The season's first snowfall in the greater Tokyo region measured 3.5 inches in the center of the capital on Saturday, the heaviest accumulation in eight years, the Japan Meteorological Agency said. At Narita airport, some 40 miles from downtown Tokyo, 51 international flights were cancelled as airport workers were unable to remove snow from runways quickly enough.

More than 90 other flights were delayed for a night, leaving passengers stuck in the terminal, an airport public relations official said. "A total of 9,690 passengers were stranded overnight at the two terminals. We provided blankets and extended the time for air-conditioning and lighting to accommodate them at lobbies," the official said.

The Falcon cable was cut 56 kilometres (35 miles) from Dubai, between Oman and the United Arab Emirates, according to its owner, FLAG Telecom, which is part of India's Reliance Communications. The repair ship had been notified and was expected to arrive at the site in the next few days, the company said on its website.

Flag Telecom owns another cable that was damaged off Egypt on Wednesday. A repair ship was expected to arrive by Tuesday to restore that cable and repairs were expected to take a week, the company said. The outages have disrupted business across the Middle East and South Asia, including in India, where businesses said it may take up to 15 days to return to normal.

Parliament is expected to approve a constitutional amendment next week sponsored by the ruling AK Party, which has Islamist roots, and a nationalist opposition party that is aimed at easing a 1989 headscarf ban for students in higher education. Secularists fear lifting the ban would, over time, lead to heavy pressure on uncovered women to wear the Muslim garment.

"Turkey is secular and will remain secular," shouted protesters as they waved national flags and banners of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, revered founder of the republic which separated religion and state, at his mausoleum in the capital Ankara. "I am a true believer in Islam, but my religion is in my heart, not in what I wear. I feel that the headscarf will bring the country backwards," said Fatma Sarikaya, a retired engineer. "Turkey is unique in this region. It has modernized Islam and we should be leading other Muslim countries," she said.

But pressure has intensified this week with university rectors warning that allowing students to wear the Muslim headscarf at university would provoke campus chaos and street violence and end up destroying the secular state. Secularist professors have threatened not to allow women into class if they wore the garment. Thousands of students have been expelled over the years for trying to wear the headscarf at university.

The Bishop is also facing anger from the most senior members of the Church of England hierarchy for his comments on Islam. The Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, has made Islam a priority of his archiepiscopate and set up a Muslim-Christian forum to promote relations between the faiths in 2006. One senior cleric told The Times yesterday: "The Bishop of Rochester is in effect threatening to undo everything we have done."

The cleric said that some congregations in cities such as Leicester, where interfaith work was a priority, were increasingly wary of donating money towards this work. Church leaders in towns with a large Muslim population were anxious that relations with their neighbours were being undermined. Dr Nazir-Ali was in India when staff at his home in Rochester took a number of phone calls threatening his family and warning him that he would not "live long" if he continued to criticise Islam. He has been given an emergency number at Kent Police, along with other undisclosed protection measures, and said that the threats were being taken "seriously".

Speaking to The Times, Dr Nazir-Ali, who is on the conservative evangelical wing of the Church and is Britain's only Asian bishop, said: "The irony is that I had similar threats when I was a bishop in Pakistan, but I never thought I would have them here. My point in saying what I did was that Britain had lost its Christian vision, which would have provided the resources to offer hospitality to others." He said that this absence of a Christian vision had led to multiculturalism. "Everyone agrees that multiculturalism has had disastrous consequences, and that segregation and extremism have arisen from this."

Liu Hongqun was forced to have her baby girl in a toilet after three days waiting at Beijing West station after the freak weather snapped power lines. Liu and her husband were just two of 105 million passengers across China who have been left stranded as heavy snowfall and ice storms disrupted Chinese new year travel plans.

The worst affected station had been Guangzhou, in the far south, where 800,000 people have been waiting since heavy snow began wreaking havoc a week ago. Trains finally began moving today as the key line between Beijing and Guangzhou was restored, in part by using diesel locomotives to get through areas hit by power shortages.

A staggering 150,000 homes have collapsed and another 650,000 have been seriously damaged, disaster relief officials have revealed. And a total of 64 people have so far died and the effects of the weather crisis has triggered food shortages. "The impact of the snow disaster in southern China on winter crop production is extremely serious," said Chen Xiwen, the government's leading expert on the agricultural economy.

The extreme weather is forcast to last another week.

"We will work to close the border between us and Egypt," Mahmoud al-Zahar told reporters upon returning to Gaza from talks in Cairo. "We will restore control over this border, in cooperation with Egypt and gradually."
Hamas militants blew up a frontier wall on January 23 to allow hundreds of thousands of Palestinians, impoverished by an Israeli-led blockade, to pour into the Egyptian Sinai and stock up on supplies. Egypt has since tried to seal the crossings. Zahar called the toppling of the wall a "popular action".

Former U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan brokered a deal between Kenya's rival parties on Friday to take immediate steps to end post-election violence which has killed nearly 900 people and displaced more than a quarter of a million. But on Saturday, huge flames soared over slum dwellings in the Rift Valley town of Kericho. Residents dragged out mattresses, cupboards, suitcases and pots and pans, piling them onto carts as they tried to escape the unrest.

"They say these buildings belong to a Kikuyu so they are burning them to tell them to go away," said Victor Kemboi, one Kericho resident, as shacks smouldered behind him. Riots, clashes with security forces and ethnic reprisals broke out after President Mwai Kibaki was returned to power in a Dec. 27 poll which his rival Raila Odinga says was rigged.

The conflict, which has often pitted Kibaki's Kikuyu ethnic group against other tribes supporting Odinga, has tarnished the image of a nation long seen as one of Africa's more stable and with one of the continent's most promising economies.

The consortium will focus on Ambac, America's second-biggest insurer, before addressing concerns at other insurance firms. The consortium, which includes Citigroup, Société Générale and UBS, is working with the New York Insurance Department, the state's industry regulator, to bail out bond insurers, who are facing multibillion-dollar claims in the sub-prime mortgage crisis.

Although the plans are at an early stage, they are most likely to involve the consortium raising $15 billion to inject into the handful of insurers that dominate the market.

THE BOND INSURERS TRADITIONALLY HAVE HAD THE TOP AAA CREDIT RATING, which is key to their ability to attract new underwriting business. This year Ambac, Financial Guaranty and Security Capital Assurance have lost their top rating.

The insurers desperately need cash to meet the expected surge in claims as well as to regain or preserve their AAA ratings. ANALYSTS SAY THAT BOND INSURERS WILL NOT BE ABLE TO SURVIVE WITHOUT THE TOP CREDIT RATING AS POLICY-HOLDERS NEED TO HAVE ABSOLUTE ASSURANCE THAT THE UNDERWRITER HAS THE ABILITY TO MEET ANY CLAIMS. If they are to survive, the insurers need multi-billion-dollar cash injections or to find a buyer, analysts argue.

The consortium, which also includes BNP Paribas, Wachovia and Dresdner, believes that it would be cheaper to prop up the confidence of bond investors by buoying up its underwriters. HOWEVER, EXPERTS BELIEVE A CASH INJECTION OF AS MUCH AS $200 BILLION, NOT $15 BILLION, IS NEEDED.

HESHAM H. ISLAM, a special assistant to DEPUTY DEFENSE SECRETARY GORDON ENGLAND, recently criticized Maj. Stephen Coughlin, one of the military's leading authorities on Islamic war doctrine, FOR MAKING THE CONNECTION BETWEEN THE RELIGION OF ISLAM AND TERRORISM. After Islam lodged complaints, Coughlin's contract with the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff at the Pentagon was not renewed.

Islam also was upset with briefings Coughlin recently prepared for the U.S. military warning that major U.S. Muslim groups were fronting for THE MUSLIM BROTHERHOOD, a worldwide jihadist movement based in Egypt. Islam, who was born and raised in Egypt, is heavily involved with one of the groups - the Islamic Society of North America, which U.S. prosecutors last year named as a member of the U.S. branch of the Muslim Brotherhood and an unindicted co-conspirator in a major terror-funding case. Speaking during ISNA's 2006 opening ceremonies, England proclaimed, "THERE IS NO CONTRADICTION BETWEEN THE PEACEFUL RELIGION OF ISLAM AND AMERICA'S VALUES AND PRINCIPLES."

Coughlin reached the opposite conclusion in a 329-page report submitted to the National Defense Intelligence College, in which HE WARNS THAT ISLAMIC LAW SANCTIONS VIOLENCE.

Recently declassified FBI documents reveal its sister organization, an Islamist think tank known as the International Institute of Islamic Thought, or IIIT, is involved in A MUSLIM BROTHERHOOD CONSPIRACY TO WAGE A CULTURAL AND POLITICAL JIHAD TO EVENTUALLY TAKE OVER AMERICA FROM WITHIN - MOST NOTABLY, THROUGH INFILTRATION OF GOVERNMENT AGENCIES.

The FBI official warned that the Muslim aides are part of a conspiracy by Muslim Brotherhood fronts to run "influence operations" against the U.S. government. A senior U.S. official who has met with England says he was not even aware THAT A CONVICTED TERRORIST AND AL-QAIDA FUND-RAISER CREATED THE PENTAGON'S MUSLIM CHAPLAINS CORPS. Adurahman Alamoudi, a Muslim Brotherhood leader and founder of the American Muslim Council, PLACED MUSLIM CHAPLAINS THROUGHOUT THE MILITARY. He is now in jail on charges of terrorism. However, most of the chaplains he trained and sponsored are still in their current positions

"Hesham Islam is an Islamist with a pro-Muslim Brotherhood bent who has brought in groups to the Pentagon who have been unindicted co-conspirators," he said. Emerson said A "TROJAN HORSE" OF SUBVERSIVES AND POTENTIAL SPIES HAVE PENETRATED DEEP INSIDE THE PENTAGON, and they are now bearing fruit with the ouster of Coughlin. Sources say Islam has high security clearance.

A former Pentagon colleague of Coughlin described Islam as a "gatekeeper," who at a minimum, is blocking candid discussion of the religious nature of the threat posed by Muslim terrorists. Such action, William Gawthrop says, thwarts the U.S. war effort, because it denies military brass and rank-and-file the information they need to effectively fight the Islamist enemy. "WE STILL DO NOT HAVE AN IN-DEPTH UNDERSTANDING OF THE WAR-FIGHTING DOCTRINE LAID DOWN BY (THE MUSLIM PROPHET) MUHAMMAD, how it might be applied today by an increasing number of Islamic groups, or how it might be countered," Gawthrop told WND. He says Coughlin was trying to bridge that gap before being pushed out.

Blair, currently the Middle East envoy for the US, Russia, EU and the UN, has told friends he has made no final decision, but is increasingly willing to put himself forward for the job if it comes with real powers to intervene in defence and trade affairs.

Blair, who is being actively promoted by the French president Nicolas Sarkozy, recognises he would need to abandon his well-paid, private sector jobs if he won. His wife Cherie - often portrayed as seeking ever more wealth and well-paid consultancies for her husband - is understood to be supportive of him accepting the job.

Some Blair allies also say that he now recognises that as envoy in the Middle East he is not going to be allowed to become the key player in furthering Israeli-Palestinian talks this year, and will be reduced to a role of supporting political development in Palestine and boosting its economy.

The president of the European council of ministers is a post created under the Lisbon treaty. The president will be the permanent chair of the council of ministers, Europe's chief decision-making body. Apart from Blair, two other candidates most often mentioned are the former Austrian chancellor Wolfgang Schüssel, promoted by Germany, and the current Luxembourg prime minister, Jean-Claude Juncker.

But academics at the Institute of Education in the University of London warned that pupils should not be encouraged to love Britain for its "morally ambiguous" history. The report, by Michael Hand and Jo Pearce, said patriotism should be taught - but as "a controversial issue".

Dr Hand said: "Gordon Brown and (Tory leader) David Cameron have both called for a history curriculum that fosters attachment and loyalty to Britain. But the case for promoting patriotism in schools is weak. Patriotism is love of one's country, but are countries really appropriate objects of love? Loving things can be bad for us, for example when the things we love are morally corrupt. Since all national histories are at best morally ambiguous, it's an open question whether citizens should love their countries."

The researchers questioned more than 300 teachers in London secondary schools and pupils aged 13-14. Three-quarters of the teachers felt they had an obligation to alert their pupils to the dangers of patriotic sentiments. Only 9% of teachers thought schools should actively promote patriotism.

A handful of MEPs have been exercising their right to explain, after each vote, why they voted as they did in not more than 60 seconds. But even this was too much for the majority of EURO-FEDERALISTS. They were so determined to prevent us from making our gesture that they crossly tore up their own rule-book.

Whenever I complained of the impropriety of what was being done, I got the same answer: WE HAVE THE MAJORITY BEHIND US. This is true - opponents of the European Constitution number no more than 50-odd MEPs out of 785. But a simple majority cannot override a constitution. This may seem a small point, but in it is contained the entirety of the difference between constitutional government and arbitrary rule. I REMINDED MEPS YESTERDAY THAT THE 1933 ENABLING ACT HAD COMMANDED A MAJORITY IN THE REICHSTAG, BUT THAT ITS PASSAGE OPENED THE DOOR TO DICTATORSHIP.

Whatever else they are, MEPs are not Nazis. My point was that MEPs, of all people, should be wary of setting the law aside arbitrarily. Their greatest boast, and their constant justification, is that they have spread democracy across Europe. That is why it is so outrageous to see them DISREGARDING THE RULES WHEN THE RULES DON'T SUIT THEM.

It is precisely this behaviour that has turned people against the European project. "Yes" votes are treated as final and binding, "No" votes as obstacles to be overcome. UNAUDITED ACCOUNTS are treated as a small price to pay for the goal of closer integration. THE END JUSTIFIES THE MEANS.

The wealthy avoid tax worth £13bn while the country's largest firms escape tax worth £12bn, according to the study commissioned by the Trades Union Congress. The report concluded that Britain's top 50 companies pay corporation tax at 22.5 per cent, far below the official rate of 30 per cent, by using a range of measures to manage the amount of tax due.

Richard Murphy, a tax specialist, estimated that the real tax paid by corporations was falling by 0.5 per cent year - indicating that major firms are becoming more and more effective at avoiding tax. Mr Murphy's report, based on studying hundreds of company reports and trawling through data from HM Revenue and Customs, said that wealthy people saved £3.2bn in tax by turning conventional income into investment income, which is taxed at a lower rate, or by shifting income to family members on lower tax bands. Another £3.8bn in tax was lost by moving transactions out of the country.

Union leaders stressed that tax-avoidance measures were wholly legal, but urged ministers to close loopholes to make real tax payments reflect headline tax rates.

From 1981 to 2000, the proportion of babies who survived after being born at 22-25 weeks gestation more than doubled from 32 per cent to 71 per cent at the University College London Hospitals NHS Trust. Pressure has been growing for a cut in the 24-week limit because of evidence that some babies are viable at gestations of 23 or 22 weeks. MPs have been promised a free vote on any amendments on abortion to the Human Fertilisation and Embryo Bill currently before Parliament.

No one any more believes the soothing noises from the builders (aka investment bankers), who say the worst will soon be over. The Federal Reserve's drastic cuts in interest rates amount to little more than a bit of cosmetic repointing. Yesterday there was a fresh buckling noise coming from the foundations, where the monoline insurers reside. These are the institutions that insure trillions of dollars of bond issues against default. Having strayed from their original safe but dull role of insuring municipal bonds to underwriting racy sub-prime-backed securities, they are paying the price. One of the biggest, MBIA, announced a $2.3 billion loss yesterday, while another, FGIC, was downgraded by Fitch. All have seen their shares thumped and face further downgrades.

No one quite knows how bad the impact would be if one failed. Together they insure bonds with a face value of $2,400 billion. Most are rock solid, but there is still a residual $231 billion of more questionable securities, a large chunk of them backed by US sub-prime mortgages. Defaults by struggling American homeowners are going to work their way back along the food chain, ultimately to the monoline insurers.

Monolines played a key role in the gigantic game of financial pass-the-parcel that has characterised the credit markets in the past few years. The basic rule was to make a quick turn and pass the risk on to the next mug as quickly as possible. Monolines were where the buck was supposed to stop. If one of these insurers were to fail, the liability would be passed back to the banks.