One homeowner has been killed and 27 homes destroyed in South Dakota's Black Hills, said local officials quoted by the Associated Press news agency. Temperatures as high as 38C (100F) have followed a drier-than-normal winter and meant conditions are ideal for fires.

In Utah, the largest wildfire in state history has destroyed almost 300,000 acres (120,000 hectares).
Other fires are raging in California, Colorado, Arizona, Idaho, Montana and Oregon. More than 34,000 acres (13,800 hectares) have been scorched in California's Inyo National Forest and campgrounds had to be evacuated.

"Everything is very, very dry," said Nancy Upham, a spokeswoman for the Inyo National Forest. "There are seasoned fire fighters who are seeing fire behaviour they have never seen before. Things are just igniting with a single spark." In the Los Padres National Forest in Southern California 11 firefighters were injured. Many of the fires have been blamed on lightning strikes in tinder-dry forest areas, after a mild winter which saw lower-than-average rainfalls.

Peru's Machu Picchu, Brazil's Statue of Christ Redeemer and Mexico's Chichen Itza pyramid also made the cut. JORDAN'S PETRA WAS THE SEVENTH WINNER.

About 100 million votes were cast by the Internet and cellphone text messages, said New7Wonders, the nonprofit organization that conducted the poll. The seven beat out 14 other nominated landmarks, including the Eiffel Tower, Easter Island in the Pacific, the Statue of Liberty, the Acropolis, Russia's Kremlin and Australia's Sydney Opera House.

The pyramids of Giza are the only surviving structures from the original seven wonders of the ancient world. The Hanging Gardens of Babylon, the Statue of Zeus at Olympia, the Temple of Artemis at Ephesus, the Mausoleum of Halicarnassus, the Colossus of Rhodes and the Pharos lighthouse off Alexandria have all vanished.

John Pike, director of GlobalSecurity.org in Virginia, was commenting on plans announced this week by a US firm, iRobot Corp, to arm its track-wheeled PackBot robot with a Taser X26 stun gun. "The new Taser-equipped robots will add a new ability to control dangerous suspects while keeping personnel, the suspect, and bystanders out of harm's way," a company statement said. The first robot of its kind "with an onboard, integrated Taser payload" would go on show next month in Chicago.

Pike said development of robot cops, similar in purpose if not appearance to the crime-fighting characters in the Robocop and Terminator films, could be complete within 10 years and in use by police, prisons and military.

"For sure machines could be armed with guns, for sure they could be autonomous," Pike said. "You already have UAVs [unmanned aerial vehicles] with an autopilot. You tell the autopilot where to go, what altitude and speed. Then it starts making its own judgements.

"So with the robot, you give it an instruction like: 'Clear the building -- anybody pointing a weapon at you should be killed'. Robots are infinitely brave. They have no hesitation in killing and feel no remorse. And the great thing is you don't have to send condolence letters to their families if you put them in harm's way," Pike said.

MOROCCO - "Three Moroccan police officers were injured when their vehicle was fire-bombed in El Ayoun, the capital of Morocco's disputed territory of Western Sahara"

MOROCCO - Morocco raises terror warning to highest level - "The Interior Ministry raised the warning in response to 'reliable information' and security forces were on alert."

ALGERIA - Top Algerian regional official escapes bomb attack on independence day

SOUTH AFRICA - "Eleven people have been hospitalised after they came in contact with a parcel containing a white powder, possibly anthrax, at a post office in Alberton"

MEXICO - "A natural-gas pipeline exploded and burned at two points in central Mexico Thursday"

USA - U.S. Fears Terror 'Spectacular' Planned. "Official Cites Resemblance to Warnings and Intelligence Before 9/11"

CANADA - Police stumble upon cache of explosives, weapons

WASHINGTON - Bomb found in mailbox near Canadian border - " a cylinder-shaped object with an electronic device attached was found in a private mailbox."

NIGER - Niger rebels kidnap Chinese uranium worker - "Tuareg-led rebels in northern Niger have kidnapped a Chinese uranium executive and are demanding his company stop its activities in the desert region"

FRANCE - Explosives arrests in France linked to ETA - "French police arrested three suspected members of the Basque armed separatist group ETA near the Spanish border today - travelling in a van packed with explosives"

EGYPT - Egyptian police seize large cache of explosives in northern Sinai - 1,200 kilograms (2,650 pounds) of TNT explosives

PAKISTAN - Shots fired as Pakistani leader's plane takes off in possible assassination try

THAILAND - Southern rail service cut as militants sabotage tracks

PHILIPPINES - Blast rips through commuter bus in Philippines - southern island of Mindanao today

CHINA - Mine explosives blamed for China nightclub blast - 25 dead.

AUSTRALIA - UK bomb suspect arrested - at the international airport in Brisbane where he was trying to board a flight with a one-way ticket

IRAQ - Major pipe carrying oil to Doura refinery blown up was blown up just south of the Iraqi capital, leading to a huge fire in the pipeline"

SAUDI ARABIA - Saudi steps up security around oil facilities

Both red and white wine may have previously unrecognised health benefits at the very start of their journey into the body, according to a study that confirms something that has been known since antiquity, when wine was used to treat wounds.

Prof Gabriella Gazzani and colleagues at the University of Pavia in Italy point out in the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry that previous studies suggested that moderate wine consumption has health benefits after reaching the stomach and digestion - in protecting against heart disease and cancer. But relatively little has been done to study its antibacterial activity, which was exploited in ancient times, and noone had studied whether wine could combat harmful oral bacteria. The team showed that red and white wine were effective in inhibiting the growth of several strains of streptococci bacteria that are involved in tooth decay, and some cases of sore throat.

The compounds responsible for the antimicrobial activity were wine acids, notably succinic, malic, lactic, tartaric, citric, and acetic acids. "Overall, our findings seem to indicate that wine can act as an effective antimicrobial agent against the tested pathogenic oral streptococci and might be active in caries and upper respiratory tract pathologies prevention," the study states.

"Red wine resulted to be more active as an antibacterial agent then white wine", said Prof Gazzani, who is now investigating about the mechanisms by which wine can interfere with tooth decay and the possibility it offers advantages over standard mouthwashes.

Tea, toast, marmalade, Daily Telegraph? and statin. For many Britons, breakfast wouldn't be breakfast without these ingredients. And for some 3.4 million, the most important is that little pill.

Last week, the National Institute for Clinical Excellence (Nice) unveiled new guidelines stating that statins should be prescribed to people with a 20 per cent risk of developing heart disease. So we can expect them to appear on many more breakfast tables. In fact, new research suggests that as many as 14 MILLION PEOPLE AGED 40 OR OVER COULD BE ELIGIBLE TO TAKE THEM.

Statins, which were introduced in the late 1980s, include the brands Zocor, Lipitor and Crestor, have been hailed as a wonder drug. They lower cholesterol and, according to the British Heart Foundation, reduce the risk of dying from coronary heart disease by 25 per cent. Their use has also been associated with improved function of the endothelium (the lining of blood vessels), less plaque in the blood vessels, general anti-inflammatory action and even the prevention of blood clots. Further studies are under way to establish how helpful they are in fighting dementia, cancer and cataracts.

BUT IF YOUR HAND IS MOVING CLOSER TO THE TABLETS, HOLD FIRE. Because, despite global approbation, the murmurs that statins are not quite the Holy Grail are getting louder. And while many in the medical establishment are so confident of the benefits that they will not even countenance a debate, there are others who believe that these pills have been found wanting.

One such dissenter is Malcolm Kendrick, a Cheshire GP with a special interest in cholesterol and heart disease, and author of The Great Cholesterol Con (John Blake). Dr Kendrick believes that, for most people, STATINS ARE AT BEST POINTLESS AND AT WORST HIGHLY DANGEROUS. AND HE CLAIMS THAT THOSE WHO PRESCRIBE THEM AND THOSE WHO TAKE THEM ARE VICTIMS OF CLEVER GLOBAL MARKETING.

HE SAYS THE MARKETING BUDGET FOR CRESTOR, FOR EXAMPLE, WAS $1 BILLION FOR ONE YEAR ALONE. This hype, combined with our desire to find a drug that could make us live for ever, has won over even the most sceptical. And of course there have been numerous studies and trials to back the claims being made.

According to Dr Kendrick, the results have been presented in a "very oblique way".

"I'm not saying the data is wrong. But a major trial in western Scotland showed that a man who had suffered a mild heart attack had a 96.8 per cent chance of being alive after taking statins for five years. If he was on a placebo, that fell to just 95.9 per cent. SO YOU MIGHT LIVE A FEW DAYS LONGER IF YOU TAKE STATINS FOR FIVE YEARS THAN IF YOU DON'T. And this was in a high-risk population."

The problem is more serious if the patient develops rhabdomyolysis (muscle wastage that can lead to kidney failure). According to Dr Kendrick, drawing on figures from the US Food and Drug Administration, there have been a total of 416 deaths between 1997 and 2004 directly attributable to simvastatin (Zocor) alone.

Other side effects of statins include amnesia, cognitive problems, irritability and impotence. The World Health Organisation is examining reports that taking the drugs can lead to amyotrophic lateral dystrophy, a devastating neurological condition which rapidly progresses to death.

So what should you do, hands still hovering - now rather nervously - over that packet of statins? "If you tell your GP of your concern, he or she will most likely dismiss it," says Dr Kendrick. "BUT WE SHOULD BE QUESTIONING THE RESEARCH AND ASKING HARD QUESTIONS ABOUT THE ROLE PLAYED BY THE PHARMACEUTICAL INDUSTRY IN PROMOTING THESE DRUGS."

The other five are Petra in Jordan, Peru's Machu Picchu, the mountain settlement that symbolises the Incan empire, Mexico's Mayan ruins at Chichen Itza, the Colosseum in Rome and the Taj Mahal in India.

"Never before in history have so many people participated in a global decision," American actress Hilary Swank said at the glitzy presentation at the Benfica football stadium in Lisbon, which was also attended by the tenor Jose Carreras and pop star Jennifer Lopez. The Pyramids of Giza are the only remaining wonder of the ancient world.

However, only one European site, the Colosseum, was picked for the new seven wonders. The Eiffel Tower and the Acropolis had also been contenders. In the Lisbon audience, 62-year-old Antonio Catarino was upset because no Catholic cathedrals or churches were included. "I find it unforgivable that there aren't any in the voting," he said.

The disaster has affected 8.19 million people in 43 cites and counties across the province, it said. Over the past week, more than 44 reported rainfall volume exceeding 100 millimeters, with Nanjiang County the highest at 542 millimeters. The total economic loss is estimated at three billion yuan (US$395 million).

Meanwhile, forecasters have warned that the upper reaches of the Huaihe River, which runs through east China, had reached critical levels. So far, floods in south, east and central China had caused more than 200 deaths and destroyed over 110,000 houses while droughts in the north had left at least 7.4 million people short of drinking water, according to the flood and drought prevention authorities.

A 100-mile stretch of Interstate 15 in central Utah was closed when a 160,000-acre wildfire jumped the highway, and other fires burned in California, Colorado, Arizona, Idaho, Oregon and Washington.

The fire near Winnemucca, about 170 miles east of Reno, threatened up to eight blocks of homes and an electrical substation, said U.S. Bureau of Land Management spokesman Jamie Thompson. A 100-mile stretch of Interstate 15 in central Utah was closed when a 160,000-acre wildfire jumped the highway, and other fires burned in California, Colorado, Arizona, Idaho, Oregon and Washington.

The fire near Winnemucca, about 170 miles east of Reno, threatened up to eight blocks of homes and an electrical substation, said U.S. Bureau of Land Management spokesman Jamie Thompson. Another fire blackened 11 square miles, or 7,000 acres, about five miles southwest of Carlin. It burned two mobile homes and several smaller structures, and shut down a section of Interstate 80 for six hours overnight, fire information officer Tracie Winfrey said. On Saturday morning, the fire was 40 percent contained.

Yet another Nevada fire that was started by lightning Saturday threatened structures and led to the evacuation of campers about 30 miles south of Elko, officials said. The Utah fire, about 120 miles south of Salt Lake City, also forced the evacuations of Cove Fort and the Blundell Geo Thermal Power Plant, where it was threatening railroad lines, bridges and several homes, Color County Fire Information Officer LaCee Bartholomew said. Interstate 70 was also closed in Richfield, Utah Highway Patrol Lt. Steve Winward said.

The fire, which has burned about 250 square miles, was triggered by lightning Friday afternoon and was pushed north and west Saturday by high winds, Bartholomew said. Fire crews had help from air tankers, but the heavy smoke was increasing the risk to those on the ground, she said.

In California, more than 400 firefighters battled a blaze that has consumed 17,000 acres of the 2 million-acre Inyo National Forest east of Yosemite National Park, forest spokeswoman Nancy Upham said Saturday. Firefighters were searching for and evacuating hikers and backpackers on and near the popular trail to Mount Whitney, the tallest peak in the lower 48 states.

In Montana, it was even too hot to fish. Yellowstone National Park and state fisheries managers asked anglers starting Saturday not to fish on some Montana rivers between noon and 6 p.m. because of drought and scorching weather. Water temperatures in some lower-elevation rivers have reached 73 degrees in recent days, conditions that can stress and even kill fish, the National Park Service said Friday.

Up to eight police officers and civilian staff are suspected of links to extremist groups including Al Qaeda. Some are even believed to have attended terror training camps in Pakistan or Afghanistan. Their names feature on a secret list of alleged radicals said to be working in the Metropolitan and other forces.

The dossier was drawn up with the help of MI5 amid fears that individuals linked to Islamic extremism are taking advantage of police attempts to increase the proportion of ethnic staff. Astonishingly, many of the alleged jihadists have not been sacked because - it is claimed - police do not have the "legal power" to dismiss them. Staff who are under suspicion are unofficially barred from working in sensitive posts and are closely monitored. POLITICAL CORRECTNESS IS BLAMED FOR THE DECISION NOT TO SACK THEM.

We can also reveal that one suspected jihadist officer working in the South East has been allowed to keep his job despite being caught circulating Internet images of beheadings and roadside bombings in Iraq. He is said to have argued that he was trying to "enhance" debate about the war.

MI5 has warned in the past that suspects with "strong links" to Osama Bin Laden's killers have tried to join the British security services and, in January, exiled radical Omar Bakri claimed that Islamic extremists were infiltrating the police and other public sector organisations. Suspicions are growing that THE GANG BEHIND THE FAILED LONDON BOMB ATTACKS COULD HAVE RECEIVED INSIDE INFORMATION ABOUT RESCUE PROCEDURES IN THE AFTERMATH OF AN ATROCITY IN THE CAPITAL.

The Daily Mail can reveal that THE SECOND DEVICE PARKED NEAR HAYMARKET WAS LEFT AT A DESIGNATED "EVACUATION ASSEMBLY POINT" WHERE CIVILIANS AND THE EMERGENCY SERVICES WOULD HAVE GATHERED HAD THE FIRST BOMB GONE OFF.

Sources said it is unlikely that the Met is the only force which may have been infiltrated by Al Qaeda sympathisers.

terrorist jailed for his involvement in a bomb attack on the Paris Metro - which killed eight people and wounded 80 - has been working as a traffic warden in England. Mustapha Boutarfa, 32, was arrested by Scotland Yard's anti-terrorist squad in 1996 and extradited from Britain to France two years later.

He stood trial for his auxiliary role in the 1995 attack on the St Michel station by a notorious Islamic militant group and was given a two-year prison sentence. But after his release, Boutarfa, who held dual French and Algerian nationality, managed to get back into the UK with his wife and children - and also secured the job as a parking attendant in Richmond-upon-Thames, Surrey.

"We often see him in his grey uniform prowling the streets and handing out tickets,' said one resident. "I had no idea about his past. It beggars belief." When his employer, NCP Services, learned of his background - three years after he first started work - it suspended him, saying it could "understand public concern about this matter". Boutarfa is now being investigated by police.

The apparent ease with which he returned to Britain and gained employment as a law enforcer caused fury.
Shadow Home Secretary David Davis described the system that allowed Boutarfa to return as a "disgrace" and blamed "our porous borders". He said: "And what better grounds for national security do you need than someone convicted of terror offences?" "This situation needs to be solved by proper secure borders."

The Home Office added it can "refuse leave to enter the UK on the grounds of national security".

It's an inconvenient truth, but mixing rock with recycling is awkward. In a TV interview earlier this week, Matt Bellamy of the band Muse mocked the event as "private jets for climate change." John Buckley of Carbon Footprint, an organization that helps companies reduce their carbon dioxide emissions, said Saturday that Live Earth will produce about 74,500 tons of the gas.

"WE WOULD HAVE TO PLANT 100,000 TREES TO OFFSET THE EFFECT OF LIVE EARTH," he said, speaking by telephone.

Certainly, on the way into the show, some of the 65,000 people who'd spent $110 (£55) on a ticket appeared unaware of the seven-point pledge that Al Gore, the event's chief impresario, had asked all spectators to make. Asked about it, they offered blank looks and said they were there for Madonna (whose annual carbon footprint, according to Buckley, is 1,018 tons -- about 92 times the 11 tons an average person uses per year).

"I'm not even sure who Gore is," said Georgie Simpson, 35, from Ipswich, in eastern England. "I saw Gore on TV," added Sue Bourner, 38, a health service manager from Hampshire. "But frankly, I think it's cheeky of Americans to come over here and lecture us. They are the worst polluters."

But now experts are warning the world's internet system is about to become a victim of its own success and is literally filling up and grinding to a halt. Fast-moving technology has meant the internet has opened up more and more possibilities for consumers - but the ability to create home videos, make cheap phone calls around the world and transmit massive amounts of data in seconds is taking its toll.

And it is now feared users will see their bills increase as providers are forced to return to the 'pay as you browse' systems used in the early days of the internet just to keep the system running. Extra top-up charges could also be introduced to allow users to enter their favourite websites.

Now the United Nations is calling for action to upgrade the system and prevent meltdown. The Internet Governance Forum (IGF), a UN-sponsored agency, is asking internet providers and governments to cooperate ahead of its conference in Rio later this year.

The IGF's chair Nitin Desai said: "People are concerned about whether the system we have now will work five years from now." And a source at the IGF added: "As more people come online and do more with the internet, it will need more capacity to continue working at the high speeds users in the West have got used to. It can be done, but only if all the companies and governments involved commit to getting the infrastructure upgraded."

The starkest warning yet that the internet may be filling up came in a recent report from the analyst Deloitte. It revealed that the Amsterdam Internet Exchange, the world's largest internet hub, was handling a million gigabytes of data a day at the beginning of last year. But this year, the exchange is expected to be transferring one billion GB a day.

Phil Smith, Cisco Systems head of technology and corporate marketing, said: "In one day YouTube sends data equivalent to 75 billion e-mails. The network is growing up, is starting to get more capacity than it ever had, but it is a challenge."

The radical leader of Islamabad's Red Mosque, under siege for the last six days by hundreds of Pakistan troops, said the 1,800 children he claims are still in the religious-school complex have taken oaths on the Quran to fight to the death, a frightening possibility confirmed by frantic parents who have spoken by cell phone with sons and daughters who say they soon hope to be martyrs.

"I spoke to my daughter. She said there was no food or water left," said Luftullah Khan, a shopkeeper, who was able to get through to them on their cell phone. "I tried to arrange a meeting, but she said, 'We're here - my dead body will be here. I will not leave my teachers'." Followers of Abdul Rashid Ghazi, leader of the pro-Taliban mosque, said yesterday 30 girls had been buried in a mass grave inside the complex.

The six-day siege has been mostly restrained, with the military wanting to avoid massive bloodshed. Children from two madrassas, or religious schools, are being held in the mosque. According to London Sunday Times, they have been moved to the basement of the complex.

Yesterday, the army shelled sections of the wall surrounding the complex, bringing them down, and fired tear gas at the militants, but avoided a direct attack on the mosque. While no fuel, food or water is getting into the complex, Ghazi's followers say they have enough ammunition to hold out for 25 or 30 days. Ghazi, who has said he and his followers will fight to the end, now says the 1,800 children he holds have been divided into two groups and will join his fighters against any assault. "The boys are the first line of defense, then the girls," he said. "They have all sworn an oath on the Koran that they will fight to the death."

The standoff was sparked a week ago by Musharraf's crackdown on the mosque after the increasingly militant group's months-long campaign of intimidation in Islamabad, imposing Sharia law and punishment on the city's citizens.

Khan, the desperate father and shopkeeper, succeeded Friday in getting his two daughters to leave the compound with a ruse. Reaching them once again by cell phone, he told them their mother was ill and lay unconscious on the pavement outside. The two girls left the compound and were taken by their father.

Saima, Khan's 10-year-old daughter, denounced the trick. "The teachers taught us about martyrdom and that it is a great achievement," she told the Times. "I could see the fighting was in front of me and I could understand that we would die. I felt real anger about what my father did. He tricked me."

"I'm taking them back to our village," Khan said. "They were ready for martyrdom and they're very angry with me. I'm just happy I've got my daughters back, and sorry for those whose daughters are still in there."

ACCORDING TO KHAN, SAIMA'S TRANSFORMATION HAD TAKEN ONLY EIGHT WEEKS.

UK consumers spend £12bn a year on electronics, much of which is less efficient than older technology, a study by the Energy Saving Trust found. Paula Owen, author of the report called The Ampere Strikes Back, said household appliances currently consumed about a third of an average home's electricity. But she warned this was likely to increase as a result of people buying more energy-intensive devices.

"Your old-fashioned, bulky cathode ray tube TV on average consumed about 100 watts of electricity when it was switched on," Dr Owen explained. "What we are seeing now is a trend for much bigger flat-screened TVs. On average, we are seeing a three-fold increase in the energy needed to power these TVs. "Pretty much in every other sector [such as fridges and washing machines], we find that as the technology moves on, the products get more and more efficient. "Consumer electronics does not work like that."

The equivalent of 14 power stations will be needed just to power consumer electronic devices by 2020, the report warned. By that time televisions on standby will consume 1.4% of all domestic electricity, it predicted.

Digital radios were also singled out by the report as being energy intensive. "Traditional analogue radios consume about two watts when they are switched on," Dr Owen said. "We've looked at digital radios and the average consumption of these is eight watts."

"Mobile phones and their chargers are one area where we have seen an improvement," Dr Owen said. But she added that the sheer volume of mobiles being used, about 63 million in the UK, meant that a huge amount of energy was still being wasted if people were not unplugging their chargers when they were not being used. "The simple message to people is switch things off when you have finished using them," urged Dr Owen.