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.

Nothing lasts forever. I'LL BE SURPRISED IF THE U.S. IS ABLE TO MAINTAIN ITS PRESENT GEOGRAPHIC BOUNDARIES FOR THIS CENTURY. The Mexicans talk of the Reconquista; the gringos stole the Southwest from them in the 1800s, and they're likely to take it back.

What do you think the odds are that a young Latino male in California, 20 years from now, is going to pay 20% of his wages in Social Security and Medicare to support some old white broad in Massachusetts? Especially since he knows he's never going to get an aluminum nickel back? Even today, polls show that more kids believe in aliens than believe they'll see any Social Security money.

WE'VE HAD REALLY GOOD TIMES FOR A WHOLE GENERATION. PEOPLE BECOME FAT AND SASSY, OR IN THE CASE OF AMERICANS, OBESE AND ARROGANT, DURING GOOD TIMES. THEY DON'T THINK OF HANGING THEIR LEADERS FROM LAMP POSTS UNTIL THINGS GET SERIOUSLY BAD.

I DON'T KNOW HOW BAD THINGS WILL GET. BUT WHEN I'M ASKED, I'M PRONE TO QUIP "WORSE THAN EVEN I THINK THEY WILL GET !"

(By Doug Casey, chairman of Casey Research is a renowned investor, best-selling author and editor of the monthly newsletter International Speculator)

The Forever War in the Middle East is greatly accelerating the process. THE WHOLE IDEA OF A RESERVE CURRENCY IS MEANINGLESS IF THE CURRENCY IS BACKED BY NOTHING BUT THE GOOD WILL OF THE ISSUING GOVERNMENT. That's why gold has always been used as money; you don't have to rely on anyone's full faith and credit, good will, competence, trade surpluses, self-restraint or anything else. And it's why gold will again be used, in everyday transactions, as money.

The dollar is a hot potato. There are trillions - nobody knows exactly how many - floating outside the U.S. But only Americans have to accept them, and only the U.S. Government can create them (although the North Koreans do their best). The Chinese have good reason to worry about all those dollars. When they tried to buy the Unocal oil company, they were turned away by the U.S. Government. So, obviously, their dollars weren't good for that. When Dubai wanted to buy companies that manage six U.S. seaports, they found their dollars had no value.

AT SOME POINT THERE'S GOING TO BE A PANIC OUT OF THE DOLLAR. When it happens, it's likely to be the biggest financial upset since the 1930s. Part of the question is what they'll panic into. The euro? As I have said many times, if the dollar is an "I owe you nothing," the euro is a "Who owes you nothing?" I THINK THE BIG BENEFICIARY WILL BE GOLD. The problem for the world's economy is that just a trillion dollars?which is only about 1/6 of the dollars outside the U.S. alone - can buy a billion ounces of gold, even at $1,000 an ounce. But only about four billion ounces have ever been mined.

IT'S AN EXPLOSIVE SITUATION. The one thing you can count on when there's a crisis is that the government will "do something," which means controlling its subjects - not, God forbid, itself. And that something is likely to be foreign exchange controls. A small straw in the wind is the new regulation making it illegal to export more than $5 worth of pennies and nickels, because their metal is worth more than their face value - even though there's no longer much copper in the pennies or nickel in the nickels.

IF AN AMERICAN DOESN'T GET SIGNIFICANT ASSETS OUTSIDE THE U.S. NOW, IT MAY BE IMPOSSIBLE IN THE FUTURE. The best thing to do is buy real estate abroad, since it's currently not reportable, like bank and brokerage accounts, and they can't very well make you repatriate it. I expect, however, very few people will take my advice, even though they may agree with it.

But everybody gets what he deserves, so it's not a problem..

(By Doug Casey, chairman of Casey Research is a renowned investor, best-selling author and editor of the monthly newsletter International Speculator)

NHS Direct has seen a large rise in the number of people seeking advice about mosquito bites following a combination of rain and a warm climate that has encouraged them to thrive.

The death toll in eastern India alone rose by over 100 in the past week with thousands more marooned or made homeless as bloated rivers burst mud embankments.Authorities across South Asia -- where around 850 people have drowned, been crushed by landslides or died from snakebite and waterborne infections since mid-July -- said they were struggling to help millions of victims.

For some in the impoverished Indian state of Bihar, it is a struggle for survival as jackals and monkeys have attacked dozens of villagers over the past few days. "Wild animals like jackals and monkeys are biting our wives and children and snatching bread from their hands," said Lalan Raut from the flood-hit Madhubani district.
"They are on a looting spree and are killing our goats and small rabbits." Residents said the wild animals faced a shortage of prey since huge areas of the state were under water.

More immediately in the path of the 2007 Atlantic storm season's first hurricane were the Lesser Antilles, in particular the islands of Dominica and St. Lucia and the French territories of Martinique and Guadeloupe, the U.S. National Hurricane Center said. The hurricane's top sustained winds had reached 100 miles per hour (160 km per hour) by 8 p.m. EDT, making it a Category 2 storm on the five-step Saffir-Simpson scale of hurricane intensity, the Miami-based hurricane center said.

Computer models showed the hurricane could become an extremely dangerous Category 4 storm as it passed south of Jamaica early next week. Category 3 to 5 hurricanes, such as Katrina, Rita and Wilma in the devastating 2005 Atlantic storm season, are potentially the most destructive storms but a Category 2 hurricane can still damage buildings and create a 6- to 8-foot (1.8 meter to 2.4 meter) storm surge.

"Preparations to protect life and property should be rushed to completion," the hurricane center said in an echo of warnings that rang out repeatedly in 2004 and 2005, when a series of hurricanes struck the United States, the Caribbean and Central America. Energy markets in particular have been on edge since 2004 and 2005, when hurricanes Ivan, Katrina and Rita toppled oil rigs and flooded refineries on the U.S. Gulf Coast. The Gulf of Mexico accounts for roughly a third of domestic U.S. oil production and more than 15 percent of its natural gas.

In addition, almost half of U.S. refining capacity is located in Gulf Coast states and can be vulnerable to flooding or wind damage from storms. If Dean crosses the Yucatan and enters the southern Gulf of Mexico, it could disrupt operations in the Cantarell Complex of Mexican oil fields, which is one of the world's most productive and supplies two-thirds of Mexico's crude oil output.

JERUSALEM -- Palestinian negotiators drafting an agreement behind the scenes with Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's office have made clear they will not accept any final peace deal with Israel unless the Jewish state forfeits the Temple Mount, Judaism's holiest site, WND has learned.

According to a report in Israel's Yediot Aharonot daily yesterday, Olmert is willing to discuss joint Israeli-Palestinian control over the Temple Mount complex. The report didn't state the positions of the Palestinian side on the issue.

A chief Palestinian negotiator, speaking to WND on condition his name be withheld, said yesterday, "there can be no agreement with Israel unless we get complete sovereignty of the Mount. Once Palestinian control over the [Temple Mount] is fixed, then we will make assurances for Jewish visits to the site."

The chief negotiator said aides from Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah organization have been hammering out the parameters of a final status agreement for presentation in November at a U.S.-backed international summit regarding the Middle East.

Asked by WND whether Olmert is willing to forfeit the Temple Mount in an agreement with the Palestinians, David Baker, a spokesman for the prime minister, had no comment. The Temple Mount is the holiest site in Judaism. Muslims say it is their third holiest site

The blaze forced hundreds of residents in the city's affluent northern suburbs to flee and triggered a series of power cuts that lasted for hours. At least 10 people were taken to hospital with breathing problems while one firefighter was also injured.

Gale force winds prevented airplanes joining the fire fighting operations earlier in the day, allowing it to get out of control, the fire brigade said. Fire brigade officer Nikolaos Diamantis told a news conference: "From 11:00 to 12:30 the airplanes could not operate due to strong winds and thick smoke."

Greece has seen some of the worst fires of the past ten years this summer, caused by record-high temperatures, drought and arsonists. In late June, the biggest national park near the city, on Mount Parnitha, burned for three days leaving more than a third of the nature reserve charred.

Approximately 4,000 children have participated in the camps, which operate under the slogan "Jerusalem and Al-Aksa, the symbol of our unity, strength, and honor."

Khaled Mahamid, who runs the camps, explained that his goal was to educate Muslim children "to be connected to the Al Aksa Mosque and to protect it with their bodies." The camps "are the most important thing in dealing with the schemes against Al Aksa," he said.

Tens of thousands of people fled their homes and thronged the streets to avoid crashing masonry as the magnitude 8 earthquake rocked the towns of Pisco, Ica and Chincha. In Ica a church collapsed during a service, killing at least four worshippers and injuring dozens, while many people were killed in their homes as roofs collapsed in the nearby town of Pisco.

Buildings collapsed, roads were ripped apart and electricity lines were brought down. The death toll was expected to rise as many families were believed to have been buried in the rubble of their homes.