"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!

"We are convinced that work with embryonic stem cells holds enormous promise," said Harvard provost Dr. Steven Hyman.

The privately funded work is aimed at devising treatments for such ailments as diabetes, Lou Gehrig's disease, sickle-cell anemia and leukemia. Harvard is only the second American university to announce its venture into the challenging, politically charged research field.

The University of California, San Francisco, began efforts at embryo cloning a few years ago, only to lose a top scientist to England. It has since resumed its work but is not as far along as experiments already under way by the Harvard group.

A company, Advanced Cell Technology Inc. of Alameda, Calif., is trying to restart its embryo cloning efforts. And British scientists said last year that they had cloned a human embryo, though without extracting stem cells.

Scientists have long held out the hope of "therapeutic cloning" against diseases like diabetes, Parkinson's disease and spinal cord injury. But such work has run into ethical objections, a ban on federal funding and the embarrassment of a spectacular scandal in South Korea.

Now, using private money to get around the federal financing ban, the Harvard researchers are joining the international effort to produce stem cells from cloned human embryos.

"We're in the forefront of this science and in some ways we're setting the bar for the rest of the world," said Dr. Leonard Zon of the Harvard Stem Cell Institute.

Dr. George Daley of Children's Hospital Boston, a Harvard teaching hospital, said his lab has begun its experiments. He declined to describe the results so far, saying the work is in very early stages.

Two other members of the Harvard Stem Cell Institute, Douglas Melton and Kevin Eggan, have also received permission from a series of review boards to begin human embryo cloning, the institute announced.

Daley's work is aimed at eventually creating cells that can be used to treat people with such blood diseases as sickle-cell anemia and leukemia. Melton and Eggan plan to focus on diabetes and neurodegenerative disorders like Lou Gehrig's disease, striving to produce cells that can be studied in the lab to understand those disorders.

"We think that this research is very important, very promising, and we applaud Harvard for taking the initiative to move this work forward," said Sean Tipton, president of the Coalition for the Advancement of Medical Research, which supports cloning to produce stem cells.

Cloning an embryo means taking DNA from a person and inserting it into an egg, which is then grown for about five days until it is an early embryo, a hollow ball of cells smaller than a grain of sand. Stem cells can then be recovered from the interior, and spurred to give rise to specialized cells or tissues that carry the DNA of the donor.

So this material could be transplanted back into the donor without fear of rejection, perhaps after the disease-promoting defects in the DNA have been fixed. That strategy may someday be useful for treating diseases, though Daley said its use in blood diseases may be a decade or more away.

Daley's current research is using unfertilized eggs from an in-vitro fertilization clinic and DNA from embryos that were unable to produce a pregnancy. Both are byproducts of the IVF process and should provide a ready supply of material for research, Daley said in a statement. Later, his team hopes to use newly harvested eggs and DNA from patients.

Eggan said he and Melton will collaborate on work that uses DNA from skin cells of diabetes patients and eggs donated by women who will be reimbursed for expenses but not otherwise paid.

Harvesting stem cells destroys the embryo, one reason that therapeutic cloning has sparked ethical concerns. The Rev. Tad Pacholczyk, director of education for the National Catholic Bioethics Center in Philadelphia, said he found the Harvard developments troubling.

By cloning human embryos to extract stem cells, he said, "you are creating life precisely to destroy it. You are making young humans simply to strip-mine them for their desired cells and parts. And that is at root a fundamentally immoral project that cannot be made moral, no matter how desirable the cells might be that would be procured."

Apart from the controversy, human embryo cloning has also been the subject of a gigantic fraud.

Hwang Woo-suk of Seoul National University in South Korea caused a sensation in February 2004 he and colleagues claimed to be the first to clone a human embryo and recover stem cells from it. He hit the headlines again in May of last year when he said his lab had created 11 lines of embryonic stem cells genetically matched to human patients.

But the promise came crashing down last December and January when Hwang's university concluded that both announcements were bogus.

The meeting was announced by Metropolitan Kirill of Smolensk and Kaliningrad, head of the External Relations Department of the Moscow Patriarchate, during a recent interview with Hubert Colin de Verdière, secretary-general of France's foreign ministry.

It was reported by Europaica, the bulletin of the Orthodox Church's representation to the European Union.

Metropolitan Kirill hopes the July 4-5 summit will "play an important part in the prevention of extremism."

It is expected that the summit will bring together heads or representatives of the Orthodox, pre-Chalcedon and Roman Catholic Churches.

The summit's organizers are also counting on the presence of Chinese religious leaders, and heads of the German Lutheran Church, the U.S. National Council of Churches, and chief rabbis of Israel, the United States and European countries; Muslim leaders of the countries of the Community of Independent States, of the Middle East and of the Arabian Peninsula; and Buddhists, Hindus, and executives of the Ecumenical Council of Churches and other international religious organizations.

The volcano alert was put on red -- indicating a feared imminent eruption -- on May 13 but residents have been particularly nervous since a deadly earthquake rocked the region 10 days ago.

Indonesian authorities evacuated thousands of people living in villages close to the peak of the volcano and many more joined them voluntarily as the volcanic rumblings escalated, officials said.

Experts fear that the mountain's growing lava dome could collapse, sending lava and dangerous heat clouds down Merapi's slopes.

In Kepuharjo high school, where more than 300 people have been staying since Monday night, women and children piled out of a truck that had collected them from the village of Petung, 5km from Merapi's peak.

Pailah, a 27-year-old who carried a bundle of clothes and pillows wrapped in a sarong, said she had evacuated her two children, aged eight and six, because she was scared.

"It [Merapi] was making noises and raining ashes," she said, adding "there were also sulphurous clouds".

In the village itself several men milled about, saying they were not afraid.

"We're already used to this," said Suparno, a 40-year-old farmer with six cows to feed.

Higher up the road in Kopeng, four women said they were taking gifts to a friend, living even further up the mountain in Jambu, who had planned to marry on Thursday.

"We are considered to be young enough to run away quickly, so we don't want to be evacuated," said 44-year-old Mujirah.

At a look-out point high up the mountain, one family of four had travelled on two motorbikes from Mgaglik at the base of Merapi to see the volcano in action.

"We brought our kids to see it," said Yanto, standing beside his wife and two children, aged five and 12.

In the district of Magelang -- one of three in the danger zone-- authorities were preparing to evacuate about 11 000 people from 15 hamlets.

"The evacuation is proceeding and will continue until late tonight," said Agung, an official from the district's disaster-management centre.

"It is no longer a mere call for the people to evacuate, they now have to evacuate. We are not taking any chance," Agung said, adding that the elderly, women and children were a priority.

By 10am GMT close to 6 000 people had already been evacuated, Agung said.

In Slamen, nearly 4 000 were evacuated by Monday evening and figures would not be updated until Wednesday. Officials in Klaten, the other affected zone, could not be reached.

About 22 000 villagers were evacuated following the initial alert last month but most had returned home by the time the earthquake hit the region.

The situation deteriorated on Tuesday as a natural ridge known as the Geger Boyo, which had so far helped contain larger lava flows to the south-west and west of the mountain, collapsed overnight, volcanologists said.

The order by Sutton and East Surrey Water extends an existing hosepipe ban to add restrictions on sports grounds, parks, car washes and window cleaners.

Other water companies have been given permission to bring in further orders, but do not plan to use them yet.

Forecasters have said despite it having been the wettest May since 1983 it will do little to affect the dry conditions.

BBC meteorologist Jay Wynne said: "It's been wet in May but it's not going to have an impact on the current drought."

Mr Wynne said it would take a prolonged spell of above-average rainfall to make up for the 18 months of dry weather.

Mike Hegarty, director of operations at Sutton and East Surrey Water, said the recent rain would be largely soaked up by plant life that had endured several dry months beforehand.

"It is winter rainfall that matters to us," he said. "Spring, summer rainfall doesn't really affect the situation. It takes months and months to re-fill the aquifers."

The drought order affects both domestic and business properties in the South East.

A sign on the door of the al-Rahman Islamic Center for Islamic Education said prayers were at 1:45 p.m. but the center was mostly deserted, with only a throng of media gathered outside.

"I was shocked, it (the alleged criminal element) should not be here. This is a religious place," said the owner of a nearby store, who said he attended the mosque about once a week.

A massive anti-terror sweep over the last several days led to the arrest of the 17 men and youths, who are accused of planning to build huge bombs and blow up landmark locations in southern Ontario.

The group's high-profile targets included the Peace Tower in Ottawa's Parliament Buildings and Toronto's CN Tower, according to media reports on Monday.

Court documents summarized on the Toronto Star Web site on Monday show that 12 men -- a publication ban prohibits identifying the five who are youths aged below 18 -- face charges ranging from "conspiracy to carry out a terrorist activity, to training for terrorist purposes, to bombmaking and illegally importing guns and ammunition."

Several of the accused have attended the mosque, and a local parliamentarian has complained in the past about radical views held by some of its worshipers.

Canada's Council on American-Islamic Relations put out a statement expressing relief that the arrests had averted "potential terror attacks."

After the weekend arrests of 17 suspected terrorists in Canada, the FBI is working closely with Canadian police to find out more details about the alleged plot and believes the threat of homegrown terrorists is very real and growing.

Officials say the men being held by the Canadian police do not fit the profile of terrorists. The suspects include a school bus driver, a graduate student, and a high school basketball player. Five of them are under 18. The 12 adults were sent to a high-security prison outside Toronto while the five youths were dispatched to area jails. They all are expected to face charges in court on Tuesday.

"These are people from diverse backgrounds and ages. Inspired by terrorist ideology, operating within their own network," said Stockwell Day, Canada's public safety minister.

According to Canadian police, the suspects were planning to blow up targets in Ontario, the political and economic heart of Canada.

Security analysts say a new breed of terrorist is inspired by al Qaeda but is not under the direct control of Osama bin Laden.

"This is the most vexing problem that law enforcement and domestic intelligence agencies have to face right now," said Jack Cloonan, a former FBI counterterrorism official and an ABC News consultant.

Flying Under the Radar

ABC News consultant Richard Clarke, a former counterterrorism czar, said the Canadian sting operation showed that people flying under the international radar, whose names are not on terror watch lists, were getting together to create real threats.

"They can get the material they need to make the bombs easily by going to hardware stores and farm supply stores," said Clarke. "It's what we call leaderless terrorism, spontaneous terrorism, not connected directly to al Qaeda but they still are generated by getting their information on the Internet from this network of Qaeda-like, Qaeda-related Web sites. They're not doing this for the h? of it. They're doing it because they have a perception that the West, including Canada is anti-Islamic."

Police said Monday more arrests are likely in an alleged plot to bomb buildings in Canada, while intelligence officers sought ties between the 17 suspects and Islamic terror cells in the United States and five other nations.

A court said authorities had charged all 12 adults arrested over the weekend with participating in a terrorist group. Other charges included importing weapons and planning a bombing. The charges against five minors were not made public.

The Parliament of Canada, located in Ottawa, was believed to be one of the targets the group discussed.

Authorities said more arrests were expected, possibly this week, as police pursue leads about a group that they say was inspired by the violent ideology of the al-Qaida terror network.

"This investigation is not finished," Mike McDonell, deputy commissioner for the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, told Canadian Broadcasting Corp. on Monday. "Anybody that aided, facilitated or participated in this terrorist event will be arrested and prosecuted in court."

Public Safety Minister Stockwell Day also predicted more arrests. Another senior government official told The Associated Press on Sunday that more warrants were being gathered and that arrests were likely, possibly this week.

Although both Canadian and U.S. officials said over the weekend there was no indication the purported terror group had targets outside Ontario, McDonnell told National Public Radio on Monday that the inquiry has expanded beyond Canada.

"We are working with and sharing our information with our allied countries," he said.

A U.S. law enforcement official said investigators were looking for connections between those detained in Canada and suspected Islamic militants held in the United States, Britain, Bangladesh, Bosnia, Denmark and Sweden.

American authorities have established that two men from Georgia who were charged this year in a terrorism case had been in contact with some of the Canadian suspects via computer, the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity because the investigation is continuing.

They are Burkina Faso, Ethiopia, Ghana, Mali, Mauritania, Rwanda, Tanzania and Uganda.

The enhanced HIPC initiative cut the debt ratio in half for 18 countries, but in eight of the countries in Africa the ratios have come to exceed, once again, the HIPC thresholds," said the report.

Although debt relief had become "a significant vehicle" of resource transfer to countries under the World Bank-International Monetary Fund (IMF) HIPC programme, the report noted, "debt ratios have already again surpassed the bank's sustainability level of 150% debt-to-export ratio in the eight countries completing the programme".

Countries in HIPC undertake sustained implementation of integrated poverty reduction and economic reform programmes.

The bank said net transfers to HIPC more than doubled from $8,8bn to $17,5bn in a five-year period, from 1999 to 2004.

"These additional resources have increased budgetary flexibility for supporting social programmes, but changes in exchange rates as well as new borrowing have left programme graduates in the eight African countries with newly unsustainable levels of debt," it said.

Addressing a key security conference in Singapore, Rumsfeld said the Chinese "lack of transparency with respect to their military investments understandably causes concerns for some of their neighbors."

In a question-and-answer session afterwards he elaborated, saying China could not engage successfully with the rest of the world in the economic field while continuing to unsettle other countries with its behavior.

If the rest of the world looks at China and sees a behavior pattern that is mysterious and potentially threatening, it tends to affect the willingness to invest," he said.

"The extent that people do things that the rest of the world frowns on, there ends up being a penalty for that, in one way or another."

Rumsfeld said he believed China would benefit by "demystifying" the topic of its military investment.

Beijing's declared military budget for this year is $35 billion, but the Pentagon estimates that the actual spending is between $75 and $105 billion, making China's defense budget the world's second-largest, well above those of Japan and Britain.

A Pentagon report released last month said China was working to extend its military capacities by employing more weaponry and long-range aircraft, was altering the military balance across the Taiwan Strait by deploying more than 700 missiles aimed at the island, and had yet to explain adequately the reasons for the build-up.

At 2.3 million-strong, China's People's Liberation Army is the world's biggest and it looks to Russia for the bulk of its foreign weapons purchases.

U.S. light crude for July delivery traded 82 cents or 1.1 percent higher at $73.15 a barrel by 0408 GMT, after a high of $73.55 and gains of $1.99 on Friday. London Brent crude rose 92 cents to $71.95 a barrel.

Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said if the United States makes a "wrong move" over Iran, energy flows from the world's fourth-largest exporter will be endangered.

"The gains are a combination of everything but most importantly it's Iran," said broker John Brady from ABN AMRO in New York. "We've had mixed messages before but it certainly stokes fears."

Tension between Iran and the West over Tehran's nuclear program have helped drive oil's 20 percent rally this year.

Lord Carey believes that the next coronation needs "very significant changes" so that it is "inclusive" of other religions that have spread across Britain.

His comments, which are likely to cause a rift within the Church of England, suggest that Lord Carey, the Archbishop of Canterbury for 11 years until 2002, has been won over by arguments from Prince Charles.

The prince, who will become Supreme Governor of the Church of England when he becomes king, has already said that he wants to be Defender of Faith - not Defender of the Faith - when he accedes to the throne.

Lord Carey's comments will set him and the prince against Dr Rowan Williams, the current Archbishop of Canterbury, and other senior figures in the Church of England. Dr Williams has emphasised the need for Prince Charles to defend the Church of England when he becomes king.

In a television interview to be broadcast later this month, Lord Carey says: "When the time comes for the next coronation there's got to be a number of changes. Very significant changes. The Queen came to the throne at a time when the Church of England was really the only Christian faith in the country.

"And there were no Muslims, Sikhs, Hindus around to be in any way evident in the life of the country. Now it's a completely different world, so the coronation oath would have to be looked at more critically.

"It's got to be a much more interfaith coronation service next time around. Prince Charles put his finger on it and there's no way in which the sovereign can be defender of one faith. Although I hope that the next coronation will say very firmly that Christianity is still the dominant faith of the United Kingdom... it's got to be a much more inclusive character."

Lord Carey, 75, who remains an influential figure within the Anglican Church, made his comments in a television interview with Gyles Brandreth, the broadcaster and writer, for Channel 5.

His comments follow a Home Office report, aimed at tackling "religious discrimination", which said that a coronation oath in which the monarch swears to uphold the Protestant faith may not be appropriate in modern, multi-faith Britain.

Lord Carey's comments are likely to be welcomed by Prince Charles. He caused controversy in 1994 when, in an interview with Jonathan Dimbleby, he told of his desire to be Defender of Faith rather than Defender of the Faith.

However, one senior royal aide cautioned against any suggestion that the prince would fail in his responsibilities to the Church of England. "While the Prince of Wales believes in faith, he is a devout Christian and an Anglican," he said.

Lord Carey's comments are unlikely to be welcomed, however, at Lambeth Palace. In an interview in 2003, Dr Williams warned the prince that he must stick to his duty to defend the Church of England. "Unless something really radical happens with the constitution, he is, like it or not, Defender of the Faith and he has a relationship with the Christian Church of a kind which he does not have with other faith communities."

The crowning of the sovereign has taken place for almost 1,000 years at Westminster Abbey. The new king or queen takes the coronation oath which includes a pledge to maintain the Church of England.

Domestic sales of religious products in the United States are likely to reach $9.5 billion by 2010, the New York Times reported April 26. The estimate comes from market research publisher Packaged Facts. In addition to the film market, sales of Christian-oriented books, music, video games and computer software are increasing.

Television is also opening up to religious programs. On May 21 the British newspaper Observer reported that the BBC is putting the finishing touches to a project that will depict the life of Jesus and the events leading up to his crucifixion. Scheduled for Holy Week in 2008, it will consist of a series of nightly programs in a drama-style format.

The article also commented on the recent annual awards for religious television programs, held in Lambeth Palace, the seat of the Anglican archbishop of Canterbury. The head of the judging panel, Jane Drabble, a former BBC executive, expressed her surprise at the good quality of the contestants.

The winner was "A Test of Faith," from the channel ITV. It reported on reactions from those affected by the London terrorist bombings of last July 7. The runner-up was an experimental series, "Priest Idol," shown in prime time by Channel 4. It chronicled the efforts of Anglican priest James McCaskill in trying to revive a dying parish. "The Monastery," a reality-type show that followed the experiences of five men who spent 40 days in an abbey, won a merit award. The program attracted 2.5 million viewers, and a sequel is being planned.

Reality shows

On May 22 another British paper, the Independent, also reflected on the popularity of reality-type religious programs. June will see "The Convent," from BBC2. It will follow the experience of four women as they spend six weeks in a community of nuns. June will also see Channel 4 transmit "Six Feet Under: The Muslim Way," about a London-based Muslim funeral service.

The Independent observed that in order to attract the attention of a new generation, religion needs to entertain. And the human-interest angle typical of reality television shows is one way to do this.

The reality format for religion is also taking off in the United States. "God or the Girl," a five-part series started on Easter Sunday, broadcast on A&E Television. The four protagonists had to decide whether to enter the seminary or to opt for marriage.

A U.S. version of the British show "The Monastery" is also in preparation, and set to screen this fall in 10 parts on the Learning Channel. Five men and five women from a variety of backgrounds are depicted as they spend 40 days in a monastery, the Boston Globe reported April 11.

The men lived from early February to mid-March at the Monastery of Christ, located north of Santa Fe, New Mexico. The women spent time at Our Lady of the Mississippi Abbey on a farm near Dubuque, Iowa, from December to early February.

"We're interested in exploring how people like us can live a good and purposeful life and what the 1,500-year-old monastic tradition can teach modern people," explained the producer, Sarah Woodford.

Publishing boom

In the print sector a wave of religious books is hitting the stores, Reuters reported March 28.

Authors are anxious to ride the coattails of Dan Brown's "The Da Vinci Code." Offerings include Michael Baigent's "The Jesus Papers," which denies Christ died on the cross. Books criticizing Brown are also enjoying success; Erwin Lutzer, an evangelical minister, has sold 300,000 copies of his "The Da Vinci Deception."

Other books include "Divine," a parable about a modern Magdalene figure, by Karen Kingsbury, described as a Christian fiction writer. Her books have sold more than 4 million copies, according to Reuters. And Bart Ehrman will be coming out with "Peter, Paul and Mary Magdalene." The book looks at some of the issues raised by Brown, and denies there is evidence of any marriage between Jesus and Mary Magdalene.

On a lighter note, religious comic books are also selling well. The London-based Telegraph newspaper on March 26 reported on a project to turn the lives of the saints into comic books. It's part of an effort to attract young people to the Catholic Church.

The comics are published by Arcadius Press, of Springfield, Missouri. The series will be launched in Britain later this year, and the plan is to issue four comic books a month.

In Hong Kong, meanwhile, a comic book version, in a number of installments, of the New Testament is being published, reported the South China Morning Post on May 21. Apeiron Production Company was commissioned to publish the text by Australian-based property developer Larry Lee Siu-kee.

Lee said he was spurred to do it after the recent publication of what he called falsehoods. "By stating their stories as fact, like in 'The Da Vinci Code,' they are poison for young people, many of whom will think it is real," he explained. Lee said that the 6,000 copies of the first installment have been flying off the shelves, prompting him to print a further 20,000 copies.

Electronic

From print to the electronic media. The best-selling series of apocalyptic "Left Behind" books is now being converted into a video game, the Los Angeles Times reported May 10. The game, "Left Behind: Eternal Forces," made its debut at the annual Electronic Entertainment Expo, in Los Angeles.

It was not alone. Another producer was marketing games based on the "Veggie Tales" series of Christian videos for children. And another was pushing "Bibleman: A Fight for Faith," reported about a superhero who stands up for the word of God.

Christian-inspired video games still have a long way to go, according to the Los Angeles Times. One of the best-selling Christian based video games, "Catechumen," produced by the San Diego-based Christian Game Developers Foundation, has sold 80,000 copies since 1999. This falls far short of such successes as the 5.1 million copies of "Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas."

Other initiatives to get the religious message across include a satellite radio station for New York City. The Catholic archdiocese there recently announced a venture with Sirius Satellite Radio to establish a channel, the New York Times reported May 11. Joseph Zwilling, a spokesman for the archdiocese, said the channel is scheduled to begin this fall.

The article noted that of the 17,000 licensed terrestrial radio stations in the United States, 1,700 are Protestant or evangelical Christian in nature, but just 130 are Catholic. According to Stephen Gajdosik, president of the Catholic Radio Association, the number of Catholic stations has been growing by about one station a month.

The Church celebrated World Communications Day last Sunday. In his message for the occasion, dated Jan. 24, Benedict XVI urged the media to "contribute constructively to the propagation of all that is good and true" (No. 2).

The Pope also noted that Christians are called to share God's message with others. This call stems from recognition of Christ's dynamic force within us, "which then seeks to spread outward to others, so that his love can truly become the prevalent measure of the world" (No. 1). A force that is increasingly finding an outlet in the media.

Mr Blair a day earlier held talks in Rome with Italy's new prime minister, Romano Prodi, about the Italian troop withdrawal from Iraq, which Prodi has said will be completed this year.

Mrs Blair met the Pope in April, when she took part in a Vatican conference on children, which he addressed.

Mr Blair was expected to tell the Pope that moderate religious leaders must work together to tackle extremism and terrorism.

A Downing Street spokesman earlier said the two men had "lots to discuss".

"The Vatican is an influential player on the world stage and, through all the Catholic communities around the world, has a significant influence on international opinion," he said.

"The Prime Minister will be interested in the Pope's views on key foreign policy issues.

"In particular he will want to discuss with the Pope inter-faith relations and how best inter-faith dialogue can help with conflict resolution and how the moderate voices of the world's main religions need to work together to tackle and confront extremism and terrorism."

Blair and Benedict, holding talks for the first time since Benedict's election last year, spoke privately in the Pontiff's study for about 40 minutes, a Downing Street spokesman said.

"The prime minister and the Pope talked about the challenges of globalizations and the importance of dialogue between the faiths to battle extremism and terrorism," he said.

"One of the themes of discussion was how the moderate voices in all the world's major religions need to stand up to religious extremism in all its forms," he added.

He said Blair, who is Anglican, "underscored that the Roman Catholic Church is a very important partner in the dialogue".

A Vatican statement said both sides "underscored the contribution that common values among religions can make to dialogue, particularly with moderate Islam, above all in the areas of solidarity and peace."

The British media reported before the meeting that Blair might invite the Pope to visit Britain. John Paul made a visit in 1982.

Official British government sources said there already was an "open invitation" for Pope Benedict to visit Britain but would not speculate on when such a visit could take place.

The British spokesman said they also discussed Africa "at some length" and China, where the communist government does not allow the local Catholic Church to recognize the Pope. The Vatican said they also discussed Northern Ireland.

Blair, who held talks on Friday with Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi, later had talks with the Vatican secretary of state, Cardinal Angelo Sodano.

After the private part of the audience, the Pope met Blair's wife, Cherie, who is a practicing Roman Catholic.

Before leaving, the Blairs paid their respects at the tomb of the late Pope John Paul, who died on April 2, 2005.

Concern over dialogue with Islam is a common theme that has linked Benedict and Blair recently.

In speeches in Britain, the United States and Australia recently, Blair has stressed the role religions, inter-faith dialogue and global alliances can play in making cultures understand each other better in a post-September 11 world.

Senior Catholic officials, too, have spoken recently with growing frankness of their concern about Islam, which immigrants have made the second-largest faith in many European states and radicals invoke to justify suicide bombings and other violence.

In its search for better relations with the Islamic world, the Roman Catholic Church is turning a spotlight on the role that culture can play in fostering understanding between peoples of different faiths.

In March, Benedict gave his culture minister, Cardinal Paul Poupard, the additional responsibility of heading the department for dialogue with non-Christian religions.