Now $12 billion a month, and the total for Iraq alone is nearing a half-trillion dollars, congressional analysts say.
All told, Congress has appropriated $610 billion in war-related money since the Sept. 11, 2001, terror assaults, roughly the same as the war in Vietnam. Iraq alone has cost $450 billion. The figures come from the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service, which provides research and analysis to lawmakers.

The Vietnam War, after accounting for inflation, cost taxpayers $650 billion, according to separate CRS estimates.

The $12 billion a month "burn rate" includes $10 billion for Iraq and almost $2 billion for Afghanistan, plus other minor costs. That's higher than Pentagon estimates earlier this year of $10 billion a month for both operations. Two years ago, the average monthly cost was about $8 billion. Among the reasons for the higher costs is the cost of repairing and replacing equipment worn out in harsh conditions or destroyed in combat.

A predicted shortage of vegetables - including potatoes and peas, and cereals such as wheat - is likely to cause manufacturers and retailers to push their prices up and increase food-price inflation. Fields in prime vegetable growing areas of Yorkshire and Lincolnshire remain under water and only an extended dry period will give farmers any hope of salvaging this year's crop.

The cost of traditional fish and chips is already rising, according to the British Hospitality Association, which cites supply problems with all the principal ingredients. And, according to the National Union of Farmers, supermarket shoppers should brace themselves for a sharp rise in staple foods such as bread and vegetables, both fresh and frozen. Even meat prices may be affected. With so much wheat and soya being lost, the price of animal feed has risen, which could mean more expensive chicken and beef, especially organic varieties.

Other factors, including high oil prices - leading to an increase in farmers' transport and fertiliser costs - and rising global demand for agricultural raw materials and biofuels is also pushing up food inflation. Greater food shortages loom as more farmers, demoralised by falling profit margins and incentivised by high biofuel prices, begin growing crops for fuel rather than food.

This could send prices soaring and place a severe dent in global growth. In a report that painted a bleak outlook for the global economy, the IEA said spare capacity in oil production would dry up over the next five years, even as demand continues to jump significantly.

"Oil and gas price pressures look set to remain in the coming years," the report said. "Slower-than-expected GDP growth may provide a breathing space, but it is abundantly clear that if the path of demand does not change on its own, it may well be driven to change by higher prices."

The gloomy prognosis puts consumers on warning for higher petrol prices at the pump, soaring utility bills and increased food prices as suppliers bear additional costs for bringing goods to market.

The operative word here is 'hardly'. One of these fine days, Hoddesdon or Hemel Hempstead might well be trashed by a hummer of a hurricane. You never can tell. We've had freak storms, floods and heatwaves since time immemorial.

People still talk about the frozen winter of 1947. I seem to remember 1963 being a bit parky, too. Back in the summer of 1976, parts of the country looked like the Kalahari. We were assured then that this was the start of an inexorable shift in the weather, which would see vineyards flourishing in Aberdeen and giant wildebeest sweeping majestically across the Peak District. Newspapers hired Red Indian medicine men to perform rain dances in Trafalgar Square. Ministers urged us to start sharing baths and stop flushing the toilet to save water.

The then Labour government even appointed Denis Howell, a former football referee turned MP, as Minister of Drought. About 24 hours after he got the job, the heavens opened and it didn't stop raining for six months.

Frankly, I'm more concerned about the possible destruction of Epping Forest. While parts of the North and the Midlands are up to their necks in water, THE GOVERNMENT IS PROPOSING TO BUILD HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS OF NEW HOMES ON FLOOD PLAINS IN THE SOUTH-EAST. The imbecile responsible for this plan is none other than Two Jags, member for Hull, which is one of the cities worst hit by the recent flooding. I wonder what his constituents made of the preposterous preening at Wembley and elsewhere on Saturday. The chances of any of the money generated by Live Earth ending up on Humberside are less than zero.

Gordon Brown, last SEEN HANDING OVER £8 BILLION OF OUR MONEY to Africa just so he could have his picture taken with Nelson Mandela, has grudgingly ALLOCATED A PALTRY £14 MILLION TO FLOOD RELIEF here. Live Earth has to be the most fatuous fundraiser ever. Where is the money going?

Sorry if I sound like a heretic, but while I accept we shouldn't deliberately pollute and do our best to recycle our rubbish, I don't accept that 'climate change' is the biggest threat to the planet. THAT WOULD BE GLOBAL ISLAMIST TERRORISM RIGHT NOW. Its stated intention is to kill us and destroy our way of life.

If rock singers and TV stars want to do something constructive, why don't they have a series of shows against jihad? Madonna could kick it off in Iran, but the bare flesh and conical bras would have to go. Graham Norton could host the Kabul concert, though he might be lucky to get out without having a brick wall pushed on top of him. I'm sure rappers like Puff Doggy would go down a storm with the Wahabis in Saudi Arabia, given their mutual enthusiasm for women's rights, homosexuality and drive-by executions.

Send the Spice Girls to Lahore. They'd look very fetching in designer burkas. The whole event could be beamed round the world by the BBC, being careful not to mention any connection between terrorism and Islam, perish the thought.

Of course, it ain't gonna happen. THEY'D RATHER WORK THEMSELVES INTO A LATHER ABOUT THE OZONE LAYER THAN CONFRONT THE NUMBER ONE CLEAR AND PRESENT DANGER TO OUR LIVES. As Professor Higgins might have said: By George, they just don't get it.

A cold snap sent thermometers plunging in South America in recent days, killing three people in Chile and Argentina. The temperature dropped to minus 22 degrees Celsius (7.5 Farenheit) in Bariloche, in Argentina's southern Andes mountains, while snow flakes fell for the first time in Buenos Aires since 1918.

In Bolivia, heavy snowfall blocked the country's main highway and shut down its biggest airports, the National Meteorology and Hydrology Service said. Even in Peru, where warm climate prevails, the cold snap forced authorities to place half of the country's 24 departments under a state of emergency.

He was convicted of taking 6.5m yuan ($850,000; £425,400) in bribes and of dereliction of duty at a trial in May.
The bribes were linked to sub-standard medicines, blamed for several deaths. China has been criticised over a number of recent cases involving tainted goods, and correspondents say Zheng had become a symbol of the crisis.

Following Zheng's sacking in 2005, the Chinese government announced an urgent review of about 170,000 medical licences that were awarded during his tenure at the agency. At a news conference in Beijing on Tuesday the State Food and Drug agency said that its supervision of safety was unsatisfactory, and it vowed to improve matters. A senior official said Zheng Xiaoyu had "brought shame" on the department, adding that anyone abusing their power would be punished.

The BBC's Daniel Griffiths in Beijing says the government is hoping that this execution will show it is getting to grips with the crisis. But food and drug safety standards vary widely across this vast country and reform is going to be a major challenge, he says.

In updates to travel advice on the Foreign Office website, citizens were warned that Bayelsa, Delta and Rivers States are unsafe. The site states this is because of the very high risk of kidnapping, armed robbery and other armed attacks. A Briton was one of four foreign oil workers kidnapped in Port Harcourt, capital of Rivers State, last week.

Since January last year, 31 British nationals and more than 180 foreigners have been kidnapped in the area. One Briton has been killed. Most foreigners who go to the area, such as oil workers, already travel there with armed police escorts. Recent attacks in the area have led to a 25% cut in Nigeria's oil production.

The army says 40 militants and seven soldiers have been killed. "It is a final push to clear the place of armed militants," said military spokesman Maj Gen Waheed Arshad.

Students at the mosque and its attached religious schools have been defying the authorities for months in their campaign for Sharia law in the capital. They have kidnapped policemen as well as people they consider to be involved in immoral, un-Islamic activities.

Security forces began a full-scale siege of the mosque last week, not long after mosque students abducted seven Chinese workers they accused of running a brothel. The BBC's M Ilyas Khan in Islamabad says the military operation is a gamble for President Pervez Musharraf who risks a backlash from supporters of those inside the mosque

BBC Europe Editor Mark Mardell reports that the UK Government has admitted that its claim that keeping the veto over taxation was ONE OF ITS 'RED LINES' WAS "PURELY PRESENTATIONAL" AS IT WAS NEVER UP FOR NEGOTIATION IN THE FIRST PLACE.

Meanwhile, PA reports that Gordon Brown has briefed the press that the Government will ensure that the UK's red lines are defended in coming negotiations over the final form of the new EU treaty. "I reaffirmed to the [Portuguese] prime minister that we had secured our negotiating objectives and we want them reflected in all the detail of the agreements over the next few months", Brown told reporters.

He went on to argue "What we did accept was a number of changes and these are changes that make the EU with its membership of 27 work better", and that if this settlement could be preserved, "then I would see no need to recommend to the British people that there were a referendum."

Christopher Booker argued in the Sunday Telegraph that "Many people must have rubbed their eyes in disbelief at Gordon Brown's statement to MPs last Tuesday when, in announcing his new 'constitutional settlement', he promised to give 'more power to Parliament and the British people' on the one hand while, on the other, ruling out a referendum on the new EU treaty - which would take away a lot more power from Parliament and the British people." He writes that "As the think-tank Open Europe and others have pointed out, IT IS TRULY ASTONISHING THAT MR BROWN SHOULD BEGIN HIS PREMIERSHIP, WHILE PROMISING TO BE 'OPEN' WITH THE BRITISH PEOPLE, WITH A DECEIT SO SHAMELESS AS TO MAKE HIS PREDECESSOR LOOK LIKE AN HONEST MAN."

In the Sunday Express, Jason Groves argued that, "Mr Brown can talk all he likes about handing power back to the people but if he fails to give those people a say over a new EU treaty that is a constitution in all but name, then it will be meaningless... If referendums are good enough to decide whether Torquay should have an elected mayor then they are good enough to decide whether 40 or more new powers should be handed to Brussels."

Syria has called on its citizens to leave Lebanon ahead of an expected "eruption" in that country, Arab and Iranian press reports have said."In the past few days, Arab and Iranian media reports have pointed to the possibility that Lebanon's current political crisis may become a violent conflict after July 15, 2007," the MEMRI dispatch said. July 15 comes one day before a special UN Security Council meeting which is expected to discuss the possibility of stationing international experts on the Syria-Lebanon border, in order monitor the ongoing illegal cross border arms traffic to Hizbullah, thought to be originating from Iran and Syria.

The UN Security Council is also expected to meet next week to discuss a key report on the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, a development which may bode badly for Syria. "On July 5, 2007, the Iranian news agency IRNA reported that Syrian authorities had instructed all Syrian citizens residing in Lebanon to return to their country by July 15, 2007. The next day, the Israeli Arab daily Al-Sinara similarly reported, on the authority of a Lebanese source close to Damascus, that Syria was planning to remove its citizens from Lebanon. Also on July 5, the Lebanese daily Al-Liwa reported rumors that Syrian workers were leaving Lebanon at the request of the Syrian authorities. In addition, the Syrian government daily Al-Thawra reported that Syrian universities would accept Syrian students who were leaving Lebanon due to the instability there," MEMRI said in its report.

Within Lebanon itself, the Hizbullah-led opposition threatened to establish a "second government" through "historical steps" in mid July, according to senior Hizbullah officials quoted in the Lebanese media, MEMRI added.

General (res.) Yaakov Amidror, a former senior officer in the IDF's Military Intelligence Directorate, told Ynetnews, "What's happening in Lebanon is part of a wider Middle Eastern conflict in which Shiites are trying to push Sunnis out of power. This is part of a conflict against Israel in a wider context, but it is primarily a Shiite-Sunni struggle. This is more proof that Israel is not the source of strife in the Middle East, but rather it is the Sunni-Shiite conflict."

The General Synod, meeting in York, said it supported drawing up rules in a possible "covenant" agreement.
Archbishop of Canterbury Dr Rowan Williams has warned that the Anglican Church could split over issues such as the 2003 ordination of a US gay bishop.

The group drawing up the covenant agreement was chaired by the Archbishop of the West Indies, the Most Reverend Drexel Gomez. He told the synod he was speaking "at a time of great tension within the Anglican Communion". "Unless we can make a fresh statement clearly and basically of what holds us together we are destined to grow apart," he said. "Do we Anglicans have a clear and shared identity? It is a question that our ecumenical partners are increasingly asking us. "I believe that the covenant can only succeed if it accurately describes a sufficient basis to hold us together and for us to want to stay together, based on what we already hold and believe."

The synod rejected a motion opposing the draft covenant, proposed by Tim Cox from the Diocese of Bradford during the three-hour debate. He said: "The current draft of the covenant is too weak. It feels like a cut and paste job. "It vacillates and unlike our articles does not make a clear assertion that the Scriptures are the word of God. "Worst still the presenting issue is tearing our communion apart, the promotion of sexual immorality is not even mentioned."

The liberal US Episcopal Church's ordination of Gene Robinson as Bishop of New Hampshire in 2003 marked the start of the divisions. There has also been disagreement over church blessings for same-sex couples.

The Church of England's ruling body, the general synod, is backing a set of rules - or covenant - aimed at resolving disagreements in the Anglican Communion, such as that over the ordination of gay bishops. While some see the move as a necessity, others believe it goes against the traditions of the Church.

Until the American Anglican Church defied the rest of the Communion and ordained the openly gay bishop, Gene Robinson, in 2003, the idea of an Anglican rule book would have been unthinkable. But on Sunday evening, the synod faced up to what many of its members see as a regrettable necessity and voted for a covenant - or binding agreement - setting out the responsibilities of each Church to the others.

It was best put by the Bishop of Durham, Tom Wright. "We thought we had some sort of agreement and then, four years ago, it turned out that we didn't," he said testily. "Lambeth, and the Primates [the archbishops leading the 38 independent Anglican churches] asked the Americans not to do something, and they did it anyway."

One non-clergy member, Dr Kevin Ward, warned that a written agreement would "destroy the Communion's tradition of inclusivity and tolerance". "The pervading aim is to punish and discipline dissent to ostracise those Churches who welcome gay and lesbian members," he added.

The covenant is also controversial because it would lead to the Communion's member Churches giving up at least a portion of their hitherto almost total autonomy. Liberal Anglicans fear it would act as a brake on necessary evolution of the Church's teaching in the light of changing societies. The synod was told it no longer had the luxury of unwritten understandings.

Bishop Wright told members "a vote against the covenant is a vote for anarchy" and they agreed by a two-thirds vote to back at least the principle of a covenant.

"If you wanna save the planet, jump up and down!" urged Madonna. Can global warming be stopped by an out-of-breath, middle-aged, super-rich narcissist in a leotard and high heels? The superannuated pop queen was certainly up for the challenge, but judging by the negligible response to the text message number displayed on stage, I suspect the public may have been justifiably confused by the link between aerobics and the environment.

As global satellite multi-media musical entertainment, Live Earth was just about adequate. As a platform for stadium politics, it was a dismal affair. "Can you help save the earth?" bellowed Radio 1 DJ Chris Moyles. Cue muted murmur of support. "We might be screwed if that's the response," he half-joked.

The whole tone felt misjudged: Al Gore appeared by satellite, to no great reaction in the stadium, and seemed to be addressing a small audience of native Americans, not seizing the world by the reins. Gore's film, An Inconvenient Truth, woke a lot of people up to the very real and imminent dangers of climate change. But the inconvenient truth of Live Earth is that it was a soulless telethon, with no clarity or drive.

Troops have surrounded the mosque in the centre of Islamabad, and yesterday set explosives to create holes in the compound in the purported hope that anyone inside wishing to leave would at least have some opportunity. But officials said that as the troops launched the operation, some of the armed students inside the mosque - possibly numbering more than 100 - opened fire.

The death toll rose to at least 21 after a lieutenant-colonel died when commandos came under fire from the compound, which houses a girls' madrassa (Islamic religious school) as well as the mosque. At least 24 people have been killed since the stand-off began. Mr Ghazi has put the total several times higher, and said that many dead students - a large number of young women among them - have already been buried in the grounds of the complex.

In a statement carried yesterday by newspapers in Pakistan, the radical cleric holed inside the building, Abdul Rashid Ghazi, said that if he and his followers were to die, their deaths would spark an Islamic revolution. He has repeatedly said that he would prefer martyrdom to surrender. "We have firm belief in God that our blood will lead to a revolution," he said.

Mr Azim claimed Mr Ghazi's followers had been trained in the use of automatic weapons. "The very fact that they can use heavy automatic weapons with some expertise shows that they are not just ordinary 14, 15-year-old students, and they keep claiming that they have enough ammunition inside to keep this fight going for one long month," he said.

Fish 'n' chip prices are soaring as shortages of potatoes and mushy peas, typically served with Britain's traditional takeaway, add to increasing food-price inflation. Pea prices are expected to increase as the UK faces a 50,000 tonne pea shortage. Crops have been damaged by rain and farmers have also had problems operating harvesting machinery on waterlogged land. Steve Marx, operations director at processor Christian Salvesen Foods, said only 16 per cent of the British pea crop had been harvested to date. Normally, half the crop is harvested by this time of year.

The increased cost of old potatoes is also due to a shortage of supply, caused in part by a poor harvest last year, while the recent weather has exacerbated worries about the new potato crop. The bad weather has come on top of the ongoing pressure on food prices, which are rising as high oil prices lift farmers' transport and fertiliser costs, and as demand rises globally for agricultural raw materials.

British bread prices may rise again after the wettest June on record, which has led to flooding in wheat fields. Gary Sharkey, chairman of the National Association of British and Irish Millers wheat committee, said: " I've traded wheat for 22 years and I've never known a market move so fast in such a short space of time."

The price for top-quality bread-making wheat has increased dramatically during the past two years, rising by 75.3 per cent to £156.50 a tonne projected for the year to July 2008. Flood damage is also putting pressure on prices of animal feed such as feed wheat and soya. That could act to force up prices of poultry, beef and pork.