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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

So what does a trillion look like?

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

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

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

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

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

"The answer is 109,000 years."

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The conservative won a clear victory over his socialist rival Segolene Royal, gaining 53% of the vote with a massive 85% turnout. Mr Sarkozy said the French people had chosen change and he would use the mandate he had received to achieve it.

He said the US could count on France's friendship, but urged Washington to take a lead in the fight against climate change. He called on North African nations to join Europe in a Mediterranean Union, saying that France intended to help Africa conquer disease, famine, poverty and war. Mr Sarkozy said he believed deeply in European integration, but appealed to France's partners to understand the importance of social protection.

"[Voters] have chosen to break with the habits and the ideals of the past so I will rehabilitate work, authority, morality, respect, merit," he said. Mr Sarkozy has promised to try to reform France to face the challenges of the 21st century, with putting the nation back to work at the top of his agenda. He has pledged to bring unemployment down from 8.3% to below 5% by 2012.

He is also expected to bring forward policies to cut taxes and keep trains running during strikes, in the first 100 days after he takes office on 16 May.

Here is what Senator Van de Putte is not telling legislators considering her bill. Less than 1 in 100,000 contract the meningococcal meningitis disease annually in the United States and 50% of those cases are in infants. Of those who do contract the disease, most recover fully and fatalities are in less than 10% of the cases. The disease is not easily transmitted. The primary method of transmission is by mixing saliva, as in kissing the mouth of an infected person.

THERE HAVE BEEN 1192 REPORTS OF SERIOUS ADVERSE EVENTS IN THE U.S. after meningococcal vaccine reported to the FDA's Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System). One can only wonder what the long-term harm is from the vaccine.

When long-term harm from the vaccine is combined with the short-term harm indicated above, it is quite possible that the vaccine is causing more harm than it is preventing. For a disease that can be largely avoided by not mixing saliva with an infected person, or receiving prompt treatment if one is infected, THE INSISTENCE ON VACCINATION RATHER THAN EDUCATION IS UNFORTUNATE.

"MASS VACCINATION IS SEEN AS A RESPONSE MORE POLITICAL THAN MEDICAL." "In order for the outbreak to be classified as an epidemic by the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Harris County would need to confirm 190 cases in a three-month period -- 10 cases per 100,000 residents" "In a city of 1.9 million people," Kendrick said, "we have not had 190 cases (of meningitis) in the last 10 years combined"

"Health officials point to cost as a deterrent to mandatory vaccinations. It is estimated that the campaign will cost $2 million, and to inoculate everyone in Texas would cost $1 billion..."

Within minutes of polls closing, Royal conceded defeat in a speech to party faithful in the heart of Paris."I hope that the next president of the republic fulfils his role in the service of all French people," she said. Forecasts by four pollsters showed Sarkozy, 52, a hard-line former interior minister, won around 53 percent of the vote in the second-round ballot and will succeed fellow conservative Jacques Chirac, who was president for 12 years.

Turnout was predicted at about 85 percent. Sarkozy's face flashed up on television screens after polling stations closed at 8 p.m. (1800 GMT), signaling his victory and setting off jubilant scenes among supporters gathered in central Paris.

Across the city at Socialist headquarters there was gloom and sorrow after the party crashed to its third consecutive presidential election defeat. It now faces the prospect of tough internal reform to make itself more appealing to voters.

Although opinion polls regularly suggested voters preferred Royal, who was seeking to become France's first woman head of state, they saw the uncompromising Sarkozy as a more competent leader with a more convincing economic program. Sarkozy, the son of a Hungarian immigrant, presented himself as the "candidate of work", promising to loosen the 35-hour work week by offering tax breaks on overtime and to trim fat from the public service, cut taxes and wage war on unemployment.

He is expected to take office on May 16 or 17, and will be the first French president to be born after World War Two. He will then name a new government and immediately launch into campaigning for June's parliamentary election, where he will seek a clear majority to implement his reform plans.

The president is elected for five years, is commander-in-chief of the armed forces, nominates the prime minister, has the right to dissolve the National Assembly and is responsible for foreign and defense policies.

Few are predicting an imminent meltdown like the one in 1997, but bitter memories of plunging currencies, austere reforms and a slow road to recovery have pushed a now wealthy Asia to better safeguard its future.

THE IDEA OF POOLING PART OF THE REGION'S ENORMOUS $3.1 TRILLION IN RESERVES -- OR ABOUT 65 PERCENT OF THE WORLD'S TOTAL -- was expected to be discussed Saturday by finance ministers from Japan, China, South Korea and their counterparts from the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations.

A day earlier, Japanese Finance Minister Koji Omi said the region should expand a system now in place that acts as a safety net by supplying emergency funds through bilateral currency swaps -- a deal known as the Chiang Mai Initiative. Implementing a multilateral system would strengthen the protections, he said.
"Pooling those funds in a multilateralization process would constitute a major step forward," Omi said.

Such an agreement would mark an important breakthrough in financial integration for the region, which has been building closer ties as a firewall against currency crises. It would allow Asian countries to first try countering a local crisis before resorting to outside help from groups like the International Monetary Fund.

Leading civil servants fear the Prime Minister will effectively bind the hands of Gordon Brown by signing Britain up to a rewritten version of the European Union constitution days before he finally resigns at the end of June.
MR BLAIR'S PLAN TO FORGE CLOSER LINKS WITH FRANCE AND GERMANY - something he has wanted to do since coming to power in 1997 - are causing consternation in Whitehall and the Chancellor's camp.The move puts at risk Labour's hopes of a "stable and orderly transition" of power, a process which will begin this week when Mr Blair spells out his departure plans.

If Mr Brown wanted to undo any or all of Mr Blair's moves to sign away powers, he would be locked into a series of bruising and time-consuming negotiations that could dominate his tenure at No 10.
A senior civil servant told The Sunday Telegraph: "THE CONCERN IS THAT THE OUTGOING PRIME MINISTER WILL TAKE CONSTITUTIONAL DECISIONS WHICH WILL BIND BOTH HIS SUCCESSOR AND THE COUNTRY FOR YEARS WITHOUT OBTAINING THE SAY-SO OF HIS SUCCESSOR, AND POSSIBLY WITHOUT EVEN CONSULTING HIM.

"There is a worry he believes this should be part of his political legacy and that he will be acting as an individual and not the leader of a government."Mr Blair will announce this week that he will remain as Prime Minister for about seven weeks, allowing Labour time to elect his successor and hold a separate poll for deputy leader.

Tony Blair intends to use his remaining weeks in office to surrender British powers to Brussels as part of his drive for a European "legacy", senior Whitehall officials claim. Tony Blair's move would dominate Gordon Brown's tenure at No 10

Leading civil servants fear the Prime Minister will effectively bind the hands of Gordon Brown by signing Britain up to a rewritten version of the European Union constitution days before he finally resigns at the end of June.
Mr Blair's plan to forge closer links with France and Germany - something he has wanted to do since coming to power in 1997 - are causing consternation in Whitehall and the Chancellor's camp.

The move puts at risk Labour's hopes of a "stable and orderly transition" of power, a process which will begin this week when Mr Blair spells out his departure plans.If Mr Brown wanted to undo any or all of Mr Blair's moves to sign away powers, he would be locked into a series of bruising and time-consuming negotiations that could dominate his tenure at No 10.

A senior civil servant told The Sunday Telegraph: "The concern is that the outgoing Prime Minister will take constitutional decisions which will bind both his successor and the country for years without obtaining the say-so of his successor, and possibly without even consulting him. "There is a worry he believes this should be part of his political legacy and that he will be acting as an individual and not the leader of a government."

Mr Blair will announce this week that he will remain as Prime Minister for about seven weeks, allowing Labour time to elect his successor and hold a separate poll for deputy leader. Mr Brown is a virtual certainty to succeed Mr Blair. Today, John Reid, the Home Secretary, and John Hutton, the Work and Pensions Secretary, who were touted as potential leadership candidates, will formally declare they will not stand against the Chancellor.

Mr Blair's announcement will effectively usher in a US-style transition period before the Chancellor takes over. Prime Minister in all but name, Mr Brown will stage regular meetings with leading "front-line professionals" including military top brass, security chiefs, police leaders, health bosses and senior education officials.

He will also make a series of wide-ranging speeches and hold "Let's talk" gatherings with Labour Party members and ordinary voters. But Whitehall officials are concerned about Mr Blair's desire to stay on and attend two major summits in June, a G8 meeting of world leaders and a European Council in Brussels.

The latter will see Angela Merkel, the German Chancellor, put forward a new set of proposals for a Brussels power-grab which would not need to be endorsed by referendums in member states. Two years ago, a formal EU constitution, signed by all member states, was scrapped after "No" votes in referendums in France and Germany.

Civil servants fear Mr Blair will sign up to moves EXTENDING THE 48-HOUR MAXIMUM WORKING WEEK to more people, which business believes could cost £9 billion, and plans to GIVE EUROPEAN JUDGES GREATER SAY OVER BRITAIN'S CRIMINAL LAW. The proposals would also lead to A PERMANENT AND POWERFUL EU PRESIDENT AND A "FOREIGN MINISTER" WITH A SEAT ON THE UN SECURITY COUNCIL.

Not only is the company Britain's biggest firm and among the five highest payers of corporation tax - contributing £1.34billion to the Exchequer last year alone - but it employs thousands of people in London.
BP, now the world's fifth largest company - employing 97,000 people - is an iconic British business founded as part of pre-war imperial foreign policy and was the flagship of Margaret Thatcher's privatisation policy.

If it moved abroad there can be no doubt that other multi-nationals based in Britain, such as HSBC, GlaxoSmithKline and Vodafone would also consider similar moves. Last year HSBC publicly mooted quitting Britain for a more tax-friendly environment.

Last year BP paid £900 million more to the Exchequer than in 2005. The total amount paid over the past five years is £3.8 billion. In January Kraft relocated its European headquarters from Britain to Switzerland because of its tax-friendly regime. And insurer Hiscox has announced it is leaving the UK for Bermuda, where corporation tax is 10 per cent, compared to three times that here.

Financial Mail on Sunday has also discovered that dozens of other UK companies have been working on secret plans to move overseas in an effort to reduce tax. Richard Lambert, director-general of the Confederation of British Industry, warned last year that the 'unsustainable' tax burden on business could lead to a flood of multinationals leaving the country.

In America the corporation tax rate is as little as seven per cent, while France is aiming to introduce a 10 per cent tax rate on big business. For years Lord Browne extolled his company's crucial role in the UK economy. And it is also the safe repository for billions of pounds of pension fund money and the investments of 1.3 million individual shareholders.

Any shift of BP's operational centre to the US, where it earns most of its profits and employs most of its people, would help avoid the uncomfortable spotlight each time the price of a litre of fuel rose. The vast remuneration packages enjoyed by the company's top executives would also attract much less attention in the US.

1 - BABIES WEANED ON JARRED FOOD SOLD IN SUPERMARKETS ARE BEING TRAINED TO HAVE A SWEETER PALATE. Though the label reassures parents that the contents include only pure fruit and fruit concentrates, a 213ml jar of junior baby food apple and blueberry contains 33g of sugars - which is about the same as 11 sugar cubes. The permitted level of sugar in baby food products is 30 per cent; recent proposals to cut this to 10 per cent as part of the global fight against obesity were blocked by the EU and the US.

2 - 'USE-BY' LABELS ARE REGULARLY - AND LEGALLY - SWITCHED SEVERAL TIMES BEFORE THE PRODUCE HITS THE SHELF OF YOUR LOCAL SUPERMARKET. The practice of switching labels to extend the life of food is perfectly legal, so long as it is done within the "recognised shelf life of the product", says the Food Safety Authority of Ireland. In 2004, the British FSA investigated claims by Which? Magazine that labels on chicken were being switched up to 20 times before they hit supermarket shelves.

3 - SIX BOTTLES FOR THE PRICE OF FIVE, 40 PER CENT OFF THIS, 25 PER CENT OFF THAT. Around two thirds of the wine we buy is now sold on promotion, but just how 'special' are these offers? The Guardian's wine writer Victoria Moore recently launched an investigation into wine promotions and found that they aren't always what they seem. She claims that the 'original', higher, price is often artificially concocted with a view to supermarkets selling the wine at that price for the shortest time legally allowable, before slashing the price and offering an impressive discount which is - you guessed it - all the wine was worth to begin with.

4 - DO YOU WANT A DIVORCE WITH THAT LITRE OF MILK? In Britain, Tesco is now selling DIY divorce and wills packages from its Tesco Legal store. For just £14.99 or €22, you can buy a Separation and Divorce kit, which is legally binding in England and Wales (and get 14 Clubcard points in the process), while the store's best-seller is a £9.99 or €14.66 Power of Attorney kit.

5 - THREE THOUSAND MILES IS THE AVERAGE DISTANCE TRAVELLED BY YOUR FOOD BEFORE IT HITS THE SUPERMARKET SHELF.

6 - SOME OF THE 'IRISH' LABELLED CHICKEN FILLETS SOLD IN SUPERMARKETS ARE ABOUT AS IRISH AS COCONUT MILK. According to the Department of Health, supermarkets regularly buy in meat products (other than beef) from outside the EU, make some 'substantial transformation' to them in the form of a sprinkling of spice or breadcrumbs, and relabel them as 'Irish' with local brand names and even health marks. This is all perfectly legal, but is it ethical?

7 - SMELL ANYTHING FUNNY IN THE FRUIT AND VEG AISLE? No? Didn't think so. That's because the fruit and veg on display has likely undergone what author of the supermarket expose, Shopped, Joanna Blythman, describes as a bizarre kind of 'beauty pageant' designed to make the produce look more attractive to consumers, give it the longest shelf life possible and, in the process, inadvertently strips it of any flavour or scent.

8 - EVER WONDERED WHY SPINACH ONLY COMES IN BAGS? Supermarkets have simply stopped stocking it loose and sell it in bags, in a modified atmosphere (known as Modified Atmosphere Packaging, or MAP) that extends its shelf life by up to 50 per cent and strips it of every last vestige of taste.

9 - IF YOU NEED A VITAMIN FIX, STEER CLEAR OF PREWASHED VEGETABLES AND 'FRESHLY' PREPARED FRUIT SALAD. Typically in MAP, the oxygen is reduced from 21 per cent to 3 per cent and the CO2 levels correspondingly raised. This slows any visible deterioration or discolouring. Great technology, it's just a shame about the side effects. The British Journal of Nutrition carried out a study which showed that MAPping strips vegetables of vitamin C, vitamin E, polyphenols and other micro-nutrients. Research published by Which? magazine found that sliced chilled runner beans, for example, contain 89 per cent less vitamin C than their just-harvested brethren.

10 - WHEN IS A CHICKEN FILLET NOT REALLY A CHICKEN FILLET? When it's a) 70 per cent chicken; b) 54 per cent chicken, or c) 43 per cent chicken? The answer is: none of the above - at least if the chiller or freezer cabinet in your local supermarket is an indication. According to the Irish Food Safety Promotions Board "it is not illegal to process chicken fillets by adding water and other ingredients, provided that these ingredients are approved and clearly stated on the label of pre-packed products, in addition to the added water content.

11 - WHY DID THE CHICKEN CROSS THE CONTINENTS? This extract from a 2005 report by the Food Safety Authority of Ireland describes in stomach-churning detail the journey in 2001 of 400 million chicken breasts from Thailand and Brazil into European wholesale catering establishments, and from there into some of the prepared chicken dishes sold in restaurants and supermarkets.
"On import, European processors tumble or inject defrosted imported chicken fillets with water and binding agents such as animal proteins (derived from a variety of different sources, including gelatine, BLOOD, whey protein, spray-dried BEEF AND PORK PROTEIN, some of which may be mechanically recovered). The issue of 'freshness' also arises as fillets with added ingredients that have been frozen and refrozen at different stages in the food chain may be sold in establishments as 'fresh chicken'.

12 - ONE IN FOUR EURO SPENT ON FOOD OR HOUSEHOLD GOODS IN IRELAND IS SPENT AT TESCO, BUT THE RETAILER WON'T DISCLOSE ITS IRISH PROFITS.

13 - THE CHILLY TRUTH ABOUT REFRIGERATED READY MEALS. Thousands of time-poor consumers are opting to buy chilled ready meals over their frozen alternatives in the expectation that they're doing something better for their family. Compared with frozen foods, many chilled, prepared foods come loaded with additives. And you don't necessarily get what you pay for - ironically, the more upmarket-looking, aspirational versions are often the worst offenders.

14 - FANCY A QUICK HAM SANDWICH? READ THIS FIRST

Now you're avoiding chilled ready meals and prepared salads, slinging the ingredients for a ham sandwich into your shopping trolley might seem like a quick and healthy lunch option. Not necessarily. Sliced white pans have fallen out of fashion with the health-conscious, but INDUSTRIAL WHOLEMEAL LOAVES - 70 per cent of which are bought in supermarkets - aren't much better. An analysis of the label shows they're pumped full of water, yeast and chemicals to stop the bread going mouldy and help it hold more water, hard fat to stick it all together and salt to compensate for the lack of taste. And according to research published in July 2005 by Britain's Pesticides Residues Committee, WHOLEMEAL BREAD CONTAINS MORE PESTICIDE RESIDUES THAN ANY OTHER TYPE.

If you're planning to use a butter substitute, you might be wise to avoid 'cholesterol-lowering' spreads. The label on one such spread carries a warning that the product shouldn't be consumed by pregnant or breastfeeding women. That's because of the much-vaunted plant sterols, which are potential hormonal disrupters and can reduce the consumption of some vitamins. Yet these spreads were found separated from the butter on one supermarket shelf by the heading "healthier options".

15 - A HOMEMADE SHEPHERD'S PIE CONTAINS ABOUT SIX INGREDIENTS. A SUPERMARKET ALTERNATIVE MAY HAVE UP TO 60. An own-brand sweet and sour chicken dish on sale in the chilled cabinet of one Irish supermarket chain has over 70 ingredients. 'Cooked chicken' accounts for just 20 per cent of it. And even the chicken itself has more than 20 ingredients - five of them E numbers.

16 - IF TESCO WERE A COUNTRY, IT WOULD BE THE 54TH RICHEST IN THE WORLD. It's one of a handful of supermarkets that controls much of what the world eats. In Australia, two companies, Woolworths and Coles, sell a third of all food consumed. In the US, Wal-Mart, the largest retailer in the world, controls 20 per cent of a $450 billion market. In Britain, the so-called 'big four' sell 75 per cent of the country's groceries, with Tesco alone controlling 30 per cent of the market.

17 - BANGLADESHI WORKERS MAKING TESCO T-SHIRTS EARN 7 CENT AN HOUR. A recent report by the charity Action Aid also found that women supplying British supermarkets with cashew nuts are earning just 44 cent a day for work that exposes their hands to corrosive acids. Tesco said it acknowledged that conditions in developing countries were "difficult", but added that trade was the best route out of poverty.

18 - IN 1980, THE AVERAGE MEAL TOOK ONE HOUR TO PREPARE; NOW IT TAKES 20 MINUTES. It is predicted that this figure will shrink to eight minutes by 2010.

19 - SUPERMARKET CHAPLAINS, NAIL-BARS AND EVEN IN-STORE WEDDINGS COULD ALL SOON BE PART OF THE SHOPPING EXPERIENCE. Wal-Mart, which owns the Asda chain of stores, attributes its success to a policy of low prices, selling non-food items, and what it calls 'retailtainment'. In Britain, this has translated to offering customers the services of an in-store chaplain or their local MP. There are actors working as greeters, nail bars, singles nights and Asda has even hosted a wedding in one of its British stories.

20 - FANCY YOURSELF AS AN ETHICAL SHOPPER? Well don't clap yourself on the back just yet. Many organic brands marketed as if they are small, independent, benevolent firms are actually owned by trans-nationals. They include Seeds of Change, bought by Mars in 1997 ; Green & Black's , snapped up by Cadbury Schweppes in 2005; and Back to Nature, held since 2003 by Kraft, which is a subsidiary of Altria, the company that owns tobacco giant Philip Morris.

"This bill will deprive us of the opportunity to destroy the American forces which we have caught in a historic trap," Zawahiri says in answer to a question posed to him an interviewer. Continuing in the same tone, Zawahiri says, "We ask Allah that they only get out of it after losing 200,000 to 300,000 killed, in order that we give the spillers of blood in Washington and Europe an unforgettable lesson."

Based on the references to the bill, the tape, produced by al Qaeda's propaganda arm, as-Sahab, appears to have been made after Congress passed the legislation last week but before President Bush vetoed in on Thursday. There has been a flurry of audio and video releases featuring Zawahiri, although no new communication from Osama bin Laden since mid-2006.