A top official from Merck's vaccine division sits on Women in Government's business council, and many of the bills around the country have been introduced by members of Women in Government. "Cervical cancer is of particular interest to our members because it represents the first opportunity that we have to actually eliminate a cancer," Women in Government President Susan Crosby said.

Mandates take away parents' rights to make medical decisions for their children, said Linda Klepacki of the Colorado-based evangelical organization Focus on the Family. The group contends the vaccine should be available for parents who want it, but not forced on those who don't. But Texas Rep. Jessica Farrar said her proposal is aimed at protecting children whose parents are less informed about or less interested in preventive care.

"Not everybody has equal sets of parents," said Farrar, a Houston Democrat who had precancerous cells removed from her cervix several years ago. "I think this is a public health issue and to not want to eradicate cervical cancer is irresponsible."

Drug-industry analyst Steve Brozak of W.B.B. Securities has projected Gardasil sales of at least $1 billion per year and billions more if states start requiring the vaccine. "I could not think of a bigger boost," he said. The New Jersey-based drug company could generate billions in sales if Gardasil at $360 for the three-shot regimen were made mandatory across the country.

The new stand replaces a 1,000-year-old podium believed to have been shipped to Jerusalem by the Islamic conqueror Saladin. That stand was destroyed in 1969, when an Australian tourist set fire to the Al Aqsa Mosque. According to a Waqf official speaking to WND, the theme for tomorrow's installation ceremony will focus on exclusive Islamic domination of the Temple Mount.

"The official reason for the ceremony is to mark the installation, but unofficially it will be a celebration that this podium is proof we are the rightful owners of the Haram al-Sharif (Temple Mount). This podium solidifies our eternal presence here," the Waqf official said. The Temple Mount is the holiest site in Judaism. Muslims say it is their third holiest site.

The First Jewish Temple was built by King Solomon in the 10th century B.C. It was destroyed by the Babylonians in 586 B.C. The Second Temple was rebuilt in 515 B.C. after Jerusalem was freed from Babylonian captivity. That temple was destroyed by the Roman Empire in A.D. 70. Each temple stood for a period of about four centuries.

The Jewish Temple was the centre of religious Jewish worship. It housed the Holy of Holies, which contained the Ark of the Covenant and was said to be the area upon which God's "presence" dwelt. The Al Aqsa Mosque now resides on the site. The temple served as the primary location for the offering of sacrifices and was the main gathering place in Israel during Jewish holidays.

He Temple Mount compound has remained a focal point for Jewish services over the millennia. Prayers for a return to Jerusalem have been uttered by Jews since the Second Temple was destroyed, according to Jewish tradition.

Most Waqf officials deny the Jewish temples ever existed in spite of what many call overwhelming archaeological evidence, including the discovery of Temple-era artifacts linked to worship, tunnels that snake under the Temple Mount and over 100 ritual immersion pools believed to have been used by Jewish priests to cleanse themselves before services. The cleansing process is detailed in the Torah.

According to the website of the Palestinian Authority's Office for Religious Affairs, the Temple Mount is Muslim property. The site claims the Western Wall, which it refers to as the Al-Boraq Wall, previously was a docking station for horses. It states Muhammed tied his horse, named Boraq, to the wall before ascending to heaven.
Last June, in a widely circulated WND interview, a former senior leader of the Waqf contradicted his colleagues, saying he has come to believe the first and second Jewish Temples existed and stood at the current location of the Al Aqsa Mosque.

The leader, who was dismissed from his Waqf position after he quietly made his beliefs known, said Al Aqsa custodians passed down stories for centuries from generation to generation indicating the mosque was built at the site of the former Jewish temples.

He said the Muslim world's widespread denial of the existence of the Jewish temples is political in nature and is not rooted in facts. He told WND "true" Islamic tradition relates the Jewish temples once stood at the site of the Al Aqsa Mosque. "It is known also that most of the first guards of Al Aqsa when it was built were Jews. The Muslims knew at that time that they could not find any more loyal and faithful than the Jews to guard the mosque and its compound. They knew that the Jews have a special relation with this place."

Chinese Embassy officials in Cameroon said Hu is expected to sign health and education agreements. China has raised eyebrows by lavishing poor African nations with seemingly no-strings-attached gifts of palatial government buildings, hospitals and dams. Critics contend the flashy gifts are payback for unofficial rights to Africa's rich mineral and natural resources.

Hu is expected to tour two Chinese-funded institutions in Yaounde, including a pediatric hospital and a sports complex. At the airport Tuesday night, the throng of thousands cheered as Hu and his wife descended from their Air China Boeing 747. A 300-person Chinese delegation waved the flags of the two countries.

Hu departs Thursday for Monrovia, Liberia's war-ravaged capital, on his 12-day tour. He's also expected to visit Sudan, where China has come under heavy criticism for offering financial incentives to a regime accused of genocide.

"The time has come for action," Musharraf said at a joint press conference at Indonesia's presidential palace on Wednesday. "There is no room for complacency because things are moving so fast, deteriorating so fast," the Pakistani president added. Musharraf, who next heads to Malaysia where he will meet Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, the prime minister, said he was confident the yet-to-be created group would have a strong, important voice.

"Since the West is looking and searching for methods and new ideas of bringing peace to the region, I think any new idea, any new initiative would be acceptable to them as long as it is workable," he said. Susilo said he was hopeful "greater dialogue and consultation between like-minded Muslim countries" would help reduce violence in the Middle East.

In an interview published in Kuwait's al-Seyassah newspaper on Saturday, King Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz al-Saud said attempts by Iran to spread Shia beliefs in Sunni communities would fail. King Abdullah said: "Saudi leaders and the Saudi state have always known their limits in dealing with nations, east and west. I explained this to Ali Larijani [Iran's nuclear negotiator] and advised him to pass it on to his government and its followers, with regard to foreign dealings."

King Abdullah also said the Israeli-Palestinian conflict should be solved by "Arabs alone". "We don't want anyone to trade in our issues and become stronger through them," he said. Larijani visited Riyadh this month to seek help with Washington and reassure Saudi Arabia over Iran's nuclear programme. The US, which sees Saudi Arabia as an important ally in the region, has accused Iran of intending to make a nuclear weapon. A charge Iran denies.

The US also says Iran is "interfering" in Iraq by backing Shia military groups in the country and criticises Tehran for backing Lebanon's Hezbollah, a Shia group which is leading a move to topple Lebanon's government. Iran is known to support Hamas, the ruling Palestinian party and a largely Sunni organisation. Hamas has refused to recognise Israel and has been shunned by Western governments.

Zimbabwe - Nine people have caught cholera in two poor townships in Zimbabwe's capital.

Zambia - The Ministry of health has recorded 143 cases of pharyngeal plague in Sinda Eastern province since the disease broke out about two weeks ago.

Angola - Cholera cases have surged to "alarming" levels in Angola after deadly floods left thousands of people without clean drinking water and access to sewage facilities, aid workers said on Monday. An average of 90 cases are being reported each day..

Sudan - At least 1,000 people have died in one week in south Sudan's Warap state from meningitis and another unknown disease. A cholera outbreak last year killed 147 people.

Malaysia - Kedah has issued an order for cattle in four villages to be quarantined after the veterinary services department detected 85 cases of foot and mouth disease.

Philippines - An explosion occurred yesterday morning at the summit crater of Bulusan volcano in Sorsogon province which produced ash column that rose up to one kilometer above its crater.

Russia - A plume of ash from the eruption of the Shiveluch volcano on Russia's Kamchatka Peninsula has stretched for 210 kilometres southwest of the giant mount.

Viet Nam - central Phu Yen province has been hit by foot and mouth disease affecting some 200 buffalos, bulls and pigs.

Argentina - A major rainstorm in northern Argentina has left at least 5,000 people without water and gas, and 500 more homeless.

A senior European defence official told The Daily Telegraph that North Korea had invited a team of Iranian nuclear scientists to study the results of last October's underground test to assist Teheran's preparations to conduct its own possibly by the end of this year.

There were unconfirmed reports at the time of the Korean firing that an Iranian team was present. Iranian military advisers regularly visit North Korea to participate in missile tests.
Now the long-standing military co-operation between the countries has been extended to nuclear issues.
As a result, senior western military officials are deeply concerned that the North Koreans' technical superiority will allow the Iranians to accelerate development of their own nuclear weapon.

"The Iranians are working closely with the North Koreans to study the results of last year's North Korean nuclear bomb test," said the European defence official.
"We have identified increased activity at all of Iran's nuclear facilities since the turn of the year," he said.
"All the indications are that the Iranians are working hard to prepare for their own underground nuclear test."
Intelligence estimates vary about how long it could take Teheran to produce a nuclear warhead. But defence officials monitoring the growing co-operation between North Korea and Iran believe the Iranians could be in a position to test fire a low-grade device less than half a kiloton within 12 months.

The precise location of the Iranian test site is unknown, but is likely to be located in a mountainous region where it is difficult for spy satellites to pick up any unusual activity. Teheran successfully concealed the existence of several key nuclear sites including the controversial Natanz uranium enrichment complex until their locations were disclosed by Iranian dissidents three years ago.

The Iranians are reported to have been encouraged by the fact that no punitive action was taken against North Korea, despite the international outcry that greeted the underground firing. This has persuaded the Iranian regime to press ahead with its own nuclear programme with the aim of testing a low-grade device, which would be difficult for international inspectors to detect.

Dr Georgia Duckworth, a hospital infection expert at the HPA, said: "While there are some encouraging signs in today's figures, there clearly remains much to be done. "Cases of Clostridium difficile infection continue to rise - there may be some slowing down in the rate of increase, but it is too early to say for sure.

And Graham Tanner, of the patients group, the National Concern for Healthcare Infections, said: "It should be remembered that each of these statistics represents a person and family who suffer the contraction of a healthcare infection that they probably did not have on admittance to hospital. Sadly in a large number of cases people will have lost their lives as a consequence of these infections."

C. difficile is a bacterium found in the gut of up to 3% of healthy adults and 66% of infants, where it rarely causes problems. However, it can cause illness when its growth goes unchecked. For example, treatment with certain antibiotics can disturb the balance of "normal" bacteria in the gut, allowing C. difficile to thrive. It can cause mild or severe diarrhoea, or in some cases severe inflammation of the bowel which can be life threatening.

GSK told Panorama: "GSK utterly rejects any suggestion that it has improperly withheld drug trial information."
GSK has always been strongly conscious of the duty it owes to the millions of patients who suffer from depression

GSK faces action in the US where bereaved families have joined together to sue the company. As a result, GSK has been forced to open its confidential internal archive. Karen Barth Menzies is a partner in one of the firms representing many of the families. She has examined thousands of the documents which are stored, box upon box, in an apartment in Malibu, California.

She said: "Even when they have negative studies that show that this drug Seroxat is going to harm some kids they still spin that study as remarkably effective and safe for children." GSK's biggest clinical trial of Seroxat on children was held in the US in the 1990s and called Study 329.

Child psychiatrist Dr Neal Ryan of the University of Pittsburgh was paid by GSK as a co-author of Study 329. In 2002 he also gave a talk on childhood depression at a medical conference sponsored by GSK. He said that Seroxat could be a suitable treatment for children and later told Panorama reporter Shelley Jofre that it probably lowered rather than raised suicide rates.

In amongst the archive of emails in Malibu, Shelley was surprised to find that her own emails to Dr Ryan from 2002 asking questions about the safety of Seroxat had been forwarded to GSK asking for advice on how to respond to her. She also found an email from a public relations executive working for GSK which said: "Originally we had planned to do extensive media relations surrounding this study until we actually viewed the results.

"Essentially the study did not really show it was effective in treating adolescent depression, which is not something we want to publicise." But the article was published in the Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry which says it ranks as number one in child mental health in the world. The editor in chief of the British Medical Journal, Fiona Godlee, said that what she calls the "blind-eye culture of medicine" should be exposed by professionals.

She has written in response to the Panorama film: "We shouldn't have to rely on investigative journalists to ask the difficult questions. "Reputations for sale are reputations at risk. We need to make that risk so high it's not worth taking." What is even more depressing is that such behaviour is still so widely tolerated within medicine
Fiona Godlee, BMJ

The Medicine and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) began a criminal investigation into GSK three years ago but no action has been taken yet. A spokesperson told Panorama that the investigation has been given substantial additional resources and remains a high priority. Seroxat was banned for under 18s in 2003 after the MHRA, revealed that GSK's own studies showed the drug actually trebles the risk of suicidal thoughts and behaviour in depressed children.

Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O'Connor said he was disappointed, but said he hoped there might still be some way the agencies could "continue their work". Cardinal Murphy-O'Connor, the head of Catholics in England and Wales, told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: "Some legislation, however well intended, in fact does create a new kind of morality, a new kind of norm - as this does."

He added: "It does seem to me we are having a new norm for what marriage is, because I think normally children should be brought up by a father and a mother and I think that we hold that that is extremely important. "The government has a right to legislate and homosexual couples are also able to adopt in other agencies but we want to hold onto this principle." He said the move risked forcing religious people out of public life.

"Here the Catholic Church and its adoption services are wishing to act according to its principles and conscience and the government is saying: 'No, we won't allow you to ... you have no space, you have no place in the public life of this country.' "Now that seems to me to be just one step and there will be further ones."

The Equality Act, due to come into effect in England, Wales and Scotland in April, outlaws discrimination in the provision of goods, facilities and services on the basis of sexual orientation. It means Catholic adoption agencies would be forced to consider gay people as prospective parents - currently they are referred to other agencies.

The row was said to have split the Cabinet and was opposed by the Catholic Church, backed by the Church of England and some other religious groups. There may well be some way in which without breaking the law, our Catholic services can continue in their work

On Monday, Prime Minister Tony Blair said he had found a "sensible compromise", allowing faith-based agencies 21 months to adapt to the new rules - monitored by independent assessors. The proposed measures are likely to face a vote in Parliament next month before coming into effect on 6 April. But Cardinal Murphy-O'Connor told the BBC: "I'm very disappointed that we haven't been given the exemption that we desired."

He said that he hoped Catholic adoption agencies could still operate once the transition period was over.
"There may well be some way in which, without breaking the law, our Catholic services can continue in their work according to Catholic principles."

The report was compiled by the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), and published by The Age newspaper. The Great Barrier Reef is regarded as the world's largest living organism.
It is Australia's number one tourist destination, attracting a million visitors a year, and is home to sharks, turtles and numerous brightly coloured fish.

The IPCC - widely seen as the world's most authoritative body on global warming - is releasing a report later this week in Paris, summarising the scientific basis for climate change.

GREAT BARRIER REEF
More than 2,000 km long
Home to 1,500 types of fish
Only living thing the naked eye can see from space

In the coming months, the panel will also release two more reports, detailing the consequences of global warming and suggesting possible ways forward. The draft document obtained by The Age, which is due for official release in April, includes a chapter on Australia. It warns that the Great Barrier Reef will become "functionally extinct" because of coral bleaching - which occurs when the plant-like organisms that make up the coral die, leaving behind a white limestone skeleton.

It takes at least a decade for coral to start recovering from severe bleaching. But the reef may not have the chance to recover, scientists warn, as temperatures continue to rise and the sea becomes more acidic. This raises the risk that the coral will die outright.

Water is already recycled in places like Singapore and the UK, but the idea is still unpopular in Australia. But the country is currently suffering from a severe drought - the worst on record. Last week Prime Minister John Howard declared water security to be the biggest challenge currently facing Australia, and he announced a A$10bn ($7.7bn; £3.9bn) package to tackle the problem.

Mr Beattie said that falling water levels had left his state administration with no option but to introduce recycled water in south-eastern Queensland, starting from next year. "We're not getting rain; we've got no choice," he told ABC radio. "These are ugly decisions, but you either drink water or you die. There's no choice. It's liquid gold, it's a matter of life and death," he said. Mr Howard supported Mr Beattie's comments, telling a Sydney radio station: "I've advocated recycling for a long time... I am very strongly in favour of recycling, and Mr Beattie is right."

The report's lead author, Munira Mirza, blamed government policy for a growing split between Muslims and non-Muslims. She said ministers should engage with Muslims as citizens. The survey of more than 1,000 Muslims from different age groups in the UK, found:

71% of over-55s compared with 62% of 16 to 24-year-olds feel they have as much, if not more, in common with non-Muslims in Britain than with Muslims abroad

19% of over-55s compared with 37% of 16 to 24-year-olds would prefer to send their children to Islamic state schools

17% of over-55s compared with 37% of 16 to 24-year-olds would prefer living under Sharia law than British law

28% of over-55s compared with 74% of 16 to 24-year-olds prefer Muslim women to choose to wear the hijab

3% of over-55s compared with 13% of 16 to 24-year-olds admire organisations like al-Qaeda that are prepared to fight the West

Ms Mirza said the government should stop emphasising differences between Muslims and non-Muslims. "The emergence of a strong Muslim identity in Britain is, in part, a result of multicultural policies implemented since the 1980s, which have emphasised difference at the expense of shared national identity. "Religiosity amongst younger Muslims is not about following their parents' cultural traditions, but rather, their interest in religion is more politicised. "Islamist groups have gained influence at local and national level by playing the politics of identity and demanding for Muslims the 'right to be different'."

Conservative leader David Cameron said the poll was extremely worrying. "It shows the extent to which multiculturalism has failed, because what the poll showed is that these young people feel more separated from Britain than their parents did," he told BBC News.

The UK, Czech Republic and Poland want the constitution replaced by a new, slimmed-down mini-treaty. French and Dutch voters rejected the constitution in referendums in 2005. Spain's Foreign Minister Miguel Angel Moratinos told the meeting in Madrid the constitution was "a magnificent document" that should be "complemented rather than carved up".

"Is the only way out of the constitutional impasse the wholesale dismantling of the constitutional treaty? By cutting it into little pieces?" he asked. The new constitution was drafted to streamline decision-making within the growing EU and would create a permanent president and foreign ministry.

The BBC's Oana Lungescu in Madrid says Spain now seems set on a collision course with opponents of the constitution. Belgium and Luxembourg have expressed views similar to Spain's. The German Chancellor, Angela Merkel, whose country holds the rotating EU presidency, aims to bring both camps together by June.
But our correspondent says that will not be easy.

Wary of dividing the EU even more, Germany only sent an observer to the Madrid meeting of "the friends of the constitution". Germany did back the constitution in a parliamentary vote, but has not yet formally ratified it. The countries represented in Madrid were: Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Estonia, Finland, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia and Spain.

The conservative contender in the French presidential race, Nicolas Sarkozy, was the first to call for a mini-treaty that would be ratified by parliament, not through another referendum.

A mini-treaty would cut the existing constitution into bits and preserve only the technical changes that would allow the EU to work more effectively and admit further new members.
The Europe ministers of Spain and Luxembourg, who organised the conference, say the countries that have approved the constitution - with a combined population of more than 270 million - want their voice to be heard.

In a joint article published in a number of European newspapers, Spain's Alberto Navarro and Luxembourg's Nicolas Schmit say that in today's globalised world "a united and capable Europe is more necessary than ever. "We cannot resign ourselves to Europe being no more than a huge market or a free trade area," they write.