Organisers of the event say that the Arrows military background might be "offensive" to other countries taking part in the Games. The display team have performed at more than 4000 events worldwide, but the Department of Culture, Media and Sport have deemed the display team "too militaristically British".

HOW EVER - HERE IS THE COMMENT FROM THE OFFICIAL RAF WEBSITE:-

Don't believe everything you read in the newspapers!

"There has been a lot of speculation recently both in the media and online regarding whether we have been banned from displaying at the 2012 Olympics, and we are getting an increasingly large amount of enquiries from people wondering whether or not to sign online petitions. We are very happy to tell you that the story is complete rubbish!

It's far too early for either us or the organising committee of London 2012 to discuss any participation by the Red Arrows in the celebrations. We plan our display season one year in advance and so we're currently busy trying to organise our 2008 display season. We would like to thank everyone for their support - but hope that the truth behind this story will put everyone's concerns to rest."

The "violent terrorist gang" was based in the western Xinjiang region and headed by a man identified as Abdulrahman Tuersun, Public Security Ministry spokesman Wu Heping said at a news conference. Wu said 35 people, including Tuersun and another man, Kuerban Mutalifu, were arrested between March 26 and April 6 for plotting to kidnap athletes, foreign journalists and other visitors to August's Olympics. Sections of Xinjiang's Muslim Turkic Uighur ethnic group have staged a struggle for a breakaway state.

"They wanted to make a global impact to sabotage the Beijing Olympics," Wu said, adding: "We face a real terrorist threat." Wu urged residents to raise their alertness and contact police about suspicious people or incidents.

China has tried to portray the insurgency in Xinjiang as linked to terrorist organizations in Central Asia and the Middle East. EVIDENCE HAS OFTEN BEEN SCANT, THOUGH, AND SOME TERROR EXPERTS AND OVERSEAS LAW ENFORCEMENT OFFICIALS HAVE QUESTIONED WHETHER SUCH TIES EXIST.

But four days after the launch another intriguing feature of the test became apparent: analysis of photographs taken by the Digital Globe QuickBird satellite indicated that the launch site of Kavoshgar 1, as the Shihab missile was dubbed by the Iranians, is also the site where IRAN IS BUSY DEVELOPING BALLISTIC MISSILES WITH A RANGE OF ABOUT 6,000 KM.

The site, about 230 km southeast of Teheran, was previously unknown and its link with the Iranian weapons program was revealed by Jane's Intelligence Review after the images were studied by a former Iraq weapons inspector. Using a space program as a façade for a weapons program was the path chosen by Korea until it declared it had passed the nuclear weapon threshold.

Missiles with a range of 6,000 km, launched from Teheran's environs, can hit not only any Middle Eastern countries, but also any target in Europe, including targets in Britain; almost any target in China and Russia, and most of India. President Shimon Peres had posited several times in the last few months that THERE WAS "NO LOGIC" IN WORKING DILIGENTLY TOWARDS PRODUCING LONG-RANGE BALLISTIC MISSILES UNLESS IT PLANNED TO COUPLE SUCH MISSILES WITH NUCLEAR WARHEADS.

The FAA official who ordered the audits last month, Nicholas Sabatini, faced tough questions from a Senate subcommittee about the agency's lax oversight of airlines and his own accountability for recent breakdowns. The FAA noted that airlines had 18 months to complete the work on the MD-80s since the initial order was issued in September 2006.

"The carrier was not in compliance with an airworthiness directive," Sabatini told Congress, "we brought that to their attention and they made the right decision." American, a unit of Fort Worth, Texas-based AMR Corp., had canceled nearly 3,000 flights this week as of Thursday due to the safety inspections of its MD-80 aircraft following an FAA warning, and said an unspecified number of additional cancellations were expected through Saturday. The cancellations come at a time of high fuel prices and mixed success among the major air carriers at getting domestic fare increases to stick. The fact that airplanes are flying very full is making it difficult for airlines that cancel flights to find empty seats on other carriers to rebook their passengers.

"This disruption is severe," said Webster O'Brien, an industry expert with aviation consulting firm Simat, Helliesen & Eichner. "People are going to be unhappy. There isn't going to be an easy way to walk everybody out of it." No one knows for sure how much money the mess will cost the airlines, particularly American, which couldn't provide an exact estimate Thursday. Analysts say the toll at American could easily be tens of millions of dollars, perhaps much more.

Matters of security on Japanese soil will be handled by the domestic police alone, and that principle will not be compromised just because it is the Olympics, said the Chairman of the National Public Safety Commission in Tokyo. "I do not personally accept the idea that they will run in Japan as they ran in other countries," said Shinya Izumi.

He was discussing arrangements for the Nagano leg of the torch relay later this month. Mr Izumi, reflecting the revelation that the blue-tracksuited Chinese runners are in fact paramiltary-trained police, said that any security role they played - including pushing protesters off the road as they have done elsewhere - would be an infringement of Japan's sovereignty.

Mr Izumi said that Japan "would not welcome" the sort of behaviour by the undercover police that caused Lord Coe, the organiser of the 2012 games, to describe them as "thugs" in an unguarded moment. The Beijing organisers tried to reassure the IOC today about security around the remainder of the Olympic torch relay, which today moves on to Buenos Aires. Argentine authorities were expected to deploy 1,300 federal police, 1,500 naval police and some 3,000 traffic police and volunteers to try to ensure security around the torch.

Even disinfecting the vegetables with chemical agents was not completely effective, according to a report from a team in the U.S. Although washing fresh produce before eating is known to reduce the risk of food poisoning, there have long been doubts about its total effectiveness. Microbes such as salmonella and E.coli may elude water and chemicals by burrowing into leaves.

When food is irradiated it is blasted by beams of electrons, X-rays or Gamma rays which kill bacteria, parasites and insects. The amount of energy emitted is low compared to cooking and does not warm the food, unlike microwave radiation. Fresh fruits and vegetables grown in open fields carry a potential risk of contamination by bugs from the soil, irrigation water, manure or wildlife. Under certain circumstances, such bugs can penetrate the flesh of fruits or vegetable leaves.

The research was presented yesterday at the annual meeting of the American Chemical Society in New Orleans. Irradiation is a controversial process with some consumer groups concerned about safety issues involved in exposing food to radiation.

JACQUES ROGGE, THE PRESIDENT OF THE INTERNATIONAL OLYMPIC COMMITTEE (IOC), said that competitors were free to express their political views but faced sanctions if they indulged in propaganda. He accompanied those comments with an admission that the Games were in "crisis" after pro-Tibet protests engulfed the Olympic torch relay. MR ROGGE'S CALL FOR BEIJING TO ABIDE BY ITS PROMISE TO ADDRESS HUMAN RIGHTS WAS GIVEN SHORT SHRIFT BY BEIJING, WHICH BLUNTLY TOLD HIM TO KEEP POLITICS OUT OF THE GAMES.

The Nazis' appropriation of the 1936 Berlin Games for the purposes of propaganda also included THE INTRODUCTION OF A GRAND TORCH RELAY TO THE GAMES - the very same that is causing trouble today.

BRITISH ATHLETES - ORIGINALLY TOLD THAT THEY COULD NOT COMMENT ON "POLITICALLY SENSITIVE ISSUES" before the edict was hastily retracted by British Olympic chiefs accused of gagging free speech - have asked for further clarification. "There is a difference between propaganda and opinion and I would expect most of our athletes to know it. Wearing a Free Tibet T-shirt is going to be seen as propaganda."

"But if athletes are asked a direct question, there should be no problem in them answering it," said Pete Gardner, the BAC's chief executive. "We want the IOC to clarify that." Mr Rogge will write to the 205 national Olympic committees with guidelines to "prevent further politicisation" of the Games. Most athletes will have no interest in anything other than their sporting performance but some want to be free to make political statements.

China will host the Summer Olympics and world leaders are facing pressure from human rights activists to boycott the opening ceremony in Beijing. The U.N. spokeswoman said Ban told China some months ago he might not be able to accept the invitation because of "scheduling matters."

"The secretary-general has conveyed to the government (of China) some months ago that he may not be in a position to accept the invitation to attend this important event due to scheduling issues," U.N. spokeswoman Marie Okabe told a regular news conference. She later explained that he would definitely not attend the ceremony, but would make an official visit to China at another time. She declined to give any details about the scheduling conflict.

China has come under harsh criticism from Western governments for a bloody crackdown in Tibet and has been accused by human rights groups of not doing enough to pressure Sudan's government to end the bloodshed in its Darfur region. U.S. President George W. Bush is facing pressure from the three presidential candidates to boycott the ceremony. Bush said this week he plans to attend the opening ceremony and to speak out on religious freedoms. Separately, THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT URGED EUROPEAN UNION LEADERS ON THURSDAY TO BOYCOTT THE OPENING CEREMONY AT THE BEIJING Olympics unless China starts talks with the Dalai Lama over the situation in Tibet.

ALARMED BY THE UNFOLDING CRISIS IN THE FINANCIAL MARKETS, he once again began trading for his giant hedge fund - and won big while so many others lost. "I CONSIDER THIS THE BIGGEST FINANCIAL CRISIS OF MY LIFETIME," Mr. Soros said during an interview Monday in his office overlooking Central Park. "A 'superbubble' that has been swelling for a quarter of a century is finally bursting", he said.

Mr. Soros began meeting with hedge fund managers like John Paulson, who was early to predict a crisis in the housing market. He interrogated his portfolio managers and external hedge funds that manage his fund's money, and he took on new positions to hedge where they might have gone wrong. HIS LAST-MINUTE STRATEGIES CONTRIBUTED TO A 32 PERCENT RETURN - OR ROUGHLY $4 BILLION FOR THE YEAR.

The more Mr. Soros learned about the crisis, the more certain he became that he should rebroadcast his theories. In the book, Mr. Soros, a fierce critic of the Bush administration, faults regulators for allowing the buildup of the housing and mortgage bubbles. He envisions a time, not so distant, WHEN THE DOLLAR IS NO LONGER THE WORLD'S MAIN CURRENCY and people will have a harder time borrowing money.

THE NEW YORK CITY POLICE DEPARTMENT is pulling out all the stops to protect Pope Benedict XVI during his visit to New York next week. From ROOFTOP SNIPERS TO HOVERING HELICOPTERS, it will all resemble the security operations used to protect the president. It's an operation that will involve virtually the entire NYPD. And if you're trying to move around Manhattan when the pope is here, it will affect you, too.

It begins for us next Friday with the papal arrival and a speech at the United Nations right at the start of the business day. As a city, this is when we'll feel the biggest traffic impact because the pope will leave the U.N. and visit both the Park East Synagogue on 67th Street and Fifth Avenue, and St. Joseph's Church on East 87th before retiring to the papal residence on 72nd Street. It will be like several things we've seen before.

"The closer you are to those locations, the more you are going to feel the effects of it," NYPD Commissioner Ray Kelly said. When asked if will be like a U.N. general assembly followed by a parade followed by a presidential visit, Kelly said, "yes" to laughter. The NYPD, Secret Service and the Vatican Swiss Guard will all be on security duty when Pope Benedict is in town. Sunday will be the highlight when he goes down to ground zero and up to Yankee Stadium and officials warn the best way to get around will be mass transit.

"THE CRISIS IS A SPECULATIVE ATTACK AND IT WILL LAST," said Jose Graziano, the UN food and farm organization's regional representative for Latin America and the Caribbean. "This is not a conspiracy theory," he said. Across the globe foods from bread to milk have become more expensive and in some countries helped fuel inflation. High prices for rice, beans and other food staples provoked food riots in Haiti this week.

"The lack of confidence in the (U.S.) dollar has led investment funds to look for higher returns in commodities - first metals and then foods," Graziano told a news conference in the capital. "INVESTORS HAVE SPECULATED IN COMMODITIES INCLUDING WHEAT, CORN AND RICE because stocks in recent years have been drawn down by rising demand in emerging markets and supply shortages due to adverse climate in key producer nations," Graziano said.

"SPECULATIVE ATTACKS BECOME POSSIBLE WHEN YOU HAVE LOW RESERVES," Graziano said. Stocks of some food crops have fallen to their lowest levels in three decades, according to Brazilian farm experts.

"Pope Benedict won't necessarily touch upon specific crises in the world: unfortunately, they are too many to be dealt with in a few minutes," he told an audience of nongovernmental organizations and journalists. "But surely, coming to the U.N. AS A PILGRIM OF PEACE, he will say that we cannot base our relations on the false notion that might makes right, that we cannot build our future on a simple balance of power," Migliore said.

"No, our future must be based on respect for universal truths and our common humanity. It's quite normal to expect that, in the wake of his predecessors, POPE BENEDICT WILL SPEAK OF PEACE," Migliore said. The Vatican has observer status at the United Nations. Migliore told questioners it preferred that to full membership because IT ENABLED THE HOLY SEE TO STAY OUT OF DIRECT INVOLVEMENT IN POLITICAL, ECONOMIC AND MILITARY ISSUES.

The archbishop noted that this year marked the 60th anniversary of the U.N. Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Benedict has often spoken of the need for respect for rights, including religious freedom. "The papacy ... works at the U.N. ... above all by highlighting and insisting on essential values and fundamental rights. I can anticipate that next week Pope Benedict will do just that," Migliore said.

THE AMOUNT OF WATER AVAILABLE PER PERSON IN THE ARID REGION WILL HALVE BY 2050, a report from the bank estimates. IT BLAMES CLIMATE CHANGE AND POPULATION GROWTH FOR NEW PRESSURES ON SUPPLIES. Governments in the region should tackle water waste, build more efficient networks and reduce water use - especially in farming, the bank says. The World Bank report suggests farmers could switch to crops that require less water.

According to its figures, declining water quality has already knocked around 1% off gross domestic product in Morocco, Algeria and Egypt, and nearly 3% in Iran. "We've simply got to reduce the amount of water used, especially in agriculture, which accounts for 85% of the total," said Julia Bucknall, natural resource management specialist at the World Bank, addressing reporters in Rabat, Morocco.

She added that water firms needed to cut water lost by evaporation. World Bank officials identified Tunisia and Jordan as being strong performers in managing water demand and making the most of available water resources.

Now investigators say they have evidence of emotional, physical and sexual abuse of young children. They also say they have evidence that there is a bed inside the sacred temple where young girls were forced to have sex with older men. The ranch and compound are owned and run by the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. It is a sect which broke away from the Mormon Church when it banned polygamy more than 100 years ago. Inside the ranch they still practice polygamy.

It was a frightened, whispered call from a 16-year-old girl, referred to as "Sarah", that led to the police raid on the compound last week. "Sarah" has identified her husband as Dale Barlow, a registered sex offender. IN THE PAST WEEK, MORE THAN 400 CHILDREN HAVE BEEN REMOVED FROM THE COMPOUND. The police say most of the sect members who have left the ranch (the children were removed and MORE THAN 100 WOMEN WENT WITH THEM) are not communicating much with their investigators.

For now the women and children are hidden well away from prying eyes. Pictures taken earlier in the week show them wearing long, old-fashioned dresses, with high necklines. The only clue as to life inside the compound comes from former sect members. Flora Jessop is one. Even her name seems from another age. "I know that what this girl is saying is the absolute truth," she says. "She is in imminent danger."

Behind the gates, the sect says it is being persecuted. The men who remain cling on to their beliefs. But their days may be numbered.

Movement for Democratic Change leader Morgan Tsvangirai said Mugabe, who has held power since independence in 1980, would be ousted with the help of other African nations. "We'll manage to get Mugabe out. Mugabe is being deserted. No one wants to touch Mugabe in the region now. Eventually, we will ease him out," Tsvangirai told Time Magazine.

He spoke ahead of an emergency southern African summit called for Lusaka at the weekend to discuss growing fears the post election deadlock could lead to bloodshed in Zimbabwe, already suffering economic collapse. Tsvangirai's MDC accuses Mugabe, 84, of prolonging a long delay in issuing the results of a March 29 presidential election while he organizes a violent response to his biggest defeat since taking power after independence from Britain.

Mugabe's ZANU-PF party lost control of parliament for the first time in the election but no results of the parallel presidential vote have been issued. "THIS IS, IN A SENSE, A DE FACTO MILITARY COUP. They have ROLLED OUT MILITARY FORCES ACROSS THE WHOLE COUNTRY, to prepare for a run-off and try to cow the population. It's an attempt to try to create conditions for Mugabe to win," Tsvangirai said.