Populations of seven species have had dramatic declines across the continent since West Nile emerged in the United States in 1999, according to a first-of-its-kind study.

The research, to be published Thursday by the journal Nature, compared 26 years of bird breeding surveys to quantify what had been knowanecdotally."We're seeing a serious impact," said study co-author Marm Kilpatrick, a senior research scientist at the Consortium of Conservation Medicine in New York.West Nile virus, which is spread by mosquito bites, has infected 23,974 people in confirmed cases since 1999, killing 962, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

But the disease, primarily an avian virus, has been far deadlier for birds. The death toll for crows and jays is easily in the hundreds of thousands, based on the number dead bodies found and extrapolated for what wasn't reported, Kilpatrick said. It hit the seven species American crow, blue jay, tufted titmouse, American robin, house wren, chickadee and Eastern bluebird hard enough to be scientifically significant. Only the blue jay and house wren bounced back, in 2005.

The hardest-hit species has been the American crow. Nationwide, about one-third of crows have been killed by West Nile, said study lead author Shannon LaDeau, a research scientist at the Smithsonian Migratory Bird Center in Washington. The species was on the rise until 1999. In some places, such as Maryland, crow loss was at 45 percent, and around Baltimore and Washington, 90 percent was gone, LaDeau said.

"It tends to be more suburban areas. Some of the common backyard species including the blue jays, the robins, the chickadees have suffered significant declines," LaDeau said. "That heavily packed urban corridor is a bad place to be a bird. The reason for that is that the mosquito prefers human landscape. They do very well in suburbia."

The birds act as an early warning system for humans, said Wesley Hochachka, assistant director of bird population studies at Cornell Lab of Ornithology. "If you start seeing crows dying and dying in numbers, that means there could be a human outbreak," said Hochachka, who was not involved with the study.

Iraq faces the distinct possibility of collapse and fragmentation, UK foreign policy think tank Chatham House says. Its report says the Iraqi government is now largely powerless and irrelevant in many parts of the country.
It warns there is not one war but many local civil wars, and urges a major change in US and British strategy, such as consulting Iraq's neighbours more.

The report comes as Iran said Iranian and US diplomats would hold talks on 28 May on the security situation in Iraq. Meanwhile, the UK Foreign Office stated that security conditions, although "grim" in places, varied across Iraq. "Most insurgent attacks remain concentrated in just four of Iraq's 18 provinces, containing less than 42% of the population," a Foreign Office spokesman told the Press Association news agency. "Iraq has come a long way in a short time," he added, saying the international community "must stand alongside the Iraqi government".

Mr Stansfield, of Exeter University and Chatham House, argues that the break-up of Iraq is becoming increasingly likely. In large parts of the country, the Iraqi government is powerless, he says, as rival factions struggle for local supremacy. The briefing paper, entitled Accepting Realities in Iraq, says: "There is not 'a' civil war in Iraq, but many civil wars and insurgencies involving a number of communities and organisations struggling for power."

Le Figaro reports that Berlin and Brussels are concerned that trying to get agreement among all 27 member states might result in an EU treaty which would be too minimalist, given the responses to a questionnaire circulated by Angela Merkel last month.

The German presidency is now interested in an alternative French proposal which would involve having TWO TREATIES ONE WHICH DEALS WITH INSTITUTIONAL CHANGES AND A SECOND WHICH DEALS WITH POLICIES, which, Le Figaro reports, could give the EU new powers, on climate, energy and immigration. The idea is that those countries not wanting to adopt this second treaty could remain outside of it without preventing other member states to pursue greater integration.

The front page of the FT reports that Angela Merkel plans TO OFFER BRITAIN AN OPT-OUT arrangement on crime and justice issues in return for giving up the veto in this area in the new treaty. However it also suggests that any SUCH AN OPT-OUT MIGHT BE TIME-LIMITED. Hans-Gert Pöttering, President of the European Parliament and a confidant of Ms Merkel, told Handelsblatt that we can think about time-limited opt-outs if it helped secure a deal. Tony Blair's aides said the Prime Minister had not decided whether he would even want the opt-out.

E Monde notes the German presidency's insistence on keeping the Charter of Fundamental Rights, perhaps as a protocol with full legal value. However, in an article in Die Welt Pöttering sasy that the Charter could be included in the second, 'optional' treaty.

Johnny Dymond, BBC Europe Correspondent, noted on the Today programme that ALTHOUGH THE NEW TREATY WILL NOT BE EXACTLY THE SAME AS THE CONSTITUTION, IT MAY HAVE THE SAME SORT OF INSTITUTIONAL IMPACT. David Heathcoat-Amory, who sat on the original European Convention which drew up the Constitution, was interviewed. HE SAID, THEIR GAME IS TO GET AS MUCH OF THE SUBSTANCE OF THE CONSTITUTION THROUGH, BUT NOT CALL IT A CONSTITUTION IN ORDER TO AVOID REFERENDUMS AT ALL COSTS. He also criticised THE SECRETIVE NATURE OF NEGOTIATIONS, and the refusal of the British Government to even outline its position.

While the idea of a flexible or two speed Europe is good in principle, it sounds like MERKEL AND SARKOZY ARE KEEN TO USE IT AS A THREAT IN ORDER TO PRESSURE MEMBER STATES INTO SIGNING UP TO THINGS THEY DON'T WANT.

or four decades, Israel has pushed to build and expand Jewish neighborhoods, while trying to restrict the growth in Arab parts of the city. Yet two trends are unchanged: Jews moving out of Jerusalem have outnumbered those moving in for 27 of the last 29 years. And the Palestinian growth rate has been high.

In a 1967 census taken shortly after the war, the population of Jerusalem was 74 percent Jewish and 26 percent Arab. Today, the city is 66 percent Jewish and 34 percent Arab, with the gap narrowing by about one percentage point a year, according to the Jerusalem Institute for Israel Studies.

Jerusalem's profound religious and historical significance makes its status perhaps the single most explosive issue in the Arab-Israeli conflict. And that status clearly would become even more contentious were the balance of the population to tip toward the Arabs. This is a specter that worries Israelis, even as the 40th anniversary of their victory in the June 1967 war approaches.

"The Jewish people dreamed for centuries of getting back their ancient capital," said Dore Gold, a former Israeli ambassador to the United Nations and author of "The Fight for Jerusalem." Nineteenth-century immigration to Jerusalem, site of the biblical Jewish temples, gave the city a Jewish majority that has been in place since the 1860s, he said.

Jerusalem's profound religious and historical significance makes its status perhaps the single most explosive issue in the Arab-Israeli conflict. And that status clearly would become even more contentious were the balance of the population to tip toward the Arabs. This is a specter that worries Israelis, even as the 40th anniversary of their victory in the June 1967 war approaches

Jerusalem's Jewish population is still growing despite the out-migration, but only by a little more than 1 percent a year - not enough to match the annual 3 percent increase among Arabs. The small Jewish increase is a result of an extraordinarily high birthrate among the ultra-Orthodox, who make up about a quarter of the city's population; on average, each of these woman has more than seven children.Yet as the ratio of ultra-Orthodox Jews increases, so does the outflow of secular Jews.

Tennessee was the hardest hit, with 23 deaths reported. Three people died in MISSOURI and one in ILLINOIS..
In ARKANSAS, dozens of people were injured when tornadoes hit the north-eastern part of the state. Heavy storms also battered KENTUCKY and INDIANA, where thousands of concert-goers were forced to flee as tornado sirens went off.

The storms uprooted trees, brought down power lines and overturned mobile homes and cars across wide sections of some central states. "This is a high fatality count," a spokesman for the TENNESSEE Emergency Management Agency said on Sunday. Officials said the death toll there was likely to rise.

Most of the deaths were in Tennessee along a 25-mile (40km) path, stretching from Newbern - about 80 miles (129km) north-east of Memphis - to Bradford, officials said. In Illinois, the search for any other possible victims under the rubble of a collapsed shop - where one man is known to have died - was hampered by a gas leak.

The Arkansas town of Marmaduke suffered extensive damage. Fire department officials told the AP that nearly half of the buildings had been destroyed. The US National Weather Center warned on Monday that severe storms, with tornadoes and large hail, could hit the Carolinas and Virginia later in the day.

The head of the Army, General Sir Richard Dannatt, said his presence in Iraq would expose the 22-year-old Prince as well as the troops serving with him to "a degree of risk that I now deem unacceptable".

In a statement, Clarence House admitted that the Prince was "very disappointed" that he would not be going with his squadron in the Household Cavalry.But a spokesman insisted that he would not quit the Army.

Gen Dannatt said that he had finally reached the decision that the risks were too great after visiting Iraq himself at the end of last week.

Thirty Zionist rabbis break taboo and visit Temple Mount as part of 40th anniversary celebrations of Jerusalem's unification. Dozens of religious Zionist rabbis, including yeshiva heads and municipal rabbis made their way to Temple Mount Sunday for the very first time.

More and more rabbis in the religious Zionist sector have been calling for a march on Temple Mount over the last few years, especially after Jewish access to it has been restricted since 2000. "Forty years after we won the Six Day War, its accomplishments seem to be fading away," said Rabbi Israel Rosen, head of the Zomet religious Institute.

"Recognizing values such as returning to eastern Jerusalem and Temple Mount, the massive return of Jews from the former Soviet Union to Israel, and the construction of West Bank settlement are all part of our Jewish core," he added.

"This is a blessed event," said MK Uri Ariel (National Union-National Religious Party) when he heard of the rabbis' action. "The police finally realized that keeping Jews out of one of their holiest places is absurd, and must change.

"This week, when we celebrate the 40th anniversary of the unification of Jerusalem, we must remember we still have a long way to go before the Jewish people reclaim this holy place. This is a positive step," he added, "but it can't be a one-time thing."

The precautions involve immersing in a mikveh (ritual bath), taking off one's shoes, and clarifying the precise areas forbidden for entry - or else going only with a guide who knows the area.

Rabbi Shilo, asked to explain the timing of the visit, told Arutz-7, "For one thing, Jerusalem Reunification Day is approaching. In addition, our hold on the Temple Mount is not yet strong among many people of Torah and others, because of halakhic [Jewish-legal] obstructions that we feel are no longer relevant." Biblical law forbids one from entering the holy areas of the Temple Mount, and some feel that the precise boundaries of those areas are not known. However, Rabbi Yisrael Ariel of the Temple Institute has shown that the rock under the Dome of the Rock is in fact the Holy of Holies, and most scholars agree.

Police accompanied the rabbis, and the "representatives of the Islamic Waqf [the Moslem body that oversees the site - ed.] looked quite miffed," Rabbi Shilo said.

MK Uri Ariel (National Union) expressed approval of the rabbis' move, saying, "It appears that the police now understand that the current situation of restricting Jewish presence on the Jews' most sacred site is absurd and must change This disgrace must be stopped. Jewish prayer must be allowed on the site, in a gradual manner and in the places permitted by Halakhah."

Last week, a group of over 40 rabbis signed a declaration calling upon the religious public - those who know the laws and restrictions - to frequent the permitted sites on the Temple Mount "and to arouse love for this holy site in which our prayers are most accepted."

Former Chief Rabbi Mordechai Eliyahu, however, issued an opposite call, saying that visits to the Temple Mount could lead to the grave sin of entering forbidden sacred locations. "It's not that anyone is apathetic to our inability to pray on the Temple Mount," his son, Rabbi Shmuel Eliyahu of Tzfat said in his father's name. "Our pain over this is almost physical." Rabbi M. Eliyahu is of the opinion that a synagogue should be built in a permitted area of the Temple Mount.

The artifacts had been found in archaeological excavations going on in Ir David, the City of David, below Jerusalem's Old City to the east. The specific artifacts on display were found at the Beit M'Ayin dig, overseen by Haifa University's Professor Reich.

The finds were displayed at a conference marking 40 years since the liberation and reunification of Jerusalem.

THE POPE said this in a message to the meeting Together for Europe 2007, sent on his behalf by Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, Vatican secretary of state. The one-day meeting was held Saturday in Stuttgart. Cardinal Walter Kasper, president of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, called the gathering of some 250 Christian movements one of the most important ecumenical initiatives of the year.

"The Together for Europe initiative," the papal message read, "has come to life through the good ecumenical intuition of Roman Catholic, Protestant, Orthodox and Anglican groups, associations, movements and communities, and seeks to underline the need to reaffirm together faithfulness to the Gospel in a Europe that risks losing its original values and giving up on its Christian roots."The message called for "defending a human and spiritual heritage that is vital for the authentic development of Europe." Benedict XVI expressed his wish that the meeting of Together for Europe would "strengthen the desire for communion that animates lay movements and communities of the different churches."

THE ECUMENICAL PATRIARCH OF CONSTANTINOPLE, BARTHOLOMEW I also sent a message to the meeting, reflecting on the fact that "communion in Christ requires us to stay alert and to work to understand the other: This is why we rejoice over your 'day,' recalling that we must search for man made in the image of God -- far from human designs or ideological or class differences." According to the patriarch, it is often the human person that tries to make God "in his image."

"To understand man and woman as rational beings made in God's image, we must elevate ourselves from an individualistic love to communion with God, to a serene and personal relationship with him," the patriarch said.
In this way we will break barriers "between nations and ethnic groups and races and we will feel like brothers," added Bartholomew I. "If we search for our Christian roots then our desire will be transformed into a tangible reality!"

THE ANGLICAN ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY, ROWAN WILLIAMS, praised the event, saying: "It is not important how many people want to have answers for the troubles of Europe but that many people know that there exists a true hope and a source of renewal beyond our projects and resources."

The meeting Together for Europe 2007 issued a message during the event that spoke of the continual growth in communion between Christian movements and communities. The message also spoke in favor of life, family, creation, solidarity and dialogue, calling participants to communicate the Gospel of life and peace, and to promote Europe's Christian roots.

Here is the message sent on behalf of Benedict XVI by Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, Vatican secretary of state, to the meeting Together for Europe, which took place Saturday. MORE THAN 230 REPRESENTATIVES OF MOVEMENTS AND CHRISTIAN COMMUNITIES PARTICIPATED

It is with great pleasure that I convey the cordial greetings of His Holiness, Pope Benedict XVI to the promoters and organizers and the numerous participants at the "Together for Europe 2007" event that is taking place on May 12 in Stuttgart.

The "Together for Europe" initiative that has come to life through the good ecumenical intuition of Roman Catholic, Protestant, Orthodox and Anglican groups, associations, movements and communities seeks to underline the need to re-affirm together faithfulness to the Gospel in a Europe that risks losing its original values and giving up on its Christian roots.

The words of the Venerable Pope John Paul II seem to be more relevant than ever: "I would like to mention in a particular way the loss of Europe's Christian memory and heritage, accompanied by a kind of practical agnosticism and religious indifference whereby many Europeans give the impression of living without spiritual roots and somewhat like heirs who have squandered a patrimony entrusted to them by history." (Post-Synodal exhortation "Ecclesia in Europa", 7).

Pope Benedict XVI echoes this consideration. From the beginning of his pontificate he has never missed an opportunity to recall the importance of safeguarding the Christian inheritance, the particular richness of the European continent.

The appeal not to lose our roots is like a repeated invitation to work concretely so that believers in Christ of different confessions may unite their efforts in the service of such a timely and relevant cause. It's a matter of defending a human and spiritual heritage that is vital for the authentic development of Europe.

The [Pope] hopes therefore that the meeting "Together for Europe" may strengthen the desire for communion that animates lay movements and communities of the different churches; that it may contribute to overcoming prejudices, nationalism and historical barriers, and may urge people to work so that the spiritual dimension may not weaken in the Europe of post-modern times.

It is with this spirit that Pope Benedict XVI invokes the divine blessing on all who participate in this meaningful event. To each and everyone I too assure you of my prayer and I take this opportunity to greet you cordially.

As of 9:00 a.m. Wednesday, the blaze had already consumed over 13,500 acres, and officials warn that only 10 percent of the fire has been contained.

"This fire will not be out until Mother Nature puts it out with a really good rainstorm. There is a good possibility of some thunderstorm activity this afternoon, but as of this point we can't really tell you if we'll get rain or not," Forest Fire Service Chief Maris Gabliks said during a Wednesday morning news conference.

New Jersey State Police Lt. Col. Drew Lieb said 2,500 homes were evacuated from the surrounding area on Tuesday. About 700 of those people were being sheltered at a nearby high school and middle school. Three nursing homes were also evacuated and sent to the high school for shelter.

Bert Plante, a division fire warden with the Forest Fire Service, said there were no reports of deaths or injuries. About 100 firefighters from the forest fire service as well as 200 emergency responders from Ocean, Burlington and Atlantic counties would battle the blaze overnight, he said. Plante believes the fire will rival some of the area's biggest forest fires in history. In 1995, a fire there burned about 20,000 acres of land, and in 2001 another fire consumed about 12,000 acres, according to Plante.

A spokesperson for Hong Kong's Television and Entertainment Licensing authority (TELA) said it had received 838 complaints about the Bible by noon Wednesday. The complaints follow the launch of an anonymous Web site -- www.truthbible.net -- which said the holy book "made one tremble" given its sexual and violent content, including rape and incest.

The Web site said the Bible's sexual content "far exceeds" that of a recent sex column published in the Chinese University's "Student Press" magazine, which had asked readers whether they'd ever fantasized about incest or bestiality. That column was later deemed "indecent" by the Obscene Articles Tribunal, sparking a storm of debate about social morality and freedom of speech. Student editors of the journal defended it, saying open sexual debate was a basic right.

If the Bible is similarly classified as "indecent" by authorities, only those over 18 could buy the holy book and it would need to be sealed in a wrapper with a statutory warning notice. TELA said it was still undecided on whether the Bible had violated Hong Kong's obscene and indecent articles laws. But a local protestant minister shrugged off this possibility.

John Bolton, who still has close links to the Bush administration, told The Daily Telegraph that the European Union had to "get more serious" about Iran and recognise that its diplomatic attempts to halt Iran's enrichment programme had failed.Iran has "clearly mastered the enrichment technology now they're not stopping, they're making progress and our time is limited", he said. Economic sanctions "with pain" had to be the next step, followed by attempting to overthrow the theocratic regime and, ultimately, military action to destroy nuclear sites.

Mr Bolton's stark warning appeared to be borne out yesterday by leaks about an inspection by the UN's International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) of Iran's main nuclear installation at Natanz on Sunday.The experts found that Iran's scientists were operating 1,312 centrifuges, the machines used to enrich uranium. If Iran can install 3,000, it will need about one year to produce enough weapons grade uranium for one nuclear bomb.

The Bush administration has moved some distance away from the hawkish views of Mr Bolton and Mr Cheney, which were dominant in the president's first term, towards the more traditional diplomatic approach favoured by the State Department.But his is still a highly influential voice and Mr Bush remains adamant that he will not allow Iran to become armed with nuclear weapons.

The Pentagon has drawn up contingency plans for military action and some senior White House officials share Mr Bolton's thinking.

"We are Palestinian, we are women and we are gay," is the slogan coined by Aswat, the association campaigning for lesbian Arabs to be accepted in Israeli and Palestinian society, and whose name in English means "voices".

"A lot of lesbians and Arab homosexuals have double lives, marry and lead a secret existence. People say it is forbidden by religion," says Rauda Morcos, Aswat coordinator, at its headquarters in Israel's northern city of Haifa. "Society is hypocritical. But we are against this issue remaining secret. We want it dealt with as a political and social issue."

If, with the passing months, Aswat is becoming more visible and widely recognised in Israel, it is also attracting the wrath of the Islamic Movement, which has become an incontrovertible fixture in the Arab Israeli community.
"Under Islamic law, homosexuality is unlawful, a kind of illness that needs to be treated," said Sheikh Ibrahim Sarsur, an MP in the Israeli Parliament and a member of the movement. "Our Arab society cannot tolerate this phenomenon, to allow it to become an overt part of our daily life."

She knows that the path is still long and paved with stones for gay people, particularly in the Palestinian territories. "We don't have any illusions. We know, for example, there will be no Gay Pride in Gaza. But quietly and surely we will change things." Aswat is starting to snowball. An association, even if for the moment it remains a secret, was set up in Ramallah in March by four gay students.

"Officially we do social work against the occupation or the wall. But in private we are trying to help gays," said one of its founders on condition of anonymity, who has infiltrated Tel Aviv illegally for the drag-queen night.