Cities with big increases in the number of murders included Orlando and Miami in Florida; Oakland and San Diego in California; Phoenix, Arizona; Corpus Christi, Texas; Grand Rapids, Michigan; Reno, Nevada and Little Rock, Arkansas.

Even though the higher violent crime numbers had been expected, they still represented bad news for Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, who has targeted violent crime as a top priority for the U.S. Justice Department.

A department study released last month of 18 metropolitan areas cited more violence by local gangs or street crews, a greater prevalence of guns in the hands of criminals and younger, more violent offenders as key reasons for the rising crime rates.

Criminologists agreed with those reasons and also said there are fewer police on the beat. They cited the Bush administration's shift in emphasis to prevent terrorism since the September 11 attacks and funding cuts for programs to put more police officers on the street.

The Shia Muslim tradition of temporary marriage, or sigheh, allows a man and a woman in Iran to marry for a set period of time, ranging from an hour to 99 years. However, the practice is regarded as illicit sex by the majority Sunni community.

Even in Iran, it has been considered socially taboo and uncommon, but now the country's hardline interior minister has ignited controversy by promoting temporary marriage as a way of countering a perceived increase in illegal extra- and pre-marital sex.

Mostafa Pourmohammadi, a cleric, said: "We have to find a solution to meet the sexual desire of the youth who have no possibility of marriage. Temporary marriage is God's rule. We must encourage that." Sexual frustration is acknowledged as a problem by the Islamic Republic of Iran. Half the country's population of 70 million is aged under 30, there is high unemployment and many young Iranians complain they cannot afford to get married or buy a house.

For some, sigheh strikes a balance between the needs of the flesh and the legal demands of marriage.
A married man can have as many temporary wives as he wants and break the contract whenever he wants, while a woman cannot. Once the contract is over, temporary wives cannot enter another relationship for three months and ten days - to determine if there is a child and to establish its paternity. There is no such restriction on men.

The stunning news follows WND's report last week that FDA inspectors report tainted food imports from China are being rejected with increasing frequency because they are filthy, are contaminated with pesticides and tainted with carcinogens, bacteria and banned drugs.

China has consistently topped the list of countries whose products were refused by the FDA ? and that list includes many countries, including Mexico and Canada, who export far more food products to the U.S. than China. While less than half of Asia has access to sewage treatment plants, aquaculture - the raising of seafood products - has become big business on the continent, especially in China.

In China, No. 1 in aquaculture in the world, 3.7 billion tons of sewage is discharged into rivers, lakes and coastal water - some of which are used by the industry. Only 45 percent of China has any sewage-treatment facilities, putting the country behind the rest of Asia.

According to a new report by Food & Water Watch, the aquaculture industry crams fish and shellfish into facilities to maximize production, generating large amounts of waste, contaminating water and spreading disease if left untreated. The industry tries to control the spread of bacterial infections, disease and parasites by pumping the food supplies with antibiotics and the waters with fungicides and pesticides.

Many of the products used are banned in the U.S. Traces of these drugs have been showing up increasingly in imports - especially from China. "In addition to potentially making people sick, overuse of such drugs is contributing to antibiotic resistance, a growing public health concern in a variety of foods," says Food & Water Watch in its report "Import Alert: Government Fails Consumers, Falls Short on Seafood Inspections."

But the grave news on China's seafood exports is worsened by the FDA's inability to inspect imports. The percentage of important seafood shipments with samples taken for laboratory inspection has decreased over the past four years, from 0.88 percent in 2003 to 0.59 percent in 2006 - this while seafood consumption in the U.S. was rising and more of that seafood was coming from China.

In a speech to world Islamic leaders at a conference in London, the PM also said politicians must listen harder to the majority's "voice of moderation". He pledged £1m more for Islamic studies courses at UK universities, after a report criticised quality of teaching. But critics said the conference had excluded those Muslim groups which had opposed government policies.

In a speech at the conference, hosted by Cambridge University, Mr Blair said his ambition was that more imams and religious leaders could be trained in the UK so they understand British society and speak good English. He said the conference had been organised to "let the authentic voices of Islam, in their various schools and manifestations, speak for themselves".

"Some of the most distinguished scholars and religious leaders the world over are gathered here. And I ask people in the country and wider to listen to them. They are the authentic voices of Islam," he said. "The voices of extremism are no more representative of Islam than the use in times gone by of torture to force conversion to Christianity represented the teachings of Christ."

Muslim News editor Ahmed Versi was among those at the conference, he told BBC News that overall, the language used by Mr Blair was "quite welcoming". But he said he did not properly address the most important issue to Muslims - what he called the "double standards" of foreign policy in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere.
These are the issues which are radicalising young people and he did not talk about that," he said.

Among those attending the two-day conference are clerics including the Grand Mufti of Egypt, Shaykh Ali Gomaa, and the Grand Mufti of Bosnia, Mustafa Ceric.

But the worst drought in 100 years is bankrupting farms daily and health agencies say increasing numbers of farmers are falling into depression and committing suicide. Now, a national push is under way to persuade men that it's time to talk.

More than 2,000 suicides are recorded each year in Australia, four-fifths of them among men. Those living in rural areas are four times more likely to kill themselves than city dwellers, according to a national depression awareness group, beyondblue.

The isolation of country people, whose access to medical services is patchy, plays a part. But it is the taciturn temperament of many outback farmers that puts them at particular risk. Leonie Young, the chief executive of beyond-blue, said: "Rural men will say: 'No worries, mate, come and have a beer', however dire things may be. It's all about talking the tough talk. Talking about feelings just isn't okay.

"There is a great resilience and resourcefulness among rural people. They feel they have the stoicism to endure whatever life dishes up. They deal with bush fires, floods, famines and droughts on a seasonal basis. Depression is seen as something you should be able to fix yourself."Leonie Young concedes that country Australians are unlikely to metamorphose into sensitive, new-age men any time soon. But she said that if the stigma of depression were removed, men might be persuaded to take the first, crucial step towards seeking help.

At present, those who do attempt to tackle their depression are often defeated by the lack of mental health services, most of which are in towns several hours' drive from rural properties.Janet Golding believes only regular counselling by a visiting professional would make a difference to her husband's health.

That, and a good thunderstorm.

Disillusioned by what they call an empire about to fall, a small cadre of writers and academics is plotting political strategy and planting the seeds of separatism.

They've published a "Green Mountain Manifesto" subtitled "Why and How Tiny Vermont Might Help Save America From Itself by Seceding from the Union." They hope to put the question before citizens at Town Meeting Day next March, eventually persuading the state Legislature to declare independence, returning Vermont to the status it held from 1777 to 1791.

"The argument for secession is that the U.S. has become an empire that is essentially ungovernable- it's too big, it's too corrupt and it no longer serves the needs of its citizens," said Rob Williams, editor of Vermont Commons, a quarterly newspaper dedicated to secession.

"Congress and the executive branch are being run by the multinationals. We have electoral fraud, rampant corporate corruption, a culture of militarism and war. If you care about democracy and self-governance and any kind of representative system, the only constitutional way to preserve what's left of the Republic is to peaceably take apart the empire."

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who triggered outrage in the West two years ago when he said Israel should be "wiped off the map", has often referred to the destruction of the Jewish state but says Iran is not a threat.

"With God's help, the countdown button for the destruction of the Zionist regime has been pushed by the hands of the children of Lebanon and Palestine," Ahmadinejad said in a speech."By God's will, we will witness the destruction of this regime in the near future," he said. He did not elaborate.

Iran often praises the Palestinians for what it says is their resistance against Israeli occupation. Tehran also described the war last summer between Hezbollah in Lebanon and Israel as a victory for the Iranian-backed group.

"If you make a mistake and create another war against the oppressed Lebanese nation, this time the angry ocean of the nations of the region will remove your rotten ... roots from the region," the president said in another speech on Sunday night.

ROME (AP) - Russian President Vladimir Putin warned that U.S. plans to build a missile defense system in Eastern Europe would force Moscow to target its weapons against Europe. The threat, in an interview published Sunday in Italy's Corriere della Sera and other foreign media, marked one of Putin's most strident statements to date against the U.S. plans and came just days before he is to join President Bush and other leaders at a Group of Eight summit in Germany.

In the interview, Putin was asked whether the proposed missile defense shield would compel Moscow to direct its own missiles at locations and U.S. military sites in Europe, as during the Cold War. "If the American nuclear potential grows in European territory, we have to give ourselves new targets in Europe," Putin said, according to Corriere. "It is up to our military to define these targets, in addition to defining the choice between ballistic and cruise missiles."

Russia has not overtly targeted Europe since agreeing after the fall of the Soviet Union not to direct missiles against specific countries, according to Pavel Felgenhauer, an independent military analyst based in Moscow. He added however, that that was simple technical matter, since a missile can be given a target within minutes.

Previously, some Russian military officials have said Moscow could aim Russian weapons at Europe-based missile systems. Czech Prime Minister Mirek Topolanek accused Russia on Sunday of misleading the public about the planned missile defense bases in the Czech Republic and Poland to hide Russia's internal problems.

"Russia needs an outside enemy to hide problems at home," Topolanek said.

Take a look in the average supermarket trolley and the food there will probably have travelled farther than most people clock up in a decade. A selection of just 26 items can have covered a total of 150,000 miles before reaching the British kitchen.

With beef from Brazil, beans from Kenya, apples from New Zealand, chicken from Thailand and strawberries from Spain, shoppers can enjoy year-round produce. But with such astonishing "food miles" being accumulated, it is little surprise that their environmental impact is coming under scrutiny and sparking a backlash.

Already, the major supermarkets are crawling over each other to highlight their "locally sourced" produce, while Marks and Spencer has begun labelling air-freighted products with logos of aircraft. Yet some startling research is emerging that shows food miles might not be as bad as consumers have been led to believe.

Analysis of the industry reveals that for many foods, imported products are responsible for lower carbon dioxide emissions than the same foodstuffs produced in Britain. Even products shipped from the other side of the world emit fewer greenhouse gases than British equivalents.

The reasons are manifold. Sometimes it is because they require less fertiliser; sometimes, as with greenhouse crops, less energy; sometimes, as with much African produce, the farmers use little mechanised equipment. The findings are surprising environmental campaigners, who have, until now, used the distance travelled by food as the measure of how polluting it is.

One study by Lincoln University, in New Zealand, found that 2,849kg of carbon dioxide is produced for every tonne of lamb raised in Britain, while just 688kg of the gas is released with imported New Zealand lamb, even after it has travelled the 11,000 miles to Britain. Researchers and farmers in Britain have raised doubts over the accuracy of the New Zealand figures, but they concede that sheep farming in New Zealand is more efficient than in our own country.

"They have slightly better weather," said Prof Gareth Edwards-Jones, from the department of agriculture at Bangor University, in Wales. "This means their grass can grow for longer and they don't have to give their sheep as much feed as they do in the UK.

"With meat in the UK, there is also a supermarket issue. Each of the supermarkets runs its own abattoir, so if you sell your lamb to Tesco, you have to send your lamb to Tesco's abattoir, even if you pass several local abattoirs on the way. As a result, the meat picks up a huge amount of 'in-Britain' food miles from farm to abattoir then to packaging before it gets to its final destination.

"If we could sort it out so that meat was slaughtered and packaged locally, it could make the whole process far more efficient." On the extensive rolling fields of Pigeon Hills sheep farm, 40 miles from Nelson on New Zealand's South Island, the lush grassland needs little fertiliser to provide food for the livestock. Farmer David McGaveston, 55, rears more than 10,000 sheep and 500 beef cattle for export to the UK.

The style of farming in New Zealand is considered to be less intensive than in Britain because of the large areas of land. Mr McGaveston uses small amounts of hay to help supplement his sheep through the cold winter months and sends his lambs to be slaughtered and packaged at a plant just 40 miles away. Most of the electricity used is also supplied from a hydroelectric plant, which has minimal carbon dioxide emissions.

He said: "I understand the debate that is going on over food miles in the UK at the moment, but if we really are producing meat with less carbon dioxide then that is surely a good thing."
Prof Caroline Saunders, who led the research, said: "Food miles are a very simplistic concept, but it is misleading as it does not consider the total energy use, especially in the production of the product."

When you talk to people in the countryside, as I do, they see Russia in a very different light. True, they did see some sort of stability in the early Putin years, which was a relief after the very hectic and tumultuous Nineties.
But for the past two or three years they have seen a steady deterioration in living standards, and the gap between rich and poor is growing. Everybody can see it.

So people are starting to come out on to the streets in Moscow, St Petersburg and elsewhere. Change is not going to happen overnight but it will happen relatively quickly, and much sooner than anybody expects because this regime is built on sand - it has no real foundation in political or economic structures. Just look at how many repressive measures have been taken lately. The Constitutional Court decided you can be tried a second time for the same crime. Then parliament approved, at a first reading, a new amendment to the law on extremism.

Now your prison term will be longer if they see 'extremist intention' behind your crime. And they are adding something quite ridiculous - people can face criminal charges for 'sympathising with or excusing extremism'. That applies to journalists as well, of course. The FSB, the successor to the KGB, interrogated me for four hours. They were investigating a case of extremism based on interviews I had given.

As far as I could tell, the lieutenant colonel was not ecstatic about having to question me. There was one telling detail. In his office he had two portraits, one of Putin and one of Felix Dzherzhinsky, the founder of the Cheka secret police.

Call a spade a spade: Putin is a dictator. And we want the West to be blunt about it too. I am not saying the West should break off economic ties with Russia. Western corporations make billions of pounds by trading with China and nobody talks about breaking off relations with the Chinese Communist government. But neither do people have any illusions that the Chinese Communists are democrats.

So deal the same way with Putin. You cannot invite Putin to meetings of the world's properly elected leaders. He doesn't belong to G7 - I don't call it G8 because G7 stood for seven great industrial democracies. The G8 is utter nonsense. When Western politicians and experts say the West has no bargaining chips in dealing with Putin, this is not true. The money of his ruling clique is kept abroad, and they won't be indifferent if they are refused entry visas. They will pay attention if the West is serious.

I am not suggesting outright hostility, but simply that the West should recognise who they are dealing with: the Russian elite are rich, they're loaded with money, but they are not the same as Westerners because they do not respect the rule of law.

And so you should make it clear, when Putin is part of a group such as at the Summit between Russia and the EU last month, you should say: 'Mr Putin, your country is a police state and you have to understand that, if you continue down this path, you will be treated as a rogue leader.'

A Gallup poll at the time reported that 53% of scientists actively involved in global climate research did not believe global warming had occurred; 30% weren't sure; and only 17% believed global warming had begun. Even a Greenpeace poll showed 47% of climatologists didn't think a runaway greenhouse effect was imminent; only 36% thought it possible and a mere 13% thought it probable.

Today, Al Gore is making the same claims of a scientific consensus, as do the United Nation's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and hundreds of government agencies and environmental groups around the world. But the claims of a scientific consensus remain unsubstantiated. They have only become louder and more frequent.

More than six months ago, I began writing this series, The Deniers. When I began, I accepted the prevailing view that scientists overwhelmingly believe that climate change threatens the planet. I doubted only claims that the dissenters were either kooks on the margins of science or sell-outs in the pockets of the oil companies.

Now, after profiling more than 20 deniers, I do not know when I will stop -- the list of distinguished scientists who question the IPCC grows daily, as does the number of emails I receive, many from scientists who express gratitude for my series.

Somewhere along the way, I stopped believing that a scientific consensus exists on climate change. Certainly there is no consensus at the very top echelons of scientists -- the ranks from which I have been drawing my subjects -- and certainly there is no consensus among astrophysicists and other solar scientists, several of whom I have profiled. If anything, the majority view among these subsets of the scientific community may run in the opposite direction.

Not only do most of my interviewees either discount or disparage the conventional wisdom as represented by the IPCC, many say their peers generally consider it to have little or no credibility. In one case, a top scientist told me that, to his knowledge, no respected scientist in his field accepts the IPCC position.

Surely, I can't have been the only Catholic to listen in open-mouthed disbelief as the leader of the Church in Scotland used a sermon to mark the 40th anniversary of the Abortion Act TO INSIST MPS WHO CONTINUE TO SUPPORT IT RISK LOSING THE RIGHT TO HOLY COMMUNION.

BY PRESSURISING CATHOLIC MPS IN THIS WAY, THE CHURCH IS SWAPPING ITS ROLE AS LOBBYIST FOR SOMETHING ALTOGETHER MORE SINISTER. IF IT GETS AWAY WITH THIS, HOW LONG BEFORE THE THREAT OF "EXCOMMUNICATION" IS EXTENDED TO THE POSITION OF CATHOLIC MPS AND MSPS ON OTHER ISSUES SUCH AS CIVIL PARTNERSHIPS OR SEX EDUCATION?

It doesn't take a great leap, either, to imagine it dangled over ordinary church-goers. If Catholic MPs who support the abortion law should surrender the right to Communion then why not the Catholic voters who endorse them?

But the most offensive aspect of the Cardinal's attack is the way it reduces Communion - believed by Catholics to be a sacred gift from God - to a bargaining tool in the political process. And they say MPs are cynical.
In the meantime, the Church continues to be inconsistent in its approach to how political it should be. Earlier this month, Pope Benedict took the opportunity to attack "liberation theology", which emphasises the Christian mission to bring justice to the poor through activism. "IF THE CHURCH WERE TO START TRANSFORMING HERSELF INTO A DIRECTLY POLITICAL SUBJECT, SHE WOULD DO LESS, NOT MORE, FOR THE POOR AND FOR JUSTICE."

But if it's not within its remit to be active on social justice issues, HOW CAN IT JUSTIFY ITS BLATANT ATTEMPT TO HIJACK THE POLITICAL PROCESS OVER ABORTION?

Catholic leaders expect ordinary people to take their lead from the top not the other way around. It has been said Pope Benedict would rather have a Church that consisted of a handful of 'true believers' than one that embraced 'cultural relativists' like me. If he and his cardinals keep up these hardball tactics, if they continue in this affront to democracy, they may well get their wish.

The far-reaching measures include boosting police powers to hold and question suspected terrorists, and allowing wire-tap evidence to be used in British courts for the first time. Brown will also push for an increase in the length of time police can hold terror suspects - one of the most controversial elements of Tony Blair's anti-terror blueprint and one that has consistently been rejected by MPs.

But the Prime Minister-in-waiting also wants to reinforce scrutiny of the way the new powers are used, in an attempt to buy off concerns that human rights are suffering in the drive to protect Britain from the increasing risk of international terrorism.

In the first significant disclosure of one of the key planks of his manifesto for government, Brown told party workers in Glasgow yesterday that ministers "must be vigilant for the benefit of security in this country". "Our security must be strengthened, but we must also strengthen the accountability of our institutions." But Brown's attempts to buy off the civil rights lobby looked destined to fail last night, as pressure groups complained that he was proposing too many powers to tackle the terror threat.

Shami Chakrabarti, director of the human rights group Liberty, said: "We have proposed the use of wire-tap evidence and post-charge questioning as proportionate alternatives to extending pre-charge detention, not in addition to it." "We don't understand why Gordon Brown would even consider reintroducing internment before fully implementing these other measures," said Chakrabarti.

The report has been sent to the pope and church leaders. IT IS THE FIRST TIME THE SECRET INTELLIGENCE SERVICE HAS SHARED ITS INFORMATION WITH RELIGIOUS LEADERS. "We do so because we believe the situation is extremely serious," said an MI6 source.

The report is based on details from MI6 agents stationed in the countries. North Korea is identified as the world's worst repressor of Christians. More than 50,000 Christians are incarcerated in work camps because they refuse to submit to the extreme views rigorously enforced by the country's dictator, Kim Jong-il.

An estimated 40,000 Christians are imprisoned in China for their beliefs. The MI6 analysis calculates there are some 70 million "active Christians" in the People's Republic, all living in a climate of fear because of their beliefs.

Hamas' Al-Aqsa TV reported the ceremony of kindergarteners of the Islamic Association in Gaza. The video, with translation, was made available by the Middle East Media Research Institute, or MEMRI, in Washington, D.C. The host of the show urges viewers, "Stay with us to watch this performance by the children of Palestine."

The boys chant: "ALLAH AKBAR. PRAISE BE TO ALLAH. ALLAH AKBAR. PRAISE BE TO ALLAH. ALLAH AKBAR. PRAISE BE TO ALLAH. ALLAH AKBAR. PRAISE BE TO ALLAH. WHO IS YOUR ROLE MODEL? THE PROPHET. WHO IS YOUR ROLE MODEL? THE PROPHET. WHAT IS YOUR PATH? JIHAD. WHAT IS YOUR PATH? JIHAD. WHAT IS YOUR MOST LOFTY ASPIRATION? DEATH FOR THE SAKE OF ALLAH. WHAT IS YOUR MOST LOFTY ASPIRATION? DEATH FOR THE SAKE OF ALLAH."

Hamas, which won a majority in the Palestinian parliament in January 2006 elections, officially is considered a terrorist organization by the U.S. government. Responsible for scores of suicide bombings, shooting attacks and rocket firings, the group's official charter calls for the destruction of Israel.

As 'WND reported earlier this month, Palestinian children are being entertained and indoctrinated on television by a Mickey Mouse-knockoff WHO TEACHES THEM TO FIGHT FOR ISRAEL'S DESTRUCTION AND ISLAM'S DOMINATION OVER THE ENTIRE WORLD.

"We, tomorrow's pioneers, will restore to this nation its glory, and we will liberate Al-Aqsa, with Allah's will, and we will liberate Iraq, with Allah's will, and we will liberate the Muslim countries, invaded by murderers," the mouse character says.

WND reported in March an online forum tied to the website of Hamas posted a photo of a little girl in a combat vest and the head band of the terrorist Al-Qassam Brigades. "Have you seen the new child martyr who will soon shake Israel [to the core]?" says the caption, according to the Middle East Media Research Institute blog

The message accompanying the photo on the Shabakat Falastin Lilhiwar online forum says the girl "is part of the Muslim generation which will go down in history as a generation that refused to accept humiliation and defeat."

Hamas launched a children's website in 2002, encouraging kids to follow the example of terrorist suicide bombers.

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