John Podesta, Obama's transition chief, said Sunday Obama is reviewing President Bush's executive orders on those issues and others as he works to undo policies enacted during eight years of Republican rule. He said the president can use such orders to move quickly on his own.

"There's a lot that the president can do using his executive authority without waiting for congressional action, and I think we'll see the president do that," Podesta said. "I THINK THAT HE FEELS LIKE HE HAS A REAL MANDATE FOR CHANGE. We need to get off the course that the Bush administration has set."

Podesta also said Obama is working to build a diverse Cabinet. That includes reaching out to Republicans and independents - part of the broad coalition that supported Obama during the race against Republican John McCain. Defense Secretary Robert Gates has been mentioned as a possible holdover.

THE ORDER GAVE US FORCES PERMISSION TO ATTACK TERROR TARGETS ANYWHERE IN THE WORLD WITHOUT PRIOR SPECIFIC APPROVAL. The Times said the defence department declined to comment on its claims. The White House also made no comment.

The paper said it had spoken to more than six officials, "including current and former military and intelligence officials" as well as senior policy makers in the Bush administration. They said that the order, signed by Mr Rumsfeld with the approval of President George W Bush, was intended to make it easier for the US military to act outside officially declared war zones at short notice.

In total, 15 to 20 countries were covered by the mandate and attacks had been carried out in Pakistan, Syria and "several other countries," the paper reported. The paper's sources also claimed that "as many as a dozen" attacks had been called off - "often to the dismay of military commanders" - due to lack of evidence or because they were considered too dangerous or "diplomatically explosive".

He will urge COUNTRIES TO FORGE A NEW WAY OF WORKING TOGETHER that is "hard headed and progressive". His speech will also be watched for any suggestions of possible UK tax cuts. Mr Brown's comments in recent days about the need for a fiscal stimulus to boost the domestic economy have given rise to mounting speculation about possible moves in that direction.

Ahead of a meeting of leaders of the world's 20 major economies in the US at the weekend, Mr Brown is expected to say that recent CO-ORDINATED GLOBAL ACTION during the credit crisis showed the potential of a stronger MULTILATERALISM. "If we learn from our experience of turning unity of purpose into unity of action, we can together seize this moment of change in our world TO CREATE A TRULY GLOBAL SOCIETY"

He will argue that 2008 should not be remembered just for the failure represented by the financial problems, but for the way countries reacted and "DISCOVERED AND REFASHIONED THE GLOBAL POWER of nations working together. While I see a world that is facing financial crisis and still diminished by conflict and injustice, I also see the chance to forge a NEW MULTILATERALISM that is both hard headed and progressive."

"And if we learn from our experience of turning unity of purpose into unity of action, we can together SEIZE THIS MOMENT OF CHANGE IN OUR WORLD TO CREATE A TRULY GLOBAL SOCIETY," Mr Brown will say, according to pre-released extracts of his speech. THE UK, THE US AND EUROPE ARE KEY TO ESTABLISHING A NEW WORLD ORDER, HE WILL ARGUE.

Two monks from each side were detained as dozens of worshippers traded kicks and punches at the shrine, said police. Trouble flared as Armenians prepared to mark the annual Feast of the Cross. Shocked pilgrims looked on as decorations and tapestries were toppled during Sunday's clash.

Dressed in the vestments of the Greek Orthodox and Armenian denominations, rival monks threw punches and anything they could lay their hands on. The Greeks blamed the Armenians for not recognising their rights inside the holy site, while the Armenians said the Greeks had violated one of their traditional ceremonies. An Armenian clergyman said the Greek clergy had tried to place one of their monks inside the Edicule, an ancient structure which is said to encase the tomb of Jesus.

"What is happening here is a violation of status quo. The Greeks have tried so many times to put their monk inside the tomb but they don't have the right to when the Armenians are celebrating the feast," he said. The Armenians had been preparing to commemorate the 4th Century discovery of the cross believed to have been used to crucify Jesus. A Greek clergyman said: "We protested peacefully, we stood here in the middle and we claimed that we shall not let the procession finish unless they leave our guardian inside. This didn't happen and in that moment the police interfered."

Confidential Whitehall papers seen by The Mail on Sunday appear to support claims by constitutional experts that Ministers should have told the couple the law banned them from taking part in a civil wedding. And Justice Minister Jack Straw came under fire for refusing to reveal further details of secret legal advice given to Tony Blair's Government before its controversial decision to approve the wedding.

The latest development in the long-running dispute over the legality of Charles and Camilla's register office wedding comes in the run-up to the Prince's 60th birthday on Friday. The couple married in 2005 after the then Lord Chancellor Lord Falconer overruled claims that members of the Royal Family were banned from marrying in a register office.

However, campaigning Liberal Democrat MP Norman Baker says new research casts fresh doubt on the decision. He called on Mr Straw to open the legal files on the Royal wedding to establish the truth.

The Centre for Economics and Business Research (CEBR) argues that significant fiscal measures will be needed on top of interest-rate cuts – in spite of the Bank of England's dramatic and unexpected 1.5-point reduction last week.

"The emerging evidence is that the position in the UK is so bad that it cannot be resolved without Keynesian measures," said Doug McWilliams, the CEBR's chief executive. "Additional public works would take too long to organise, though they may be part of the solution for later years. What is needed now is an early and possibly temporary tax cut. A reduction in Vat at least until the end of 2009 to 12.5% would be a good start.

"The gross cost would be £24 billion, but the net cost would be much less – possibly even nothing if the impact on confidence is sufficient to stop the recession from intensifying." Treasury officials said a number of options were being considered for the pre-budget report, expected in the second half of this month, but refused to be drawn on specific measures. Any help is expected to be directed at low and middle-income families and small firms.

The banks have warned the chancellor they are "not charities". They said they could not afford further to reduce mortgage payments and interest rates to businesses if, as expected, the Bank of England continued to cut rates as the economy fell deeper into recession.

The tough line from the banks will anger taxpayers, coming just a month after the government injected £37 billion into Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS), HBOS and Lloyds TSB to protect them from the credit crunch. Northern Rock and Bradford & Bingley have already been rescued by the taxpayer.

Most main banks have responded to the 1.5 percentage point cut made by the Bank of England on Thursday. The only two big lenders not to have trimmed their rates are HSBC and Barclays, which both avoided the Treasury-backed bailout. Bankers, who were summoned to a meeting at the Treasury on Friday morning, have told Darling that these latest cuts, which took bank rates to a 54-year low at 3%, represented a "line in the sand". "BASE RATES ARE NOW SO LOW THAT OUR MARGINS ARE DESPERATELY SMALL," said one bank executive. "This point was made quite clear to the chancellor by several of the executives — WE ARE NOT CHARITIES."

The Rt Rev Malcolm McMahon, Bishop of Nottingham, said there is no doctrinal reason preventing them from having wives. Roman Catholic priests have been required to take a vow of celibacy for centuries, but he argued that this now seemed unfair following the influx of married Anglican clergy. His comments are set to reignite the debate over whether the Church should end the tradition in a bid to deal with the shortage of priests.

Pope Benedict XVI blocked moves to allow Catholic clergy to wed when he reaffirmed the value of celibacy in 2006 and an archbishop has been excommunicated for ordaining four married men as priests. While Bishop McMahon said changing the law would not solve the Church's problems in recruiting men for the priesthood, he said that there would be benefits to such a move. He claimed that clergy with a family could offer different gifts and it would enable men who did not feel called to celibacy to enter the priesthood.

"There is no reason why priests shouldn't be allowed to marry," he told The Sunday Telegraph. "It has always been a matter of discipline rather than doctrine." Around 150,000 men are estimated to have left the priesthood to marry and many want to return to the active clergy.

The document, which was drawn up by the intelligence branch of the Ministry of Defence, MI5 and Special Branch, states that "some thousands" of extremists are active in the UK. They are predominantly UK-born and aged between 18 and 30, and many are believed to have been trained in overseas terrorist camps.

Under the heading "International Terrorism", the report, which is marked "restricted" states: "For the foreseeable future the UK will continue to be a high-priority target for international terrorists aligned with al-Qaeda. It will face a threat from British nationals, including Muslim converts, and UK-based foreign terrorists, as well as terrorists planning attacks from abroad."

The report states that the threat from the Islamist extremist community in the UK is "diverse and widely distributed" but adds that the numbers of terrorists in Britain is "difficult to judge". The document does state, however, that the Joint Terrorism Analysis Centre, which is based in MI5's headquarters at Thames House in London, estimates that there are "some thousands of extremists in the UK committed to supporting Jihadi activities, either in the UK or abroad".

Although his office denies that he was part of the official party, it is probably no coincidence that he happened to be in the same part of the world at the right time. THAT IS HOW THE ROTHSCHILDS HAVE WORKED FOR CENTURIES: QUIETLY, WITHOUT FUSS, BEHIND THE SCENES. "We have had 250 years or so of family involvement in the finance business," says Baron Rothschild. "We provide advice on both sides of the balance sheet, and we do it globally." Gradually the firm has started expanding throughout the world, including the Gulf. "THERE IS NO DEBATE THAT ROTHSCHILD IS A JEWISH FAMILY, but we are proud to be in this region. However, it takes time to develop a global footprint," he says.

The Rothschilds have been helping the British government – and many others – out of a financial hole ever since they financed Wellington's army and thus victory against the French at Waterloo in 1815. In the 1820s, the Rothschilds supplied enough money to the Bank of England to avert a liquidity crisis. THE ROTHSCHILD DYNASTY HAS LOST NONE OF ITS LUSTRE OR INFLUENCE. So it was no surprise to meet Baron Rothschild at the Dubai International Financial Centre. Rothschild's opened in Dubai in 2006 with ambitious plans to build an advisory business to complement its European operations.

BARON ROTHSCHILD SHARES MOST PEOPLE'S VIEW THAT THERE IS A NEW WORLD ORDER. In his opinion, banks will deleverage and there will be a new form of global governance. "But you have to be careful of caricatures: we don't want to go from ultra liberalism to protectionism."

So how did the Rothschilds manage to emerge relatively unscathed from the financial meltdown? "You could say that we may have more insights than others, or you may look at the structure of our business," he says. "As a family business, we want to limit risk. There is a natural pride in being a trusted adviser." It is that role as trusted adviser to both governments and companies that Rothschilds is hoping to build on in the region. "In today's world we have a strong offering of debt and equity," he says. "They are two arms of the same body looking for money."

The firm has entrusted the growth of its financing advisory business in the Middle East to Paul Reynolds, a veteran of many complex corporate finance deals. "WE WORK IN A PURELY ADVISORY CAPACITY. We don't lend or underwrite, because that creates conflicts. We are sensitive to banking relationships. But we look to ensure financial flexibility for our clients." It is part of Rothschild lore that its founder sent his sons throughout Europe to set up their own interlinked offices. So where would Baron Rothschild send his children today? "I would send one to Asia, one to Europe and one to the United States," he said. "And if I had more children, I would send one to the UAE."

DOZENS OF SUSPECTED TERRORISTS HAVE ATTEMPTED TO INFILTRATE BRITAIN'S TOP LABORATORIES in order to develop weapons of mass destruction, such as biological and nuclear devices, during the past year. The security services, MI5 AND MI6, HAVE INTERCEPTED UP TO 100 POTENTIAL TERRORISTS POSING AS POSTGRADUATE STUDENTS who they believe tried accessing laboratories to gain the materials and expertise needed to create chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear weapons, the government has confirmed.

It follows warnings from MI5 to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office that al-Qaeda's terror network is actively seeking to recruit scientists and university students with access to laboratories containing deadly viruses and weapons technology. THE FINDINGS RAISE QUESTIONS OVER HOW MANY TERRORIST SUSPECTS MAY HAVE ALREADY INFILTRATED THE UK'S LABORATORY NETWORK. Rihab Taha, dubbed 'Dr Germ', who worked on Saddam Hussein's biological weapons programme, studied for her PhD in plant toxins at East Anglia University's School of Biological Sciences in Norwich.

In addition, a number of well-educated Iraqi scientists - funded by Baghdad - infiltrated several British microbiology laboratories in the run-up to the Gulf war of 1990-91. Britain has about 800 laboratories in hospitals, universities and private firms where staff have access to lethal viruses such as Ebola, polio and avian flu or could acquire the technology and expertise to develop deadly weapons. Whitehall sources remain concerned about the number of countries intent on acquiring the materials and knowledge to develop a nuclear or biological warfare capability.

"UNFORTUNATELY, RELIGION CAN BE MISUNDERSTOOD AND USED TO PROVOKE VIOLENCE AND DEATH," the [Pontiff] noted. To avoid this, it is necessary to promote "respect of the sensitivity and history of each country and every human and religious community" through "multilateral consultations and meetings." But before all, he added, there is a need for "A GENUINE DESIRE TO SEEK THE PEACE that will promote the reconciliation of peoples and peaceful co-existence among everyone."

"This is what the Holy See asks, and knows that this is also the desire of Egypt," affirmed the Bishop of Rome. He praised "the efforts carried out by Egypt and its government officials to gradually reach this noble objective." He added: "Egypt is in the vanguard in the search for bridges between peoples and religions. Such relationships are certainly based on a profound mutual respect of our proper identities, but also and above all, on a genuine desire to promote unity and peace, both within national borders and within international spaces."

Benedict XVI affirmed that Egypt "has always been known as a land of welcome for innumerable refugees, Muslims and Christians, who have sought security and peace in your land. May this noble tradition continue for the well-being of everyone."

The prosecutors claim that repeated arguments between the parents, who cannot be named under Italian privacy laws, induced a "syndrome of anxiety and depression". This led to problems of concentration and him falling behind with his school work. The child was apparently left confused and with the conviction that his parents hated each other.

A Milan prosecutor brought the case after a health visitor reported that the child was "disturbed". Antonio Sangermano, the magistrate who is conducting the case, said that THE MOTHER AND FATHER HAD BLAMED EACH OTHER FOR THEIR BREAK-UP IN ARGUMENTS CARRIED OUT IN FRONT OF THE CHILD. The prosecution report said: "Each blamed the other for shortcoming and educational errors in bringing up the child." Each parent, it went on, tried to discredit, devalue and undermine the other in front of the child and "project their emotions on to him - above all, anger".

THEY MANIPULATED THE CHILD IN AN ATTEMPT TO MAKE HIM DECIDE BETWEEN THEM, USING HIM AS A TOOL IN THEIR BATTLE, the prosecutors said. Cesare Tacconi, a Milan judge, will decide early next month whether to send the case to trial.

"The day after the election, I had many more calls than usual from people looking for semi-automatic rifles," said David Greenberg, the owner of the Second Amendment Family Gun Shop, in Bisbee, Arizona, who sold out of AR-15 rifles in recent days. "THERE SEEMS TO BE A FEAR THEY WILL BE BANNED, AND IT'S FAIRLY LIKELY," he added. "Obama and Biden are driven to eliminate firearms from the face of the country."

Gun stores and trade groups have reported a spike in firearms sales in the run-up to the November 4 election victory of Democrat Obama and Vice President-elect Joe Biden, who many perceive as strongly pro-gun control. The National Shooting Sports Foundation, a trade association for the shooting, hunting and firearms industry, reported a 10 percent jump in gun sales this year based on its analysis of an excise tax placed on firearms and ammunition, and a spokesman said the increase had grown dramatically ahead of the election.

"GUN OWNERS ARE AFRAID OF WHAT OBAMA IS GOING TO DO AS FAR AS GUNS," said spokesman Tony Aeschliman. "He has a clear record of being against us."

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. was appointed receiver of Franklin Bank, which had $5.1 billion in assets and $3.7 billion in deposits as of Sept. 30, and of Security Pacific Bank, with $561.1 million in assets and $450.1 million in deposits as of Oct. 17. The co-founder and chairman of parent Franklin Bank Corp., Lewis Ranieri, is credited with inventing mortgage-backed securities two decades ago, but apparently was unable to save his own company from getting ensnared in the home-loan bust.

The bank's failure is a bitter irony because it is THE MORTGAGE SECURITIZATION BUSINESS OF WHICH RANIERI IS KNOWN AS A PIONEER — THE REPACKAGING OF HOME LOANS AS BONDS THAT ARE SOLD TO INVESTORS, that was at the heart of the mortgage and credit crises. Last spring, the audit committee of the company's board found in an investigation certain weaknesses in accounting, disclosure and other issues relating to residential real estate loans.

Franklin Bank Corp. just Sunday said it had received proposals for transactions to strengthen Franklin Bank's capital position and was keeping regulators informed of the talks' progress. The 19 bank failures so far this year compare with three for all of 2007 and are more than in the previous five years combined. It's expected that many more banks won't survive the next year of economic tumult. The pressures of tumbling home prices, rising mortgage foreclosures and tighter credit have been battering many banks, large and small, across the nation.