During the wide-ranging discussion the singer said that the child molestation charges brought against him were part of a vast conspiracy to discredit him, and had bought him to the lowest point in his life.

According to Thesmokinggun.com Jeff Weise, 16, sent the animated film under the title Target Practice and the name "regret" in October. Another, titled Clown, depicted a clown strangling a person.

Dolores Lasley, one of the tribal elders, mentioned racism and poverty. But her 14-year-old granddaughter, Aleisha Pemberton, interjected: "The schools should have more metal detectors, because of the school shootings."

Jeff Weise, 16, shot dead his grandfather, five teenagers, a teacher, and two other adults before turning the gun on himself. A dozen others were wounded, with two in a critical condition.

To the consumer, the difference between a packet of Apple Dippers and, say, the M&M McFlurry is little more than a few calories. As the picture of Ronald McDonald jogging on the packet suggests, it might also mark a subtle shift in the eating habits of an increasingly obese nation. But to the apple-growers of Yakima and elsewhere in Washington state - the most extensive apple-producing region in the US - it could mean a whole lot more.

"Apparently, he walked down the hallway shooting and then he entered a classroom, he shot several students and a teacher, then himself," said Roman Stately, of the Red Lake Fire Department, who arrived at the high school moments after the shots rang out.

Roberto Suro, the director of the independent Pew Hispanic centre which released the report, told Associated Press: "The border has been the focus of federal efforts [to cut illegal entry] and has not produced a reduction in flow. Certainly that's an indication of ongoing demand."

When Lawrence Tisch bought CBS in 1986 and announced plans to reduce spending on news by 10% and fire 215 editorial employees, Dan Rather, the broadcaster's star news anchor, criticised his new boss on the comment pages of the New York Times. For a week after the piece was published Rather finished each broadcast with the word "Courage". Rather finished his 24-year reign as one of the nation's three network news presenters this month with the same word. His departure marks the imminent end of an era. For the past two decades three men, Rather, Tom Brokaw and Peter Jennings, have dominated the three network news shows. Brokaw retired in December. Jennings, 66, is the last man sitting and most believe he will retire soon.

On April 18 2003, tens of thousands of Sunni and Shia protesters took to the streets of Baghdad to call for the Americans to leave Iraq. "You are the masters today," Ahmed al-Kubeisy, the prayer leader, told the Americans as he addressed the men emerging from Friday prayers. "But I warn you against thinking of staying. Get out before we kick you out."

According to US prosecutors Louis Eppolito, the author of Mafia Cop: The Story of an Honest Cop whose Family Was the Mob, and his former partner Stephen Caracappa were on the mafia payroll, using their police identities to work for the Luchese crime family.

Matthew Hale, the leader of a racist cult who was convicted last year of plotting to kill Judge Joan Lefkow, gave cryptic messages to his mother, Evelyn Hutcheson, and asked her to pass them on.

In the bystander's video the handcuffed Donovan Jackson, who is black, is seen being punched in the head by a white officer. He is then slammed into a patrol car.

The statement said that the procedure was a "recognised, occasional consequence of open heart surgery", and carried a low risk. It would keep Mr Clinton, 58, confined to bed for three to 10 days.

In recent months Chandler Fallaw had returned home from Shaumburg Christian school with disciplinary notes for showing off, offering his teacher chewing gum, not finishing his work and bringing toys into class.

In this mythic terrain Fred Phelps, of Topeka (pop 122,377), Kansas, fits in and stands out. He fits in because he is a homophobe who, like most of the country, including the Bush administration, uses the Bible as the source of his bigotry. He stands out because, unlike most of the country, he pursues his agenda with a vicious zeal and animus that not even the White House could match. When Mr Phelps attended the funeral of Matthew Shephard, a young man beaten to a pulp in a homophobic attack, or those of prominent HIV sufferers, he took his "God hates fags" picket signs with him.

Her address is not listed in the phone book. But you will find it posted in the chat forum on Stormfront.org, which boasts "White Pride, World Wide". It was placed there on January 8 2003 - the day that Matt Hale, a white supremacist, was charged with attempting to have Ms Lefkow murdered.

· In a country where SpongeBob Square Pants is regarded as a corrupting influence on the young and innocent, Ricardo Cortes's children's book, It's Just a Plant, was always going to be a risky proposition.

District judge Joan Lefkow, found her 64-year-old husband, Michael, and 90-year-old mother, Donna Grace Humphrey, lying in a pool of blood in her basement with single gunshot wounds to the head.

"The days of Britain having to apologise for its colonial history are over," he argued. "We should talk, and rightly so, about British values that are enduring, because they stand for some of the greatest ideas in history: tolerance, liberty, civic duty, that grew in Britain and influenced the rest of the world. Our strong traditions of fair play, of openness, of internationalism, these are great British values."

At the centre of the row before the supreme court are a 6ft red granite monument in Austin, Texas, and two framed copies of the commandments that have been hanging in two Kentucky courthouses for five years.