Of course they are big. And they are expensive. The latest estimate is that the Royal Navy's two new carriers, HMSs Queen Elizabeth and Prince of Wales, will cost £5bn - 25% up on just a year ago.

But it is not just that. Perhaps more than any weapons except nuclear ones, AIRCRAFT CARRIERS TEND TO BE SEEN AS A STATEMENT OF HOW A COUNTRY VIEWS ITS MILITARY ROLE IN THE WORLD. And therein lies a lot of the controversy which seems to surround them. The £5bn price tag for the ships themselves is just the start. There is also the question of the aircraft that they are chiefly designed to carry - the Joint Strike Fighters for both the Navy and the RAF, which will cost some £12bn.

The letter, dated July 1 and copied to all G8 leaders, said interventions by central banks and governments appeared to have "broken the fall in the global economy" by stabilizing financial markets and boosting demand. "YET 2009 REMAINS A DANGEROUS YEAR. RECENT GAINS COULD BE REVERSED EASILY, and the pace of recovery in 2010 is far from certain," Zoellick wrote.

"I recognize that some developed countries are now considering a policy mix that assumes the recovery is at hand. But for the developing world, it is far too early to think of such measures." The G8 heads of government are expected to issue a statement on the situation of the world economy during their meeting in the central Italian city of L'Aquila, where financial regulation needs will be discussed alongside perspectives on the Middle East, Iran, North Korea and Somali piracy.

A copy of the letter was also sent to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, who said earlier on Monday in Geneva the global financial downturn has pushed as many as 90 million more people into extreme poverty worldwide.

Beijing says Uighurs went on the rampage but one exiled Uighur leader says police fired on students. The protest was reportedly prompted by a deadly fight between Uighurs and Han Chinese in southern China last month. The BBC's Chris Hogg in Shanghai says this is one of the most serious clashes between the authorities and demonstrators in China since Tiananmen Square in 1989.

Eyewitnesses said the violence started on Sunday in Urumqi after a protest of a few hundred people grew to more than 1,000. Xinhua says the protesters carried knives, bricks and batons, smashed cars and stores, and fought with security forces. Wu Nong, news director for the Xinjiang government, said more than 260 vehicles were attacked and more than 200 shops and houses damaged.

BBC China editor Shirong Chen says there has been ethnic tension in Xinjiang since before the founding of the People's Republic. Some of its Uighur population of about eight million want to break away from China and its majority Han Chinese population. The authorities say police are securing order across the region and anyone creating a disturbance will be detained and punished. However, our China editor says there may be questions asked about their inability to prevent a protest they knew about days in advance.

The deal commits the two countries to further cuts in their nuclear arsenals after the Soviet-era Start I accord expires in December. Both leaders have expressed the hope that Mr Obama's visit can help the two countries rebuild their strained ties.

Any attempt to construct a narrative around all the former Goldmanites in influential positions quickly becomes an absurd and pointless exercise, like trying to make a list of everything. What you need to know is the big picture: If America is circling the drain, Goldman Sachs has found a way to be that drain — an extremely unfortunate loophole in the system of Western democratic capitalism, which never foresaw that in a society governed passively by free markets and free elections, organized greed always defeats disorganized democracy.

They achieve this using the same playbook over and over again. The formula is relatively simple: Goldman positions itself in the middle of a speculative bubble, selling investments they know are crap. Then they hoover up vast sums from the middle and lower floors of society with the aid of a crippled and corrupt state that allows it to rewrite the rules in exchange for the relative pennies the bank throws at political patronage.

Finally, when it all goes bust, leaving millions of ordinary citizens broke and starving, they begin the entire process over again, RIDING IN TO RESCUE US ALL BY LENDING US BACK OUR OWN MONEY AT INTEREST, selling themselves as men above greed, just a bunch of really smart guys keeping the wheels greased. They've been pulling this same stunt over and over since the 1920s — and now they're preparing to do it again, creating what may be the biggest and most audacious bubble yet.

GOLDMAN SACHS REPLY - "We reject the assertion that we are inflators of bubbles and profiteers in busts, and we are painfully conscious of the importance in being a force for good." TAIBBI SHOT BACK: "Goldman has its alumni pushing its views from the pulpit of the US Treasury, the NYSE, the World Bank, and numerous other important posts; it also has former players fronting major TV shows. They have the ear of the president if they want it."

"Both the US and Israel are aware of the consequence of an erroneous decision," Broujerdi told reporters at the Iranian Embassy in Tokyo. "I BELIEVE OUR RESPONSE WILL BE REAL AND DECISIVE," Broujerdi said. He declined to elaborate. Israel fears Iran is developing nuclear weapons to target the Jewish state. Iran denies it is pursuing an atomic arsenal, saying it only wants to produce nuclear power.

Israel's government has said it would prefer to see Iran's nuclear program stopped through diplomacy, but that it cannot rule out a military strike. In an interview on ABC's "This Week" on Sunday, Biden was asked whether the US would stand in the way if Israel — viewing the prospect of an Iranian nuclear bomb as a threat to the existence of the Jewish state — decided to launch a military attack.

"Look, we cannot dictate to another sovereign nation what they can and cannot do," he said.

For 1,500 years, the Codex Sinaiticus lay undisturbed in a Sinai monastery, until it was found - or stolen, as the monks say - in 1844 and split between Egypt, Russia, Germany and Britain. Now these different parts are to be united online and, from next July, anyone, anywhere in the world with internet access will be able to view the complete text and read a translation. FOR THOSE WHO BELIEVE THE BIBLE IS THE INERRANT, UNALTERED WORD OF GOD, THERE WILL BE SOME VERY UNCOMFORTABLE QUESTIONS TO ANSWER. It shows there have been thousands of alterations to today's bible. The Codex, probably the oldest Bible we have, also has books which are missing from the Authorised Version that most Christians are familiar with today - and it does not have crucial verses relating to the Resurrection.

The fact this book has survived at all is a miracle. Before its discovery in the early 19th Century by the Indiana Jones of his day, it remained hidden in ST CATHERINE'S MONASTERY SINCE AT LEAST THE 4TH CENTURY. It survived because the desert air is ideal for preservation and because the monastery, on a Christian island in a Muslim sea, remained untouched, its walls unconquered.

Today, 30 mainly Greek Orthodox monks, dedicated to prayer, worship there, helped as in ages past by the Muslim Bedouin. For this place is holy to three great religions: Judaism, Christianity and Islam; a land where you can still see the Burning Bush where God spoke to Moses. The monastery itself has the greatest library of early manuscripts outside the Vatican - some 33,000, and a collection of icons second to none. Not surprisingly, it is now a World Heritage Site and has been called a veritable Ark, bringing spiritual treasures safely through the turbulent centuries. In many people's eyes the greatest treasure is the Codex, written around the time of the first Christian Emperor Constantine.

Many Christians have long accepted that, while the Bible is the authoritative word of God, it is not inerrant. Human hands always make mistakes. "It should be regarded as a living text, something constantly changing as generation and generation tries to understand the mind of God," says David Parker, a Christian working on digitising the Codex. OTHERS MAY TAKE IT AS MORE EVIDENCE THAT THE BIBLE IS THE WORD OF MAN, NOT GOD.

Fragments of the 4th Century document - written in Greek on parchment leaves - have been worked on by institutions in the UK, Germany, Egypt and Russia. Experts say it is "a window into the development of early Christianity".

Dr Scot McKendrick, head of Western manuscripts at the British Library, said the wide availability of the document presented many research opportunities. "The Codex Sinaiticus is one of the world's greatest written treasures," he said. "This 1,600-year-old manuscript offers a window into the development of early Christianity and first-hand evidence of how the text of the Bible was transmitted from generation to generation. The availability of the virtual manuscript for study by scholars around the world creates opportunities for collaborative research that would not have been possible just a few years ago."

For 1,500 years, the Codex Sinaiticus lay undisturbed in a Sinai monastery, until it was found in 1844 and split between Egypt, Russia, Germany and Britain. It is thought to have survived because the desert air was ideal for preservation and because the monastery, on a Christian island in a Muslim sea, remained untouched, its walls unconquered. The institutions' pain-staking work can now be seen at www.codexsinaiticus.org.

His department will also get a new look - branded UK Aid - to try to raise the profile of British government spending on international development. BBC international development correspondent David Loyn says the government will double the amount it spends at the "harder end" of aid priorities.

This includes police, security and justice systems as well as funding to provide jobs as an alternative to war for ex-soldiers. The aim is to try to prevent conflicts in 20 fragile states where about one third of the poorest people in the world live.

The change in emphasis is based on what are seen as success stories in Sierra Leone and Nepal which are both coming out of long and bitter conflicts. Our correspondent says the challenge will be harder in places such as Democratic Republic of Congo, Sudan and Chad. But the view is that the goal of halving the number of people in the world living in poverty by 2015 will not be met without such a change, especially during the global economic downturn.

The president told the Catholic Italian newspaper Avvenire, one week before a scheduled meeting with the Pope in Italy, "It [the Middle East] is a subject I am keen to discuss with the Pope. I think he will share my approach." President Obama has dug in his heels in insisting that Israel stop all building for Jews in Judea and Samaria, and the State Department has indicated that the ban should include all of Jerusalem that was restored to Israel in the Six-Day War in 1967.

However, the President maintained that the United States should not impose on Israel and the Palestinian Authority a solution to the differences between them. "What the United States can do, without imposing a solution, is to hold a mirror up to both of the parties to show them the consequences of their actions," he told the newspaper.

"On one hand, it is not just Israel's fault," President Obama added, pointing out that the Arab world needs to understand that "the Jewish state has security needs like any country." HIS USE OF THE TERM "JEWISH STATE" AND NOT "ISRAEL" MAY HAVE BEEN A HINT THAT THE PA MUST ACCEPT PRIME MINISTER BINYAMIN NETANYAHU'S DEMAND FOR THE SAME RECOGNITION.

Biden opined that the US "CANNOT DICTATE TO ANOTHER SOVEREIGN NATION WHAT THEY CAN AND CANNOT DO." Speaking to interviewer George Stephanopolous during a three-day visit to Iraq, the US vice president said that ISRAEL CAN DETERMINE FOR ITSELF "WHAT'S IN THEIR INTEREST AND WHAT THEY DECIDE TO DO RELATIVE TO IRAN AND ANYONE ELSE."

When questioned if Israel could make that decision "whether [the US] agrees or not," Biden answered in the affirmative, noting, "Any sovereign nation is entitled to do that." He went on to say that the interests of the US are also the interests of Israel and "the whole world. If the Netanyahu government decides to take a course of action different than the one being pursued now, that is their sovereign right to do that. That is not our choice," he added.

Earlier this year Meir Dagan, Mossad's director since 2002, held secret talks with Saudi officials to discuss the possibility. The Israeli press has already carried unconfirmed reports that high-ranking officials, including Ehud Olmert, the former prime minister, held meetings with Saudi colleagues. THE REPORTS WERE DENIED BY SAUDI OFFICIALS. "The Saudis have tacitly agreed to the Israeli air force flying through their airspace on a mission which is supposed to be IN THE COMMON INTERESTS OF BOTH ISRAEL AND SAUDI ARABIA," a diplomatic source said last week.

Although the countries have no formal diplomatic relations, an Israeli defence source confirmed that Mossad maintained "working relations" with the Saudis. JOHN BOLTON, THE FORMER US AMBASSADOR TO THE UNITED NATIONS WHO RECENTLY VISITED THE GULF, SAID IT WAS "ENTIRELY LOGICAL" FOR THE ISRAELIS TO USE SAUDI AIRSPACE.

Bolton, who has talked to several Arab leaders, added: "None of them would say anything about it publicly but they would certainly acquiesce in an overflight if the Israelis didn't trumpet it as a big success." ARAB STATES WOULD CONDEMN A RAID WHEN THEY SPOKE AT THE UN BUT WOULD BE PRIVATELY RELIEVED TO SEE THE THREAT OF AN IRANIAN BOMB REMOVED, HE SAID.

The estimated number of people forced out of their homes had more than doubled from 150,000 Saturday, with 140,000 displaced in Hunan provine and 100,000 in Jiangxi province. A further 140,000 were affected in the region of Guangxi, where 62 schools were flooded. Xinhua said 300 students were trapped in one boarding school, but local authorities had managed to restore power supplies and deliver food and drinking water.

After four days of torrential downpours, the rain began to subside in some parts of Guangxi Sunday, but local authorities warned of more flooding as river levels remained high.

On Saturday, former President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani said that post-election events had caused bitterness. Britain said one of two UK embassy employees detained for "inciting protests" would be released. Hundreds of thousands of people took to the streets in the aftermath of the poll to protest at what they alleged was a fraudulent election.

The protests died down after the authorities deployed lethal force, killing at least 20 demonstrators. More than 1,000 were arrested. On Sunday, state news agency Irna quoted Iran's police chief as saying about two-thirds of those arrested had been released. The authorities have blamed the West, in particular the UK, for fomenting the unrest through the use of the media, including BBC Persian television which broadcasts to the country via satellite.

The head of Iran's judiciary, Ayatollah Mahmoud Hashemi-Shahroudi, has said "those who co-operate with such websites and television channels will face prosecution". The pro-reform clerics group said in a statement that the top legislative body, the Guardian Council, no longer had the right "to judge in this case." In a statement to the press, the Assembly of Qom Seminary Scholars and Researchers said some members of the Guardian Council had "lost their impartial image in the eyes of the public."

"In a lot of ways, terrible to say this I suppose, but apart from the fact that Hitler got taken away and persuaded to do things that I have no idea whether he wanted to do or not, he was in the way that he could command a lot of people, able to get things done," said Ecclestone. "In the end he got lost, so he wasn't a very good dictator because either he had all these things and knew what was going on and insisted, or he just went along with it. . so either way he wasn't a dictator."

HE ALSO SAID DEMOCRACY "HASN'T DONE A LOT OF GOOD FOR MANY COUNTRIES - including this one [Britain]," and voiced support for tyrannical regimes. "Politicians are too worried about elections," he said. "We did a terrible thing when we supported the idea of getting rid of Saddam Hussein. He was the only one who could control that country. It was the same [with the Taliban]. We move into countries and we have no idea of the culture. The Americans probably thought Bosnia was a town in Miami. There are people starving in Africa and we sit back and do nothing but we get involved in things we should leave alone."

The Board of Deputies of British Jews responded with fury to Ecclestone's remarks. "Mr Ecclestone's comments regarding Hitler, female, black and Jewish racing drivers, and dictatorships are quite bizarre. He says [in the interview], 'Politics is not for me', and we are inclined to agree." Jewish Chronicle editor Stephen Pollard said that "Mr Ecclestone is either an idiot or morally repulsive. Either he has no idea how stupid and offensive his views are or he does and deserves to be held in contempt by all decent people."