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.

BALAD AIR BASE, Iraq (AP) - The airplane is the size of a jet fighter, powered by a turboprop engine, able to fly at 300 mph and reach 50,000 feet. It's outfitted with infrared, laser and radar targeting, and with a ton and a half of guided bombs and missiles.

The arrival of these outsized U.S. "hunter-killer" drones, in aviation history's first robot attack squadron, will be a watershed moment even in an Iraq that has seen too many innovative ways to hunt and kill.

At five tons gross weight, the Reaper is four times heavier than the Predator. Its size - 36 feet long, with a 66-foot wingspan - is comparable to the profile of the Air Force's workhorse A-10 attack plane. It can fly twice as fast and twice as high as the Predator. Most significantly, it carries many more weapons.

While the Predator is armed with two Hellfire missiles, the Reaper can carry 14 of the air-to-ground weapons - or four Hellfires and two 500-pound bombs.

"It's not a recon squadron," Col. Joe Guasella, operations chief for the Central Command's air component, said of the Reapers. "It's an attack squadron, with a lot more kinetic ability." The Reaper is expected to be flown as the Predator is - by a two-member team of pilot and sensor operator who work at computer control stations and video screens that display what the UAV "sees." Teams at Balad, housed in a hangar beside the runways, perform the takeoffs and landings, and similar teams at Nevada's Creech Air Force Base, linked to the aircraft via satellite, take over for the long hours of overflying the Iraqi landscape.

American ground troops, equipped with laptops that can download real-time video from UAVs overhead, "want more and more of it," said Maj. Chris Snodgrass, the Predator squadron commander here. The Reaper's speed will help. "Our problem is speed," Snodgrass said of the 140-mph Predator. "If there are troops in contact, we may not get there fast enough. The Reaper will be faster and fly farther."

The new robot plane is expected to be able to stay aloft for 14 hours fully armed, watching an area and waiting for targets to emerge.

The post-9/11 trend concerns authorities who fear al-Qaida could be using the medical industry to infiltrate terrorist cells into the country. In November 2003, WND has learned U.S. intelligence intercepted information about a plot by al-Qaida to employ the scam to obtain U.S. visas for terrorist operatives at the U.S. embassy in Islamabad.

Here is the text of the warning issued in a closely held intelligence-driven action bulletin by Homeland Security at the time:

"As of mid-November 2003, Islamic extremists were supposedly planning to send operatives to the United States and United Kingdom to conduct attacks. The attacks will allegedly take place in April 2004. The operatives will be Pakistani individuals who would obtain U.S. visas in Islamabad, Pakistan. The operatives will accompany a disabled person and act as the disabled person's assistants when obtaining the visa."

The two-page DHS intelligence bulletin, marked "SENSITIVE LAW ENFORCEMENT INFORMATION" and obtained by WND, added that operatives could conceal weapons, explosive materials or other contraband inside prosthetic limbs or in wheelchairs on board inbound flights to the U.S.

"This method fits with current al-Qaida methodology," the bulletin said, "as al-Qaida has been trying to recruit individuals who would draw less scrutiny from U.S. law enforcement entities."

If found guilty, Dr Andrew Wakefield, who is charged along with two colleagues, could be struck off. The General Medical Council alleges the trio acted unethically while carrying out their controversial research. They are also accused of being dishonest and irresponsible in dealings with The Lancet medical journal.
It is also alleged that some of the children who took part did not qualify for the study on the basis of their behavioural symptoms.

The doctors are also accused of failing to tell The Lancet how they recruited patients - leading to inaccuracies in the published research. Dr Wakefield also faces a charge of failing to disclose funding he received from the Legal Aid Board to carry out separate research - into whether parents had grounds to sue the manufacturers of the MMR vaccine. He is also accused of abusing his position of trust as a medical practitioner by taking blood from children at a birthday party after offering them money.

In a statement Dr Wakefield's solicitor said: "Dr Wakefield continues to vigorously deny any allegation of wrongdoing."

The Lancet has disowned Dr Wakefield's 1998 paper, the editor admitting he would not have published it if he had known about what he called a "fatal conflict of interest". Dr Philip Minor, of the National Institutes of Biological Standards and Control, said: "The MMR vaccine is one of the safest, best studied vaccines, and yet vaccination rates are still not as high as they were before Wakefield sparked this controversy. "Measles, mumps and rubella are terrible infections which vaccinations have largely eradicated in the UK. "It is essential, not to suffer the devastating repercussions of these infections, that we continue to vaccinate our children."

The campaign group, Jabs, which believes MMR has damaged children, plans to demonstrate in support of Dr Wakefield outside the GMC.

In a letter to the New England Journal of Medicine, they describe burns and hearing damage suffered by a patient hit by lightning while using his iPod. The man, who was jogging in a storm, suffered burns to his chest and on his leg where he was wearing the player.

Medical experts say electronic devices, such as music players or mobile phones, on their own do not attract lightning. But in the Vancouver man's case, "the combination of sweat and metal earphones directed the current to, and through, the patient's head," wrote Drs Eric J Heffernan, Peter L Munk and Luck J Louis of Vancouver General Hospital.

The man's jaw was broken, probably by muscle contraction, say the doctors. The current of electricity through his headphones caused the air in his ears to heat and expand, creating pressure waves which burst his eardrums. The extra jolt of electricity through the wires of the man's music player caused second-degree burns all the way down his chest and to his left leg. In addition, witnesses reported the man being thrown about eight feet (2.4m) after the lightning hit him, the doctors said.

The incident, which happened two years ago, has left the man with less than 50% hearing in both ears. Several other cases of people suffering burns and hearing loss after being struck by lightning while wearing personal stereos have also been recorded.

What to do in a thunderstorm?

Thunderstorms are short, sharp and shocking - for some literally. For if you can hear the clouds rumbling, chances are the storm is close enough to for you to be struck by lightning - it can strike up to 10 miles away from the centre of a storm.

If thunderstorms are forecast, postpone or cancel outdoor activities - especially golf and rod fishing. If a storm is approaching, take cover inside or in a car with the windows wound up - sheds, isolated trees and convertibles do not afford sufficient protection. Boaters and swimmers should get to shore as quickly as possible, as water conducts electricity. So too do metal pipes and phone lines. Only make calls in an emergency, and best put off baths, showers and dish washing, in case lightning strikes the house and sends a jolt of electricity through the metal plumbing.

Do not put up an umbrella or use a mobile phone - the metal directs the current into the body. Be wary of venturing out too soon - the BBC Weather Centre advises waiting 30 minutes after the last flash, as over half of lightning deaths occur after the thunderstorm has passed. While the forecast storms will bring much-needed rain, the sudden dump of water poses the risk of flash flooding. If waters start to rise, head for higher ground. Don't try to drive to safety, as most flash flood deaths occur in vehicles.

And one final tip - it's a myth that lightning never strikes the same place twice.

Most of the Bushmen cannot read or write, but they can see what is alive in front of them - and the icons on their PDAs. The screen displays more than 40 animal species, subspecies and plants. The icons also cover activities such as drinking, feeding, running, fighting, mating and sleeping.

Pressing an icon records a sighting or other indications, which is sent wirelessly to a computer server by satellite. Of course, this free software can be used for other purposes than nature conservation. It can be applied around the world to social surveys, organic farming, integrated pest management and disaster relief.

Each screen allows the user to record increasingly detailed information. They found that one tracker might record up to 300 observations in a day. Connected to a satellite navigational system in 1996, the hand-held computer automatically recorded the details, time, date and exact location.

This information was processed on a base-station computer to create maps and charts of animal movements and feeding habits. Today, all the data collection can be done on a PDA and worked on a personal computer. The free software used to turn a tracker into a digital wildlife tracker has now been downloaded over 25,000 times in more than 50 countries.

Hundreds of people were injured when the 6.8-magnitude tremor struck the Niigata area. The fire at the nuclear plant has been extinguished, and there was no release of radiation or damage to the reactors, officials said.
City official Takashi Otsuka said about 2,000 people had been evacuated from their homes, while tens of thousands are reported to have no power or running water.

Older buildings, many of them with wooden walls and heavy tile roofs, appear to have suffered the most damage in the earthquake, which also cracked roads and buckled bridges. The region has subsequently suffered several strong aftershocks. Clouds of black smoke poured from the Kashiwazaki nuclear plant, which automatically shut down during the quake. Motoyasu Tamaki, a Tokyo Electric Power Company official, said the fire had occurred in an electrical transformer.

Hospital officials said about 300 people had been brought in for treatment of injuries including broken bones, cuts and bruises, they added. Skyscrapers swayed in Tokyo, more than 200km (125 miles), from the earthquake's epicentre in the Sea of Japan.

Earthquakes are common in Japan, which is situated in one of the world's most seismically active areas, and the country regularly holds safety drills. Three years ago, an earthquake in the same area left 65 people dead.
In 1995, a magnitude 7.3 tremor hit the city of Kobe, killing more than 6,400 people.

When I was still a member of what is probably best termed the British Jihadi Network - a series of British Muslim terrorist groups linked by a single ideology - I remember how we used to laugh in celebration whenever people on TV proclaimed that the sole cause for Islamic acts of terror like 9/11, the Madrid bombings and 7/7 was Western foreign policy.

By blaming the Government for our actions, those who pushed this "Blair's bombs" line did our propaganda work for us. MORE IMPORTANT, THEY ALSO HELPED TO DRAW AWAY ANY CRITICAL EXAMINATION FROM THE REAL ENGINE OF OUR VIOLENCE: ISLAMIC THEOLOGY.

The attempts to cause mass destruction in London and Glasgow are so reminiscent of other recent British Islamic extremist plots that they are likely to have been carried out by my former peers. And as with previous terror attacks, people are again saying that violence carried out by Muslims is all to do with foreign policy.
The Mayor of London, Ken Livingstone, said: "What all our intelligence shows about the opinions of disaffected young Muslims is the main driving force is not Afghanistan, it is mainly Iraq."

I left the British Jihadi Network in February 2006 because I REALISED THAT ITS MEMBERS HAD SIMPLY BECOME MINDLESS KILLERS. But if I were still fighting for their cause, I'd be laughing once again. And though many British extremists are angered by the deaths of fellow Muslim across the world, what drove me and many others to plot acts of extreme terror within Britain and abroad was a sense that WE WERE FIGHTING FOR THE CREATION OF A REVOLUTIONARY WORLDWIDE ISLAMIC STATE THAT WOULD DISPENSE ISLAMIC JUSTICE.

If we were interested in justice, you may ask, how did this continuing violence come to be the means of promoting such a (flawed) Utopian goal? How do Islamic radicals justify such terror in the name of their religion?

THE FOUNDATION OF EXTREMIST REASONING RESTS UPON A MODEL OF THE WORLD IN WHICH YOU ARE EITHER A BELIEVER OR AN INFIDEL. Formal Islamic theology, unlike Christian theology, does not allow for the separation of state and religion: they are considered to be one and the same. For centuries, the reasoning of Islamic jurists has set down rules of interaction between Dar ul-Islam (the Land of Islam) and Dar ul-Kufr (the Land of Unbelief) to cover almost every matter of trade, peace and war. But what radicals and extremists do is to take this two steps further.

THEIR FIRST STEP HAS BEEN TO ARGUE THAT, SINCE THERE IS NO PURE ISLAMIC STATE, THE WHOLE WORLD MUST BE DAR UL-KUFR (THE LAND OF UNBELIEF). STEP TWO: SINCE ISLAM MUST DECLARE WAR ON UNBELIEF, THEY HAVE DECLARED WAR UPON THE WHOLE WORLD.

Along with many of my former peers, I was taught by Pakistani and British radical preachers that this reclassification of the globe as a Land of War (Dar ul-Harb) allows any Muslim to destroy the sanctity of the five rights that every human is granted under Islam: life, wealth, land, mind and belief. In Dar ul-Harb, anything goes, including the treachery and cowardice of attacking civilians. The notion of a global battlefield has been a source of friction for Muslims living in Britain.

For decades, radicals have been exploiting the tensions between Islamic theology and the modern secular state - typically by starting debate with the question: "Are you British or Muslim?" But the main reason why radicals have managed to increase their following is because most Muslim institutions in Britain just don't want to talk about theology.

They refuse to broach the difficult and often complex truth that ISLAM CAN BE INTERPRETED AS CONDONING VIOLENCE AGAINST THE UNBELIEVER - AND INSTEAD REPEAT THE MANTRA THAT ISLAM IS PEACE AND HOPE THAT ALL OF THIS DEBATE WILL GO AWAY.

This has left the territory open for radicals to claim as their own. I should know because, as a former extremist recruiter, I REPEATEDLY CAME ACROSS THOSE WHO HAD TRIED TO RAISE THESE ISSUES WITH MOSQUE AUTHORITIES ONLY TO BE BANNED FROM THEIR GROUNDS.

Even up to the second world war, honey was being used for its antibacterial properties in treating wounds. But with the advent of penicillin and other antibiotic drugs in the twentieth century, honey's medicinal qualities have taken a back seat. But that might be about to change - thanks to one New Zealand based researcher. Working in his Honey Research Unit at the University of Waikato, in the central North Island, biochemist Professor Peter Molan has identified one particular type of honey with extraordinary healing qualities.

Professor Molan has shown that honey made from the flowers of the manuka bush, a native of New Zealand, has antibacterial properties over and above those of other honeys. And he has found a way to measure its antibacterial efficacy, by comparing UMF manuka honey with a standard antiseptic (carbolic, or phenol) in its ability to fight bacteria. The results are astonishing.

He said: "We know it has a very broad spectrum of action. "It works on bacteria, fungi, protozoa. We haven't found anything it doesn't work on among infectious organisms." In fact, he says UMF manuka honey can even tackle antibiotic resistant strains of bacteria - a growing problem for hospitals around the world.

"Staphylococcus aureas is the most common wound-infecting species of bacteria, and that's the most sensitive to honey that we've found. "And that includes the antibiotic resistant strains - the MRSA - which is just as sensitive to honey as any other staphylococcus aureas."

That's a view shared by beekeeper Bill Bennett a few kilometres up the road from the hospital. He and his wife Margaret run the Summerglow Apiaries, one of just a handful of registered suppliers of UMF manuka honey in New Zealand. They produce between eight and twelve metric tonnes of manuka honey every year, and sell it across the world.

The honey is rigorously tested three times during production for that elusive unique manuka factor; only then can it carry the label "UMF manuka honey". "It just seems that manuka from a few areas within New Zealand produces a nectar that has this special property," said Bill Bennett. "There is a lot of manuka honey out there that doesn't have this special property. That's why it's so important to look for the name UMF."

Thousands of people in every major town and city took to the streets, and three people are reported to have been killed in clashes around the country. The protests are widely seen as a show of disapproval with the government of President Alan Garcia. They come just a fortnight before President Garcia completes his first year in office. In the biggest demonstration since Mr Garcia became Peru's president, there was a national show of discontent with his government.

It began as a national strike by the left-wing Peruvian education workers' union. But as construction workers, farmers and miners joined, it grew in size and became more widespread. There have been running battles with the police in the centre of Lima, and the authorities have detained more than 100 union leaders. In the southern region of Puno, protestors stormed an airport and a railway station, and three people have been killed in different clashes across the country.

On Friday, a tourist train on its way to Machu Picchu was pelted with stones, and in Peru's second city, Arequipa, striking teachers tried to throw eggs and tomatoes at President Garcia and clashed with his supporters. Several police officers were held hostage by angry demonstrators in the same city but later released.

The protesting teachers object to a new law which obliges them to take a proficiency test and says they will be sacked if they repeatedly fail it. The test is part of the government's attempt to reform the appalling standard of Peru's state education. But union leaders say it will mean hundreds of arbitrary sackings.

President Garcia appears to have inflamed the protests by launching insults at union leaders and dismissing them as left-wing radicals. But the opposition leader, Ollanta Humala, and several MPs have also joined the demonstrations. They accuse Mr Garcia of reneging on his campaign pledges and say social development and working conditions have not improved, despite Peru's booming economic growth.