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."

The BBC journalist's release followed the intervention of a religious scholar only hours before Hamas guerrillas threatened to storm the gang's compound in Gaza City to try to free Johnston by force, The Times has learnt. They asked the cleric one question: "What is God's opinion regarding the abduction of this journalist?" Sheikh Dayeh recalls his answer: "According to religious law the answer is clear: his freedom has to be returned to him. Keeping him in captivity is against religious law." The answer amounted to a fatwa, or religious order.

Johnston's fate was in part secured by the plight of another hostage, the Israeli soldier Gilad Schalit, being held underground somewhere in the southern Gaza Strip. Hamas negotiators decided that the Army of Islam's role in capturing the corporal - regarded as legitimate antiIsraeli resistance - outweighed its later aberration in kidnapping the journalist. Hamas therefore decided not to seek retribution.

"It is not Hamas's policy to ban resistance groups, just as long as their weapons are not turned against Palestinians," said Ayman Taha, one of the key negotiators in talks with the Army of Islam, led by Mumtaz Dagmoush.

Britain's harvest of peas, the biggest in Europe, has been devastated by the weather, with as much as 50,000 tonnes of the annual crop of 150,000 tonnes expected to be lost. Some individual farmers may lose 70 per cent of their harvest.

Vegetable growers in eastern Britain, from Norfolk to Scotland have been hardest hit, with losses especially concentrated in Lincolnshire and South Yorkshire. "The situation is absolutely diabolical," said Martin Riggall, chief executive of the Processed Vegetable Growers' Association. "Some of the most productive areas have been absolutely devastated by the rain. They look like a First World War battlefield. We have never seen a growing season like this."

The rain has badly disrupted the planting regime for brassicas - cabbages, cauliflowers and sprouts, for harvest in the early autumn - but its most ruinous effect has been on the massive crop of peas which go for freezing. The rains and flooding have come in the middle of the harvest, which is an extremely sensitive operation.

The peas in any given field will only be at their best for a short time "window" which may be only 12 hours, so they are planted and harvested with military precision. But the waterlogging of the fields has meant that in numerous cases these windows have been missed, and any pea plant whose roots are under water for more than a few hours will die.

Rescuers had finished clearing the debris and found 25 bodies.The explosion happened at 8:50 p.m. at Tianying Karaoke Parlor, a two-storey roadside building where bath services were also operated, in Tianshifu Township, Benxi Autonomous County of Manchu Nationality. Four of the injured are reported to be in a serious condition.
Local government officials have ordered that every effort be made to help the victims and identify the cause of the accident.

The Home Secretary, Jacqui Smith, said there was no intelligence to suggest that an attack was imminent, paving the way for security at airports and other transport hubs to be eased.

The move followed an announcement by the Prime Minister, Gordon Brown, that a review of the arrangements for recruiting overseas doctors into the NHS would take place.

All eight suspects arrested since Saturday's airport attack, in which two men drove a Jeep carrying a crude gas cylinder and petrol bomb into the side of the terminal, had links to the health service, with six of them being fully qualified doctors.

The decision to lower the threat level was made by the Joint Terrorism and Analysis Centre (JTAC), which has staff drawn from across Whitehall departments, the intelligence agencies and the military.

The Home Secretary said: "There is no intelligence to suggest that an attack is expected imminently. However, the reduction of the threat level to severe does not mean the overall threat has gone away.

"There remains a serious and real threat against the UK, and I would again ask that the public remain vigilant."

"We're watching a movie where the thieves in Gaza fall out and one of them claims to be honest and brave, and the other is the bad guy. This Hamas game fools no one," said Yasser Abed Rabbo, chief aid to PA President and Hamas rival Mahmoud Abbas.

Rabbo charged Hamas was in "cahoots" with Johnston's kidnappers, the Gaza-based Army of Islam, which together with Hamas kidnapped Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit last June. Johnston was held in Gaza for nearly four months.

Hamas leaders denied the rescue operation was staged. "Our efforts resulted in the freedom of Johnston and prove Hamas is able to restore law and order to the Gaza Strip unlike the corrupt Fatah party," Hamas spokesman Abu Oubaida told WND.

According to Israeli and Palestinian security sources, the exact location in which Johnston was being kept has been known to Hamas, Fatah and Israeli security organizations for at least two months.
Although Hamas is considered a terror group by most Western governments, Johnston said, Hamas "is better at keeping law and order than many would agree. And God knows Gaza needs law and order."

And across America, school children are frightened to death with tales of rising oceans, monster tornadoes, droughts and millions dying - all because of man-made global warming. To begin with, those who believe the dire warnings of today's establishment press should know, as U.S. Sen. James Inhofe has pointed out, that "for more than 100 years, journalists have quoted scientists predicting the destruction of civilization by, in alternation, either runaway heat or a new Ice Age."

Believe it or not, over the last century America's major media have predicted an impending global climate crisis four different times - each prediction warning that entire countries would be wiped out or that lower crop yields would mean "billions will die." In 1895, the panic was over an imminent ice age. Later, in the late 1920s, when the earth's surface warmed less than half a degree, the media jumped on a new threat - global warming, which continued into the late 1950s. Then in 1975, the New York Times' headline blared, "A Major Cooling Widely Considered to Be Inevitable." Then in 1981 it was back to global warming, with the Times quoting seven government atmospheric scientists who predicted global warming of an "almost unprecedented magnitude."

Today, to cover all their bases, much of the press is changing its terminology from "global warming" to "climate change" or "climate catastrophe." That way they're covered either way: If the world gets colder, global warming is still at fault.

Whistleblower shows how all the main players - from politicians and scientists to big corporations and the United Nations- benefit from instilling fear into billions of human beings over the unproven theory of man-made global warming. Indeed, just three weeks after the U.N. ratcheted up international fears over global warming, a panel of 18 scientists from 11 countries has now reported to the U.N. that the only thing that can stop catastrophic climate change is a global tax - on greenhouse gas emissions.

That's right. Global problems, real or conjured up, require global governmental solutions. As Whistleblower explains, environmentalism is nothing less than the global elitists' replacement ideology for communism/socialism. With communism largely discredited today - after all, 100-150 million people died at the hands of communist "visionaries" during the last century - elitists who desire to rule other people's lives have gravitated to an even more powerful ideology. More powerful because it seems to trump all other considerations, as it claims the very survival of life on earth is dependent on implementing its agenda.

Thus, while scientists and climatologists who dare to question the rigid orthodoxy of man-made catastrophic global warming are openly ridiculed and threatened with decertification, the movement for global governance, complete with global taxation, is moving into the fast lane.

"Global warming will be one of the most powerfully coercive weapons in the globalists' arsenal for the foreseeable future," said David Kupelian, WND managing editor and author of "The Marketing of Evil." "It's important that everyone understands the game being played. This issue of Whistleblower provides a powerful antidote to all the hysteria - namely, common sense and truth."