With the leaders from the Group of 20 nations set to meet next week in Pittsburgh, Obama said in his weekly address on the radio and Internet that international cooperation has "stopped our economic freefall. We know we still have a lot to do, in conjunction with nations around the world, to strengthen the rules governing financial markets and ensure that we never again find ourselves in the precarious situation we found ourselves in just one year ago," Obama said.

The administration has proposed an overhaul of US financial regulations including oversight of the systemic risk large financial institutions pose to the economy, new ways for the government to dismantle failed companies and a regulator to oversee financial products for consumers. Obama reiterated his calls for Congress to act on his regulatory proposals, which he also made in a speech on Wall Street September 13.

"As I told leaders of our financial community in New York City earlier this week, a return to normalcy can't breed complacency," Obama said in today's address. "Our government needs to fundamentally reform the rules governing financial firms and markets to meet the challenges of the 21st century."

The disclosure will provoke concerns that health officials will not be able to stem the growth of the worldwide H1N1 pandemic in developing countries. IF THE VIRUS TAKES HOLD in the poorest nations, millions could die and the economies of fragile countries could be destroyed. Gregory Hartl of WHO said the report required an urgent response from rich nations. "There needs to be recognition that the whole world is affected by this pandemic and the chain is only as strong as its weakest link. We have seen how H1N1 has taken hold in richer nations and in the southern hemisphere. We have been given fair warning and must act soon," he said.

It paints a disastrous picture for the world's most vulnerable people unless there is immediate action. "Countries where health services are overburdened by diseases, such as HIV/Aids, tuberculosis and malaria, will have great difficulty managing the surge of cases. And if the electricity and water sectors are not able to maintain services, this will have serious implications for the ability of the health sector to function.

"If suppliers of fuel, food, telecommunications, finance or transport services have not developed plans as to how they would continue to deliver their services, the consequences could be significantly intensified," it adds.

They said INTERNATIONAL MARKETS COULD REFUSE TO BUY GOVERNMENT DEBT, warning the 'possibility of failed auctions is not trivial'. Shadow Chancellor George Osborne described the report as a 'wake-up call' and warned BRITAIN'S 'INTERNATIONAL REPUTATION' WAS AT STAKE. The alert came as Chancellor Alistair Darling was accused of planning to sweep £32billion of debt out of public view.

Former Treasury adviser David Heald claimed there was a £32billion gap between published government figures on debt and internal assessments. He told the magazine Accountancy Age that 87 per cent of public/private partnerships and private finance initiatives would be left off the Government's books.

Tory Treasury spokesman Philip Hammond said: 'Yet again, Labour is taking the public for fools. If they can't be straight about the scale of the problem, how will they ever solve Britain's debt crisis?' A Treasury spokesman said it was the decision of the Office of National Statistics which figures were publicly available.

China has recently signaled its key aspirations: for a greater international role for the renminbi and for Shanghai to become a great financial capital. Neither is imminent, but both imply, if not require, a series of steps that, taken in combination with China's legitimately great potential for growth, COULD LEAD TO A BUBBLE OF MAGNIFICENT AND DANGEROUS PROPORTIONS.

Magnificent in that, like the dotcom bubble or the railroad boom in the US in the 19th century, a bubble in domestic China is directionally right and will build useful things which will change the world. A bubble, after all, needs a good story and China has one of the best ever.

Dangerous because, like the housing bubble, it will inevitably go too far and could take down banks and banking systems globally. Given the size of the opportunity and the strength of the story, CHINA'S BUBBLE WILL BE HUGE. Investors would do well to avoid being in the immediate vicinity when it bursts.

The Netherlands' largest newspaper called it the "trial of the century." It will begin on January 20, two months before municipal elections in which Wilders's Freedom party is involved. "I find it horrible that I'm prosecuted" Wilders said. "This is a political trial, and it's sad that I'm PROSECUTED AS A CRIMINAL FOR ONLY VOICING MY POLITICAL OPINIONS. I hope free speech will prevail. I am convinced that the trial can only lead to my acquittal."

The charges of the use of hate speech include Wilders's charging US President Barack Obama with "CLOSING HIS EYES TO THE GREAT DANGERS OF ISLAMISATION" and comparing the President with Neville Chamberlain, the former British Prime Minister. Chamberlain is remembered for his appeasement policy that culminated with his signing an agreement with Hitler and Italy's Benito Mussolini in 1938, allowing the Nazi dictator and murderer to annex Sudetenland, Czechoslovakia. The following year, Chamberlain declared war on Germany after Hitler invaded [Poland].

Wilders defended his analogy concerning President Obama, saying at the time, "It is a tough comparison, but he is pursuing a dangerous, naïve and irresponsible policy." Wilders catapulted into the international limelight in 2008 with his 15-minute movie called "Fitna," which depicts Islam and its prophet Mohammed as encouraging hate and terror. The film set off violent riots in the Muslim world, and he was subjected to several death threats.

The Stop Islamization of America (SIOA) group has declared its mission to be educating Americans "ABOUT THE THREAT THAT ISLAMIC DOCTRINE AND THOSE WHO SUPPORT IT PRESENT TO OUR FREEDOMS, AND THE FUTURE OF OUR DEMOCRACY AND COUNTRY." The organizers call themselves "scholar warriors/ideological warriors in the cause of American freedom and Constitutional government," as well as in "the defence of... our society of liberty, knowledge, and human decency."

SIOA believes that political ISLAM IS OPPOSED TO AMERICAN VALUES OF "FREEDOM, TOLERANCE, OR HUMAN RIGHTS." They seek to raise the issue of what they call "brutal, misogynist" Islamic law and jihad in America, because "tolerance for ideologies that are opposed to our principles of individual freedoms and our Constitution is indefensible," the group declares in its online manifesto. A recently-released film, The Third Jihad, warns that radical Islam is working on a non-violent, cultural takeover of the United States.

"We are now in a new phase of a 1,400-year-old jihad against the kafirs (all non-Muslims everywhere); we are not prepared to meet the threat," SIOA says. "IGNORANCE ABOUT ISLAM, ITS DOCTRINE AND PURPOSES IS A MORAL AND ETHICAL FAILURE WHOSE CONSEQUENCES CAN BE NOTHING SHORT OF NATIONAL EXTINCTION." The official launch of the SIOA is slated for September 25, 2009, at an as-yet unknown venue in the US capital. The timing and location appears to be far from coincidental. A MASSIVE MUSLIM PRAYER GATHERING IS PLANNED FOR THE SAME DAY in front of the Capitol building. Organizers are expecting 50,000 people to attend.

That has helped drive Britain's overall jobless total up by 210,000 in the three months to July. The new total of 2.47million is the highest in 14 years. The unemployment rate has jumped to 7.9 per cent from 5.6 per cent a year ago. The figures lay bare the toll exacted by the recession. Only a few groups are seeing rising employment levels, including public sector and foreign-born workers and people of retirement age, yesterday's Office for National Statistics report showed.

David Blanchflower, a former Bank of England official and labour market specialist, said the current generation of school and university leavers is the largest for 20 years, making the recession doubly harmful. 'There has been a huge increase in youth unemployment. We need to prevent a lost generation of young individuals who are not being given a chance.' Yesterday's ONS report showed that a record 19.7 per cent of young people are out of work in Britain. Another 34.6 per cent, or 2.55million, are classified as 'inactive'.

FOREIGN-BORN WORKERS ARE CONTINUING TO WIN JOBS WHILE THE REST OF THE POPULATION SUFERS FROM THE UNEMPLOYMENT CRISIS. The Office for National Statistics reported that employment among non-UK born individuals INCREASED BY 22,000 TO 3.7 MILLION in the second quarter. But Home Secretary Alan Johnson RULED OUT A CAP ON IMMIGRATION THIS SUMMER, SAYING THIS WOULD DAMAGE THE ECONOMY!

That is to say that Nelson Piquet Jr, son of the eponymous three-times world champion, a young man desperate to make his mark on the sport and yet struggling to keep up with its demands, WAS TOLD TO HAVE AN "ACCIDENT" at the Singapore Grand Prix last September.

As a result of his crash, Piquet's team-mate, Fernando Alonso, was able to win a race he would otherwise have not, taking advantage of the safety procedures that are laid down in Formula One. Piquet was sacked by his team in July for his failure to bring in the results they wanted and turned whistleblower. After the usual bluster and cover-up, Renault — the company, not the Formula One team — has made its move. IT WILL OFFER NO DEFENCE TO THE CHARGES and has parted company with the team principal, Flavio Briatore, and his No 2, Pat Symonds.

THIS EXAMPLE OF CHEATING PASSES ALL ITS SINGLE-EVENT PREDECESSORS. The potentially lethal consequences of this act were beyond anyone's control. What we must now ask is whether this is an isolated example of a total loss of perspective, or whether it is a straw that shows which way the winds of sport are blowing.

The sale will allow the bank to "derecognise the assets", shielding it from any further fall in their "mark-to-market" value. Instead, Barclays will use a different accounting treatment to take "a longer term view" that will provide "a boost to its capital strength by punting the issue into the long grass", Ian Gordon, banks analyst at Exane BNP Paribas, said.

Simon Maughan, analyst at MF Global Securities, described it as a way for Barclays to "wriggle free from its toxic assets". Barclays has a core tier one capital ratio of 8.8pc, which Mr Gordon said was expected to be under pressure as the assets face further mark downs. Barclays' clever accounting comes at a time of failing trust in the banks and politicians claimed the move would not help restore it. John McFall, chairman of the Treasury Select Committee, said: "This is short-circuiting the transparency that is required in the market at the moment. Is it banking by sleight of hand?"

The deal also promises to make 45 former investment bankers at Barclays Capital very rich. They have resigned to join Protium, which will charge Barclays a $40m annual management fee, including office costs. The bank stressed that no leaver will receive a severance payment. Protium hopes to repeat the deal with other banks.

The Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, told bankers to repent over their mistakes, as he fears the City is getting back to "business as normal. There hasn't been what I would, as a Christian, call repentance," the Archbishop told the BBC. "We haven't heard people saying 'well actually, no, we got it wrong and the whole fundamental principle on which we worked was unreal, was empty'."

He also warned the gap between rich and poor would lead to a "dysfunctional" society and that "economics is too important to be left to economists". Dr Williams also said he believed the government should act to cap bonus payments. The Archbishop of Wales, Dr Barry Morgan, added to the criticism. He said that the fallout from the crisis could put morality back at the centre of public life.

In a speech to members of the Governing Body of the Church in Wales, Dr Morgan said he believes global recession may have caused sentiment to turn. He called for the church to ask congregations to force morality back on the agenda. The Archbishop argued that communities and trust in public institutions had been damaged by policies focusing on market forces.

Peter Kendall, the NFU president, told me that the cheap food sold in supermarkets was "morally questionable". Meanwhile, Sir Stuart Hampson, the then-John Lewis boss and author of a report on farming, said that A SUSTAINABLE UK RURAL ECONOMY WAS "CLOSE TO BEING LOST FOREVER". It was bleak stuff. So two years on, how have things changed? Food prices in shops saw a sustained period of inflation over the last year - surely a good thing for farmers? - and we are hearing less about farmers' plights than we were back then. Are they finally happy?

Sadly, no. In fact, THINGS ARE WORSE THAN THEY WERE TWO YEARS AGO. Prices to farmers are actually falling and input costs - fertilizer, fuel, feed - are rising. On top of this farms are HAVING TO DEAL WITH EVER-GREATER REAMS OF RED TAPE. They are still closing at an alarming rate. In his newsletter to members this month, Mr Kendall of the NFU said the following: "With prices of agricultural produce around the world continuing to fall for most sectors, coupled with the high costs of many inputs, we will all use whatever time we have available to look at what production is viable for the coming year." Hardly encouraging words.

Dairy farmers are on their knees. "It's a dead industry," the chairman of the Royal Association of British Dairy Farmers told The Grocer magazine this week. The collapse earlier this year of Dairy Farmers of Britain - one of the UK's three co-operatives - and a slump in the milk price have killed off many farms. The result is that production in the UK is at its lowest for decades.

Farmers talk of a "dire" situation today. A recurring (if not new) issue is that farmers' customers - the all-powerful retailers - constantly squeeze them on price. "Our margins are so so skinny. THE SUPERMARKETS' MARGINS ARE 30-40PC, BUT OURS ARE PENCE," one farmer tells me. Something is wrong in the food chain, they argue. Producers - be they wheat farmers, strawberry growers, or dairy farmers - take all the risk, pay for the production, the packaging, (in most cases) the distribution, and often the marketing but get very little in return.

We all need to get real. For a sustainable, safe, secure food chain in the UK three things need to happen. Firstly we - consumers and retailers - need to pay more for what is on our plates. Secondly farmers need to act collectively and with more business nous. And thirdly, red tape must be cut.

What makes the issue particularly difficult is that MANY OF THE EVENTS CATASTROPHIC ENOUGH TO CAUSE A MAJOR CRISIS - known as "fat tail risks" or as "Black Swans" by trader and author Nassim Nicholas Taleb - COME FROM OUTSIDE THE REALM OF FINANCE. To be able to forecast what the next global shock will be, we need to be able to make predictions about geopolitics, war, terrorism, extreme weather events, earthquakes and pandemics.

In their book this year on fat tail risks, Ian Bremmer and Preston Keat of political risk consultancy Eurasia Group noted that they pose fundamental problems for accurate prediction. Fat tails, they wrote, "represent the risk that a particular event will occur that appears so catastrophically damaging, unlikely to happen, and difficult to predict, that many of us choose simply to ignore it. Until it happens."

A growing body of theory and evidence suggests that making accurate forecasts about rare catastrophic events is inherently impossible. But it also suggests a practical solution to mitigate the dangers - detailed scenario-planning by imaginative analysts who do not cling too tightly to mathematical models of reality.

"In fact, when considering the military-modernization programs of countries like China, we should be concerned less with their potential ability to challenge the US symmetrically - fighter to fighter or ship to ship - and more with their ability TO DISRUPT OUR FREEDOM OF MOVEMENT AND NARROW OUR STRATEGIC OPTIONS," Gates said in a speech to the Air Force Association.

"Investments in cyber and anti-satellite warfare, anti-air and anti-ship weaponry, and ballistic missiles could threaten America's primary way to project power and help allies in the Pacific - in particular our forward air bases and carrier strike groups," Gates said in National Harbor, Maryland.

Defense analysts have warned that the US military will soon lose its dominance on the high seas, in space and in cyberspace as China and other emerging powers obtain sophisticated weaponry and missiles. The intelligence guidelines for the next four years also elevated the importance of the cyber domain, singling out China as "very aggressive in the cyberworld."

The governor sent a letter Wednesday to Brown, referring to "news stories regarding the ACORN organization that have concerned me greatly." ACORN stands for the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now. The group has come under fire after employees were caught on tape giving tax advice to conservative operatives posing as prostitutes and pimps.

The most recent video surfaced this week in San Bernardino and has been used extensively by Fox News and conservative websites. "You can hear on the tape, the ACORN worker offering advice as to how to lie, how to claim that the house is a business, not a brothel," KTKZ talk show host Eric Hogue said Wednesday on his radio broadcast in Sacramento. Callers weighed in, one saying, "It just makes me sick."

At ACORN's Sacramento offices on Florin Road, a worker who answered the door said she couldn't answer questions. Ronald Coleman, ACORN's legislative director in Sacramento, later confirmed that tax and mortgage services were being suspended for now.

"Positive identification of the attacker was made, and US forces fired in self-defence wounding the attacker," the army said in a statement. "Local Iraqi police secured the scene and transported the wounded attacker to a local hospital for medical care," it added. Dr Ali Hatam of Fallujah hospital confirmed that Mr Latif later died from gunshot wounds.

The incident came a day after the Iraqi television journalist, Muntazer al-Zaidi, was freed after spending nine months in jail for throwing his shoes at the former US president George W Bush during a visit to Baghdad last December.