Believe it or not, there is a war being waged against an American invader all across Britain -- the gray squirrels. British scientists and wildlife groups are urgently trying to control the aggressive expansion of the American gray squirrels -- which pose as a threat to the British

red squirrels -- from destroying habitats and spreading diseases any further. Because of the desperate situation, the government and wildlife groups have resorted to a full arsenal of people to help distinguish further harm. Trappers and hunters, scientists, Prince Charles and even chefs -- with squirrel recipes -- have campaigned in opposition to the grays.

Volunteer spotters have been enlisted to help keep a look out for the harmful invaders while sanctuaries have been created for the red squirrels.

"We must act," said Michael Russell, Scotland's environment minister, who announced a three-year, $2.16 million program to help stop the grays. The red is now endangered. We have only a short time to save the reds squirrel from the brink of extinction," he adds.

According to Rachel Walton, a wildlife officer with Save Our Squirrels (SoS) the red squirrels will completely disappear in 10 to 15 years. SoS is one of more than tens of groups who have pledged to fight and are supported by Prince Charles.

"We've got to be very aggressive in protecting them," she says. "We don't have much time left." Many British put the blame on their ancestors for this. The chairman of the London-based European Squirrel Initiative, Miles Barne, informs

that the Victorians were the ones who brought the American gray species to England in 1876. Subsequently, the Scots brought them over as a novelty. The Victorians thought they would be a nice addition to their forests," says Barne. "[however] They're great big bully boys. Reds are different. The red is a nervous creature and becomes terrorized by their (grays') aggression."

As an example of what kind of tarnish the grays cause for their red relatives, gray squirrels wins out the competition for food and habitat. They can eat unripe nuts and berries; however, the red squirrels cannot until the nuts and berries are fully ripe; thus, very little food is left for the reds which leads to starvation for most red squirrels.

What's most threatening is the pox disease that the gray squirrels carry. The pox disease doesn't harm the gray squirrels but is downright lethal for the reds. The disease alone has wiped out the red population in southern and central England which leaves reds remaining in the counties that border along Scotland and in Scotland itself.

In estimation by the SoS, the red population has drastically been driven down to about 120,000, which 75% of them are in Scotland. The grays' population number 2.5 million to 5 million. Walton informs that scientists are working on a vaccine for the red squirrels against the pox disease. In addition, a contraceptive is being developed as a bait for the gray squirrels to suspend their breeding. However, Walton also raises the doubt that this could "be tricky" as the reds could also fall for the bait as well.

"We're not advocating a massive cull across Britain, only in areas or buffer zones where there are reds," says Walton. An owner of the Otterton Mill restaurant in Devon, Simon Spiller, has added gray squirrel to his menu in order to raise awareness for the extremity of the red squirrels and also to reintroduce Britons to squirrel meat.

"It's halfway between wild boar and pheasant," says Spiller of the taste. "it's got lower at and higher mineral content. It's also affordable." Spiller has influenced other chefs to follow with squirrel recipes, even convincing celebrity British chef, Heston Blumenthal into creating squirrel recipes for his TV series next season. The red squirrels is a beloved animal for the Britons as its image has been included in a famous Beatrix Potter children's book, The Tale of Squirrel Nutkin in 1903.

"There's more at stake in protecting the red than just holding onto an animal that has been here since the Ice Age," says Walton. "We'd be losing an icon."

The UN: Dispute Over Homosexuality Laws

More than 60 countries at the United Nations have disputed for homosexuality to be decriminalised and have signed a declaration -- put forth by France and the Netherlands -- demanding to put an end to legal punishment based on sexual orientation.

However, out of the UN's 192 members of states, 60 countries, including some Arab and African states, have refused the non-binding resolution.

These states have said that laws on homosexuality should be left to individual countries.

Gay men, lesbians and transsexuals worldwide face daily violations of their human rights. In more than 80 countries across the globe, many homosexuals face criminal offenses while in several nations, including Saudi Arabia, sex between men can result in a death penalty.

Because December marks the 60th anniversary of the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the French and Dutch have proposed the newest declaration to highlight discrimination against homosexuals.

Maxime Verhagen, the Dutch Foreign Minister, claimed that it is a significant declaration.

Nonetheless, a strong opposition still stands in the UN against the support for homosexuals. On behalf of the 60-plus countries who oppose the French/Dutch proposition, Syria argued that domestic laws must be respected, and claimed that the declaration could justify unforgivable acts including paedophilia.

The United States, on the other hand, was the only major Western nation that hasn't signed the declaration.

Despite the fact that the states cannot make criminality of homosexuality -- as ruled by the US Supreme Court -- diplomats have claimed that the declaration was ill-suited with the division between state and federal law.

Even without the signing of the US, France and the Netherlands and for those around the world who support the declaration continue to hope for more countries to join the proposition in the future.

Studies have shown that one in three Spaniards still pass along genes of their country's Jews and Muslims, who were forced into converting to Christianity or to leave the country at the end of the 15th century and during the century that followed.

From the studies by scientists of several European universities, 1 in 10 Spanish men carry North African, and possibly Moorish, blood -- by evidence of their DNA. That fraction nearly increased twofold when scientists tested for DNA evidence that even suggested Sephardi ancestors. Sephardis were Jews that had family origins in the Iberian Peninsula. The entire research has brought a new look on considerably one of the more sour times in the history of the Iberian Peninsula, where the region entered a period of religious oppression.

"These proportions test to a high level of religious conversion (whether voluntary or enforced), driven by historical episodes of social and religious intolerance," explains the scientists in the American Journal of Human Genetics.

In 1492, with orders from Queen Isabella and King Ferdinand, Spain's Jews were given orders to leave the country for good if the Jews chose not to convert to Christianity. The Spanish Inquisition imposed very close probing and study on those who converted with the aim of hunting out secret Jews. Apparently, many of the targeted Jews and Moors optioned for staying in the country and converting to Christianity.

Until today, a secret community existed in the Portuguese town of Belmonte. As part of the pan-Iberian study, Portugal also drove out its Jews following Spain. However, the research led to a miniscule number of converted Spanish Muslims who remained behind, even after they were ordered to leave in 1609.

The research was conducted by a team led by Professor Mark Jobling of Leicester University and Fancesc Calafell of the the Pompeu Fraba University in Barcelona.

"An unexpected result was that we found more North African influence in the West then in the East of the peninsula," said Elena Bosch, of Spain's Pompeu Fabra university.

It was suggested that the prominence of the Moorish influence held on and strongly survived in the areas that were to be re-conquered by Christians throughout the seven centuries where Spain was divided between Christian and Muslim kingdoms. The findings revealed more conversions and cross-marriages amongst those Muslims who lived in Christian kingdoms.

Scientists and researchers suggested that the findings of the number of increased conversions and cross-marriages implied the imposed movement of Muslims from the south-Eastern region of Granada when the last Moorish kingdom was conquered in 1492.

The team's research was all based on the analyses of the Y chromosomes of Sephardic Jewish communities where Jews relocated after facing expulsion from Spain during the 1490's. Furthermore, the team also characterised the Y chromosomes of the Berber and Arab army that invaded Spain in 711 AD based on statistical information on people currently living in Morocco and the Western Sahara. Afterward, the scientists made comparisons between these Y chromosomes with at least a thousand men living in Spain and Portugal. There is a great significance in using the Y chromosome, for it always remains everlasting or unchangeable as it is passed on from father to son. With this approach, the researchers are able to prove if a man's Y chromosome came from a Moorish or Jewish predecessor of from another source.