Home Secretary Jacqui Smith said that extremists were behaving contrary to their faith, rather than acting in the name of Islam. Security officials believe that directly linking terrorism to Islam is inflammatory, and risks alienating mainstream Muslim opinion. In her first major speech on radicalisation, Miss Smith repeatedly used the phrase "anti-Islamic".

In one passage she said: "As so many Muslims in the UK and across the world have pointed out, there is nothing Islamic about the wish to terrorise, nothing Islamic about plotting murder, pain and grief. Indeed, if anything, these actions are anti-Islamic". Another section referred to enlisting the Muslim community against "anti-Islamic activity".

Her words were chosen to reflect new Government strategy on labelling the terrorists and their recruiting agents. The shift follows a decision taken last year to stop using the phrase "war on terror", first adopted by U.S. President Bush. Officials were concerned it could act as a recruiting tool for Al Qaeda, which is determined to manufacture a battle between the values of Islam and the West. The strategy emerging across Government is to portray terrorists as nothing more than cold-blooded murderers who are not fighting for any religious cause.

"Britain will welcome substantial new investment from China in our country in the years to come," Brown told a news conference alongside Premier Wen Jiabao."We want Britain to be the number one destination of choice for Chinese business as it invests in the rest of the world." The two leaders agreed to expand trade to a value of $60 billion by 2010, compared to about $40 billion last year, as they watched the signing of agreements on education cooperation, climate change, sustainable cities and clean-energy development.

"I believe by 2010 we will see 100 new Chinese companies investing in the UK, we will see 100 partnerships between our universities and Chinese universities and we will double the number of firms listed on the London Stock Exchange and thousands of jobs will be created," Brown said. He added that he welcomed investment from Beijing's huge sovereign wealth fund.

The Guttmacher Institute, which researches issues pertaining to reproductive health and sexuality, said there were about 1.2 million abortions in 2005 -- 25 percent fewer than in 1990, when the number of abortions was about 1.6 million procedures. In 2005, the US abortion rate was 19.4 abortions for every 1,000 women between the ages of 15 and 44, according to figures compiled from surveying abortion providers. The 2005 figure represented an eight percent drop from the number of abortions in 2000.

The finding underscores a continued a downward trend that started after the abortion rate peaked at 29.3 procedures per 1,000 women in 1981, according to the institute. Despite the drop, slightly more than one pregnancy in five ended in abortion in 2005, the Guttmacher Institute said.

The report was released days before the 35th anniversary of the Roe versus Wade decision by the Supreme court, which legalized abortion in the United States.

All 136 passengers and 16 crew survived after the Boeing 777 came down short of the south runway, near a busy road. An unnamed airport worker interviewed by the BBC said that the captain had told him that the Boeing 777-200ER had lost all power after "all the electronics" failed while the plane came in to land. The aircraft is generally thought by experts to be extremely reliable, with no serious accidents involving the 777 since the plane first went into production in 1996.

The focus of the investigation into the cause of the Heathrow crash turned today to the aeroplane's electrics after it was revealed that Boeing aircraft have a history of onboard fires causing power failure. Boeing 777s have been involved in at least 12 serious incidents when electrical systems have overheated, it has been reported. On four occasions "major damage" was caused to power panels, it has been reported.

On Disko Bay in western Greenland, where a number of prominent world leaders have visited in recent years to get a first-hand impression of climate change, temperatures have dropped so drastically that the water has frozen over for the first time in a decade.'The ice is up to 50cm thick,' said Henrik Matthiesen, an employee at Denmark's Meteorological Institute who has also sailed the Greenlandic coastline for the Royal Arctic Line. 'We've had loads of northerly winds since Christmas which has made the area miserably cold.'

Matthiesen suggested the cold weather marked a return to the frigid temperatures common a decade ago. Temperatures plunged to -25°C earlier this month, clogging the bay with ice and making shipping impossible for small crafts, according to Anthon Frederiksen, the mayor of the town of Ilulissat, where Disko Bay is located. 'We Greenlanders have acclimated to changing conditions over the past 1100 years,' said Frederiksen. 'Temperatures change at regular intervals.'

Bernanke said such a plan should be quickly implemented and temporary so that it won't complicate longer-term fiscal challenges.

The US Fed chief, in testimony to the House Budget Committee, did not embrace any specific provisions or a specific plan. Rather, he spoke to the general concept of an economic rescue package. It is likely that any such package would include tax rebates.

"Fiscal action could be helpful in principle" and may provide "broader support for the economy" than the Fed can furnish alone through reductions in interest rates, Bernanke said. However, he also said that "the design and implementation of the fiscal program are critically important."

White House spokesman Tony Fratto said that Bush "does believe that over the short term, to deal with the softening of the economy, that some boost is necessary. His comments marked the first White House confirmation that Bush, confronting a deepening economic crisis that has shaken much of the nation, supports government intervention. Until now, the White House said the president was just considering some type of short-term boost.

Scientists at King's College London and the University of Newcastle-upon-Tyne will now inject human DNA into empty eggs from cows, to create embryos known as cytoplasmic hybrids that are 99.9 per cent human in genetic terms. The experiments are intended to provide insights into diseases such as Parkinson's and spinal muscular atrophy by producing stem cells containing genetic defects that contribute to these conditions.

These will be used as cell models for investigating new approaches to treatment and for improving understanding of how embryonic stem cells develop. They will not be used in therapy, and it is illegal to implant them into the womb.

Fighting between insurgents and the interim government backed by Ethiopian forces broke out in the Somali capital more than a year ago, plunging the city into bloodshed in which more than 6,500 have been killed and 600,000 have fled their homes. Residents said Ethiopian army units based in north Mogadishu had marched to the sprawling Bakara market on Thursday, where insurgents confronted them, prompting fierce gun battles and exchanges of mortar rounds.

The Somali government and Ethiopia believe Bakara -- the city's biggest market -- is a hotbed of insurgents, and have routinely attacked it while carrying out sweeps for insurgents.

Kenyan authorities say more than 600 people have died in violence since President Mwai Kibaki was declared the victor in elections held in December. But Mr Odinga told reporters on Thursday that more than 1,000 people had died. He has demanded a recount of the vote but also said he would stop disputing the result if it showed Mr Kibaki won.

Mr Odinga also told the BBC's Hardtalk programme that he would be prepared to take part in a "transitional coalition government" charged with organising new elections within six months. The Commonwealth is the latest body to criticise the results. The final report of its observer team said the polls "did not meet international standards".

The European Parliament on Thursday unanimously backed a resolution calling for the EU to suspend aid to the Kenyan government. The EU is due to give some 400m euros (£298m) to Kenya over the next five years. MEPs have no direct say over the aid budget, but the vote sends a strong signal to EU governments about the disquiet provoked by the elections and their aftermath, says the BBC's Alix Kroeger in Strasbourg. MEP Glenys Kinnock told the BBC News website that EU money should be diverted away from the government and used in aid projects instead.

Dr. Eliot Mazar, who was involved in the recent discovery that may have revealed King David's palace, announced the discovery and said, "One cannot help being astonished by the credibility of the biblical source as seen by the archaeological find."

The family name "Temech" is engraved on the stone seal, which was found near the Dung Gate walls of the Old City. The Book of Nehemiah, which refers to the Temech family by name in chaper 7, states, "These are the children of the province, that went up out of the captivity, of those that had been carried away, whom Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon had carried away, and came again to Jerusalem and to Judah, every one unto his city."

The Nikkei index has dropped 11pc in barely two weeks, recording the worst start to the year since 1945. It is down 24pc from its peak and is now in the grip of a fully fledged bear market. Yields on five-year government bonds have dropped to 0.86pc as investors search for safety.

A wave of selling has swept across Asia in recent days as it becomes clear the US downturn will cause more damage than originally thought, but Japan has been hit doubly hard as the yen surges against the dollar, euro, sterling and the yuan. Mr Fukuda said the government would "respond if necessary" to prevent a stock market rout. It is hard to see what the government can do. Massive deficits over the past 15 years have left the country with little margin for fiscal action.

Toshihiko Fukui, the Bank of Japan's governor, said contagion from the US sub-prime crisis was "growing beyond our initial expectations".

Iran's foreign minister claimed it was designed to give Israel a green light "to perpetrate new crimes" against Palestinians. Lebanon's most senior Shi'ite cleric accused Bush of "war crimes." A prominent jihadist web site called the President "this criminal, butcher and murderer of our blood."

But Bush was also harshly criticized - albeit in more circumspect language - in countries with close ties to Washington, including some from the very countries that rolled out the red carpet for the visiting President. Commenting on the two main purposes of the tour, even the most liberal Arab press questioned the sincerity of Bush's efforts to establish a Palestinian state and criticized his campaign to pressure Iran over its nuclear program. On occasion, senior Arab officials contradicted or disputed Bush's pronouncements even before he left their countries.

Perhaps the unkindest cut of all was an editorial in the Saudi Gazette, comparing back-to-back visits by Western leaders to Riyadh this week. "It would be difficult to argue that French President Nicolas Sarkozy's visit to the Kingdom was not in almost every way a success," the paper said, adding, with an unmistakable swipe at Bush: "It's refreshing to see a Western leader come to the Kingdom speaking of peace rather than just issuing warnings on the state of affairs in the region."

"We ought to be celebrating President George Bush's declaration that a Palestinian state is 'long overdue,'" said the Arab News in Jidda. "It is impossible to feel any excitement about Bush's words, because no Palestinian, no Arab believes he will, or can, deliver. We have the Bush record with its damning testimony of failure and disaster. That is the reason for the skepticism and the cynicism."

U.N. spokesman Luis Zaqueu said although Mozambique's emergency services were well-prepared, the scenario could change as raging waters engulfed agricultural lands and wrecked infrastructure like roads and bridges in the centre of the southern African country. "Because the rains started earlier than predicted and the high water levels -- which are getting higher each moment -- the situation is likely to be worse than in 2000-2001," Zaqueu told Reuters. The U.N World Food Programme (WFP) said food distribution in affected areas needed to be increased as many badly hit towns and villages already face food shortages.

Zimbabwe faces the threat of renewed flooding which has destroyed homes and put new pressure on the country's ailing economy, disaster management authorities said on Wednesday. Floods have also damaged Zimbabwe's livestock and crops -- especially the staple maize -- heightening fears of food shortages in a country that has failed to feed itself since 2000, when President Robert Mugabe seized white-owned farms to resettle landless blacks.

Zimbabwe is currently grappling with a severe economic crisis and the highest inflation rate in the world, at almost 8,000 percent, as well as shortages of food, fuel and foreign currency. Mugabe has pinned recovery hopes on the current agricultural season, but floods threaten to compound the crisis.

The freak weather has led to extreme flooding and created chaos on the roads. More than 500 accidents have been reported as motorists struggle to drive in the storms. Dubai Police's Control and Command Room said there had been two deaths in separate accidents due to the incessant rain, which reached 36.4mm yesterday afternoon.

Streets and roundabouts across Dubai have been flooded, and motorists were stuck in traffic for two to five hours. People across the Gulf could even see a rare snowfall, an event Saudis usually only see on television or during travels overseas.

The plan - currently being implemented by the Bush administration with the formation of the Transatlantic Economic Council in April 2007 - appears to be following a plan written in 1939 by a world-government advocate who sought to create a Transatlantic Union as an international governing body. An economist from the World Bank has argued in print that the formation of the Transatlantic Common Market is designed to follow the blueprint of Jean Monnet, a key intellectual architect of the European Union, RECOGNIZING THAT ECONOMIC INTEGRATION MUST INEVITABLY LEAD TO POLITICAL INTEGRATION.

As WND previously reported, a key step in advancing this goal was the creation of the Transatlantic Economic Council by the U.S. and the EU through an agreement signed by President Bush, German Chancellor Angela Merkel - the current president of the European Council - and European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso at a White House summit meeting last April. Writing in the Fall 2007 issue of the Streit Council journal "Freedom and Union," Rep. Jim Costa, D-Calif., a member of the TPN advisory group, AFFIRMED THE TARGET DATE OF 2015 FOR THE CREATION OF A TRANSATLANTIC COMMON MARKET.

Costa said the Transatlantic Economic Council is tasked with creating the Transatlantic Common Market regulatory infrastructure. THE INFRASTRUCTURE WOULD NOT REQUIRE CONGRESSIONAL APPROVAL, like a new free-trade agreement would. Writing in the same issue of the Streit Council publication, Bennett also confirmed that what has become known as the "MERKEL INITIATIVE" would allow the Transatlantic Economic Council to integrate and harmonize administrative rules and regulations between the U.S. and the EU "IN A VERY QUIET WAY," WITHOUT INTRODUCING A NEW FREE TRADE AGREEMENT TO CONGRESS.

Today, the website of the Transatlantic Economic Council openly proclaims the TEC is "a political body to oversee and accelerate government-to-government integration between the European Union and the United States of America."