The 30-minute meeting Vatican audience was described by both sides as positive — constructive talks between two men who agree on helping the poor and pushing for Middle East peace but disagree on what the Vatican considers prime ethical issues. "It's a great honor," Obama said, greeting the Pope and thanking him for this first meeting.

Afterward, the Vatican said the leaders discussed immigration, the Middle East peace process and aid to developing nations. But the Vatican's statement also underscored the pair's deep disagreement on abortion. Even in his gift to the US leader, the Pope sought to underscore his beliefs. BENEDICT GAVE OBAMA A COPY OF A VATICAN DOCUMENT ON BIOETHICS that hardened the church's opposition to using embryos for stem cell research, cloning and in-vitro fertilization. Obama supports stem cell research.

"Yes, this is what we had talked about," Obama said, telling the Pope he would read it on the flight to his next stop, Ghana. Earlier, the Pope's secretary, the Reverend Georg Ganswein, told reporters the document would "HELP THE PRESIDENT BETTER UNDERSTAND THE POSITION OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH."

US President Barack Obama said the issue of food security was of huge importance to all nations in the world. Richer nations had a moral obligation to help poorer nations, he said. Mr Obama added that the G8 nations had agreed to commit $15bn for the new initiative going into Friday's meeting, but had then promised an additional $5bn in "hard commitments" during the talks.

"We do not view this assistance as an end in itself," he said. "We believe that the purpose of aid must be to create the conditions where it's no longer needed, to help people become self-sufficient, provide for their families and lift their standards of living."

"THEY KNOW THEY'RE GOING TO TAKE DOWN A LARGE NUMBER OF BANKS and they can't do it until they're staffed up," said Mark Dotzour, chief economist and director of research for the Real Estate Center at Texas A&M University. Dotzour expects federal regulators to establish an agency, similar to the Resolution Trust Corp that disposed of assets belonging to insolvent S&Ls in the late 1980s and early 1990s.

"Once they start to sell [foreclosed real estate], we'll find out what the market really is," Dotzour told attendees at an economic summit hosted by a handful of real estate groups in Tampa, Florida. Dotzour blamed federal intervention for the lack of commercial real estate investment activity in recent months, as well as the failure of businesses to make major decisions.

In the meantime, he compared the bad loans that remain on banks' books to a smelly cat litter box and the feds keep throwing more litter on top to mask the smell. But they'll eventually have to remove the organic material to fix the problem.

In fact, the 79-year-old Jackson family patriarch was dumbfounded when he learned his 50-year-old son was being rushed to the hospital after collapsing at home on June 25, he told ABC News' Chris Connelly in an exclusive interview at the Jackson family compound in Encino, Calif. "I just couldn't believe what was happening to Michael," he said.

"I do believe it was foul play," Jackson added. "I do believe that. Yes." Tune in to "Good Morning America" for more, and on "Primetime: Family Secrets" Tuesday, July 14. Speaking amid floral tributes to the late King of Pop, Joe Jackson said he wanted to know why Michael died so suddenly. He added that a second autopsy on his late son commissioned by the Jackson family has yet to reveal any answers.

Testifying before a congressional panel, Kohn sought to beat back a proposed bill that would open the US central bank's policy decisions to audits by a federal watchdog agency. More than half of the members of the US House of Representatives have signed as co-sponsors of the measure. "Any substantial erosion of the Federal Reserve's monetary independence likely would lead to higher long-term interest rates as investors begin to fear future inflation," Kohn told a House subcommittee.

Kohn's testimony comes as Congress debates President Barack Obama's plan for regulatory reform, which envisions the Fed taking on an expanded role monitoring risks across the entire financial system to help ward off future financial crises. The proposal has boosted calls for greater accountability at the central bank, which already faces heavy scrutiny from lawmakers troubled by its role in bailing out Wall Street.

Kohn said the administration's plan would not greatly expand the Fed's power, and said it would work hand-in-glove with monetary policy, not compromise it as some critics contend. Paul denied his bill was about Fed independence. "WE ARE NOT LOOKING TO THE CONGRESS TO RUN MONETARY POLICY. WE JUST WANT TO KNOW WHAT'S GOING ON, AND WHY," he told Kohn.

The Pacific had been in what is called a neutral state. But forecasters at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration say the sea surface temperature climbed to 1.8 degrees Fahrenheit above normal along a narrow band in the eastern equatorial Pacific in June. In addition, NOAA's Climate Prediction Center said temperatures in other tropical regions are also above normal, with warmer than usual readings as much as 975 feet below the ocean surface.

In general, El Nino conditions are associated with INCREASED RAINFALL ACROSS THE EAST-CENTRAL AND EASTERN PACIFIC AND WITH DRIER THAN NORMAL CONDITIONS OVER NORTHERN AUSTRALIA, INDONESIA AND THE PHILIPPINES. A summer El Nino can lead to wetter than normal conditions in the intermountain regions of the United States and over central Chile. In an El Nino year there tend to be more Eastern Pacific hurricanes and fewer Atlantic hurricanes. The forecasters said they expect this El Nino to continue strengthening over the next few months and to last through the winter of 2009-2010.

"Advanced climate science allows us to alert industries, governments and emergency managers about the weather conditions El Nino may bring so these can be factored into decision-making and ultimately protect life, property and the economy," NOAA Administrator Jane Lubchenco said in a statement.

National security adviser Uzi Arad, in comments to Haaretz newspaper, appeared to allude to what is widely believed to be Israel's own nuclear arsenal and a standing policy of "MUTUALLY ASSURED DESTRUCTION" (MAD). He warned other countries they could bring about their own devastation if they launched an attack. Israel has never confirmed it has atomic arms.

In excerpts on Haaretz's English-language website of an interview to be published on Friday, Arad said he feared that if Iran became a nuclear power, five or six other states in the Middle East would follow suit. He called such a prospect a "nightmare" for Israel. "The defensive might we have must be improved and become tremendously powerful, and create a situation in which no one will dare to realise the ability to harm us," Arad said.

"AND IF THEY DO DARE, WE WILL EXACT A FULL PRICE, SO THAT THEY TOO WILL NOT SURVIVE." Israel has three German-made submarines that are widely assumed to carry nuclear missiles. One of the submarines sailed from the Mediterranean, via the Suez Canal, to Israel's Red Sea port of Eilat last week, in what officials called a signal to Iran of the long reach of its arsenal.

It is unclear where or when the latest deaths linked to swine flu occurred - reports on Wednesday put the total at seven. Of the 14 deaths, 12 occurred in England. There are currently 335 people in hospital in England with swine flu of which 43 are in critical care, he added. The UK now has the third highest number of cases of swine flu in the world after the US and Mexico.

However, Sir Liam admitted it was unknown how many people in the UK were truly suffering from the virus as many people would be treating themselves at home rather than contacting their GP. Justin McCracken, chief executive of the Health Protection Agency (HPC), said the organisation would not be releasing information about individual deaths, adding that it was a local decision in each case whether to release details of where and who the victims were.

Sir Liam said the latest data from 100 GP surgeries around England showed that about 27,000 people per week were being diagnosed by their doctor as having a flu-like illness. Of these, an estimated 8,000 will have swine flu.

Imagine how wonderful the world would be if man-made global warming were just a figment of Al Gore's imagination. No more ugly wind farms to darken our sunlit uplands. No more whopping electricity bills, artificially inflated by EU-imposed carbon taxes. No longer any need to treat each warm, sunny day as though it were some terrible harbinger of ecological doom. AND DEFINITELY NO NEED FOR THE $7.4 TRILLION CAP AND TRADE (CARBON-TRADING) BILL — THE LARGEST TAX IN AMERICAN HISTORY — which President Obama and his cohorts are so assiduously trying to impose on the US economy.

Imagine no more, for your fairy godmother is here. His name is Ian Plimer, Professor of Mining Geology at Adelaide University, and he has recently published the landmark book Heaven And Earth, which is going to change forever the way we think about climate change.

'The hypothesis that human activity can create global warming is extraordinary because it IS CONTRARY TO VALIDATED KNOWLEDGE FROM SOLAR PHYSICS, ASTRONOMY, HISTORY, ARCHAEOLOGY AND GEOLOGY,' says Plimer, and while his thesis is not new, you're unlikely to have heard it expressed with quite such vigour, certitude or wide-ranging scientific authority. Where fellow sceptics like Bjorn Lomborg or Lord Lawson of Blaby are prepared cautiously to endorse the International Panel on Climate Change's (IPCC) more modest predictions, Plimer will cede no ground whatsoever. ANTHROPOGENIC GLOBAL WARMING (AGW) THEORY, HE ARGUES, IS THE BIGGEST, MOST DANGEROUS AND RUINOUSLY EXPENSIVE CON TRICK IN HISTORY.

State officials said today's attacks meant both private and official websites were either blocked or difficult to access. One official said seven South Korean websites are affected and follow another two attacks earlier this week. But officials said the third attack was bigger than predicted with the Parliament, the Defence Ministry, the Foreign Ministry and the National Intelligence Service websites affected.

Ku Kyo-young from the state-run Korea Communications Commission said some are still working normally despite the attacks by hackers who have planted the viruses in thousands of personal computers in South Korea and overseas. Earlier today, the country's leading computer security company warned that another wave of cyber attacks was expected later in the day.

It is believed sites owned by the White House, the US Defence and Treasury Departments and the Secret Service were targeted earlier this week. The earlier attacks had crippled 14 major US sites. Many of the sites targeted either crashed or slowed to a crawl. Most had regained service but others remained unstable or inaccessible. 'THIS IS NOT A SIMPLE ATTACK BY AN INDIVIDUAL HACKER, BUT APPEARS TO BE THOROUGHLY PLANNED AND EXECUTED BY A SPECIFIC ORGANISATION OR ON A STATE LEVEL,' South Korea's spy agency said yesterday.

The Federal Reserve Transparency Act of 2009, put forward by Republican Representative Ron Paul of Texas, now has 250 co-sponsors in the House. It will get air-time on Thursday during a congressional hearing on Fed independence that will feature testimony from the Fed's No 2 official, Donald Kohn.

PUBLIC ANGER OVER THE TRILLION DOLLARS THE FED HAS PUT INTO PLAY to battle the financial crisis and bail out investment bank Bear Stearns and insurer American International Group has created a backlash and calls for more accountability. A proposal from President Barack Obama to put the Fed in charge of monitoring risks to the entire financial system has intensified the scrutiny.

Paul has tapped into this anger and put forward a 2 1/2 page bill that would explicitly repeal a provision of law that prohibits the Government Accountability Office, a government watchdog agency, from auditing monetary policy decisions. Fed officials see this as a dangerous intrusion on their independence that could hinder their ability to make the best long-term decisions for the economy.

Paul, however, thinks Congress needs more control. "Why should they be independent? INDEPENDENCE TO THEM MEANS SECRECY, DO WHATEVER THEY WANT, SPEND BILLIONS OF DOLLARS, BAIL OUT THEIR FRIENDS," Paul told Reuters Television. The Fed, for its part, is taking Paul very seriously.

What these mysterious vibrations say about future earthquakes is far from certain. But some think the deep tremors SUGGEST UNDERGROUND STRESS MAY BE BUILDING UP FASTER THAN EXPECTED and may indicate an increased risk of a major temblor. Researchers at the University of California, Berkeley, monitored seismic activity on the fault's central section between July 2001 and February 2009 and recorded more than 2,000 tremors. The tremors lasted mere minutes to nearly half an hour.

UNLIKE EARTHQUAKES, TREMORS OCCUR DEEPER BELOW THE SURFACE AND THE SHAKING LASTS LONGER. During the study period, two strong earthquakes hit a magnitude 6.5 in 2003 and a magnitude 6.0 a year later. Scientists noticed the frequency of the tremors doubled after the 2003 quake and jumped six-fold after 2004.

Tremor episodes persist today. Though the frequency of tremors have declined since 2004, scientists are still concerned because they are still at a level that is twice as high as before the 2003 quake. The team also recorded unusually strong rumblings days before the 2004 temblor.

China's vehicle sales in June rose to 1.14 million, the second-highest month to date after April's 1.15 million units, the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers said. Passenger car sales hit a monthly record of 872,900 units.

Total sales for the first half of the year rose to 6.1 million, up 17.7 percent from a year earlier, the industry group said. That outpaced the United States, where passenger car sales in the same period plunged to 4.8 million amid an economic slump. China's auto sales weakened in late 2008 as the global financial crisis hit but rebounded after Beijing launched a stimulus package with sales tax cuts, subsidies to trade in older cars and other incentives.

Global automakers are looking to China to help drive revenues as they struggle with falling demand in North American and other markets. China surpassed US auto sales for five of the past six months. The United States pulled ahead temporarily in May before dropping back with 859,847 cars sold in June. Analysts expect China's sales this year to top 10 million vehicles, while one Chinese industry group says the total could exceed 11 million.

The date is set. The second referendum in Ireland on the European Union's Lisbon Treaty will take place on Oct. 2, the government in Dublin announced Wednesday. Prime Minister Brian Cowen said that he was confident that voters would approve the treaty this time around. Last year, Irish voters' rejection of the treaty plunged the EU into a deep state of crisis.

Lisbon can only go into effect once it has been ratified by all 27 member states. Outside of Ireland, the treaty still hasn't been ratified by Germany, Poland and the Czech Republic.

In Germany, the country's highest court ruled last week that before the treaty could be adopted, a NEW LAW WOULD HAVE TO BE PASSED IN BERLIN STIPULATING A FAR GREATER ROLE FOR THE FEDERAL PARLIAMENT AND UPPER LEGISLATIVE CHAMBER IN BRUSSELS DECISION-MAKING. The German government has said it plans to draft and pass the required legislation prior to the German general election scheduled for September 27.

At the moment it plans to spend £125bn, but it can increase that by £25bn without asking the Treasury. At the current rate of spending, the £125bn will all have been spent in the next two weeks. Taking on the extra £25bn would allow the Bank's Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) to see the next set of quarterly economic forecasts before it decides whether to ask the Treasury to extend the scheme further.

Investec economist Philip Shaw said he expected that the Bank would spend the extra £25bn - as well as asking permission to print more money. But he said it was "early days" to judge whether quantitative easing was proving effective. "WE ARE WAITING FOR THE BANKS TO START LENDING BUT THERE ARE VERY FEW SIGNS THAT HAS HAPPENED SO FAR."