In his address to the Global Environment Forum this week (read talking shop for unelected, overpaid bureaucrats), Ban warned of impending "DROUGHTS, FLOODS AND OTHER NATURAL DISASTERS", as well as mass social unrest and violence – "the human suffering will be incalculable" - if the world's leaders did not "seal a deal" on climate change at a summit in Copenhagen in December. In the Secretary General's ominous words:

"WE HAVE JUST FOUR MONTHS. FOUR MONTHS TO SECURE THE FUTURE OF OUR PLANET."

IN REALITY, THE UNITED NATIONS CAN'T EVEN MAINTAIN ITS OWN HEADQUARTERS, MANAGE ITS OWN BOOKS AND KEEP ITS TENS OF THOUSANDS OF PEACEKEEPERS UNDER CONTROL, LET ALONE SAVE THE WORLD. The UN is an extraordinarily badly run institution, rife with corruption and mismanagement, that shields some of the most odious tyrants on the face of the earth. Surely it should be focusing on implementing some much-needed management reform, cracking down on rampant corruption within its ranks, and preventing its peacekeeping troops from raping refugees in war-torn places like the Democratic Republic of the Congo and southern Sudan.

The main threat to humanity at present is posed not by climate change but by dangerous madmen like Kim Jong Il and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, heading rogue regimes hell-bent on wiping their neighbours off the map. Not to mention the rise of militant Islam and a global terrorist network that seeks the destruction of the free world. AS LONG AS UN OFFICIALS STICK THEIR HEAD IN THE SAND AND IGNORE THE WORLD'S REAL PROBLEMS THE BODY WILL REMAIN AN IRRELEVANCE.

Writing in the journal Nature, they say rainfall has not changed, and water use is too high, mainly for farming. The finding is published two days after an Indian government report warning of a potential water crisis. That report noted that access to water was one of the main factors governing the pace of development in the world's second most populous nation.

ABOUT A QUARTER OF INDIA IS EXPERIENCING DROUGHT CONDITIONS, as the monsoon rains have been weaker and later than usual. But weather and climatic factors are not responsible for water depletion in the northwestern states of Rajasthan, Haryana and Punjab, according to the Nasa study.

"We looked at the rainfall record and during this decade, it's relatively steady - there have been some up and down years but generally there's no drought situation, there's no major trend in rainfall," said Matt Rodell, a hydrologist at Nasa's Goddard Space Flight Center near Washington DC. "So naturally we would expect the groundwater level to stay where it is unless there is an excessive stress due to people pumping too much water, which is what we believe is happening."

"The financial sector will contract and it will contract much more than we've seen so far," said Faber, who was in Tokyo to speak at an event hosted by CLSA Ltd. Financial professionals have "been in paradise for the past 25 years."

The best bet for investors may be to buy a farm and escape from the cities, as a prolonged recession could lead to war, as the Great Depression did, said the Swiss national, who now lives in Thailand. "Buy a farm and let your girlfriend work on the farm," he said, to the applause of investors. "IF THE GLOBAL ECONOMY DOESN'T RECOVER, USUALLY PEOPLE GO TO WAR."

The Obama administration is projecting that when the current budget year ends on September 30, the IMBALANCE WILL TOTAL $1.84 TRILLION, more than four times last year's record-high. The soaring deficits have raised worries among foreign owners of US Treasury securities including the Chinese, the largest holder of such debt.

Massive amounts of government spending to combat the recession and stabilize the US financial system have pushed the deficit higher. The cost of wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, along with depleted government tax revenues, also are major factors.

THE TOTAL PUBLIC DEBT NOW STANDS AT $11.6 TRILLION. INTEREST PAYMENTS ON THE DEBT COST $452 BILLION LAST YEAR, THE LARGEST FEDERAL SPENDING CATEGORY AFTER MEDICARE-MEDICAID, SOCIAL SECURITY AND DEFENSE.

During the inauguration ceremony to mark his "re-election," disputed Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, 52, bowed to religious leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, 70, and attempted to grasp his hand to kiss it, but Khamenei turned away at the last minute. When Ahmadinejad attempted to at least embrace the supreme leader, Khamenei turned away again, leaving Ahmadinejad awkwardly facing his shoulder. It was a scene straight out of a low-budget slapstick comedy.

The incident had the rest of the world puzzled, ESPECIALLY COMING FROM IRAN, THIS COUNTRY OF SECRETIVE CODES AND SYMBOLS, WHERE EVERYTHING HAS SIGNIFICANCE. How estranged are the supreme leader and the president? Does the scene indicate a radical shift in relations between the two hardliners, or could it even symbolize the beginning of the end for Ahmadinejad, whom Khamenei has given the cold shoulder several times in recent days? And what could replace the Holocaust denier in this torn country, in which the democratic opposition refuses to give up and protesters face possible death sentences?

THIS IS THE PERSIAN PUZZLE, and the world is observing it with great anticipation. The story of Montazeri, Rafsanjani and Khamenei is one of friendship, estrangement and betrayal. It is the history of Iran, the story of its past and present, and probably of its political future.

What do you call it when the government asks its supporters to "snitch" on opponents of its policies?

What do you call it when the government wants to monitor broadcasts and establish itself as the guardian of "fairness" on the airwaves?

What do you call it when the government seeks to take over the private and personal health-care decisions of the people – establishing bureaucracies to make life-and-death decisions and banning unapproved transactions between doctors and patients?

What do you call it when the government hires and fires the top executives of major corporations and redirects their corporate policies?

What do you call it when government officials refuse to turn over documents necessary to establishing whether they are constitutionally eligible to hold office?

What do you call it when the government funds political extremist groups that have broken the law in successful efforts to empower leaders?

What do you call it when the government turns the Census, designed as a tool to ensure representative government, into a weapon designed to spy on the most personal aspects of the life of citizens?

What do you call it when the government becomes the sole arbiter of whether you can keep some or any of the wealth you accumulated legally?

What do you call it when the government ignores the laws of the land and replaces them with the arbitrary whims of men?

What do you call it when the government picks and chooses winners and losers in the business marketplace?

What do you call it when the government strikes fear into the hearts of the sovereign citizens it is supposed to serve?

What do you call it when the government metes out punishment not just for criminal actions, but for "criminal thoughts"?

What do you call it when honest and open expressions of dissent are characterized as the expressions of "angry mobs"?

What do you call it when government-created joblessness is used to promote policies of government control?

What do you call it when the government exceeds its authority under the Constitution and ignores any limits on its power?

I don't know about you, but I CALL THOSE QUESTIONS HARBINGERS OF TOTALITARIANISM. That's where America is headed – maybe not today, tomorrow or next week, but soon, if this trend continues. Everything for which America has stood for the last 230 years is under attack – not by angry mobs, not citizen lawlessness, not from threats by external enemies, but from those in charge of government.

"These results validate the dedication of thousands of homeschool parents who are giving their children the best education possible," said Michael Smith, president of the advocacy organization. The HSLDA said homeschooling in the United States already includes about 4 percent of the school-aged population and is growing at about 7 percent a year, NOW INVOLVING SOME TWO MILLION CHILDREN.

"Homeschooling is a rapidly growing, thriving education movement that is challenging the conventional wisdom about the best way to raise and educate the next generation," said Smith. Regarding costs, the average public school spends nearly $10,000 per child per year, but the Progress Report said the average homeschool parent spends about $500 per child per year.

This is the regime that 12 years of New Labour have imposed on BRITAIN, A PLACE OF UNWAVERING SUSPICION, PARANOIA - AND OBSESSIVE SURVEILLANCE. We have become the sort of society that we would unhesitatingly have railed against a few years ago. But, because the change has been brought about with such stealth, we are the very last to see it.

The latest figures, in a report by the Interception of Communications Commissioner, Sir Paul Kennedy, are truly terrifying. They reveal that a request is made every minute to snoop on someone's phone records or email accounts. Last year alone, there were 504,073 new cases of state-sanctioned surveillance, the equivalent of one adult in 78 being watched - and a rise of 44 per cent over two years. Whatever happened to our centuries-old traditions of freedom? The currency of our society was common sense. No longer. Common sense has been replaced by officially sanctioned mistrust, mistrust that allows anyone invested with the tiniest bit of authority - often in the form of a high-visibility jacket - to throw their weight around.

Government policy is largely to blame. LABOUR HAS INSTILLED AN ENDEMIC CULTURE OF SUSPICION IN BRITAIN, which is MANIFEST IN THE 3,500 NEW CRIMINAL OFFENCES BROUGHT IN OVER ITS 12 YEARS in office. Labour is also behind A FLURRY OF NEW DATABASES that either leech personal information from each one of us or require innocent members of the public to go through an endless rigmarole of proving themselves to the state.

The average overdraft rate stands at 18.9 per cent - the highest level since the Bank of England began collecting figures in 1995. Bailed-out lenders such as Royal Bank of Scotland and Lloyds are behind some of the highest charges, according to other sources. Personal loans cost an average of 13.1 per cent, the most since 2004. And average mortgage rates are now at their highest levels of the year. Savers are losing out too because the average deposit account pays 0.15 per cent.

Michelle Slade, of Moneyfacts, a financial information firm, said: 'Despite the Bank base rate being at an all-time low, many consumers haven't felt the benefit, with many hundreds of pounds worse off than they were a few years ago. BANKS ARE TRYING TO REPAIR THEIR BALANCE SHEETS AND CONSUMERS ARE PAYING THE PRICE through higher costs on all their financial products.'

Michael Saunders, an economist at Citigroup bank, said: 'Spreads on unsecured loans are extraordinarily high.' He said the nation faced a lengthy period 'in which poor credit availability will likely be a drag on economic activity'.

There are fears that the 3,988-tonne ship, carrying about £1 million worth of sawn timber from Finland to Algeria, was under the control of pirates when contact was made with the British Coastguards. It would be the first time a ship in the Channel has been taken hostage in modern times.

Mark Clark, of the Maritime and Coastguard Agency (MCA), said Dover Coastguard did not suspect anything untoward as a supposed crew member made radio contact before the ship made its passage along the Channel. The person on board the vessel told the Coastguard the ship was due to arrive in Bejaia in northern Algeria on August 4 at 11pm - a mandatory process for any ship wanting to enter British waters. There were reports that the Russian navy is to deploy vessels to help locate the missing ship. Mr Clark said: "The ship contacted Dover Coastguard on July 28 and that was the last time anyone has heard from them."

Mr Clark said: "It's bizarre. There is no Coastguard I know who can remember anything like this happening." Mr Clark said an innocent explanation was looking highly unlikely and he added: "We are extremely curious to find out what could have happened to this vessel."

The exercises will send 50,000 armored troops - the People's Liberation Army's "largest-ever tactical military exercise" - to unfamiliar areas far from their bases for two months of live-fire drills, state media reported. The exercises involve four brigades from the major military regions of Shenyang, Lanzhou, Jinan and Guangzhou, which all will be deployed at least 750 miles (1,200 kilometers) from their bases, the reports said. Such deployments would be needed to reinforce units in Tibet and Xinjiang, where security forces have battled renewed ethnic conflict and anti-government violence over the past two years.

China also continues to claim territory along its remote border with India over which the two fought a short but bloody border war more than 45 years ago. Its navy, meanwhile, has grown increasingly assertive in defending territorial claims in the South China Sea. "IN THE UNPRECEDENTED EXERCISE, ONE OF THE PLA'S MAJOR OBJECTIVES WILL BE TO IMPROVE ITS CAPACITY OF LONG-RANGE PROJECTION," the official Xinhua News Agency said. It said the war games constituted the army's "largest-ever tactical military exercise," although numbers of troops involved were relatively small.

THE 2.3 MILLION-MEMBER PLA IS THE WORLD'S LARGEST STANDING MILITARY. The PLA has undergone a rapid upgrade in recent years in both equipment and doctrine. At the same time, training and tactics have been redesigned to take advantage of information technology and China's much-improved economy and infrastructure.

The stress of a poor economy and a liberal administration led by a black president are among the causes for the recent rise, the report from the Southern Poverty Law Center says. Conspiracy theories about a secret Mexican plan to reclaim the Southwest are also growing amid the public debate about illegal immigration.

Bart McEntire, a special agent with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, told SPLC researchers that this is the most growth he's seen in more than a decade. "ALL IT'S LACKING IS A SPARK," McEntire said in the report.

Analysts say she will take a tough line on corruption and electoral reform. Last month, US President Barack Obama skipped Nigeria on his first official Africa trip, in what was seen as a snub for its record on governance.

"NIGERIA IS UNDOUBTEDLY THE MOST IMPORTANT COUNTRY IN SUB-SAHARAN AFRICA," Assistant US Secretary of State for African Affairs, Johnnie Carson, was quoted as saying by Reuters news agency, en route to the Nigerian capital Abuja. But Mr Carson said it had also been described as "THE MOST CORRUPT STATE IN AFRICA".

UK farmers have warned that unless they can feed their pigs and poultry on GM soya and maize varieties being grown in North and South America - but which are currently unlicensed for use in Europe - they may be forced to leave the industry. The article notes that GM crop producers in the Americas have begun exporting to China and India rather than the EU. The issue is expected to be on the EU agenda in the autumn.

A leader in the Telegraph argues, "Farmers are overwhelmed with regulation and red tape, most, it is true, the result of our membership of the [EU's] Common Agricultural Policy, which has been instrumental in embedding inefficiencies in Continental farming and impoverishing many producers in the developing world through the dumping of surpluses."

An official report also disclosed that hundreds of errors had been made in these "interception" operations, with the wrong phone numbers or emails being monitored. The figures will fuel concerns over the use of the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act by public bodies. The Act gives authorities – including councils, the police and intelligence agencies – the power to request access to confidential communications data, including lists of telephone numbers dialled and email addresses to which messages have been sent.

COUNCILS HAVE BEEN ACCUSED OF USING THE POWERS, which were originally intended to tackle terrorism and organised crime, FOR TRIVIAL MATTERS SUCH AS LITTERING AND DOG FOULING. Only last month, it emerged that councils and other official bodies had used hidden tracking devices to spy on members of the public.

Chris Huhne, Liberal Democrat home affairs spokesman, said: "It cannot be a justified response to the problems we face in this country that the state is spying on half a million people a year. WE HAVE SLEEPWALKED INTO A SURVEILLANCE STATE BUT WITHOUT ADEQUATE SAFEGUARDS."