THE FT AND WSJ report that China has denied claims made by the EU, US, and other countries that it is practicing protectionism and illegal trade subsidies, and retaliated with its own complaint to the World Trade Organisation.

THE LA TIMES quotes an IMF study concluding that Ireland is experiencing the worst recession in the developed world, with its economy shrinking by 8.5% and its budget deficit expected to reach 20% of GDP in 2010.

Writing in THE GUARDIAN, Timothy Garton Ash argues that, "the most important thing the Lisbon Treaty does is to create the institutional machinery for a better co-ordinated and more effective European foreign policy. The machinery - not the thing itself. That requires the political will of ­sovereign member states."

PROSPECT MAGAZINE reports that the EU is divided on foreign and defence policy and that it seems to be 'slipping backwards', adding that "it must learn to speak in one voice, or others will shape the new world order".

SÜDDEUTSCHE reports that Germany has reached an all time budget debt record of €86.1 billion, double the previous record from 1996.

Markus Knigge, Research Director for Pew Environment Group has said that "rather than encouraging sustainable fishing, SUBSIDIES HAVE CONTRIBUTED TO EVER-GREATER CAPACITY OF FISHING FLEETS AND IN TURN TO THE DEPLETION OF VALUABLE FISH STOCKS".

According to the paper, similar levels of subsidies exist in the current 2007-2013 budget period, with SOME OF THE BIGGEST CASH WINDFALLS GOING TO SHIPS NOTORIOUS FOR THEIR QUESTIONABLE PRACTICES. Greenpeace named a Spanish trawler which has received more than €4m in subsidies as "the most egregious offender against vulnerable stocks of Mediterranean blue fin tuna". A new website, "fishsubsidy.org" has been created to establish greater transparency about EU fishing subsidies.

Plants including Rotherham, Stocksbridge and Scunthorpe will be hardest hit by the latest cutback by the steel giant, which has already axed thousands of jobs this year. The new cuts will hit the firm's long products division, WHICH SUPPLIES STEEL TO THE CONSTRUCTION INDUSTRY, ONE OF THE WORST AFFECTED BY THE RECESSION. Unions described the job losses as "devastating" and called on the Government to offer help to the industry.

The company said in a statement: "Corus has already made significant cost savings with the support of its employee and union representatives since the downturn began, but several sites have suffered further deterioration in demand for their products. This additional restructuring will enable the business to align its production and manning levels with anticipated demand."

Corus said 2,045 jobs were at risk, including 1,500 in the company's production facilities, about 800 at the engineering steels sites, mainly Rotherham and Stocksbridge, about 370 in Corus Tubes in the UK and Holland, and about 375 at downstream rolling and finishing plants in Teesside and Scotland.

The four men, all believed to be teenagers as young as 17, were found guilty by a sharia court of stealing mobile phones and two guns. THEY WERE NOT ALLOWED A LAWYER AND COULD NOT APPEAL THE JUDGMENT. It is believed to be the first time such a sentence has been carried out in Somalia's capital, and illustrates the power of the al-Shebab movement, which now controls most of the city.

Mosque loudspeakers broadcast alerts that the amputations would take place at 8am on Thursday and witnesses said at least 300 people, many of them women and children, turned up to watch. "Their right hands and left legs have been cut off. They are due to be taken away by ambulance now for treatment," Mohamed Noh, a resident who was watching the punishment, told Reuters. "They were screaming." The sentence has shocked many Somalis, who traditionally follow a far more moderate branch of Islam than al-Shebab's hardline Wahabism.

The measures came as a budget crisis deepened in the most populous US state and the gridlocked legislature failed to pass a proposed $11 billion in cuts. "Next Wednesday we start a fiscal year with a massively unbalanced spending plan and a cash shortfall not seen since the Great Depression," Controller John Chiang said in a statement announcing that he would be forced to use IOUs to pay the state's bills beginning on July 2.

"The state's $2.8 billion cash shortage in July grows to $6.5 billion in September and after that we see a double digit freefall," Chiang said. "Unfortunately, the state's inability to balance its checkbook will now mean short-changing taxpayers, local governments and small businesses."

The airline had put the proposal to 40,000 staff. BA chief Willie Walsh has already agreed to work unpaid in July, forgoing his month's salary of £61,000. UNIONS SAID ASKING STAFF TO WORK FOR NOTHING WAS "UNREALISTIC". The airline, which is struggling in the downturn, says the move will save £10m.

Many firms across different industries have been reducing their workforces and cutting workers' hours in a bid to save costs during the economic downturn. "What makes BA stand out is that it is asking workers to work for nothing for a period, rather than simply reducing pay through fewer hours," said Jane Amphlett, an employment lawyer with Finers Stephens Innocent.

But the union Unite said that while it supported the current BA scheme which encourages part-time working, unpaid leave, and career breaks, it did not support this proposal. "The proposal for employees to 'work for nothing' is unrealistic," said Unite national officer Brian Boyd. "THE FACT THAT LESS THAN 2% OF BA'S WORKFORCE CHOSE TO TAKE UP THIS OPTION DEMONSTRATES THAT THERE IS NO REAL SUPPORT FOR THIS."

"In our country, we cannot accept that women be prisoners behind a screen, cut off from all social life, deprived of all identity," Sarkozy said. "The burkha is not a religious sign, it's a sign of subservience, a sign of debasement. It will not be welcome on the territory of the French Republic."

The issue arose in Britain three years ago when Jack Straw asked Muslim women wearing veils to remove them when they visited his Blackburn constituency surgery. He called the veils a "visible statement of separation and difference." The Daily Express weighs in this week with a call for the burkha to be banned in Britain, a demand echoed in the Daily Mail by Saira Khan, runner-up in the first series of "The Apprentice."

The Muslim Council of Britain has criticised Sarkozy. Individuals, it says, must have the freedom to choose their attire on the basis of deeply-held religious beliefs. It adds: "The MCB echoes US President Barack Obama's caution that 'it is important for Western countries to avoid impeding Muslim citizens from practising religion as they see fit - for instance, by dictating what clothes a Muslim woman should wear. We cannot disguise hostility towards any religion behind the pretence of liberalism.'"

The total value of the world's wealthy - people with net assets of more than $1 million excluding their main home and everyday possessions - dropped below 2005 levels to $32.8 trillion, the 13th annual Merrill Lynch/Capgemini World Wealth Report found.

Nearly 35 percent of that wealth belongs to so-called ultra rich people with fortunes of more than $30 million, who account for 0.9 percent of the rich population. In 2008 the number of ultra-rich people and their value dropped by nearly a quarter. "There was really nowhere to hide as an investor in 2008," Dan Sontag, Merrill Lynch Global Wealth Management president, told a news conference. "No region ended the year unscathed."

The United States, Japan and Germany are home to 54 percent of the world's rich and this year China surpassed Britain and now has the fourth largest rich population. Rounding out the top 10 are France, Canada, Switzerland, Italy and Brazil. The United States saw an 18.5 percent drop in its rich population, but it still remains No 1 with 29 percent, or 2.5 million, of the world's rich. Japan's rich population fell 10 percent, but Germany lost only 2.7 percent of its wealthy.

First, there's the economy: with the US unemployment rate at 9.4 percent and rising, Bernanke faces the challenge of fostering a recovery from an 18-month-old recession with unconventional policies that some worry will ignite inflation.

Then, there's politics: he must convince Congress the Fed deserves a leading role in a restructured financial oversight system even as he addresses criticism of Fed failings before the financial collapse and some actions since. "He is fighting fires that he does not want to fight, that are way out of his usual domain. I'm sure he'd rather just worry about the fed funds rate," said Torsten Slok, an economist with Deutsche Bank Securities in New York.

O-negative is the universal donor type and anyone can accept it when seconds count. "Anyone that is bleeding, that needs blood in an emergency, that is their first line of defense," Dr Dennis said. Dr Dennis says the reason for the shortage is the high numbers of victims of shootings and other violent crimes who come to Stroger Hospital for life-saving treatment. "WE SEE PROBABLY AN AVERAGE OF BETWEEN 10 AND 15 PEOPLE WHO GET SHOT OR STABBED EVERY NIGHT," Dr Dennis said.

Gay youth advocate Robin McHaelen says the video appears to show abuse. She says she plans to report it to the Connecticut Department of Children and Families. The boy confirms he is 16 but otherwise has declined to comment. The Reverend Patricia McKinney of Manifested Glory Ministries in Bridgeport says he is 18 and came to the church on his own seeking help. She denies the church is prejudiced and says it took care of the youth.

AT LEAST TWO HAD HIGHER QUANTITIES THAN A STANDARD MCDONALD'S MEAL. Others had misleading labels, Which? said. Retailers said they offered a range of clearly labelled salads. Smedleys Atlantic Prawn Marie Rose Salad, sold at Morrisons, was highlighted by the magazine as one of the key offenders on the fat and calories front. Which? said it contained 855 calories and 66.3g of fat - nearly half of a woman's recommended daily energy intake of calories and nearly all of the fat.

OTHERS WERE ACCUSED OF MISLEADING LABELLING. Sainsbury's Tomato & Basil Chicken, Which? claimed, specified it had no mayonnaise but the ingredients list revealed it contained egg yolk, oil and white wine vinegar - the same ingredients as the dressing. Tesco Tuna Layered Salad at a glance appeared to contain 275 calories and 20.5g of fat, but this was for half the pack, Which? said.

At present, just over a third of Londoners of all ages are reckoned to be non-white - but the new figures indicate that this share will grow substantially in the future. They also point to the way recent waves of immigration have made a bigger impact on London than other parts of the country.

The analysis from the Office for National Statistics said that in the West Midlands, the second most multi-racial area of the country after London, just 19 per cent of children and teenagers are non-white. The figures were disclosed in Whitehall's annual Regional Trends report. They drew warnings from migration experts that politicians are taking a risk by ignoring the changing nature of cities and suburbs.

Sir Andrew Green of the Migrationwatch think-tank said: 'THIS ILLUSTRATES THE MASSIVE CHANGE THAT IS TAKING PLACE TO OUR SOCIETY AT A RAPID PACE AND WITHOUT THE INDIGENOUS POPULATION EVER BEING CONSULTED. It is high time that the political class took their heads out of the clouds and responded to the very strong public opinion that wants to bring immigration under control.'

Off China's coast, a US destroyer was tailing a North Korean ship suspected of transporting illicit weapons to Myanmar in what could be the first test of UN sanctions passed to punish the nation for an underground nuclear test last month. The new UN Security Council resolution requires member states to seek permission to inspect suspicious cargo. North Korea has said it would consider interception a declaration of war and on Wednesday accused the US of seeking to provoke another Korean War.

"IF THE US IMPERIALISTS START ANOTHER WAR, THE ARMY AND PEOPLE OF KOREA WILL… WIPE OUT THE AGGRESSORS ON THE GLOBE ONCE AND FOR ALL," the official Korean Central News Agency said. The warning came on the eve of the 59th anniversary of the start of the three-year Korean War, which ended in a truce in 1953, not a peace treaty, leaving the peninsula in a state of war.

The US has 28,500 troops in South Korea to protect against an outbreak of hostilities. Tensions have been high since North Korea launched a long-range rocket in April and then conducted its second underground atomic test on May 25.

The government says there is no need for panic, and that heavy rains in July are likely to avert a drought. A heat wave is sweeping the country and rains are delayed in many parts. Rains usually last from June to September. "It [the monsoon] is late," federal minister Prithviraj Chavan told reporters. North-west India appeared to be worst affected by the slow rains with only 81% rains forecast.

MONSOON RAINS ARE CRITICAL TO INDIA'S FARM PROSPECTS, WHICH ACCOUNT FOR A SIXTH OF ECONOMIC OUTPUT. Up to 70% of Indians are dependent on farm incomes, and about 60% of India's farms depend on rains. Irrigation networks are dismissed by critics as inadequate. The summer rains are crucial to crops such as rice, soybean, sugarcane and cotton. The Indian media has been full of reports about the patchy rains so far.

Economists agree that the delay will cause further stress in a country where food prices are already high. "The delay is not a good signal. FOOD PRICES ARE ALREADY HIGH AND ANY DELAY COULD PUSH FOOD PRICES HIGHER. Food price inflation could emerge as a concern," said DK Joshi, principal economist at credit ratings agency Crisil. Politicians in many states are holding special prayers for the rains - the farm minister in central Chhattisgarh state held a prayer for the state to get rains soon.