Lord Mark Malloch Brown told the Daily Telegraph it was time for a more "impartial" foreign policy and to build relationships with European leaders. Some analysts may consider the Foreign Office minister's remarks evidence of Labour distancing itself from the US.

Earlier, Downing Street denied another minister had criticised the US. International Development Secretary Douglas Alexander warned in a against unilateralism and called for an "internationalist approach" to global problems. "It is very unlikely that the Brown-Bush relationship is going to go through the baptism of fire and therefore be joined together at the hip like the Blair-Bush relationship was," he was reported as saying.

"That was a relationship born of being war leaders together. "There was an emotional intensity of being war leaders with much of the world against them. That is enough to put you on your knees and get you praying together." He went on to speak of forging new links with French President Nicolas Sarkozy and German Chancellor Angela Merkel, as well as with leaders in India and China.

"You need to build coalitions that are lateral, which go beyond the bilateral blinkers of the normal partners," he added. "My hope is that foreign policy will become much more impartial."

The dig has been approved by the police, but the Israel Antiquities Authority declined to respond to the Waqf's excavations and would not comment on whether one of its archaeologists had approved the move.

The Committee for the Prevention of Destruction of Antiquities on the Temple Mount, an apolitical group comprised of archaeologists and intellectuals from the left and right, criticized the use of a tractor for excavation at the Temple Mount "without real, professional and careful archaeological supervision involving meticulous documentation."

Speaking for the committee yesterday, archaeologist Eilat Mazar said: "There is disappointment at the turning of a blind eye and the ongoing contempt for the tremendous archaeological importance of the Temple Mount."
At the beginning of the year, Israeli excavations near the Temple Mount, part of a plan to rebuild the Mugrabi bridge walkway, led to violent protests from Arabs in Israel and around the world.

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The price of milk, poultry and pork is also expected to rise as a result of an increase in the cost of livestock feed, according to Deloitte.Wheat and maize prices are now at the highest level in more than a decade. Arable farmers are now making £130 a ton for their wheat, up from £80 last year, and the trend in prices is up.

Mark Hill, food and agriculture partner at the firm, warned that rising demand for wheat and maize was bound to result in increases in the price of staple foods for British consumers.Mr Hill said the era of cheap subsidised food, which had lasted since the war, was over. He added: "I think we are going to see sustained price inflation - a general upward trend for staple foods such as grains, milk and meat.

"The reason is a very finely balance between supply and consumption. The International Grains Council is predicting wheat production this year at 623 million tons and consumption at 622 million tons."He said that an increasing trend of turning wheat and corn into alternative fuels, had come at a time when grain stocks had been run down. Grain supplies were already under pressure as a result of bad weather which reduced harvests and pushed up prices last year.

Over 20 per cent of the maize crop in the United States is now used for the production of ethanol. The knock on effect on the price of wheat, an alternative in processed food, suggested the wheat price was "only headed one way," said Mr Hill. European farmers have asked the European Commission to allow them to grow crops on the 8 per cent of land currently taken out of production as "set-aside" next year.

There is no credible currency against which it can collapse. (Unless you count gold). None of the world's rival power blocs have the economic and demographic depth to challenge American dominance.

Yes, we have a dollar rout on our hands. The markets have suddenly begun to discount a nasty crunch in the US as the subprime debacle spreads through the credit markets. The prospect of rate cuts by the Federal Reserve is drawing closer, knocking away the dollar's yield prop. Investors have switched reflexively to the euro as the default currency. This cannot last.

No, the 21st Century will be the American century, just like the 20th Century. Americans may have to tighten their belts a bit after all the sins of Alan Greenspan and the Clinton-Bush debt generation. But the dollar will still be the world's reserve currency long after the euro has disappeared and the yen has been forgotten? Now, the Indian Rupee? Hhm. Another day.

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The Telegraph reports that EU Commissioner Margot Wallstrom has said THE CHARTER WILL APPLY TO LARGE PARTS OF BRITISH LAW, DESPITE UK GOVERNMENT CLAIMS THAT THE OPT-OUT WILL PREVENT THIS. Wallstrom said the Charter will be binding for member states when they implement EU law, and EU officials therefore predict Britain's opt-out on the European working time directive, for instance, will be challenged in the courts in Brussels because it affects European laws.

A senior European Parliament source, close to negotiations on the new EU treaty, told the Telegraph that MEPS ARE PLANNING TO SPONSOR EARLY CHALLENGES TO BRITAIN'S OPT-OUTS. "We are going to make sure that this issue is constantly before the European Court of Justice," he said. "There is 30 years of EU jurisprudence to say there can be no two-tier system of European rights." Open Europe's director Neil O'Brien as saying, "Trying to stop the charter changing our laws will be like trying to carry water in a sieve."
Telegraph

Portuguese Prime Minister José Socrates said that the 'negotiations' would not stick to the mandate agreed last month. "The agreement reached at the European Council gives a clear and precise mandate. We are now in a position to move forward. One thing is clear to me. Our mandate is not to change the mandate, but to turn the mandate into a Treaty". Socrates was backed by Commission President José Manuel Barroso, who said: "IT IS INCONCEIVABLE THAT AN AGREEMENT THAT WAS ACHIEVED UNANIMOUSLY SHOULD BE REOPENED."

MEP Richard Corbett said the fact that the IGC mandate "salvages" 90% of the Constitution has excited much comment, but argued that although "mice and men" are 90% identical, the 10% difference is rather important. He said that the changes, including the dropping of the symbols of the EU, "will make it easier to ratify".

BARROSO: EU IS AN EMPIRE .
The Telegraph reports that EU Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso said yesterday in Strasbourg: "We are a very special construction unique in the history of mankind. SOMETIMES I LIKE TO COMPARE THE EU AS A CREATION TO THE ORGANISATION OF EMPIRE. We have the dimension of empire" . According to the Eupolitix, Barroso added "We should not have existential doubts about the EU's future - it is what it has always been. IT IS THE WORLD'S FIRST NON-IMPERIAL EMPIRE, with 27 member states that have agreed to pool their sovereignty and work together."

EU TO UNVEIL NEW RULES ON SPORT TODAY; BRUSSELS' POWER IN THIS AREA TO BE EXTENDED BY NEW TREATY.
Euobserver reports - Controversial proposals giving the EU a capacity to regulate sport across Europe will be put forward by Culture Commissioner Jan Figel today. The white paper will outline new EU powers over contentious issues such as the selection and transfers of players, corruption and TV rights. Many member states have questioned the need for EU interverntion in this field. EUROPE HAS TRADITIONALLY HAD NO ROLE IN THE AREA OF SPORT, BUT EU COMPETENCE IN THIS AREA WAS AGREED AS PART OF THE DEAL ON THE NEW EU TREATY AT THE BRUSSELS SUMMIT LAST MONTH.

EU COMMISSION TO MAKE COMMUNICATING THE BENEFITS OF EU TREATY "A PRIORITY"; BUT WANTS TO AVOID AWKWARD QUESTIONS
Euobserver reports - Communications Commissioner Margot Wallstrom says THAT PROMOTING THE NEW EU TREATY WILL BE "ONE OF THE MAIN POLITICAL PRIORITIES" FOR THE COMMISSION IN THE UPCOMING MONTHS. Wallstrom said, "It's probably a wise tactic that we decide to pursue this quickly so that we don't leave room for a bunch of new questions. We should strictly stick to the mandates".

BRITAIN ISOLATED AS SARKOZY'S MAN BECOMES EU CANDIDATE FOR IMF HEAD
Le Figaro reports that Britain, advocating "open and transparent competition" for the post of head of the IMF, found itself isolated at a meeting of EU finance ministers yesterday, with the result that Sarkozy's candidate, former Socialist Finance Minister Dominique Strauss-Kahn, is now the EU's as well. But the Guardian reports that the UK is refusing to abide by the other 26 member-states' decision, with Treasury sources saying "the EU is not mandated to vote as a bloc and there was no majority or unanimous decision."

EU FINANCE MINISTERS YESTERDAY GAVE A FINAL GREEN LIGHT TO CYPRUS AND MALTA JOINING THE EURO ON 1 JAN 2008.
Nezavisimaia Gazeta

THE FRONT PAGE OF THE FT reports that mortgage fears in US have sparked a sell off in credit markets, and have brought the dollar to record lows against the Euro.

COMMISSION CALLS FOR MEMBER STATES TO CO-OPERATE AGAINST BIO-TERROR THREAT
Brussels is insisting on the danger of a simultaneous bio-terrorist attack on several member states, and, claiming that 'no member state can hope to go it alone', has proposed a 'European bionetwork' putting intelligence services, scientists and police forces of the 27 member states in contact. With member state jealously guarding their prerogatives in security, the Commission will make more detailed proposals in October.
Le Figaro


FRATTINI OPPOSES SCHAEUBLE'S SUGGESTION THAT TERRORISTS COULD BE ASSASSINATED
Responding to German interior minister Wolfgang Schaeuble's suggestion that terrorists could be assassinated, EU Justice Commissioner Franco Frattini said, "the fact that we are fighting against terrorism can't mean we kill people," adding that he was against "any form of the death penalty." Schaeuble had said that if bin Laden's whereabouts were known it would be legitimate to kill him with a missile.
El Pais

The IDF Military Intelligence (MI) assessment was reported Tuesday to the Knesset and included a concrete assessment determining that Iran could cross the technological threshold required to produce nuclear weapons in the next 6-12 months and possess an operational warhead by the middle of 2009.

The assessment is at odds with US estimates that put the date between 2010 and 2013. Both agree, however, that military strikes could set back the technology for years.IDF MI also is of the opinion that sanctions against Iran have not weakened the regime, because huge oil reserves still provide all the money necessary to neutralize any pressure created by the international community.

The assessment also revealed that Israel's withdrawals - from Lebanon in 2000 and Gaza in 2005 - have added precedents and solidified belief throughout the Middle East that armed struggle can achieve the destruction of Israel within this generation.Lieberman said that although Europe or the US could not be relied upon to attack Iran on Israel's behalf, they would support Israel's actions. "If we start military operations against Iran alone, then Europe and the US will support us," he said.

US Senator Joseph Lieberman has been publicly calling for US strikes on Iran.He repeated the call last week, saying the Islamic Republic "has declared war on the US" and is waging a "proxy war" against coalition forces in Iraq.The Connecticut Senator and former Vice-Presidential candidate said intelligence reports proved Iran was behind much of the terrorism in Iraq and must be confronted directly. "Although no one desires a conflict with Iran, the fact is that the Iranian government by its actions has declared war on us."

Countries in the Middle East and Africa have long dealt with water shortages but now the likes of China, India and the United States are grappling with the problem.And the United Nations says five billion people will be living in areas with limited water availability by 2025, which will only exacerbate tensions and demand for the limited supply.

Water management has been pushed to the top of the political agenda in some countries and military leaders are now being drawn into long-term planning to help strategize how governments will face their dry futures.
While it's not yet expected that water will be the sole cause of a war, the report suggests a fight over natural resources could be the final straw that pushes countries into conflict.

Maude Barlow of the Council of Canadians said she doesn't doubt the Americans would try to pressure Canada into sharing its water in a time of crisis."I am absolutely convinced that the United States has already targeted Canada's water, I'm absolutely convinced there are high-level conversations going on between some people in government and business in our country and the United States," she said.

"The situation is critical for those already living on the edge, struggling to cope with the combined impact of successive crop failures, poverty and HIV/AIDS," UN emergency relief coordinator John Holmes said in a statement late on Wednesday. UNAIDS says about 270,000 people -- making up 14 percent of Lesotho's population -- are infected with HIV, giving it one of the worst AIDS crises in the world.The food crunch was triggered by the country's worst drought in over 30 years, which OCHA said had cut the staple maize crop harvest by more than 40 percent.

Close to 328,000 tonnes of cereals are now needed to feed hungry people in the country, which only harvested a meagre 72,000 tonnes of cereals during its last harvest, down from 126,000 tonnes last year.Sparse supplies, and reduced harvests in neighbouring South Africa, the regional supplier, have helped to push prices beyond the reach of many in Lesotho, which is one of the poorest countries in the region.

Lesotho's crisis has spurred wider calls for food aid to other parts of southern Africa. More than 5 million people in the region, including up to four million in Zimbabwe alone, are expected to need food assistance due to drought this year, the U.N. said.

Many families fled to beaches as the fire came down to the water's edge, fanned by strong winds. The three resorts affected were Aghia Paraskevi, Troulos and Kolios, on the southern part of the island.British tourists on the heavily-wooded island of Skiathos described the progress of the fire as absolutely terrifying.
Greece has been afflicted by a seemingly never-ending series of fires this summer, our correspondent says.

On Wednesday, three firefighters on the island of Crete were killed when they were trapped by swirling flames suddenly changing direction in powerful winds.

Searching for Babylonian financial accounts among the tablets, Prof Jursa suddenly came across a name he half remembered - Nabu-sharrussu-ukin, described there in a hand 2,500 years old, as "the chief eunuch" of Nebuchadnezzar II, king of Babylon.

Prof Jursa, an Assyriologist, checked the Old Testament and there in chapter 39 of the Book of Jeremiah, he found, spelled differently, the same name - Nebo-Sarsekim. Nebo-Sarsekim, according to Jeremiah, was Nebuchadnezzar II's "chief officer" and was with him at the siege of Jerusalem in 587 BC, when the Babylonians overran the city.

The small tablet, the size of "a packet of 10 cigarettes" according to Irving Finkel, a British Museum expert, is a bill of receipt acknowledging Nabu-sharrussu-ukin's payment of 0.75 kg of gold to a temple in Babylon.
The tablet is dated to the 10th year of the reign of Nebuchadnezzar II, 595BC, 12 years before the siege of Jerusalem.

Evidence from non-Biblical sources of people named in the Bible is not unknown, but Nabu-sharrussu-ukin would have been a relatively insignificant figure. "This is a fantastic discovery, a world-class find," Dr Finkel said yesterday. "If Nebo-Sarsekim existed, which other lesser figures in the Old Testament existed? A THROWAWAY DETAIL IN THE OLD TESTAMENT TURNS OUT TO BE ACCURATE AND TRUE. I THINK THAT IT MEANS THAT THE WHOLE OF THE NARRATIVE [OF JEREMIAH] TAKES ON A NEW KIND OF POWER."

The full translation of the tablet reads: (Regarding) 1.5 minas (0.75 kg) of gold, the property of Nabu-sharrussu-ukin, the chief eunuch, which he sent via Arad-Banitu the eunuch to [the temple] Esangila: Arad-Banitu has delivered [it] to Esangila. In the presence of Bel-usat, son of Alpaya, the royal bodyguard, [and of] Nadin, son of Marduk-zer-ibni. Month XI, day 18, year 10 [of] Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon.

Tintin In The Congo was the second comic book, written and drawn by the Belgian author Hergé, to feature the boy reporter. It was first published in 1931 but was redrawn in 1946, when Hergé removed several references to Congo being a Belgian colony.

Spokesman for the CRE said: "This book contains imagery and words of hideous racial prejudice, where the 'savage natives' look like monkeys and talk like imbeciles. "It beggars belief that in this day and age Borders would think it acceptable to sell and display Tintin In The Congo. High street shops, and indeed any shops, ought to think very carefully about whether they ought to be selling and displaying it."

Ann Widdecombe, the Conservative MP, said it was "ludicrous" for the CRE to try to ban a 75-year-old book and claimed its outburst would damage the watchdog's reputation. "I understand the view that it shouldn't be on sale to children but the publishers have taken care of that. "It brings the CRE into disrepute - there are many more serious things for them to worry about."

The National Bureau of Statistics raised its estimate of China's 2006 growth rate from 10.7 percent to 11.1 percent. It nudged up its estimate of total output by 146.4 billion yuan ($18.8 billion) to 21.1 trillion yuan ($2.705 trillion).

The revision brought China closer to Germany, the world's third-largest economy after the United States and Japan. Germany's 2006 output was $3 trillion but its 2.5 percent growth rate was well below China's.
China's trade surplus soared to a new monthly high of $26.9 billion in June, the government reported Tuesday.

The statistics bureau's brief announcement on Wednesday said the biggest increase in China's estimated output was in secondary industries, which includes manufacturing, construction and utilities.

The exact size of China's economy is a matter of debate, with foreign analysts saying the small statistics agency lacks the resources to provide more than a general estimate. In December 2005, Beijing raised the official size of the economy by nearly 17 percent and retroactively boosted annual growth figures for the previous decade following the first nationwide census of China's booming service industries such as restaurants.

Back in the days when motor vehicles were invented, such biofuels seemed to be the way to drive them. HENRY FORD ORIGINALLY DESIGNED HIS MODEL T FORD TO RUN ON FUEL MADE FROM CORN AND HEMP, AND THE FIRST DIESEL ENGINE BURNED PURE PEANUT OIL. But these sources could not compete against the rapidly increasing supplies of cheap crude.

Now, oil's phenomenal 150-year growth is coming to an end. Experts believe we are rapidly approaching the point when its production will start to decline. And as supplies shrink, production will become ever more concentrated in potentially unfriendly areas such as Russia and the Middle East. And burning oil releases carbon dioxide. Biofuels address all these problems, while providing farmers with a new source of income. It is little wonder that governments have seized on them.

Earlier this year, President George W. Bush announced that the United States would cut its use of petrol by a fifth over the next decade, and make up for it by stepping up biofuel production to 35 billion gallons a year.
But a growing number of authoritative critics say it is DRIVING UP FOOD PRICES, EXACERBATING POVERTY AND HUNGER, CAUSING THE DESTRUCTION OF VITAL FORESTS AND WETLANDS, AND EVEN MAKING CLIMATE CHANGE WORSE.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, it is the U.S. which has so far produced the greatest biofuels conundrum - with the worst worldwide consequences. The United States makes ethanol from its corn crop, but these fields also help to feed 100 - mostly poor - countries. AND JUST ONE TANKFUL OF ETHANOL FOR A FOURWHEEL DRIVE USES UP ENOUGH GRAIN TO FEED SOMEONE FOR AN ENTIRE YEAR.

By next year, nearly a third of the U.S. harvest will go to fuel American cars, rather than be exported to feed people. Inevitably, food prices will rise sharply. The cost of buying tortillas in Mexico has already shot up 60 per cent (due to rising flour prices), causing riots. Italian pasta makers are warning that prices will soar because farmers have switched from growing wheat for food to biofuels.

And, incredible as it may seem, so much traditional fossil fuel is used to grow, harvest and transport U.S. corn and turn it into ethanol that there may be little or no net benefit. ONE AUTHORITATIVE STUDY EVEN SUGGESTS THAT THE PROCESS CONSUMES NEARLY A THIRD MORE ENERGY THAN IS PRODUCED - THUS INCREASING, RATHER THAN REDUCING, CARBON DIOXIDE EMISSIONS. And though the right use of biofuels can do much to ease the oil crisis, simple steps to conserve energy can do much more. Increasing the mpg of U.S. cars by just 20 per cent, for example, would save as much oil as using the country's entire harvest for fuel.

Palm oil, widely used to make European biodiesel, is a particularly good source of energy. But the downside is that rain-forests are being felled and peatlands drained in countries such as Indonesia to make way for palm plantations - driving the endangered orang-utan and Sumatran tiger towards extinction, and small farmers and indigenous peoples off their lands.

What's more, as the forests and peatlands are destroyed, vast amounts of carbon dioxide are released, far offsetting any benefit to the climate gained by substituting the biofuel for oil. Regardless, Malaysia alone plans to increase production a staggering 43-fold over the next 20 years. And similar problems face Brazil, which has led the world in the use of ethanol. Its sugar cane crops now provide 40 per cent of the country's motor fuel.

BUT THE CATHOLIC CHURCH HAS WARNED THAT A RAPID INCREASE IN PRODUCTION COULD HAVE 'A DEVASTATING SOCIAL AND ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT' AS POOR PEOPLE ARE EVICTED FROM THEIR LAND, AND FOREST AND OTHER ECOSYSTEMS DENUDED.

Cattle soak up a phenomenal amount of water: it takes a staggering 990 pints of it to produce just one pint of milk. And their wastes often pollute rivers and the sea. A giant 'dead zone', stretching over 21,000 square miles in the Gulf of Mexico, is partly caused by pollution from U.S. beef production, carried down the Mississippi.

But perhaps the greatest surprise is that cattle are responsible for more of the pollution that causes global warming than are cars. Burning fuel to produce fertiliser to grow their food, to produce meat and to transport it accounts for about 9 per cent of man-made emissions of carbon dioxide.

Worse, their manure and wind produces at least a quarter of the pollution by methane, a 20 times more powerful gas. Wind from both ends of a single British cow - but mainly from belching - produces the equivalent of 4,000 grams of carbon dioxide a day, compared to 3,419 grams from the exhaust pipe of a Land Rover Freelander on an average 33-mile day's drive.

In all, the world's 1.5 billion head of cattle produce more greenhouse gases than all its cars, planes and other forms of transport put together.