Prostitution was legalized in Germany in 2002 and already by last year the situation for women was dramatic, warned the British newspaper Telegraph in an article Jan. 30, 2005.

The article recounted the experience of a 25-year-old woman who, after turning down a job providing "sexual services" at a brothel in Berlin, faced possible cuts to her unemployment benefits.

Brothel owners enjoy access to official databases of those registered for unemployment benefits. The woman, unnamed in the article, had said that she was willing to work in a bar at night and had worked in a café. Later she received a letter from the job center saying that an employer was interested in her and that she should ring them. Only then did she realize that she was calling a brothel.

Germany's welfare laws oblige woman under 55 who have been out of work for more than a year to take an available job -- including in the sex industry -- or lose benefits, the Telegraph reported. The government had considered making brothels an exception, but eventually ruled this out.

Brunhilde Raiser, director of the National Council of German Women's Organizations, declared that in her country, "Forced prostitution has yet to become a public issue of concern as a severe violation of human and women's rights." Her remarks appeared May 5 in the Christian Science Monitor, ahead of the June 9-July 9 World Cup.

Red card

Archbishop Agostino Marchetto, secretary of the Pontifical Council for Migrants and Travelers, was interviewed by Vatican Radio on Thursday about the problem of prostitution during the soccer tournament.

Adopting soccer terminology, he said that the sex industry, its clients, and the public authorities merited a "red card" for taking advantage of the sporting event to promote prostitution. He cited estimates that up to 40,000 women, many of them against their own volition, will be engaged in centers set up for prostitution in Berlin and surrounding areas in these weeks.

Hamas's armed wing, Izzedine al-Qassam Brigade, said it had fired rockets into Israel from the Gaza Strip.

"This is only the start and rocket firings will continue," a spokesman was quoted by Reuters news agency as saying.

"Next time, the rockets will be longer in range and they will hit places deeper inside the Zionist entity."

The spokesman said the attacks were a response to Israeli "crimes and the killings of civilians in Gaza".

The head of the United Nations has called for a full inquiry into Friday's deaths.

'Right to fight'

Hamas government spokesman Ghazi Hamad told the BBC that Friday's deaths had changed what he called "the rules of the game", and that suicide attacks could resume.

You can expect anything from what happened in Gaza," he told Radio Four's Today programme.

Hamas's armed wing has been distributing leaflets declaring the end of the February 2005 truce and appearing to promise a resumption of bomb attacks on Israeli towns.

"The earthquake in the Zionist towns will start again and the aggressors will have no choice but to prepare their coffins or their luggage," the leaflets read.

The Israeli army says it detected at least three rocket launches but has no record of the rockets landing in Israel or causing any damage.

For now this move by Hamas seems mainly symbolic, the BBC's Simon Wilson reports from Jerusalem.

Under the ceasefire arrangement agreed with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, Hamas has enjoyed enormous political success, taking power with a landslide victory in parliamentary elections in January.

So far this does not amount to a complete change in Hamas's position but if it were to return to widespread militant activity, the question would be how Israel might respond, our correspondent adds.

In the past it has refused to differentiate between political and armed wings, assassinating a number of Hamas leaders, including its wheelchair-bound founder, Sheikh Ahmed Yassin.

Inquiry call

UN Secretary General Kofi Annan's spokesman said the UN chief was deeply disturbed by the killings.

A senior Israeli military officer, Maj-Gen Yoav Galant, said it was too early to be certain about the cause of Friday's explosion.

"This may have been an accident which caused an artillery shell to fall off course, or an older unexploded shell which went off, or perhaps an explosive device which was tinkered with," he said.

Mr Abbas declared three days of Palestinian mourning following the deaths, which included five people from the same family, a man and one of his wives and three of his children.

They were having a picnic on the beach when the explosion happened. The children's seven-year-old sister had been swimming in the sea at the time and survived. Twenty people were wounded.

The quest for energy control has informed Washington's support for high-risk "color revolutions" in Georgia, Ukraine, Uzbekistan, Belarus and Kyrgyzstan in recent months. It lies behind US activity in West Africa, as well as in Sudan, source of 7% of China's oil imports. It lies behind US policy vis-à-vis President Hugo Chavez' Venezuela and President Evo Morales' Bolivia.

In recent months, however, this strategy of global energy dominance has shown signs of producing just the opposite: a kind of "coalition of the unwilling", states that increasingly see no other prospect, despite traditional animosities, but to cooperate to oppose what they see as a US push to control the future security of their energy.

If the trend of recent events continues, it won't be US-style democracy that is spreading, but rather Russian and Chinese influence over major oil and gas supplies.

Some in Washington are beginning to realize that important figures might have been too clumsy in recent public statements about both China and Russia, two nations whose cooperation in some form is essential to the success of the global US energy project.

Russia's energy geopolitics
In recent months SCO members have taken several potentially strategic steps to distance themselves from energy and monetary dependence on the US. In his recent State of the Union speech, President Putin announced that Russia is planning to make the ruble convertible into other major currencies and to use it in its oil and gas transactions.

A convertible ruble is to be introduced, according to latest Russian statements, on July 1, six months earlier than originally planned. Russia also has stated it plans to shift a share of its now considerable dollar reserves away from the US currency and that it will use 40 billion US dollars to purchase gold reserves.

Russia's state-owned natural-gas transport company, Transneft, has consolidated its pipeline control to become the sole exporter of Russian natural gas. Russia has by far the world's largest natural-gas reserves and Iran the second-largest. With Iran inside, the SCO would control the vast majority of the world's natural-gas reserves, as well as a significant portion of its oil reserves, not to mention the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow corridor for a majority of Persian Gulf oil-tanker shipment to Japan and the West.

Late last month Russia and Algeria, the two largest gas suppliers to Europe, agreed to increase energy cooperation. Algeria has given Russian companies exclusive access to Algerian oil and gas fields, and Gazprom and Sonatrach will cooperate in delivery to France. Putin has canceled Algeria's US$4.7 billion debt to Russia and, for its part, Algeria will buy $7.5 billion worth of Russian advanced jet fighters, air defense systems and other weapons.

On May 26 Russian Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov also announced that his country would definitely supply Iran with sophisticated Tor-M1 anti-aircraft missiles, reportedly as a prelude to supplying even more sophisticated weapons.

Then, in one of the more fascinating examples of geopolitical chutzpah, the Kremlin-controlled Gazprom gas monopoly entered quiet negotiations with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert through his billionaire friend, Benny Steinmetz, to secure Russian natural-gas supplies to Israel via an undersea pipeline from Turkey to Israel.

According to the Israeli paper Yediot Ahronot, Olmert's office has said it will support the Gazprom proposal. In several years Israel faces a shortage of gas from Tethys Sea drilling and soon from Egypt. Tethys Sea gas is projected to run dry in a few years. British Gas is in talks to supply gas from Gaza but Israel disputes BG's right to drill.

But even with Egypt and Gaza, gas shortages are expected by 2010 unless Israel is able to find new sources. Enter Gazprom and Putin. The gas would be diverted from the under-used Russia-Turkey Bluestream Pipeline, which Russia built to increase its influence over Turkey two years ago. Putin clearly seeks to gain a lever inside Israel over the one-sided US influence on Israeli policy.

China energy geopolitics also in high gear
For its part, Beijing is also moving to "secure energy at the sources". China's booming economy, with 10% growth, requires massive natural resources. China became a net importer of oil in 1993. By 2045, China will depend on imported oil for 45% of its energy needs.

On May 26, crude oil began to flow into China through a newly completed pipeline from Atasu, Kazakhstan, to the Alataw Pass in China's far-western region of Xinjiang, a 1,000-kilometer route announced only last year. It marked the first time oil is being pumped directly into China. Kazakhstan is also a member of the SCO, but had been regarded by Washington since the collapse of the Soviet Union as in its sphere of influence, with ChevronTexaco, Rice's former oil company, the major oil developer.

By 2011 the pipeline with extend some 3,000km to Dushanzi, where the Chinese are building their largest oil refinery, due to completed by 2008. China financed the entire $700 million pipeline and will buy the oil. Last year the China National Petroleum Corp bought PetroKazakhstan for $4.2 billion and will use it to develop oilfields in Kazakhstan.

China is also in negotiations with Russia for a pipeline to deliver Siberian oil to northeastern China, a project that could be completed by 2008, and a natural-gas pipeline from Russia to Heilongjiang province in China's northeast. China just passed Japan to rank as world's second-largest oil importer behind the United States.

Beijing and Moscow are also integrating their electricity grids. Late last month the China State Grid Corp announced plans to increase imports of Russian electricity fivefold by 2010.

In its relentless quest to secure future oil supplies "at the source", China has also moved into traditional US, British and French oil domains in Africa. In addition to being the major developer of Sudan's oil pipeline, which ships some 7% of total China oil imports, Beijing has been more than active in West Africa, the source of vast fields of highly prized low-sulfur oil.

Since the creation of the China-Africa Forum in 2000, China has scrapped tariffs on 190 imported goods from 28 of the least developed African countries, and canceled $1.2 billion in debt.

Indicative of the way China is doing an end-run around the Western-controlled International Monetary Fund among African states, China's Export-Import Bank recently gave a $2 billion soft loan to Angola. In return, the Luanda government gave China a stake in oil exploration in shallow waters off the coast. The loan is to be used for infrastructure projects. In contrast, US interest in war-torn Angola has rarely gone beyond the well-fortified oil enclave of Cabinda, which ExxonMobil along with Shell Oil have dominated until recently. That is apparently about to change with the growing Chinese interest.

Chinese infrastructure projects under way in Angola include railways, roads, a fiber-optic network, schools, hospitals, offices and 5,000 units of housing developments. A new airport with direct flights from Luanda to Beijing is also planned.

Indirectly, through its support of the Sudanese government, China is also a contender in a high-stakes game of potential regime change in neighboring, oil-rich Chad. This year, World Bank president Paul Wolfowitz was forced to back down from plans to cut off World Bank aid because of the threat of an oil-export cutoff by Chad. ExxonMobil is currently the major oil company active in Chad. But Sudan backs Chadian rebels, who were only prevented from toppling the notoriously corrupt and unpopular regime of President Idriss Deby by the 1,500 French soldiers propping up the regime. Washington has joined with Paris in backing Deby.

Sudan has involved Chinese, rather than Western, corporations in exploiting its oilfields, largely as a result of misconceived US sanctions imposed in 1997, which blocked US oil companies from doing business in Sudan. A new Sudan-backed regime in Chad would jeopardize the Chad-Cameroon pipeline and Western oil firms. One can imagine China just might be willing to step into such a vacuum and help Chad develop its oil, especially if the lion's share went to China.

Immediately after his humiliating diplomatic visit to Washington in April, President Hu went on to Nigeria, Africa's largest oil producer and long regarded by Washington as in its "oil sphere of interest". In Nigeria, Hu signed a deal whereby the African country will give China four oil-drilling licenses in exchange for a commitment to invest $4 billion in infrastructure.

China will buy a controlling stake in Nigeria's 110,000-barrel-per-day Kaduna oil refinery and build railway and power stations, as well as take a 45% stake in developing Nigeria's OML-130 offshore oil and gas field, referred to by the chairman of China National Overseas Oil Corp as "an oil and gas field of huge interest ? located in one of the world's largest oil and gas basins".

Almost all of Nigeria's current oil production is controlled by Western multinationals. But the situation there will also soon change in China's favor. Similar soft infrastructure loans or energy investment offers are being made to Gabon, Ivory Coast, Liberia and Equatorial Guinea. The curious charge against China of "not playing by the rules" and "trying to secure energy at the source" begins to assume real dimension when these and Russia's recent energy moves are taken as a totality.

Whither Washington?
It's little wonder that some Washington hawks are getting alarmed. Suddenly, the world of potential "enemies" is no longer restricted to the Islam-centered "war on terror". Leading neo-conservative ideologue Robert Kagan wrote a prominent opinion article recently in the Washington Post. Kagan is privy to pretty high-level thinking in Washington, presumably. His wife, Victoria Nuland, worked as Vice President Richard Cheney's deputy national security adviser until being named US ambassador to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.

Kagan declared, in reference to Russia and China, "Until now the liberal West's strategy has been to try to integrate these two powers into the international liberal order, to tame them and make them safe for liberalism. If, instead, China and Russia are going to be sturdy pillars of autocracy over the coming decades, enduring and perhaps even prospering, then they cannot be expected to embrace the West's vision of humanity's inexorable evolution toward democracy and the end of autocratic rule."

Kagan charged that China and Russia have emerged as the protectors of "an informal league of dictators" that, according to Kagan, currently includes the leaders of Belarus, Uzbekistan, Myanmar, Zimbabwe, Sudan, Venezuela, Iran and Angola, among others around the world, who, like the leaders of Russia and China themselves, resist any efforts by the West to interfere in their domestic affairs, either through sanctions or other means.

"The question is what the United States and Europe decide to do in response," wrote Kagan.

Ministers are meeting at a time of increased stock market volatility, and they were expected to debate the underlying reasons for this. The meeting is laying the groundwork for the summit of G8 leaders which will take place in July in St Petersburg.

The BBC's Damian Grammaticas in the city says the ministers will aim to tackle the issues that could undermine global growth, such as concerns that rising inflation will prompt central banks to increase interest rates. Economists also worry that the huge US trade deficit - and corresponding surpluses in China, Japan and some oil producing countries - might cause sharp falls in the US dollar and wider economic problems as a result.

'Oil blackmail'

But one of the most serious concerns is energy, our correspondent adds. Questions are being asked whether sources of oil and gas are secure and whether the high price of oil - about $70 (£38) a barrel - is a threat.

Russia now rivals Saudi Arabia as the world's largest energy exporter, but there have been concerns about relying on it as an energy supplier since it turned off gas supplies to Ukraine last winter. Western nations say Russia should open up its own energy resources and pipelines because more transparency and more competition will ensure cheaper, stable supplies.

Russia says it is a reliable partner and wants to buy energy distribution networks in Europe. The ministers are also meeting counterparts and officials from Australia, Brazil, China, India, Nigeria and South Korea for discussions on global trade.

They are expected to issue a communique later on Saturday.

The baby girl was conceived through artificial insemination, and was selected in a Brussels laboratory to become a compatible donor of bone marrow for her 6-year-old brother.

"Although it is not prudent to criticize the subjective intention of the parents who have suffered and rejoiced with the cure of their son, it must be recognized that the technique of 'medicine babies' constitutes a worrying form of eugenics," stated the document.

"For this 'medicine baby' girl to be born, Mrs. Hilde van de Velde's Brussels laboratory deliberately produced 20 to 30 human embryos for the purpose of selecting them," the bishops said. "One of them had the good fortune to survive. But the rest were eliminated and destroyed as vulgar merchandise."

The document explained that the practice is inadmissible for two reasons.

First, because we are faced with "human embryos voluntarily produced and eliminated."

The message of the bishops continued: "A noble end does not justify killing embryos, which are individuals of the human species. Here the embryo is not treated as an end: It is used as an instrument and considered as merchandise.

"This practice is a regression of humanism, which is particularly insidious as it camouflages with the emotion aroused by the sick child and the parents' suffering."

Second, the letter stated, the selection of human beings is an act of eugenics.

"Eugenics is an odious practice, which consists in selecting the children that will be born according to utilitarian criteria that does not respect their intrinsic dignity," the bishops wrote.

"In this case, an exterior demand, medical and technical, decides who deserves to live and who deserves to die," the message said.

The note added: "This embryo deserved to live because it is genetically compatible with the recipient of the bone marrow, while the other numerous embryos were killed for the sole reason of not having the required characteristics."

A £600m drop in overall exports was one of the main factors behind the fall. But despite the overall drop, exports to Europe rose 2.5% to £2.37bn. Meanwhile, analysts blamed the strength of sterling for the fall in exports.

A higher pound makes UK exports more expensive in overseas markets, and the pound has been strengthening recently, especially against the US dollar.

'Encouraging'

Despite the widening deficit analysts said signs from Europe proved to be "encouraging" "The figures show that the UK is beginning to feel the effect of stronger eurozone growth," said Dominic Bryant of BNP Paribas.
"Export growth to the eurozone countries has surged to about 30% year on year from only 12.4% percent at the end of 2005."

But analysts warned that rising demand from UK consumers could continue to drive imports higher, while competition in the export market from other countries would also have an effect.

"A further widening in the goods deficit might be expected going forward to the extent that world trade continues to expand rapidly, particularly with UK export share losing out to the likes of emerging Asia," said George Buckley, chief UK economist at Deutsche Bank.

After Friday morning prayers, Sheikh Jarrah Kada, 42, sporting a thick salt-and-pepper beard, gathers with his companions at a friend's house to drink tea.
Sitting on plastic garden chairs under the shade of a giant hazelnut tree, they discuss the death of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, al-Qaeda's leader in Iraq, who was killed in a US air strike on Wednesday.

One of the men leafs through the al-Dustur newspaper, a Jordanian daily, which carries a picture of Zarqawi's bloated face on the front page.

For Sheikh Kada, wearing a pale blue prayer cap, Zarqawi's death is a reason to celebrate. But not because the Sheikh sees him as a terrorist - indeed, quite the opposite.

He regards Zarqawi as a hero, a martyr who died in the name of Islam. "He was a great leader - he fought for Islam," says Sheikh Kada, drawing nods of approval from the 10 men sitting in the circle. "I'm happy that he is dead because he is now going to heaven."

City of jihad

Sheikh Kada is the local leader of the Salafi branch of Islam - an austere form of Islam that advocates Sharia Islamic law and preaches the duty of jihad.
Set in rolling hills just outside the Jordanian capital, this historic city has gained a reputation as a hotbed of Islamic fundamentalism with a tendency to send its sons to take part in the Iraqi insurgency.

An agricultural engineer, the sheikh says he knows of "tens" of young men from the city who have followed Zarqawi's path and gone to Iraq to fight as insurgents.

The last jihadist he knew from Salt was killed during an attempt to try to free women from Iraq's notorious Abu Ghraib prison in 2003.

For Sheikh Kada and his friends, many wearing white flowing robes, jihad is an honourable cause - warranted both in Iraq and elsewhere in the Middle East. It is a fight against what they see as injustices committed against Muslims.

"America must leave all the places it occupies in the Middle East because it is killing our women and children," the sheikh says. "The Jews must also leave Israel and give back the land to the Palestinians."

Destination Iraq

The men bristle at the idea that they are in any way extremist. "We are true believers in Islam," says Abu Roman, 55, an accountant. "Islam is not terrorism. I don't kill Americans in America, I don't kill the British in Britain, and I don't kill the Chinese in China. I just want the Arab lands to be free and Islamic."

The flow of jihadists from Salt into Iraq has been staunched by the Jordanian authorities in the last two years.
But the men say that there are many volunteers ready to go and perform jihad across the border. Sheikh Kada insists he has never persuaded anyone to go and fight Jihad in Iraq. "Jihad is here," he says poking his chest with his index finger.

Throughout the hour-long conversation, Abdel Rahman Abdullah, 16, wearing a white Versace T-shirt, listens attentively. Asked if he would to go to Iraq and be a jihadist like Zarqawi, he barely pauses for thought.

"I'd be ready tomorrow," he says.

Viktor Khristenko, Russian's energy minister and guardian of 5pc of the world's oil reserves, declared that motorists and business would have to learn to live with expensive fuel because "the era of cheap hydrocarbons is over". He also made it clear that any intervention by EU states if Russian firms sought to buy their European rivals would be regarded as unfriendly.

He was speaking shortly after the Chancellor, Gordon Brown, indicated that any bid by Gazprom, the Russian gas giant, for Centrica, the British Gas parent, would be treated as a political rather than commercial move.

Russia with its huge oil and gas reserves has been one of the main beneficiaries of soaring oil price and shares the industry consensus that there is little prospect of relief. Mr Khristenko said: "Forecasting is a thankless task in hydrocarbons, but one can say with certainty that the era of cheap hydrocarbons is over."

Mr Khristenko, appointed energy minister by President Putin in 2004, said EU governments should stand back from the merger and acquisition activity in the energy sector which is sweeping Europe.

Speaking to The Daily Telegraph yesterday, he said: "The less political issues there are in this area, the easier and calmer it will be for suppliers and consumers and businesses." In today's global market, a firm's nationality was increasingly irrelevant, he said.

"We have global companies - it can be hard to pinpoint where a company comes from. BP is considered a British company and in America it is an American company. There is nothing contradictory in that because its assets are spread all over the world." Russia was intent on "the expansion of our own participation in others' assets".

He understood the nervousness about Russia's increasing influence - by 2030 nearly two thirds of the EU's gas needs will come from Russia. "If dependency on Russia is not good then one needs to move out of this dependency," he said. "So it is legitimate to encourage Russian participation in other markets like China, Japan and the USA."

Last winter he turned off the taps to Ukraine. Such a situation was unlikely to befall the UK. "Nobody should worry about gas supplies from Russia. None of our contracts have ever been broken. This did not happen, this does not happen and this will not happen."

He denied Russia was using energy dominance as a "weapon". British firms had nothing to fear about expanding in Russia, despite the politically motivated break-up of the Yukos oil group. Times had changed with 50pc of Gazprom now owned by outside shareholders, and the flotation of Rosneft in London later this year.

He pointed to the Putin administration's relaxed view of the steel merger between France's Arcelor and Russia's Severstal.

Reservoir levels are at a 10-year low for June, and the country is entering a summer season in which little rainfall is expected, according to figures from the state news agency EFE.

The drought is spread unevenly across the country, with the Atlantic-facing north still well watered while areas in the south-east have extreme shortages.

The worst-hit areas are the basins of the Segura and Júcar rivers in the south-east. Reservoir levels are down to 16% and 21% respectively, according to Spain's environment ministry.
That means that growth areas for tourism, such as the provinces of Murcia, Almeria, Alicante and Valencia, will be hit hardest. But the Costa del Sol, on the Mediterranean coast, has reported it will not experience serious water problems this year after the region's major reservoir was filled to overflowing by recent rains.

Last month, the environment ministry ordered €45m (£31m) be spent on anti-drought measures, including improved pumping from underground wells.

This is the second year of drought in Spain. Experts have predicted it may last between four and six years.

In April, the national meteorological institute warned that the country was heading for its worst drought since 1947.

More than 90% of Spain's eastern seaboard, from Tarragona in the north to Almeria in the south, is at risk from desertification, according to environment ministry figures published by El País newspaper yesterday.

For the moment, China remains the most populous nation, with 1.3 billion inhabitants, followed by India, which is home to 1.1 billion.

But India's higher fertility rate means the gap is narrowing and the UN expects it to overtake China before 2030.

Both countries are also experiencing rapid growth in their urban populations.

In China, the number of people in towns and cities is likely to exceed the number in the countryside by 2015.

India and China have to face the challenge of providing for their ageing populations, just as many Western nations do.

As people live longer and fertility decreases, there will be millions more people in retirement and fewer workers to support them.

It has been suggested that China will have to ease its strict one child policy to overcome the problem.

In India, where only 10% of the workforce is covered by formal pension schemes, there are questions over how the elderly will be supported.

Some experts say such problems could hamper the nations' economic growth

China's emergence as a world economic power follows years of expansion, with growth of 9% or more the norm.

It is a major exporter and may now be the world's fourth largest economy, having overtaken Italy and possibly the UK and France.

India has also seen dramatic growth - of more than 7% a year - and is the recipient of much foreign investment.

Figures from the Economist Intelligence Unit suggest the US will remain the largest economy in real terms.

But on a measure based on purchasing power, China could overtake the US by 2020.

Economic, social and environmental problems are a concern in India and China.

Vast wealth gaps exist, with the majority of people left on the margins of the nations' rapid economic growth. Social discontent has affected both.

Air and water quality is a concern in both countries. Many of the world's most polluted cities are in China.

Despite such problems, however, it is suggested that continued growth will drive up living standards for the populations as a whole.

Life expectancy is continuing to rise and infant mortality is falling. Access to education has improved, as has literacy.

India has bought $400 million worth of crude so far this year and wants "to buy more," India's Ambassador to Venezuela Deepak Bhojwani said yesterday after a meeting with the country's Vice-President.

India is seeking energy security and Venezuela is a willing supplier, Bhojwani was quoted as saying in a statement from the Vice-President's office.

Bhojwani said bilateral trade hit $138 million in 2005, up from $60 million in 2004.

Venezuela plans to sign a deal that allow India to extract heavy crude here and would also include an agreement to supply oil to Indian refineries, Oil Minister Rafael Ramirez said earlier this month.

Among the products that Venezuela is buying from India are medicines and cars.

President Hugo Chavez has sought to boost commercial ties with other nations to reduce Venezuela's dependence on the United States as its primary market for oil.

NATHU-LA, India (Reuters) - As the rain sweeps across the high Himalayan pass, a Chinese soldier arrives at the three strands of barbed wire which separate his country's territory from that of long-time rival India.
But this soldier is no longer brandishing a gun, on this once most sensitive of borders between the world's two most populous countries. Instead he takes some video for his family back home and pauses to shake hands across the rusty fence.

Just a few yards away bulldozers on both sides of the frontline are building not fortifications but a road, to connect India and China and reopen a historic trade route. New Delhi and Beijing plan to reopen the Nathu-la pass in June after more than 40 years, a potent symbol of rapprochement between Asian giants who fought a Himalayan war in 1962.

For an initial five-year period the pass, at an altitude of 4,310 metres (14,200 feet), will handle limited border trade between the tiny northeast Indian state of Sikkim and southern Tibet. It will be a modest start, but it promises much more.

"We are very much looking forward to the opening of the pass," said B.B. Gooroong, adviser to Sikkim's chief minister. "It is symbolic... but we have to break the ice."

The Sikkim government's enthusiasm is not entirely matched in New Delhi, where the establishment still remembers being caught off guard by China's sudden advance across the Himalayas in 1962.

Much of the 3,500-km (2,200-mile) common border remains disputed, and Indian officials say they are not yet ready to throw open the doors.

Nevertheless a gradual process is under way which could eventually lead to a significant trade route opening up from the Indian port of Kolkata to the Tibetan capital, Lhasa.

"They will go slowly, and there is still some distance before we get full-fledged transit trade," said foreign policy analyst C. Raja Mohan. "But there is potential."

SMALL BEGINNINGS

A study commissioned by the Sikkim government suggested trade across Nathu-la could reach $2.8 billion (1.5 billion pounds) a year by 2015.

Today that figure appears a little fanciful. It is hard to imagine anything larger than a minibus negotiating the narrow road that snakes for 56 km (35 miles) through the steep forested hills from Sikkim's capital, Gangtok.

A few corrugated iron warehouses have been built to handle customs and immigration formalities, and a small trade mart erected to exchange goods at Sherathang, a chilly hamlet eight km (five miles) below the pass.

Nor has the Sikkim government yet won's Delhi's approval for its plan to build a new, two-lane 22-billion-rupee (268 million pound) highway from Nathu-la to western India, bypassing Gangtok's already congested streets.

But pressure is building from China, as it tries to bring economic prosperity and extend political control over its vast, remote and sometimes neglected west. Lhasa lies just 520 km (320 miles) by road from Nathu-la; Kolkata is a stone's throw away compared to Beijing.

The passes between Sikkim and Tibet were once part of the Silk Road, a network of trails which connected ancient China with India, Western Asia and Europe.

Revived during British rule in India, trade across Nathu-la took off after independence in 1947 and China's invasion of Tibet in 1950. A decade later, more than 1,000 mules and horses and 700 people took the narrow trail every day.

India imported raw wool, animal hide, and yak tails for use in shrines. It sent clothes, petrol, tobacco, soap, Rolex watches and even disassembled cars, including one for the Dalai Lama, the other way. Payment came in sacks of Chinese silver dollars.

Trade came to an abrupt halt in 1962. Five years later skirmishes at Nathu-la left scores dead on both sides.

BEER AND PERHAPS TOURISTS

As India and China rebuilt relations, two minor trade points were opened at the western end of the border in the 1990s, but agreement to open the more significant Nathu-la pass came during then Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee's trip to China in 2003.

At the same time China indicated it was ready to drop its claim to Sikkim, a former Buddhist kingdom which had merged with India in 1975.

"That was a very major landmark agreement from the political perspective," said one Indian official. "Now it is the economic side which will come into play."

Sikkim has few industries, but officials hope the local Dansberg and Yeti beers, produced at a factory in the south of the state, will prove popular across the border.

Even more exciting could be the prospect of tourist traffic one day crossing Nathu-la. Officials hope that Sikkim could eventually be the centre of an international Buddhist pilgrimage circuit, from Tibet to Thailand and India to Nepal.

But even in Sikkim, there are concerns. Representatives of the mainly Buddhist Bhutia and Lepcha minorities are worried that unregulated development will bring in tens of thousands of outsiders and swamp their fragile cultures.

The volcano, on Indonesia's main island of Java and about 450 km (280 miles) east of the capital Jakarta, has spewed heat clouds and burning lava sporadically for weeks and is considered close to a major eruption.

The government centre observing the country's most active volcano said a lava dome formed more than a decade ago has collapsed.

"(A lava dome) collapsed on June 4, broadening the routes of the hot gas cloud. While the height of the smoke is higher, the frequency of the hot gas clouds has gone down and its stretch is shorter," said Triyani from the Centre of Volcanological Research and Technology Development.

Some vulcanologists fear more lava domes could collapse, triggering a massive outpouring of lava and gas.

The recent volcanic activity has led officials to evacuate around 2,000 villagers living down Merapi's southwestern slope and they expect to move thousands more to safe shelters.

"They have heard ceaseless rumbling. They clearly know the impact of the earthquake in Yogyakarta," said official Edi Purwanto who manages evacuation efforts in Central Java's Magelang regency.

Most villages in Merapi's danger zone are located just north of the ancient royal city of Yogyakarta while areas that suffered most in a deadly earthquake in the area on May 27 are only a short drive south from that cultural hub.

Experts differ over whether the quake significantly affected Merapi's activity.

Mount Merapi, which killed more than 60 people in 1994 and 1,300 in a 1930 eruption, was placed on top alert status on May 13, prompting an evacuation wave from the danger zone.

However, when days passed without the feared eruption, thousands of residents returned to their homes.

Twenty years ago, tourists stepped right onto the shore.

The Dead Sea, the lowest point on the earth's surface, is shrinking as its salty waters rapidly dry up.

With no clear solution to the problem, environmentalists and tourist businesses are worried.

"Every time I come here the beach is further and further away. One day there will only be a puddle left," says Gidon Bromberg, of the environmental group Friends of the Earth, Middle East.

Too salty to sustain life, the Dead Sea is a draw for tourists who come to float in its greasy-feeling buoyant brine. Devotees also believe its waters and the mud at the margins are good for the skin.

The Dead Sea has been shrinking for decades as the inflow dwindles from its main source, the Jordan River.

Israel, Jordan and Syria rely on the river and its tributaries to meet the needs of increasing populations and agriculture in the arid region, and diversions have slowed the biblical river to a muddy trickle.

Mineral extraction industries have also played a part by helping to accelerate evaporation.

SINKHOLES

The Dead Sea has fallen over 20 metres (66 ft) in the past 100 years and is now losing about one metre each year.

As the water level has fallen, it has caused thousands of sinkholes to open up on land. The Ein Gedi resort closed some campsites after a 3-metre (10 ft) hole opened up under someone's feet. Some holes are even deeper.

"The ground is falling out from underneath us, literally," said Ein Gedi resident Gedi Hampe.

The Dead Sea is not expected to disappear entirely because it is fed by underground water sources and winter rainfall. As it shrinks, it also gets more salty, which in turn makes it harder for the remaining water to evaporate.

Scientists believe that if nothing is done, the water level will drop by as much as 100 metres (328 ft) more -- almost a third of its current depth.

CANAL PLAN

With that in mind, a World Bank-backed feasibility study is to be carried out on a plan to build a 200 km (125 mile) canal to replenish the Dead Sea with water from the Red Sea to the south.

The idea is that the water would be pumped to a height of 220 metres (720 ft) in the border area between Israel and Jordan and then flow down to the Dead Sea, some 420 metres (1,378 ft) below sea level, generating electricity on the way.

But the "Two Seas Canal" plan would cost an estimated $5 billion (3 billion pounds) and the economics of the project are in question.

Scientists also wonder whether it would really be beneficial for the environment.

The Dead Sea's unique make-up would be changed forever by introducing sea water into a body that has only ever been fed by fresh water. While sea water contains mostly sodium salts, the Dead Sea has much more magnesium and potassium.

"The cost of the damage that would be caused to the environment may be greater than any possible benefits," said local geologist Eli Raz. "The best plan for the Dead Sea is to let the Jordan river flow again, this is its natural state."

But the chances of that happening are next to nothing given the reliance of the region's countries on the Jordan's water.

Environmentalists are pushing for the Dead Sea to be declared a World Heritage Site by the U.N. Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation, hoping this will force surrounding countries to come up with a plan.

"Finally, people have begun to realise the urgency of the situation. It is so dramatic that it can no longer be ignored," said resident Hampe.

"I learned months ago," she wrote, "that a friend of my 12-year-old daughter had turned her on to ingesting Crystal Lite® (with aspartame) without water to get "hyper." I consulted with our doctors, called Poison Control, and met with school administrators to see if they were aware of this.

"The message I received," she continued, "was 'Crystal Lite is perfectly safe and the problem was most likely in their heads.'"

As a concerned parent, this mother has been researching aspartame ever since. "With the listed symptoms/side affects of aspartame on your website," she continued, "it is apparent to me that the children are getting some type of 'altered' sensation. I know my daughter experiences a rapid heart beat, dizziness, headaches and nausea, to name a few reactions she has described to me."

A typical response from the marketers and manufacturers of aspartame is "there is no scientific evidence or research showing this type of reaction to aspartame is possible." Here's another common corporate reply: "the FDA approved aspartame, so it is safe." And how many times have you heard this one: "our research shows aspartame to be perfectly safe for children and during pregnancy. It is the most researched food additive in American FDA history."

Well, now consumers can add: children are taking Crystal Lite straight out of the can and eating it in powdered form to get "high."

Record numbers of disease syndromes, obesity, depression, and anxiety currently plague our youth - a problem turned epidemic AFTER aspartame and the diet sweetener craze flooded the market and dominated modern foods over 25 years ago. Many research scientists and nutritionists predicted such problems would result.

So Go Ahead and Snoop Around... After I received this very disturbing email, I decided to snoop around to find out if children in my area had heard of using Crystal Lite to get high. Well, I wouldn't be writing this article if the answer was "no - never." Children, indeed, have discovered eating the raw, powdered forms of aspartame gives them a rush they compare to taking too much Aderol®, an ADHD medication abused by non-ADHD kids to get high. I even spoke to a 13 year old who "knew someone who knew someone" who snorted Crystal Lite.

"The first couple of times he did it," the child disclosed, "his nose burned and he got a nosebleed. But once he got used to it, he said it was a good high, mostly because it was free. He just goes in his mom's pantry and grabs a scoop of her Crystal Lite, puts it in a baggie, and brings it to school. Someone always has some, and after school, we get a buzz."

"Ha," he sniggered, "if we're in class and one of our bros gets a nosebleed, we know he snorted some in the bathroom before class. Been a lot of nosebleeds lately; the teachers don't know a thing. Hey, we get to miss class and go to the nurse's office."

Americans have been more concerned about children using illegal drugs, alcohol, and smoking, while addictive and harmful chemicals in the food supply have gone unnoticed. We campaign against underage drug abuse using school awareness programs and implementing stricter laws for drug possession, but we allow children to have access to pharmaceutical drugs and dangerous food chemicals proven to be harmful to human health. Actually, diet sweeteners can be more dangerous to a child in multiple ways because these chemicals can be when used daily with no limits and easy access.

And, these dangerous chemicals are in the public schools. A child today can abuse ADHD drugs while swallowing them down with a diet cola. And we wonder why children have shorter attention spans, dangerous mood swings, and debilitating apathy!

Okay. Prove It! Over the years of working with aspartame victims, I have documented many case histories of adverse reactions to the powdered form of aspartame found in Equal® and Crystal Lite. These reactions are more intensified compared to diluted forms of aspartame found in colas, liquid medicines, yogurts, etc. In my book Sweet Poison, I include case histories of seizures and blindness from regularly consuming powdered forms of aspartame.

The Department of Experimental Physiology, Medical School at the University of Athens, Greece, Institute of Child Health, Research Center, concluded in 2005 that high levels and cumulative toxic concentrations of aspartame metabolites decreased the membrane AChE activity, resulting in memory loss. Additionally, neurological symptoms, including learning and memory processes, appeared in the study to be related to the high or toxic concentrations of the sweetener metabolites.

At present, the only known treatments for increasing lack of memory, such as Alzheimer's Disease, are either NMDA receptor antagonists or acetylcholinesterase inhibitors, such as the pharmaceutical Aricept®. The Greek study shows that overuse of aspartame, as well as the long-term effects of aspartame, impair memory.

Because low doses of aspartame are shown to inhibit acetylchoinesterase, just like pharmaceutical treatments for people with memory loss, when a healthy individual with normal cholinergic functioning, such as a young child for example, starts administering a cholinesterase inhibitor when no memory loss has occurred, aspartame ingestion (according to the study) will eventually lead to down-regulation of post synaptic ACH receptors, and ultimately disrupt memory and learning. In other words, a healthy child that snorts or eats concentrated powdered aspartame can impair their memory.

Yes, indeed, there is a new "high" sourced to the chemicals found in sugar-free foods with aspartame.

"Please help," writes this concerned mother. "What do you suggest I do to inform the doctors and schools, and what studies back up the facts?"

The concept of using aspartame for a high is a shocking and new reality check; a concept many people do not want to admit exists. It has taken decades for underage alcohol consumption and smoking to become a publicized issue, so snorting aspartame may fall in line behind years of very slow progress in this awareness arena. But, at least the cat is out of the bag, creating a new awareness that this type of aspartame abuse is, indeed, a reality. Hopefully through this new awareness, parents can help their children.

My best suggestion: remove ALL diet sweeteners and food chemicals from your home, and return to a natural diet with a history of little to no harm to your child's health and safety. Also, insist that ALL diet soft drinks and flavored waters be removed from the public schools K-12. Talk to your children, and teach them which foods are real and healthy for them, and which foods are manmade, phony replicas of nutrition, resulting in damage to their growth and maturity.

To your health!