Trees were uprooted, smashing into cars and blocking streets, roofs were torn off houses and power cuts reported. The storms led to tornado and flash flood warnings, but gave way later to hot, humid weather.

A woman died when her car got stuck in an underpass and was hit from behind, city Mayor Michael Bloomberg said. Many workers stayed at home, as transport officials advised commuters to avoid the morning rush hour.

Every subway line going into the central Manhattan area was subject to delays during the rush hour. Rail routes to the city from neighbouring New Jersey were also affected. Flights from John F Kennedy airport were delayed by up to an hour and a half, and from LaGuardia by about an hour.

Temperatures were expected to rise above 38C (100F) during the day. The National Weather Service confirmed that the storm brought with it Brooklyn's first ever tornado, measured to be an F2 twister. The tornado brought winds of approximately 111 miles per hour.

The statewide average through July was 27.11 inches, nearly 11 inches above the norm of 16.21 inches, National Weather Service meteorologist Victor Murphy said Tuesday. "When we broke the drought, we broke it with a bang." The previous record for the first seven months was 25.88 inches in 1941. July was the third-wettest since 1895, and the wettest since 1903. The month was also the coolest since 1976 and the fourth coolest in 113 years.

Things are changing, though. The Dallas-Fort Worth area was supposed to hit 100 degrees for the first time this year Wednesday, and many other areas in Texas also could see their first triple-digit heat.

Murphy said, "Everyone's been cursing the rain, but when the rain shuts off, the heat's soon to follow, drier conditions could be on the way as well."

"Believe it or not, it looks like La Nina is starting to shape, the equatorial waters of the central Pacific Ocean have started to cool off the past couple of weeks, and that might be the precursor of the incoming La Nina event." If those conditions develop this fall, it would probably mean dry conditions from October through March.

We all know what exile is. Exile is when you get kicked off your land. A nation may be forcibly exiled from its land, but if the nation longs to return, sets days to mourn the eviction, remembers every inch of the land, remembers its history there, reveres the holy places and burial sites of their forefathers, and teaches every successive generation to remember - IN SUCH A SCENARIO, THE EXILE IS NEVER COMPLETE BECAUSE THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN THE PEOPLE AND THEIR LAND IS NEVER FULLY SEVERED.

But what then is a full exile? A FULL EXILE IS WHEN THE CONNECTION BETWEEN THE LAND AND THE PEOPLE IS FORGOTTEN. In terms of emotional connection, Rachel's Tomb is unequaled for the Jewish people. THE MEMORY OF RACHEL'S TOMB IN THE OLIVE ORCHARDS OF BETHLEHEM HAS KEPT US CONNECTED TO THIS PLACE THROUGHOUT THE LONG EXILE.

Go to Rachel's Tomb today - if you can. A monstrosity of walls, pillboxes, gates, and chains has been erected to ostensibly keep the would-be intruder away. The place is downright ugly. Take your children there. As you pass into the prison-like fortress try to teach your children about our mother Rachel. You will not succeed because you will not be able to communicate a sense of the value of the place. It is too ugly, too military, too filled with fear, it is simply unattractive both physically and emotionally.

ONLY THOSE WHO REMEMBER RACHEL'S TOMB THE WAY IT USED TO BE CAN STILL HAVE AN EMOTIONAL CONNECTION TO THE PLACE. JUST AS WE ARE EXILED FROM THE PHYSICAL RACHEL'S TOMB, RACHEL'S TOMB IS BEING EXILED FROM OUR MINDS.

This phenomenon of exile is not only at Rachel's Tomb - it's everywhere. The Tomb of Joseph in Nablus is gone, destroyed by Arabs, abandoned by Israel. Hebron, home and burial place of the patriarchs is constantly in the crosshairs of destruction. THE TEMPLE MOUNT, THE PLACE OF TWO JEWISH TEMPLES, IS BEING SYSTEMATICALLY NEUTERED OF ITS HISTORY (let alone its future value). Judea and Samaria, the biblical heartland, is now being cut off by a snaking wall, which scars the land and cuts us off from our history and heritage. THE EXILING FORCES SEEM TO ATTACK THE VERY PLACES WHERE OUR COLLECTIVE MEMORY WAS STRONGEST.

The Jewish people's historical connection to the land has been systematically un-taught. In schools, MANY JEWISH CHILDREN LEARN TO HATE THE BIBLE, LEARN A REVISIONIST ANTI-ZIONIST HISTORY, AND ARE SIMPLY NEVER TAUGHT THE STORIES AND THE EMOTIONAL CONNECTION TO PLACES LIKE RACHEL'S TOMB. On the other hand, a new milieu and accompanying lingo fill the void left in the young mind: Occupation, Palestine, Peace, and Post-Zionism. OUR HISTORY AND WITH IT, OUR EMOTIONAL CONNECTION TO OUR LAND, IS BEING ERASED.

TODAY, THOSE WHO STILL TEACH AND PREACH A CONNECTION WITH THESE PLACES ARE BRANDED EXTREMISTS, SO THEIR MESSAGE MAKES LITTLE SENSE TO OUR PEOPLE. Say the word "Hebron" to a young disconnected Israeli and he will only conjure up an occupied Arab city with a few cantankerous crazy Jews who cause all the problems. IT IS NO WONDER THEN THAT FOR HIM IT MAKES SENSE TO "GIVE IT BACK" SINCE NOTHING SEEMS TO TIE US TO THESE PLACES IN THE FIRST PLACE.

Today's post-Zionist leaders have made Israel into a State of Exile, exiling our people from their homes, exiling our land by cutting it off and giving it away, and exiling the minds and hearts of the Jewish people by teaching them to forget. AFTER WAITING FOR TWO THOUSAND YEARS TO RETURN, JEWS ARE BEING TAUGHT THAT HEBRON ISN'T JEWISH, THAT BETHLEHEM ISN'T JEWISH, THAT NABLUS ISN'T JEWISH, THAT THE TEMPLE MOUNT ISN'T JEWISH. A methodical exile is taking place, the exile of place and the exile of mind.

THIS STILL MEANS NEARLY A QUARTER OF A MILLION PUPILS WILL MOVE UP TO SECONDARY SCHOOL NEXT MONTH WITHOUT HAVING MASTERED THE SKILLS OF READING, WRITING AND MATHS.

The scale of under-performance in the subjects regarded as crucial by parents and employers is unchanged since last summer despite pressure on primaries to achieve year-on-year improvements. IT FOLLOWS INVESTMENT OF BILLIONS OF POUNDS OVER THE PAST DECADE IN LITERACY AND NUMERACY DRIVES.

Almost one in ten boys still start secondary school with the reading age of an average seven-year-old.

MINISTERS WERE FORCED TO ADMIT THEY HAD "FURTHER TO GO" AS IT EMERGED JUST 60 PER CENT OF ALL PUPILS - AND 56 PER CENT OF BOYS - REACHED THE EXPECTED LEVEL FOR THEIR AGE IN THE THREE RS COMBINED. It means some 234,000 pupils are unable to punctuate basic sentences, spell words with more than one syllable, pick out basic themes from text and recall the six times table.

The results also revealed a massive gulf in standards between state and fee-paying schools. Almost every prep school pupil reached the standard expected of 11-year-olds - so-called "level four" - in English, maths and science. Twice as many fee-paying pupils are so far ahead in the three Rs they are meeting an even tougher level - the standard expected of 14-year-olds.

In its first reaction to the new US visa law, the European Commission said it was "considering" a so-called electronic traveller authorisation scheme - similar to the American plan - that would require foreigners heading to the EU to give notice of their travel plans before departure.

The threat has been conveyed to senior US officials and lawmakers, with one letter sent last month stressing that a European system would "of course operate on a reciprocal basis".

A spokesman for the EU executive said no final decision had been taken, but the idea had received "new impetus" by the adoption of a US counter-terrorism bill last week that requires travellers to give US authorities at least 48 hours' notice of their plans to visit the country.

A major lapse in security at a Government research laboratory complex was identified last night by an official report as the most likely cause of the foot and mouth outbreak. A Health and Safety Executive inquiry said there was a "strong possibility" that the virus came from the Government-licensed Pirbright complex in Surrey, which is just three miles from the two farms that have been contaminated.

It is likely workers at the site - shared between the Institute for Animal Health (IAH) and its commercial partner, Merial Animal Health - were to blame for spreading the disease, the report said. In a further twist, the HSE said that sabotage at the labs could not be ruled out. Ironically, the Government has just asked Merial to produce 300,000 foot and mouth vaccines.

Other developments yesterday included:
- The two farmers whose herds have been infected with the disease spoke of living through a "nightmare" and told of how their businesses had been ruined.
- Farmers spoke of their anger that footpaths within the protection zone had not been closed sooner following the outbreak, allowing walkers to potentially spread the disease for several days.
- Others warned there would be "hell to pay" if it transpired that MOVING THE DEAD INFECTED ANIMALS 80 MILES ACROSS COUNTRY FOR INCINERATION helped to spread the disease.
- Supermarkets began reporting a SHORTAGE OF MEAT caused by movement restrictions.
- The Daily Telegraph can also reveal that officials are investigating A FURTHER POSSIBLE 20 CASES OF FOOT AND MOUTH, thought to be close to the centre of the outbreak, where farmers have reported concerns about their animals.

As the investigators hunted the source of the leak, Defra officials inspected a number of allotments, close to the farm where the outbreak first occurred, on which Pirbright workers are believed to grow vegetables.

The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) said in a report ordered by the Prime Minister that "release by human movement [of the FMD virus] must be considered a real possibility".

Inspectors all but discounted theories that the virus escaped by air or water from the laboratory complex close to where the outbreak started, although they are continuing to investigate the possibility of equipment failure or a security breach.

The HSE concluded in the report - which was sent to Hilary Benn, the Environment Secretary, last night - that there was "a strong probability" that the virus came from the research centre three miles from the first outbreak in a herd of cattle in Surrey.

Mr Benn said that sabotage could not be ruled out. "The truth is we do not know. That is why further investigations need to take place."

The finding strengthens suspicions raised at the weekend when it was discovered that the strain of virus was one found only in laboratories. Investigators were unable, however, to decide whether the foot-and-mouth contamination escaped from the Institute of Animal Health, the government-funded body that first identified the virus, or Merial, a private company that shares the same site at Pirbright.

Any security breach could have been either deliberate or accidental and it was confirmed last night that government scientists have been inspecting allotments close to the first outbreak which are used by Pirbright workers to grow vegetables. Should investigators find that biosecurity systems or equipment at IAH were in any way to blame for the outbreak, ministers would face allegations that the failure was caused by years of underfunding.

If Merial is identified as the source of the disease outbreak the firm would face the potential of a multimillion-pound class action for damages by farmers whose businesses have been affected. Both Gordon Brown and Mr Benn appeared to point the finger of blame at Merial last night. They both suggested that further investigations would concentrate on equipment at Merial whereas the report that had been made public made no distinction between the company and IAH.

Two officials at leading Communist Party bodies have given interviews in recent days warning - for the first time - THAT BEIJING MAY USE ITS $1.33 TRILLION (£658BN) OF FOREIGN RESERVES AS A POLITICAL WEAPON TO COUNTER PRESSURE FROM THE US CONGRESS. Shifts in Chinese policy are often announced through key think tanks and academies.

DESCRIBED AS CHINA'S "NUCLEAR OPTION" IN THE STATE MEDIA, SUCH ACTION COULD TRIGGER A DOLLAR CRASH AT A TIME WHEN THE US CURRENCY IS ALREADY BREAKING DOWN THROUGH HISTORIC SUPPORT LEVELS. It would also cause a spike in US bond yields, hammering the US housing market and perhaps tipping the economy into recession. It is estimated that China holds over $900bn in a mix of US bonds.

Xia Bin, finance chief at the Development Research Centre (which has cabinet rank), kicked off what now appears to be government policy with a comment last week that Beijing's foreign reserves should be used as a "bargaining chip" in talks with the US.

"OF COURSE, CHINA DOESN'T WANT ANY UNDESIRABLE PHENOMENON IN THE GLOBAL FINANCIAL ORDER," HE ADDED. He Fan, an official at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, went even further today, LETTING IT BE KNOWN THAT BEIJING HAD THE POWER TO SET OFF A DOLLAR COLLAPSE IF IT CHOOSE TO DO SO.

"China has accumulated a large sum of US dollars. Such a big sum, of which a considerable portion is in US treasury bonds, contributes a great deal to maintaining the position of the dollar as a reserve currency. Russia, Switzerland, and several other countries have reduced their dollar holdings."

"China is unlikely to follow suit as long as the yuan's exchange rate is stable against the dollar. The Chinese central bank will be forced to sell dollars once the yuan appreciated dramatically, which might lead to a mass depreciation of the dollar," he told China Daily.

THE THREATS PLAY INTO THE PRESIDENTIAL ELECTORAL CAMPAIGN OF HILLARY CLINTON, WHO HAS CALLED FOR RESTRICTIVE LEGISLATION TO PREVENT AMERICA BEING "HELD HOSTAGE TO ECONOMIC DECISIONS BEING MADE IN BEIJING, SHANGHAI, OR TOKYO".

SHE SAID FOREIGN CONTROL OVER 44PC OF THE US NATIONAL DEBT HAD LEFT AMERICA ACUTELY VULNERABLE.

For a decade now, the composite score on the ACT college entrance exam for homeschooled students has been higher than the national average - and the 2006 statistics, the most recent available, show the trend continuing, according to a report. The Home School Legal Defense Association said the 2006 scores for homeschooled students averaged 22.4, compared to the national average composite of 21.1.

A year earlier, the average for homeschoolers was 22.5, compared to the national average that includes public and private school students of 20.9. "Now homeschoolers have an unbroken record for the last 10 years - since 1996, when testing officials started tracking them - of scoring higher on the ACT than the national average," the world's premiere home-school advocacy group said.

The 2006 results showed that homeschoolers averaged 22.5 in English, compared to the national average of 20.3. In math, homeschoolers averaged 19.2 compared to the national average of 20.2. In reading the scores were 24.1 for homeschoolers and 21.3 for others, and in science, homeschoolers scored 21.9, compared to 21.1.

Since 1985, research consistently shows that homeschoolers on average do better than the national average on standardized achievement tests for the elementary and secondary grade levels, the HSLDA said.

Hebron is home to the Tomb of the Patriarchs, the second holiest site in Judaism. The tomb is believed to be the resting place of the biblical patriarchs and matriarchs Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Sarah, Rebecca and Leah.

More than 3,000 Israeli solders and police officers surrounded a key section of Hebron's Jewish community today to expel the two Jewish families. The government maintains their residency in Hebron is illegal, since the families' arrival wasn't coordinated with the Israeli military. The families say they moved in after the military reneged on an agreement.

The families' eviction was widely regarded in Israel as the opening salvo of more planned major evacuations of Jews living in the West Bank's biblical Jewish communities.

WND also previously reported the city of Jerusalem, under orders from Olmert, deleted files documenting hundreds of illegal Arab building projects throughout eastern sections of Jerusalem housing tens of thousands of Palestinians, according to a report by the Jerusalem Forum, which promotes Jewish construction in the city.

Aryeh King, chairman of the Jerusalem Forum, said Jerusalem municipal workers told him they were instructed by Olmert's office to ignore illegal Palestinian construction in Jerusalem.

"Ehud Olmert gave the order not to deal with the problem and not to put Israeli security forces to the duty of taking down the illegal Arab complexes," said King. "Senior municipal workers told me Olmert said not to bother with the illegal Arab homes because eventually eastern Jerusalem would be given to the Palestinian Authority."

Researchers melted five samples of ice from the debris-covered glaciers of Antarctica which range in age from 100,000 years to eight million years. When given nutrients and warmth, the microbes resumed their activity - although younger microorganisms grew more successfully than the older ones.

Details appear in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The findings raise the possibility that ancient bugs, long frozen in ice, will return to life as climate change causes the glaciers to melt, flushing their genetic material into the oceans.

Eske Willerslev, of the University of Copenhagen, Denmark, who was not involved in the research, described the work as "very significant". But he cautioned that, as with most claims of ancient microbes being revived, contamination of samples with genetic material from modern microbes was always a possibility. "These results show patterns that you can't easily explain by contamination," he told ScienceNow, "But I would feel more comfortable with the results if they had been replicated in two independent labs."

One line of inquiry is that workers at vaccine manufacturer Merial, at Pirbright, could have picked up the infection because of drainage problems. The farmers' union has warned it could take legal action against anyone found responsible for the outbreak.

National Farmers' Union (NFU) president Peter Kendall told BBC Two's Newsnight programme the union was considering legal action. He said: "If this turns out to be a commercial company that has been and can be shown to have been careless in any way, my members are already very loudly saying, 'we've lost money, our businesses are no longer able to function, we've got animals, extra feed costs, problems with capacity being squeezed on farms'."

Claims could run into millions of pounds, he added.

HOW FOOT-AND-MOUTH SPREADS
Direct contact, from animal to animal
Fluid from an infected animal's blister; saliva, milk or dung also pass on the disease
Animals eating infected feed
Virus can be spread by people, vehicles or roads, if not disinfected
Airborne spread of disease also possible
Animals can begin spreading virus before visible signs of disease emerge
Source: Defra

President Roh Moo-hyun will meet North Korea's Kim Jong-il in the North's capital, Pyongyang, from 28-30 August. The summit comes seven years after the first one, when Mr Kim met then-South Korean President Kim Dae-jung. That meeting ushered in improved ties and reconciliation between the two sides, who remain technically at war.

This summit comes amid a gradual improvement in North Korea's ties with the outside world. Last month, the communist nation shut down its main Yongbyon reactor as part of an international aid-for-disarmament deal aimed at ending its nuclear programme. The meeting was finally agreed after senior South Korean intelligence personnel made two trips to the North, officials said.

South Korea's presidential office said that the summit would "contribute to substantially opening the era of peace and prosperity between the two Koreas". North Korean state news agency KCNA, meanwhile, said it would be "of weighty significance in opening a new phase of peace on the Korean Peninsula".

The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) said global land surface temperatures in January and April were likely the warmest since records began in 1880, at more than 1 degree Celsius higher than average for those months. There have also been severe monsoon floods across South Asia, abnormally heavy rains in northern Europe, China, Sudan, Mozambique and Uruguay, extreme heat waves in south eastern Europe and Russia, and unusual snowfall in South Africa and South America this year, the WMO said.

"The start of the year 2007 was a very active period in terms of extreme weather events," Omar Baddour of the agency's World Climate Program told journalists in Geneva. While most scientists believe extreme weather events will be more frequent as heat-trapping carbon dioxide emissions cause global temperatures to rise, Baddour said it was impossible to say with certainty what the second half of 2007 will bring. "It is very difficult to make projections for the rest of the year," he said.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), a U.N. umbrella group of hundreds of experts, has noted an increasing trend in extreme weather events over the past 50 years and said irregular patterns are likely to intensify. South Asia's worst monsoon flooding in recent memory has affected 30 million people in India, Bangladesh and Nepal, destroying croplands, livestock and property and raising fears of a health crisis in the densely-populated region.

Heavy rains also doused southern China in June, with nearly 14 million people affected by floods and landslides that killed 120 people, the WMO said. England and Wales this year had their wettest May and June since records began in 1766, resulting in extensive flooding and more than $6 billion in damage, as well as at least nine deaths. Germany swung from its driest April since country-wide observations started in 1901 to its wettest May on record.

Mozambique suffered its worst floods in six years in February, followed by a tropical cyclone the same month, and flooding of the Nile River in June caused damage in Sudan. Uruguay had its worst flooding since 1959 in May. Huge swell waves swamped some 68 islands in the Maldives in May, resulting in severe damage, and the Arabian Sea had its first documented cyclone in June, touching Oman and Iran.

Temperature records were broken in south eastern Europe in June and July, and in western and central Russia in May. In many European countries, April was the warmest ever recorded. Argentina and Chile saw unusually cold winter temperatures in July while South Africa had its first significant snowfall since 1981 in June.

The WMO and its 188 member states are working to set up an early warning system for extreme weather events. The agency is also seeking to improve monitoring of the impacts of climate change, particularly in poorer countries which are expected to bear the brunt of floods, droughts and storms.