The Senate climate bill expected to be debated much of this week would cut emissions of carbon dioxide from burning fossil fuels and other greenhouse gases by about 70 percent over the next four decades. The bill targets power plants, refineries, factories and transportation.

Supporters argue that the shift away from fossil fuels can be made without significant economic damage and that failure to address global warming itself would produce greater economic harm later this century. Bush, during a White House event that focused on keeping taxes low, said the Senate bill "would impose roughly $6 trillion in new costs on the American economy." The president in the past has expressed opposition to mandatory limits on carbon dioxide and other pollution linked to global warming.

"There's a much better way to address the environment than imposing these costs ... which will ultimately have to be borne by American consumers," said Bush, who has favored voluntary efforts and technology innovation to address global warming.

The U2 frontman, who was in Japan to take part in a major development conference last week, said that a United States of Africa "would be the dream" in the long term. "I think a kind of broader African identity is going to be very important to deal with tribal tensions," Bono told Tuesday's Asahi Shimbun, where he served as a guest-editor for a special Africa edition on Saturday.

The African Union was created in 2002 with inspiration from the European Union, but critics say the body has lacked the funds and political will to take effective action on the continent's flashpoints. It intervened in 2004 in the strife-torn western Sudanese region of Darfur, but has relinquished leadership to the United Nations to form a joint peacekeeping force. However, an African Union-backed force in March for the first time removed a renegade leader in an intervention in the Comoros island of Anjouan.

Born in Denmark and officially embraced as EU policy last year, "flexicurity" describes a combination of flexibility - easy hire-and-fire laws - with security - generous unemployment benefits, active retraining and incentives to return to work. The aim is to protect the worker, not the job, since in a fast-changing globalized economy few if any can expect to keep the same job for life.

"The flexibility of labor markets was coming about anyway but security requires a lot of work," EU Employment and Social Affairs Commissioner Vladimir Spidla said in an interview. He highlighted the importance of shaping reforms in a social dialogue among trade unions, employers and government, citing an agreement last month in free-marketeering Britain to give temporary agency workers more rights as a good example.

However, core eurozone countries have a long way to go. Germany and France retain stubbornly high long-term and youth unemployment, while Italy has the youngest retirement age and the lowest proportion of adults in work in western Europe. By contrast, Denmark has achieved virtual full employment, with a jobless rate of just 2.7 percent in April and the highest rate of labor market participation for men and women in the EU.

UN officials said Secretary General Ban Ki-moon would call for the immediate suspension or elimination of price controls or other trade restrictions. But many observers have so far focused on Zimbabwe's Robert Mugabe, whose presence at the summit has been called "obscene" by the UK and Australia. Australian Foreign Minister Stephen Smith said the Zimbabwean president was "the person who has presided over the starvation of his people".

The hosts of the Rome conference - the UN's Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) - has warned the industrialised countries that unless they increase yields, eliminate barriers and move food to where it is needed most, a global catastrophe could result. The recent crisis is believed to have pushed another 100 million people into hunger worldwide. Poorer countries are faced with a 40% increase in their food imports bill this year.

In the short term, the report will call for a reduction in tariffs and the provision of subsidies for poorer farmers. The long-term measures will focus on increased investment.

The GLA, set up in 2005 to protect low-paid workers, says thousands of immigrants have worked in appalling conditions for below the minimum wage. The authority says it has revoked 25 employment agents' licences already this year - twice as many as last year. In response, it is to launch a major increase in enforcement operations.

The GLA currently licenses 1,200 gangmasters, but since its creation has revoked the licenses of 57. THE PROBLEM OF EXPLOITATION BY UNSCRUPULOUS EMPLOYMENT AGENTS IS PARTICULARLY ACUTE IN THE FOOD PROCESSING AND AGRICULTURAL INDUSTRIES, says the GLA. It reports people being forced to work in unsafe conditions, often for wages well below the legal minimum, and workers having their families back at home threatened.

The GLA was set up in 2005 to curb abuse of workers in agriculture, shellfish gathering and food processing, following the deaths of 23 Chinese cockle pickers in Morecambe Bay, Lancashire, a year earlier.

Nearly two-thirds think the government has "gone back on its initial promise" to give them a say on the EU Constitution, even though it has been replaced by the Lisbon Treaty. The findings come ahead of a High Court battle this week between the government and eurosceptic millionaire Stuart Wheeler, who is seeking a judicial review to force a vote.

Ministers insist the treaty is substantially different to the constitution, which was formally ditched in 2005 after voters in France and Holland rejected it. But critics argue the treaty is the same in all but name to the constitution.

IAEA head Mohamed El Baradei did not say whether his inspectors would be granted access to the site during the planned June 22-24 visit. But a senior diplomat familiar with the details of the planned visit said agency personnel had been told they could visit the facility. The diplomat spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the matter.

The building was flattened by Israel in September. Neither the United States nor Israel gave the IAEA information about the site until late April, about a year after they obtained what they considered to be decisive intelligence: dozens of photographs from a handheld camera that showed both the interior and exterior of the compound in Syria's eastern desert.

Since that time, Syria has not reacted to repeated agency requests for a visit to check out the allegations, using the interval to erect another structure over the site - a move that heightened suspicions of a possible cover-up.

The Home Secretary, Jacqui Smith, will attend a meeting of the Parliamentary Labour Party tonight to confront MPs who are threatening to inflict a humiliating defeat on the Government when the proposals come before the Commons later this month. As many as 50 backbenchers are thought to be preparing to rebel, and ministers have suggested that concessions will be offered which will prove sufficient to secure their support. But in a newspaper article, the Prime Minister made clear that there would be no concession on the main tenants of the Bill, saying: "I will stick to the principles I have set out and do the right thing."

The Council of Europe, a human rights watchdog, has written a letter warning that the 42 day limit would be "excessive," and put Britain "way out of line" with the rest of Europe. But Mr Brown insisted: "The challenge for every government is to respond to the changing demands of national security, while upholding something that is at the heart of the British constitutional settlement: the preservation of civil liberties."

The Bishop of Stafford, the Rt Rev Gordon Mursell, said a refusal to face the truth about climate change was akin to locking up future generations and "throwing away the key". He insisted he was not accusing those who ignored the environment of being child abusers, but added that such shocking parallels were needed to make people aware of their responsibility. Fritzl, 73, held his daughter Elisabeth captive for 24 years in a dungeon beneath the family home in Austria, repeatedly raping her and fathering seven children, one of whom died days after birth.

Writing in his local parish magazine delivered across the Diocese of Lichfield, the bishop said: "Josef Fritzl represents merely the most extreme form of a very common philosophy of life: I will do what makes me happy, and if that causes others to suffer, hard luck. In fact you could argue that, by our refusal to face the truth about climate change, we are as guilty as he is - we are in effect locking our children and grandchildren into a world with no future and throwing away the key."

This new breed of singleton has been dubbed a 'freemale', because she chooses her freedom over a family. Figures from the Office of National Statistics reveal that 8 per cent of the female population aged between 25 and 44 live alone. This equates to some 690,480 women - double the number of 20 years ago, when there were approximately 345,000. The figures coincide with a record low in marriage rates and a rise in divorce rates. And recent research showed that some two-thirds feel that they can enjoy a happy and fulfilled life without a partner. The trend looks set to continue.

Dr Jan Macvarish, a sociologist from the University of Kent and author of a research paper Understanding the Popularity of Living Alone, has spent several years studying the lives of single middle-aged women. She claims that changes in society have made it more acceptable for women to remain single for longer, and says the trend particularly affects urban and educated females in professional or managerial roles. The old pathways of relationships have gone, dissolved.

Mr Ahmadinejad is one of 40 heads of state arriving in Rome on Tuesday for a vital United Nations summit on the world's food crisis. Mr Ahmadinejad was keen to meet Benedict XVI, after writing to him two years ago on the subject of spirituality and the need for dialogue between Islam and Christianity.

Relations between Iran and the Holy See are warming, and Mr Ahmadinejad said the Vatican was a "positive force for justice and peace" in April after meeting with the new nuncio to Iran, Archbishop Jean-Paul Gobel. Benedict is also thought to have the support of several leading Shia clerics, including Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani in Iraq.

President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva of Brazil, President Cristina Kirchner of Argentina, President Evo Morales of Bolivia and several African leaders also asked for a papal meeting. The Vatican briefly considered a single audience for all the heads of state. However, it eventually decided to refuse all the requests in order to avoid any potential embarrassment. It did not comment further on the decision.

Health ministers have proposed that laboratories should be allowed to use stored human tissue to create cloned embryonic stem cells without the explicit consent of the tissue donor. This would allow research to be done on tissue donated for medical research as long as 30 years ago. Scientists would also be able to use cells from people who have died since they donated their tissue or who cannot be contacted.

Many laboratories have banks of stored tissue which act as DNA libraries that can play a vital role in finding cures for serious disorders such as diabetes and motor neurone disease. Ministers have until now insisted that scientists contact tissue donors to gain explicit consent before DNA can be used to create cloned embryonic stem cells.

Leading scientists, including three Nobel prize winners, say gaining such consent is sometimes impossible because the donors have died, donated anonymously or cannot be contacted. They say the ban on using DNA without consent could hold up vital research. Ministers have tabled an amendment to the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Bill, now passing through parliament, which would allow stored tissue and cells to be used without the explicit consent of donors. The amendment, which is expected to be supported by most MPs, will be debated this week.

Australian troops are due to begin returning home in a few days in line with a promise by Prime Minister Kevin Rudd who swept to power in November. He said the Iraq deployment was making Australia more of a terrorist target. The Australians had deployed more than 500 troops in Iraq, helping to train some 33,000 Iraqi soldiers. About 300 Australians will remain inside Iraq on logistical and air surveillance duties. No Australian soldiers were killed in combat in Iraq though several were wounded.

Defence Minister Joel Fitzgibbon said the Australian mission had been a success. "Our soldiers have worked tirelessly to ensure that local people in southern Iraq have the best possible chance to move on from their suffering under Saddam's regime and, as a government, we are extremely proud of their service," he said in a statement on Sunday.

Maybe the problem isn't that the job they're offering is "too hard," maybe it's that the wages they're offering are "too low." No one paints the undersides of bridges for fun, they do it for the money. That's how capitalism works.

The unspoken truth is that these businesses don't hire illegal aliens because they can't find American workers, they hire illegal aliens because they don't want American workers. And it has nothing to do with wages. Illegal aliens mean no workers' comp claims, no age, race or sex discrimination lawsuits, no healthcare premiums, no unions, and no demands for raises, vacations or bigger offices. In fact, illegal immigrants are the perfect employees because they're not employees at all; they're corporate slaves.

Economist Dr. Thomas Sowell once said, "Blacks were not enslaved because they were black, but because they were available." Can't the exact same thing be said for illegal aliens? They're available and we're allowing them to be exploited in the name of cheap groceries. Is the price of fruit really the standard we want to live up to as a country? Is that really who we've become?

The spike came in a year that saw the highest US casualties in Iraq and increased levels of violence in Afghanistan, but officials said the trend has continued into 2008. Barack Obama, the front-runner for the Democratic presidential nomination, called it "a tragic reminder of the staggering and ongoing costs of the Iraq war, particularly on our troops and their families."