The 6.8-magnitude quake, in a narrow strait just off Negros Island, caused a landslide in Guihulngan, a city of about 180,000 people in Negros Oriental province. As many as 30 houses were buried and at least 29 people were missing, Mayor Ernesto Reyes said.

"Their situation is bad because if you are covered by landslide for one hour, two hours, how can you breathe?" he said. "But we just hope for the best, that there are still survivors." Rescuers were using picks and shovels to dig for survivors, he said. At least 10 people were confirmed dead, including students at a college and an elementary school and others in a town market that collapsed, Reyes said. About 100 were injured.

The quake, which hit at 11:49 am, triggered another landslide in the mountain village of Solongon in La Libertad town, also in Negros Oriental. An unknown number of people were trapped, said La Libertad police chief inspector Eric Arrol Besario. Philippine seismologists briefly issued a tsunami alert for the central islands. Five bamboo and wooden cottages were washed out from a beach resort in La Libertad by huge waves, but there were no reports of injuries, said police Superintendent Ernesto Tagle. Elsewhere along the coast, people rushed out of schools, malls and offices.

Calling Israel a danger to Islam, the conservative website Alef, with ties to Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said the opportunity must not be lost to remove “this corrupting material. It is a ‘jurisprudential justification’ to kill all the Jews and annihilate Israel, and in that, the Islamic government of Iran must take the helm.”

The article, written by Alireza Forghani, a conservative analyst and a strategy specialist in Khamenei’s camp, now is being run on most state-owned conservative sites, including the Revolutionary Guards’ Fars News Agency, showing that the regime endorses this doctrine.

Because Israel is going to attack Iran’s nuclear facilities, Iran is justified in launching a pre-emptive, cataclysmic attack against the Jewish state, the doctrine argues. On Friday, in a major speech at prayers, Khamenei announced that Iran will support any nation or group that attacks the “cancerous tumor” of Israel. Though his statement was seen by some in the West as fluff, there is substance behind it.

Iran’s Defense Ministry announced this weekend that it test-fired an advanced two-stage, solid-fuel ballistic missile and boasted about successfully putting a new satellite into orbit, reminding the West that its engineers have mastered the technology for intercontinental ballistic missiles even as the Islamic state pushes its nuclear weapons program.

The Iranian secret documentary “The Coming Is Upon Us” clearly indicates that these radicals believe the destruction of Israel will trigger the coming of the last Islamic Messiah and that even Jesus Christ, who will convert to Islam, will act as Mahdi’s deputy, praying to Allah as he stands behind the 12th Imam.

Last week, Iran's supreme clerical leader threatened reprisals for the West's new ban on Iranian oil exports and the US defense secretary was quoted as saying Israel was likely to bomb Iran within months to stop it assembling nuclear weapons. Although broadened and sharpened financial sanctions have begun to inflict serious economic pain in Iran, its oil minister asserted Saturday it would make no nuclear retreat even if its crude oil exports ground to a halt.

Iran says its nuclear program is for civilian energy purposes. But its recent shift of uranium enrichment to a mountain bunker possibly impervious to conventional bombing, and refusal to negotiate peaceful guarantees for the program or open up to UN nuclear inspectors, have thickened an atmosphere of brewing confrontation, raising fears for Gulf oil supplies.

"Any spot used by the enemy for hostile operations against Iran will be subjected to retaliatory aggression by our armed forces," Hossein Salami, deputy head of the elite Revolutionary Guards, told the semi-official Fars news agency Sunday. The Guards began two days of military maneuvers in southern Iran Saturday in another show of force for Iran's adversaries associated with tensions over its disputed nuclear program.

Sunday Israel appointed a new air force chief who last month, in his position as top military planner, warned publicly that Israel could not deal a knock-out blow to its enemies, including Iran, in any regional conflict.

After Russia pulled back from the region at the end of the Cold War, the United States and its Western allies faced few external rivals in attempts to influence events. But as the US withdraws from Iraq, emerging economic powers reshape the globe and are themselves sucked ever deeper into the Gulf by their energy needs, that era seems over.

"What we are seeing is the US losing its ability to shape events in the region, even though it remains by far the pre-eminent military power," says Waleed Hazbun, director of the Centre for Arab and Middle Eastern Studies at the American University in Beirut. "You're seeing others moving in to fill the gap."

In some ways, experts say, there are echoes of 19th and 20th century scrambles for resources, territory and influence.

"Bottom line: there will be more players in the sandbox," says Hayat Alvi, lecturer in Middle Eastern studies at the US Naval War College. "The Middle East has always been the venue for the 'Great Game'. Rising powers will see opportunities and advantages in engaging in (that), just like the colonial powers."

Today, however, she makes clear that thoughts of retirement are far from her mind as she formally rededicates herself to her nation. In a statement to mark the start of her diamond jubilee year, the Queen – only the second monarch after her great great grandmother Queen Victoria to celebrate 60 years on the British throne – vows once again to serve her people for the rest of her life.

Her message is interesting because, unlike addresses issued to mark her silver and golden jubilees, the Queen takes the opportunity to rededicate herself to her people, scotching rumours that she might abdicate in favour of her son and heir, Prince Charles.

The disclosure will fuel the rising controversy over Britain’s aid to India. The country is the world’s top recipient of British bilateral aid, even though its economy has been growing at up to 10 per cent a year and is projected to become bigger than Britain’s within a decade.

Last week India rejected the British-built Typhoon jet as preferred candidate for a £6.3 billion warplane deal, despite the Development Secretary, Andrew Mitchell, saying that Britain’s aid to Delhi was partly “about seeking to sell Typhoon.” Mr Mukherjee’s remarks, previously unreported outside India, were made during question time in the Rajya Sabha, the upper house of parliament.

DFID has sent more than £1 billion of UK taxpayers’ money to India in the last five years and is planning to spend a further £600 million on Indian aid by 2015. In India, meanwhile, government audit reports found £70 million had disappeared from one DFID-funded project alone.

Referring to several recent politicians’ statements that caused a stir in the international media, most notably by Defense Minister Ehud Barak and Vice Prime Minister Moshe Ya’alon, Netanyahu urged the ministers to stay clear of remarks on the Iranian issue.

“The chatter causes extensive damage, puts Israel on the front line and impedes the sanction efforts,” he said during a Likud ministers’ meeting. Barak said last week that if sanctions on Iran fail, the international community would have to consider other options, while Ya’alon claimed that the Islamic Republic’s nuclear facilities are vulnerable to an attack. The two were speaking at the Herzliya Conference on security.

Reverend Stephen Trott, who is a rector in Boughton, Northampton, said Christians should be free to show their faith without fear of persecution. His motion, which is to be debated by the Synod this week, highlights the case of Gary McFarlane, a Christian relationship counsellor sacked for refusing to give sex therapy sessions to gay couples.

Reverend Trott said: “There is a growing number of cases reported about the ways in which our freedom of expression as Christians is being limited. This creates a climate of opposition and people feel more reluctant to talk about their faith. If the motion is passed I hope we will then have a statement on record of the view of the Church.”

Mr McFarlane and BA check-in clerk Nadia Eweida are among four Christians fighting a case in the European Court of Human Rights over religious discrimination. But despite a plea by former Archbishop of Canterbury Lord Carey, they have not won support from ministers.

The powers include the European Arrest Warrant, under which 200 British nationals have been surrendered to Continental prosecutors, and a requirement for DNA and fingerprints to be shared with European police forces. The letter has been signed by two former cabinet ministers, more than half the influential backbench 1922 Committee and several committee chairmen.

The MPs organising the letter insist that it is intended to be a positive contribution to the debate on Europe, but it threatens a new confrontation between Mr Cameron and backbenchers, who are demanding further repatriation of powers after successfully lobbying him to veto a new EU treaty at a summit in Brussels in December. Backbenchers want Mr Cameron to use a one-off opportunity under the Lisbon Treaty, which came into force in December 2009, to repatriate unilaterally up to 130 EU rules and regulations on crime and policing.

Unless Mr Cameron exercises the opt-out by June 2014, the European Courts of Justice in Luxembourg could force Britain to enforce them in full. The letter says: “We should maintain our national standards of justice and democratic control over crime and policing — but let other nations integrate more closely if they wish. We do not wish to subordinate UK authorities to a pan-European Public Prosecutor.”

“We do not want to see British police forces subjected to mandatory demands by European police under the European Investigation Order.”

The Carolingian union is all that anybody in French public life can really remember. It worked marvellously for two generations, levering French power on the global stage, and the euro was of course their own creation, intended to tie down a reunited Germany with “silken cords”. How can they now face the awful truth that this elegant strategy has blown up in their faces, enthroning Germany as undisputed hegemon?

Yet they can hardly ignore the evidence. While German unemployment has fallen to a post-Reunification low of 5.5 per cent, France’s jobless rate has crept up to a post-EMU high of 9.9 per cent and is certain to rise further as recession bites again. While both countries had the same sorts of export surplus in the early 1990s, they have diverged massively since the D-Mark and franc were fixed in perpetuity. Germany has a current account surplus of 5 per cent of GDP: France has a deficit of 2.7 per cent, anathema for Colbertistes.

So it has fallen to the Socialists – less compromised lately – to start the rebellion. “We cannot let the Germans alone appoint themselves experts and judges,” said party leader François Hollande. He called for “substantial modifications” to the fiscal compact if elected president in May, as he may well be since he is running six points ahead in the polls.

Lucas Papademos held emergency telephone talks with Christine Lagarde and Mario Draghi today in a bid to find a way to meet the demands of both Greece’s private creditor banks and its “troika” paymasters. Evangelos Venizelos, the Greek finance minister, told reporters he hoped to announce a deal this evening to avoid rattling global stockmarkets. However, he added: “It’s not an impasse but there are problems for the Greek side.”

There are just six weeks left before Greece faces a €14.5 billion (£12 billion) bond repayment which it cannot meet without international aid. European leaders have said Greece will not receive funds from the €130 billion rescue package unless it can persuade its private creditors to take losses to reduce the country’s debt pile.

Sources close to the private creditors told The Daily Telegraph that an agreement was still “some way off”. Although the banks have in principle agreed to take a 50 per cent loss on their bonds and an artificially low coupon on new Greek debt, the process is complicated by the demands of international officials on the country’s budget. Sources said the “focus” of the talks remained stuck on troika demands that include a 25 per cent reduction in the minimum wage and tougher public sector spending and job cuts.

At the weekend, Jean Claude Juncker, chairman of the Eurogroup of eurozone finance ministers, said a disorderly Greek default could not be ruled out. He told Der Spiegel, that without an agreement “in March they have to declare bankruptcy”.

It can be mounted on speed boats and other light vessels, can withstand electronic warfare, and is able to fly at low altitudes to avoid detection, the report said. Iran has a fleet of speed boats that often challenge US and allied warships in the Gulf. The vessels are usually controlled by the elite Revolutionary Guards and can be equipped with missiles.

The Islamic republic says it has a wide range of missiles. It says some are capable of striking targets inside Israel as well as Middle Eastern military bases of its other main archfoe, the United States.

The development also comes in the week Prince William left for the Falklands on a routine deployment as a search and rescue pilot. However, he is not involved in what is called Falklands Forum 12 in which Navy, Army and Royal Air Force personnel stage a “paper exercise” inside an aircraft hangar at Mount Pleasant, the island’s military airport.

It will also test in “real time” the reaction of naval, Army and RAF forces based on the islands. Crucially, it includes staff officers from the Permanent Joint Force Headquarters, based in Northwood, Middlesex, as well as 70 reservists who will spend two weeks in the South Atlantic.

The Sunday Express has learned that a British nuclear submarine en route to the region is carrying a special team of Spanish-speaking communications technicians who will monitor any maritime radio transmissions in the region. Argentina reacted to the 29-year-old prince’s deployment by accusing Britain of sending him “in the uniform of a conquistador”.

His warning comes as security sources confirmed that the threat of a Republican led bombing campaign now exceeded that of terror acts by Islamic fundamentalists. A senior member of the organisation last night said a cadre of activists was already well established in mainland Britain, with the capacity to cause chaos through a series of bombing campaigns. It is feared they may have learned from the tactics of Al Qaeda and the Taliban in Afghanistan, and will increase the size of Improvised Explosive Devices.

The Continuity IRA terrorist, who claims to have organised the UK mainland branch, said: “The British security services are perfectly right to protect against the threat of an attack because as long as they continue their policies in Ireland there will always be somebody willing to stand up and fight back.”

“Our numbers go up and down all the time but we are building a strong following in London and in other parts of the country including Scotland.” IRA insiders claim Republicans are furious over plans to bring the Olympic torch to Northern Ireland. On a Republican internet forum hardliners have boasted about plans to kidnap the torch during its tour of the province.

Since the agreement was first signed in 2008 only two nations have reached a deal with Britain, both securing opt-outs from the project. Labour ministers allowed Poland to dodge its obligations for five years while Ireland negotiated a complete opt-out. It leaves more than 1,400 Polish and Irish prisoners serving time in British jails at taxpayers’ expense. Offenders from the two nations make up more than a third of all the European inmates in the UK.

Labour MPs last week rounded on the coalition for failing to secure any new agreements on the prisoner transfer deal since the election in 2010 but Prisons Minister Crispin Blunt criticised the previous Government for letting Poland and Ireland off the hook.

Conservative MPs last night accused former Labour ministers of landing taxpayers with an unnecessary bill of millions of pounds. Andrew Percy, Tory MP for Brigg and Goole, said: “Members of any Government do not need to be brain surgeons to work out that the biggest foreign providers of our prison population are Poland and Ireland. Knowing this, I cannot believe the last Labour government allowed these countries to opt out of the new prisoner transfer agreements."