National Guard helicopters are also aiding the police "with observation, tracking, and finding illegal growing operations," another complete violation of the Posse Comitatus Act and the Insurrection Act, which substantially limit the powers of the federal government to use the military for law enforcement unless under precise and extreme circumstances.

Under the John Warner Defense Authorization Act, signed by President Bush on October 17, 2006, the law was changed to state, "The President may employ the armed forces to restore public order in any State of the United States the President determines hinders the execution of laws or deprives people of a right, privilege, immunity, or protection named in the Constitution and secured by law or opposes or obstructs the execution of the laws of the United States or impedes the course of justice under those laws." However, THESE CHANGES WERE REPEALED in their entirety by HR 4986: National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2008, reverting back to the original state of the Insurrection Act of 1807

The military are now being called upon to undertake roles normally designated to police as Americans are incrementally acclimated to accept the presence of troops on the streets as an everyday occurrence. National Guard units are now being deployed for things like traffic control in places like Kingman Arizona, and providing security at sports events like the Kentucky Derby.

The routine use of military and Guard units in dealing with mundane law enforcement duties is part of an acclimation program TO MAKE AMERICANS ACCEPT THE SIGHT OF ARMED MEN IN MILITARY FATIGUES PATROLLING THE STREETS AS AMERICA sinks further into a Communist-style police state and a state of de facto martial law.

Consider the words of Dr Ahmed Zewail, this administration's first science envoy to the Middle East and appointee to the President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology. After Obama's Cairo speech last June, Zewail wrote a very revealing op-ed in the Boston Globe, in which he professed that the way for Obama to stimulate an "Islamic Renaissance" would be to provide "investment in education" with a "new emphasis on science and technology." This ignores the fact that many militant Islamist leaders, from bin Laden to Zawahiri to most of the heads of the Muslim Brotherhood, are very scientifically educated. In fact, the Brotherhood (Ikhwan) is sometimes pejoratively referred to as the "Brotherhood of Engineers."

Zewail goes on to write: "Most Westerners today are unaware of the extent to which Nasser's regime promoted education as the vital engine of progress." How insulting: Gamal Abdel Nasser's legendary fascism, pan-Arabism, and socialism have become "engines of progress." Nasser infected the Middle East with a deeply corrupt ideology, yet Obama's science envoy is apologizing for the Egyptian despot.

The challenge is not science and technology. Real Muslim reform will only come from modernization of thought in the political sciences, liberal arts, free markets, theology, and philosophy. Theocratic Islamist movements are the primary obstacles to Muslim enlightenment - not the absence of space technology.

The issue could give Republicans a potent weapon in the November elections in which they hope to overturn the dominance in the Congress of Obama's Democrats. The Chamber of Commerce, a lobby that represents big businesses, is to lay out its concerns with Obama's policies at a "jobs for America" summit Wednesday in Washington. Chamber CEO Tom Donohue is to issue an open letter to Obama and Congress that will urge "immediate action to address the new regulatory stranglehold placed on America's job creators."

Douglas Holtz-Eakin, an economist who was a top adviser to 2008 Republican presidential candidate John McCain, said Obama's agenda has "nothing in it" for the business community. "We are growing too slowly," said Holtz-Eakin, a former director of the Congressional Budget Office. "Households are broke. Governments have to retrench. The only places to get strong growth are in the business community and in net exports and that's where they have nothing."

Ivan Seidenberg, chief executive of Verizon Communications, in a speech last month said there was a "disconnect" between Washington and the business community that is harming job growth. "In our judgment, we have reached a point where the negative effects of the proposed policies are simply too significant to ignore," said Seidenberg, who is chairman of the Business Roundtable.

Temperatures are expected to stay fairly cool Saturday, with highs around 70 on the coast and in the 80s inland. Conditions will be a bit warmer on Sunday, according to the weather service. July has turned out to be cooler than normal. Instead of daytime highs approaching the mid-80s, downtown Los Angeles has experienced temperatures in the mid- to high 70s. From June 1 to July 5, daytime and nighttime temperatures have averaged a relatively cool 69.8 degrees.

That makes that stretch one of the cooler ones for that time of the year in the last 10 years, just slightly warmer than the same period in 2004 (69.4 degrees) and 2002 (68.9 degrees). The cooler ocean air early in the day has a moderating effect on daily temperature conditions. And low-lying clouds have been tempering the sun's heat.

Then in early June, as Alan Greenspan, former Federal Reserve chairman, put it, the economy hit "an invisible wall". The US had a run of bad news - disappointing job growth; unexpectedly low employment; indices suggesting manufacturing and services losing momentum; renewed jitters from Europe's sovereign debt markets and its banks. While most economists think it unlikely this heralds the famous double-dip recession feared by policymakers, it does come at a time when America's monetary and fiscal authorities are struggling for room to manoeuvre.

Fiscal stimulus and companies rebuilding inventories have given the recovery a strong push start. But those are one-off effects; the recovery must now switch to power from its internal engine. "We haven't entered into that self-sustaining stage yet," says Gus Faucher of Moody's Analytics, who estimates the chance of a dip back into recession at 25 per cent.

The US economy is not yet in severe trouble. Rises in equity prices over the past few days have comforted optimists that confidence is returning. But the economy's sputter over the past month indicates just how fragile the recovery is and how dependent America is on generating its own demand. And if it starts to turn down rather than simply to decelerate, policymakers turning to their arsenal will find it dangerously depleted

Complete break-up would have EFFECTS THAT DWARF THE POST LEHMAN BROTHERS COLLAPSE. Governments would find themselves having to bail out banks again, worsening already fragile government finances. The risk of at least a temporary break-down in payments systems would be enormous, " said the report by Mark Cliffe, Maarten Leen, and Peter Vanden Houte.

"Initial trauma is sufficiently grave to give pause for thought to those who blithely propose EMU exit as a policy option," it said, a rebuke to those German politicians and economists who have talked openly of shaking out weaker members. The new Greek drachma would crash by 80 percent against the new Deutschemark. The currencies of Spain, Portugal, and Ireland would fall by 50 percent or more, causing inflation to soar into double-digits. "The impact is dramatic and traumatic," it said.

The German sphere would face a "deflationary shock". The US dollar would rocket to 85 cents against the euro equivalent, with a "temporary overshoot" to near 75 cents. This would tip the US into acute deflation, threatening North America with a double-dip recession. East Europe would contract 5 percent in 2011 alone. THIS IS THE PICTURE OF A WORLD FALLING APART.

The report said break-up talk is "NO LONGER JUST A FIGMENT OF FEVERED ANGLO-SAXON IMAGINATIONS". It has spread into top policy-making circles in the eurozone and must now be analysed as a serious tail-risk. A survey of 440 heads of global banks and companies by RBC Capital Markets found that 50 percent expect at least one country to leave EMU by 2013, and a quarter expect a complete collapse.

But when the IT worker showed his mobile phone photos of luggage-crammed aisles and exits he was told it is 'illegal' to take such pictures and threatened with prosecution. The inspector then demanded Mr Roberts' personal details. As soon as he boarded the train he saw the carriages were full of piled-up suitcases, bags and backpacks. Even the overhead racks were stuffed with heavy luggage - and vital passageways to the doors were also blocked.

'The train was full of passengers who had got off cruise liners and aircraft at Southampton who obviously all had luggage,' Mr Roberts said. 'And if the train had to make an emergency stop a 20kg medium-size suitcase travelling at 50mph would probably decapitate any passenger it hits - it would almost certainly kill them. A passenger announcement on the train invited us to raise any concerns with the ticket inspector, which I did because it was not the first time I had seen the problem first-hand on that route. I told him I was going to make a complaint to the Office of Rail Regulation because conditions on the train were unsafe.'

Mr Roberts added: 'But when I told him I had taken some photos he said it was illegal under the Terrorism Act and that I could be arrested and demanded my name and address. He said there were police officers on the train and I may be arrested for taking the photographs.'

'He said he had powers given to him under the Railways Act to ask me for the information and it was an even more serious offence for me not to comply. I FELT AS IF I WAS IN A POLICE STATE. He explained that for some reason it was for my own protection but my argument was that every passenger on the train would have needed protection in the event of an emergency. He told me he would make a note of our conversation so that they could be used in the event of a prosecution. He was pleasant enough but IT WAS A FRIGHTENING AND CHILLING EXPERIENCE FOR ME.'

"A global political recession" is how Tom Melia describes the current state of affairs. Melia is deputy director of Freedom House, a nonprofit that annually measures the state of liberty in every nation - and that has found "more countries seeing declines in overall freedom than gains" in recent years, Melia said last week. The world has transitioned from a "position of going from one breakthrough to another" into a "sustained period in which we are looking at regressions and setback," he said.

Fortunately, there is one factor stronger than all of these: people's desire to be free. Despite new methods of oppression, despite the fecklessness and disunity of democratic governments, despite everything, the impulse for dignity and self-rule emerges again and again. In Lebanon in 2005, in Burma in 2007, in Tibet in 2008, in Iran last year, ordinary people assumed unimaginable risks and confronted mortal danger because they do not want to live as captives.

Each of those movements has failed, for now, but in each of those countries the yearning for freedom has been banked, not extinguished. Over the weekend, democracy activists and democratic officials, including Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, gathered in Poland at a conference aimed at helping democracies fashion a reply to the ferocious authoritarian response of recent years. The Iron Curtain has fallen, Clinton noted. "But we must be wary of the steel vise in which many governments around the world are slowly crushing civil society and the human spirit." Recognizing the challenge is a good start.

The one-day increase for June 30 totaled $165,931,038,264.30 - bigger than the entire annual deficit for fiscal year 2007 and larger than the $140 billion in savings the new health care bill will produce over its first 10 years. The figure works out to nearly $1,500 for every US household, or more than 10 times the median daily household income.

Daily debt calculations jump and fall, and big shifts are common. But all three of the biggest one-day debt increases have occurred under the tenure of President Obama, and all of the top six have been in the past two years - an indication of just how quickly the pace of deficit spending has risen under Mr Obama and President George W Bush.

"What matters is the overall trend line, and the overall trend line is shooting up," said Robert Bixby, executive director of the Concord Coalition, a bipartisan deficit watchdog group, who said it is one more reason for a fiscal wake-up call. The Treasury Department calculates the country's debt position each day, and big rises and falls are not unusual. In fact, since hitting $13.203 trillion on June 30, the figure has since slipped $25 billion to settle at $13.178 trillion as of Tuesday, the latest day for which figures are available.

"Not only did they spring it on us that the process has changed, but the people I've been dealing with for six weeks who've done a good job said, 'We don't know what the process is going to be. We're not authorized to talk to you about it. Someone from BP will contact you,'" he said. But Briet said he hasn't heard from BP or its lawyers. He said the claims people have been given so much conflicting information about the process that they can't provide answers.

"They couldn't tell me," he said. "And I said, 'I've got 500 people I'm meeting on Saturday. They want to know what the process is'." It's not the first time BP has given conflicting information.

On June 11, BP's security contractors tried to keep WDSU from speaking to cleanup workers despite the fact that BP released a statement two days earlier saying the workers could speak to the media. On May 14, St Bernard Parish fishermen were upset with low pay and out-of-towners taking their work. Briet said he's meeting with some fishermen from Moss Point Thursday morning and more on Saturday in Jennings. He said BP hasn't given him any indication when the payments will resume.

The equipment was "at least doubling" current counter-IED capacity as forces did not have all they needed to take on an escalating threat, said Ashton Carter, US undersecretary of defence for acquisition, technology and logistics. The new equipment, including tethered surveillance blimps, heavily armoured vehicles and detection machinery such as robots and mine detectors, would arrive in Afghanistan in the coming months, he told reporters.

Carter said the equipment would be accompanied by about 1,000 counter-IED experts, including laboratory technicians, intelligence analysts and law enforcement officials. "This is an enormous plug of extra effort," he said, adding that the equipment would be shared with coalition and Afghan forces. IEDs are the biggest threat facing troops engaged in the war in Afghanistan, now well into its ninth year.

They are easy and cheap to produce, often using ammonium nitrate fertiliser that is produced in Pakistan and trucked across the border into Afghanistan, Carter said. The bombs are difficult to detect, often buried by roadsides and remotely detonated to devastating effect. Many of the foreign soldiers killed so far this year have died as a result of IED attacks. Others often suffer life-changing injuries.

"This court has determined that it is clearly within the authority of the Commonwealth to recognize same-sex marriages among its residents, and to afford those individuals in same-sex marriages any benefits, rights, and privileges to which they are entitled by virtue of their marital status," Tauro wrote. "The federal government, by enacting and enforcing DOMA, plainly encroaches upon the firmly entrenched province of the state."

Tauro drew on history in his ruling, writing that the states have set their own marriage laws since before the American Revolution and that marriage laws were considered "such an essential element of state power" that the subject was even broached at the time of the framing of the Constitution. Tauro noted that laws barring interracial marriage were once at least as contentious as the current battle over gay marriage.

"But even as the debate concerning interracial marriage waxed and waned throughout history, the federal government consistently yielded to marital status determinations established by the states," Tauro wrote. "That says something. And this court is convinced that the federal government's long history of acquiescence in this arena indicates that, indeed, the federal government traditionally regarded marital status determinations as the exclusive province of state government."

Opponents of same-sex marriage condemned the ruling. Kris Mineau, president of Massachusetts Family Institute called it "another blatant example of a judge playing legislator. Same-sex marriage activists have tried time and time again to win public approval of their agenda, and they have failed each time," Mineau said in a statement. "This is why their strategy is to force same-sex 'marriage' through judicial fiat, as they did here in Massachusetts and other states."

He said he was "confident that an appeals court, and ultimately the Supreme Court, will uphold the government's right to define marriage, strengthening and protecting children and families."

When Mrs Vernon ordered the police from her house, officer Thomas Duran allegedly decided she was being 'aggressive' and gave the order: 'Taser her.' Her alarmed grandson, is then said to have replied: 'Don't taze my granny!' According to a lawsuit filed in US District Court, Tinsley's 'obstructive' behaviour prompted the police to threaten him with their tasers.

He was then assaulted, removed from the room, thrown to the floor, handcuffed, and detained in a police car. At this point, the heroes in blue turned their attention to Lona. According to officer Duran's official report, Mrs Vernon had taken an 'aggressive posture' in her hospital bed.

In order to ensure 'officer safety', one of his men 'stepped on her oxygen hose until she began to suffer oxygen deprivation'. Another of the officers then shot her with a taser, but the connection wasn't solid. A second fired his taser, 'striking her to the left of the midline of her upper chest, and applied high voltage, causing burns to her chest, extreme pain', and unconsciousness.

Lona was then handcuffed with sufficient ruthlessness to tear the soft flesh of her forearms, causing her to bleed. After her wounds were treated at a local hospital, Lona was confined for six days in the psychiatric ward at the insistence of the El Reno Police Department.

So what kind of ghastly chemical plant did the Brouses live next door to in Minnesota? In fact, the facility that was slowly poisoning this hapless family (and thousands like them across America) was a dairy farm. Not, however, a dairy farm as you might imagine, with cows chewing the cud or roaming freely in the fields. This one was called a CAFO - a Concentrated Animal Feeding Operation - a 'mega-farm' where cows by the thousand live on concrete and rarely get to see the sun, where they never actually graze, where their lives are shortened from round-the-clock milking.

This is a farm where huge quantities of hormones and antibiotics - administered because their miserable, cramped existences make the cattle prone to disease - are hosed away in the gallons of waste which they produce and stored in vast lagoons by the tens of millions of gallons, ready to be sprayed on to local farmland as fertiliser. And, terrifyingly, this could soon be the future of farming in Britain.

The problem is not with the animal waste per se, but with the concentration of it all in one place, because such large herds are being cramped together. 'One cow makes as much waste as 23 humans,' says Lynn. A farm of 8,100 cows, therefore, (such as the one proposed for Lincolnshire) would produce the same waste as a city of 186,300 people.

'The difference with people is that their waste is treated, ' adds Lynn. ' With CAFOs, the waste is just stored and then spread over surrounding fields. It really is incredible when you think about it. I have a constant hacking cough and both my in-laws have been diagnosed with neurological damage caused by the hydrogen sulphide. You'd have to be crazy to let one of these things anywhere near the English countryside.'

He said the military had to become more agile and adaptable; more mobile; better integrated; and better merged with "other levels of national power and influence, at home and abroad". Some experts and officers believe such a move threatens Britain's independence and could leave the country unable to defend itself if forced to fight alone. His remarks came as Liam Fox, the Defence Secretary, confirmed that British troops would be redeployed from the most dangerous areas of Afghanistan.

Nick Harvey, who is the MP for North Devon, made his remarks in a speech to the Royal United Services Institute think-tank, and warned: "Let me be quite clear: change is coming." He said the Forces would "have less emphasis on weight and more accuracy of firepower. They will need to be less focused on scale when contributing to multinational operations, with the emphasis moving to quality. And we should have less duplication of capabilities held in large numbers by our NATO allies."

He did not give details about greater co-operation with allies, but ministers are known to be exploring ways to work together more closely with France, the only other major European military power. There is even speculation in Paris that the UK might offer to share one of the two new Royal Navy aircraft carriers the MoD is planning to buy.

Speaking to the RUSI conference on the Royal Navy, First Sea Lord Admiral Sir Mark Stanhope called for closer integration of the UK's sea, air and land forces as well as better partnership with allied navies, in particular those of the US and France. "Defence is a team game and we need to think in those terms when we consider maritime capabilities, how we develop them, and indeed how we use them in the future," he said.