The recent political rupture between Russia and the U.S. only makes matters worse, said Lee Hamilton, the former Indiana Democratic congressman who helped lead the 9/11 Commission and now chairs the independent group's latest study.

Efforts to reduce access to nuclear technology and bomb-making materials have slowed, thousands of U.S. chemical plants remain unprotected, and the U.S. government continues to oppose strengthening an international treaty to prevent bioterrorism, according to the report produced by the bipartisan Partnership for a Secure America.

"THE THREAT OF A NEW, MAJOR TERRORIST ATTACK ON THE UNITED STATES IS STILL VERY REAL," concludes the report to be released Wednesday, the same day a congressional commission will hold a hearing in New York on nuclear and biological terrorism threats.

Company spokeswoman Irina Yesipova said the launch date will be determined after talks between Russian and Iranian nuclear officials this month. Iranian officials have said that Bushehr would be launched this fall. The International Atomic Energy Agency declined comment.

David Albright, whose Washington-based Institute for Science and International Security tracks countries under nuclear suspicion, suggested that the steps referred to by Russia probably involved the loading of fuel into the reactor. Iran is paying Russia more than $1 billion to build the 1,000-megawatt light-water reactor. Construction has been held up by disputes between Tehran and Moscow, publicly described as centering on questions of payment and the schedule for shipping nuclear fuel. The United States and other Western nations that fear Iran is seeking to acquire nuclear weapons have criticized Russia for building Bushehr.

Washington softened its position after Iran agreed to return spent nuclear fuel to Russia to ensure it does not extract materials that could be used to make weapons. The United States and its Western allies also agreed to drop any reference to Bushehr in sanctions resolutions passed by the U.N. Security Council. Russia says the plant's contract is in line with all international agreements aimed at preventing nuclear weapons proliferation.

The trouble started with a Google search. A staffer at investment newsletter Income Securities Advisors Inc in Miami Lakes, Florida, entered the words "bankruptcy" and "2008" in the Internet search engine, according to President Richard Lehmann. ISA does this all the time, searching for overlooked information about companies in trouble, he said. Lehmann said the top item returned in the Google search was a story about United's bankruptcy filing that appeared on the South Florida Sun Sentinel Web site. The story referred to United's filing on Monday morning. United had filed for Chapter 11 protection on Monday, DECEMBER 9, 2002. Lehmann said that date was not on the story.

At 10:43 a.m. the staffer posted a summary of the story from the Sun Sentinel site on the financial information service Bloomberg, Lehmann said. Bloomberg has its own journalists but also distributes information from third-party providers such as ISA, for which some subscribers pay extra. Lehmann said all Bloomberg users would have been able to see the headline, though. After trading around $12 a share Monday morning, the stock of United parent company, UAL Corp, dropped at least as low as $4.62 about five minutes after the ISA article was posted on the Bloomberg terminal. The shares fell as low as $3 before Nasdaq halted trading just before 11:07 a.m. EDT.

"It has the makings of the possibility of a manipulation," Professor David Mirza of Loyola University said of the mysterious reappearance of the story. Mirza, an economics professor, says the timing of the mistake is curious, coming at the same time the federal government announced a bailout of mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, leaving already-rattled investors with bankruptcy on the brain. "I'm sure the government is going to look very seriously into this," Mirza said. "Who released the story?" BUT WHY WOULD ANYONE WANT TO MANIPULATE THE MARKET? MIRZA SAYS FOR PROFIT - SELL THE STOCK HIGH AND BUY IT BACK LOW.

The Pentagon is set to notify the U.S. Congress of the proposed sale, which would be the first of the so-called Terminal High Altitude Area Defense, or THAAD, several people familiar with the matter said. Once notified of such a proposed arms sale by the administration, Congress has 30 days to review it but almost never blocks. In any case, deployment of the THAAD weapons system is "at least months away" and could take more than a year, said a congressional staff member familiar with the matter.

Kenneth Katzman, an expert on the Gulf at the Congressional Research Service, said the UAE has been eager for a "sophisticated antidote" to Iran's missile capabilities. "The UAE has been concerned for many years about possible retaliation against it for U.S. or Israeli strike on Iran's nuclear facilities," he said. For Iran, Katzman added, UAE could be an attractive target because of its billions of dollars of infrastructure investments.

Police have not replied to questions whether the broadcasts are being coordinated with Israel, which officially controls the site but allows the Muslim Wafq to administer affairs there. The terrorist party's television network is the only one broadcasting the one-hour prayer service. Its Al Aqsa television station frequently airs programs calling for jihad against Israel.

The Arab world has mounted a massive public relations campaign in recent years to try to disprove a Jewish connection with the Temple Mount, which is the site of the destroyed First and Second Temples. Arab workers over the past several years have hauled away tons of debris from the area, containing priceless archaeological artifacts dating back to the Temple eras. THE PALESTINIAN AUTHORITY (PA) HAS INSISTED THAT THE TEMPLE MOUNT BE INCLUDED AS PART OF A NEW ARAB COUNTRY IT WANTS TO ESTABLISH.

Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and Federal Housing Finance Agency Director James Lockhart yesterday placed the two firms in a government-operated conservatorship, ousting their chief executives and eliminating their dividends. The Treasury may purchase up to $200 billion of stock in the firms to keep them solvent.

"Some of this is a stopgap to try to prevent the mortgage market from falling apart," former Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis President William Poole said on Bloomberg Radio. The federally chartered, shareholder-owned structure, with risks covered by taxpayers, is "an unacceptable situation," he said, projecting the Treasury may need to cover as much as $300 billion of losses.

"THIS IS NOT A PERMANENT SOLUTION -- THEY'VE NOT SAVED FANNIE AND FREDDIE, WHAT THEY'VE DONE IS THEY'VE BOUGHT 15 MONTHS," said Bill Ackman, founder of Pershing Square Capital Management in New York, which has sold short the two companies, or bet on declines in their securities. "It's a band aid. They haven't permanently recapitalized the companies."

In an embarrassment for the LSE, the exchange said that no orders can be entered or executions of those trades occur. The LSE plans to bring back trading in a "controlled way", but couldn't say how long that will take. The computer crash left the exchange's customers fuming on a day of heavy trading following the US government's bail-out of mortgage lenders Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae.

Simon Denham, founder of Capital Spreads, said; "It (trading) went down at 8.44 am. This happens on the LSE two or three times a year, but I can't remember it ever having been down this long. I don't know what excuse they will give - for the second biggest stock exchange in the world its pretty poor."

David Buk of BGC Partners said: "The first we heard was that there was a technical glitch earlier this morning. This seems to have been followed by a flurry of activity from banks and insurance companies who tried to place a significant volume through the system at the same time. As far as I'm aware, it's the longest that the stock exchange has been shut down. I'm surprised that a sophisticated market like this doesn't run in duplication - it's not quite as advanced as they'd have us believe."

The world will end. That much is a certainty. But it may not be soon. And in all probability it will not come to a shuddering, fiery, boiling, cataclysmic end on Wednesday this week. MAINSTREAM CHRISTIANITY MOVED AWAY FROM THIS TYPE OF THOUGHT, but large numbers of believers returned to it at various times. "It isn't just the lunatic fringe, it's an integral part of all Christianity. But in mainstream Christianity it is put into perspective that it may happen 'one day'," says Stephen J Hunt, a sociologist of religion and author of Christian Millenarianism: From the Early Church to Waco. "BUT CERTAIN GROUPS AND MOVEMENTS BELIEVE IT IS IN THEIR GENERATION. THEY ARE SAYING WE HAVE GOT THE TRUTH AND NOBODY ELSE HAS."

The great periods of millenarianism - Europe around the year 1000, the English Civil War, the Industrial Revolution on both sides of the Atlantic, and the 20th Century - have been periods of intense turbulence. Putting an eschatological spin on current events is extremely tempting.

"A lot of fundamentalists are what we call 'sign watching'. If there's another tornado in Florida it must be a punishment," says Dr Hunt. Sometimes the links to the temporal world can be tortuous to say the least. A common theme on the fringes of Christian millenarianism is A REVIVED ROMAN EMPIRE LED BY THE ANTICHRIST AND CONSISTING OF 10 EUROPEAN NATIONS. The theme is drawn out from the description of a beast with 10 horns in the book of Revelations. It was historically linked to the EU, but now there are 27 members attention has shifted to the 10-nation Western European Union.

And end of the world believers, whether religious or not, have one thing going for them. The world will, one day, end.

Investors hoped the largest bail-out in US history would prop up the country's housing market and ultimately help to end the credit crunch, analysts said. London, Paris, Frankfurt and Tokyo markets all rose by more than 3%. US PRESIDENT GEORGE BUSH SAID THE TWO MORTGAGE LENDERS HAD POSED "AN UNACCEPTABLE RISK" TO THE ECONOMY.

"The markets are certainly going to rally today because investors are going to say 'Maybe we can see light at the end of the tunnel in terms of the credit crunch'", said Graham Neale of private stockbrokers Killick & Co. "There have been calls on the US administration for some time to act more decisively but it has been playing it quite poker-faced so the news is a positive surprise for the markets. WHETHER IT WILL ACTUALLY PROVE TO BE THE END OF THE CREDIT CRUNCH IS DIFFICULT TO SAY."

In morning trading, London's FTSE 100 index, was 3.8%. It had lost 7% last week - its worst showing in more than six years. UK banking stocks were buoyed by the news from the US, some adding as much as 15%. House builders also gained on hopes that the move could signal a turnaround in the sector. Germany's Dax-30 index was 3.7% ahead and France's Cac-40 added 4.6%. Meanwhile Japan's Nikkei index closed up 3.4%, while the Hang Seng index added 4%. And key indexes in Singapore, Australia and Taiwan were also higher.

The three words - immediately corrected - were during an exchange with ABC's George Stephanopoulos on "This Week," when he was trying to criticize the quiet smear campaign suggesting he is a Muslim. But illustrating the difficulty of preventing false rumors about his faith from spreading, anti-Obama groups within one hour of the interview had sliced it out of context and were sending it around via email. They also were blogging about it.

Mr. Obama, who is a Christian and often proudly speaks about how his faith has influenced his public service, said he finds it "deeply offensive" that there are efforts "coming out of the Republican camp to suggest that perhaps I'm not who I say I am when it comes to my faith." The exchange came after Mr. Obama said that Republicans are attempting to scare voters by suggesting he is not Christian, which McCain campaign manager Rick Davis said was "cynical."

The effort to save Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac is only the latest in a series of financial maneuvers by the government that stretch back to the rescue of the military contractor Lockheed Aircraft and the Penn Central Railroad under President Richard Nixon, the shoring up of Chrysler in the waning days of the Carter administration and the salvage of the U.S. savings and loan system in the late 1980s.

More recently, after airplanes were grounded because of the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, Congress approved $15 billion in subsidies and loan guarantees to the faltering airlines. Now, with the U.S. government preparing to save Fannie and Freddie only six months after the Federal Reserve Board orchestrated the rescue of Bear Stearns, IT APPEARS THAT THE MORTGAGE CRISIS HAS FORCED THE GOVERNMENT TO ONCE AGAIN SHOVE IDEOLOGY ASIDE AND GET INTO THE BAILOUT BUSINESS.

"IF ANYBODY THOUGHT WE HAD A PURE FREE-MARKET FINANCIAL SYSTEM, THEY SHOULD THINK AGAIN," said Robert Bruner, dean of the Darden School of Business at the University of Virginia.

The former UK chief scientist will use his presidential address at the BA Science Festival to call for a gear-change among innovative thinkers. HE WILL SUGGEST THAT LESS TIME AND MONEY IS SPENT ON ENDEAVOURS SUCH AS SPACE EXPLORATION AND PARTICLE PHYSICS. He says population growth and poverty in Africa also demand attention.

"The challenges of the 21st Century are qualitatively different from anything that we've had to face up to before," he told reporters before the opening of the festival, which is being held this year in Liverpool. "This requires a re-think of priorities in science and technology and a redrawing of our society's inner attitudes towards science and technology."

Sir David's remarks will be controversial because they are being made just as the UK is about to celebrate its participation in the Large Hadron Collider, the world's biggest physics experiment. This international venture is extremely expensive, however. THE UK ALONE HAS CONTRIBUTED MORE THAN £500M TO THE LHC - THE LARGEST SUM OF MONEY TO DATE INVESTED BY A UK GOVERNMENT IN A SINGLE SCIENTIFIC PROJECT. (TOTAL COST AROUND £4 BILLION)

Finding and exploiting clean energy sources was now imperative, he said; and Sir David questioned whether the spending on particle physics research in the shape of Cern's Large Hadron Collider was the best route to that goal.

The multibillion-dollar rescue of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac - dwarfing the UK nationalisation of Northern Rock - will be funded by the American taxpayer. IT REPRESENTS A POTENTIAL LIABILITY OF £2,900 BILLION. The move was welcomed by mortgage experts in the UK, who said it should inject some confidence into the British housing market, which is suffering from the steepest fall in prices since the 1930s.

The credit crunch began in America last year when banks saddled with huge mortgage debts began to foreclose on loans to millions of borrowers. Its impact was felt around the world because banks in Britain and elsewhere were holding large amounts of the debt. As a result, lenders are now reluctant to offer credit other than to the safest customers.

Although experts do not anticipate an immediate impact in the UK, they hope it will at least stop the rot in the housing market. The full value of the rescue package will dwarf the UK government's bail out of Northern Rock, with the US mortgage market worth £5,800 billion, but THE RESCUE HAS BEEN PROMPTED BY SIMILAR FEARS ABOUT THEIR COLLAPSE.

"There will be legislation along the lines of the Strategic Oil Stocks Directive in October or November," said an official. BRITAIN CURRENTLY HAS NO STATUTORY GAS STORAGE CAPACITY, AND MAINTAINS AROUND 14 DAYS' GAS SUPPLY IN STORAGE. The Commission proposal is likely to mean bringing UK gas storage requirements into line with those of countries such as France and Germany which both have 80 day reserves. THE COST OF CREATING 80 DAYS OF GAS STORAGE IN BRITAIN IS ESTIMATED AT LEAST £16 BILLION, A BURDEN THAT WOULD BE PASSED ON TO CONSUMERS VIA HIGHER ENERGY BILLS.

Neil O'Brien, Director of Open Europe, is quoted as saying: "We must avoid ending up with an artificially high storage target from the EU which would impose huge costs on consumers, and not benefit anyone. This is a bad time for the EU to make a proposal which would jack up energy bills even further." The UK Government is opposed to such measures. A spokesman said: "At the moment, we continue to believe that well-functioning markets are the most effective mechanism for ensuring adequate investment in gas."

UNDER THE CURRENT RULES, THE UK WOULD HAVE A VETO ON THIS KIND OF LEGISLATION, BUT IF THE LISBON TREATY WERE IN FORCE, IT WOULD BE DECIDED BY QUALIFIED MAJORITY VOTING.

After strongly denying any prospect of a second Irish referendum on the Lisbon Treaty back in July, the Irish Europe Minister Dick Roche has now publicly announced that a second vote would be "appropriate". Prime Minister Brian Cowen also admitted that a second referendum will be considered. However, it was suggested that PEOPLE MIGHT ONLY BE ALLOWED A SECOND VOTE ON PARTS OF THE TREATY, WITH MUCH OF THE TEXT JUST BEING PUSHED THROUGH THE IRISH PARLIAMENT.

A report in the Irish Independent stated that: "IT IS POSSIBLE FOR THE DAIL TO PASS SOME PARTS OF THE TREATY WITHOUT A PUBLIC VOTE, and it is understood that Mr Cowen sees this course of action as an option." Meanwhile, according to the Irish Times, Irish officials met with their Danish counterparts last month to get advice on how Ireland could opt out of crucial aspects of the Lisbon Treaty - like the opt outs the Danes adopted following the "no" to the Maastricht Treaty in a referendum.

Meanwhile, the European Commission has been rolling the pitch for a return to the Treaty. The Commission's office in Dublin last week issued a briefing to journalists blaming the "British media" for the Irish no vote, and complaining that it could not control "anti-establishment" bloggers. IN A SEPARATE REPORT THIS WEEK THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT CALLED FOR EU REGULATION OF BLOGS