People worldwide are "depressed and traumatized" to see their life savings, including homes and pension funds, disappearing, Murdoch said at a press briefing in Davos, Switzerland. "It would be very foolish if we said here we are, we had a crisis, and how do we get out of it quickly," he said. "THE CRISIS IS GETTING WORSE. WHEN YOU GET TO THE REAL ECONOMY, VALUES ARE STILL GOING DOWN."

New York-based media company News Corporation in November reduced its fiscal 2009 profit forecast because of reduced ad sales at its newspapers and Fox television. "You have world financial markets, it doesn't really matter where you're talking about in the world," Murdoch said. "THERE'S NO HIDING PLACE, THE WORLD FINANCIAL MARKETS ARE IN A GREAT STATE OF DISARRAY."

Guy Ryder, the general secretary of the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC), said that the current financial turmoil had triggered A SOCIAL TIMEBOMB THAT WOULD LEAD TO DEEPENING CIVIL UNREST AND SOARING CRIME. The comments from the confederation, which represents 168 million workers in 157 countries, are the most ferocious example yet of a backlash that has persuaded many who attend frequently to stay away from Davos this year. Alistair Darling, the Chancellor, became the latest political figure to stay away from the meeting, after a similar move by David Miliband, the Foreign Secretary.

Mr Ryder, speaking as strikes involving hundreds of thousands of workers erupted across France and Germany, told The Times: "WE ARE ON THE ROAD TO SERIOUS SOCIAL INSTABILITY, WHICH COULD BE EXTREMELY DANGEROUS IN SOME COUNTRIES TO DEMOCRACY ITSELF." He said: "Davos does not make me at all confident. I don't see any of the leadership here that is needed to get us out of this crisis... There is very little contrition here."

Sharan Burrow, the president of the Australian Council of Trade Unions, said, "Why shouldn't working people be angry? THEIR MONEY IS BEING USED TO STABILISE THE FINANCIAL SYSTEM, BUT IT IS THEIR WEALTH, THEIR JOBS AND THE WELFARE OF THEIR CHILDREN THAT IS BEING STRIPPED AWAY."

The EU trade commissioner vowed to fight back after the bill passed in the House of Representatives late on Wednesday included a ban on most purchases of foreign steel and iron used in infrastructure projects. The Senate's version of the legislation, which will be debated early next week, goes even further, requiring that any projects related to the stimulus use only American-made equipment and goods. THE INCLUSION OF PROTECTIONIST MEASURES HAS QUICKLY RAISED HACKLES IN EUROPE.

Catherine Ashton, the EU trade commissioner, said: "We are looking at the situation. The one thing we can be absolutely certain about is IF A BILL IS PASSED WHICH PROHIBITS THE SALE OR PURCHASE OF EUROPEAN GOODS ON AMERICAN TERRITORY, THAT IS SOMETHING WE WILL NOT STAND IDLY BY AND IGNORE." Despite the parlous state of the US economy, some major American firms, including General Electric, are also opposed to the Buy American stipulations, fearing reprisals from overseas and further damage to the global economy.

Mr Obama has sent mixed signals on free trade throughout his campaign and the early days of his presidency. He has argued that the North American Free Trade should be recalibrated in favour of American workers, but has stressed the need for a co-operative international approach to the economic crisis.

CRISIS-HIT BANKERS ARE THIN ON THE GROUND AT THE MEETING, leaving policymakers to work behind the scenes on ways to fix the financial system, ahead of a summit of the G20 group of big and emerging countries in April and a G8 summit in July. Dimon acknowledged bankers had done "some really stupid things" in the crisis, which many analysts link to bad high-risk loans made by U.S. banks which led to a credit freeze, but also criticized policymakers and regulators.

INVESTORS ARE INCREASINGLY FEARFUL OF PROTECTIONIST POLICIES AS A RESPONSE TO THE WORST GLOBAL ECONOMIC CRISIS IN 80 YEARS. "In some places there are sounds of protectionism, in some places it is real," Indian trade minister Kamal Nath told Reuters. "We are seeing greater use in the western world of anti-dumping measures, non-tariff barriers being used in Europe."

"If there are protectionist measures India will be compelled to also take commensurate measures against those countries which will be good for no one," he said. The deepening crisis, and the failure to complete the World Trade Organization's long-running Doha round to free up global commerce, have raised fears that countries would block their partners' exports to protect jobs at home.

Khazali, son of Ayatollah Abu Al-Kassam Khazali, says that AHMADINEJAD CHANGED HIS JEWISH NAME on his ID card in order to hide his roots. Khazali the son says that the president hides his Jewish roots by attacking Israel and the Jews, and by expressing strong Muslim religious beliefs.

A record of the name change still appears on the president's ID card, however, says Khazali. His old name was Saburjian, and he hails from the Aradan region of Iran. The accusations appear in an article Khazali wrote entitled, "The Jews in Iran." He says the time has come to "reveal the truth" about the Jews' role in Iran.

Ahmadinejad's relatives once told the British paper "The Guardian" that the family had changed its name for "a mixture of religious and economic reasons." Ahmadinejad will be running for re-election five months from now.

Netanyahu told the audience, "SOME POLITICIANS ARE TRYING TO BLUR THE IMPORTANCE OF THE TEMPLE MOUNT to the Jewish People by referring to it as the 'Holy Basin.' We, as Jews, know who built the Temple Mount." The term 'Holy Basin' refers to the area of the Temple Mount, the Mount of Olives, Mount Zion and a variety of Christian holy sites which the administration of former US President Bill Clinton recommended be administered under a "special regime."

This raises the issue of who would administer the Temple Mount, since at present the Wakf Islamic Authority controls the site, albeit under Israeli sovereignty. Moreover, the Arab neighborhoods surrounding the Temple Mount, home to tens of thousands of Israeli Arab residents, are also a part of greater Jerusalem, and thereby fall into the same discussion.

Former prime minister Netanyahu, who will likely return to his old leadership role after the February 10 Israel elections, repeatedly emphasized the Likud's loyalty to the concept of a united Jerusalem. "We have demonstrated in the past, and will continue to demonstrate OUR COMMITMENT TO A COMPLETE, UNDIVIDED JERUSALEM," Netanyahu assured a packed hall at the Jerusalem Regency Hotel, where he opened the final day of the Jerusalem Conference.

"Dividing the capital, or resurrecting the specter of internationalizing the 'Holy Basin', this time at the recommendation of the US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, would cause more problems even for the international community than it would solve," he added. THE THREE MAJOR RELIGIONS OF THE WORLD EXIST IN PEACE, HAVE ACCESS TO ALL THEIR SITES, ONLY BECAUSE JERUSALEM IS UNITED AND UNDER ISRAELI RULE, Netanyahu contended, adding in deliberately Hebrew-accented English, "If it ain't broke, don't fix it!"

The new legal action, running to over 200 pages, is concerned with economic as well as political issues, which the complainants say are not addressed by the Lisbon Treaty. The Lisbon Treaty was signed by EU leaders in late 2007. They argue that a prognosis on European integration given by the country's constitutional court in a 1993 judgement on the Maastricht Treaty - WHICH PAVED THE WAY TO THE EURO - HAS TURNED OUT TO BE FALSE.

Instead, EU integration has been characterised by "continuous breaches of the stability pact, a presumptuous over-stepping of power by the European Commission, unaccountable leadership and dissolution of the separation of powers," say the authors in a statement on Monday (26 January), according to German daily Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung.

They say that the constitutional court cannot approve the Lisbon treaty because it "strengthens the current practice of dismembering the division of powers and mixing of competences." The complaint is being brought by Markus Kerber, a commercial lawyer, Dieter Spethmann, a former chief executive of Thyssen, former MEP Franz Ludwig Graf Stauffenberg and economist Joachim Starbatty.

Germany's highest court is already dealing with a separate complaint on the Lisbon treaty by conservative MP Peter Gauweiler. It is due to have a two-day hearing on his complaint - which says the treaty undermines freedoms guaranteed in the German constitution - on 10 and 11 February. The court now has to decide whether it will accept to proof their case. If it does, it is likely to take several months to come to a decision. This could delay the German government's timetable for the treaty, which it would like in place across the bloc by the end of the year.

The controller's office estimates that the delay in tax refunds will free up $1.99 billion over the next month to pay for education, debt service, and other payments that legally have first claim to state funds. CALIFORNIA HAS HAD NO MONEY IN ITS GENERAL FUND FOR THE PAST 17 MONTHS, and has been paying its bills by borrowing from Wall Street and special internal funds.

If the state's legislators and governor do not reach a budget agreement that brings immediate funds into the state's coffers, THE STATE'S BORROWED FUNDS WILL BE ENTIRELY EXHAUSTED AT THE END OF FEBRUARY, according to the controller's office.

Michael Dukes, of weather forecasters MeteoGroup, said the "reasonably average" temperatures over the last fortnight would come to an end on Sunday night (February 1st) when weather from Russia is expected to move across the UK.

Mr Dukes said: "Chill winds from the continent will start to be felt across the south and east in the next couple of days, before a blast of bitterly cold air from western Russia sends the mercury plunging during Sunday night and the early part of next week.

"Although still far from certain at this stage, there are growing signs that heavy snow showers will accompany this frigid air during Monday and Tuesday, more especially across southern and eastern parts of England, with the north and west probably staying mainly fine and frosty. Temperatures in the first half of next week are unlikely to be as low as they were in the early January 'freeze' but will struggle to rise above freezing by day and will drop several degrees below at night with a significant wind-chill adding to the cold."

A dispute has emerged among NATO High Command in Afghanistan regarding the conditions under which alliance troops can use deadly violence against those identified as insurgents. In a classified document, which Spiegel has obtained, NATO's top commander, US General John Craddock, has issued a "guidance" providing NATO troops with the authority "to attack directly drug producers and facilities throughout Afghanistan."

According to the document, deadly force is to be used even in those cases where there is no proof that suspects are actively engaged in the armed resistance against the Afghanistan government or against Western troops. It is "no longer necessary to produce intelligence or other evidence that each particular drug trafficker or narcotics facility in Afghanistan meets the criteria of being a military objective," Craddock writes.

The directive was sent on Jan. 5 to Egon Ramms, the German leader at NATO Command in Brunssum, Netherlands, which is currently in charge of the NATO ISAF mission, as well as David McKiernan, the commander of the ISAF peacekeeping force in Afghanistan. Neither want to follow it. Both consider the order to be illegitimate and believe it violates both ISAF rules of engagement and international law, the "Law of Armed Conflict."

Gore, a former Tennessee senator and Nobel Peace Prize winner, spoke on the dangers of global warming, urging senators to pursue a treaty to lower carbon emissions at a United Nations conference in Copenhagen in December.

Inhofe called Gore's message "desperate," and noted the irony of it being delivered on such an icy day in D.C. "They almost had to cancel it because of freezing weather, and last year they did cancel it because of cold weather," Inhofe said. "I'd say he has a real serious problem. But he's already made his $100 million, so I don't think he needs to worry too much about it. But the science and logic are on our side, and we are winning."

More than 35 years after it was first conceived by Klaus Schwab in 1971, the World Economic Forum's annual meeting at the small Swiss mountain town of Davos remains the biggest and most covered event of its kind. It is often dismissed as a mere talking shop in which nothing ever gets done. This has been heard more often since President Bill Clinton and his Clinton Global Initiative have explicitly challenged the World Economic Forum to become more relevant.

But talk and conversation will always matter, and the idea of a talking shop will never completely go out of fashion - certainly not as long as Davos continues to draw the A-list participants that it does. This year's co-chairmen, for example, are former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, JP Morgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon, Henry Kissinger, and China Mobile Communications CEO Wang Jianzhou.

There are world leaders, such as Gordon Brown of Britain and Pervez Musharraf of Pakistan; Nobel laureates by the dozen; and many scores of CEO's who happily spend up to $50,000 apiece for the privilege of being able to mingle for five days with other power brokers and learn a little more about how the world works. It is, for them, money well spent. Many can fit in more high-level meetings in the five days of Davos than they normally hold in five months of jet-setting. This is the one time each year that the world's most important men and women make every effort to be in the same place at the same time.

But the party-line vote of 244 to 188 in the Democratic-controlled Congress was a hollow victory for Mr Obama because not a single minority Republican voted for it. Mr Obama had lobbied Republicans, who were intensely sceptical about increased spending without major tax cuts, trying to make good on his campaign pledge to bring a new bipartisan tone to Washington, intensively.

Welcoming the vote, Mr Obama said: "Last year, America lost 2.6 million jobs. On Monday alone, we learned that some of our biggest employers plan to cut another 55,000. This is a wakeup call to Washington that the American people need us to act and act immediately." He added: "It [the bill] will double our capacity to generate renewable energy. It will lower the cost of health care by billions and improve its quality. It will modernise thousands of classrooms and send more kids to college."

"And it will put billions of dollars in immediate tax relief into the pockets of working families. But out of all these numbers, there is one that matters most to me: this recovery plan will save or create more than three million new jobs over the next few years."

Cyril, 62, the Metropolitan of Smolensk and Kaliningrad, was elected overwhelmingly on Tuesday as the new head of the Russian Orthodox Church. He arrives at the top job in Moscow with a very long and public resume. He served for nearly two decades as head of the Church's office of external affairs, a kind of roaming secretary of state, the Russian church's ambassador on the world's religious chessboard.

Cyril, who'd been serving as interim head of the Church since the Dec. 5 death of Patriarch Alexy II, was particularly adept at keeping warm relations with both Kremlin insiders and religious counterparts outside of Russia. His many contacts with the West, including a meeting in 2007 with Pope Benedict XVI at the Vatican, helped earn Cyril a reputation as A PRAGMATIC REFORMER WHO FAVORED MOVING HIS CHURCH CLOSER TO CATHOLICISM AFTER A MILLENNIUM-LONG SCHISM.

Other Catholic leaders hailed the choice of Cyril, who received 508 of the 700 votes cast at Tuesday's balloting among a commission of lay and clergy leaders in Moscow's Christ the Savior Cathedral. He defeated a conservative rival, Metropolitan Kliment. "This was the best result we could have hoped for," said one Rome-based Catholic priest involved in ecumenical dialogue. "He's always been a moderate, and open minded, and now that he's reached the top, HE'S FREE TO PURSUE CLOSER TIES WITH THE VATICAN."

The paper said the Barack Obama administration could announce its plans within days but has not yet determined the final shape of its new proposal, and the exact details could change. The administration is also seeking more effective ways to pump money into banks, and is considering buying common shares in the banks, according to the paper.

A Treasury spokeswoman told the paper that "while lots of options are on the table, there are no final decisions" on what she described as a "comprehensive plan. The president has made it clear that he'll do whatever it takes to stabilize our financial system so that we can get credit flowing again to families and businesses," she told the paper.

The U.S. Treasury has already disbursed nearly $294 billion from the government $700 billion Troubled Asset Relief Program, or TARP to shore up the banking system and faltering U.S. automakers. Billions more have been pledged for particular uses.