Brent crude oil, seen as the best gauge of the global oil market, rose to an intra-day high of $78.40 a barrel, just below last August's all-time high of $78.65.Profit-taking later pushed it back down to $77.32 a barrel.Crude prices have risen by 51 per cent since hitting a year-low in January.

Goldman Sachs, the US bank, warned prices could surge to $95 a barrel within six months without increased production from the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries.

- UK parents work the longest hours in Europe

- 66pc can't devote enough time to children

- Youngsters 'feel abandoned' as divorce rises

Family life is under threat from rising divorce rates and the longest working hours in Europe, the Children's Society has warned.

The charity says 21st century life is 'pulling families apart' and risking the development and well-being of future generations. It claims childhoods are being damaged by parental break-ups and growing pressure on mothers to return to work. Research for the society found that almost twothirds of parents are not able to spend enough time with their children and half feel forced to put their career before family life.

They are increasingly turning to day care while their offspring are still young even though more than a third believe pre-school children suffer if their mothers work. More than a third of parents find it difficult to meet their family responsibilities because of the time they spend at work.

One child surveyed reported feeling 'lonely' and having nothing to do but play on the computer and watch TV because their parents were either arguing or working.

The Kremlin warned of "the most serious consequences" in a rapidly escalating crisis that left relations between the two countries at their worst since the Cold War. There were fears that President Vladimir Putin could target some of the UK companies with huge investments in his country.

After less than a month in office, Prime Minister Gordon Brown now faces a highstakes confrontation with the Russian hard man, who has made no secret of his contempt for the British Government. Russia says its constitution will not permit the extradition of Andrei Lugovoy, the prime suspect in the murder of his former KGB colleague Alexander Litvinenko with radioactive polonium 210 last year.

Mr Brown is furious that the Kremlin apparently allowed a hit squad to travel to London to assassinate Mr Litvinenko, who had fled Russia to become an exiled dissident and a British citizen. Speaking in Berlin on his first foreign visit as Premier, a defiant Mr Brown said last night he had "no apology to make" for applying sanctions.

He said the decision served notice to other countries that he will not tolerate seeing the streets of London descend into a "form of lawlessness".

Rats had been doing a roaring trade thanks to strong supply over the last two weeks, the China News Service quoted vendors as saying."Recently there have been a lot of rats - a reported 2 billion rodents displaced by a flooded lake Guangzhou. People are rich and like to eat exotic things, so business is very good," it quoted a vendor as saying, referring to the capital of Guangdong province, where people are reputed to eat anything that moves.

Some vendors, who declined to reveal their names, had asked people from a village in Hunan province, near Dongting Lake, to sell them live rats, the Beijing News said Monday. Local governments in Hunan have been grappling with the rats, which had already destroyed 1.6 million hectares (6,200 sq miles) of crops and could spread disease, according to media reports.

A lack of snakes, also a popular dish in the south, and owls, a traditional Chinese medicine, was held partly responsible. Scientists have also blamed China's massive Three Gorges Dam project and climate change for the Hunan rodents' flight to dry land.

As the world prepares for the Academy Awards, NewsMax Magazine in a special cover report asks: Why can't the USA get a fair shake from Hollywood?

NewsMax reveals why films like Michael Moore's Bush-bashing documentary "Fahrenheit 9/11" raked in a docu-record $119 million, and last year Al Gore's global-warming pic "An Inconvenient Truth" took in more than $23 million.

We go inside Hollywood and tell you show how agenda-driven politics - not markets and simple entertainment - drive documentary making and promotion. THESE DOCUMENTARIES AND MANY OTHERS HAVE ONE THING IN COMMON: A DECIDED TILT TO THE LEFT.

But as NewsMax Magazine's special report "Oscar's Bias" reveals, these documentaries and many others have one thing in common: a decided tilt to the left.

Documentaries have ignited political and cultural debates and have even influenced the course of presidential elections. But when the Oscars are awarded on Feb. 25, THERE IS ABSOLUTELY ZERO CHANCE THAT A DOCUMENTARY PROMOTING TRADITIONAL AMERICAN VALUES AND BELIEFS WILL GET THE NOD.

Now Jonathan Miller, a knighted neurologist, humorist, and scholar, has launched a cinematic attack on the religious beliefs of Americans. Miller's three-part documentary, "A Brief History of Disbelief," aired in the U.K. in 2004 and is coming to PBS stations in the U.S. this summer.

"When we first made it, it was inconceivable that it would be broadcast in the United States," Miller told TVGuide.com. "I think the success of Christopher Hitchens' 'God. I DON'T KNOW WHY, BUT SOMETHING HAS HAPPENED TO USHER IN A CERTAIN HOSPITALITY TO CONTROVERSY ON THIS SUBJECT."
Apparently, sections of the documentary try to make the case that our nation's founders, including George Washington and James Madison, were anti-religious agnostics who created the much-lauded secular progressive notion of "Separation of Church and State" (which, incidentally, is not contained in the Constitution) because they viewed the world as Miller does.

Miller lumps radical Islamists together with evangelical Christians, describing the events of Sept. 11 as "the most powerful expression of religious fanaticism" of our time. "The World Trade Center attacks are one of the reasons I thought it was important to do it [the documentary]," Miller said.

"I just thought it was a good place to begin, because of the impact fanatical religion has on our world. I suppose the most dangerous right now is Islam, but fanatic Christianity has also done a great deal of damage to people," Miller added. "Not to mention the current war in Iraq and Afghanistan and the idea of bringing democracy to these countries has this sort of Christian conviction behind it."

THE BASIC PREMISE OF THE UNGODLY BOOKS AND FILMS IS THAT THEISM IS LESS RATIONAL THAN ATHEISM. BUT THE TRUTH IS, IT TAKES A LOT OF FAITH TO BE AN ATHEIST.

- ATHEISTS MUST BELIEVE THAT SOMETHING CAME FROM NOTHING. Atheists accept on faith that in the beginning there was nothing, and then there was something. Even Steven Hawking and friends are convinced that prior to the big bang, there was no time and no space. Nothing. And now there's lots of something.
- ATHEISTS MUST BELIEVE THAT LIFE CAME FROM NON-LIFE. Atheists accept on faith that once, when conditions were just right, something inanimate became animate.
- ATHEISTS MUST BELIEVE THAT HUMAN BEINGS HAVE NO FREE WILL. Atheists accept on faith that by serendipity primordial slime eventually developed into human beings with mental abilities but no free will and who act in accordance with biochemical reactions in their cerebral cortexes.

In the cold atheist universe, there is no way to account for the transcendent ideals that make life worth living ? dignity, steadfastness, courage, love, and hope.

IS THERE A LINK BETWEEN CHILDHOOD VACCINES AND AUTISM? The pendulum keeps swinging in opposite directions as this skin wrenching emotional and scientific national debate continues. In the meantime, we continue to play risky "cocktail" roulette with the health of our children. Generation Rescue commissioned SurveyUSA, an independent opinion research team, to interview parents in nine counties in California and Oregon.

Roll Call, a leading publication for congressional news and information, recently drew attention to this survey that showed vaccinated boys had a 2.5 times higher risk of neurological disorders than unvaccinated boys, and calling for a national study to explore these disturbing results.

Based on interviews of 11,817 households, involving 17,674 children aged 4 - 17, the data showed:
- Vaccinated boys, compared with unvaccinated boys, were 155 percent more likely to have a neurological disorder (relative risk RR 2.55), 224 percent more likely to have ADHD (RR 3.24, and 61 percent more likely to have autism (RR 1.61).
- All vaccinated boys and girls, compared with unvaccinated children, were 120 percent more likely to have asthma (RR 2.20).

Comments J.B. Handley of Generation Rescue, "For less than $200,000, we were able to complete a study that the CDC, with an $8 billion a year budget, has been unable or unwilling to do. WE THINK THE RESULTS OF OUR SURVEY LEND CREDIBILITY TO THE URGENT NEED TO DO A LARGER SCALE STUDY TO COMPARE VACCINATED AND UNVACCINATED CHILDREN FOR NEURO DEVELOPMENTAL OUTCOMES."

HIS ORGANIZATION BELIEVES THAT MERCURY, INCLUDING A TYPE USED FOR DECADES IN ROUTINE CHILDHOOD IMMUNIZATIONS (THE PRESERVATIVE THIOMEROSOL) IS A MAJOR FACTOR IN THE 10-FOLD INCREASE IN REPORTED AUTISM CASES OVER THE PAST 20 YEARS.

The anxiety THAT VACCINES ARE LINKED TO THE RISE OF AUTISM AND OTHER NEURODEVELOPMENTAL DISORDERS HAS BEEN LARGELY DISMISSED BY PUBLIC HEALTH OFFICIALS AND MAINSTREAM MEDICAL GROUPS - especially since a 2004 report by the respected Institute of Medicine found no such evidence - and suggested research money go to more "promising" areas.
Affected parents, some of whom say they watched their children regress into autism immediately following physical reactions to vaccines, have continued to press the issue.

The parents behind Generation Rescue only want information. These parents deserve more than roadblocks; they deserve answers. We can and should move forward in search of those answers."

According to the Jerusalem Post, the message on the BBC Radio Web site was posted after a showing of a TV program on anti-Semitism that aired on England's Channel Four network last week.

The message was posted by someone using the alias "Iron Naz." It reads: "Zionism is a racist ideology where Jews [sic] are given supremacy over all other races and faiths. This is found in the Talmud. There is a law called Baba Mezia which allows Jews to lie as long as its to non-Jews. Many pro Jewish supporters will cringe at this being exposed because they know it exists, yet they keep quiet about it. The Law of Baba Mezia!! It's in the Talmud."

When a number of Jewish groups asked the BBC to remove the posting, the station replied: "We have decided that it does not contravene the House Rules and are going to leave it on the site..."

A BBC Radio spokesman told the Post: "The Radio Five Live message board is a forum of debate and people can express their views, some of which others will strongly disagree with. The complaint was brought to the attention of our moderators who looked into the issue and concluded that the post was not one that merited removal from the site as it was not felt to have breached the message board house rules. A guide to the house rules is found on the Five Live message board. Posts that are removed include ones that are considered likely to disrupt, provoke attack or offend others or are considered racist, homophobic, sexually explicit or otherwise objectionable."

Mark Gardiner, head of communications at the Community Security Trust, an organization that ensures the safety and security of the Jewish community and monitors anti-Semitic incidents in the UK, told the Post: "THE BBC OBVIOUSLY NO LONGER RECOGNIZES ANTI-SEMITISM EVEN WHEN IT SLAPS IT IN THE FACE. The BBC is a public body, funded by the British taxpayer. It has legal obligations and we will pursue them."

Seasoned investigative reporter and former FBI consultant Paul Williams reveals the alarming potential for nuclear terrorism on U.S. soil and the sinister connections among organized crime, illegal immigrants, and al-Qaida.

Recently, FBI Director Robert Mueller, in an interview with NewsMax, confirmed Williams' main claim. Mueller said al-Qaida's paramount goal is clear: to detonate a nuclear device that would kill hundreds of thousands of Americans. Mueller told NewsMax that at times, the threat feels so real he lies awake at night thinking about the prospect.

WILLIAMS MAINTAINS THAT AL-QAIDA IS NOT CONTENT ON BLOWING UP ONE NUCLEAR DEVICE OR EVEN SIMPLY A "DIRTY" NUKE-? BUT WANTS TO EXPLODE REAL NUCLEAR DEVICES IN SEVEN U.S. CITIES SIMULTANEOUSLY. WILLIAMS SAYS THESE CITIES ARE NEW YORK, WASHINGTON, D.C., LAS VEGAS, MIAMI, BOSTON, HOUSTON, AND LOS ANGELES.

Mueller seems to confirm this claim of multiple attacks, saying both New York and Washington would be likely targets. Already Williams says the U.S. government has Washington webbed by "choke" points to detect nuclear material.

Bin Laden and his adherents believe this nuclear cataclysm will usher in "The Day of Islam," the dream of radical Muslims to see all of humankind fall in submission before the throne of Allah as the "Great Satan," America, is brought to her knees. Williams explosive revelations are even more worrisome because they are not simply backed up by speculation and anonymous sources, they are sourced with government reports and comments made "on the record" by top officials.

What emerges is a harrowing picture of international terrorist activities, all aimed at the destruction of the United States and the collapse of the Western world. "The Day of Islam" also offers a full translation of the "fatwa" - the religious order bin laden received in 2003 which "grants al-Qaida permission to kill 10 million Americans by way of nuclear weapons."

They would have learned that the war is being waged in the sewers. AMERICA IS FACING AN ARMY OF FOUL-MOUTHED, TATTOOED GUTTERSNIPES WHO HAVE THE GALL TO PROCLAIM THEY WANT TO SAVE THE PLANET BY PUTTING ON PERFORMANCES LACED WITH SOME OF THE FOULEST LANGUAGE EVER HEARD FROM A STAGE.

As those who made the mistake of watching any of these concerts here or abroad discovered, the enemies of culture are unable to complete a sentence without using the "F" word at least once, along with liberal sprinklings of the "S" word. And their foul-mouthed rhetoric was not the least of it: THE AUDIENCES ATE IT UP AND THE PERFORMERS KNEW THAT WHEN THEY SPEWED THEIR OBSCENE FILTH THEY WERE GIVING THEIR DECADENT FANS EXACTLY WHAT THEY WANTED.

I went to a lot of concerts years ago. I never heard Frank Sinatra or any other performer use a single obscenity during their performances. Moreover, if any of them had uttered anything as foul as the "F" word, they would have been driven off the stage. IF YOU THINK I'M MAKING TOO BIG A THING ABOUT THE INCREDIBLE DEGRADATION OF LANGUAGE, KEEP IN MIND IT REPRESENTS THE DECLINE IN THE LEVEL OF CIVILITY SINCE THE CULTURE WARRIORS DECLARED WAR ON DECENCY. The widespread use of the "F" word is a symptom of the disease.

The America in which I grew up had standards, and people's public behaviour was judged by how well they measured up to those standards. One was expected to toe the line when it came to the way they communicated with one another. WE WERE EXPECTED TO SHOW OUR RESPECT TO OUR FELLOW AMERICANS BY AVOIDING OFFENSIVE WORDS. Once upon a time one was expected to be a gentlemen or lady, and those terms -- now treated with scorn -- described people who had the utmost of respect for those around them and showed it in their everyday behaviour.

Those who deviated from the accepted standards were told to "keep a civil tongue in your mouth." That's no longer true. Comedians vie with each other to use the most extreme obscenities and sexual innuendos. WHAT WAS ONCE CALLED "STREET LANGUAGE" IS NOW CONSIDERED NORMAL DISCOURSE. Things once considered sacred are now seen as commonplace. Sex is no longer an expression of love between a man and a woman -- today it's seen as recreation, like a game of golf, to be portrayed on stage and screen without restraint.

IN ANY CIVILIZATION THAT DESIRES TO SURVIVE, SIMPLE DECENCY AND COURTESY ARE CRUCIAL ELEMENTS. IN A SOCIETY HEADED FOR THE SEWER, ANYTHING GOES. AND WHEN ANYTHING GOES -- WHEN THE MOST EXTREME FORMS OF LANGUAGE AND BEHAVIOUR COME TO BE SEEN AS NORMAL -- CIVILIZATION IS TRANSFORMED INTO BARBARISM.

That's what's at stake in the culture wars. A society bereft of standards that demand civilized behaviour among its people is a society where the individual is deemed worthless as being anything but a consumer for the degraded wares of the smut peddlers and a source of income to pay for the schemes of THOSE WHO SELL MARXIST SNAKE OIL SUCH AS GLOBAL WARMING AS A MEANS OF SUBJUGATING THE POPULACE.

AND THE MORE ADDICTED TO SLIME THAT POPULACE BECOMES, THE EASIER IT IS TO SUBJUGATE THEM.

Special Branch and MI5 officers are forced under human rights laws to spend hours form-filling before carrying out the most basic surveillance tasks. The problems are made worse by under-manning and mean that ONLY A HANDFUL OF THE ESTIMATED 150 ISLAMIC EXTREMIST SUSPECTS IN SCOTLAND ARE UNDER CONSTANT SURVEILLANCE. We have discovered serious misgivings among officers about manning levels and the law under which they operate, the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act (RIPA).

We can reveal that:
- Getting permission for the most basic surveillance operation, such as observing a building, takes up to half a day of paperwork and referrals to senior officers;
- Authorisation for a full-scale surveillance operation, such as following a suspect, can require up to three days of bureaucracy;
- If requests are rejected, officers have to spend around three or four hours filling in forms to explain why;
- Keeping one suspect under 24-hour surveillance takes between 24 and 36 highly trained staff, but there are thought to be just 250 Special Branch officers in Scotland;
- Health and safety regulations mean officers are generally restricted to working maximum shifts of eight hours;
- Most operations have to be justified at monthly and three-monthly intervals, requiring many hours of preparation.

Police and MI5 personnel warn that red tape is seriously hampering their battle against terrorism. AND THE REQUIREMENTS OF BUREAUCRACY COULD HELP EXPLAIN WHY, TIME AND AGAIN, TERROR SUSPECTS ARE FLAGGED UP BUT REMAIN FREE TO ATTACK. One anti-terrorism officer with great experience of the Act was blunt in his observations, saying: "RIPA is a pain in the arse. It is a complete nightmare.

"Everyone in the job understands that we need regulations and that you simply cannot go listening in to people willy-nilly but the current situation is madness." He added: "THIS WAS ALL BROUGHT ABOUT AS A KNEE-JERK REACTION TO THE HUMAN RIGHTS DEBATE BUT IT IS NOT WORKABLE. "And it has led to people slipping through the net not because of police inadequacies but because of red tape."

And more than half of them said they were prepared to use these objects, the poll of 4,000 people for the insurance company Cornhill Direct said. It also reported that only one in five feel safe in their own homes at night. The Cornhill survey found that 30% of householders keep heavy items for use in self-defence.

BBC home affairs correspondent Danny Shaw said that it is not illegal to keep such items - but if they were used against an intruder, the householder would have to show the force used was reasonable and the violence justified.

David Keel, of Cornhill Direct, said there were easier ways of keeping intruders at bay. He added: "Taking simple and relatively inexpensive steps to make your home more secure, like fitting good door and window locks as well as motion sensitive security lights, are proven deterrents."

"Bring forth Aharon's sons - Then anoint them, just as you anointed their father, so that they will be Kohanim ("priests") to Me. It will be done so that their anointing will make them an eternal [hereditary] priesthood for all generations. Moses proceeded to do exactly as G-d had commanded him." (Exodus 40:14, 15)
Throughout Jewish history and to this day, Jews are careful to note which families belong to the tribe of Levi and the priestly family of Aaron. At the special gathering this week in Jerusalem, they will learn more about their roots and discuss the latest research proving their genetic ties.

Recent scientific research and DNA testing has allegedly proven a genetic connection between the descendants of the Tribe of Levi, the biblical priests and their assistants who began with the sons of Aharon.
"THIS IS NOT ONLY THE FIRST FAMILY REUNION OF THE JEWISH PRIESTLY DYNASTY IN NEARLY 2,000 YEARS," said conference organizer Rabbi Yaakov Kleiman in a statement sent to the media. "The research and information we will share will play an important role in appreciating and maintaining our unique and precious heritage." Rabbi Kleiman is the director of The Center for Kohanim in Jerusalem and the author of "DNA & Tradition."

Molecular geneticists have recently discovered the "Kohen Modal Haplotype," a Y-chromosome DNA lineage signature shared by a majority of both Ashkenazic and Sephardic Kohanim. This indicates direct patrilineal descent of present-day Kohanim from an ancient ancestor, genetically dated to have lived approximately 3,000 years ago, corresponding to the time of the Exodus from Egypt.

FIRST, IT WAS FINED £50,000 AFTER IT FAKED THE RESULTS OF A BLUE PETER COMPETITION LAST NOVEMBER. The show allowed a child visiting the studio to pose as a caller when technical problems stopped real calls getting through. The BBC was criticised for 'negligence' and for 'making a child complicit' in the deception.

The Controller of BBC1, Peter Fincham, gloated at a press launch of the BBC's autumn schedule that A FORTHCOMING DOCUMENTARY WOULD SHOW THE QUEEN HAD 'WALKED OFF IN A HUFF'. He showed the Press a trailer which purported to show the Queen storming off from a photo-shoot after being asked to remove her crown by celebrity photographer Annie Leibovitz. THIS TURNED OUT TO BE AN OUTRIGHT FALSIFICATION. THE FOOTAGE HAD BEEN EDITED IN SUCH A WAY AS TO REVERSE THE ACTUAL SEQUENCE OF EVENTS. The Queen did not storm out; she made the remarks on her way in.

Yesterday, in an echo of this most damaging debacle, it was revealed in addition THAT BBC TV'S NEWSNIGHT HAD SIMILARLY REVERSED A FILMED SEQUENCE OF EVENTS, THIS TIME APPARENTLY TO PRESENT THE PRIME MINISTER, GORDON BROWN, IN A BAD LIGHT. The sequence purported to show that Mr Brown's press officer had told the police to question a Newsnight reporter under antiterror laws in retaliation for an earlier confrontation between them. IN FACT, THE TWO EVENTS HAD TAKEN PLACE WEEKS APART AND IN REVERSE ORDER.

As a result, Mr Brown's officials complained to the Corporation about an 'unfair, unbalanced, unnecessarily personal and disingenuous' film which they claim was altered to make Mr Brown look like a thug. Newsnight's editor, Peter Barron, has admitted that the sequence of events was reversed, but has refused to apologise. The BBC has insisted there was no intention to deceive. Disingenuous, or what? As Lady Bracknell might have said, one such occurrence may be regarded as carelessness, but two begin to look like systematic abuse.

The Newsnight revelations are particularly serious because this second sequence reversal appears to undermine the BBC's defence over the Queen footage. The BBC would have us believe that it put out a trailer without checking that it was both truthful and an accurate reflection of the programme. THIS IS SCARCELY RESPONSIBLE JOURNALISM, PARTICULARLY SINCE IT INVOLVED A SENSATIONAL CLAIM ABOUT THE QUEEN'S BEHAVIOUR.

And even after it was told by an outraged Buckingham Palace that the account was untrue, the BBC carried on promoting this falsehood for a full 17 hours before admitting its error. Moreover, the BBC has no one else to blame for the frauds perpetrated by Blue Peter and Newsnight. WHAT'S GOING ON HERE SEEMS TO BE A CYNICAL AND UNPRINCIPLED CHASE AFTER RATINGS IN AN EVER-MORE CUT-THROAT BROADCASTING MARKETPLACE - ALLIED IN TURN TO A PARTICULAR CAST OF MIND.

For it is hard not to conclude that Mr Fincham was only too eager to believe that the Queen had indeed stormed out of the photo- shoot - because HE WANTED TO BELIEVE THE QUEEN BEHAVES BADLY.
And that certainly fits with THE INSTITUTIONALISED INFANTILE LEFTISM THAT PASSES FOR NEUTRALITY AT THE BBC.

THE BBC IS A MIGHTY GLOBAL BRAND. Through its website, it is increasingly reaching deep into America, Australia and the rest of the English-speaking world. The reason is that the BBC is trusted like no other news organisation as a kitemark of integrity and objectivity.

BUT OVER MANY YEARS, IT HAS SYSTEMATICALLY ABUSED THAT TRUST. Now, its power to disseminate falsehoods to people all over the world who place blind faith in its every utterance is truly terrifying.

THE BBC ONCE STOOD FOR ALL THAT WAS GLORIOUS AND ADMIRABLE ABOUT BRITAIN. After these latest revelations, however, the need for an urgent rethink of its public service role is an argument that is hard to resist.

The World Food Programme feeds people in countries including Chad, Uganda and Ethiopia, but reaches a fraction of the 850m people it estimates suffers from hunger. It spent about $600m buying food in 2006. So far, the WFP has not cut its reach because of high commodities prices, but now says it could be forced to do so unless donor countries provide extra funds.

Josette Sheeran, WFP executive director, said in an interview with the Financial Times: "In a world where our contributions are holding fairly steady, this [cost increase] means we are able to reach far less people."

She said policymakers were becoming more concerned about the impact of biofuel demand on food prices and how the world would continue to feed its expanding population. THE WARNING COULD RE-IGNITE THE DEBATE ON FOOD VERSUS FUEL AMID CONCERNS BIOFUEL PRODUCTION WILL SUSTAIN FOOD INFLATION AND HIT THE WORLD'S POOREST PEOPLE.