A suggestion that the full-length veil, or burqa, might be outlawed in France split the French government down the middle yesterday.

The government's official spokesman, Luc Chatel, said that legislation might be introduced to ban full-length veils if it was proved that they were being "imposed" on Muslim women against their will.

However, the Immigration Minister, Eric Besson, said legal action would "create unnecessary and unwelcome tensions" and re-open the anguished dispute which surrounded the decision in 2004 to ban Islamic headscarves, and other religious symbols, from state schools in France.

President Nicolas Sarkozy, speaking after the EU summit in Brussels, said he would address the subject in public on Monday but warned against surrendering to "emotional" arguments.

Gordon Brown has admitted that he has been "hurt" by the personal attacks on him during the failed attempt to oust him this month, and said that he might move to teaching after he leaves office.

Speaking to the Guardian in his first interview since the attempted coup by Labour backbenchers, the prime minister made an unprecedentedly frank series of observations on his time in office, reflecting that the recent weeks have been the worst of his political life.

"To be honest, you could walk away from all of this tomorrow," he said. "I'm not interested in what accompanies being in power. I wouldn't worry if I never returned to all those places - Downing Street, Chequers ... And it would probably be good for my children."

In an apparent acknowledgement of criticism of a lack of vision at the heart of government, the prime minister said he had found it hard to focus on strategic planning "as you have to deal with immediate events, like if a bank's going to go under".

A small throng of demonstrators arrived early ahead of British National Party leader Nick Griffin's "victory" speech in Blackpool.

Ahead of the newly elected MEP's speech to a party rally, about 30 anti-fascism demonstrators converged outside the New Kimberley Hotel on the south promenade.

They were joined by a similar number of police officers in high-visibility gear and plain-clothed officers patrolling around the hotel.

Inside, scores of BNP members were arriving to sign in and prepare for the two-day Victory 09 event.

The annual session was supposed to focus on party politics and be a debrief after the Euro elections in which Mr Griffin won a seat in the North West, and Andrew Brons was elected in Yorkshire and the Humber.

But it was retagged Victory 09 following the far-right party's success.

The remains of two bodies feared to be those of British hostages held in Iraq have been passed to Britain by the Iraqi authorities, the foreign secretary, David Miliband, said today.

There was no immediate confirmation of who they were, he said, but the government's thoughts were with the families of five British hostages who were taken captive in Baghdad in May 2007.

"This is terrible moment of uncertainty and fear for them," said Miliband, who described the developments as "distressing".

"We do not yet have confirmation of who they are. Forensic examinations are under way to establish their identities and the causes of death as soon as possible.

Cars are being torched almost every night amid a sharp rise in left-wing crime in Berlin. Anger is set to peak with a mass protest on the site of Tempelhof airport on Saturday -- making it a burning issue for politicians.

All that's needed is a bit of paraffin or some lighter fluid -- and a match. Tuck it under a tire and, after a few minutes, black smoke appears. Soon, the whole car is aflame -- by which time, the culprits have vanished into the night, leaving authorities helpless. In recent months, such scenes have been played out across Berlin almost every night.

Photo gallery here.

The delivery was mild, but the words were incandescent: now Iran's protesters know exactly where they stand. Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei finally spoke on the crisis gripping his nation yesterday, and while he had emollient words for presidential candidate Mirhossein Mousavi, his threats were explicit.

He demanded an end to the protests that have brought millions on to the nation's streets this week, insisted that their cause was wrong, that his ally Ahmadinejad was the election's rightful winner, denied there was any possibility that the election had been rigged, and warned of fearful consequences if the people come out in force again today. "The result of the election comes from the ballot box, not from the street," he said. "If there is any bloodshed, leaders of the protests will be held directly responsible."

Witnesses said police beat protesters and fired tear gas and water cannons at thousands who rallied in Tehran today in open defiance of Iran's clerical government, sharply escalating the most serious internal conflict since the 1979 Islamic Revolution. Related articles

• The Ayatollah speaks - and the protesters are warned
• Leading article: A show of force as the Islamic revolution fights back
• Robert Fisk's World: In Tehran, fantasy and reality make uneasy bedfellows
• Robert Fisk: Khamenei is fighting for his own position as well as Ahmadinejad's

The eyewitnesses described fierce clashes near Revolution Square in central Tehran after some 3,000 protesters chanted "Death to the dictator!" and "Death to dictatorship!" Police responded with tear gas and water cannons.

The witnesses told The Associated Press that between 50 and 60 protesters were seriously beaten by police and pro-government militia and taken to Imam Khomeini hospital in central Tehran. People could be seen dragging away comrades bloodied by baton strikes.

Helicopters hovered over central Tehran. Ambulance sirens echoed through the streets and black smoke rose over the city.

Tehran University was cordoned off by police and militia while students inside the university chanted "death to the dictator," witnesses said.

Iranian riot police beat protesters and fired tear gas as violence erupted in Tehran today when thousands of members of the opposition movement took to the streets in open defiance of the country's supreme leader.

Thousands of plain clothes and uniformed security officials blockaded Tehran's main throughfares but it seems many of the demonstrators who had previously turned out in their hundreds of thousands stayed away, for fear of official reprisals.

The crackdown on supporters of the reformist presidential candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi confirmed fears that authorities would carry out their threat to suppress protests in the aftermath of the disputed presidential election.

Eyewitnesses in Revolution Square reported around 20,000 riot police, made up of Basiji militiamen and soldiers, and armed with rifles, tear gas and water cannons, far outnumbering the hardcore of around 3,000 opposition members who turned out today.

TEHRAN (Reuters) - Defeated presidential candidate Mirhossein Mousavi said on Saturday he was "ready for martyrdom" in leading protests that have shaken the Islamic Republic and brought warnings of bloodshed from Iran's Supreme Leader.

EDITORS' NOTE: Reuters and other foreign media are subject to Iranian restrictions on their ability to report, film or take pictures in Tehran.

Mousavi also called for a national strike if he is arrested, a witness said. As darkness fell, rooftop cries of Allahu Akbar (God is greatest) sounded out across northern Tehran, an echo of tactics used in the 1979 Islamic revolution against the Shah.

In an act fraught with symbolic significance, a suicide bomber blew himself up at the mausoleum of the father of Iran's Islamic revolution, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, while unrest continued across Tehran in defiance of a ban on demonstrations.

Iranian police have used water cannon, batons, tear gas and live rounds to break up protests over the presidential election, witnesses in Tehran say.

A BBC correspondent at Enghelab Square said he saw one man shot and others injured amid a huge security operation involving thousands of police.

Defeated candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi repeated calls for the election to be annulled on the grounds it was rigged.

There were also reports of a bombing at the shrine of Ayatollah Khomeini.

A suicide bomber blew himself up at the mausoleum of the father of Iran's revolution, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, state media said on Saturday, in an attack coinciding with more unrest over a disputed presidential vote.

"A few minutes ago a suicide bomber exploded himself in the shrine," police official Hossein Sajedinia was quoted by the semi-official Mehr news agency as saying.

Press TV said the attacker died and eight people were injured. It said the attack took place at the northern entrance to the Imam Khomeini shrine.

Wildcat strikes at power stations spread across the country yesterday as workers threatened to "unleash a monster" and potentially threaten electricity supplies.

The week-long clash between the French oil giant and its workers escalated yesterday when the company announced it was sacking 647 people who had taken unofficial action over job losses. "The lights will go out," said one worker at the Lindsey oil refinery, where unofficial action has led to a dozen sympathetic strikes.

Emergency talks at the terminal in North Lincolnshire collapsed last night with the unions accusing management of "bullying and intimidation". Total insisted it could not negotiate while it was faced with an illegal dispute.

Many of the sacked staff at the site, which was the scene of a bitter strike over the employment of foreign workers in February, heard the news through the media before letters from management arrived informing them that they had until Monday to reapply for their jobs.

Allen Stanford, the flamboyant Texan billionaire who promised to bankroll English cricket, was in custody last night after prosecutors said his offshore banking business was a massive fraud.

In US criminal charges that go far beyond the accusations already levelled against him in a civil case, Mr Stanford is accused of being in cahoots with the Antiguan authorities by bribing the Caribbean island's chief regulator to help hush up his $7.2bn (£4.3bn) pyramid scheme when the authorities began to close in. The depth of the apparent conspiracy and the number of his alleged crimes emerged only after his long-time business partner and former college room-mate turned against him, striking a co-operation agreement with the FBI.

There's an interesting counterpoint between Christina Romer's new piece in the Economist on the lessons of 1937 and the poll results, which are alarming some commentators, showing that a majority of Americans give deficit reduction a higher priority than rescuing the economy.

First of all, Ms. Romer's point -- that a premature return to orthodoxy can be deadly in this kind of crisis -- is one I might have made myself. In fact, I just did.

I also liked her admission that

As someone who has written somewhat critically of the short-sightedness of policymakers in the late 1930s, I feel new humility. I can see that the pressures they were under were probably enormous.

My version of that admission is the statement that we owe the Japanese an apology: their stop-go policies in the 90s, the reluctance to reform banking, are a lot easier to understand now.

The prospects for the aviation industry are bleak, but executives are trying to put a positive spin on the situation. At the Paris Air Show, champagne and fighter jets are intended to distract attention from the lack of orders.

The start of the Paris Air Show was as grim as the situation for the aviation sector: gray skies with persistent rain, combined with pessimistic forecasts for aircraft production and passenger numbers.

snip

It is not only a perceived downturn but a tangible crisis -- as a glance at industry figures confirms. After an estimated global loss of $10.4 billion (€7.5 billion) in 2008, the International Air Transport Association expects airlines to make a loss of $9 billion in 2009. And the reality could be even worse: The pessimistic scenario doesn't take into account the consequences of a possible global swine flu pandemic, a new rise in fuel prices or a possible CO2 tax.

Andy Xie, writing for Cajing, questions the durability of China's recovery. He argues that much of the upsurge in lending, which was one of the developments that cheered commentators, is fueling asset speculation, in this case in commodities, Reports this spring has suggested that as much as a third of the new lending was going into the stock market.

Observers have argued that China is stockpiling commodities as a diversification strategy., Xie adds an important tidbit to this equation, that banks are lending against commodities, using mortgage-like structures, and argues that the current price levels of commodities are a function of easy credit, not fundamentals.

Freepress is running a petition:

Time Warner Cable is trying to restrict Internet use by shamelessly overcharging people who use the Web every day. Now other phone and cable giants like Comcast and AT&T are following suit -- weighing schemes to hike prices, shut down the free-flowing Web and keep user innovation in check.

The Internet is an engine of economic growth, civic engagement and free speech. To prosper in the 21st century, we need to encourage more Internet use, not less. The Broadband Internet Fairness Act would make price-gouging plans illegal and require the big phone and cable companies to disclose their schemes to the Federal Trade Commission.

This bill is our bill. By signing this letter, you're telling your representative to support the Broadband Internet Fairness Act today.

The United States military was yesterday reinforcing the defences of Hawaii in response to increasing concern that North Korea, stung by new United Nations sanctions against it, may be preparing to launch a long-range ballistic missile in the direction of the Pacific archipelago.

The Pentagon was also monitoring a North Korean freighter, the Kang Nam, which in the past has been suspected of carrying cargo related to the country's nuclear industry. The UN resolution authorises international inspection of ships if there are "reasonable grounds" to think they are carrying such materials.

US officials said they were confident that they would have all the necessary defences in place around Hawaii. They were responding in part to reports in the Japanese media that North Korea was planning to fire a long-range Taepodong-2 missile towards the islands on or around the 4 July holiday.

Russian President Dmitri Medvedev says his country is ready for a reduction of strategic weapons in an arms control agreement with the United States.

Medvedev is due to meet President Barack Obama next month on replacing the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty.

Medvedev says Moscow wants binding arrangements outlined in one single, efficient document.

He says Russia wants "a verifiable and real" reduction of offensive weapons as part of that deal.

Russian officials have said previously that U.S. plans for a missile defense system will be problematic in the talks, though the US says the shield is designed against threats from Iran, not Russia.

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - A suicide truck bomb killed 50 people leaving a mosque on Saturday, hours after Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki urged Iraqis not to lose faith if a U.S. military pullback resulted in more insurgent attacks.

Almost all U.S. soldiers will leave urban centres by June 30 under a bilateral security pact signed last year, and the whole force that invaded the country in 2003 must be gone by 2012.

"Don't lose heart if a breach of security occurs here or there," Maliki told leaders from the ethnic Turkmen community, reiterating a warning that insurgents were likely to try to take advantage of the U.S. pullback to launch more attacks.

KABUL (Reuters) - The United States will order all its troops in Afghanistan to undergo new training after concluding that pilots violated orders in air strikes last month that it accepts may have killed as many as 86 civilians.

In a long-awaited report, released six weeks after U.S. B1 bombers killed large numbers of civilians unleashing fury among Afghans, the Pentagon acknowledged that rules had not been followed, although it said the mistakes fell short of breaking the law.

The bombings took place on May 4 in western Afghanistan after a day-long battle that saw Afghan security forces ambushed by Taliban fighters and U.S. Marines come to their aid.

WANA, Pakistan (Reuters) - Pakistani warplanes resumed strikes against militant hideouts in South Waziristan on Saturday, security officials said, with more than 30 insurgents killed in the Afghan border tribal region in the past 24 hours.

After securing much of the scenic Swat Valley in the past month, the military plans to extend its offensive with operations in South Waziristan against the main stronghold of Pakistani Taliban leader Baitullah Mehsud, a key al Qaeda ally.

The operations came after Taliban gains in the region raised fears for the future of nuclear-armed Pakistan, a vital ally for the United States as it strives to defeat al Qaeda and stabilise neighbouring Afghanistan.

The speaker of Somalia's parliament has called for neighbouring states to send troops to the country within 24 hours.

Sheikh Aden Mohamed Nur made the appeal as fierce fighting that has spread to the north of the Somali capital, Mogadishu, continued for a second day.

Islamist forces battling the country's transitional government briefly took over a police station and other key buildings in Karan district.

Thousands are fleeing the area, previously a refuge for the displaced.

Zimbabwe's Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai has been forced to cut short an event where he was addressing Zimbabwean exiles due to jeering.

Mr Tsvangirai was addressing more than 1,000 exiles, whom he urged to return home to rebuild the country, during an event at London's Southwark Cathedral.

But his appeal was poorly received as questions were raised over assurances he made about the country's stability.

The Obama administration's drive to close the U.S. detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, has hit a new snag: At least some of the 13 detainees accepted for resettlement by the island nation of Palau don't want to go there.

Meanwhile, protests have erupted in Bermuda over its recent resettlement of four Uighur detainees, with the country's leader facing a no-confidence vote by his parliament. Dissent in the British island territory, which sits in the Atlantic Ocean east of North Carolina, came after Bermuda's acceptance of the men strained relations with London, which complained that the island's home-rule government failed to advise it about the decision.

Ethiopian troops have reportedly crossed into neighbouring Somalia after it made a plea for foreign troops to help it battle opposition fighters seeking to overthrow the government.

Somalia's parliamentary speaker made the request on Saturday after several days of heavy fighting in the north of the capital, Mogadishu.

"The government is weakened by the rebel forces. We ask neighbouring countries - including Kenya, Djibouti, Ethiopia and Yemen - to send troops to Somalia within 24 hours," Sheikh Aden Mohamed Nur, the Somali parliamentary speaker, said.

Ethiopian troops last entered Somalia in late 2006 to support the then-government and drive out Islamic Courts Union fighters led by Sharif Ahmed, the current president.

Europe's new Herschel space observatory has provided a demonstration of its capability with a first image of the iconic Whirlpool Galaxy.

The billion-euro telescope opened its "eyes" to the cosmos last Sunday when a command was given to lift a protective hatch covering the instrument bay.

Herschel spied the galaxy, also known as M51, with its Photoconductor Array Camera and Spectrometer (PACS).

Scientists stress Herschel is still in its commissioning phase.

World hunger is projected to reach a historic high in 2009 with 1,020 million people going hungry every day, according to new estimates published by United Nation's Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).

The most recent increase in hunger is not the consequence of poor global harvests but is caused by the world economic crisis that has resulted in lower incomes and increased unemployment. This has reduced access to food by the poor, the UN agency said.

"A dangerous mix of the global economic slowdown combined with stubbornly high food prices in many countries has pushed some 100 million more people than last year into chronic hunger and poverty," said FAO Director-General Jacques Diouf. "The silent hunger crisis -- affecting one sixth of all of humanity -- poses a serious risk for world peace and security. We urgently need to forge a broad consensus on the total and rapid eradication of hunger in the world and to take the necessary actions."

"The present situation of world food insecurity cannot leave us indifferent," he added.

It doesn't seem to say that the the UN food programme budget for 2009 has already run dry by now...

Key climate indicators such as global mean surface temperature, sea-level rise and extreme climatic events are already moving beyond the patterns of natural variability within which contemporary society and economy have developed. This is one of the key messages of a report presented by leading scientists in Brussels today in preparation for the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen in December. The up-to-date overview of research relevant to climate change was handed over to the Danish Prime Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen, the host of the conference.

"We have covered new findings on climate science, climate impacts on society and the environment, and effective tools and approaches to deal with these challenges," says Hans Joachim Schellnhuber, director of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK) and member of the writing team. "The scientific findings presented in this update create by themselves a sense of urgency that we hope will lead the Copenhagen conference to success," says Schellnhuber, who advises the German government on global change issues. In Copenhagen a follow-up to the Kyoto protocol will be debated.

The Synthesis Report summarises new knowledge that was presented at the congress "Climate Change: Global Risks, Challenges & Decisions" at the University of Copenhagen in March this year. Approximately 2500 people from nearly 80 countries attended the congress with over 1400 scientific presentations. "The bottom line is that limiting global warming to a manageable extent will require all our ingenuity for the climate-smart evolution of existing structures," says Schellnhuber. Yet large-scale transformational measures would also be needed.

The Synthesis Report can be found here (pdf!).

Two patients with inoperable prostate cancer have made dramatic recoveries after receiving one dose of an experimental drug that is creating excitement among cancer specialists.

The results were so startling that researchers decided to release details of the two cases before the drug trial - in which the patients took part - was complete. Doctors said their progress had exceeded all expectations. The men were treated at the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota in the US, one of the top medical centres in the world.

Dr Eugene Kwon, the urologist who was in charge of their treatment, compared the results to the first pilot breaking the sound barrier.

"This is one of the Holy Grails of prostate cancer research. We have been looking for this for years," he said.

Prostate cancer is the most common cancer in men - 34,000 new cases and more than 10,000 deaths are reported each year in Britain, where rates of its occurrence have tripled in the past 30 years, mainly due to improved detection. The US has the highest incidence of the disease.

The long-awaited Acropolis Museum in Athens has been opened.

The modern glass and concrete building, at the foot of the ancient Acropolis, houses sculptures from the golden age of Athenian democracy.

The £110m ($182m; 130m euros) structure also offers panoramic views of the stone citadel where they came from.

Culture minister Antonis Samaras said he hoped it would be the "catalyst" for the return of the Parthenon sculptures from the British Museum.

Some of the sculptures, also known as the Elgin Marbles, originally decorated the Parthenon temple and have been in London since they were sold to the museum in 1817.

Three centuries after Peter the Great, the Russians are coming to Amsterdam again. On the east bank of the Amstel river, to which Amsterdam owes its name, a dependency of the famous St. Petersburg Hermitage opens this Friday.

The 17th century nursing home Amstelhof has been converted into a modern, light 9000-square-metres museum in the space of two years; it will soon house permanent exhibitions from Russia. The Amsterdam Hermitage can loan anything from the St. Petersburg motherhouse, as long as its shows do not compete with the collections of museums already established in Amsterdam. That means no Rembrandts or other Dutch Masters owned by the Russian state museum will be on display at the Amsterdam Hermitage.

"When the idea started to take shape, I visited my colleagues at the Rijksmuseum, the Stedelijk [museum for modern art], the Amsterdam Historic museum, the Van Gogh and the maritime museum to explain that we would only host exhibitions that are complementary to what the Dutch museums own," says Ernst Veen, the director of the Hermitage on the Amstel. "But the Hermitage has three million art objects, so there will be plenty to show."

There are many ways to get a Turkish man to show his love for his wife.

You can force him to stand in Istanbul's Taksim Square with a sign saying: "I cheated and I'm sorry." You can make him declare his love for his wife through a megaphone, on a boat, in front of a packed yacht harbour. Or you can simply make him get on his knees and say: "Honey, I love you."

All three cases were recorded by four TV cameras and broadcast to millions of Turkish viewers, enabling them to witness at first hand what a good Turkish husband looks like.

Having spent 113 years and 14 days on this earth, Henry Allingham is used to breaking records.

He is one of three British men still alive who actively served in the First World War, is the last surviving founder of the Royal Air Force, has long held the record for being the oldest man in Europe and earlier this year he became Britain's most ancient man ever after overtaking John Evans, a Welsh former coal miner who died in 1990 aged 112 years and 295 days.

But when Mr Allingham woke up yesterday morning at St Dunstan's care home for blind ex-service personnel, in Ovingdean, near Brighton, the supercentenarian was informed that he had suddenly achieved the highest age-related accolade for men.

Apple chief executive Steve Jobs underwent a liver transplant earlier this year, according to a report in the Wall Street Journal.

Jobs - who survived pancreatic cancer in 2004 - has been on medical leave from Apple since January in an attempt to cope with "complex" but undisclosed health problems. According to the company, he is due to return to day-to-day business at the Californian technology firm by the end of June.

But today the Wall Street Journal suggests that Jobs underwent a liver transplant two months ago at an American medical facility, and will most likely only return to part time duty in the short term.

Quoting information from unnamed sources, the Journal said the 54-year-old billionaire underwent the surgery in Tennessee and has been advised to scale back his commitments and "work part-time for a month or two". Apple has refused to confirm or deny the claim, saying only that he still intends to return to work by the end of the month.

Mrs Ethelston's Church of England Primary School, in Uplyme, Devon, prohibited photos and video filming, claiming it was due to changes in child protection and images legislation....

Jane Souter, who has a son at the school and is chair of the Parents Teachers and Friends Association, said: "It is a shame but that is the way it is all going now, you are not allowed to do a lot of things because of rules and regulations.

"A lot of the parents think it is a great shame. There are people who have been there for many, many years and they are upset about it, although they do not blame the school. ...

A spokesman for the Devon local education authority said: "It's a decision which individual head teachers come to, usually with consultation with governors."

I confront restrictions, too, and waivers (on rights) in the US.

Diversity is the key to economic and political evolution.