A spokeswoman said 11,300 lightning strikes were recorded during the storm. In New South Wales, record cold temperatures brought snow and hail to the Blue Mountains, near Sydney.

Lennon told a British newspaper in 1966 - at the height of Beatlemania - that he did not know which would die out first, Christianity or rock and roll. At the time, the comparison sparked controversy in the US. The semi-official Vatican newspaper marked the 40th anniversary of The Beatles' "White Album" with an article praising Lennon and the Fab Four from Liverpool.

L'Osservatore Romano recently got a new editor and now - apart from chronicling the Pope's daily doings and printing the texts of papal speeches - it sometimes runs articles on entertainment on inside pages, together with extensive reporting on world affairs. In a half-page illustrated article, the paper praised The Beatles for what it called their "unique and strange alchemy of sounds and words".

In another article on the same page entitled "Twilight of the gods" the newspaper lamented the passing of the golden days of Hollywood and said the mysterious fascination of the star system of Hollywood in the 1950s had been superseded by the cult of so-called celebrities. Although Pope Benedict has criticised many aspects of modern pop culture, he now allows the newspaper of the tiny independent Vatican state to reflect the reality of the world outside in a way that would have been unthinkable in the days of Pope Paul VI who reigned during the heyday of The Beatles.

Children's Secretary Ed Balls said there was "CLEAR EVIDENCE" in the report that agencies in the London borough of Haringey FAILED TO ADHERE TO STATUTORY PROCEDURES in the run-up to the child's death. But Mr Balls said he could not publish it because of the risk of identifying the professionals involved and the knock-on effect that would have for future similar investigations.

A 15-page summary of the review has already been published but David Laws, the Liberal Democrat children's spokesman, said that was a "worthless whitewash" and it was "unacceptable" not to publish the full report. He said: "When a child dies in this way, should there not be openness and accountability?" Shadow children's secretary Michael Gove said it was "quite wrong" to put the interests of bureaucracy ahead of "proper scrutiny".

Lynne Featherstone, the local Lib Dem MP, said she had been contacted by workers in Haringey who believed Mr Balls' inspectors were not getting the full picture. She said: "A MANAGER CHOSE WHICH STAFF WOULD MEET THE INSPECTORS AND PREPPED THEM PRIOR TO THE VISIT. No-one else was allowed to speak to the inspectors."

UPDATE:- Senior criminal barristers have predicted that the 27-year-old woman, who cannot be named for legal reasons, will be handed A SENTENCE OF BETWEEN FOUR AND SIX YEARS for "causing or allowing" her son's death. A four-year sentence would mean her BEING RELEASED NEXT SUMMER, after allowing for time spent on remand.

Economic news across the world was almost uniformly bad as slumping Japanese exports threatened to push the economy deeper into recession and the Swiss central bank unexpectedly slashed interest rates by a full percentage point. In New York, the S&P 500 index closed down 6.71 per cent at 752.44, its lowest level for 11½ years, as investors reacted to the stalling of a bail-out plan for US carmakers and confidence in the financial sector slipped again.

In the UK, the FTSE 100 fell below 4,000 for the first time since October, closing 3.3 per cent lower, as Rolls-Royce became the latest company to be hit by the economic downturn, announcing plans to cut up to 2,000 jobs next year. Officials in China warned that the employment outlook was becoming "grim" as the global crisis triggered fresh factory closures in the export sector.

The rising risk of a deflationary crunch also sparked a general sell-off in equity prices and pushed oil prices below $50 a barrel for the first time since 2005. "For some time it has not been a question of whether we will see deflation but if it will be THE BENIGN KIND, WHERE LOWER COMMODITY PRICES BOOST CONSUMPTION, OR A MALIGN SPIRAL OF FALLING PRICES PUSHING UP THE VALUE OF DEBT," said Julian Jessop, chief international economist at the consultancy Capital Economics. "TODAY'S FIGURES ALL POINT TO THE MALIGN VARIETY."

Market analysts said panic had set in among traders. "MARKETS ARE UTTERLY UNHINGED," said Bill O'Donnell, a strategist at UBS. "One problem is that financial institutions are powerless to take the other side of panic trades."

US clout will weaken as China and India grow more powerful, the National Intelligence Council (NIC) predicts in its latest report on global trends. THE US DOLLAR WILL NO LONGER BE THE WORLD'S MAJOR CURRENCY AND FOOD AND WATER SCARCITIES WILL FUEL CONFLICT. The NIC report comes as President-elect Barack Obama prepares to take office.

It will make sombre reading for Mr Obama, says the BBC's Jonathan Beale in Washington, as it paints a bleak picture of the future of US influence and power. "The next 20 years of transition to a new system are fraught with risks," says Global Trends 2025, the latest of the reports that the NIC prepares every four years in time for the next presidential term.

"IT IS NOT BEYOND THE MIND OF HUMAN BEINGS, OR POLITICAL SYSTEMS, [or] in some cases [the] working of market mechanisms TO ADDRESS AND ALLEVIATE IF NOT SOLVE THESE PROBLEMS," said Thomas Fingar, chairman of the NIC.

And, adds our correspondent, IT IS WORTH NOTING THAT AMERICAN INTELLIGENCE HAS BEEN WRONG BEFORE.

Rolls-Royce said today that between 1,500 and 2,000 jobs will be lost over the next year, with 140 expected to go at its assembly and test facility in Derby. The aerospace engineer employs 39,000 workers globally, and 60 per cent of its workforce is based in the UK. AstraZeneca, the Anglo-Swedish pharmaceuticals company, said it planned to cut 1,400 jobs and close three factories in Europe as part of a programme to improve efficiency. About 250 jobs in Macclesfield and Sweden are likely to be affected. The factories earmarked for closure are in Spain, Belgium and Sweden and the jobs will be lost there by 2013.

A further 200 jobs will go at BAE Systems, at factories in Newcastle, Leeds, Leicester, Barrow and Telford. The company, which blamed the cuts on declining workload on the Armoured Fighting Vehicle Programme for the Ministry of Defence, said it would launch a voluntary redundancy programme immediately. Falling sales and rising investor withdrawals from unit trusts have prompted Fidelity International, the fund manager, to cut 300 jobs.

Daily Mail and General Trust, the newspaper and information publisher, this morning said that 400 jobs had been lost across the group over the past two months as part of previously announced cost-cutting measures. Today's announcements bring the total number of jobs cut by British companies since last Wednesday to more than 24,000.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced that the House and Senate would hold hearings as necessary this week and move forward with a vote on a loan package the following week if the plan proved logical and able to be done.

Reid said the auto industry executives that testified on Capitol Hill this week did not "convince the Congress or the American people that this bailout will be their last" or stop the bleeding from the troubled industry. "UNTIL THEY SHOW US THE PLAN, WE CANNOT SHOW THEM THE MONEY," Pelosi added

Pelosi said that Congress wants to help the automakers because "survival is essential to maintaining our manufacturing and industrial base and that industrial base is essential to our national security." But she said, "We won't move forward with any of these plans UNTIL WE SEE MORE ACCOUNTABILITY AND THE PROSPECT FOR VIABILITY."

"I have tried to see if we can create a safe haven (for traditional views) within the Episcopal Church, but failed," said Bishop Martyn Minns, a leader of the conservatives. He is helping write a constitution for a new church, to be unveiled December 3, in an effort to be recognized as a new entity within the worldwide Anglican Communion.

Long-time divisions over scriptural interpretation and gay rights had already fragmented the 2.1-million-member Episcopal Church by 2003 when it consecrated Gene Robinson of New Hampshire as the first bishop known to be in an openly gay relationship in more than four centuries of Anglican church history. That act further roiled the U.S. church and the 77-million-member Anglican Communion of which the Episcopal Church is the U.S. presence.

Eight financial companies - Citigroup Inc, Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs Group Inc, Wells Fargo & Co, JPMorgan Chase & Co, American International Group Inc, Bank of America Corp and GE Financial - are in greatest need of capital, Miller said. Combined, these eight companies have roughly $12.2 trillion of assets AND ONLY $406 BILLION OF TANGIBLE COMMON CAPITAL, OR JUST 3.4 PERCENT, the analyst said in his note to clients.

Miller said these institutions need somewhere between $1 trillion and $1.2 trillion of capital to put their balance sheets back on solid ground and begin to extend credit again, given their dependence on short-term funding and the illiquid nature of their asset bases. Currently, THE U.S. FINANCIAL SYSTEM HAS $37 TRILLION OF DEBT OUTSTANDING, Miller noted.

"THE PREDICTION THAT AN UNDISCIPLINED ECONOMY WOULD COLLAPSE BY ITS OWN RULES CAN BE FOUND" in an article written by Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, who became pope in April 2005, Tremonti said yesterday at Milan's Cattolica University. German-born Ratzinger in 1985 presented a paper entitled "Market Economy and Ethics" at a Rome event dedicated to the Church and the economy. THE FUTURE POPE SAID A DECLINE IN ETHICS "CAN ACTUALLY CAUSE THE LAWS OF THE MARKET TO COLLAPSE."

Pope Benedict in an Oct. 7 speech reflected on crashing markets and concluded that "money vanishes, it is nothing" and warned that "the only solid reality is the word of God." The Vatican's official newspaper, l'Osservatore Romano, on the same day criticized the free-market model for having "grown too much and badly in the past two decades."

And where do the experts get their information from? "The figures detailing Iran's progress were contained in a routine update on Wednesday from the INTERNATIONAL ATOMIC ENERGY AGENCY, which has been conducting inspections of the country's main nuclear plant at Natanz. The report concluded that as of early this month, Iran had made 630 kilograms, or about 1,390 pounds, of low-enriched uranium."

First and foremost, Iran would have to further purify the fuel and turn it into a warhead design. The Times report says that this is "a technical advance that Western experts are unsure Iran has yet achieved." One must not forget that the enriched uranium is low grade. For now, it can be used for nuclear power plants. However, it can be further refined into higher grade uranium. To do that, enrichment facilities at Natanz would have to go through major visible reconfigurations. For example, all the piping infrastructure will have to be redone. This would make it very difficult for Iran to hide from the IAEA inspectors.

UNLESS, THAT IS, THERE ARE SECRET FACILITIES where the low enriched uranium is purified, away from the eyes and knowledge of the IAEA. AND THIS IS VERY POSSIBLE.

The price of oil is around two-thirds cheaper than in July, when it hit a record above $147 a barrel. Members of oil cartel Opec are to meet on November 29, after opting to cut output by 1.5 million barrels per day. "The lack of any positive news on the demand front as well as continued global economic turmoil continues to result in a dearth of bullish news," said Jonathan Kornafel, Asia director of Hudson Capital Energy.

Sir Tom said he was "sorry" about the financial and human cost that the bank's troubles have caused. Earlier this month, RBS said it expected to report ITS FIRST FULL-YEAR LOSS IN ITS ALMOST 300-YEAR HISTORY. The chairman said the current crisis was the most difficult experience "in over 40 years of my working life".

He said the challenges the bank - and the banking sector - now faced "were unprecedented. I, as the chairman of RBS Group, both personally and in the office I hold, am profoundly sorry about the position we have reached," he said.

The shareholders' vote means THAT THE GOVERNMENT COULD END UP TAKING A STAKE OF UP TO 60% IN THE TROUBLED BANK. Under the terms of the £20bn capital raising, RBS plans to raise up to £15bn from investors by selling shares at 65.5 pence each. If the shares are not taken up, the government will acquire them. The government will also directly buy preference shares in the bank - worth a total of £5bn.

Wolf argues that membership of the euro area would mean a decade-long grinding adjustment through the real economy, instead of the exchange rate. Ruth Lea argues on Conservative Home that "It is clear that the PRO-EURO BATTALIONS ARE ALREADY MARSHALLING THEIR FORCES FOR ANOTHER ATTACK ON STERLING'S CITADEL. But they are not the battalions of salvation. If anything, they are THE ECONOMIC EQUIVALENT OF THE FOUR HORSEMEN OF THE APOCALYPSE."

Ganley attacked the Lisbon Treaty as "an affront to the idea of participatory democracy". He said it was "THE EMBODIMENT OF THE WORST EXAMPLE OF WHAT SO-CALLED ELITISM CAN BRING ABOUT IN EUROPE".

The Irish Times reports that Ganley called for a 15-25 page European constitution as an alternative to the Lisbon Treaty: "EUROPE NEEDS A CONSTITUTION, IT SHOULD BE NO MORE THAN 25 PAGES. IT SHOULD BE UPFRONT AND HONEST." Ganley stated that the Irish No vote "was not a vote against the EU or Ireland's membership. It was a vote against the Lisbon Treaty." He added that the referendum result meant there was an opportunity for "a reinvigoration of the European ideal".

German MEP Jo Leinen said, "A second No would be a No, and then of course you could forget about the Treaty. But a first No is volatile, let's say, because it's not a clear No against Europe. Here you have a diffuse coalition of Nos. WE RESPECT IT, BUT WE HAVE TO RESPECT AS WELL THE YES OF THE OTHER MEMBER STATES."