It now projects the UK, which recently entered recession, will see its economy shrink by 2.8% next year, the worst contraction among advanced nations. The IMF says financial markets remain under stress and THE GLOBAL ECONOMY HAS TAKEN A "SHARP TURN FOR THE WORSE". In another gloomy view of the UK economy, the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) said Britain would be saddled with government debt for more than 20 years.

IFS director Robert Chote warned that spending would have to be cut or taxes raised by more than planned to allow public finances to recover. The predictions came as Pascal Lamy, the director general of the World Trade Organization, urged COUNTRIES NOT TO REACT TO THE GLOBAL ECONOMIC CRISIS BY RESORTING TO PROTECTIONISM. Speaking from the World Economic Forum in Davos, Mr Lamy said such a move would be "a big mistake".

The couple, who cannot be named, wanted to give the five-year-old boy and his four-year-old sister a loving home themselves. But they were ruled to be too old - at 46 and 59. For two years they fought for their rights to care for the children, whose 26-year- old mother is a recovering heroin addict. They agreed to an adoption ONLY AFTER THEY FACED BEING FINANCIALLY CRIPPLED BY LEGAL BILLS.

THE FINAL BLOW CAME WHEN THEY WERE TOLD THE CHILDREN WERE GOING TO A GAY HOUSEHOLD, EVEN THOUGH SEVERAL HETEROSEXUAL COUPLES WANTED THEM. When the grandfather protested, he was told: 'You can either accept it, and there's a chance you'll see the children twice a year, or you can take that stance and never see them again.'

The man said last night: 'It breaks my heart to think that our grandchildren are being forced to grow up in an environment without a mother figure. We are not prejudiced, but I defy anyone to explain to us how this can be in their best interests.' Social workers themselves have admitted that the little girl is 'more wary' of men than women.

A spokesman for THE ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH CONDEMNED THE COUNCIL'S DECISION LAST NIGHT, warning that the children's welfare could be jeopardised. Peter Kearney said: 'This is a devastating decision which will have a serious impact on the welfare of the children involved. There is an overwhelming body of evidence showing that SAME-SEX RELATIONSHIPS ARE INHERENTLY UNSTABLE and reduce the life expectancy of those involved. With this in mind, the social work department has deliberately ignored evidence which undermines their decision and OPTED FOR POLITICALLY CORRECT POSTURING RATHER THAN PROVIDING STABILITY AND PROTECTION.'

Asked by The Daily Telegraph whether he agreed with his erstwhile investor colleague Jim Rogers that the pound was heading further down in the coming months, he said: "I did foresee the fall in sterling this year. I did actually have a short position in sterling and it was one of the trades I carried out. But sterling did fall from around $2 to about $1.40 and at that level the risk-reward balance is no longer compelling. I'm not saying won't fall any more though - it will continue to fluctuate"

MR SOROS ALSO SUGGESTED THAT THE IMF SHOULD USE ITS OWN INTERNATIONAL CURRENCY - special drawing rights - to pump more cash into the global economy. It would be analogous to printing money - quantitative easing - on a global scale.

Speaking at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Mr Soros also said he would be happy to start investing in the financial sector again provided governments created "good" and "bad" banks by isolating their bad assets.

The IFS suggests the government may have to freeze public spending in 2010. And it says that taxes are likely to go up more than planned, with possible increases in VAT in the future. The grim arithmetic facing the government is laid out in their report.

Even if everything goes according to plan, the IFS points out that it will be "THE EARLY 2030'S BEFORE DEBT RETURNS BELOW THE CEILING OF 40% OF NATIONAL INCOME" that Gordon Brown set as one of his key fiscal rules in 1997. Of course, a number of other EU countries may still have a higher government debt-to-GDP ratio than the UK.

In the longer term, a bigger problem for the government could be the rising cost of servicing (paying the interest) on the huge government debt. These costs are currently relatively low, because investors - such as banks - are seeking to buy Treasury bills (gilts) as a safe haven in uncertain times. "BUT THERE CLEARLY IS A DANGER INVESTORS WILL TAKE FRIGHT AT THE STATE OF THE UK PUBLIC FINANCES," which would push up interest rates, the IFS says.

The ILO's most optimistic forecast is for 18 million more unemployed, giving a global jobless rate of 6.1%. It says developing countries will suffer most from additional job losses. "IF THE RECESSION DEEPENS IN 2009, AS MANY FORECASTERS EXPECT, the global jobs crisis will worsen sharply," the ILO said. The International Monetary Fund is expected later on Wednesday to cut its forecast for world economic growth and predict a deeper than expected recession in the developed nations.

"WE ARE NOW FACING A GLOBAL JOBS CRISIS," said ILO director-general, Juan Somavia in the ILO's Global Employment Trends 2009 report. "Many governments are aware and acting, but more decisive and coordinated international action is needed to avert a global social recession. Progress in poverty reduction is unravelling and middle classes worldwide are weakening."

He called on the upcoming meeting of the G20 in early April in London to urgently agree on priority measures to promote productive investments and "decent" work and social protection objectives.

"Blushing interferes with the unscrupulous manipulation of others." The magazine asked some of the world's leading evolutionary biologists to identify the biggest gaps remaining in Darwin's theory to mark the bicentenary of the scientist's birth.

MORE THAN ONE ARGUED THAT THERE IS STILL NO EVOLUTIONARY EXPLANATION FOR THE ORIGIN OF LIFE ITSELF. Kenneth Miller, professor of biology at Brown University, Rhode Island, in the US, said: "We know a great deal about the creative chemistry of the early Earth, but not yet enough to solve this problem." Chris Wills, professor of biology at the University of California, said: "THE GAP BETWEEN… A COLLECTION OF MOLECULES AND EVEN THE MOST PRIMITIVE CELL REMAINS ENORMOUS."

Other evolutionary biologists cited our ignorance of what the last common ancestor of humans and chimpanzees looked like; the lack of an agreed explanation for any of the distinctive physiological hallmarks of human beings; and the lack of understanding of the role of geographical isolation in stimulating the birth of new species.

The 200th anniversary of Darwin's birth is on February 12.

Telling the magazine that he was also asked why he did not give "credit" to the Lord, Sir David continued: "They always mean beautiful things like hummingbirds. I always reply by saying that I think of a little child in East Africa with a worm burrowing through his eyeball. The worm cannot live in any other way, except by burrowing through eyeballs. I find that hard to reconcile with the notion of a divine and benevolent creator."

Sir David, who attended the Wyggeston Grammar School for Boys in Leicester from the 1930s, told the magazine he was astonished at manifestations of Christian faith. He said: "It never really occurred to me to believe in God - and I had nothing to rebel against, my parents told me nothing whatsoever. But I do remember looking at my headmaster delivering a sermon, a classicist, extremely clever… and thinking, he can't really believe all that, can he? How incredible!"

Sir David also said it was "terrible, terrible" when creationism and evolution were taught in schools as equivalent, alternative perspectives. "It's like saying that two and two equals four, but if you wish to believe it, it could also be five... EVOLUTION IS NOT A THEORY; IT IS A FACT, EVERY BIT AS MUCH AS THE HISTORICAL FACT THAT WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR LANDED IN 1066."

Whether he would get one from a skeptical Congress is unclear, given the wide dissatisfaction with the first bailout, known as the Troubled Asset Relief Program, or TARP, a $700 billion fund to stabilize the banks and Wall Street. The political danger of backing another aid package was vivid on Thursday when the House of Representatives voted 270-155 against releasing a second allotment of $350 billion to the TARP. The money will be released, nonetheless, because the Senate previously voted not to block the funds.

But lawmakers who voted in favor of such a program could pay a high price with voters in elections two years away. And if the new president requested more money and Congress rejected him, THE MARKETS MIGHT PLUNGE LIKE THEY DID LAST YEAR when the Bush administration's initial TARP funding request was defeated, although it was later approved. Neither outcome looks too rosy for Obama and congressional Democrats, leading some analysts to conclude that "TARP II" may not be on the cards.

"There would be tremendous political risk as Obama could lose the vote. THAT WOULD SPOOK MARKETS EVEN MORE AND COULD MAKE CONDITIONS WORSE. THAT IS WHY WE SEE THIS AS A VERY LAST RESORT," said Jaret Seiberg, financial services policy analyst at investment firm Stanford Group Co.

Putin, a former KGB spy, will become the first Russian official to open the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum, a flagship event for the elite of free-market capitalism. The ranks of top Wall Street bankers and chief executives have been thinned by the global financial turmoil this year, and the West's former economic pupils, China and Russia, are the star attractions.

"This is Davos under the Russian flag. Putin's speech will set a tone for the discussion," Putin's spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, told reporters in Moscow. "One of the goals of this trip is to continue talks with investors, both with those already present in the Russian market and those who are likely to enter it," Peskov said.

Putin, who as Kremlin chief presided over eight years of economic growth from 2000 to 2008, is now heading Russia's efforts to counter a deepening economic crisis within Russia. The credit crisis, which began in the United States two years ago, has engulfed major banks and triggered a severe global recession. Russia, which has spent about A THIRD OF ITS GOLD AND FOREIGN EXCHANGE RESERVES SINCE AUGUST to allow the gradual devaluation of the rouble, is facing tumbling prices for its main exports - oil, gas and metals.

"But being able to enrich uranium is not the same as having a nuclear weapon." However, the survey reports doubts over US Intelligence estimates that Iran halted its work on nuclear weapons six years ago. This points to Tehran's continued development of long-range ballistic missiles able to reach targets in Israel and beyond. The IISS recommends a mixture of carrot and stick as the best international response.

It concluded that a dual policy of engagement and sanctions, testing possibilities for Iranian cooperation while adopting targeted containment strategies, is the best way to deal with Iran's nuclear programme. Foreign affairs editor Tim Marshall said: "Several think-tanks have come to the same conclusion. The intelligence agencies are more reluctant to put a time frame on it, and the report itself says having enough enriched Uranium to build the warhead is not the same as building the warhead itself."

In an interview with the Al-Arabiya satellite television network on Monday, Obama sought to assure the Muslim world that "Americans are not your enemy" and urged Israelis and Palestinians to return to the negotiating table.

Obama has promised to directly address Middle East questions at the start of his presidency rather than waiting for years like his predecessor George W. Bush, but said he did not want expectations raised too high for swift progress for peace, following the Israeli war against Hamas in Gaza.

Prince Saud told the Saudi-funded and Dubai-based Al-Arabiya that a resolution of the Middle East conflict would "automatically contribute to the resolution of other regional crises." He said Arab nations were ready to discuss with Obama's administration the Saudi-initiated peace plan which dates back to 2002 calling for a normalisation of ties with Israel in return for a full withdrawal from Arab land occupied in 1967.

"Arab states... have no reservations in holding a fruitful dialogue to respond to any questions posed by the American administration about the peace plan," he said.

Metropolitan Kirill of Smolensk and Kaliningrad, AN ARTICULATE CRITIC OF DECLINING MORAL VALUES in the modern world who has been ACTIVELY INVOLVED IN THE ECUMENICAL MOVEMENT and called for the Russian Orthodox Church to step up its outreach in secular society, was elected overwhelmingly. He has served as locum tenens, or interim patriarch, since Aleksy's death.

At a meeting Sunday of the church's hierarchs, the Archbishops' Council, Kirill spoke in tough terms about threats to church unity, especially in Ukraine. The Orthodox church in Ukraine has broken into rival groups since the collapse of the Soviet Union. The largest is still loyal to Moscow and accounts for more than one-third of the entire Russian Orthodox Church, but calls are growing for its independence, or autocephaly in church terms.

In December, Pravaya.ru, a conservative Orthodox Web site, published an open letter TAKING KIRILL TO TASK FOR TIES TO THE ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH. As chairman of the Moscow Patriarchate's Department of External Church Relations, KIRILL HAS BEEN INVOLVED IN ECUMENICAL RELATIONS FOR YEARS.

Today's teenagers are starring in the reality show of their own lives and doing all they can to make it as dramatic as possible. Where before mistakes we made when young - excessive drinking, acts of promiscuity - were quietly forgotten, now they are recorded and broadcast on the internet for all to see.

SO HOW MUCH ARE THE PARENTS TO BLAME? In today's world of fast information and access to all areas, too many - particularly the young - are having to up the stakes to chase their particular dragon and get the high they crave. Sometimes, they're so busy creating drama and tension in the movie of their own lives that they've forgotten to be human beings.

'The problem is that teenagers have rejected the values of the previous era and TO REJECT THE VALUES OF THE SIXTIES OR SEVENTIES, WHICH WAS VERY LAISSEZ FAIRE, YOU HAVE TO GO VERY FAR,' says Dr Pat Spungin, psychologist and founder of parenting website raisingkids.co.uk. 'There used to be a stricter and more regulated approach to bringing up children, parents should take back some of the control they've ceded. We don't say "no" enough, so vulnerable girls don't have enough experience of saying "no" themselves.'

Few would wish a return to the hypocritical constraints of life before the sexual revolution; however, the trouble with the pendulum is that it has a habit of swinging too far the other way. Perhaps it's time for everyone to pull up their pants and show each other a little more respect; and, since we're supposed to be the adults, it has to start with us, with how we behave, how we draw boundaries and what we put in our newspapers and magazines and on our television screens.

But Klaus Schwab, the founder of the World Economic Forum, has warned the crisis is nowhere near over yet. A new poll shows business leaders think the recovery will take three years. Some 2,500 guests, including senior executives from some of the world's biggest banks as well as 40 heads of state and government - a record number - will join discussions on the economic crisis, poverty, energy, climate change and free trade.

While the annual event in the Swiss mountain village of Davos keeps attracting many of the world's most powerful people, the mood has changed dramatically. Some companies have been wiped out by the world's continuing financial crisis, while others have been rescued by governments or nationalised. As a result participants agree that THIS YEAR IT WILL NOT BE BANKERS DOMINATING DISCUSSIONS; INSTEAD POLITICIANS WILL SET THE AGENDA.

Indeed a new survey conducted by PricewaterhouseCoopers suggests that business confidence among top bosses around the world has plummeted in recent months. "We have to face up to the fact that the recovery, when it comes, later this year or early next year, is going to be anaemic," said Stephen Roach, Morgan Stanley's Asia chairman.

Astonishingly, Mr Brown even claimed to have predicted the current financial crisis 10 years ago. His boasts came as the tally of jobs axed or under threat this month hit 50,000. In one of the most devastating days since the economic downturn took hold, steel giant Corus confirmed the loss of 2,500 UK jobs and electronics manufacturer Philips announced 6,000 redundancies worldwide.

Theresa May, Shadow Work and Pensions Secretary, said: "It is now clear that unemployment is fast becoming our number one political and economic issue and I fear this is yet more evidence that Labour's attempts at tackling the recession aren't working." Tory MP David Davies said: "The Prime Minister's words indicate that he is losing his marbles as well as the economy. GORDON BROWN IS THE LAST PERSON ANYONE WOULD WANT IN CHARGE OF A NEW WORLD ORDER."

Mr Brown said: "We could view the threats and challenges we face today as THE DIFFICULT BIRTH-PANGS OF A NEW GLOBAL ORDER." World leaders faced a task that was "nothing less than making the transition through A NEW INTERNATIONALISM to the benefits of AN EXPANDING GLOBAL SOCIETY".