WASHINGTON - A U.S. military drill designed to enhance homeland security in the event of a nuclear terrorist attack has some officials and media outlets funded by billionaire George Soros warning it may be a "false flag" operation leading to the detonation of a real nuclear device to set the stage for martial law.

The exercise, part of the "Noble Resolve" program of the U.S. Joint Forces Command, is set for tomorrow through Friday in Portland, Ore. Like other previous drills, it involves coordination with local officials in a model nuclear attack.

During the experiments, which are largely based on computer modeling, the "bomb" explodes inside the simulation. "Noble Resolve," according to planners, strives to create processes for interactions among local, state, national and international officials.

Last April, a similar "Noble Resolve" exercise took place in Virginia. However, despite the precedent, some officials and the IndyMedia organization supported by Soros are raising red flags - EVEN CLAIMING THAT IN A SIMILAR EXERCISE, PRESIDENT BUSH ORDERED THE DESTRUCTION OF THE WORLD TRADE CENTER ON SEPT. 11, 2001, AND BLAMED IT ON RADICAL ISLAMIC TERRORISTS.

Writing in NewOrleans.IndyMedia.org, Capt. Eric H. May, the military correspondent for the agency, asked the following question about the Portland drill: "But what if they decide to use a real bomb rather than simulate it?"

"A FALSE FLAG ATTACK IS ONE IN WHICH YOU ATTACK YOUR OWN PEOPLE, THEN BLAME IT ON A GROUP OF PEOPLE YOU WANT TO ATTACK," WROTE MAY. "IT'S A RADICAL STRATAGEM FOR INSTANTLY CREATING HATRED, AND IT'S COMMON, HISTORICALLY SPEAKING, ALL THE WAY FROM ANCIENT TO MODERN TIMES."

May gave the following examples:
-The Roman emperor Nero burned Rome, then blamed it on emerging Christianity.
-The German fuhrer Hitler burned the Reichstag, then blamed it on communist Jewry.
-The American president Bush demolished the World Trade Center, then blamed it on radical Islam.

The jitters in Portland, according to May, caused Rep. Peter DeFazio, D-Ore., to grill the Bush administration about National Security Presidential Directive 51, first reported in WND, which authorizes the executive branch to assume extraordinary powers in the event of a national emergency. "Maybe the people who think there's a conspiracy out there are right," DeFazio told the Portland Oregonian.

DeFazio, a member of the House Homeland Security Committee, said he was denied an opportunity to examine classified documents related to Directive 51. "At this stage of the Bush regime and its terror-driven global war, there's no shame in conspiracy theory, since it's the only theory that offers consistent, coherent answers to our growing secret government and its terror policies," wrote May.

Meanwhile, Portland's version of IndyMedia, raises even more concerns about the impending exercises.

"There has been a growing concern over the mock or simulation events (nuclear attack and martial law) proposed to take place in Portland, Oregon, by Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and other governmental agencies now called Operation Noble Resolve," reports the agency in an article titled 'Don't Nuke Portland.' "This mock event has been feared by some in the past to set up martial law in Portland during the months of August and September, but newer information has raised concern of graver fears."

The article goes on to speculate that an actual nuclear attack by the U.S. government might take place during the drill. It goes on to assert that the 9/11 attacks were a false flag operation and urges those who have been hired or volunteered to be a part of the exercise to refuse to participate.

"Why participate in a simulation that supposes an external attack on the USA when THERE SEEMS TO BE MORE INTERNAL THREAT BY ENEMIES OF DEMOCRACY WITHIN?" POSES THE ARTICLE.

The agency quoted Ahmadinejad as he spoke at a religious conference and did not elaborate on what he meant by Satan. Since the 1979 Islamic revolution, however, Iran has regularly referred to the United States as "the Great Satan."

"The Zionist regime is the standard bearer of invasion, occupation and Satan," he said, predicting Israel's eventual demise. "When the philosophy behind the establishment of a regime is in question, it is not unlikely that it will find itself on a course of decline and dissolution."

Israel condemned Ahmadinejad's statements as harmful to international peace and stability. "The Iranian president's comments are typical of his vociferous animosity towards Israel," said David Baker, an Israeli government spokesman. "He threatens not only Israel but poses a clear and present danger to the international community as well."

Ahmadinejad has made anti-Israel comments in the past. In October he caused outrage in the West when he said in a speech that Israel's "Zionist regime should be wiped off the map." His supporters have argued that Ahmadinejad's words were mistranslated and should have been better translated as "vanish from the pages of time" - implying Israel would vanish on its own rather be destroyed.

In the days after an earthquake killed at least 510 people and injured 1,500, clouds of dust surrounded gravediggers who were frantically making way for more bodies in the Peruvian city of Pisco. Meanwhile, military transport planes bringing aid roared overhead.

Mobs of residents looted cars and trucks bringing food and medical supplies to the city. Outnumbered police squads shot into the air in attempts to disperse the crowd.

Hospitals were overwhelmed as the number of injured rose while frantic survivors dug away at the rubble. Residents wandered the dirt streets in a daze, looking for missing relatives. Others went to the public health clinic to peek under the black plastic tarpaulins covering bodies.

But that's make-believe. In real life, US civilian agencies have used limited spy-satellite images of their country only to track hurricane damage, monitor climate change and create topographical maps.

But a plan to allow emergency response, border control and, eventually, law enforcement agencies greater access to the sophisticated satellites and other sensors that monitor American territory has drawn sharp criticism from civil liberties advocates, who say the government is overstepping the use of military technology for domestic surveillance.

"It potentially marks a transformation of American political culture toward a surveillance state, in which the entire public domain is subject to official monitoring," said Steven Aftergood, director of the Project on Government Secrecy for the Federation of American Scientists. "There's the possibility of a recurrence of past abuses: surveillance used against political opponents, as in the Civil Rights and McCarthy eras.

"There's also an incidental erosion of personal privacy, in which one now has to assume that anywhere you are, you are subject to overhead surveillance by the government. And that is a change in what it means to be an American."

Spy satellites, which provide higher resolution photographs than commercial satellite imagery, and in real time, have traditionally been used overseas to monitor terrorist movements, such as at al-Qaeda camps in Afghanistan and nuclear tests in places such as North Korea. Their expanded use in domestic surveillance marks a new era in intelligence gathering, conjuring up images of 'Big Brother' and raising civil liberties fears.

"This touches so many Americans. It can't be allowed to be discussed behind closed doors," said Caroline Fredrickson, director of the Washington legislative office of the American Civil Liberties Union.

With all flights from the Caribbean island suspended and a curfew imposed they have little choice but to hunker down in make-shift shelters - converted schools, churches and the indoor national sports arena - as the destructive storm marches across the eastern Caribbean. Fear gripped the island as authorities warned of a devastating direct hit from winds up to 150mph and up to 20 inches (50 centimeters) of rain.

The first deadly hurricane of the season has already claimed six lives in the Caribbean. Meteorologists said the storm could reach the maximum Category Five strength, with "potentially catastrophic" results by the time it makes landfall. Jamaican Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller said the country faced a "national emergency" and urged residents to take shelter and not leave evacuation until the last minute.

Dean was predicted to cause even more damage than Hurricane Gilbert which struck the island in 1988.

In Memphis, Tenn. alone, at least nine deaths have been related to high temperatures, including a woman overcome by the heat wave while waiting to visit late superstar Elvis' grave site at Graceland, according to the report.

A nuclear plant had to shut down one of its units in Alabama because the water being drawn from the Tennessee River was too hot. The brutal heat has claimed at least four victims in Georgia. In Alabama, the lesson for students is even the ride home can be dangerous.

Drivers say the temperatures inside their buses have climbed as high as 50 degrees Celsius during this heat wave. Weather forecasters expect the temperature to cool down a little bit over the weekend in those areas.

Satellite images of Pavlof Volcano taken Thursday showed strong thermal readings, consistent with what the Alaska Volcano Observatory is calling a "vigorous eruption of lava" at the volcano about 590 miles southwest of Anchorage on the Alaska Peninsula.

The volcano is below the path of hundreds of daily international flight paths, and an explosive eruption could interrupt those operations, said Steve McNutt, a volcano seismologist with the observatory. Volcanic ash can enter an engine and make it seize up, he said.

Its last eruption was in 1996; "that 11-year span is the longest Pavlof has gone without an event," McNutt said. A series of ash explosions and lava eruptions took place for several months after the last eruption. Ash clouds reached as high as 30,000 feet at the time. During a 1986 eruption, Pavlof spewed ash as high as 49,000 feet.

The revelation follows a weekend of knife violence which claimed the life of 16-year-old GCSE student Andrew Holland. The study, compiled from government figures, shows the number of street robberies involving blades has risen from 25,500 in 2005 to 64,000 in the year to April 2007.

The figures mean that each day last year there were, on average, 175 robberies at knife-point in England and Wales - up from 110 the year before and from 69 in 2004-5. The Centre for Crime and Justice Studies (CCJS), based at King's College London, said knives are now used in one in five muggings, twice the frequency reported two years ago.

Ministers are accused of being too slow to act. David Davis, the shadow home secretary, said: "This explosion in knife crime is the most astounding symptom of Britain's broken society. The Government has been slow to recognise and even slower to act to deal with this plague on the streets of our towns and cities."

Victims of Crime Trust director Norman Brennan, who has campaigned for mandatory jail terms for thugs who carry a knife, said: "We are facing a national crisis with knife crime. Increasing numbers of people do not think twice about slipping a knife into their pocket before they leave the house.

"There should be a mass, nationwide stop and search. And police should take community leaders with them so they can see the feral youngsters who are roaming our streets."

Mr Putin said a halt in long-range bombers' flights after the Soviet collapse had affected Russia's security as other nations had continued such missions - a oblique reference to the US. "I have made a decision to resume regular flights of Russian strategic aviation," he said. "Starting today, such tours of duty will be conducted regularly and on a strategic scale. Our pilots have been grounded for too long; they are happy to start a new life."

Soviet bombers routinely flew such missions to areas from which nuclear-tipped cruise missiles could be launched at the United States. But that stopped in the post-Soviet economic meltdown. In Washington, a State Department Spokesman said the US was not troubled by the decision. "It's interesting. We certainly are not in the kind of posture we were with what used to be the Soviet Union. It's a different era. If Russia feels as though they want to take some of these old aircraft out of mothballs and get them flying again, that's their decision."

Mr Putin's comments came as he and his Chinese counterpart, Hu Jintao, attended an unprecedented show of joint military force amid fears that the Russian leader is trying to turn an increasingly powerful central Asian alliance into a second Warsaw Pact. The United States will be anxiously watching the military manoeuvres - held under the auspices of the six-member Shanghai Co-operation Organisation (SCO) - from afar after its request to send observers was rejected.

Washington has plenty of reasons to be uneasy. Founded in 2001, the SCO, which includes the four central Asian nations of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyztan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan as well as China and Russia, is rapidly gaining a reputation as an anti-Western organisation.

That image seems to be one that Mr Putin is happy to cultivate. Analysts say that the Russian president believes the organisation is emerging as a bloc that is rapidly becoming powerful enough to stand up to the West. Russia's most pro-government newspapers, often used by the Kremlin as propaganda vehicles, yesterday proclaimed the arrival of an "anti-Nato" alliance and a "Warsaw Pact 2". At the annual SCO summit in the Kyrgyz capital Bishkek yesterday, Mr Putin praised the alliance's growing strength. "Year after year the SCO becomes a more significant factor in strengthening security and stability in the central Asian region," he said.

In a thinly disguised swipe at Washington, which mirrored earlier attacks on American "unilateralism" and "diktat", he added: "We are convinced that any attempts to resolve global and regional problems alone are useless."

The suicides are occurring at a time when many soldiers are reporting symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder, including repeated flashbacks of combat experiences and other severe reactions.

But, with President George Bush demanding results and insurgents striking with greater success, an overstretched US Army has been extending the combat tours of soldiers in Iraq. It is also sending units back into action on a far more regular basis than was the case in the past.

The report found that there were 99 confirmed suicides among active-duty soldiers during 2006, up from 88 the previous year and the highest since 102 suicides in 1991.The suicides included 28 soldiers deployed in Iraq and Afghanistan. About twice as many women serving in the wars committed suicide as those not sent to war, the report said.

The Army said "occupational/operational issues" as well as failed relationships, and legal and financial issues had led to the suicides. Not surprisingly, it did not speculate about the falling morale of US combat troops in the face of ongoing military failure in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The main quake of 8.0 magnitude hit on Wednesday and many of its victims were poor, killed when their flimsy mud-brick homes collapsed. Hospitals and morgues were overwhelmed, forcing residents to lay bodies out on city streets. Reuters witness said there were no immediate reports of damages or injuries from the aftershock, centered around 145 km south of the capital on the coast.

The aftershock rattled Peruvians on Friday, sowing panic in the hardest-hit towns, south of the capital Lima, where volunteers tried to help emergency crews find the living and treat the injured. Some 510 people have been confirmed dead and 1,000 wounded since the big quake, the United Nations said on Friday, quoting national and local authorities.

Thousands of people were homeless and forced to sleep outside. They complained of a lack of medical attention and emergency supplies. The damage was worst in the cities of Canete, Chincha and Pisco.

The decision, which will help to increase the flow of money in the US financial system, saw London's FTSE 100 jump 3.5% or 205.3 points to 6,064.2. Relief was also felt in Wall Street, where shares opened sharply higher, and elsewhere in Europe. At the close of trade in New York, the Dow Jones ended up 1.82% at 13,079.1.

The Nasdaq, which is dominated by technology companies, was also the recipient of a recovery of sentiment from deeply negative to tentatively positive. It was 2.31% ahead at 1,888.78. At the end of the day in Europe, Frankfurt's Dax was up 1.49%, while the Cac 40 in Paris closed 1.86% higher.

All three main European indexes had veered in and out of the red throughout the day's trading. The Fed's rate cut is intended to help with the liquidity problems facing many banks following the US housing slump. On Thursday, London's FTSE 100 fell 4.1%, cutting almost £60bn off the value of Britain's top companies.

The Reverend George Brown came close to being killed himself when he ventured into the jungle to find those who had had his four colleagues for dinner. The Methodist minister discovered the victims' bones scattered around the cannibal village on the Pacific island of New Britain.

In a colourful ceremony this week, island chiefs said they were very sorry their forebears chopped up the missionaries for a grand feast. The apology was made to the High Commissioner of Fiji, where the missionaries came from.

The commissioner, Ratu Isoa Delamisi Tikoca, who represents the Queen in Fiji, told the chiefs: "We are deeply touched and wish you the greatest joy of forgiveness as we finally end this record disagreement."

"Americans should know that in this field, as with nuclear energy, they are dealing with the whole nation. And the great nation of Iran will never abandon its revolutionary people," Ahmad Khatami told worshippers at Friday prayers in Tehran. "Americans should know that if they act madly in this regard, they would be entering a swamp they won't be able to get out of," the conservative cleric said in a speech that was broadcast live on the radio.

Khatami is a member of the Assembly of Experts, an influential clerical body which has the power to appoint or dismiss Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. The Revolutionary Guard Corps is an ideologically driven force which sees itself as a guardian of the Islamic Republic. Its command structure is separate from the regular military. The Guards has a range of business interests, including energy projects awarded to its engineering subsidiary Khatam al-Anbia.

Some analysts say the Guards have grown in influence since the election in 2005 of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, a former commander. They say ex-officers have been appointed to political posts and more may run in the March parliamentary election.

And consultants Lane, Clark & Peacock (LCP) estimate that companies listed on the FTSE 100 stock index in London have a pensions shortfall of about £15bn. That compares with surpluses of between £9bn and £12bn in July, the firms said. The worry for many analysts is that stock market declines will continue, wiping even more money off the value of pension funds and global stock markets.

However, Aon said that investors should not over-react to the decline in pension fund values. Marcus Hurd, a senior consultant and actuary at Aon, urged investors to take a longer-term view, pointing out that at the start of 2007 the pension funds had a deficit of £40bn, while a year earlier it was more than £80bn. "People shouldn't get too concerned about one week of falls," he said.

Even so, people who are close to retirement and not on a guaranteed benefit pension could feel the pinch as they do not have time to ride out the market volatility and make back losses, he explained. Bob Scott, a partner at LCP, said that while the shift from surplus to deficit was significant, it was not "a case of the world ending".

And if anything, the current problems could act as a reminder for pension fund managers and trustees about the dangers that are inherent in investing too heavily in equities, he said.