Some say it is because the Opec cartel is unwilling to boost its supply levels. Others say it is because of fears about supplies from other countries such as Nigeria and Venezuela. But the truth is, it could be something completely different.

"It's the fundamentals," says Mark Lewis from Energy Market Consultants. The fundamentals are factors that influence the supply of, and demand for, oil. Things such as the increasing demand from China and India, as well as fears that a stand-off between the US and Iran could interrupt supplies, have been raising oil prices. Alternatively, financial factors may be at work, such as a hedge fund having to sell a particular oil contract so it does not end up receiving a tanker-load of oil - or a trader deciding it would be fun to be the first to trade oil above $100 a barrel.

So there appears to be a distinction between the factors that raise the oil price because they affect sentiment and the ones that genuinely affect supply and demand for oil. And it may be that rises due to the former are vulnerable. "It's like the dotcom boom in the 1990s," says Mr Lewis. "It was over inflated, but as LONG AS EVERYONE KEPT BELIEVING IN IT, THE PRICE WENT UP. When they stopped believing in it, the price went down. And that's a warning."

With the strike in its second day, worried motorists cleaned garages out of fuel, and SOME FOOD MARKETS HAVE ALSO STARTED RUNNING OUT OF PRODUCE. Catalan authorities are using their own tankers to re-supply garages. Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero has cancelled engagements to deal with the strike.

There was no agreement on Monday in talks between the government and representatives of Fenadismer, the transport association which says 90,000 self-employed lorry drivers have joined the strike. The union complains that the price of diesel has soared by more than 20% this year, and is calling for the government to enforce a minimum price for haulage, to prevent firms being undercut.

Another report said that SOME SUPERMARKETS HAVE ALREADY STARTED RUNNING OUT OF FOOD. A supermarket delivery lorry was attacked by pickets, and fresh food was running out. Queues were reported at supermarkets in Spain and in Portugal, where some lorry drivers have launched their own strike.

The BBC's Oana Lungescu in Ljubljana says they are expected to issue a joint warning to Tehran that more sanctions against Iran's banks are being readied. They are pressuring Iran to abandon its nuclear programme, rejecting claims it is solely for peaceful purposes.

MR BUSH'S TRIP IS EXPECTED TO BE HIS LAST EUROPE TOUR WHILE IN OFFICE. Mr Bush's week-long trip also takes him to Germany, Italy, France, the Vatican and the UK. The summit will also focus on Zimbabwe, calling for an end to state-sponsored violence and urging the UN secretary general to immediately send a team to monitor human rights, our correspondent says.

The warning of sanctions is a stick that Washington is keen to wield, but it is ready to give the carrot one more try, our correspondent says. EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana will go to Iran at the weekend with an upgraded offer of economic and political incentives. The UN Security Council has approved three rounds of sanctions against Iran.

Mr Bernanke gave his assessment of how the US economy was faring at a bankers' conference in Chatham, Massachusetts. He said that "the risk that the economy has entered a substantial downturn appears to have diminished over the past month or so".

He added that despite a recent rise in unemployment, which last month saw its biggest jump in 20 years, a series of reductions in interest rates in the last nine months combined with tax cuts had helped to offset the risks threatening the economy. Mr Bernanke did say, however, that rising energy prices - which saw the cost of oil hit a record high on Friday - risked pushing up inflation

Our correspondent says that there has been progress in repairing the credit markets that sparked the US housing slump, the Fed has made swinging interest rate cuts and the government is spending $168bn on top of tax rebates to help stimulate recovery. But last week's jump in unemployment rates and record fuel prices rocked already jittery markets, our correspondent says, and FOR THE AVERAGE AMERICAN, MR BERNANKE'S SOOTHING WORDS MAY SEEM HARD TO BELIEVE.

Hazel Blears, the Communities Secretary, defended Labour's policy on religion after a report backed by the Church of England claimed that MUSLIMS RECEIVE A DISPROPORTIONATE AMOUNT OF ATTENTION. She said it was right that more money and effort was spent on Islam than Christianity because of the threat from extremism and home-grown terrorism.

The Church of England bishop responsible for the report, the Rt Rev Stephen Lowe, Bishop for Urban Life and Faith, said afterwards: "She said we live in a secular democracy. That comes as news to me - WE HAVE AN ESTABLISHED CHURCH, BUT THE GOVERNMENT CAN'T DEAL WITH CHRISTIANITY."

As The Daily Telegraph reported on Saturday, the landmark report commissioned by the Church and written by academics at the Von Hugel Institute accuses ministers of paying ONLY "LIP SERVICE" TO CHRISTIANITY AND MARGINALISING THE ANGLICAN AND ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCHES, while focusing "intently" on Islam.

John Bolton, a former US ambassador to the UN who served under Ronald Reagan and George Bush senior, said the NEW TREATY COULD HURT THE MILITARY ALLIANCE BETWEEN EUROPE AND THE US. He was speaking only days before Ireland hold a referendum on the EU Treaty, the only member country to do so, with the latest polls showing the Yes campaign slightly ahead. The Treaty is also subject to a High Court challenge in London today (mon) and a vote in the House of Lords on Wednesday. Mr Bolton has previously WARNED THE DEAL THREATENS BRITAIN'S SPECIAL RELATIONSHIP WITH THE UNITED STATES and yesterday said he would not understand the Irish giving "more powers to bureaucrats."

Speaking before he delivered a speech on transatlantic relations at University College, Dublin, Mr Bolton warned the Treaty could "undercut" Nato, something that would be a "huge mistake". HE ARGUED THAT IF THE EU HAS ITS OWN MILITARY CAPABILITY, PEOPLE WILL THINK NATO IS REDUNDANT AND EUROPE "CAN TAKE CARE OF THEIR OWN DEFENCE".

A Global Vison/ICM poll published yesterday found 64 per cent of Britons would back a renegotiated looser relationship with the EU in a referendum, against 26 per cent who would oppose it. Gordon Brown's attempts to avert an EU referendum have suffered a severe setback after 88 PER CENT OF VOTERS DEMANDED A NATIONAL BALLOT in the biggest test of public opinion yet held on the issue.

HE SAYS HIS COUNTRY HAS BEEN TURNED INTO A "PANTOMIME VILLAIN" BY BRITONS WHO DENY IT HAS ANY RIGHT TO EXIST, while terror attacks on Israeli citizens are ignored by both the media and public opinion. Mr Prosor, a senior diplomat who became Israel's ambassador to Britain last year, is particularly scornful of the academics who want to boycott Israeli universities over the country's treatment of Palestinians.

He was a spokesman for the Israeli Embassy in London between 1995 and 1998, and says while living here he came to appreciate the country's reputation for cherishing liberty and human rights, earned following its fight against the "dark forces" of the Nazis in World War Two. But he says he has been "dismayed" by what he has seen since returning to the country in November.

In 2007 members of the University and College Union (UCU) voted to sever links with Israeli universities in a move which provoked outrage from politicians and academics around the world, and prompted Jewish leaders to condemn it as a "frightening assault" on academic freedom.

As a billionaire who had made his name and fortune steering the Texas oil riches of Fort Worth's Bass family into lucrative non-energy investments like Disney stock, Rainwater had the wherewithal to act on his conviction. So he plunked down about $300 million of his own money on energy-company stocks and oil and gas futures. Rainwater's energy bet came to look like one of the better investment calls of our time. It has netted him about $2 billion, vaulting him from the mid-200s on Forbes magazine's 1999 list of the 400 richest Americans to No. 91 last summer (with $3.5 billion overall). Now he has sold everything!

This news, disclosed here for the first time, is a big deal. Lots of Wall Streeters - loudest among them the hedge-fund legend George Soros - HAVE BEEN WARNING LATELY THAT SPECULATION HAS INFLATED OIL PRICES INTO A SOON-TO-POP BUBBLE. But talk is cheap - this is something more. ONE OF THE BIGGEST OIL WINNERS OF THE PAST DECADE HAS DECIDED TO GET OUT.

All Rainwater expects is a "little lull" in energy prices; after that, "I will reload, and then I'll go off again." He is vague about what exactly would prompt this reload. "I'd like to re-enter at a good price, and I'd like to re-enter at a good time, and I'd like to make another couple billion dollars," he says.

That is because fares, especially on less crowded routes, are rising fast, and some flights may just disappear. Analysts say that for the airlines, the new pricing power is long overdue -- and CONSUMERS WILL JUST HAVE TO ACCEPT THAT CHEAPER AIR FARES HAVE DISAPPEARED FOR NOW. "THE DAYS OF AFFORDABLE FLYING ARE OVER FOR NOW, AND LEISURE TRAVEL COULD BECOME A LUXURY," said Vicki Bryan, a bond analyst at Gimme Credit.

Experts generally agree that U.S. airlines must cut capacity 20 percent and raise fares 20 percent just to stabilize. Lehman Brothers analyst Gary Chase said the U.S. airline industry is undertaking a restructuring twice as large as it did in the years following the attacks of September 11, 2001. In a recent note, Chase wrote that he expects the airline industry will need to raise almost $3 billion in new equity over the next 12 to 18 months to shore up liquidity.

Murphy added that major carriers will now focus on their hubs, international routes and business travelers. "For them, it's just hunker down and hold on and hope they can hold on to their cash longer than their competitors," said Murphy. "Most of them feel they have enough cash to get through the year but if fuel continues to climb and doesn't let up, even the major carriers at some point could run out of cash."

The pope usually receives heads of state in his private study in the Apostolic Palace, overlooking St Peter's Square. But Vatican spokesman Federico Lombardi said the change was to repay Bush for "the cordiality of the meeting at the White House" when the pope visited the United States in April.

St. John's Tower is a round structure on a hilltop inside the Vatican gardens that is sometimes used as a residence for important guests. After their private talks, Bush and the pope will stroll in the gardens to see a statue of the Madonna.

Bush will be in Rome from Wednesday to Friday as part of a trip to Slovenia, Germany, Italy, France and Britain.

At a meeting chaired by King Abdullah, the Saudi cabinet restated its view that the leap in prices that saw New York's benchmark contract hit a record 138.54 dollars on Friday was UNJUSTIFIED BY FUNDAMENTALS.

But it added that it had asked Oil Minister Ali al-Nuaimi to "convene a meeting soon of representatives of producer and consumer nations and firms operating in the production, export and trading of oil to discuss the jump in prices, its causes and how to deal with it objectively".

"Saudi Arabia ... has notified all oil companies with which it does business, as well as consumer nations, of its readiness to provide them with any additional quantities of oil they need," added the cabinet statement carried by the official SPA news agency.

The study, released Monday, says about 26 percent of New York City adults have genital herpes, compared to about 19 percent nationwide. The department says genital herpes can double a person's risk for contracting HIV. Herpes can cause painful sores, but most people have no recognizable symptoms. Among New Yorkers, the herpes rate is higher among women, black people and gay men.

According to a report in the Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper, vets were asked to treat an adult, female giraffe at Israel's largest zoo, the Safari Park in Ramat Gan. The team, led by Professor Zohar Amar, took a routine sample of milk and found that it clotted in the way required by Jewish law for kosher certification.

The giraffe belongs to the family of grazing animals that have CLOVEN HOOVES AND CHEW THE CUD, thereby making them consistent with kosher rules, but the milk test was the final confirmation. "Indeed, the giraffe is kosher for eating," Rabbi Shlomo Mahfoud, who accompanied the researchers in their work, said. "The giraffe has all the signs of a ritually pure animal, and the milk that forms curds strengthened that."

But Dr Yigal Horowitz, the zoo's chief vet, said this did not mean there would suddenly be a surge in demand of giraffe food products in Israel. "This does not mean that tomorrow we are going to drink giraffe milk or eat soup made from giraffe necks," he said. "After all, this is an animal in danger of extinction."

He is shown lying motionless in the street, ignored by bystanders and other drivers, who swerved to avoid his body but did nothing to help. The one-minute clip from a surveillance video has been made public in the hope of catching the unidentified driver but also to highlight the lack of humanity in modern-day America.

"At the end of the day we've got to look at ourselves and UNDERSTAND THAT OUR MORAL VALUES HAVE NOW CHANGED," said Police Chief Daryl Roberts. "WE HAVE NO REGARD FOR EACH OTHER."

The film shows nine cars driving past Mr Torres's prostrate body while several pedestrians stop and stare. ONE RIDER ON A MOPED EVEN CIRCLED HIM FOR A CLOSER LOOK BEFORE DECIDING TO DRIVE ON. He lay crumpled on the Tarmac without anyone rushing to his aid until a police car - reportedly responding to an unrelated call - arrived on the scene.

About 120 guests gathered at St. Paul's Church in New Hampshire for Saturday's ceremony for Bishop Gene Robinson and his partner of more than 19 years, Mark Andrew. THE EVENT WAS KEPT PRIVATE OUT OF RESPECT FOR NEXT MONTH'S WORLDWIDE ANGLICAN CONFERENCE, Robinson's spokesman, Mike Barwell, said on Sunday.

"It was absolutely joyful," Barwell said by telephone. "A lot of his supporters and friends were there, including many members of the gay and lesbian community." The 77 million-member Anglican Communion, a global federation of national churches, has been in upheaval since 2003 when the Episcopal Church consecrated Robinson as the first bishop known to be in an openly homosexual relationship in more than four centuries of church history.

The Episcopal Church is the U.S. branch of the worldwide Anglican Communion. Disputes over scriptural authority, the blessing of gay unions and other matters have become a worldwide issue and THREATEN TURMOIL THIS SUMMER WHEN ANGLICANS GATHER FOR THEIR ONCE-A-DECADE LAMBETH CONFERENCE IN BRITAIN.