They say homosexuality must be given equal status to stop the spread of "bigoted" attitudes in schools and university campuses. Current Government guidance on sex education says children must be taught "the importance of marriage for family life". Teachers are also permitted to voice their opposition to homosexuality if it stems from personal or religious conviction.

This allows faith schools to teach that same- sex relationships are at odds with their religion. But members of the University and College Union - representing 120,000 lecturers - are calling for a change in the law to stop teachers telling children that marriage is superior to gay partnerships. This would apply to all teachers, including staff in faith schools.

Delegates at the union's annual congress in Bournemouth were critical of recently-passed gay rights laws which failed to ban teachers from expressing personal views on homosexuality. They said the legislation, which is aimed at banning discrimination on grounds of sexual orientation, did not go far enough. Delegates unanimously backed a motion demanding an end to "negative characterisations" of gay lifestyles.

The call is certain to infuriate religious groups. The Church of England is among faiths which lobbied the Government for gay rights laws to continue to allow Anglican schools to teach that the Bible forbids homosexuality. But Stephen Desmond, from Thames Valley University, told delegates: "WE MUST NEVER ALLOW FREEDOM OF RELIGION TO BE HIJACKED AND USED AS A PRETEXT TO DISCRIMINATE AGAINST GAY AND LESBIAN TEENAGERS IN SCHOOLS."

Across the U.S., schoolchildren are being urged to replace incandescent light bulbs in their homes. Businesses like Wal-Mart are also pushing CFLs hard, as are environmental groups. BUT SAFE DISPOSAL PLANS AND RECYCLING CENTERS FOR THE MERCURY-LADEN COMPACT FLUORESCENT LAMPS, SEEN AS THE FUTURE, LAG BEHIND THE HYPE.

While CFLs arguably use less energy and last longer than incandescents, there is one serious environmental drawback - the presence of small amounts of HIGHLY TOXIC MERCURY in each and every bulb. This poses problems for consumers when breakage occurs and for disposal when bulbs eventually do burn out.

Mercury is probably best-known for its effects on the nervous system. It can also damage the kidneys and liver, and in sufficient quantities can cause death. With an estimated 150 million CFLs sold in the United States in 2006 and with Wal-Mart alone projecting sales of 100 million this year, some scientists and environmentalists are worried far too many will wind up in garbage dumps. When sufficient mercury accumulates in a landfill, it can be emitted into the air and water in the form of vaporous methyl-mercury. From there, it can easily get into the food chain.

Consumers are discovering other downsides of CFLs besides convenience and safety issues:
-Most do not work with dimmer switches
-They are available in only a few sizes
-Some emit a bluish light
-Some people say they get headaches while working or reading under them
-They cannot be used in recessed lighting enclosures or enclosed globes
-Because they run hotter, fires are a possibility

When CFLs do burn out, they often create some smoke, which consumers have found alarming. This is a result of the plastic on the bulb's ballast melting and turning black. CFL manufacturers dismiss safety concerns.
Governments may indeed be promoting a kind of lighting that is itself nearly obsolete.

Fluorescent lights are nothing new. They've been around for a long time. And while they may save money, some say the public hasn't chosen them for good reasons - including, but not limited to, the mercury issue.
Some experts predict the next generation of lighting, though, is LED lights. They are made from semiconductor materials that emit light when an electrical current flows through them. When this form of light takes over, all bulbs will be obsolete. Your wall tiles can light up. Curtains and drapes can light up. Even your dining room table could be made to light up at exactly the level you want. And the best news is - no toxic waste.

That's what is ahead in the next decade, according to some in the industry.

In a sermon marking 40 YEARS SINCE THE ABORTION ACT, Cardinal Keith Patrick O'Brien will threaten to bar pro-choice politicians from taking Communion. He will urge voters at Edinburgh's St Mary's Cathedral to reject candidates who defend what he calls a social evil. The cardinal's opponents accuse him of using extreme, inflammatory language.They say it is up to elected officials to decide such ethical issues without facing threats from Church leaders.

The BBC's Robert Pigott says CARDINAL O'BRIEN IS FRUSTRATED BY WHAT HE SEES AS THE MARGINALISATION OF CHRISTIAN VALUES IN PUBLIC AFFAIRS. It is his boldest intervention yet in political life, our correspondent says.

HIS SERMON ATTACKS THE 1967 ACT, DESCRIBING THE ROUGHLY SEVEN MILLION ABORTIONS IN BRITAIN SINCE THEN AS AN "UNSPEAKABLE CRIME" AND THE "WANTON KILLING OF INNOCENTS".
The cardinal told the BBC: "We're told by statisticians that THE EQUIVALENT OF A CLASSROOM OF CHILDREN EVERY DAY ARE BEING ABORTED in their mothers' womb - basically murdered in their mothers' womb."

But his intervention has angered some politicians. Jeremy Purvis, a Liberal Democrat member of the Scottish Parliament, said the cardinal was using "inflammatory" language. HE SAID: "IT IS NOT RIGHT THAT WE WOULD BE SEEN TO BE PUT UNDER PRESSURE, OR INDEED SOME MEMBERS THREATENED, BY A RELIGIOUS LEADER ON WHAT IS A VERY SENSITIVE ISSUE."

John Kanzius, 63, is a broadcast engineer who formerly owned several TV and radio stations, before retiring in Sanibel Island, Fla.

Five years ago, he was diagnosed with a severe form of leukemia, and began a quest to find a kinder, gentler way to treat the disease compared to harsh chemotherapy.

In October 2003, he had an epiphany: kill cancer with radio waves. He then devised a machine that emits radio waves in an attempt to slay cancerous cells, while leaving healthy cells unharmed. His experiments in fighting cancer have become so successful, one physician was quoted as saying, "We could be getting close to grabbing the Holy Grail."

But in the midst of his experiments as he was trying to take salt out of water, Kanzius discovered his machine could do what some may have thought was impossible: making water burn. The possible ramifications of the discovery are almost mind-boggling, as cars could be fueled by salt water instead of gasoline, hydroelectric plants could be built along the shore, and homes could be heated without worrying about supplies of oil.
Kanzius has partnered with Charles Rutkowski, general manager of Industrial Sales and Manufacturing, a Millcreek, Pa., company that builds the radio-wave generators.

"I've done this [burning experiment] countless times and it still amazes me," Rutkowski told the Erie Times-News. "Here we are paying $3 a gallon for gas, and this is a device that seems to turn salt water into an alternative fuel."

Kanzius has been told it's actually hydrogen that's burning, as his machine generates enough heat to break down the chemical bond between hydrogen and oxygen that makes up water. "I have never heard of such a thing," Alice Deckert, Ph.D., chairwoman of Allegheny College's chemistry department, told the Times-News. "There doesn't seem to be enough energy in radio waves to break the chemical bonds and cause that kind of reaction."

Kanzius said he hasn't decided whether to share his fuel discovery with government or private business, though he'd prefer a federal grant to develop it. "I'm afraid that if I join up with some big energy company, they will say it doesn't work and shelve it, even if it does work," Kanzius told the paper.

It was the same story in towns close to the Alps in Austria, Switzerland and even northern Italy where temperatures in May routinely climb into the 80s. In one Swiss valley, 3,000 were trapped in hotels and guest houses because trains could not reach them in the snow. Ironically, the weather follows one of the worst winters ever for snow at Alpine ski resorts.

On the Mediterranean island of Corsica, two hikers died in freezing fog and on its beaches a 19-year-old man was killed by a wave. Further north in cities like Berlin, tropical storms have brought four days of chaos, dumping hailstones as big as golf balls, uprooting trees and causing widespread flooding. There have been many fatalities across Germany from the weather, the most poignant being three workmen who sheltered beneath their bulldozer during a rainstorm only to die altogether from a single lightning strike.

Britain was drenched over the weekend in some of the worst rain of the year. The AA said thousands had to cut their long weekends short, to battle appalling conditions on motorways. Arctic winds hit the country on Monday at speeds of up to 50mph in what was described as one of the coldest Whitsun Bank Holidays.

First Deputy Prime Minister Sergei Ivanov said Russia tested an intercontinental ballistic missile capable of carrying multiple independent warheads, and it also successfully conducted a "preliminary" test of a tactical cruise missile that he said could fly farther than existing, similar weapons.

"As of today, Russia has new tactical and strategic complexes that are capable of overcoming any existing or future missile defense systems," Ivanov said, according to the ITAR-Tass news agency. "So in terms of defense and security, Russians can look calmly to the country's future."

Ivanov is a former defense minister seen as a potential Kremlin favorite to succeed Putin next year. Both he and Putin have said repeatedly that Russia would continue to improve its nuclear arsenals and respond to U.S. plans to deploy a missile defense system in Poland and the Czech Republic - NATO nations that were in Moscow's front yard during the Cold War as Warsaw Pact members.

Those expected to attend include DONALD GRAHAM, chairman and chief executive officer of the Washington Post, RICHARD N. HAASS, president of the Council on Foreign Relations, HENRY KISSINGER, DAVID ROCKEFELLER, JOHN VINOCUR, senior correspondent of the International Herald Tribune, PAUL GIGOT, editor of the editorial page of the Wall Street Journal, NICHOLAS BEYTOUT, editor-in-chief of Le Figaro, GEORGE DAVID, chairman of Coca-Cola, MARTIN FELDSTEIN, president and chief executive officer of the National Bureau of Economic Research, TIMOTHY F. GEITHNER, president and chief executive officer of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, VERNON JORDAN, senior managing director of Lazard Freres & Co., ANATOLE KALETSKY, editor at large of the Times of London and GENERAL WILLIAM LUTI, THE NEW "WAR CZAR."

According to reports from Turkey, Iran's nuclear weapons ambitions and global energy issues will be on the agenda - but only invitees know for sure. Welcome to the mysterious world of secret societies.

Since 1954, the Bilderberg group has convened government, business, academic and journalistic representatives from the U.S., Canada and Europe with the express purpose of exploring the future of the North Atlantic community. The first meeting was held at the Hotel de Bilderberg in the Netherlands - thus the name.

According to sources that have penetrated the high-security meetings in the past, the Bilderberg meetings emphasize a globalist agenda and promote the idea that the notion of national sovereignty is antiquated and regressive. "It's officially described as a private gathering," noted a BBC report in 2003, "but with a guest list including the heads of European and American corporations, political leaders and a few intellectuals, it's one of the most influential organizations on the planet."

But, counter participants, the secrecy is not evidence of a grand conspiracy, but only an opportunity to speak frankly with other world leaders out of the limelight of press coverage and its inevitable repercussions. "There's absolutely nothing in it," argues the UK's Lord Denis Healey, one of the four founders of Bilderberg. "We never sought to reach a consensus on the big issues at Bilderberg," he told the BBC. "It's simply a place for discussion."

GOD IS NOT GREAT: Why Religion Poisons Everything, although sweeping in its erudition, is a righteous harangue. When Ruth Gledhill of The Times recently interviewed Richard Dawkins about his scientific debunking of faith, The God Delusion, she found him less angry than his confrontational writing style suggested. But Hitchens is never far below boiling point. He is an evangelical secularist, an atheist warlord.

"RELIGION", HE WRITES, "IS VIOLENT, IRRATIONAL, INTOLERANT, ALLIED TO RACISM AND TRIBALISM AND BIGOTRY, INVESTED IN IGNORANCE AND HOSTILE TO FREE INQUIRY, CONTEMPTUOUS OF WOMEN AND COERCIVE TOWARD CHILDREN".

"Marx says criticism of religion is the beginning of all criticism," Hitchens says. "Philosophy starts where religion ends, just as chemistry starts where alchemy breaks off or astronomy starts where astrology runs out. It is the necessary argument. Not believing in the supernatural is the critical thing."

And yet, I suggest, doesn't it fulfil one function, an innate human desire for ritual? We are soothed by lighting candles or familiar hymns. Secularism, for all its logic, offers no substitute. Surprisingly, Hitchens agrees. "But I don't do Christmas because I can't stand it." What, no presents? "Well, you have to . . . A tree? Er, yup. We went to Kmart and bought a white tinsel one. Actually it's rather beautiful. Our annual ritual is screwing it together."

He was married to his first wife in a Greek Orthodox church, to his second, Carol Blue, by a rabbi. He had his son, Alexander, now 23, baptised. He educates his daughter, Antonia, 13, at a Quaker school, Sidwell Friends, alma mater of Chelsea Clin ton and Al Gore's son. He has taken her to Washington's Anglican cathedral to familiarise her with the liturgy. He worries that without the scriptures "which he can quote chapter and verse" she will never understand Milton or Shakespeare.

"The point is" he says, "religion should be private: I am not paying my taxes to support it. I'm not going to have children taught that metaphysical things are true. America, where secular education has come under protracted attack from Creationists, is the territory of contestation at the momen".

People [in the US] are fed up with the presumption of the religious and the demands they expect to have met. THERE ARE MANY, MANY MORE NONBELIEVERS AND SCEPTICS IN THE STATES AND THEY'VE JUST ABOUT HAD ENOUGH.

(God Is Not Great, by Christopher Hitchens, is published by Atlantic Books)

Lord Carlile, the independent reviewer of terrorism legislation, spoke out against a threat from John Reid, the Home Secretary, after three terrorist suspects absconded despite being under control orders intended to restrict their movements. Mr Reid last week said he was prepared to "derogate" from the European Convention on Human Rights in order to impose tougher control orders, placing terrorist suspects under effective house arrest. Such sweeping orders have been ruled illegal by the High Court.

Lord Carlile, a QC who is given access to secret intelligence material, yesterday told a Whitehall security conference that it should be possible for Mr Reid to get his way without opting out of the convention. The control order laws should be "clarified" to reduce judges' scope to resist ministers' wishes, Lord Carlile suggested. He said: "Some statutory clarity should be considered to ensure that ministers can impose appropriate and effective controls."

Mr Reid is said to be open to a consensual approach, but that derogation remains an option. But Lord Carlile said: "It would lead to lengthy and testy litigation, and an unwelcome and scarring clash with the senior judiciary which, on balance, the judiciary would be likely to win."

The leader of the Catholic Church in Scotland denounced assurances made when the 1967 Abortion Act was passed - THAT ABORTION WOULD BE ALLOWED ONLY IN EXCEPTIONAL CIRCUMSTANCES - SAYING THEY WERE "LIES AND MISINFORMATION MASQUERADING AS COMPASSION AND TRUTH".

He says: "We were told that backstreet abortions were killing women and had to be decriminalised. We were told abortion would only be used in extreme cases. "We were told medical scrutiny would be rigorous. We were told lies and misinformation masquerading as compassion and truth." He went on to say that for many women abortions have become an alternative form of birth control.

The battle by David (now Lord) Steel, a Scottish Liberal, to legalise abortion proved to be the most controversial battle of his political life. HE WAS PARTLY INSPIRED BY A CHURCH OF ENGLAND REPORT WHICH ARGUED FOR ITS MODERATE USE AND HE EVEN ATTENDED AN ABORTION.

Introduced as a private member's bill, LORD STEEL'S MOVE WAS BACKED BY THE GOVERNMENT AND WAS PASSED ON 27 OCTOBER, 1967, coming into effect on 27 April, 1968. The act made abortion legal in the UK up to 28 weeks gestation, amended in 1990 to 24 weeks.

Wearing a white robe and a turban, Adam Yehiye Gadahn, who also goes by the name Azzam al-Amriki, said al-Qaida would not negotiate on its demands.

"Your failure to heed our demands means that you and your people will experience things which will make you forget all about the horrors of September 11th, Afghanistan and Iraq and Virginia Tech," he said in the seven-minute video.

Gadahn, who has been charged in a U.S. treason indictment with aiding al-Qaida, spoke in English and the video carried Arabic subtitles. The video appeared on a Web site often used by Islamic militants and carried the logo of al-Qaida's media wing, as-Sahab.

Gadahn, who appeared in an al-Qaida video last September in which he called on Americans to convert to Islam, demanded that Bush remove all U.S. military and spies from Islamic countries, free all Muslims from U.S. prisons and end support for Israel. He said a withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq alone would not satisify al-Qaida.

The organisation, which certifies which foods are organic, says it is looking at a number of proposals because of concern about greenhouse gas emissions. It will outline a series of options, including an outright ban, in a consultation document next week. Other proposals include labels showing a product's country of origin as well as carbon offsetting schemes.

Flying produce into Britain from abroad is the fastest growing form of food transport. And the Soil Association says highly perishable or out-of-season produce make up the bulk of air-freighted organic produce. But due to growing demands to cut the environmental impact of food distribution, the organisation is now considering five options to reduce the carbon footprint of air-freighted food.

These include a campaign to partially or fully deny food imported into the UK by air the right to label itself organic and comprehensive labelling showing a product's country of origin as well as the air miles it has travelled. However, the Soil Association says that air transport can help developing countries with poor infrastructure to get their goods to markets. And any decision would have to take into account the impact on farmers in the developing world, it added.

A snap survey of the major supermarkets by the BBC's Breakfast programme found some organic versions of seasonal fruit and vegetables had been imported from as far away as Thailand and Argentina. But supermarkets say they stock local produce whenever possible.

Brian Maguire, an American who flew to Rome to attend the event, said: "Many Americans are understandably discouraged by the so-called vocations crisis here at home. THEY SHOULD GO TO ROME. THERE'S NO DOUBT THAT GOD IS RENEWING THE CHURCH FROM ITS HEART IN ROME.

"Saturday's ordinations showed not only that many young men are responding to this call, but that they are doing so generously and enthusiastically when it's presented to them as a lifelong surrender of self for others."

A chance meeting at a party at Cliveden in Berkshire in July 1961 sowed the seeds of a scandal that forever changed the way Britain was governed. Mr Profumo, the Secretary State for War, and Miss Keeler were from two different worlds. He was part of the inner circle of the British traditional establishment while she was part of the brash, new Britain rapidly taking shape around it.

Rumours began to circulate that secret information on nuclear weapons could have been passed via Miss Keeler to Captain Ivanov, and MR PROFUMO EVENTUALLY RESIGNED FROM THE GOVERNMENT AFTER ADMITTING HE HAD LIED TO THE COMMONS. What happened at and after Cliveden ripped open the whole way of ruling Britain. THE SECRETIVE ESTABLISHMENT CLIQUES WERE CONFRONTED BY THE IMPERTINENT, PUBLICITY-CRAZED, 1960S. And "the chaps" lost.

The Sixties is most remembered, however, as a mythical period of British history. THE COUNTRY TURNED FROM THE BLACK AND WHITE AUSTERITY OF THE 40S AND 50S INTO A TECHNICOLOR, PSYCHEDELIC GARDEN OF EDEN. A heady optimism was shared by people who had never enjoyed this kind of cultural power before. Not since before the Romans invaded had LONG-HAIRED PEOPLE wandered around in public WEARING SO LITTLE. And not since the early Christians HAD LOVE BEEN SO EARNESTLY DECLARED THE ANSWER TO ALMOST EVERYTHING.

A HEADY OPTIMISM was shared by people who had never enjoyed this kind of cultural power before - the children of dockers and factory workers bringing a transfusion of energy that pale, old Britain badly needed. Harold Wilson, the new prime minister, hailed the dawn of the classless society. A PERIOD WHICH LASTED 15 YEARS AND BEGAN DURING HIS PREMIERSHIP SAW MODERN BRITAIN STARTING TO RISE.

The look and shape of the country which was formed during 1964-79 is still here today, essentially unaltered - the motorways and mass car economy, the concrete architecture, the rock music, the high street chains. Here "modern" also means a belief in planning and management. This was the time of practical men, educated in grammar schools, sure of their intelligence, rolling up their sleeves and taking no nonsense.

THEY WERE GOING TO SCRAP THE OLD AND FUSTY, WHETHER THAT MEANT THE HUGE VICTORIAN RAILWAY NETWORK, THE GRAND EDWARDIAN PALACES OF GOVERNMENT IN WHITEHALL, REGIMENTS, TERRACED HOUSING, THE GRIM LAWS OF THEIR ANCESTORS - HANGING, THEATRE CENSORSHIP, THE PROHIBITIONS ON HOMOSEXUAL BEHAVIOUR AND ABORTION - OR THE ANCIENT COINAGE AND QUAINT COUNTY NAMES.

Bigger in general would be better. Huge comprehensive schools would be more efficient and fairer than the maze of selective and rubbish-heap academies. The many hundreds of trade unions would resolve themselves into a few leviathans, known only by their initials. Small companies would wither and combine and ever-larger corporations would arise in their place, ruthless, sleek and scientifically managed. These were years of increased social mobility, a time of impatience with the old class domination.

When Wilson talked of THE SCIENTIFIC REVOLUTION that would transform Britain, his audience included tens of thousands of managers and engineers, in their off-the-peg tweed jackets and flannel trousers, who shared his vision entirely. In the early 60s, the wartime generation were still in control of the country. But a CASCADE OF REFORMS happened later in the decade, headed by the liberal Home Secretary Roy Jenkins, who detected an appetite for "A MORE CIVILISED SOCIETY".

SO DIVORCE BECAME EASIER, HANGING WAS ABOLISHED, HOMOSEXUALITY DECRIMINALISED FOR MEN OVER 21 AND ABORTION WAS LEGALISED. And the older Britons who grew up in a time characterised by deference and order thought the country was turning into a permissive and irresponsible society. One thing was certain. Britain was becoming a more divided one, on several fronts.

And among white Britons there were fears Britain was under siege from Commonwealth immigrants, a feeling stirred up by Tory outsider Enoch Powell in his famous "RIVERS OF BLOOD" speech in 1968. And THE SIXTIES ENDED AS THEY BEGAN, WITH PROTESTS. There were seven million working days lost to strikes in 1969. EVEN THE MINI, held up as a triumph for British design, provided a dark warning about the future of British business and manufacturing because it was SOLD TOO CHEAPLY.

THE OPTIMISM OF THE SIXTIES WAS STARTING TO EVAPORATE AND IT WAS CLEAR THERE WERE TOUGH TIMES AHEAD.

A leaked e-mail expresses sympathy for the environmental benefits of a mass switch to a vegan diet - a strict form of vegetarianism which bans milk, dairy products and fish. The change would need to be done "gently" because of a "risk of alienating the public", according to the document.

The extreme policy is being examined on the basis IT COULD MAKE A MAJOR CONTRIBUTION TO SLOWING CLIMATE CHANGE. FARM ANIMALS ARE BLAMED FOR PRODUCING HUGE AMOUNTS OF THE GREENHOUSE GASES METHANE AND CARBON DIOXIDE.

However, the National Farmers' Union has ridiculed the idea as "simplistic". THE E-MAIL, SENT TO A VEGETARIAN CAMPAIGN GROUP, COMES FROM AN OFFICIAL AT THE ENVIRONMENT AGENCY, a Government advisory body. It states: "The potential benefit of a vegan diet in terms of climate impact could be very significant." However, it does recognise that it would be very difficult to win public support for such a move.

Consequently, it says the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs is looking to encourage a gradual change that would be more palatable to the general public. The e-mail states: "It will be a case of introducing this gently as there is a risk of alienating the public majority." But the e-mail added: "Certainly encouraging people to examine their consumption of animal protein could be a key message."

The e-mail was sent to the campaigning vegetarian organisation Viva, which argues that it is more efficient to use land to grow crops for humans, rather than feeding them to farm animals and dairy cows. Viva director Juliet Gellatley said: "I think it is extraordinary that a Government agency thinks becoming a vegetarian or vegan could have such a positive impact for the environment yet it is not prepared to stand up and argue the case.

"There is a growing awareness that our diet directly affects the world around us - and that vegetarians and vegans contribute far less to the destruction of the environment. For our planet's sake there is an urgent need to move away from a meat and dairyobsessed Western diet."