Two officials at leading Communist Party bodies have given interviews in recent days warning - for the first time - THAT BEIJING MAY USE ITS $1.33 TRILLION (£658BN) OF FOREIGN RESERVES AS A POLITICAL WEAPON TO COUNTER PRESSURE FROM THE US CONGRESS. Shifts in Chinese policy are often announced through key think tanks and academies.

DESCRIBED AS CHINA'S "NUCLEAR OPTION" IN THE STATE MEDIA, SUCH ACTION COULD TRIGGER A DOLLAR CRASH AT A TIME WHEN THE US CURRENCY IS ALREADY BREAKING DOWN THROUGH HISTORIC SUPPORT LEVELS. It would also cause a spike in US bond yields, hammering the US housing market and perhaps tipping the economy into recession. It is estimated that China holds over $900bn in a mix of US bonds.

Xia Bin, finance chief at the Development Research Centre (which has cabinet rank), kicked off what now appears to be government policy with a comment last week that Beijing's foreign reserves should be used as a "bargaining chip" in talks with the US.

"OF COURSE, CHINA DOESN'T WANT ANY UNDESIRABLE PHENOMENON IN THE GLOBAL FINANCIAL ORDER," HE ADDED. He Fan, an official at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, went even further today, LETTING IT BE KNOWN THAT BEIJING HAD THE POWER TO SET OFF A DOLLAR COLLAPSE IF IT CHOOSE TO DO SO.

"China has accumulated a large sum of US dollars. Such a big sum, of which a considerable portion is in US treasury bonds, contributes a great deal to maintaining the position of the dollar as a reserve currency. Russia, Switzerland, and several other countries have reduced their dollar holdings."

"China is unlikely to follow suit as long as the yuan's exchange rate is stable against the dollar. The Chinese central bank will be forced to sell dollars once the yuan appreciated dramatically, which might lead to a mass depreciation of the dollar," he told China Daily.

THE THREATS PLAY INTO THE PRESIDENTIAL ELECTORAL CAMPAIGN OF HILLARY CLINTON, WHO HAS CALLED FOR RESTRICTIVE LEGISLATION TO PREVENT AMERICA BEING "HELD HOSTAGE TO ECONOMIC DECISIONS BEING MADE IN BEIJING, SHANGHAI, OR TOKYO".

SHE SAID FOREIGN CONTROL OVER 44PC OF THE US NATIONAL DEBT HAD LEFT AMERICA ACUTELY VULNERABLE.

For a decade now, the composite score on the ACT college entrance exam for homeschooled students has been higher than the national average - and the 2006 statistics, the most recent available, show the trend continuing, according to a report. The Home School Legal Defense Association said the 2006 scores for homeschooled students averaged 22.4, compared to the national average composite of 21.1.

A year earlier, the average for homeschoolers was 22.5, compared to the national average that includes public and private school students of 20.9. "Now homeschoolers have an unbroken record for the last 10 years - since 1996, when testing officials started tracking them - of scoring higher on the ACT than the national average," the world's premiere home-school advocacy group said.

The 2006 results showed that homeschoolers averaged 22.5 in English, compared to the national average of 20.3. In math, homeschoolers averaged 19.2 compared to the national average of 20.2. In reading the scores were 24.1 for homeschoolers and 21.3 for others, and in science, homeschoolers scored 21.9, compared to 21.1.

Since 1985, research consistently shows that homeschoolers on average do better than the national average on standardized achievement tests for the elementary and secondary grade levels, the HSLDA said.

Hebron is home to the Tomb of the Patriarchs, the second holiest site in Judaism. The tomb is believed to be the resting place of the biblical patriarchs and matriarchs Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Sarah, Rebecca and Leah.

More than 3,000 Israeli solders and police officers surrounded a key section of Hebron's Jewish community today to expel the two Jewish families. The government maintains their residency in Hebron is illegal, since the families' arrival wasn't coordinated with the Israeli military. The families say they moved in after the military reneged on an agreement.

The families' eviction was widely regarded in Israel as the opening salvo of more planned major evacuations of Jews living in the West Bank's biblical Jewish communities.

WND also previously reported the city of Jerusalem, under orders from Olmert, deleted files documenting hundreds of illegal Arab building projects throughout eastern sections of Jerusalem housing tens of thousands of Palestinians, according to a report by the Jerusalem Forum, which promotes Jewish construction in the city.

Aryeh King, chairman of the Jerusalem Forum, said Jerusalem municipal workers told him they were instructed by Olmert's office to ignore illegal Palestinian construction in Jerusalem.

"Ehud Olmert gave the order not to deal with the problem and not to put Israeli security forces to the duty of taking down the illegal Arab complexes," said King. "Senior municipal workers told me Olmert said not to bother with the illegal Arab homes because eventually eastern Jerusalem would be given to the Palestinian Authority."

Researchers melted five samples of ice from the debris-covered glaciers of Antarctica which range in age from 100,000 years to eight million years. When given nutrients and warmth, the microbes resumed their activity - although younger microorganisms grew more successfully than the older ones.

Details appear in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The findings raise the possibility that ancient bugs, long frozen in ice, will return to life as climate change causes the glaciers to melt, flushing their genetic material into the oceans.

Eske Willerslev, of the University of Copenhagen, Denmark, who was not involved in the research, described the work as "very significant". But he cautioned that, as with most claims of ancient microbes being revived, contamination of samples with genetic material from modern microbes was always a possibility. "These results show patterns that you can't easily explain by contamination," he told ScienceNow, "But I would feel more comfortable with the results if they had been replicated in two independent labs."

One line of inquiry is that workers at vaccine manufacturer Merial, at Pirbright, could have picked up the infection because of drainage problems. The farmers' union has warned it could take legal action against anyone found responsible for the outbreak.

National Farmers' Union (NFU) president Peter Kendall told BBC Two's Newsnight programme the union was considering legal action. He said: "If this turns out to be a commercial company that has been and can be shown to have been careless in any way, my members are already very loudly saying, 'we've lost money, our businesses are no longer able to function, we've got animals, extra feed costs, problems with capacity being squeezed on farms'."

Claims could run into millions of pounds, he added.

HOW FOOT-AND-MOUTH SPREADS
Direct contact, from animal to animal
Fluid from an infected animal's blister; saliva, milk or dung also pass on the disease
Animals eating infected feed
Virus can be spread by people, vehicles or roads, if not disinfected
Airborne spread of disease also possible
Animals can begin spreading virus before visible signs of disease emerge
Source: Defra

President Roh Moo-hyun will meet North Korea's Kim Jong-il in the North's capital, Pyongyang, from 28-30 August. The summit comes seven years after the first one, when Mr Kim met then-South Korean President Kim Dae-jung. That meeting ushered in improved ties and reconciliation between the two sides, who remain technically at war.

This summit comes amid a gradual improvement in North Korea's ties with the outside world. Last month, the communist nation shut down its main Yongbyon reactor as part of an international aid-for-disarmament deal aimed at ending its nuclear programme. The meeting was finally agreed after senior South Korean intelligence personnel made two trips to the North, officials said.

South Korea's presidential office said that the summit would "contribute to substantially opening the era of peace and prosperity between the two Koreas". North Korean state news agency KCNA, meanwhile, said it would be "of weighty significance in opening a new phase of peace on the Korean Peninsula".

The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) said global land surface temperatures in January and April were likely the warmest since records began in 1880, at more than 1 degree Celsius higher than average for those months. There have also been severe monsoon floods across South Asia, abnormally heavy rains in northern Europe, China, Sudan, Mozambique and Uruguay, extreme heat waves in south eastern Europe and Russia, and unusual snowfall in South Africa and South America this year, the WMO said.

"The start of the year 2007 was a very active period in terms of extreme weather events," Omar Baddour of the agency's World Climate Program told journalists in Geneva. While most scientists believe extreme weather events will be more frequent as heat-trapping carbon dioxide emissions cause global temperatures to rise, Baddour said it was impossible to say with certainty what the second half of 2007 will bring. "It is very difficult to make projections for the rest of the year," he said.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), a U.N. umbrella group of hundreds of experts, has noted an increasing trend in extreme weather events over the past 50 years and said irregular patterns are likely to intensify. South Asia's worst monsoon flooding in recent memory has affected 30 million people in India, Bangladesh and Nepal, destroying croplands, livestock and property and raising fears of a health crisis in the densely-populated region.

Heavy rains also doused southern China in June, with nearly 14 million people affected by floods and landslides that killed 120 people, the WMO said. England and Wales this year had their wettest May and June since records began in 1766, resulting in extensive flooding and more than $6 billion in damage, as well as at least nine deaths. Germany swung from its driest April since country-wide observations started in 1901 to its wettest May on record.

Mozambique suffered its worst floods in six years in February, followed by a tropical cyclone the same month, and flooding of the Nile River in June caused damage in Sudan. Uruguay had its worst flooding since 1959 in May. Huge swell waves swamped some 68 islands in the Maldives in May, resulting in severe damage, and the Arabian Sea had its first documented cyclone in June, touching Oman and Iran.

Temperature records were broken in south eastern Europe in June and July, and in western and central Russia in May. In many European countries, April was the warmest ever recorded. Argentina and Chile saw unusually cold winter temperatures in July while South Africa had its first significant snowfall since 1981 in June.

The WMO and its 188 member states are working to set up an early warning system for extreme weather events. The agency is also seeking to improve monitoring of the impacts of climate change, particularly in poorer countries which are expected to bear the brunt of floods, droughts and storms.

A large dome of high pressure over the Gulf Coast states is pumping hot air into most areas east of the Rockies. The Severe Weather Center lists the widespread heat-related Warnings and Advisories in effect through much of this week.

Temperatures today will soar into the mid-to-upper 90s across the southern Plains, the Ohio Valley and the Southeast. Some centers top the century mark and challenge record highs. According to the East Regional News story, 90-degree heat will spread through the mid-Atlantic and parts of southern New England. Increased humidity will create dangerous RealFeel® temperatures near or above 100 degrees along the Interstate 95 corridor as far north as Massachusetts.

Residents should use extreme care during this heat wave to avoid suffering from heat-related illnesses. While the heat in the Northeast will ease slightly later in the week, there will be little or no relief from the sizzling temperatures in other regions.

The Southwest Regional News story reports the heat across the southern Plains during the upcoming days will be noteworthy. Today, the forecast high of 95 degrees in San Antonio, Tex., will be the first 95-degree day this year. By this date last year, the city had recorded more than 65 days of 95 degrees or higher.

Puberty is an unsettling stage in anyone's life, but if it happens at an age when you are still playing with dolls, it can be very worrying indeed. Doctors are increasingly worried about the number of girls - and boys - being referred to specialists because of this phenomenon of 'precocious' puberty.

The normal age at which puberty starts in both boys and girls has dropped by about two years since the 19th century, to 14 for boys and 12 for girls. This is largely due to improved nutrition - onset of puberty is believed to be triggered by physical size. Another theory is that the epidemic of obesity is to blame.

But modern social conditions may also be a contributory factor. Research suggests that children from broken homes experience earlier puberty. The stress of family breakdown apparently alters the balance of growth hormones and other chemicals in the body, speeding up a child's physical development. Absent fathers may be another cause. American researchers have found that biological fathers send out chemical signals that inhibit their daughters' sexual maturity. Girls whose fathers had left home started their periods earlier.

Early puberty has even been linked to watching too much television. A few years ago, Italian scientists found that children who watched three hours a day produced less of the sleep hormone melatonin - low levels of the hormone play an important role in the timing of puberty.

But perhaps more worrying is the theory that it's exposure to environmental chemicals which is causing the drop in the age of puberty. These chemicals mimic the effect of hormones, disrupting the normal timing of sexual maturing.

Whatever the cause, growing numbers of children are being deprived of childhood and are turning, physically, into mini-adults at an increasingly young age. But without the emotional maturity to deal with these changes, they are vulnerable to exploitation. In Britain, it is now estimated that up to at least one in six children under ten is affected.

Over the centuries there has been a steady decline in the onset age for puberty. In Victorian times, it was about 15 for girls and older for boys; before that, records from Renaissance choirs show that youths of 17 and 18 were often still to hit puberty because their voices had not yet broken.

There are increasing reports of very young girls getting pregnant. Most recent statistics (for 2003) show 148 girls aged 13 or younger had abortions. However, it could be that although the whole process is inexplicably starting earlier, it is taking longer to complete, and that parents are worrying unnecessarily.

TERRORISTS WHO HAD PLANNED TO DETONATE GEL-BASED EXPLOSIVES ON U.S.- BOUND FLIGHTS FROM LONDON LAST AUGUST WOULD HAVE ACHIEVED MASS DEVASTATION, according to new information from Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff in an exclusive interview with ABC News.

"I THINK THAT THE PLOT, IN TERMS OF ITS INTENT, WAS LOOKING AT DEVASTATION ON A SCALE THAT WOULD HAVE RIVALED 9/11," Chertoff told ABC's Pierre Thomas. "If they had succeeded in bringing liquid explosives on seven or eight aircraft, there could have been thousands of lives lost and an enormous economic impact with devastating consequences for international air travel."

Sources tell ABC News that after studying the plot, GOVERNMENT OFFICIALS HAVE CONCLUDED THAT WITHOUT THE TIP TO BRITISH AUTHORITIES, THE SUSPECTS COULD HAVE LIKELY SMUGGLED THE BOMB COMPONENTS ONBOARD USING SPORTS DRINKS. THE COMPONENTS OF THAT EXPLOSIVES MIXTURE CAN BE BOUGHT AT ANY DRUGSTORE OR SUPERMARKET; scientists at Sandia National Laboratory conducted a test using the formula, and when a small amount of liquid in a container was hit with a tiny burst of electrical current, a large explosion followed.

The test results were reviewed today by ABC terrorism consultant Richard Clarke, who said that while frequent travelers are upset by the current limits on liquids in carry-on baggage, "when they see this film, they ought to know it's worth going through those problems." One official who briefed ABC News said explosives and security experts who examined the plot were "stunned at the extent that the suspects had gamed the system to exploit its weaknesses."

"There's no question that they had given a lot of thought to how they might smuggle containers with liquid explosives onto airplanes," Chertoff said. "Without getting into things that are still classified, they obviously paid attention to the ways in which they thought they might be able to disguise these explosives as very innocent types of everyday articles."

PASSENGERS ARE STILL RESTRICTED WHEN BRINGING LIQUIDS ONBOARD, AND THOSE RULES MAY REMAIN IN PLACE FOREVER.

And while he is confronted by pieces of data daily as Homeland Security tries to assess credible threats and piece together information, Chertoff said he remains continually struck by the nature of the enemy. "You know, we go about our business during the summer, other times of the year. People are going to ballgames or watching their children graduate from high school," he said, "AND IT CHILLS ME SOMETIMES TO THINK THERE ARE PEOPLE A HALF A WORLD AWAY WHO ARE SPENDING THE SAME PERIOD OF TIME IN A CAVE, TRYING TO FIGURE OUT HOW TO KILL US."

Ibrahim Mohammad Lawal was convicted of immoral behaviour by religious police who enforce the state's strict code banning women from mixing with men other than relatives. His "charitable act" has landed him 50 days and counting behind bars", Arab News, an English language daily, said.

The religious force has faced rare criticism and unprecedented legal action in recent months following the deaths of two men in its custody. Its officers wear long beards, loose headscarves and white robes and carry sticks. They patrol public places to ensure women are covered, the sexes do not mingle and that shops close five times a day for prayers. They also enforce bans on drugs, alcohol and prostitution.

Lawal, an Islamic studies student in Riyadh, took his 63-year-old neighbour to hospital after discovering she needed medical attention. When she returned home he wanted to check on her progress and was admitted to her apartment where she was with three female relatives.

Five members of the force, the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice, barged in and took him into custody, he said. "They accused me of being alone with the woman unrelated to me and suspected my intention," Lawal said. "I wanted to do a good thing for a woman who was sick and this is what I get. I'm languishing in prison."

SAN DIEGO'S FIRE CHIEF, TRACY JARMAN, IS AN OPEN LESBIAN WHO CALLED THE JULY 21 PARADE A "FUN EVENT" IN WHICH "ALL EMPLOYEES ARE ENCOURAGED TO PARTICIPATE."

But the firefighters said, unlike previous years, they were ordered into uniform to participate in the parade in their fire truck, despite repeating their protests. The firefighters' legal counsel, the Thomas More Law Center, said THE MEN WERE "LEFT WITH THE HOBSON'S CHOICE OF EITHER VIOLATING THEIR CONSCIENCE OR BEING DISCIPLINED FOR DISOBEYING A DIRECT ORDER."

The firefighters, described as devoted husbands and fathers, said they were subject to the most vulgar kinds of sexual harassment. "You could not even look at the crowd without getting some type of sexual gesture," one said, adding, "If any crew member were to hang up pictures at the station of what we saw, we would be disciplined."

JARMAN, THE CITY FIRE CHIEF, INSISTED WHEN SHE WAS APPOINTED THAT HER HOMOSEXUALITY HAD NEVER BEEN AN ISSUE AT THE DEPARTMENT. BUT THOMPSON MAINTAINED THE FIREFIGHTERS' ORDEAL WAS "ANOTHER EXAMPLE OF HOW RADICAL HOMOSEXUAL ACTIVISTS IN POSITIONS OF AUTHORITY FORCE THEIR AGENDA ON UNWILLING CITIZENS."

"Although the local media avoided mentioning the debauchery and the obscenity that pervaded the parade, the general public should know what went on and how these firefighters were forced to participate against their will," he said.

As WND reported, prior to the parade, THE SAN DIEGO CITY COUNCIL UNANIMOUSLY ADOPTED A RESOLUTION INTRODUCED BY MAYOR JERRY SANDERS TO DESIGNATE JULY AS "LESBIAN, GAY, BISEXUAL, TRANSGENDER PRIDE MONTH."

A US team of astronomers observed the four-way cosmic smash-up using Nasa's Spitzer and Chandra space telescopes along with ground-based observatories. The clashing galaxies are expected to eventually merge into a single, behemoth galaxy up to 10 times as massive as our own Milky Way.

"When this merger finishes, the giant galaxy left at the end will be one of the biggest ones in the Universe. This shows how these giant galaxies get assembled." All the galaxies in the merger are categorised as large; three are about the size of our own Milky Way, while the biggest one is about three times the size.

Mr Benn said the speed with which the second outbreak was identified showed measures to control the disease were working. He said vets first spotted signs of foot and mouth in the animals on the farm close to Wolford Farm, near Guildford - the first infected location - on Monday. "A swift decision was taken to cull them, the tests were done overnight," he added. He urged farmers to continue to examine their stock.

Microbiologist Professor Hugh Pennington said people should not read too much into the second cull because the government would now be acting on even the "slightest whiff" of further infection. But farmer Laurence Matthews, who owns the land where the second outbreak struck, said the farmer whose cattle were culled, and his family, were "absolutely devastated". "We were starting to think that maybe this virus had been contained... now with this second outbreak this has set us back again," he told BBC Radio 4's Today programme.

"Most farmers... are very, very scared and all activity on farms has almost come to a standstill."

Chief veterinary officer Debby Reynolds has said it was possible recent floods may have contributed to an accidental release of the virus from one of the labs.

IT IS THOUGHT CONTAMINATED WATER MAY HAVE BEEN INCORRECTLY DISPOSED OF DOWN A DRAIN WHICH SUBSEQUENTLY OVERFLOWED DURING HEAVY RAIN AND CARRIED THE CONTAMINATED WATER ON TO FARMLAND. Ms Reynolds said no decision had been made on vaccines for livestock, but 300,000 doses had been ordered from private firm Merial.

Mr Benn, defending that decision, said: "In order to consider [vaccination] as an option, we've got to have the vaccine ready. "It's the best place we can go if we take the decision that we want to do it." HE WOULD NOT COMMENT ON THE SUGGESTION THAT MERIAL SHOULD BE STRIPPED OF SUBSEQUENT PROFITS IF IT WAS FOUND TO BE RESPONSIBLE.

PLANS FOR NEW EU POSTS TO BE FILLED BEFORE CONSTITUTION IS APPROVED
The Mail reports that THE EU WANTS TO FILL THE POSTS IN THE CONSTITUTIONAL TREATY - such as the EU Foreign Minister - BEFORE THE TEXT HAS BEEN APPROVED. The small print of the revised EU Constitution says that appointees should take up their positions "as soon as the Treaty is signed".

EU THREATENS PACIFIC COUNTRIES WITH 50% CUT IN AID UNLESS THEY SIGN TRADE OPENING DEAL
South Pacific trade ministers said yesterday they will halt all talks with the European Commission for a new trade deal if EU development aid remains conditional on the signing of an Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA). In a message to the trade ministers, the EC said that if a goods-only economic agreement is signed, aid funding would be cut by 26 percent, from £95 million (US$130 million) to £70 million (US$95 million). If no deal is signed, the funds would be reduced by 48 percent, to £49 million (US$67 million).
IHT

SARKOZY TO SCRAP COMPULSORY REFERENDUMS ON NEW EU ACCESSIONS?
According to Euobserver, Nicolas Sarkozy is reportedly considering scrapping France's constitutional commitment to compulsory referendums on new EU accessions. The article notes that the referendum clause - which could lead to a series of French "no" votes against new states knocking on the EU's door - is reportedly disliked not only by Mr Sarkozy, but also by large parts of the country's political establishment.
Euobserver

EU CAPS ON MILK PRODUCTION FORCE UP PRICES
Experts say the only way to increase global milk yields without breaking the EU milk quotas is to encourage the breeding of cows outside the EU, with the result that GERMAN FARMERS HAVE STARTED SELLING THEIR BEST HIGH-PERFORMANCE MILK COWS TO CHINESE FARMERS.
Guardian

THE BUSINESS: BROWN SHOULD WITHDRAW FROM EU TRADE POLICY
A leader in The Business calls for Gordon Brown to establish a "new world order". It argues that "If he were truly serious about free trade, he would put the new European constitution to a referendum and then use the inevitable, resounding 'no' as an excuse to renegotiate Britain's relationship with the EU, making it much looser. This would allow him to pull out of the common agricultural policy, which he rightly hates, and start unilaterally cutting tariffs, which he supports but cannot presently do."
Business

EU WELCOMES CONSTITUTION'S RATCHET CLAUSE
The Telegraph article notes that EU officials have welcomed a "simplified revision procedure" taken from clauses of the old Constitution - sometimes described as the "ratchet clause." THE RATCHET CLAUSE WILL ALLOW MEETINGS OF EUROPEAN LEADERS TO SCRAP INDIVIDUAL NATIONAL VETOES, WITHOUT THE NEED FOR WHOLESALE TREATY CHANGE.
Telegraph Mail

MALLOCH BROWN CALLS FOR SINGLE EU SEAT AT THE UN
Foreign Office Minister Lord Malloch Brown has called for THE UK TO GIVE ITS SEAT ON THE UN SECURITY COUNCIL TO THE EU. Last October, when he was Deputy General Secretary of the UN, he told Brussels diplomats that the EU was heading toward one single seat within the UN institutions. He said: "I think it will go in stages. We are going to see a growing spread of it institution by institution. It is not going to happen with a flash and a bang." He added that he hoped that it would happen - "as quickly as possible. I'm a huge fan of it." William Hague used the comments to step up pressure on the Government to hold a referendum.
Sunday Telegraph