The 21 Asia-Pacific Economic Co-operation group ministers called for urgent action to save the "Doha round negotiations" on a new world trade agreement and insisted that open and rules-based trade was crucial for sustaining regional growth.

"We regard a rise in protectionist trade and investment sentiment around the globe as a serious threat to growth and living standards in our region," said the ministers, warning that economic integration was generating "new ways of conducting business and new barriers to trade and investment".

The group, which includes the US, Japan, China, Russia, Canada and Australia, called for domestic reforms to ease trade flows and promised to work towards barrier-free trading in financial services, which has been resisted by many countries in the region.

In an apparent reference to concerns about the Chinese and Japanese currencies, Apec ministers called on countries to "dampen protectionist sentiment" by operating flexible exchange rates based on underlying economic fundamentals.

The language echoed Washington's pressure on Beijing for a faster appreciation of the renminbi, although some Apec countries - notably South Korea and New Zealand - have voiced concerns about the impact of the weak yen on the carry trade, in which investors borrow at low Japanese interest rates and invest in countries with higher interest rates. Robert Kimmitt, deputy US Treasury secretary, said there had been progress on currency issues at the talks, adding there was no difference between the US and China on the goal and direction of currency reforms.

His comments were made after Hank Paulson, the US Treasury secretary, visited China this week to discuss the value of the renminbi amid demands from some US Congress members for a faster appreciation of the Chinese currency in order to make US exporters more competitive. However, Jin Renqing, China's finance minister, indicated that his country would not be pressed, adding Beijing had already adopted a more flexible approach to its currency.

"The biggest problem for China is to maintain the good momentum in its economic growth," he said. "The reforms should be self-initiated, controllable and gradual."

Cemetery bosses are in talks with a British firm which plans to turn bodies to dust rapidly by submerging them in water and heating them to 150C (302F). The process - called resomation - is similar to cremation but the company claims it is better for the environment. This is because it uses less energy and does not emit any harmful chemicals.

When a body is cremated, it is heated to up to 1,200C (2,192F) and lets off a number of harmful gases, including high levels of mercury. With resomation, there is also no wooden coffin to be destroyed. Chemically, the process is similar to - but much faster than - natural decomposition. Afterwards, the 'bio-ashes' are returned to loved ones.

The Government is encouraging local authorities to find new ways of disposing of the dead because burial space is running out.

Merial, which makes foot-and-mouth vaccines and has a laboratory three miles from the Surrey farm hit by the disease, dramatically agreed to stop production immediately.

The breakthrough came after Defra experts established that the strain of foot and mouth disease found in cattle at the infected farm at Wanborough is similar to the virus isolated in the 1967 outbreak in Britain. MERIAL IS OWNED BY US PHARMACEUTICAL GIANT MERCK and shares research facilities at Pirbright with the publicly-funded Animal Health Institute

If the initial findings of the inquiry set up by Mr Brown prove to be accurate, Merial is likely to face tough sanctions from the Government. THE COMPANY PREPARED VACCINES DURING THE 2001 FOOT-AND-MOUTH OUTBREAK IN BRITAIN, IN WHICH MILLIONS OF CATTLE AND SHEEP WERE CULLED. BUT THE GOVERNMENT DECIDED NOT TO USE THEM - A POLICY WHICH REMAINS IN FORCE.

THE RESEARCH COMPLEX AT PIRBRIGHT STORES VAST QUANTITIES OF LETHAL VIRUSES WHICH ARE SUPPOSED TO BE KEPT ACCORDING TO STRICT SAFETY STANDARDS. THE MAIL ON SUNDAY HAS LEARNED THAT SAFETY STANDARDS AT THE WORLD-RENOWNED INSTITUTE WERE CHALLENGED BY MPS LAST YEAR. THE ALL-PARTY SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY COMMITTEE SAID THAT GOVERNMENT CUTS HAD LED TO HIGHLY SENSITIVE WORK BEING CARRIED OUT ON THE CHEAP BY PHD STUDENTS.

This newspaper obtained further circumstantial evidence raising concern over the Pirbright institute. IT WAS HELD RESPONSIBLE FOR A SIMILAR LOCAL FOOT-AND-MOUTH OUTBREAK IN THE FIFTIES. Early this week the wind was blowing in a southerly direction from the complex towards the infected farm. The disease has a three to five-day incubation period. First sign of the disease was reported on Thursday.

Sources said there had been no cattle movements on or off the farm since July 12 - too long ago for that to have caused the outbreak. That appeared to be a further clue that the virus may have been carried by the wind.

The recruitment agency handling the scheme told Abigail Howarth, 18, that there was no point in her submitting an application because of her ethnic background. But bizarrely she could have applied if she had been white and Welsh, Scottish or Irish. Abigail, who wanted to join the Agency's flood management programme, saw an advert in a local newspaper offering positions in the Anglia region where she lives, complete with a £13,000-a-year tax-free grant.

Abigail, of Little Straughton, Bedfordshire, said: "I was really disappointed. To be told being "White English" ruled me out in my home county shocked me. I know why there are positive action training schemes to assist those who are genuinely discriminated against but when it's broken down to this level it seems crazy to me.

Abigail, who is awaiting the results of A-Levels in environmental science, geography and geology, emailed PATH National Ltd, the company handling applications. She asked: "Am I correct in assuming that as I am English (White) I need not apply as the preference is for the minorities you have listed, or can I apply anyway?'

Three days later, PATH recruitment officer, Bola Odusi, replied: "Thank you for your enquiry - unfortunately the traineeship opportunity is targeted towards the ethnic minority group to address their under representations in the professions under the Race Relations Act amended 2000."

The ban is included in new rules intended to assert Beijing's authority over Tibet's restive and deeply Buddhist people. The so-called reincarnated living Buddha without government approval is illegal and invalid, according to the order, which comes into effect on September 1.

The 14-part regulation issued by the State Administration for Religious Affairs is aimed at limiting the influence of Tibet's exiled god-king, the Dalai Lama, and at preventing the re-incarnation of the 72-year-old monk without approval from Beijing.

It is the latest in a series of measures by the Communist authorities to tighten their grip over Tibet. Reincarnate lamas, known as tulkus, often lead religious communities and oversee the training of monks, giving them enormous influence over religious life in the Himalayan region. Anyone outside China is banned from taking part in the process of seeking and recognising a living Buddha, effectively excluding the Dalai Lama, who traditionally can play an important role in giving recognition to candidate reincarnates.

For the first time China has given the Government the power to ensure that no new living Buddha can be identified, sounding a possible death knell to a mystical system that dates back at least as far as the 12th century.

China already insists that only the Government can approve the appointments of Tibet's two most important monks, the Dalai Lama and the Panchen Lama. The Dalai Lama's announcement in May 1995 that a search inside Tibet - and with the co-operation of a prominent abbot - had identified the 11th reincarnation of the Panchen Lama, who died in 1989, enraged Beijing.

That prompted the Communist authorities to restart the search and to send a senior Politburo member to Lhasa to oversee the final choice. This resulted in top Communist officials presiding over a ceremony at the main Jokhang temple in Lhasa in which names of three boys inscribed on ivory sticks were placed inside a golden urn and a lot was then drawn to find the true reincarnation.

The boy chosen by the Dalai Lama has disappeared. The abbot who worked with the Dalai Lama was jailed and has since vanished. Several sets of rules on seeking out "soul boys" were promulgated in 1995, but were effectively in abeyance and hundreds of living Buddhas are now believed to live inside and outside China.

For many Iraqi citizens, however, trying to stay cool or find sufficient drinking water was a more urgent problem. The Baghdad water supply already has been severely affected by power blackouts and cuts that have affected pumping and filtration stations.

And now water mains have gone dry in the Shiite holy city of Karbala, where the whole province south of Baghdad has been without power for three days. Power supplies in Baghdad have been sporadic all summer and now are down to just a few hours a day, if that.

"We no longer need television documentaries about the stoneage. We are actually living in it. We are in constant danger because of the filthy water and rotten food we are having", said Hazim Obeid, who sells clothing at a stall in the Karbala market.

Aziz al-Shimari, the Electricity Ministry spokesman in Baghdad, said power generation nationally was only half of demand and that there had been four nationwide blackouts over the past two days. The conflict over electricity is a perennial problem in Iraq, which ironically sits atop one of the world's largest crude oil reserves. The system became decrepit under Saddam Hussein whose regime was under a U.N. sanctions regime after the Gulf War and had trouble buying spare parts or the equipment to upgrade the system.

The lack of electricity is particularly acute at this time of year when average daily temperatures reach between 110 and 120 Fahrenheit (43 and 49 Celsius). "We wait for the sunset to enjoy some coolness", said Qassim Hussein, a 31-year-old day laborer in Karbala. "The people are fed-up. There is no water, no electricity, there is nothing but death."

CHILDLESS OR CHILDFREE? Not so long ago, all women without children were known as childless, with its implication of a state of loss. Nowadays, a growing number of women are insisting on the term childfree - with its emphasis on liberation. An increasing number of women in their 30s are rejecting the job description that they believe comes with parenting - loss of freedom, reduced career prospects and financial burdens.

FERTILITY RATES
In Europe 2.1 children per woman is considered to be the population replacement level. These are national averages

Ireland: 1.99
France: 1.90
Norway: 1.81
Sweden 1.75
UK: 1.74
Netherlands: 1.73
Germany: 1.37
Italy: 1.33
Spain: 1.32
Greece: 1.29
Source: Eurostat - 2004 figures

In the UK, the most commonly cited statistic is that by 2010, one in four will be either childfree or childless.

"I made the choice early on not to have children. I don't dislike them - I simply decided that I could not devote 100% of my time to someone else," one woman said. "I HAVE ALSO BEEN CALLED SELFISH BUT I THINK THAT PEOPLE WHO HAVE THREE CHILDREN ARE ENCROACHING ON THE PLANET'S RESOURCES - I CAN'T BELIEVE THE AMOUNT OF WASTE THAT CHILDREN PRODUCE.

"The world's population is still growing - it's only people in the West who are perceived to be not having enough children. People will always have children and the world will continue," she says.

Jonathan McCalmont is the founder of Kidding Aside (The British Childfree Association), which was first set up on the internet to lobby for equality for people without children. "WE BELIEVE IT IS UP TO THE INDIVIDUAL TO DECIDE WHAT CONSTITUTES A FAMILY," he says. "It's not up to the state."

The vote in Metn to replace former minister Pierre Gemayel is being seen as a key test of support among the deeply divided Christian community. Mr Gemayel's father, ex-President Amin Gemayel, 65, is running for the seat.

His supporters have clashed with the backers of the candidate of pro-Syrian opposition leader Michel Aoun.

Both men are potential candidates in this year's divisive presidential election and the race in the Metn mountains is expected to be close. Under Lebanon's sectarian political system, the president is a Maronite Christian, the prime minister a Sunni Muslim and the speaker a Shia Muslim. Parliament elects the president.

The by-elections threaten to deepen Lebanon's political divisions, correspondents say. They do not have the required approval of President Emile Lahoud, who is allied with the Hezbollah-led opposition, as is parliamentary speaker Nabih Berri. Mr Berri has said he will not recognise the results. Mr Gemayel and his allies accuse Syria of orchestrating the shooting of Pierre Gemayel last November and other anti-Syrian figures including Mr Eido, who was killed by a car bomb in June.

Mr Aoun's FPM won a vast majority of the Christian vote in 2005 parliamentary polls, but his support slipped when he allied himself to the pro-Syria Shia Muslim movement Hezbollah. Hezbollah and other opposition groups quit a unity cabinet last year and have been boycotting parliament in a campaign to demand a cabinet veto, after anti-Syrian factions won power in 2005 following years of political and military control by powerful neighbour Syria.

Defra could not say the laboratory was the source but has increased the size of the protection and surveillance zones covering farms in the area. An urgent assessment of biosecurity has begun at the institute. THE STRAIN IS NOT ONE NORMALLY FOUND IN ANIMALS BUT IS USED IN VACCINE PRODUCTION AND IN DIAGNOSTIC LABORATORIES.

In a statement Defra said: "The present indications are that this strain is a 01 BFS67-like virus, isolated in the 1967 foot-and-mouth disease outbreak in Great Britain." THE STRAIN WAS USED IN A VACCINE BATCH MANUFACTURED LAST MONTH BY A PRIVATE PHARMACEUTICAL COMPANY MERIAL ANIMAL HEALTH.

The firm shares Pirbright with the government's Institute for Animal Health (IAH), which conducts research into foot-and-mouth and where the strain is also present. Merial voluntarily halted vaccine production as a precaution.

Defra said: "This incident remains at an early stage. It is too soon to reach any firm conclusions." CHIEF VETERINARY OFFICER DEBBY REYNOLDS SAID IT WAS TOO SOON TO SAY ANYTHING CONCLUSIVE ABOUT THE SOURCE OF THE VIRUS BUT IT WAS CLEAR WHICH STRAIN WAS INVOLVED.

"That is carried at the Pirbright facility, at Meriel for vaccine production, and indeed at the Institute for Animal Health, on the same premises on the same location for diagnostic purposes," she said.

Merial said in a statement: "The decision to suspend production has been taken in full consultation with Defra and will enable Defra to carry out a thorough investigation into all possible sources of this outbreak."

Meanwhile, Britain imposed a voluntary ban on exports of livestock and livestock products, the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs said. The ministry said the ban applied to animals with cloven hooves such as cows, sheep and pigs. It covers live animals, carcasses, meat and milk and is effective immediately.

Speaking at his 10 Downing St. office, Brown said experts would work "night and day" to discover the origin of the outbreak on a farm in southern England as fast as possible. "Our first priority has been to act quickly and decisively," said Brown, who cut short a summer holiday to deal with the crisis, which prompted a European Union ban on livestock imports from Britain.

Japan said earlier that it had banned British pork imports. Beef imports from Britain have been banned in Japan since the outbreak of mad cow disease in the 1990s. The European Union also banned livestock imports from Britain in reaction to the outbreak.

"This year, right now, it feels very bleak," said Ben Darvill, a conservation researcher at the University of Stirling and co-founder of the Bumblebee Conservation Trust. HE WAS TALKING ABOUT THE SERIOUS DECLINE IN BEES OVER RECENT YEARS, WHICH IS NOW COMING TO A HEAD, WHAT WITH LARGE AND UNPRECEDENTED LOSSES OF BEES IN EUROPE, THE US AND OTHER PARTS OF THE WORLD.

"It's urgent and we need to do something about it now," he continued. "But all too often people notice the importance of something when it's not there - when it's too late."

IT'S EASY TO FORGET THAT BEES DON'T JUST MAKE HONEY; they pollinate more than 90 of the flowering crops we rely on for food. Among them: apples, nuts, pears, avocados, soybeans, asparagus, broccoli, celery, squash, tomatoes, sunflowers and cucumbers. Along with citrus fruit, peaches, kiwis, cherries, blueberries, cranberries, strawberries and melons.

Crops like oilseed rape (increasingly used in biofuels), alfalfa, peas, runner beans and broadbeans also rely on visits by bees and other pollinating insects to improve the quality and quantity of fruits and seeds produced.

IT'S HARD TO BELIEVE THAT ONE SMALL CREATURE CAN BE SO IMPORTANT TO OUR FOOD SUPPLY.

But as Brian Latham, chair of the Leeds Beekeepers Association, points out: we've become almost terminally disconnected from the natural world we live in and how it feeds us.

"WE GET OUR FOOD FROM SUPERMARKETS AND THINK LITTLE MORE ABOUT IT," HE SAYS. "VERY FEW OF US ARE AS AWARE AS OUR GRANDPARENTS WERE OF THE CONNECTION BETWEEN WHAT'S ON OUR DINNER PLATES AND THE INTRICATE WORKINGS OF NATURE."

ALBERT EINSTEIN was well aware of this connection. When it came to bees, he put it in no uncertain terms: "IF THE BEE DISAPPEARED OFF THE SURFACE OF THE GLOBE, THEN MAN WOULD ONLY HAVE FOUR YEARS OF LIFE LEFT. NO MORE BEES, NO MORE POLLINATION, NO MORE PLANTS, NO MORE ANIMALS, NO MORE MAN."

In June, the British Beekeepers Association set up an emergency meeting slamming Defra over the "paltry" £180,000 currently being allocated to bee research. John Howat, secretary of the Bee Farmers' Association, was quoted as saying: "Less than one percent of the hives' value to the economy is being spent on research and development. The government seems totally oblivious to the consequences of honeybees being wiped out."

Even more worryingly, this summer's floods and torrential rains could have made the bees' plight far worse. "A year like this will have a big effect - particularly on bumblebee populations," said Darvill. "Bumblebees largely nest underground, so you can imagine the terrible effect the flooding and rains have had on their colonies. The fact is, a series of bad summers like this one could easily lead to further national extinctions."

The Dow Jones Industrial Average had been trading just a shade lower when chief financial offer Sam Molinaro compared the current crisis on Wall Street to the 1987 stock market collapse, the Asian debt crisis of the 1990s, the collapse of hedge fund Long Term Capital Management and the recent dotcom bubble.

"THESE TIMES ARE PRETTY SIGNIFICANT," HE SAID ON A CALL WITH INVESTORS. "I'VE BEEN OUT HERE FOR 22 YEARS, AND THIS IS AS BAD AS I'VE SEEN IT IN THE FIXED-INCOME MARKETS."

His comments were a response to Standard & Poor's, which downgraded the rating on Bear Stearns debt to "negative" from "stable", suggesting it may lose it's a+ rating. The investment bank is the manager of two hedge funds heavily invested in sub-prime loans that collapsed last month and S&P said its "profitability would be especially affected if there were an extended downturn in those markets." THE DOW IMMEDIATELY PLUMMETED, CLOSING 280 POINTS LOWER AT 13,182.

IT WAS THE THIRD CONSECUTIVE FRIDAY THAT THE DOW LOST MORE THAN 100 POINTS as investors were unwilling to hold their positions going into the weekend. Shares of Bear Stearns lost more than 6pc.

A further example of the crisis in the market came yesterday when American Home Mortgage, the 10th largest lender in the US, said it had been forced to close almost all its operations and lay off close to 7,000 workers immediately. The company is now expected to file for bankruptcy, perhaps as early as next week.

The volatility in the global credit markets has caused 46 leveraged financing deals around the world to be pulled since June 22, representing more than $60bn (£30bn) in funding that companies had planned for mergers and acquisitions, according to figures from Baring Asset Management.

After years of development, three "special weapons observation remote reconnaissance direct action system" (SWORDS) robots have deployed to Iraq, armed with M249 machine guns. The 'bots "haven't fired their weapons yet," Michael Zecca, the SWORDS program manager, tells DANGER ROOM. "But that'll be happening soon."

The SWORDS -- modified versions of bomb-disposal robots used throughout Iraq -- were first declared ready for duty back in 2004. But concerns about safety kept the robots from being sent over the battlefield. The machines had a tendency to spin out of control from time to time. That was an annoyance during ordnance-handling missions; no one wanted to contemplate the consequences during a firefight.

So the radio-controlled robots were retooled, for greater safety. In the past, weak signals would keep the robots from getting orders for as much as eight seconds -- a significant lag during combat. Now, the SWORDS won't act on a command, unless it's received right away. A three-part arming process -- with both physical and electronic safeties -- is required before firing. Most importantly, the machines now come with kill switches, in case there's any odd behavior. "So now we can kill the unit if it goes crazy," Zecca says.

As initially reported in National Defense magazine, only three of the robots are currently in Iraq. Zecca says he's ready to send more, "but we don't have the money. It's not a priority for the Army, yet." He believes that'll change, once the robots begin getting into firefights.

The discovery of the disease near London prompted the government on Friday to ban livestock movements to prevent a repeat of a 2001 outbreak that blighted farming and rural tourism. All cattle on the farm were being culled. Brown's predecessor, Tony Blair, was criticized for his government's handling of the last outbreak, particularly for failing to act swiftly to stop the movement of animals.

On Friday evening, Brown took part in an emergency meeting of officials by telephone from Dorset, where he was on holiday, and he returned to London to chair another meeting of the emergency committee, COBRA, on Saturday.

Leading microbiologist Hugh Pennington said Britain was better placed to deal with the latest outbreak. "We've got the administrative structures, we've got the infrastructure and we've got the scientific capability," he told the BBC. "All these things were tested and found to be wanting in 2001. Lessons have been learned and I'm confident we'll do much, much better this time."

Robert Biedron, head of the Polish Foundation Against Homophobia, said "huge numbers" of Polish gays had now fled the country following the rise to power of the right-wing conservative government. He said: "The gay community has just moved away because of the climate of fear and persecution. Most of the people I know are now in Britain because of the current political situation. Not for economic reasons, but because of the persecution of homosexuals here."

Poland's new government has members who are openly anti-gay and the health ministry has created a special committee responsible for "curing" gays, according to local media.