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. "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.

AT LEAST 125 PEOPLE HAVE SUFFERED BROKEN BONES AND OTHER MINOR INJURIES IN TOKYO after slipping in the rare snow by midday Sunday, fire officials said, while 200 others were reported hurt in nearby prefectures. It usually snows lightly only a few times a year in the Tokyo region, located on the warmer Pacific side of Japan's main island.

COASTAL REGIONS HAVE EXPERIENCED JAPAN'S DEADLIEST WINTER IN MORE THAN TWO DECADES, WITH AT LEAST 102 DEATHS RECORDED BY TUESDAY, WITH MANY OF THE VICTIMS CRUSHED BY SNOW OR FALLING FROM BUILDINGS WHILE CLEARING SNOW FROM ROOFS. Most of the dead have been elderly people. The death toll is the highest since 1983-1984, when 131 people died in snow-related incidents.

The minister's warning came as a coalition of 27 international charities marked World Water Day, by writing to Gordon Brown demanding action to give fresh water to 1.1 billion people with poor supplies. "IF WE DO NOT ACT, THE REALITY IS THAT WATER SUPPLIES MAY BECOME THE SUBJECT OF INTERNATIONAL CONFLICT IN THE YEARS AHEAD," said Mr Thomas. "We need to invest now to prevent us having to pay that price in the future."

In their letter, the campaigners say: "Tackling the water and sanitation crisis is essential if the 'Millennium Development Goal Call to Action' is to be a success, otherwise progress on health, education and environmental sustainability will be undermined. EACH YEAR 443 MILLION SCHOOL DAYS ARE LOST GLOBALLY TO DIARRHOEA AND 1.8 MILLION CHILDREN DIE UNNECESSARILY FROM THESE DISEASES.

"ALREADY WELL OVER 1 BILLION PEOPLE SUFFER FROM WATER SHORTAGES AND 30 COUNTRIES GET MORE THAN A THIRD OF THEIR WATER FROM OUTSIDE THEIR BORDERS."

Guidelines revised in 2002 say the Fed should charge non-banks more than the highest rate that commercial banks pay. Instead, Chairman Ben S. Bernanke and his colleagues, in emergency votes on March 16, invoked broader authority in the Federal Reserve Act to give Wall Street dealers the same rate as banks, a Fed staff official said on condition of anonymity.

Backstopping securities firms, coupled with last week's action to keep Bear Stearns afloat before its sale to JPMorgan Chase, represents the central bank's first lifelines to institutions other than banks since the Great Depression.

"THEY CERTAINLY PUSHED THE LIMIT," said Brian Sack, a former Fed researcher who is now senior economist at Macroeconomic Advisers LLC in Washington. "THE LAW PROBABLY HAS 'ENOUGH GRAY AREA' TO ALLOW THE DECISION," HE SAID.

Magdi Allam is the deputy editor of the Corriere della Sera newspaper and writes often on Muslim and Arab affairs. Born in Egypt, he has described himself as a non-practicing Muslim. He has long spoken out against extremism and in favor of tolerance.

The Vatican spokesman, the Rev. Federico Lombardi, said of Allam before the service that anyone who chooses to become a Catholic of his or her own free will has the right to receive the sacrament. Lombardi said the pope administers the sacrament "without making any 'difference of people,' that is, considering all equally important before the love of God and welcoming all in the community of the Church."

There is no overarching Muslim law on conversion. But under a widespread interpretation of Islamic legal doctrine, converting from Islam is apostasy and punishable by death - though killings are rare. Egypt's highest Islamic cleric, the Grand Mufti Ali Gomaa, wrote last year against the killing of apostates, saying there is no worldly retribution for Muslims who abandon their religion and that punishment would come in the afterlife.

The looming famine is proof of this neglect, as the crisis - and the rat invasion - were entirely predictable. It happens to this region roughly every 50 years. That is how often the bamboo forests that cover the hillsides blossom. Their seeds are high in protein and, when the rats eat them, they breed four times faster than normal.

After their numbers swell and they finish eating the bamboo seeds, they move into people's fields and eat their crops. The blossoming, the rat problem, and the food shortages began two years ago in India then moved into Bangladesh in January and have now headed south into Burma as well. The last rat plague in 1959 caused devastation just over the border in the Indian state of Mizoram.

The people there suffered so much and were so appalled by the lack of help from the government, they launched a rebellion that lasted 20 years.

The Pope, who has made improving relations with China one of the goals of his pontificate, presided over the traditional Via Crucis (Way of the Cross) procession commemorating Christ's crucifixion and death. Attended by tens of thousands of people, the solemn, night-time ceremony is one of the main services ahead of Easter -- the climax of the Christian year.

Cardinal Joseph Zen Ze-kiun of Hong Kong, who has criticised a lack of religious freedom in China, wrote the meditations for this year. They paid tribute to those "living martyrs" who suffer for their faith. "In many parts of the world, (the Church) is undergoing the dark hour of persecution," Zen wrote in one of the meditations. China's 8 to 12 million Catholics are split between a church approved by the ruling Communist party and an "underground" church wary of government intervention. Beijing and the Vatican severed ties two years after the 1949 Communist takeover.

"Colosseums have multiplied down the centuries, wherever our brothers and sisters, in different parts of the world, continue to be harshly persecuted today," Zen wrote in the forward, which the Pope read aloud. Earlier this month, an Iraqi archbishop was found dead in eastern Mosul after being kidnapped by gunmen, in an attack Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki blamed on al Qaeda.

President Bush visited the scene of the disaster and assured the nation, "We in the federal government will respond," and Congress allocated nearly $200 million for repairs. But since then, very little has changed in how the country ensures bridges are safe. Throughout the U.S., bridges continue to be inspected only every two years, just as they were before the tragedy in Minnesota.

And although a disaster may have been averted on a Philadelphia bridge this week, it was only thanks to the careful watch of a single engineer. Peter Kim wasn't scheduled to inspect a certain overpass outside Philadelphia until next year, but the alert contractor, passing through the area on his way from lunch, SPOTTED A 6-FOOT CRACK IN A 40-YEAR-OLD COLUMN ON INTERSTATE 95, the main highway corridor from New England to southern Florida. "I passed by this column and saw that it had deteriorated to a point that needed immediate attention," Kim said. A DECISION TO CLOSE A STRETCH OF THE BRIDGE AND A PORTION OF I-95 WAS MADE WITHIN MINUTES.

AROUND THE COUNTRY, 74,000 BRIDGES ARE CLASSIFIED AS STRUCTURALLY DEFICIENT. Just this week in Minnesota, another bridge was closed to traffic - ITS CONDITION SO POOR THAT IT MAY BE BEYOND REPAIR. Experts believe another collapse is all but inevitable. These troubled bridges are a problem with no easy solution: ENGINEERING ESTIMATES SAY IT WILL TAKE $1.6 TRILLION TO REPAIR AND REPLACE THEM.

But the more than $120 billion spent over 25 years to build the "Star Wars" missile shield has not left the U.S. less vulnerable to attack - SOME WOULD ARGUE THAT IT HAS DONE EXACTLY THE OPPOSITE, BY DIVERTING RESOURCES AWAY FROM DEALING WITH MORE URGENT AND PLAUSIBLE THREATS.

To those who fear a missile strike on the American mainland from North Korea or Iran - not that either is anywhere close to achieving such capability - the investment in a missile shield, even one whose efficacy is far from clearly established, may seem worthwhile. To those who believe the more salient and insidious threats are those of the type we experienced on 9/11, this shield against a handful of rogue missiles represents an unfortunate diversion of funds that could be used far more effectively to defend the U.S.

The growing consensus among national-security professionals is that A DEADLY WEAPON TARGETING THE U.S. IS FAR MORE LIKELY TO BE DELIVERED HIDDEN IN A SHIPPING CONTAINER THAN IN THE WARHEAD OF AN INTERCONTINENTAL BALLISTIC MISSILE. But the $10 billion a year the Pentagon devotes to missile defenses is almost twice the amount the U.S. spends on defending the nation's borders and ports from smuggled weapons.

Along the Meramec River in eastern Missouri, residents of Valley Park hoped the town's $49 million earthen levee, built in 2005 to withstand a 100-year flood, would pass its first big test. The surging Meramec was expected to crest at a record 40 feet on Saturday - 24 feet above flood stage. The Army Corps of Engineers and Missouri Public Safety said the levee was in good shape, but some residents decided to leave for higher ground just in case.

Snow forced the cancellation of more than 450 flights and delayed numerous others at Chicago's O'Hare International Airport, one of the world's busiest. Many flights were also canceled at Detroit Metropolitan Airport in Michigan, where up to 12 inches of snow was expected in areas. Northern Ohio residents prepared for an expected 3 to 6 inches of snow, while flood victims in the southern parts of the state began the arduous task of cleaning up after some of the heaviest rain in years. A blizzard warning remained in effect in northern Maine, where fierce winds scattered snow, uprooted trees and brought down power lines.

At least 16 deaths have been linked to the weather over the past few days, and at least two people whose vehicles were swept away by rushing water Tuesday were still missing in Arkansas

GERMAN BANKS ARE NERVOUS. Deutsche Bank Chairman Josef Ackermann demanded earlier this week that governments and banks cooperate more closely in overcoming the current crisis. His comments came on the heels of rate cuts by the US Federal Reserve and the Fed's cash injection to help out wobbly banks in the US. In Germany, however, Ackermann's plea unleashed a heated debate in Germany over the market's ability to recover without state intervention.

Axel Weber, president of the Bundesbank, Germany's federal bank, rejected Ackermann's statement. In an interview with the financial daily Handelsblatt, he said: "THE BANKS THEMSELVES MUST BE RESPONSIBLE FOR MONITORING AND SOLVING THEIR OWN PROBLEMS." Calling for greater transparency, he said that, "all participants in the financial markets must inform promptly about their risks."

"For example, Deutsche Bank boss Josef Ackermann admitted at the beginning of the week that he no longer believes in the market's ability to recover on its own - despite having cited this very ability for years in his rejection of state intervention. It seems likely that we're in for a dramatic change in the political weather: EVEN IF MONEY BEGINS TO FLOW ABUNDANTLY AGAIN BETWEEN BANKS, THEIR CREDIBILITY WITH THE PUBLIC IS ZERO."

"The price of the ongoing bailouts will take the form of significantly stricter regulations and greater state influence."

Frenchman Jérôme Kerviel offered a particularly enlightening commentary on the steadily worsening crisis in the financial markets. Just as a reminder, Kerviel is one of the young traders whose UNAUTHORIZED TRADES RESULTED IN THE STUNNING LOSS OF €4.9 BILLION ($7.66 billion) for his employer, French bank Société Générale. When questioned by prosecutors, Kerviel offered this logical explanation for his actions: "WORKING IN THIS PROFESSION, YOU LOSE YOUR SENSE FOR SUMS." Then he added: "You get a little carried away."

The sad and, for many contemporaries, extremely costly truth is that the ENTIRE FINANCIAL SECTOR HAS APPARENTLY LOST ITS SENSE FOR SUMS IN RECENT YEARS. We are all in the hands of tens of thousands of men and women like Kerviel, who pursue their business deals in banks around the globe.

No matter how it ends, we must learn our lessons from this tremor as quickly as possible. Perhaps the most important lesson is that the financial sector is far too important to be left almost entirely in the hands of nimble financial traders in Frankfurt, London and New York. As it happens, the financial industry plays a special role in a market economy. A crisis in the auto or chemical industry can be contained. BUT A BLOW TO THE BANKING SYSTEM AFFECTS EVERYONE AND CAN EVEN LEAD TO THE COLLAPSE OF POLITICAL STRUCTURES, AS THE CRASH OF 1929 AND ITS CONSEQUENCES HAVE SHOWN.

There is little left from the days when the town of Tarsus was not Turkish but part of the Roman Empire: a handful of columns, a few old walls -- and a house where, about 2,000 years ago, a man who would become a central figure in Christianity was born.

Every year, thousands of visitors travel to Tarsus, which is near the Turkish-Syrian border. But Christians who wish to worship in the Church of St. Paul, built several centuries ago, must overcome bizarre hurdles to do so. A permit is required from the local authorities to celebrate mass in the church. In addition, worshippers are charged an entry fee and required to bring along the essentials - from the altar crucifix to candles - and then promptly remove them after the service. The church was used as a military depot for several decades, before the Turkish government suddenly declared it a museum in the 1990s.

The Catholics are pursuing a politically explosive plan. Roughly 2,000 years after the birth of St. Paul, they want to get a Christian meeting center constructed in Tarsus. They have chosen an auspicious moment for the scheme. With Turkey vying for European Union membership, the government of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan can hardly afford to turn down a Christian project. In addition, the Church, especially the German bishops, is offering something in return. The Germans have often taken a benevolent stance toward the construction of mosques in Germany, a policy they intend to continue. In return, they are demanding tolerance for Christians in Turkey.

This view is also shared by other well respected financial analysts. Peter Schiff recently raised concerns about A HYPER-INFLATIONARY COLLAPSE OF THE U.S. DOLLAR, Robert Reich a former Clinton cabinet member believes we are facing a depression and Alan Greenspan the man who caused this whole mess wrote in the Financial Times stating that we are facing the worst financial crisis since World War II.

What's amazing is that the Federal Reserve isn't even trying to protect the U.S. Dollar because all they care about is saving the power of their private banking cartel. THEY DON'T CARE ABOUT THE U.S. DOLLAR NOR DO THEY CARE ABOUT THE COUNTRY ITSELF. They are destroying this country through their actions and there needs to be an investigation into the controllers of this bank. WHEN WILL PEOPLE UNDERSTAND THAT THE FEDERAL RESERVE IS A PRIVATE CENTRAL BANK THAT IS MERELY LOOKING TO PRESERVE THE INTERESTS OF THE BANKING CARTEL? It is likely that we are seeing the start of a domino collapse in the U.S. financial system and it's going to get ugly.

Webb says the industrial base needed to rebuild the Navy is "pretty precarious. The commercial shipping industry has gone elsewhere," he told Seapower magazine. "The shipbuilding industry for our military base has gone through a lot of changes and consolidations. The key to maintaining America's strategic advantages on the high seas is dependent," he says, "on re-establishing a stable shipbuilding program, without the ups and downs, in order to preserve the industry."

"It's a highly skilled work force, and they tend to go away," said Webb. "I've often said to people who haven't been around the military, 'Go down and watch them build an aircraft carrier, and you'll understand why we're the only country that is really able to do this.' It has taken generations of handing down the skills to do that, and it's very difficult to regrow those skills after you lose them."

Branson does - and so did most of his guests. So on this recent weekend on his private hideaway in the crystalline waters between the islands of Tortola and Anegada, they tried to figure out what to do about it and perhaps get richer in the process. Some of them, like Page, carbon-consciously jet-pooled in from Silicon Valley, where the financiers who bankrolled the Web boom of the 1990s have started chasing the new "New New Thing": green power. In an era of $100-plus oil, venture capitalists like Vinod Khosla, another invitee, are pouring hundreds of millions of dollars into young companies that cook up biofuels and harness the power of the sun.

The Caribbean getaway was the brainchild of Richard Stromback, a former professional hockey player who struck gold as a clean-technology entrepreneur. Stromback, the chief executive of Ecology Coatings, joked that a gathering like this might seem nefarious to some people.

"In James Bond movies, evil-doers meet in exotic settings to plot the destruction of the planet," Stromback said, puffing on a cigar before dinner one night. But the people here, he said, were plotting to save the planet.
So far, however, the hopes and dreams of alternative energy have far outstripped reality. But for Stromback and many of the other participants, a confluence of two powerful forces - soaring oil prices and growing concern over global warming - means the era of economically viable green power is finally at hand.