The Red Sea-Dead Sea Water Conveyance project would supply the biggest desalination plant in the world, running on its own hydro-electric power and providing Jordan with enough water for the next 40-50 years. Israel and the Palestinian West Bank would also benefit. A decision on whether to go ahead could come by the end of next year and the likely cost would be in the region of 7 billion dollars.

"The idea of linking the Red Sea and the Dead Sea was first suggested by a British military engineer in the 1880s. That was for hydro-power. But the drivers today are water supply and saving the Dead Sea," said engineer David Meehan, who leads the study team for French consultants Coyne et Bellier.

Some estimates say it (the Dead Sea)could more or less dry up in 50 years if no action is taken. Its level is falling by about one meter (three feet) per year due to a sharp decrease in inflow from the Jordan and other rivers whose waters now irrigate fields and to Dead Sea chemical industry use by Israel and Jordan.

"The level has fallen from 394 meters below sea level in the 1960s to 420 meters below sea level as of mid-2007," said the World Bank. The water surface area is down by a third, from 950 square kilometers to 637 - about the size of Lake Geneva.

"It may have been destructive along coastlines of the region near the earthquake epicentre," the centre said. The quake hit at 0618 local time (1818 GMT) at a depth of 10km (6.2 miles). There were no immediate indications of any damage or casualties on Tonga's main island, Tongan police said in the capital, Nuku'alofa.

US monitors advised that some coastal areas of Hawaii could see a rise in sea level and strong currents lasting up to several hours but said no destructive impact was expected. The epicentre is 480km (300 miles) south-east of Fiji's Ndoi Island and 1,830km (1,140 miles) north-east of Auckland, New Zealand.

An underwater volcano has erupted close to the Tonga coast, in the South Pacific ocean. Scientists sailed to inspect the the volcano, which has been shooting smoke, steam and ash into the air near the low-lying twin volcanic islands of Hunga Tonga and Hunga Ha'apai.

Examples abound. Its sports teams have met hostility and violent protests in Sweden, Spain and Turkey. Mauritania has closed the Israeli Embassy. Relations with Turkey, an important Muslim ally, have suffered severely. A group of top international judges and human rights investigators recently called for an investigation into Israel's actions in Gaza. "Israel Apartheid Week" drew participants in 54 cities around the world this month, twice the number of last year, according to its organizers. And even in the American Jewish community, albeit in its liberal wing, there is a chill.

"PEOPLE HERE FEEL THAT NO MATTER WHAT YOU DO, YOU ARE GOING TO BE BLAMED FOR ALL THE PROBLEMS IN THE MIDDLE EAST," said Eytan Gilboa, a professor of politics and international communication at Bar-Ilan University. "Even suicide bombings by Palestinians are seen as our fault for not establishing a Palestinian state."

Moreover, Mr. Netanyahu is expected to name Avigdor Lieberman, who heads the ultra-nationalist Yisrael Beiteinu party, as foreign minister. This alone has Israelis and their allies in Europe and the United States worried because of his views of Israeli Arabs that some have called racist. Some Israeli officials believe what their country needs is to "rebrand" itself. They say Israel spends far too much time defending actions against its enemies. By doing so, they say, the narrative is always about conflict. Mr. Gilboa, the political scientist, said branding was not enough. "We need to do much more to educate the world about our situation," he said.

Currency specialist Avinash Persaud, a member of the panel of experts, told a Reuters Funds Summit in Luxembourg that the proposal was to create something like the old Ecu, or European currency unit, that was a hard-traded, weighted basket. Persaud, chairman of consultants Intelligence Capital and a former currency chief at JPMorgan, said the recommendation would be one of a number delivered to the United Nations on March 25 by the UN Commission of Experts on International Financial Reform.

"It is a good moment to move to a shared reserve currency," he said. Central banks hold their reserves in a variety of currencies and gold, but the dollar has dominated as the most convincing store of value - though its rate has wavered in recent years as the United States ran up huge twin budget and external deficits.

Persaud said that the United States was concerned that holding the reserve currency made it impossible to run policy, while the rest of the world was also unhappy with the generally declining dollar. "There is a moment that can be grasped for change," he said. "Today the Americans complain that when the world wants to save, it means a deficit. A shared (reserve) would reduce the possibility of global imbalances."

The US currency also declined against the yen, the Norwegian krone, the Australian dollar and Brazilian real. The Fed's decision to buy debt means it is effectively creating new money, leading to concern from investors about the over-supply of dollars.

The dollar traded at $1.433 against the pound, its lowest since late February. The US currency also had its biggest drop against the euro in over two months, to $1.3506 versus the 16-nation European currency. Against the yen, the dollar bought 95.55.

BBC economics editor Stephanie Flanders said THE DECISION TO BUY TREASURY BILLS CAME AS A "SHOCK" TO INVESTORS. "Why have this new spending spree at all?" she said. "The answer may be that the Fed - and the administration more generally - is concerned that THE APPARENT IMPROVEMENT IN CREDIT CONDITIONS THE PAST FEW MONTHS IS A FALSE DAWN."

Demand for food and energy will jump 50% by 2030 and for fresh water by 30%, as the population tops 8.3 billion, he is due to tell a conference in London. Climate change will exacerbate matters in unpredictable ways, he will add. "It's a perfect storm," Professor Beddington will tell the Sustainable Development UK 09 conference.

"There's not going to be a complete collapse, but things will start getting really worrying if we don't tackle these problems." Professor Beddington says the looming crisis will match the current one in the banking sector. "My main concern is what will happen internationally, there will be food and water shortages," he predicts. "We're relatively fortunate in the UK; there may not be shortages here, but we can expect prices of food and energy to rise."

The United Nations Environment Programme predicts widespread water shortages across Africa, Europe and Asia by 2025. The amount of fresh water available per head of the population is expected to decline sharply in that time. The issue of food and energy security rose high on the political agenda last year during a spike in oil and commodity prices.

At present, 30-40% of all crops are lost due to pest and disease before they are harvested. "GENETICALLY-MODIFIED FOOD COULD ALSO BE PART OF THE SOLUTION. We need plants that are resistant to drought and salinity - a mixture of genetic modification and conventional plant breeding. Better water storage and cleaner energy supplies are also essential, he says.

Demonstrations are planned in about 200 towns and cities. Schools are to close and public transport faces disruption. Organisers hope the protest may be bigger than one in January, when about a million people joined protests. THE UNIONS ARE URGING THE GOVERNMENT TO DO MORE TO PROTECT JOBS AND WAGES.

Three-quarters of French people support the strike, claiming the 2.4bn euros ($3.2bn; £2.3bn) offered by the government earlier this year is not enough. Protesters are also calling on the president to scrap his plans to cut public-sector jobs and to reverse tax cuts. President Sarkozy says he understands the plight of the workers but there is little more his government can do.

Unemployment is likely to shoot up to 10% in the next 12 months with a further 350,000 lay offs expected by the end of this year. Private-sector workers from the beleaguered car industry, oil and retail sectors will also be on the streets. The BBC's Emma Jane Kirby in Paris says many people are angry that BIG COMPANIES LIKE THE OIL GIANT TOTAL IS MAKING STAFF REDUNDANT WHILE SIMULTANEOUSLY ANNOUNCING RECORD PROFITS.

The Bruges Group's detailed examination of the severe strains facing the Single Currency finds that the entirely 'man made' problems that confront the eurozone today have their origins in the fatally flawed notion that one exchange rate and one interest rate are appropriate for economies with very different and disparate histories, structures, performances and sovereign governments.

The euro was meant to bring convergence to the economies of the European Union. Yet it has caused even greater divergence. These economic imbalances and distortions which have been analysed in this paper will continue to worsen. There are too many vested interests in Brussels; the EU elite is more concerned with their own privileges than in undertaking any meaningful structural economic reforms that could help to rectify the situation.

THE EURO AS A HYBRID FIXED EXCHANGE RATE REGIME IS UNSUSTAINABLE, and the issue of its failure must be addressed. In the case of the European Union this can only ultimately result in the rejection of government by the venal and corrupt institutions of the EU and A SUBSEQUENT RETURN TO DEMOCRATIC RULE BY ACCOUNTABLE NATIONAL GOVERNMENTS THAT UPHOLD THE RULE OF LAW.

Merkel and Sarkozy have also said that "the first priority is to build A NEW GLOBAL FINANCIAL ARCHITECTURE", adding that "the European Union must affirm a common position and take the lead on this subject." In particular, the two leaders said, Europe should go to London with proposals for new regulation and supervision of hedge funds and other high-risk investments and legal tools to act against tax havens that refuse to lift bank-secrecy laws.

Given the unending stream of bad economic news so far this year, it was a surprising bit of optimism. "The situation is extremely bad, but there are the first signs of light," said Wolgang Franz, the president of the Center for European Economic Research, on Tuesday. He went on to say that the economy has almost reached its low point and hinted that a turnaround isn't that far off.

European Union leaders, past and present, apparently didn't get the message. In an interview with the conservative German daily Die Welt, Luxembourg's Prime Minister Jean-Claude Juncker said that he was afraid the economic crisis could create major social problems in the 27-member bloc. "I am afraid that, following the financial and economic crises, we will before long see a social crisis, which will be characterized by MASS UNEMPLOYMENT AND LOWER INCOMES FOR MANY," Juncker said.

Former European Commission President Jacques Delors is equally pessimistic. During his heyday, the Frenchman was one of the EU's most important boosters, reigning in Brussels from 1985 to 1995. He says THE EU OF TODAY IS ONE WITHOUT THE STRONG LEADERS SEEN IN THE PAST AND IS TOO DIVIDED. "Europe today is not pulling together," he told the German financial magazine Capital. When it comes to the euro zone, Delors said the "situation is dangerous." He foresees a situation whereby pressure will become greater on EURO ZONE MEMBERS TO CLEAN UP THEIR FINANCES OR TO LEAVE THE COMMON CURRENCY ZONE ENTIRELY. "If one doesn't accept that more consultation is necessary, then I am pessimistic about the future of the euro," he said.

The International Monetary Fund should investigate the possible creation of a new reserve currency, widening the list of reserve currencies or using its already existing Special Drawing Rights, or SDRs, as a "super-reserve currency accepted by the whole of the international community," the Kremlin said in a statement issued on its web site.

The SDR is an international reserve asset, created by the IMF in 1969 to supplement the existing official reserves of member countries. The Kremlin has persistently criticized the dollar's status as the dominant global reserve currency and has lowered its own dollar holdings in the last few years. Both President Dmitry Medvedev and Prime Minister Vladimir Putin have repeatedly called for the ruble to be used as a regional reserve currency, although the idea has received little support outside of Russia.

Analysts said the new Kremlin proposal would elicit little excitement among the G20 members. "This is all in the realm of fantasy," said Sergei Perminov, chief strategist at Rye, Man and Gore. "There was a situation that resembled what they are talking about. It was called the gold standard, and it ended very badly. ALTERNATIVES TO THE DOLLAR ARE STILL HARD TO FIND," he said.

The US population is more than replacing itself, a healthy trend. However, the teen birth rate was up for the second year in a row. The birth rate rose slightly for women of all ages, and BIRTHS TO UNWED MOTHERS REACHED AN ALL-TIME HIGH OF ABOUT 40 PERCENT, continuing a trend begun years ago. More than three-quarters of these women were 20 or older.

For a variety of reasons, it's become more acceptable for women to have babies without a husband, said Duke University's S. Philip Morgan, a leading fertility researcher. Even happy couples may be living together without getting married, experts say. And more women — especially those in their 30s and 40s — are choosing to have children despite their single status.

The new numbers indicate the nation is experiencing a baby boomlet with fertility rates higher in every racial group. On average, a US woman has 2.1 babies in her lifetime. The highest fertility rates were among Hispanics.

It could, perhaps, even mandate American preference for all "manufactured goods". Could this be the start of a new American protectionism? EVEN A NEW TRADE WAR? There are big principles - and great passions - on both sides of the argument. It seems to be abstract, but it could have a huge global impact.

I met the president of the United Steelworkers Union Leo Gerard this week. Mr Gerard is known for his straight-talking. It is "baloney", he says, to argue the case for spending billions to prop up US banks, then cry foul about a commitment to buy US steel. His case has strong backing in Congress from Democrats who represent big steel states - Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana.

Ohio Democrat Tim Ryan has calculated that using wholly domestic input for infrastructure projects here will yield an extra 77,000 jobs across America. "We're going to spend this money in Youngstown, Warren, Akron" he says. "Not Beijing, Mumbai or Dubai." Mr Gerard is blunter still: "WHY SHOULD WE SEND DOLLARS TO CHINA, SO THAT THEY CAN SHIP US MORE JUNK STEEL?"

The Dallas Federal Reserve president Richard Fisher - who is a former deputy US trade representative - warned on Monday that protectionism is the crack cocaine of economics. "It provides an immediate high that leads to economic death," he said. "We cannot afford to go down that route." Would retaliation be inevitable? Yes, according to international leaders from Canada to the EU to the WTO.

The size of the move surprised investors, causing the Dow Jones stock index to jump almost 200 points. The Bank of England has already begun buying government debt to expand money supply - known as quantitative easing.

The Federal Reserve said it hopes the measures will boost mortgage lending and the struggling housing market by lowering interest rates on mortgages and other forms of consumer debt. The US central bank also kept interest rates unchanged at close to zero after its two-day policy meeting. In December, the central bank cut rates as low as they can go - to a range of zero to 0.25%.

Dow Jones industrial average was up 120.98 points, or 1.64%, at 7,516.68 in early afternoon trade in New York. However, THE ANNOUNCEMENT HURT THE DOLLAR, which hit a two-month low against the euro on FEARS THAT THE MEASURES WOULD UNDERMINE THE CURRENCY.

For February, the number of people getting jobseeker's allowance added a record 138,400 to reach 1.39 million. There are now 10 jobseekers for every vacancy advertised in UK jobcentres, the TUC claimed earlier this week. The ONS added that the unemployment rate jumped to 6.5% between November and January.

Unemployment is rising as the first recession in the UK since 1991 continues to bite. Many economists now predict it will go above three million next year. Prime Minister Gordon Brown told the Commons it was a "matter of personal regret" for him that people were losing their jobs. "That is why we'll do everything we can to help people get back to work," he said. Mr Brown added that rising unemployment was a global problem which remained higher in many other countries.