As US President George W. Bush lavished praise this week on Palestinian Authority (PA) and Fatah Chairman Mahmoud Abbas, the latter broadcast on the TV station which he controls a stinging message: the US is "the greatest Satan in the world" - Palestinian Legislative Council Member Najat Abu-Bakr (Fatah), PA TV, March 3, 2008. The full 30-page PMW report examines statements made in the PA media over the past several years regarding the PA's affinity for countries such as North Korea, Cuba, and Venezuela, which are all openly anti-American.

"Significantly," the report warns, "the affinity that is felt for such geographically distant non-Muslim countries is precisely because these states publicly challenge and express loathing for the US." The report also examined statements showing PA officials' loathing for the United States, such as a Fatah legislator's recent claim that the US is "the greatest Satan in the world."

Among the statements quoted in the report:- "Allah, take hold of the Americans and their allies - Allah, count them and kill them to the last one and don't leave even one." - Ahmed Bahar, speaker of the PA legislative council, on PA TV in April 2007.

The Youth Justice Board (YJB), which oversees juvenile offenders in England and Wales, said it has commissioned a study to investigate the reasons. Commentators ascribed the increase partly to a rise in the total number of girls aged under 17 and partly to the police being more willing to take action against girls accused of crimes such as school fights. Boys still commit most youth crime but the YJB said offences by males fell two percent over the same period.

In its annual Workload Data research, the YJB reported that since 2006 young females - some as young as 10 - committed almost 60,000 crimes including theft, criminal damage, violent attacks, criminal damage and public order crimes. This was a 25 percent increase from 2003/2004, when more than 47,000 offences by girls were committed.

Research from the Design Council meanwhile, revealed that one in three of the young "hot product" victims were listening to music on headphones, talking, texting or playing on a games console when their property was snatched.

Britain's third-biggest bank said on Thursday the writedown for its investment bank arm Barclays Capital was net of a 700 million pound gain on the fair valuation of debt it carries on its own books. The bank had already said last month its first quarter profits would fall from a year ago as earnings at BarCap and its Barclays Global Investors fund management unit had been hit by financial market turmoil, but it has not disclosed the extent of the fall. The bank's profits in April, excluding BarCap, were above a year ago, it said

The initiative would punish water wasters and limit such activities as watering lawns and washing vehicles. And it would revive a controversial effort to recycle sewage water. The aggressive, multiyear proposal could do much to catch the city up to other Southern California communities that have launched advanced recycling programs. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa's effort could cost up to $2 billion.

Just to meet a 15% increase in demand by 2030, officials say 32 billion gallons a year will have to be saved or recaptured - enough to cover the San Fernando Valley with a foot of water. Prohibitions during the 1990s drought - banning residents from washing driveways and sidewalks, letting sprinklers flood into gutters and watering grass in midday - would be enforced again, with additional restrictions. Other cities facing the same challenges, including Long Beach, have already moved to curtail residential and commercial water usage and punish waste. Orange County and other Southern California agencies are also recycling treated sewage water back into the drinking supply.

David Coffin, a Westchester Neighborhood Council member who tracks water issues, said the plan misses a larger point: controlling growth. "I don't think they're going to make any headway. They're adding 14,000 to 16,000 housing units a year in the face of water shortages. How are they going to supply all those people?"

"Pythons are likely to colonize anywhere alligators live, including north Florida, Georgia and Louisiana," said Frank Mazzotti, University of Florida Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences professor, in his two-year study.

The pythons thriving in Florida are mostly Burmese pythons from Myanmar that were brought over as pets and then turned loose in the wild. From 2002-2005, 201 of the beasts were caught by state authorities, but in the last two years the number has more than doubled to 418, Mazzotti said in his study published on the university website. The largest python caught so far in Florida measured five meters (16.4 feet) and weighed 70 kilograms (154 pounds).

Mazzotti said the serpents, despite their awesome size, are not poisonous, but are excellent swimmers and able to cover great distances in little time. Some, trapped and released with radio transmitters, swam 60 kilometers (37 miles) in a few hours. Highly adaptable, pythons prey on cats, dogs, hares, foxes, squirrels, raccoons and even alligators, allowing them to thrive in a variety of environments. After populating the Florida Everglades - a vast marshland - where it is estimated they number 30,000, the giant python is now spreading across the rest of the peninsula.

The previous highest denomination note was for Z$250m, issued 10 days ago. Meanwhile, the opposition has rejected the move to delay the presidential run-off, possibly until July, saying it was a government ploy to stay in power. It called for an emergency regional summit, urging neighbouring countries to take "firm resolutions".

Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) leader Morgan Tsvangirai gained more votes than President Robert Mugabe in the first round on 29 March, but did not pass the 50% threshold to be elected, according to the official results.

Zimbabwe's annual inflation rate is 165,000% and one economist said prices now double every week. "Prices are now doubling every week instead of every month and it is hard to see how we can survive to the end of June or how an election will be feasible at all if things continue to deteriorate at this pace," said Harare economist John Robertson, according to the AP news agency.

Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao, who has been in the area since the earthquake struck, said the focus remained on getting to survivors. "Saving lives is still our top priority, as long as hope of survival still exists," he said. But the task remains huge. More than 200,000 houses have collapsed in Sichuan province, while more than four million have been damaged in some way, Xinhua said.

Tens of thousands of Chinese troops and police are in the region to help with relief efforts but damage to roads is still hampering their mobility. Some soldiers have parachuted into the remotest areas, and essential supplies have been dropped from planes.

Populations of land-based species fell by 25%, marine by 28% and freshwater by 29%, it says. Humans are wiping out about 1% of all other species every year, and one of the "great extinction episodes" in the Earth's history is under way, it says. Pollution, farming and urban expansion, over-fishing and hunting are blamed.

The Living Planet Index, compiled by the society in partnership with the wildlife group WWF, tracks the fortunes of more than 1,400 species of fish, amphibians, reptiles, birds and mammals, using scientific publications and online databases. It said numbers had declined by 27% in the 35 years from 1970 to 2005. Some of the worst hit are marine species which saw their numbers plummet by 28% in just 10 years, between 1995 and 2005.

Colin Butfield, head of campaigns at WWF UK, said: "Biodiversity underpins the health of the planet and has a direct impact on all our lives, so it is alarming that despite an increased awareness of environmental issues we continue to see a downward trend." Director general James Leape said: "Reduced biodiversity means millions of people face a future where food supplies are more vulnerable to pests and disease and where water is in irregular or short supply. No-one can escape the impact of biodiversity loss because reduced global diversity translates quite clearly into fewer new medicines, greater vulnerability to natural disasters and greater effects from global warming."

"THE ALLIANCE BETWEEN OUR GOVERNMENTS IS UNBREAKABLE," Bush said in remarks prepared for an address to the Israeli parliament marking the 60th anniversary of the creation of Israel, an event the Palestinians regard as a "catastrophe." "Israel's population may be just over seven million. But when you confront terror and evil, you are 307 million strong, because America stands with you."

Bush planned to tell Israel's Knesset that the United States and its allies will keep up the battle against extremist groups, including Al-Qaeda, the Lebanese Hezbollah militia and Hamas, which runs the Gaza Strip. "The president will reiterate that the United States is Israel's closest friend and ally," said US national security spokesman Gordon Johndroe. Bush, who is in Israel at the start of a five-day visit to the region, also WARNED THAT ALLOWING ARCHFOE IRAN TO OBTAIN NUCLEAR WEAPONS WOULD BE "AN UNFORGIVABLE BETRAYAL OF FUTURE GENERATIONS."

The goal is to increase the proportion of Torah-observant lawyers into Israel's legal system. Dr. Aviad Cohen, Dean of the College, explained, "Having invested much thought and discussions regarding the challenges facing the Jewish Nation and the State of Israel, we have decided that the time is ripe to climb up to the next level and found a Beit Medrash (Torah study hall) within the college. The integration of people with values, whose strengths are nourished from Jewish sources and the eternal values of the Jewish people, can and should have an influence on the character of the State of Israel for many years to come."

"Given this recognition," Cohen continued, "we wish to raise a generation of jurists for whom the Torah and the values of Jewish tradition are the center of their lives, and who excel academically, and who will be the front line of the jurists in Israel."

The college wishes to attract more religious youths into Israeli law, in light of the perceived loss of rabbinical court authority over the past several years. The absence of religious and hareid-religious faces on the Supreme Court is also an impetus for the new program.

Shas, Israel's Sephardic-hareidi-religious party, is the party on which the government coalition is currently most dependent. Until now, it HAS THREATENED TO QUIT ONLY IF NEGOTIATIONS WITH THE PALESTINIAN AUTHORITY DEAL WITH THE PARTITION OF JERUSALEM. Despite much evidence that such talks have, in fact, begun, Shas has maintained that no such talks are underway - while continuing to insist that IT WOULD QUIT THE MOMENT THEY BEGIN.

Now, however - just before the arrival of U.S. President George Bush in honor of Israel's 60th birthday - SHAS SAYS THAT ANY AGREEMENT WITH THE PA IS DANGEROUS ENOUGH TO WARRANT QUITTING THE GOVERNMENT. Other religious elements are similarly suspicious of Olmert, and leading rabbis have written to Bush himself, asking him not to meet with the Israeli premier.

"The Prime Minister is prepared to betray his country and homeland in order to save himself from the law," the Yesha Rabbis Council writes in a particularly strong letter. "Do not let yourself be engraved in history as Nebuchadnezzar or Titus [who destroyed Jerusalem 2,500 and 2,000 years ago, respectively]." Also signed on the letter are Rabbis Yaakov Yosef, David Druckman, Shmuel Eliyahu and Shalom Dov Wolpe.

"In the name of the Nation of Israel, the Land of Israel, the Torah of Israel, and the G-d of Israel, we demand of your honor to cease pressuring Israel to give land to the Arabs. We ask that you do not meet with Mr. Olmert on these matters, and certainly not during this period. Mr. President, do not be engraved in history as Nebuchadnezzar and Titus, who destroyed Jerusalem. You certainy recall that America does not benefit from causing harm to the Jewish People and its land. If you work on behalf the integrity of the Land of Israel, we guarantee you and your country endless blessings."

The paper accuses Independent MEP Tom Wise, and Conservative MEPs Robert Atkins, David Sumberg, Roger Helmer and Conservative leader in the European Parliament Giles Chichester of exploiting the system by making exorbitant claims for expenses such as flights, daily allowances, staff allowances and office costs. Sumberg reportedly paid his wife £95,000 a year to work as his secretary and Chichester employed his wife on a part-time basis at £30,000 a year.

The main feature focuses on comments from Tom Wise, who told an undercover reporter: "It's cushy - £60,000 a year! Thank you very much indeed! WHAT HAVE WE GOT TO DO FOR IT? NOT A LOT! I don't know what an MEP's job is. NO ONE'S EVER GIVEN ME A JOB DESCRIPTION. I've no idea what an MEP should or shouldn't do. So you make it up as you go along."

When the News of the World asked Sir Robert Atkins about his staffing allowance, he said: "It's very complicated and I don't suppose any of your readers would understand it." The paper's leader describes THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AS A "MONEY-PIT FOR CASH-GRABBING FREELOADERS WHO CYNICALLY MILK OUR TAXES FOR THOUSANDS OF POUNDS A WEEK EACH."

The article quotes a senior Commission official saying, "The French use [chlorine washing] for exports to Saudi Arabia. This fact has been concealed. Not once has it been mentioned in all the Commission meetings on this subject. This is all about protecting vested interests." The European Food Safety Agency has found that chlorine washing "does not indicate a safety concern" and Commission lawyers say the import bar breaches World Trade Organisation rules.

"IN TODAY'S WORLD, THERE ARE 2 BILLION PEOPLE UNDER THE DROUGHT CONDITIONS, 90 percent of which come from development countries," said Du Ying, vice chairman of China's National Development and Reform Commission. "With poor infrastructure and vulnerable ecosystem, developing countries are most vulnerable to the adverse effects of drought, desertification and climate change," Du told a ministerial roundtable during the 16th meeting of the Commission on Sustainable development.

ON FOOD SECURITY, Du noted that there are still 850 MILLION PEOPLE in the world hardly getting enough to eat. He called for more efforts to address food security, including increasing food supply, managing demand AND BUILDING A NEW INTERNATIONAL TRADE ORDER.

THE SHIP WILL NOT, BE CARRYING OIL OR PETROLEUM. It is the first of many shipments of DRINKING WATER that form part of a program to slake the thirst of this drought-plagued city. Other proposals, such as a controversial plan TO DIVERT WATER FROM THE EBRO RIVER, have pitted the Catalan capital against farmers and other cities, in a mild foretaste of the WATER-WARS that some have darkly predicted will afflict major regions of the planet in the coming years.

Spain is in the grip of its worst drought in a century, this year's total rainfall, for example, has been 40% lower than average for the equivalent period, and the country's reservoirs are, on average, only 30% full. The reservoirs serving Barcelona are only 20% full, and without significant rainfall, supplies of drinking water will likely run dry by October. "WE'RE IN CRISIS," says Joan Armengol, professor of ecology at the University of Barcelona. "AND YOU CAN'T LEAVE 5.5 MILLION PEOPLE IN CRISIS. The government has to take the bull by the horns."

Even the farmers to the north of the city are suffering from the city's all-consuming thirst. "Already, some FARMERS IN THE TER AREA ARE PROHIBITED FROM IRRIGATING BECAUSE THE WATER IS NEEDED FOR BARCELONA," says Peasants' Union spokesman Felip Domenech. "THIS DIVERSION COULD CAUSE ENTIRE HARVESTS TO FAIL."