This week, Tony Blair will finally announce his timetable for stepping down as Prime Minister. But at the very point of his departure from British public life, he apparently intends to stamp his image ineradicably upon this country by leaving A BINDING LEGACY THAT WILL ALTER IT FOREVER.

The loss of sovereignty entailed in the original EU constitution, which effectively created a superstate with its own defence and foreign policy, was so great THAT MR BLAIR WAS FORCED TO PROMISE THAT BRITAIN WOULD NOT SIGN UP TO SUCH A MEASURE WITHOUT A REFERENDUM. In France and Germany referendums gave that constitution a big thumbs-down. Now, Frau Merkel claims that her new proposal isn't such a big deal and so a referendum won't be necessary.

IF SO, HIS LAST ACT WOULD BE A BETRAYAL OF THE BRITISH PEOPLE. Such a momentous and cynical step - at the very moment he departs the British stage so he cannot be held accountable for his actions - is a final gesture of contempt for the people who elected him in such good faith. It also demonstrates once again the extent of HIS INSATIABLE AMBITION TO BE SEEN AS A MAJOR PLAYER ON THE WORLD STAGE - even after he steps down.

It appears that, although he stands to make a fortune once the removal vans have left No. 10, Mr Blair will be careful not to be tarnished by such visible commercial exploitation but instead will associate himself with Good Works. This will not be some unsung charitable endeavour. IT IS LIKELY TO BE NOTHING LESS THAN BRINGING PEACE ON EARTH. FOR HE HAS ALWAYS BEEN IN THE BUSINESS OF TRANSFORMING THE WORLD - AND HE BELIEVES THAT HE ALONE IS THE MAN TO DO IT.

Accordingly, it's the divisions that have to go - regardless of the justice of the cause. So everything is negotiable; every conflict is susceptible to a deal. Given the chance, Mr Blair would doubtless force God and the Devil to sit down across a table from each other and hammer out a compromise. But, of course, deals with the Devil inevitably mean selling your soul. And that's the problem with the Blair vision which should terrify all of us. Because the world isn't reducible to a universal personality. There are crucial choices to be made between good and evil.

In his absolute certainty that all problems are resolvable and all they need is someone with a cosmic talent for persuasion to come along and broker the deal - i.e. himself - THE DANGER IS THAT HE MIGHT END UP SENDING DEMOCRACY, JUSTICE, LIBERTY AND LIFE ITSELF DOWN THE PAN.

Mr Blair thinks his greatest achievement is to have created a Northern Ireland power-sharing executive which has brought together in a working relationship hitherto deadly foes who have wrought so much carnage and misery. The price of Sinn Fein's participation is the emasculation of the police and the justice system. TERRORISM HAS NOT BEEN BEATEN BUT REWARDED.

Nowhere is the lethal effect of such Faustian pacts more apparent than in the Middle East. And it is there that Mr Blair is now likely to direct his messianic attention through HIS PROPOSED BLAIR FOUNDATION, WHOSE AIM IS TO PROMOTE LINKS BETWEEN CHRISTIANITY, ISLAM AND JUDAISM.

The mistake made by Mr Blair - and so many others - is to believe that, like Northern Ireland, the Middle East impasse is about the division of a patch of land. Not so. THE PALESTINIAN ARABS WERE OFFERED A STATE OF THEIR OWN IN PALESTINE in 1937, 1948 and 2000. EACH TIME THEY REFUSED AND INSTEAD TRIED TO ERADICATE THE JEWISH PRESENCE THERE.

Mr Blair refuses to accept that there can be no negotiation with those whose agenda is non-negotiable. Last February, he said Britain might be prepared to talk to the 'more sensible elements' in Hamas. My information is that it took two Arabs, the Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and King Abdullah of Jordan, to tell him forcibly that there were no sensible elements in Hamas and that talking to it would merely strengthen the terrible threat it posed to the whole region.

The road to hell, it is said, is paved with good intentions. MR BLAIR'S NA'VE AND ARROGANT UTOPIANISM POSES A PROFOUND DANGER which, with his exit from Downing Street to the political afterlife, might merely exchange the British theatre for a platform which allows nemesis to play out on an even wider stage.

Globalization and monetary nationalism are a dangerous combination, a cause of financial crises and geopolitical tension. The world needs to abandon unwanted currencies, replacing them with dollars, euros, and multinational currencies as yet unborn.

In order to globalize safely, countries should abandon monetary nationalism and abolish unwanted currencies, the source of much of today's instability. Monetary nationalism is simply incompatible with globalism. Even such an impeccably credentialed pro-globalization economist as U.S. Federal Reserve Governor Frederic Mishkin has acknowledged that "opening up the financial system to foreign capital flows has led to some disastrous financial crises causing great pain, suffering, and even violence."

"A new gold-based international monetary system surely sounds far-fetched," he concludes. "But so, in 1900 did a monetary system without gold. Modern technology makes a revival of gold money, through private gold banks, possible even without government support."

It is the market that made the dollar into global money and what the market giveth, the market can taketh away. If the world's central bankers balk, and the dollar falls, the market may privatize money on its own. Reckless U.S. fiscal policy is undermining the dollar's position even as the currency's role as a global money is expanding.

The U.S. needs to perpetuate the sound money policies of former Federal Reserve chairmen Paul Volker and Alan Greenspan and return to long-term fiscal discipline. In our current era of large and growing trade imbalances and over $35 TRILLION in GAAP (Generally Accepted Accounting Principles) accounted federal deficits, these targets appear unlikely.

CATEGORY F-5 ENHANCED TORNADO STRIKES KANSAS 9/5/07 Associated Press

Search and rescue operations continued Tuesday in Greensburg, where emergency responders have struggled to determined if any of its 1,600 residents are missing. The 1.7-mile-wide Category F-5 enhanced tornado, with wind estimated at 205 mph, destroyed about 95 percent of this farming town on Friday. The death toll could have been much worse, but for a 20-minute warning - a rarely issued "tornado emergency" alert - that gave people time to take shelter in basements and storm cellars.

MIDWEST FLOODING COULD NEAR 1993 LEVELS 9/5/07 Associated Press

Five burst levees along the Missouri River sent a deluge of water that submerged the tiny town of Big Lake on Tuesday, as thousands in the region fled their homes amid warnings that the flooding could near the devastation of 1993.Parts of Missouri, Iowa and Kansas received 4 to 8 inches of rain in a 24-hour period, the National Weather Service said.

WILDFIRE BURNS IN MIDDLE OF LOS ANGELES 9/5/07 Associated Press

A wildfire roared across brush-covered hills in the city's sprawling Griffith Park on Tuesday, triggering evacuations of homes and some of the city's most famous landmarks. Authorities called for a mandatory evacuation of homes along the park's southern edge as the fire burned out of control. The National Weather Service said downtown hit 97 degrees, 23 degrees above normal, tying the record for the date.

BIG GEORGIA FIRE HEADS INTO FLORIDA 9/5/07 Associated Press

Crews already battling more than 200 WILDFIRES ACROSS FLORIDA faced a new threat Tuesday as a huge blaze in Georgia moved toward the state line.High wind and tinder-dry conditions made it difficult to battle the Florida blazes, which had covered about 78 square miles, or 50,000 acres. "The weather expected is red-flag conditions for all of Florida," said Jim Harrell, a state Division of Forestry spokesman.

Gov. Charlie Crist declared a STATE OF EMERGENCY FOR FLORIDA last week. IN SOUTH EASTERN GEORGIA, crews were battling two fires less than 10 miles apart, one that had blackened about 107,000 acres, or 167 square miles, and another that had covered 40,000 acres, or 62.5 square miles.

The NATIONAL HURRICANE CENTER in MIAMI FL issued a SPECIAL TROPICAL DISTURBANCE STATEMENT on 1115 PM EDT TUE MAY 8 2007

"A NON-TROPICAL LOW PRESSURE SYSTEM CENTERED ABOUT 175 MILES EAST
OF JACKSONVILLE FLORIDA AND ABOUT 160 MILES SOUTH-SOUTHEAST OF
CHARLESTON SOUTH CAROLINA HAS BEEN MOVING SLOWLY WESTWARD AT 5
TO 10 MPH. THE LOW IS PRODUCING GALE-FORCE WINDS NEAR THE COASTS
OF NORTH CAROLINA, SOUTH CAROLINA, GEORGIA AND NORTHEASTERN
FLORIDA. INTERESTS ALONG THE COAST OF THE SOUTHEASTERN UNITED STATES SHOULD
MONITOR PRODUCTS ISSUED BY LOCAL NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE FORECAST."
Full Statement at:- www.nhc.noaa.gov/text/refresh/MIADSAAT+shtml/082003.shtml

Proposed Department for Education and Skills guidelines on "elective home education" stress that education is compulsory but schooling is not. Councils should offer support to home educators, and parents must see that their children are suitably educated. But the authorities have no right to enter people's homes or make routine checks on children's progress.

The department has been discussing the issue with several groups representing home educators and with local authorities. T has decided not to propose any changes to current monitoring arrangements or legislation.
It has dropped plans for compulsory registration of home-educated children. Instead it is proposing to issue guidelines for the first time, which point out that IT IS FUNDAMENTAL TO THE ENGLISH SYSTEM THAT THE RESPONSIBILITY FOR EDUCATING CHILDREN RESTS ON THE PARENTS.

The proposed guidance says local authorities now have a duty to try to identify children in danger of missing education. But it says they have "no statutory duties in relation to monitoring the quality of home education on a routine basis". They could intervene only if they have "good reason" - it stresses - to believe parents were not providing a suitable education.

They could ask parents to provide information. Parents "are under no duty to comply" though it would be "sensible" to do so. Consultation on the proposed guidelines runs until the end of July. They have been welcomed by one of the main home educators' groups, Education Otherwise. "Confirmation from DfES that they have no intention of changing the existing legal framework, nor to make registration compulsory, is very good news indeed."

"These are the most positive statements that have been coming out from the DfES," she said. "It really is so heart-warming to families to have their choices recognised in this way."

According to the official, Washington's decision could be interpreted in the region as meaning that the US believed the peace process could not move forward due to the situation in Israel.

However, Dov Weisglass, who served as an adviser to former prime minister Ariel Sharon, told Army Radio on Tuesday morning that Rice's decision to cancel her trip may have been connected to situation in the PA, not necessarily the Israeli government alone.

Weisglass noted that with the current anarchy in the Gaza Strip and West Bank due to the infighting between the Fatah and Hamas factions, it would be difficult to determine which officials to hold talks with.

DUP leader Ian Paisley and Sinn Fein's Martin McGuinness took their pledges of office as devolution returned.
Five years of direct rule by London-appointed ministers has ended. Tony Blair and Bertie Ahern witnessed the creation of the new executive.

Mr Paisley said: "Today we are starting upon the road which I believe will take us to lasting peace in our province." He added: "I welcome the pledge we have all taken to that effect today? that is the rock foundation upon which we must build. "From the depths of my heart I can say I believe Northern Ireland has come to a time of peace, a time when hate will no longer rule. "How good it will be to be part of a wonderful healing in this province." Mr McGuinness said he was confident he and the DUP leader could work together.

In an interview for the BBC, Mr Blair was asked about the morality of some of the decisions he made to bring about the restoration of devolution. He said: "There are people who still think that the compromises that were made along the way were unacceptable. "But sometimes politics is about that in order to achieve a better end - and there are always two kinds of people in politics - those who stand aside and commentate and those who get their hands dirty and do."

BERTIE AHERN, IRISH PREMIER said;-This was not a process that promised quick or easy rewards. BUT TONY BLAIR HAS BEEN A TRUE FRIEND OF PEACE, AND A TRUE FRIEND OF IRELAND. And for that we express our heartfelt thanks. I thank him, not so much for the tea, not so much for the castles that I had the pleasure of spending so many times in, but for the true determination that he had, for just sticking with it.

For 10 tough years, he has spent more times dealing with the issues of the island of Ireland than any person every could have asked any other person to do."

These things are fact, not hypothesis," said Wendy Baker, the president of Lloyd's America in an interview on Monday. "You don't have to be a believer in global warming to recognize the climate is changing. The industry has to get ready for the changes that are coming."

In a report on catastrophe trends Lloyd's is disseminating to the insurance industry, a bevy of British climate experts, including Sir David King, chief scientist to the British government, warn of increased flooding in coastal areas and a rapid rise in sea level as ice caps melt in Greenland and Antarctica.

Northern European coastal levels could rise more than a meter (3 feet) in a few decades, particularly if the Gulf Stream currents change, the report says. Floods, which now account for about half of all deaths from natural disasters, could multiply and become more destructive, with annual flood damages in England and Wales reaching 10 times today's level, according to some studies.

At the same time, drought patterns that are already forming in some parts of the world are going to get worse, particularly in southern Africa. Even the lush Amazon may dry up, and with less vegetation, more carbon dioxide will leak into the atmosphere, making the global warming problem even worse, the Lloyd's study says.

"The property casualty industry had an easy year in 2006, when there were no U.S. hurricanes," Baker said. "But the next one may make Katrina look inexpensive." In August, 2005 Hurricane Katrina slammed into the U.S. Gulf Coast, costing the industry more than $38 billion and making it the most destructive storm in terms of property losses ever.

But hurricane modelers say a storm like Katrina hitting the Miami area of Florida or New York could cost as much as $100 billion.

UK researchers tested the effects of a range of artificial colourings on children's behaviour. It is understood the results back previous research linking additives to hyperactivity and poor concentration. The Food Standards Agency (FSA) said it would not issue formal recommendations until the findings were published. But independent experts said parents should avoid foodstuffs containing the additives.

A team at the University of Southampton tested the additives tartraxine (E102), ponceau 4R (E124), sunset yellow (E110), carmoisine (E122), quinoline yellow (E104) and allura red AC (E129) on both three-year olds and eight-to-nine year olds. The amounts used in the study were those that an average child might consume in a day.

A source at the University told food industry magazine the Grocer that their results supported findings first made seven years ago that linked the additives to behavioural problems such as temper tantrums, poor concentration, hyperactivity and allergic reactions.

The FSA's Committee of Toxicity on Chemicals looked at the original research, known as the Isle of Wight study, which had concluded removal of such colourings from childrens' diet would produce "significant changes" in behaviour and not just in those children already showing hyperactive behaviour.

But the Committee decided in 2002 the research was inconclusive. Pru Leith, chair of the School Food Trust said she hoped the findings would be published quickly but the FSA had to follow scientific protocols before making recommendations. We are very keen to promote fresh healthy home cooked food and if you get that sort of food you don't have to worry about additives. "There is a lot of anecdotal evidence from teachers and parents about children behaving badly when they're given sugary food stuffs so in the end I'm sure we will have the corroborating evidence."

Professor Vyvyan Howard, one of the experts on the FSA's Additives and Behaviour Working Group said it was important the findings were published but that consumers could choose not to buy products containing the additives. It is biologically plausible that there could be an effect from these additives. While you are waiting for the results to come out you can choose not to expose your children to these substances.

About 85 per cent of the water flowing down the rivers in southern England is recycled sewage water. And mysteriously, it seems that more and more of the fish that are swimming in those rivers are female.

Not only that, but if you take one of the dwindling number of male fish and relocate it near to where the outfalls dump the treated sewage into the rivers, they often seem to change their gender and turn into females.
Experts have analysed what chemicals in the river water are causing the fish to change sex, and have found ETHINYL ESTRADIOL, a powerful estrogen, or female hormone, WHICH IS THE HORMONAL COMPONENT OF THE FEMALE CONTRACEPTIVE PILL, used by millions of women.

The English fish phenomenon is one of the starkest illustrations of a theory that has sent fertility experts on a scientific clue hunt: that environmental contaminants may lie behind some of the problems affecting men's sperm.

One of those scientists is John Aitken, professor of biological sciences at the University of Newcastle and director of the Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence in Biotechnology and Development. "We can identify the problem: the problem is that one in 20 Australian men is infertile, and nobody knows why," Aitken says. "We have one of the most rapidly rising rates of testicular cancer in the world, and nobody knows why; and we have high rates of DNA damage in our spermatozoa, and nobody knows why. The proposal is that these things the testicular cancer, the infertility and the DNA damage may have an environmental component."

Even before any results arrive, the finger of suspicion points at a number of substances. Environmental estrogens are among the suspects, such as the ethinyl estradiol in English rivers. They have a long half-life an advantage in a contraceptive, which needs to persist in the body rather than be immediately filtered out. That also means they persists in the environment.

Other types of estrogens are called phthalate esters, a type of plasticiser used in food-can linings and many household products, and another is nonylphenol, which is chemically related to nonoxynol-9, a common spermicide. Nonylphenol is a component of household and industrial detergents, use of which shot up from about the 1940s.

Other possible substances include acrylamide produced during frying, baking or overcooking and pesticides.
"I'm sure the food that you eat contains DDT; it's been banned for a long time, but it's not banned in the countries that the food is coming from," Aitken says. "And dioxins the list goes on and on."

Aitken says his team is "definitely centre-stage" in the hunt for environmental causes of fertility problems. "Very few other laboratories . . . have the chemistry that we have got to pursue this."

Michael Blastland, series producer for BBC Radio 4's More Or Less programme, and his team are rising to the challenge. Although there are still those who argue over the US and "former UK" definitions of figures such as a billion and trillion, according to Michael there is now basic agreement that a trillion is a thousand billion and a billion is a thousand million. "When you hear a politician, business leader of economist using the word trillion, they are talking about a number with 12 zeros," he said.

So what does a trillion look like?

"It is estimated you can get 50,000 pennies into a cubic foot - a trillion pennies would fill two St Paul's Cathedrals."

Alternatively you may want to compare a million to a trillion by placing a credit card next to Ben Nevis.

Then again you can illustrate the scale of this number by comparing the fact that a million seconds equals 11.5 days, a billion seconds is 32 years and a trillion is 32,000 years.

Or, if your brain has not exploded already, there is another calculation you can make, according to Michael.

"If you take the typical annual salary as £25,000 a year - how long would it take you to spend a trillion pounds if you spent £25,000 A DAY?

"The answer is 109,000 years."

IN A SWEEPING MOVE THAT HAS GARNERED SURPRISINGLY LITTLE ATTENTION THIS WEEK THE UNITED STATES AND THE EUROPEAN UNION have signed up to a new transatlantic economic partnership that will see regulatory standards "harmonized" and will lay the basis for a merging of the US and EU into one single market, a huge step on the path to a new globalized world order.

Skipping over what the fall out from a single Western market will be, the BBC simply announced "The aim is to increase trade and lower costs." before moving swiftly on to analyse what this means in terms of global warming.

WHILE THE MASSES ARE BEING WHIPPED UP INTO A NEVER ENDING FRENZY OVER CLIMATE CHANGE at every given opportunity, hardcore political actions that will affect the lives of everyone on the planet in the here and now are being skated over with little or no attention being paid to them. The proponents and architects of a one world order have worked long and hard behind the scenes for a long time pushing a gradual erosion of national sovereignty via a harmonization of all areas of life, economic, social, cultural and environmental.

Such harmonization and elimination of diversity is the only way to maximize the profit of the few at the expense of the many, while maintaining tight controls over society as a whole in order for a long continuation of that status quo. The global corporate elite are the only ones who will benefit from essentially wiping out the free market and eliminating economic competition across nations.

It has recently been highlighted that European globalists such as Britain's Tony Blair and Germany's Angela Merkel are seeking TO IMPLEMENT BY STEALTH AREAS OF THE EU CONSTITUTION REGARDLESS OF ITS BLANKET REJECTION BY VOTERS. Senior British Cabinet sources have warned that they are also pushing hard for Brussels to be given A FULL-TIME UNELECTED PRESIDENT, who would serve a five year term and speak as the voice of Europe on the world stage.

In their important history of the EU, The Great Deception, British authors Christopher Booker and Richard North, concluded that THE 27 MEMBER NATIONS NOW ENTANGLED IN THE UNION HAVE CEDED THEIR SOVEREIGNTY in a carefully planned stealth operation. They grudgingly credit european globalists with accomplishing "a slow-motion coup d'etat: the most spectacular coup d'etat in history."

The authors of The Great Deception summarized the effect of the Treaty of Rome: "Thus did the central deception of the whole story become established. From now on, THE REAL AGENDA, POLITICAL INTEGRATION, WAS TO BE DELIBERATELY CONCEALED UNDER THE GUISE OF ECONOMIC INTEGRATION. Building Europe was to be presented as a matter of trade and jobs."

In 2003 the BBC uncovered incredible archived documents which confirmed that both the EU and its single currency, the Euro, were the brainchild of the secretive BILDERBERG GROUP. Some 50 years BEFORE the implementation of the European single currency, BILDERBERG, NOW INFAMOUS AS THE SECRET ELITE HAND BEHIND WORLD EVENTS, HAD DRAWN UP THE PLANS.

Now Cardinal Ratzinger is Pope Benedict XVI, and when he arrives here on Wednesday for his first pastoral visit to Latin America he may be surprised at what he finds. Liberation theology, which he once called "a fundamental threat to the faith of the church," persists as an active, even defiant force in Latin America, home to nearly half the world's one billion Roman Catholics.

"We believe in merging the questions of faith and social action," said Valmir Resende dos Santos, a liberation disciple who brings base communities and labor groups together in the industrial suburbs here. "We advise groups and social movements, mobilize the unemployed, and work with unions and parties, always from a perspective based on the Gospel."

SINCE LIBERATION THEOLOGY FIRST EMERGED IN THE 1960S, it has consistently mixed politics and religion. Adherents have often been active in labor unions and left-wing political parties and criticized governments they complain are beholden to modern-day Pharisees. Supporters see that activism as a necessary virtue to answer the needs of the poor.

SOME OF THE DISTINCTIONS IN THIS DEBATE ARE FINELY DRAWN. JOHN PAUL II'S reach extended into human rights and politics, as he discouraged abortion and divorce and encouraged fellow Poles and other Europeans to reject Communism. HE IS WIDELY CREDITED WITH HELPING TO BRING ABOUT THE EVENTUAL COLLAPSE OF THE SOVIET UNION.

"Even when it comes to firing rockets on Israeli civilians, when they [Israel] bombed the civilians on our side, even that decision requires an in-principle permission from [the ruling jurisprudent]," said Sheikh Naim Qassem, the deputy chief of Hezbollah, in an Arabic language interview translated yesterday by the Information and Terrorism Center at Israel's Center for Special Studies.

According to the Center, "the ruling jurisprudent," or "al-wali al-faqih" in Arabic, is the title of Supreme Iranian Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

In the interview, given last month to the Al-Kawthar, Iranian Arabic-language TV channel, Qassem says Khamenei's authority is crucial for all Hezbollah operations: "Hezbollah relied and relies still in its Islamic religious position, which has to do with its activity in general and its jihadist activity in particular, on the decision of (Khamenei).

The ruling jurisprudent is the one who allows and the one who prohibits." He said Khamenei approves acts suicide terror. "We ask, receive answers, and then apply [them]. This is even true for acts of suicide for the sake of Allah no one may kill himself without a jurisprudent permission (from Khamenei)."

During Israel's war in Lebanon last summer, Hezbollah fired over 3,000 rockets into Israeli civilian population centers, killing 43 civilians and injuring thousands. There were multiple reports, denied by Hezbollah, of Iranian officers operating in Lebanon to aid the militia.

Qassem's statements come as Israeli defense officials told WND this weekend Hezbollah has replenished its rocket arsenal and is stronger now than before last summer's war. According to the officials, Hezbollah, aided by Iran, is preparing for another conflict with the Jewish state.

In an interview Saturday with Al Jazeera, Hezbollah's Qassem admitted his group rebuilt its militia and is ready for war. He claimed Israel will attack first. "We have new military plans. We have completed our ground work in preparing our men, as well as our land, so that we would be ready if the Israeli government thought one day of launching an attack," said Qassem.

The message that got Michelle Incanno's blood boiling reads:

"Why in moments of crisis do we ask God for strength and help? As cognitive beings, why would we ask something that may well be a figment of our imaginations for guidance? Why not search inside ourselves for the power to overcome? After all, we are strong enough to cause most of the catastrophes we need to endure."

The quote was written by Bill Schell, a Starbucks customer from London, Ontario, Canada, and was included as part of an effort by the Seattle-based coffee giant to collect different viewpoints and spur discussion.

"As someone who loves God, I was so offended by that," Michelle Incanno, a married mother of three who is Catholic, told the Dayton Daily News. "I don't think there needs to be religious dialogue on it. I just want coffee."
Starbucks spokeswoman Sanja Gould said the collection of thoughts and opinions is a "way to promote open, respectful conversation among a wide variety of individuals. "

As WND reported in September 2005, officials at Baylor University told the Starbucks store on its Waco, Texas, campus to remove a cup said to promote homosexuality. The offending cup featured the words of homosexual novelist Armistead Maupin.

It read: "My only regret about being gay is that I repressed it for so long. I surrendered my youth to the people I feared when I could have been out there loving someone. Don't make that mistake yourself. Life's too damn short."

Baylor University, the world's largest Baptist school, refused to comment on the issue, said KCEN-TV in central Texas. Employees at the campus Starbucks said none of their customers had complained about the cup, but they removed it nonetheless.

One man was killed in the latest storms and 11 people injured in another Kansas town. More severe weather is expected. Rescuers are searching for survivors of the Greensburg tornado, which killed nine people and injured dozens more.

US President George W Bush has declared parts of Kansas a disaster area and has pledged federal aid for reconstruction. Kansas Senator Pat Roberts, who toured the devastated region, said: "It is no understatement or overstatement to say this town has been wiped off the face of the Earth." There were eight confirmed reports of tornadoes in Kansas overnight on Saturday.

A man died in Ottawa County, 250 miles northeast of Greensburg, state officials said, and 11 people were injured in the town of Osborne when a tornado hit two restaurants. At least eight people died in Kiowa County, where Greensburg is located, and one in the neighbouring Pratt County, as winds of up to 250mph (400km/h) tore buildings from their foundations and uprooted trees.

The tornado was described as a "wedge", a particularly wide formation said to be - in this instance - at least one mile in diameter. Greensburg has now been evacuated of its 1,500 residents, who have been instructed not to return while emergency workers search for survivors. City Administrator Steve Hewitt estimated that 95% of the town had been destroyed.

Mr Hewitt said it could take days for rescuers to reach survivors trapped in basements and under rubble. He warned the death toll could rise.