WILL BE STICKING STRICTLY TO THE TERMS WE HAVE BEEN GIVEN."

The article also reports that Angela Merkel told MEPs on Wednesday that "THE SUBSTANCE OF THE CONSTITUTION IS PRESERVED. THAT IS A FACT." Labour MEPs have pleaded with EU institutions, on behalf of Downing Street, to downplay elements of the Constitution to help the Government domestically "undersell" the deal to avoid a referendum.

But, the pleas have fallen on deaf ears, notes the article, and the drip, drip of opinions, especially those questioning the legal force of Britain's opt-outs, is predicted to continue throughout the summer. FORMAL TREATY NEGOTIATIONS BEGIN ON JULY 23 AND WILL MAINLY BE CONDUCTED IN SECRET, an arrangement primarily put in place to help Mr Brown. Foreign ministers will discuss a 150-page "draft treaty text" in the Viana do Castelo, Portugal, on Sept 7.

His tactic - to set up a number of straw men or 'red lines' which he knew he would be able to achieve - distracted many commentators from the other SIGNIFICANT POWERS HE HANDED OVER TO BRUSSELS.

THESE INCLUDE:
- AN EU PRESIDENT,
- AN EU FOREIGN MINISTER,
- MAJORITY VOTING IN OVER 60 NEW AREAS,
- A LEGAL PERSONALITY FOR THE EU
- A NEW VOTING SYSTEM WHICH WILL REDUCE BRITAIN'S VOTING STRENGTH BY OVER 30%.

Gordon Brown has suggested that a referendum is not necessary because the red lines "have been achieved". But it is becoming clear that even by the standards it set itself, the Government failed in the negotiations. As more and more experts begin to question the so-called safeguards in the coming months it will only add to the pressure on Brown to let the people have a say.