"BLUNTLY THE SITUATION IS DIRE," he told a meeting on the crisis at the International Labour Organisation, a United Nations agency representing unions, employers and governments that studies labour issues. Strauss-Kahn was talking less than two weeks before a summit of the G20 leading nations on April 2 to tackle the crisis. As the crisis spills over into developing countries, MILLIONS OF PEOPLE WILL BE PUSHED BACK INTO POVERTY AND HARDSHIP, Strauss-Kahn said.

"All this will affect dramatically unemployment and beyond unemployment for many countries it will be at THE ROOTS OF SOCIAL UNREST, SOME THREAT TO DEMOCRACY, AND MAY BE FOR SOME CASES IT CAN ALSO END IN WAR," he said.

The IMF's experience of 122 banking crises around the world had taught it that economic recovery was impossible until banks were cleaned up, whether this was done quickly or slowly. "You can put in as much stimulus as you want. It will just melt in the sun as snow if at the same time you are not able to have a generally smaller financial sector than before but a healthy financial sector at work," he said. Despite the need for many countries to run huge deficits, emerging countries must not ignore the importance of rebuilding confidence in order to attract private capital in a globalised world, he said.

Dewey Cornell, a professor of education at the University of Virginia said, "that persons who play violent video games will be more prone to have aggressive thoughts, feelings and actions."

Brad Bushman, a psychology professor at the University of Michigan, said the study does not allow conclusions about which came first — Internet addiction or aggression. "It could be that using the Internet causes people to behave more aggressively or it could be that aggressive people seek out the Internet," he said. "Or some other third factor could cause both — people with poor social skills don't have any friends, so they spend a lot of time on the Internet and can't resolve conflicts in non-aggressive ways."

If so, it will raise fears the UK is facing a damaging bout of deflation. The Consumer Prices Index (CPI), which is used in economic policy, is expected to show prices have risen by 2.6%. The Office for National Statistics (ONS) is due to announce both measures at 0930 GMT on Tuesday. If the RPI is negative it would be the first time the index has declined since March 1960. This is largely down to the fall in mortgage repayments after a succession of interest rate cuts.

The latest RPI data showed prices had increased by just 0.1% in January compared with the previous year, the ONS said last month. The Bank of England and UK government use the index of consumer prices (CPI) to target the level of inflation they desire. But the government uses the broader measure of RPI to set the level of state pensions, welfare benefits and index-linked government bonds.

There is the concern of the cost of mortgage payments staying the same while other prices fall, effectively leading to an increased debt burden. Economists surveyed by the UK Treasury expect retail prices to be falling by an annual rate of 1.9% by the end of the year.

It also says the al-Qaeda leadership is likely to fragment, but the threat from those it inspires will remain. Ministers earlier said 60,000 workers are being trained to help respond to a terror attack as part of the strategy. Home Secretary Jacqui Smith said: "Terrorists will try to stay one step ahead of us. But we've made sure that we've invested the resources, built the people - both in the police and in the agencies - and built the widest partnership necessary to give us the best chance of being able to deal with that threat."

The new counter-terrorism document talks about the need to "challenge those who reject the rights to which we are committed, scorn the institutions and values of our parliamentary democracy, dismiss the rule of law and promote intolerance". There will be more focus on preventing the radicalisation of Muslims. Last month, sources told the BBC's Panorama programme that conservative Muslims who teach that Islam is incompatible with Western democracy will be challenged as part of a new approach.

BY 2011, BRITAIN WILL BE SPENDING £3.5BN A YEAR ON COUNTER-TERRORISM, the Home Office has said. The number of police working on counter-terrorism has risen to 3,000 from 1,700 in 2003.

From a looming battle with China over tariffs on carbon-intensive goods to a spat over Mexican trucks using American roads, barriers are going up around the world. As the recession's grip tightens, these pressures are likely to intensify, several experts said. The surge in protectionism is casting a shadow over an economic summit meeting of world leaders scheduled for London on April 2.

"No sooner was the G-20 statement issued than it was breached," said Daniel M. Price, an official in the Bush administration who helped negotiate the agreement. "Instead of just talking about trade liberalization, countries need to take immediate steps to show they mean it."

World Bank, in a report last week, said that since the Washington meeting, 17 members of the Group of 20 had adopted 47 measures aimed at restricting trade. Russia has raised tariffs on used cars. China has tightened import standards on food, banning Irish pork, among other things. India has banned Chinese toys. Argentina has tightened licensing requirements on auto parts, textiles and leather goods.

And a dozen countries, from the United States to Australia, are subsidizing embattled automakers or car dealers. The most vivid example of that policy is the "Buy America" provision in the stimulus package, intended to ensure that only American manufacturers benefited from public-spending projects.

With violence rising ahead of elections in August, Obama has already committed an extra 17,000 troops to Afghanistan, but on Sunday he said military force alone would not end the war. "What we can't do is think that just a military approach in Afghanistan is going to be able to solve our problems," he said in an interview with CBS TV's "60 minutes."

"So what we're looking for is a comprehensive strategy. AND THERE'S GOT TO BE AN EXIT STRATEGY… There's got to be a sense that this is not perpetual drift." Some analysts say Washington is going to have to engage in dialogue with Taliban elements, a point Obama and Vice President Joe Biden have conceded recently. However, in Afghanistan itself other experts have suggested that idea is a non-starter.

And Taliban-led insurgents such as the Haqqani network, which has admitted carrying out some of the most deadly attacks on civilians and foreign troops in Afghanistan, dismiss the dialogue proposals as a trick to weaken and divide militants. In an interview with Reuters on Monday Sirajuddin Haqqani said all Taliban were the same and no parts of the movement would be willing to engage with Washington or Kabul.

Ash from Alaska's volcano's is like a rock fragment with jagged edges and has been used as an industrial abrasive. It can injure skin, eyes and breathing passages. The young, the elderly and people with respiratory problems are especially susceptible to ash-related health problems. Ash can also cause damage to engines in planes, cars and other vehicles. Alaska Airlines on Monday cancelled 19 flights in and out of the Anchorage international airport because of the ash.

The 10,200-foot Redoubt Volcano, roughly 100 miles southwest of Anchorage, last erupted during a four-month period from 1989-90. In its last eruption, Redoubt sent ash 150 miles away into the path of a KLM jet and its four engines flamed out. The jet dropped more than 2 miles before the crew was able to restart all engines and land safely. The plane required $80 million in repairs.

The volcano became restless earlier this year. A warning was issued in late January that an eruption could occur at any time. Increased earthquake activity over the past 48 hours prompted scientists to raise the alert level for Mount Redoubt on Sunday. On Sunday morning, 40 to 50 earthquakes were being recorded every hour.

The biggest crowd of Benedict's seven day pilgrimage to Africa turned up in sweltering heat for the open-air service on the outskirts of Angola's seaside capital, Luanda, the last major event before the end of the visit on Monday. "HOW TRUE IT IS THAT WAR CAN DESTROY EVERYTHING OF VALUE", Benedict said mopping his sweaty brow with a white handkerchief.

Evils in Africa have "reduced the poor to slavery and deprived future generations of the resources needed to create a more solid and just society," he said. Benedict told the crowds clustered in a huge vacant lot near a cement factory that he regretted the deaths of two women who were trampled in a stampede at a stadium Saturday before his address to young Angolans.

He extended his condolences to the victims' families and wished those injured a speedy recovery. Vatican spokesman the Reverend Federico Lombardi said the two 20-year-old women were trampled when gates opened at a Luanda stadium and then died later in hospital. The spokesman said the Vatican's No. 2 official Cardinal Tarcisio Pertone will visit some 40 injured people in hospital.

Gregg says he has no regrets in withdrawing his nomination to become Commerce Secretary. He pulled out after deciding he could not fully back the administration's economic policies. The senator said Obama's spending plan in the midst of a prolonged recession would leave the next generation with a country too expensive to live in.

The new effort, to be unveiled Monday, will be followed the next day with release of the administration's broad framework for overhauling the financial system to ensure that the current crisis - the worst in seven decades - is not repeated. A key part of that regulatory framework will give the government new resolution authority to take over troubled institutions that would pose a threat to the entire financial system if they failed.

Administration officials believe this new power will save taxpayers money and avoid the type of controversy that erupted last week when insurance giant American International Group paid employees of its troubled financial products unit $165 million in bonuses even though the company had received more than $170 billion in support from the federal government.

Under the new powers being sought by the administration, the treasury secretary could only seize a firm with the agreement of the president and the Federal Reserve. Once in the equivalent of a conservatorship, the treasury secretary would have the power to limit payments to creditors and to break contracts governing executive compensation, a power that was lacking in the AIG case.

Mark Zandi, an economist at Moody's Economy.com, estimated that the government will need an additional $400 billion to adequately deal with the toxic asset problem, seen by many analysts as key to finally resolving the banking crisis. The administration is working to unveil its proposed regulatory changes in advance of a meeting of the Group of 20 economic leaders, which Obama will attend on April 2 in London. European nations have complained that lax financial regulations in the United States set the stage for the current financial crisis.

"You're sitting here. And you're — you are laughing. You are laughing about some of these problems. Are people going to look at this and say, 'I mean, he's sitting there just making jokes about money —' How do you deal with — I mean: explain..." Kroft asked at one point.

"Are you punch-drunk?" Kroft said. "No, no. There's gotta be a little gallows humor to get you through the day," Obama said, with a laugh. Obama tried to inject some optimistic notes into the interview, saying he sees "flickers of hope" that the economy is beginning to turn the corner. He got in a few whacks of his own at Wall Street executives who contributed to the meltdown — referring to them ironically at one point as "the best and the brightest" — while being ever-mindful that he still needs their help to dig out of the crisis.

"If we did nothing, you could still have some big problems. There are certain institutions that are so big that if they fail, they bring a lot of other financial institutions down with them. And if all those financial institutions fail all at the same time, then you could see an even more destructive recession and potentially depression," Obama said. "I'm optimistic about that not happening," he quickly added, "because I think we did learn lessons from the Great Depression."

Obama also cited Wall Street's high-risk, high-reward culture as a main cause of the economic meltdown. He took aim at traders and executives in personal terms — saying they need to leave New York for North Dakota or Iowa to appreciate how out-of-whack their pay looks to the average American. "I mean there were a whole bunch of folks who, on paper, if you looked at quarterly reports, were wildly successful, selling derivatives that turned out to be... completely worthless," Obama said, with a chuckle.

He has already reached a deal with far-right leader Avigdor Lieberman and talks are planned with Labour, headed by Ehud Barak, and other small parties. He plans to build a broad based team, or failing that a coalition of right-wing and Jewish nationalist parties

Talks have so far not proved successful with the largest party in the 10 February election - Kadima - which insists Mr Netanyahu sign up to the two-state formula which has underpinned more than 15 years of Israeli-Palestinian peace efforts. Analysts say a right-wing coalition would be more susceptible to political extortion by small hard-line parties.

Last week Mr Netanyahu requested and received approval from President Shimon Peres for a two-week extension to build a national unity coalition. "The creation of such a government is all the more important in view of... the grave [security] threats and economic crisis," the president's office quoted Mr Netanyahu as saying. Mr Netanyahu has said Israel faces "great challenges" including the global economic crisis and what he said was Iran's wish to obtain nuclear weapons.

Informed of the reports yesterday, Pauls told the Irish Times that while he could not recall using "those exact words", he admitted that he had said "something along those lines" at the event. He said, "A second No would have horrific consequences for Ireland and I am not the first to say it. I don't think there is anything particularly new in that."

He also rejected suggestions his remarks could be considered undiplomatic. "They are not. I am simply conveying what my government thinks. That is my job." The paper also reports that Pauls ran into a similar controversy in 2007 when he said in a speech that Ireland's history is "sadder than Poland's".

In E!Sharp magazine, Liberal leader in the European Parliament Graham Watson says that, should the Irish deliver a second No vote, "The sky is not going to fall in. There is technically no reason why the Union should not proceed on the basis of the Treaty of Nice. Although of course then the Irish definitely lose their commissioner - somebody would lose a commissioner anyway."

He stated in one speech, "The corrupt Pope went on a tour in order to cover up the homosexuality of his priests. As you know, he made a tour from America to Australia, saying: 'We are sorry that our priests are paedophiles and homosexuals.' ...He paid three billion dollars in compensation to families whose little children were abused by priests in churches. But nobody sees what the Pope himself does in the Vatican. It's not clear who should apologize for the Pope's deeds."

In another speech, he took aim at the US, stating its values are "sex, violence and melancholy. WE DO NOT WANT TO COEXIST WITH AMERICA. WE WANT TO COMBAT AMERICA – not just America, but Zionism, England, and the leaders of global capitalism, who are exploiting the Muslims and the oppressed throughout the world," said Azghadi.

Speaking about the current economic crisis, Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin told the assembled glitterati: "In the 20th century, the Soviet Union made the state's role absolute. In the long run, this made the Soviet economy totally uncompetitive. This lesson cost us dearly. I am sure nobody wants to see it repeated. Nor should we turn a blind eye to the fact that the spirit of free enterprise, including the principle of personal responsibility of business-people, investors, and shareholders for their decisions, is being eroded in the last few months. There is no reason to believe that we can achieve better results by shifting responsibility onto the state."

This is mind-boggling. Putin sounded "more like Barry Goldwater than any Russian leader I ever heard of." But Putin went further, warning against the dangers of military expansionism as a means of solving economic woes. "Unfortunately, we are increasingly hearing the argument that the build-up of military spending could solve today's social and economic problems. The logic is simple enough. Additional military allocations create new jobs. At a glance, this sounds like a good way of fighting the crisis and unemployment."

"This policy might even be quite effective in the short term. But in the longer run, militarization won't solve the problem but will rather quell it temporarily. What it will do is squeeze huge financial and other resources from the economy instead of finding better and wiser uses for them."

A RUSSIAN LEADER NOW TELLING AMERICANS THAT THEIR TURN TOWARD STATISM AND MILITARISM IS HARMFUL BOTH TO THEMSELVES AND TO THE WORLD is a turn of events no one of my generation could possibly have imagined, certainly not anyone who values human liberty. It is a sad and telling commentary that no American leader of any stature, aside from Representative Ron Paul, has the courage to tell us what we need to hear.