On July 11, 2000, at the Lome Summit in Togo, the states constituting the Organization of African Unity, signed a declaration to form the 53-nation African Union.

While the African Union professes to respect the sovereignty of the individual countries constituting the group, it still has created executive, legislative, and judicial bodies required for regional government, including an African Union Executive Council, a Pan-African Parliament and an African Union Court of Justice. And while the AU is still in a formative state, it's already officially designated by an emblem, a flag, an anthem, a central bank, and unified continental military force.

The goal of the African Central Bank is to create an African Single Currency. African Union planners are currently calling the African continental currency the "Gold Mandela." The United Nations has strongly supported the African Union as a major solution for the war, poverty, famine, and disease which have plagued the continent for decades.

Prof. Adebayo Adedeji, a former executive secretary of the U.N. Economic Commission for Africa, has observed successful economic integration in Africa will require successful political integration.

All farms in Timis county belonging to Smithfield Foods - one the largest US meat processors - will be inspected for signs of infection, officials say. Road checks have been set up in the area to prevent the movement of meat. Swine fever is a recurrent problem in Romania, which has been banned from exporting pork to other EU countries.

Timis official Ovidiu Draganescu said that all 25 farms belonging to Smithfield Foods will be tested for swine fever. The virus has already been found in the Cenei farm, where the slaughter of pigs has already been ordered. Swine fever is a highly infectious disease. Infected pigs must be slaughtered and the carcases buried or incinerated

Smithfield - which claims to be the biggest pork producer in the world - bought the Timis farms in 2004. Animal health and food safety standards have been main concerns as Romania and Bulgaria joined the European Union on 1 January 2007. The EU told both countries they would have to eradicate swine fever before they could sell pork in the rest of the EU without restrictions.

In April, 1975, NEWSWEEK published a small back-page article about a very different kind of disaster. Citing "ominous signs that the earth's weather patterns have begun to change dramatically," the magazine warned of an impending "drastic decline in food production."

Political disruptions stemming from food shortages could affect "just about every nation on earth." Scientists urged governments to consider emergency action to head off the terrible threat of . . . Well, if you had been following the climate-change debates at the time, you'd have known that the threat was: global cooling.

But is that the right lesson to draw? How did NEWSWEEK - or for that matter, Time magazine, which also ran a story on the subject in the mid-1970s - get things so wrong? In fact, the story wasn't "wrong" in the journalistic sense of "inaccurate." Some scientists indeed thought the Earth might be cooling in the 1970s, and some laymen - even one as sophisticated and well-educated as Isaac Asimov - saw potentially dire implications for climate and food production.

After all, Ice Ages were common in Earth's history; if anything, the warm "interglacial" period in which human civilization evolved, and still exists, is the exception. The cause of these periodic climatic shifts is still being studied and debated, but many scientists believe they are influenced by small changes in the Earth's orbit around the Sun (including its "eccentricity," or the extent to which it deviates from a perfect circle) and the tilt of its rotation.

But in any case, climatologists now are mostly agreed that human impacts are the real problem. The question has been, which specific impacts? In the mid-1970s, scientists were focusing on an increase of dust and "aerosols" (suspended droplets of liquid, mostly sulfuric acid) in the atmosphere. These, the result of increased agriculture and burning of coal in power plants, lower the Earth's temperature by reflecting sunlight back into space.

Ironically, clean-air laws in North America and Europe had the effect of reducing aerosols (which cause acid rain), so the predominant influence on climate now is the buildup of carbon dioxide?which traps the Earth's heat in the lower atmosphere and contributes to global warming.

Argos and Woolworths have been forced to withdraw a series of best-selling products made by Mattel, the US toy company, after tests showed they contained potentially dangerous levels of lead.

Argos has removed products based on the popular children's characters Dora the Explorer and Diego, according to the company, while Woolworths has also returned a number of unspecified products.

Tesco, which now also ranks among Britain's biggest toy retailers, said none of its products was affected by last week's Fisher-Price recall.

The bulk of British retailers' sourcing activities are now centred on the Far East, with manufacturing centres located in China and a growing number shifting to fast-emerging hubs such as Vietnam. Worries about the standard of product emerging from parts of Asia is likely to cause a rising number of supply-chain headaches.

The bill, aimed at bolstering security against terrorism, also requires the screening of all air and sea freight at foreign ports before being allowed into the US. The measures were among the recommendations made by the commission set up to investigate the September 11 2001 terrorist attacks on the US.

Mr Bush said: "This legislation builds upon the considerable progress we have made in strengthening our defences and protecting Americans since the attacks of September 11 2001."

Visitors from 22 western European countries - including the UK, France, Germany, Italy and Spain - will be affected by the rule requiring travel plans to be registered online 48 hours before departure for the US.

The measure, expected to be introduced next year, is designed to increase scrutiny of visitors from the 26 developed countries whose citizens do not need visas to enter the US.

The 21 Asia-Pacific Economic Co-operation group ministers called for urgent action to save the "Doha round negotiations" on a new world trade agreement and insisted that open and rules-based trade was crucial for sustaining regional growth.

"We regard a rise in protectionist trade and investment sentiment around the globe as a serious threat to growth and living standards in our region," said the ministers, warning that economic integration was generating "new ways of conducting business and new barriers to trade and investment".

The group, which includes the US, Japan, China, Russia, Canada and Australia, called for domestic reforms to ease trade flows and promised to work towards barrier-free trading in financial services, which has been resisted by many countries in the region.

In an apparent reference to concerns about the Chinese and Japanese currencies, Apec ministers called on countries to "dampen protectionist sentiment" by operating flexible exchange rates based on underlying economic fundamentals.

The language echoed Washington's pressure on Beijing for a faster appreciation of the renminbi, although some Apec countries - notably South Korea and New Zealand - have voiced concerns about the impact of the weak yen on the carry trade, in which investors borrow at low Japanese interest rates and invest in countries with higher interest rates. Robert Kimmitt, deputy US Treasury secretary, said there had been progress on currency issues at the talks, adding there was no difference between the US and China on the goal and direction of currency reforms.

His comments were made after Hank Paulson, the US Treasury secretary, visited China this week to discuss the value of the renminbi amid demands from some US Congress members for a faster appreciation of the Chinese currency in order to make US exporters more competitive. However, Jin Renqing, China's finance minister, indicated that his country would not be pressed, adding Beijing had already adopted a more flexible approach to its currency.

"The biggest problem for China is to maintain the good momentum in its economic growth," he said. "The reforms should be self-initiated, controllable and gradual."

Cemetery bosses are in talks with a British firm which plans to turn bodies to dust rapidly by submerging them in water and heating them to 150C (302F). The process - called resomation - is similar to cremation but the company claims it is better for the environment. This is because it uses less energy and does not emit any harmful chemicals.

When a body is cremated, it is heated to up to 1,200C (2,192F) and lets off a number of harmful gases, including high levels of mercury. With resomation, there is also no wooden coffin to be destroyed. Chemically, the process is similar to - but much faster than - natural decomposition. Afterwards, the 'bio-ashes' are returned to loved ones.

The Government is encouraging local authorities to find new ways of disposing of the dead because burial space is running out.

Merial, which makes foot-and-mouth vaccines and has a laboratory three miles from the Surrey farm hit by the disease, dramatically agreed to stop production immediately.

The breakthrough came after Defra experts established that the strain of foot and mouth disease found in cattle at the infected farm at Wanborough is similar to the virus isolated in the 1967 outbreak in Britain. MERIAL IS OWNED BY US PHARMACEUTICAL GIANT MERCK and shares research facilities at Pirbright with the publicly-funded Animal Health Institute

If the initial findings of the inquiry set up by Mr Brown prove to be accurate, Merial is likely to face tough sanctions from the Government. THE COMPANY PREPARED VACCINES DURING THE 2001 FOOT-AND-MOUTH OUTBREAK IN BRITAIN, IN WHICH MILLIONS OF CATTLE AND SHEEP WERE CULLED. BUT THE GOVERNMENT DECIDED NOT TO USE THEM - A POLICY WHICH REMAINS IN FORCE.

THE RESEARCH COMPLEX AT PIRBRIGHT STORES VAST QUANTITIES OF LETHAL VIRUSES WHICH ARE SUPPOSED TO BE KEPT ACCORDING TO STRICT SAFETY STANDARDS. THE MAIL ON SUNDAY HAS LEARNED THAT SAFETY STANDARDS AT THE WORLD-RENOWNED INSTITUTE WERE CHALLENGED BY MPS LAST YEAR. THE ALL-PARTY SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY COMMITTEE SAID THAT GOVERNMENT CUTS HAD LED TO HIGHLY SENSITIVE WORK BEING CARRIED OUT ON THE CHEAP BY PHD STUDENTS.

This newspaper obtained further circumstantial evidence raising concern over the Pirbright institute. IT WAS HELD RESPONSIBLE FOR A SIMILAR LOCAL FOOT-AND-MOUTH OUTBREAK IN THE FIFTIES. Early this week the wind was blowing in a southerly direction from the complex towards the infected farm. The disease has a three to five-day incubation period. First sign of the disease was reported on Thursday.

Sources said there had been no cattle movements on or off the farm since July 12 - too long ago for that to have caused the outbreak. That appeared to be a further clue that the virus may have been carried by the wind.

The recruitment agency handling the scheme told Abigail Howarth, 18, that there was no point in her submitting an application because of her ethnic background. But bizarrely she could have applied if she had been white and Welsh, Scottish or Irish. Abigail, who wanted to join the Agency's flood management programme, saw an advert in a local newspaper offering positions in the Anglia region where she lives, complete with a £13,000-a-year tax-free grant.

Abigail, of Little Straughton, Bedfordshire, said: "I was really disappointed. To be told being "White English" ruled me out in my home county shocked me. I know why there are positive action training schemes to assist those who are genuinely discriminated against but when it's broken down to this level it seems crazy to me.

Abigail, who is awaiting the results of A-Levels in environmental science, geography and geology, emailed PATH National Ltd, the company handling applications. She asked: "Am I correct in assuming that as I am English (White) I need not apply as the preference is for the minorities you have listed, or can I apply anyway?'

Three days later, PATH recruitment officer, Bola Odusi, replied: "Thank you for your enquiry - unfortunately the traineeship opportunity is targeted towards the ethnic minority group to address their under representations in the professions under the Race Relations Act amended 2000."

The ban is included in new rules intended to assert Beijing's authority over Tibet's restive and deeply Buddhist people. The so-called reincarnated living Buddha without government approval is illegal and invalid, according to the order, which comes into effect on September 1.

The 14-part regulation issued by the State Administration for Religious Affairs is aimed at limiting the influence of Tibet's exiled god-king, the Dalai Lama, and at preventing the re-incarnation of the 72-year-old monk without approval from Beijing.

It is the latest in a series of measures by the Communist authorities to tighten their grip over Tibet. Reincarnate lamas, known as tulkus, often lead religious communities and oversee the training of monks, giving them enormous influence over religious life in the Himalayan region. Anyone outside China is banned from taking part in the process of seeking and recognising a living Buddha, effectively excluding the Dalai Lama, who traditionally can play an important role in giving recognition to candidate reincarnates.

For the first time China has given the Government the power to ensure that no new living Buddha can be identified, sounding a possible death knell to a mystical system that dates back at least as far as the 12th century.

China already insists that only the Government can approve the appointments of Tibet's two most important monks, the Dalai Lama and the Panchen Lama. The Dalai Lama's announcement in May 1995 that a search inside Tibet - and with the co-operation of a prominent abbot - had identified the 11th reincarnation of the Panchen Lama, who died in 1989, enraged Beijing.

That prompted the Communist authorities to restart the search and to send a senior Politburo member to Lhasa to oversee the final choice. This resulted in top Communist officials presiding over a ceremony at the main Jokhang temple in Lhasa in which names of three boys inscribed on ivory sticks were placed inside a golden urn and a lot was then drawn to find the true reincarnation.

The boy chosen by the Dalai Lama has disappeared. The abbot who worked with the Dalai Lama was jailed and has since vanished. Several sets of rules on seeking out "soul boys" were promulgated in 1995, but were effectively in abeyance and hundreds of living Buddhas are now believed to live inside and outside China.

For many Iraqi citizens, however, trying to stay cool or find sufficient drinking water was a more urgent problem. The Baghdad water supply already has been severely affected by power blackouts and cuts that have affected pumping and filtration stations.

And now water mains have gone dry in the Shiite holy city of Karbala, where the whole province south of Baghdad has been without power for three days. Power supplies in Baghdad have been sporadic all summer and now are down to just a few hours a day, if that.

"We no longer need television documentaries about the stoneage. We are actually living in it. We are in constant danger because of the filthy water and rotten food we are having", said Hazim Obeid, who sells clothing at a stall in the Karbala market.

Aziz al-Shimari, the Electricity Ministry spokesman in Baghdad, said power generation nationally was only half of demand and that there had been four nationwide blackouts over the past two days. The conflict over electricity is a perennial problem in Iraq, which ironically sits atop one of the world's largest crude oil reserves. The system became decrepit under Saddam Hussein whose regime was under a U.N. sanctions regime after the Gulf War and had trouble buying spare parts or the equipment to upgrade the system.

The lack of electricity is particularly acute at this time of year when average daily temperatures reach between 110 and 120 Fahrenheit (43 and 49 Celsius). "We wait for the sunset to enjoy some coolness", said Qassim Hussein, a 31-year-old day laborer in Karbala. "The people are fed-up. There is no water, no electricity, there is nothing but death."

CHILDLESS OR CHILDFREE? Not so long ago, all women without children were known as childless, with its implication of a state of loss. Nowadays, a growing number of women are insisting on the term childfree - with its emphasis on liberation. An increasing number of women in their 30s are rejecting the job description that they believe comes with parenting - loss of freedom, reduced career prospects and financial burdens.

FERTILITY RATES
In Europe 2.1 children per woman is considered to be the population replacement level. These are national averages

Ireland: 1.99
France: 1.90
Norway: 1.81
Sweden 1.75
UK: 1.74
Netherlands: 1.73
Germany: 1.37
Italy: 1.33
Spain: 1.32
Greece: 1.29
Source: Eurostat - 2004 figures

In the UK, the most commonly cited statistic is that by 2010, one in four will be either childfree or childless.

"I made the choice early on not to have children. I don't dislike them - I simply decided that I could not devote 100% of my time to someone else," one woman said. "I HAVE ALSO BEEN CALLED SELFISH BUT I THINK THAT PEOPLE WHO HAVE THREE CHILDREN ARE ENCROACHING ON THE PLANET'S RESOURCES - I CAN'T BELIEVE THE AMOUNT OF WASTE THAT CHILDREN PRODUCE.

"The world's population is still growing - it's only people in the West who are perceived to be not having enough children. People will always have children and the world will continue," she says.

Jonathan McCalmont is the founder of Kidding Aside (The British Childfree Association), which was first set up on the internet to lobby for equality for people without children. "WE BELIEVE IT IS UP TO THE INDIVIDUAL TO DECIDE WHAT CONSTITUTES A FAMILY," he says. "It's not up to the state."

The vote in Metn to replace former minister Pierre Gemayel is being seen as a key test of support among the deeply divided Christian community. Mr Gemayel's father, ex-President Amin Gemayel, 65, is running for the seat.

His supporters have clashed with the backers of the candidate of pro-Syrian opposition leader Michel Aoun.

Both men are potential candidates in this year's divisive presidential election and the race in the Metn mountains is expected to be close. Under Lebanon's sectarian political system, the president is a Maronite Christian, the prime minister a Sunni Muslim and the speaker a Shia Muslim. Parliament elects the president.

The by-elections threaten to deepen Lebanon's political divisions, correspondents say. They do not have the required approval of President Emile Lahoud, who is allied with the Hezbollah-led opposition, as is parliamentary speaker Nabih Berri. Mr Berri has said he will not recognise the results. Mr Gemayel and his allies accuse Syria of orchestrating the shooting of Pierre Gemayel last November and other anti-Syrian figures including Mr Eido, who was killed by a car bomb in June.

Mr Aoun's FPM won a vast majority of the Christian vote in 2005 parliamentary polls, but his support slipped when he allied himself to the pro-Syria Shia Muslim movement Hezbollah. Hezbollah and other opposition groups quit a unity cabinet last year and have been boycotting parliament in a campaign to demand a cabinet veto, after anti-Syrian factions won power in 2005 following years of political and military control by powerful neighbour Syria.

Defra could not say the laboratory was the source but has increased the size of the protection and surveillance zones covering farms in the area. An urgent assessment of biosecurity has begun at the institute. THE STRAIN IS NOT ONE NORMALLY FOUND IN ANIMALS BUT IS USED IN VACCINE PRODUCTION AND IN DIAGNOSTIC LABORATORIES.

In a statement Defra said: "The present indications are that this strain is a 01 BFS67-like virus, isolated in the 1967 foot-and-mouth disease outbreak in Great Britain." THE STRAIN WAS USED IN A VACCINE BATCH MANUFACTURED LAST MONTH BY A PRIVATE PHARMACEUTICAL COMPANY MERIAL ANIMAL HEALTH.

The firm shares Pirbright with the government's Institute for Animal Health (IAH), which conducts research into foot-and-mouth and where the strain is also present. Merial voluntarily halted vaccine production as a precaution.

Defra said: "This incident remains at an early stage. It is too soon to reach any firm conclusions." CHIEF VETERINARY OFFICER DEBBY REYNOLDS SAID IT WAS TOO SOON TO SAY ANYTHING CONCLUSIVE ABOUT THE SOURCE OF THE VIRUS BUT IT WAS CLEAR WHICH STRAIN WAS INVOLVED.

"That is carried at the Pirbright facility, at Meriel for vaccine production, and indeed at the Institute for Animal Health, on the same premises on the same location for diagnostic purposes," she said.

Merial said in a statement: "The decision to suspend production has been taken in full consultation with Defra and will enable Defra to carry out a thorough investigation into all possible sources of this outbreak."

Meanwhile, Britain imposed a voluntary ban on exports of livestock and livestock products, the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs said. The ministry said the ban applied to animals with cloven hooves such as cows, sheep and pigs. It covers live animals, carcasses, meat and milk and is effective immediately.

Speaking at his 10 Downing St. office, Brown said experts would work "night and day" to discover the origin of the outbreak on a farm in southern England as fast as possible. "Our first priority has been to act quickly and decisively," said Brown, who cut short a summer holiday to deal with the crisis, which prompted a European Union ban on livestock imports from Britain.

Japan said earlier that it had banned British pork imports. Beef imports from Britain have been banned in Japan since the outbreak of mad cow disease in the 1990s. The European Union also banned livestock imports from Britain in reaction to the outbreak.