It is the central bank's third cut in interest rates since early December. The Bank said that disruption in financial markets and tighter credit conditions could lead to a slowdown in the wider economy. The largest mortgage lenders say they will pass on the cut to their mortgage customers who pay variable rates.

Business groups welcomed the decision and called for further cuts to shore up growth. "It is vitally important to ensure that problems in the financial sector and in the housing market do not damage wealth-creating businesses," said David Kern, economic adviser to the British Chambers of Commerce. The cut had been widely forecast by economists. "So far the Bank's gradual approach to cutting rates has been the right one," said Martin Temple, chairman of the EEF manufacturers' group. "But, given how quickly the situation is changing, there are now greater risks to business and consumer confidence."

The finding by British scientists will put pressure on the Food Standards Agency to force manufacturers to stop using the "E-number" chemicals. The researchers believe that removing artificial colours from children's foods, including cakes, drinks and sweets, would bring significant health and social benefits. Thousands of children would avoid the blight on their education caused by hyperactive behaviour, which can mean they are labelled slow and disruptive.

Professor Stevenson and his team discovered that food chemicals caused "psychological harm" to normal healthy children. Two groups of children showed changes in behaviour when given the additives during controlled trials. They found it hard to sit still and concentrate, they had problems reading and became loud and impulsive. Professor Stevenson said: "We now have clear evidence that mixtures of certain food colours can adversely influence the behaviour of children.

The suspect colours are tartrazine (E102); quinoline yellow (E104); sunset yellow (E110); carmoisine (E122); ponceau 4R (E124); and allura red (E129). The Food Commission has set up a website - actiononadditives.com - which lists more than 900 products containing the chemicals.

"You must kill the bastards (criminals) if they threaten you or the community. You must not worry about the regulations," said Deputy Safety and Security Minister Susan Shabangu. "I want no warning shots, you have one shot and it must be a kill shot," she told police officers, according to the Star newspaper on Thursday.

South Africa suffers some of the highest levels of violent crime in the world, with murders, hijackings and rape an everyday occurrence. Police figures show nearly 20,000 people are murdered a year, sparking public anger at the inability of authorities to ensure safety. Shabangu told an anti-crime meeting in the capital Pretoria: "I want to assure the police station commissioners and policemen and women from these areas that they have permission to kill these criminals," she said.

"I will not tolerate any pathetic excuses for you not being able to deal with crime, you have been given guns, now use them... If criminals dare to threaten the police or the livelihood or lives of innocent men, women and children, then they must be killed."

Unlike its American friends, the Chinese have not blown hot and cold, although there have been challenges such as attacks on Chinese nationals in Pakistan, including the execution of three workers near Peshawar last year and concern that the Islamist fervour sweeping the northwest parts of Pakistan was spilling over to neighbouring Xinjiang, China's troubled, predominantly Muslim region.

But the Chinese do not give Pakistan lectures on democracy, the dangers of nuclear proliferation - which arguably isn't surprising since some of it is traced back to the Chinese, according to non-proliferation experts - or threaten to bomb them into the Stone Age, which is what Islamabad says the Bush administration did to enlist its support in its war on terrorism days after Sept 11.

The current U.S.-Pakistan relationship has been built on security interests and is already looking fragile following the outcome of the February elections when the party supported by ally Musharraf was routed. Pakistan's alliance with China, in contrast, is based on permanent strategic interests and immutable issues of geography, including China's desire for access to the warm waters of the Indian Ocean.

In Gush Etzion, the highest alert was declared after a truck filled with terrorists attempted to enter one of the communities there and was rebuffed, according to unconfirmed reports. Motorists are advised that traffic is jammed in the northern parts of the city, where checkpoints have been set up.

Both alerts come several days after Israel removed 50 roadblocks and barriers throughout Judea and Samaria in response to pressure from US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. The American Secretary has demanded that Israel ease restrictions on travel by Palestinian Authority Arabs despite an escalation of rock, firebomb and shooting attacks on Jewish drivers.

A spokeswoman said Mr Brown had never planned to attend the ceremony and was not boycotting the Games. Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg said Mr Brown "seems to do the right thing late in the day when he is forced to do so because of public opinion". Mr Clegg, speaking to Channel Four News, branded the move a "last-minute U-turn". The Olympics minister Tessa Jowell will represent the UK at the opening in Beijing in August.

Mr Brown - who has been under pressure to boycott the Olympics over China's human rights record - has never specifically said he will attend the opening ceremony. And BBC political correspondent Carole Walker said Downing Street felt it would not make sense for him to go to China twice. However he has talked of attending plural "ceremonies".

On 27 March, at a press conference during France's President Sarkozy's visit, he said: "We will not be boycotting the Olympic Games; Britain will be attending the Olympic Games ceremonies. At the same time, the president has said that the Dalai Lama has not called for a boycott of the Olympic Games." At his Downing Street news conference on 1 April, Mr Brown said: "I think President Sarkozy said himself that he expected Britain, because we are going to host the next Olympics, to be present at the Olympic ceremonies and I will certainly be there."

"Some believed that a prolonged and severe economic downturn could not be ruled out given the further restriction of credit availability and ongoing weakness in the housing market," minutes of the March 18 meeting said. Fed economists presented a somber picture of short-term prospects - central bank staff now fully expect negative growth over the first six months of the year - but held out the possibility of a modest rebound later.

"The staff projection showed a contraction of real GDP in the first half of 2008 followed by a slow rise in the second half," the report said, referring to gross domestic product, a broad measure of a country's output of goods and services. At the same time, Fed officials found recent inflation reports "disappointing," noting also with concern that some indicators of inflation expectations were edging higher.

Policy-makers said there were limits to what could be done through interest rate cuts to deal with problems underlying the housing and financial market turmoil, but agreed trimming borrowing costs might provide some help. However, Fed officials said it would be hard to calibrate policy responses because their aggressive rate cuts in recent months would take some time to show their effect on economic activity.

Japan faces a 16 percent slide in the size of its workforce by 2030 while the number of elderly will mushroom, the government estimates, raising worries about who will do the work in a country unused to, and unwilling to contemplate, large-scale immigration. Rather than each robot replacing one person, the foundation said in a report that robots could make time for people to focus on more important things.

Japan could save 2.1 trillion yen ($21 billion) of elderly insurance payments in 2025 by using robots that monitor the health of older people, so they don't have to rely on human nursing care, the foundation said in its report. Caregivers would save more than an hour a day if robots helped look after children, older people and did some housework, it added. Robotic duties could include reading books out loud or helping bathe the elderly.

The current fertility rate is 1.3 babies per woman, far below the level needed to maintain the population, while the government estimates that 40 percent of the population will be over 65 by 2055, raising concerns about who will look after the graying population. "People need to have the will to use the robots."

The Christian Institute, a "non-denominational Christian charity", wanted to pay Google so that whenever the word "abortion" was typed into the popular search engine, its link would appear on the side of the screen. The link would have read: "UK abortion law - news and views on abortion from the Christian Institute. www.christian.org.uk."

But Google refused the advert because it said it had a policy of declining sites which mixed the issue of abortion with religious views. Its Dublin-based advertising team replied: "At this time, Google policy does not permit the advertisement of websites that contain 'abortion and religion-related content'." Google does, however, accept adverts for abortion clinics, secular pro-abortion sites and secularist sites which attack religion.

The Christian Institute has now started legal proceedings against Google on the grounds that it is infringing the Equality Act 2006 by discriminating against Christian groups. It is seeking damages, costs and the permission to publish its advertisement. Mike Judge, Christian Institute spokesman, said: "For many people, Google is the doorway to the internet. If there is to be a free exchange of ideas then Google cannot give special free speech rights to secular groups whilst censoring religious views. To say that religious sites with material on abortion are 'unacceptable content' (while) advertising pornography is ridiculous."

The billboard ad has the slogan "In an Absolut World" slapped over a pre-1848 map showing California, Arizona and other U.S. states as Mexican territory. Those states were carved out of what had been Mexican lands until that year. Although it was not shown in the United States, U.S. media outlets picked up on the ad, and after a barrage of complaints, Absolut's maker said on Sunday the ad campaign would cease.

Defending the campaign last week, Absolut maker Vin & Spirit said the ad was created "with a Mexican sensibility" and was not meant for the U.S. market. "In no way was this meant to offend or disparage, nor does it advocate an altering of borders, nor does it lend support to any anti-American sentiment, nor does it reflect immigration issues," a spokeswoman wrote on Absolut's Web site.

"Instead, it hearkens to a time which the population of Mexico may feel was more ideal," she wrote.

Falling U.S. house prices and rising delinquencies may lead to $565 billion in mortgage-market losses, the IMF said in its annual Global Financial Stability report, released in Washington. Total losses, including the securities tied to commercial real estate and loans to consumers and companies, may reach $945 billion, the fund said. The forecast signals the worst of the credit crunch may be yet to come, because banks and securities firms so far have posted $232 billion in asset writedowns and credit losses. Policy makers, concerned that lenders' deteriorating balance sheets will hobble economic growth, are pushing companies to raise capital.

"The current turmoil is more than simply a liquidity event, reflecting deep-seated balance-sheet fragilities and weak capital bases, which means its effects are likely to be broader, deeper and more protracted," the report said. The fund warned of the risk of "a serious funding and confidence crisis that threatens to continue for a significant period." The report comes days before finance ministers and central bank governors from the IMF's 185 members gather in Washington for spring meetings of the fund and World Bank. Group of Seven policy makers meet April 11.

"There was a collective failure to appreciate the extent of leverage taken on by a wide range of institutions - banks, monoline insurers, government-sponsored entities, hedge funds - and the associated risks of a disorderly unwinding," the IMF concluded in the report.

A squad of 30 young men, from the police academy that turns out the cream of the paramilitary security force, their job at home is to ensure riot control, domestic stability and the protection of diplomats. Questions are now being asked as to who authorised their presence as the torch made its journey through London, with the Conservatives last night demanding clarification from the Government.

The guards' task for the torch relay is to ensure the flame is never extinguished - and now increasingly to prevent protesters demonstrating against Chinese rule in Tibet from putting it out. But the aggressiveness with which the men have been pursuing their brief has provoked an outcry, not least in London where they were seen wrestling protesters to the ground and were described as "thugs" by Lord Coe.

David Davis, the shadow home secretary, yesterday wrote to Jacqui Smith seeking clarification of the role of the Chinese officials and what was known about their background. Mr Davis asked: "Who in the British Government authorised their presence, and what checks were made as to their background?" He added: "This group appears to have some role in providing security, and were seen manhandling protesters. They even accompanied the torch into Downing Street and were highly visible in the picture with the Prime Minister".

And ex-2012 chief Jack Lemley accused Labour Mayor Ken Livingstone of "suppressing" the true cost to win public backing for the bid. The former chairman of the Olympic Delivery Authority said that from "very early on" it was working to a budget of "well over £12billion". But Mr Lemley, who expects that to almost double because of problems with the land in Stratford, East London, said in an interview yesterday that he was banned from revealing the truth.

17,364 acres (6,945 hectares) of land were lost between January and March as Spain endured its worst drought in decades, figures from the environment ministry showed. Spain's water reserves are at 47.6 percent capacity due to a lack of rainfall, the ministry added. The drought has hurt crops and hydroelectric power production with the northeastern region of Catalonia especially hard hit.

Authorities in San Francisco, the next destination for the troubled Olympic torch relay, are gearing up for the same kind of pro-Tibet protests that disrupted the relays in London and Paris in recent days. Signs of protest are already visible after three people climbed the Golden Gate Bridge on Monday to unfurl a Tibetan flag and two protest banners. Billboards protesting China's human rights record have already gone up along major streets in the city and groups including Amnesty International will be holding rallies.

The torch run itself is due to take place on Wednesday and police are throwing a tight security blanket over the torch route in San Francisco following Monday's relay in Paris which was interrupted by hundreds of campaigners protesting China's human rights record. Officials in the French capital were forced to douse the torch several times before the planned procession was halted.

German media commentators say the protests prove that sport and politics cannot be kept apart if a country with a human rights record as controversial as China's tries to hijack a sporting event for propaganda purposes.