Sheriff's Lt. Kevin House said the fire is less than 5 percent contained and has more than 500 homes in its path, but no injuries or deaths have been reported. The cause of the fire is still unknown. "This thing is raging out of control, and there's no estimate as to when that may change," House said. The El Dorado County Board of Supervisors has issued a declaration of emergency, House said.

Kit Bailey, the agency's fire chief for Lake Tahoe, said high winds hampered the battle against the fast-moving about five miles south of the lake. The Angora Lakes Resort and hundreds of homes in Meyers were evacuated, authorities said. The fire, believed to be caused by human activity, was reported Sunday afternoon on Forest Service land. Its huge smoke plume could be seen for miles.

State and federal fire officials had warned of a potentially active wildfire season in the Sierra Nevada following an unusually dry winter. The annual May 1 snow survey found the Tahoe-area snowpack at just 29 percent of normal levels, the lowest since 1988.

Meanwhile, in Alaska, crews worked to protect hundreds of homes tucked in the hills of the scenic Kenai Peninsula, where a fire has already destroyed dozens of homes and cabins.

It has burgeoned to 81 square miles since Tuesday, consuming 35 far- flung cabins in the Caribou Hills, state fire information officials said. Forty other structures, including sheds and outhouses, were also lost in the popular hunting and snowmobiling area about 80 miles south of Anchorage. The fire threatens another 600 homes and cabins, Hall said.

Much of Pakistan's biggest city, Karachi - where 200 died - is still without power. Forecasters say a cyclone and heavy winds are set to hit most of Pakistan's coast and much of India's west coast. More than 140 have been killed in the rains in India. There have also been a number of deaths in Afghanistan.
Much of Pakistan's biggest city, Karachi - where 200 died - is still without power.

Forecasters say a cyclone and heavy winds are set to hit most of Pakistan's coast and much of India's west coast. Officials in Karachi say that in just one area of the city, Gadap in the north-west, more than 1,000 homes have been destroyed. Gadap, like other areas of the city, is without drinking water. For weeks before the weekend floods, Karachi had been hit hot weather and power cuts, leading to protests and rioting. Sunday saw more riots.

Heavy rains have already caused the deaths of some 140 people in southern and western India. The states of Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka have been the worst hit. In Bagalkot, Bijapur and Raichur, the worst affected districts of Karnataka, more than 4,000 people have been left homeless after their villages submerged in flash floods. Eleven relief camps have been opened for the homeless.

Keele University researchers said it showed petty crime was rife among the middle classes and exposed the "law-abiding majority" to be a myth.

Of those who admitted to an offence, nearly two-thirds (62%) had broken the law on up to three occasions and 10% admitted to nine or more offences. The study's author, Professor Suzanna Karstedt, said: "Contempt for the law is as widespread in the centre of society as it is assumed to be rampant at the margins and among specific marginal groups. "ANTI-SOCIAL BEHAVIOUR BY THE FEW IS MIRRORED BY ANTI-CIVIL BEHAVIOUR BY THE MANY".

"Neither greed nor need can explain why respectable citizens cheat on insurance claims or in second-hand sales, and do not hesitate to discuss their exploits with friends in pubs." The study, of people aged 25 to 65, was published by the Centre for Crime and Justice Studies at King's College, London.

Opened in February 2003 to promote EU development goals, the commission outpost just a few weeks later witnessed one of the biggest anti-opposition crackdowns on the island in years. The row saw the EU impose diplomatic sanctions, with Havana later banning any EU-funded projects from taking place.

Opened in February 2003 to promote EU development goals, the commission outpost just a few weeks later witnessed one of the biggest anti-opposition crackdowns on the island in years. The row saw the EU impose diplomatic sanctions, with Havana later banning any EU-funded projects from taking place.
(Note:- Only nation states had embassies)

"This clear and precise mandate is politically binding to any successor of the leaders that signed it. It is as binding as the EU's CO2 emissions targets we agreed in March. Who would try and go back on those?" The Conservatives have criticised the new deal as it would make it far easier for European leaders to abolish national vetoes in future and consolidate ever more power in Brussels.

Under the deal, they said EU leaders would be able to slip through major changes, including the end of vetoes, by resorting to a "less visible" procedure for creating new EU powers called the "simplified revision procedure". This will allow future EU treaties to be changed by amendment, rather than an entire treaty having to be agreed."

In the Sunday Telegraph Christopher Booker described the agreement as a legal coup d'etat. He points out that "for the first time, the European Council has given an "exclusive mandate" to all the governments involved that they can only be permitted to discuss the treaty the European Council wants. In other words, they are no longer allowed to act as sovereign governments, as the international rules on treaties require, but can only act under the orders given them by the European Council."

The Guardian reports that Johannes Voggenhuber, deputy head of the European Parliament's constitutional committee described Blair as "The real bad guy of the summit" - INSTEAD OF ALLOWING AN OPT-OUT, THE EU SHOULD RATHER ACCEPT THAT THE UK LEAVES THE EUROPEAN PROJECT FOR GOOD."

Green MEP leader Daniel Cohn-Bendit said that the talks were "depressing" and that "Countries such as the UK, the Netherlands or Poland need to- decide whether they want to be in or out of the EU".

"But he has won a lengthy protocol insisting that it cannot be used to challenge UK laws: in effect, it is another opt-out. IT MAY NOT BE LEGALLY ENFORCEABLE, for it discriminates in the application of fundamental rights."

A leading article in the Times questions "whether the language of the opt-out that the United Kingdom has secured from the charter of fundamental rights is robust enough to survive any legal challenge to it. On paper, the words seem to be ringing and this has led the CBI to offer a cautious welcome to what the Prime Minister has negotiated. THE EUROPEAN COURT OF JUSTICE IS NOT, HOWEVER, A SHY AND RETIRING CREATURE NOR DOES IT TAKE KINDLY TO ATTEMPTS BY LEGISLATORS TO INHIBIT ITS AUTHORITY. Gordon Brown may need to ensure even more vigorous terms are imposed on the final treaty to make it acceptable".

Shadow Foreign Secretary William Hague said, "People in Britain will want to know - when Irish voters will decide for themselves on this crucial treaty - why Gordon Brown thinks they do not have the right to their say, even though he promised they would."

Leading articles in the Sunday Times, Sunday Telegraph, Sunday Express, Mail on Sunday, Telegraph, and the News of the World call on Gordon Brown to hold a referendum on the revised Constitutional Treaty. A leader in the Times argues that "a referendum is almost inevitable". Leaders in the Mirror, Guardian and FT all come out against a referendum.

In the Sunday Times former Foreign Secretary Lord Owen has an article titled "we must have a referendum on this treaty". He argues that Tony Blair has had "Six different positions on a referendum in four years. Is it any wonder that disillusion and cynicism have grown in British politics?" He goes on to argue that the Labour party must honour its manifesto commitment to hold a referendum: "It is no good Brown talking about a new form of politics, listening to people and strengthening parliamentary democracy if a manifesto commitment can be torn up in front of people's eyes." In the Express Leo McKinstry demands that "the British public must be given the final say. Any deal must be subject to a referendum. We are, after all, supposed to be living in a democracy."

In the Independent on Sunday Harvard Professor Glyn Morgan criticised Tony Blair for being "undemocratic" for refusing to hold a referendum. He said, "Britain needs a wide-ranging rational debate on its place in Europe; and it needs a referendum to ensure that this debate engages the bulk of the electorate. There is no good reason to believe, whatever current polls might suggest, that the Eurosceptics will win this debate."

In the Times Bronwen Maddox writes, "The 'red lines' that [Blair] defended are scuffed and blurred; it remains to be seen exactly what Britain has secured, and that may emerge only after expensive and unpredictable court cases."

The guarantee Blair had written into the new treaty was a "declaration" and not a "protocol".

A FOREIGN OFFICE AIDE SAID, "THERE IS A MASSIVE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN A DECLARATION AND A PROTOCOL. EVERYTHING ELSE IN THE TREATY IS A PROTOCOL, BUT THIS IS JUST A DECLARATION.

T IS A WORTHLESS PROMISE AND NOT LEGALLY BINDING. BRUSSELS WILL GRADUALLY EXPAND ITS ROLE IN SECURITY, DEFENCE AND FOREIGN POLICY"

He maintained that Gordon Brown, officially confirmed as the new Labour leader on Sunday (24 June) and set to take over as a new UK prime minister this Wednesday, has "absolutely no democratic mandate to introduce these major changes without letting the British people have the final decision in a referendum."

Although there were reports of allegedly angry telephone conversations between Mr Blair and Mr Brown during the summit over the French president's demand to scrap a clause on competition from the list of the bloc's objectives, Mr Brown praised the deal and rejected the opposition calls.

"Like every other treaty that has been negotiated - Nice, Amsterdam, Maastricht - while many other people will call for a referendum, it seems to me that we have met our negotiating position," he told BBC.

A new international role for Blair?

Meanwhile, a new international role for the outgoing British prime minister as a Middle East mediator is expected to be confirmed this week, according to several media reports. The idea is reportedly strongly backed by US president George W. Bush, with some European leaders as well as the European Commission chief Jose Manuel Barroso also expressing their support at last week's summit, according to the International Herald Tribune.

The nomination is to be hammered out on Tuesday (26 June) in Jerusalem, at a meeting of diplomats representing the Quartet on Middle East peace process - the US, EU, UN and Russia - the Financial Times reported.

The new French President said he had managed to dilute the EU's commitment to free-market economic policies in a European "mini-treaty", claiming at a pre-dawn press conference that he had struck a blow against the "dogma" of competition. This was presented by his allies as a defeat for Tony Blair and his incoming successor, Gordon Brown.

The PM made a final plea to the British people to recognise that Europe had changed. "There is a fantastic opportunity for this country today," he said. "We have a Commission President who is a reformer, we have got an enlarged EU with real allies for Britain now, we have got a German Chancellor and French President in favour of the transatlantic alliance.

Mr Blair insisted the watering down of the proposed EU constitution meant that there was no need to hold a referendum in Britain. But William Hague, the shadow Foreign Secretary, claimed large parts of the constitution had been "repackaged" in the new treaty and called for a referendum. He said: "Blair and Brown have signed up to major shifts of power from Britain to the EU and major changes in the way the EU works."

The treaty, due to be signed by the end of this year and take effect in 2009, will create a new post of President of Europe; a High Representative on Foreign Policy; a single legal identity for the EU; and will extend majority voting.

While Blair left Brussels insisting he had preserved Britain's control over its foreign policy, the small print of the treaty prepares the way for a powerful new EU diplomatic service with ambassadors worldwide.

They will report to a "high representative" who will be vice-president of the European commission and will chair meetings of EU foreign ministers.

The treaty commits the EU to a "common foreign and security policy". Member states must support the policy "actively and unreservedly, in the spirit of loyalty and mutual solidarity". They are barred from taking any action - such as launching military strikes or declaring war - that could damage the EU's standing.

Downing Street said an annex to the treaty ensured it would not affect foreign policy. But opposition politicians said the annex was a "declaration" rather than a legally binding "protocol". They demanded the treaty be put to a referendum.

To cries of horror - and some quiet chortles - Lech and Jaroslaw Kaczynski invoked Nazi atrocities in order to cut Germany down to size.

Tony Blair may only occasionally feel the hand of history on his shoulder, but its constant weight has shaped Poland's "terrible" twins. Unable to forget their father's heroic resistance in the sewers of Warsaw in 1944 when the SS razed the city as the Russians looked on approvingly, they despise both nations. "They see the Germans as untrustworthy pigs and the Russians as worse," said one analyst.

So Jaroslaw, the prime minister and elder twin by 45 minutes, had no hesitation in invoking the "incomprehensible crimes" against Poland as a means of raising the stakes in its battle with Germany over voting rights. This had become an obstacle to agreeing a revamped EU treaty. "If Poland had not had to live through the years of 1939-45, Poland would today be looking at the demographics of a country of 66m," he said on Polish radio in an implicit reference to his country's 6m war dead.

His point was that whereas the EU voting system currently gives Poland disproportionate clout, proposed changes based on population size would give most benefit to Germany's 82m people while Poland with 38m people could be steamrollered - despite being the largest of the 10 countries that joined the enlarged club in 2004.

The 58-year-old Kaczynski twins had kept the summit guessing about which would turn up - some thought this a bit academic since they are nearly identical, though Jaroslaw plays the Mr Nasty to Lech's Mr Nice. "Both are small, not very bright, mean-minded and resemble provincial solicitors - which Lech used to be," said a journalist who has met them.

Their indecision may have been due to an intense domestic embarrassment suffered by Lech. The president, a scourge of former communists and a militant Catholic given to moralistic pronouncements, was shocked to discover that his married daughter Marta had become pregnant after running off with the son of a communist informer.

Time is not on the twins' side. Poland's migrant workers in the EU are absorbing western ways and liberal ideas that are at odds with Poland's past. The young are growing impatien"We have the EU, we have the internet, we are confident," said a market researcher in Warsaw. "Poles want jobs and better pay, but the Kaczynskis are busy fighting condoms and secret agents."

HE SAID, "WHAT DOES IT MATTER WHAT WE CALL HIM?" A Spanish diplomat said: "If your name is Maria, you can call yourself Jane, but you will still do Maria's job." A Spanish diplomat said: "We have exactly what we wanted. The foreign minister will have the political clout necessary to do his job and will control the administrative services too. Blair was worried about this, but over lunch he calmed down."

The Anglican Church of Canada is holding its General Synod in Winnipeg and is deciding whether to bless the unions of same-sex couples. The decision could ultimately lead to a split from the worldwide church. Some of the more conservative Anglican churches have already threatened the U.S. church with expulsion over its blessings of same- sex couples.

A blessing is intended for a couple who have united in a civil ceremony or some other union and is not the same as a marriage. The debate comes the day after delegates voted in Fred Hiltz from Atlantic Canada as the new head of Canada's Anglicans.

On the 40th anniversary of the decriminalisation of homosexuality, we revisit the appallingly repressive atmosphere of the Fifties and Sixties that ruined lives, destroyed reputations and finally sparked a campaign for change

A 40-year journey from shame to pride

1967 Sexual Offences Act in England and Wales decriminalises homosexual acts between two men over 21 years and in private. Scotland legalises it in 1980; Northern Ireland in 1982.

1971 First ever gay march in London, finishing with a rally in Trafalgar Square.

1976 Tom Robinson releases 'Glad to be Gay', which reaches No 18 in the singles chart.

1979 First ever gay television series Gay Life commissioned by LWT.

1982 UK's first HIV/Aids charity, the Terrence Higgins Trust launched.

1983 Labour Party candidate Peter Tatchell defeated in Bermondsey by-election after anti-gay campaign by tabloid press and local Liberals.

1984 Chris Smith, the UK's first openly gay MP, comes out while in office.

1988 Section 28, preventing the 'promotion' of homosexuality, introduced as part of the Local Government Act on 24 May.

1992 London hosts the first international Europride festival with a crowd of 100,000.

1994 Age of consent lowered to 18 from 21, despite unsuccessful campaign to lower it to 16, the consensual age for heterosexuals.

1998 Waheed Alli, one of the world's few openly gay Muslims, becomes the youngest and first openly gay life peer in Parliament.

2000 Government lifts ban on lesbian and gay men in the armed forces.

2001 Age of consent lowered to 16.

2003 Section 28 successfully repealed on 18 November.

2005 First civil partnerships take place.