In the east, fighting has continued on the coastal road to Benghazi. Fierce battles on the road between Ajdabiya and the strategic oil town of Brega - which has changed hands half a dozen times since February - killed a number of rebels and wounded many more, reports said. Meanwhile, anti-aircraft fire was heard in Tripoli, suggesting the Libyan capital was coming under attack from the air, although there were no immediate reports of damage.

Frustration is growing among the city's residents, who have come under intensified attacks by pro-Gaddafi forces in recent days, and are critical of Nato for failing to halt the deadly assault. Rebels said dozens of Soviet-designed Grad rockets had been fired at an industrial district of Misrata by government forces, although this has not been confirmed. The Grad, which launches multiple rockets from mobile launchers, has been blamed for a number of civilian deaths in recent days, including eight people in a bread queue.

On Friday, US-based Human Rights Watch accused the Gaddafi regime of using cluster bombs - which scatter multiple bomblets, causing indiscriminate casualties, and have been banned by most countries - although the Libyan government vehemently denies the charge.

The entire Washington DC metropolitan area has been put under tornado watch. While tornadoes formed in the south, much of the damage there was attributed to high winds. The warning by the US National Weather Service for the Washington area also applies to counties in both Virginia and Maryland. Trees and power lines have been felled by the storms which have torn roofs off houses and scattered tractor-trailers across roads.

Staff from the Child Protective Services, accompanied by police, turned up at Godboldo's home to take her child into state care. A SWAT team then descended on the 56-year-old woman's house with a tank and automatic rifles after she was accused of firing a gun at police officers. After a ten-hour stand-off, which resulted in the mother giving herself up, Ariana was taken into protective custody.

The girl had been home-schooled by her mother but wanted to start going to a regular school, which required her to take a number of immunisations, reports Prisonplanet.com. The girl then suffered adverse reactions to these shots and her mother was told to put her on a prescribed pyschotropic drug. 'She began acting out of character, being irritated, having facial grimaces that have been associated with immunisations,' the child's aunt, Penny Godboldo, told the Detroit News.

The mother at first took the advice of doctors and gave Ariana the medication, Risperdal, but stopped after she said it was making her daughter's condition worse. Risperdal is an anti-psychotic medication which works by changing the effects of chemicals in the brain. It is used to treat, among other things, schizophrenia, as well as the symptoms of bipolar disorder and autism. 'Child Protective Services was trying to force her child to take a dangerous medication, Risperdal, against her will,' said the Godboldo family lawyer.

Her bail has been set at $500,000. 'We're hoping that Ariana is returned home, this whole matter is released, because we don't think that the mother has done anything at all,' attorney Wanda Evans told My FOX Detroit. Ariana remains in protective custody, at the Hawthorne Center in Northville. Officials have said they have not medicated the girl since she has been in their care.

Supporters say that the "window" prevents a great deal of mental and physical anguish caused by the maturing of sex organs, facial hair growth and changes in the voice. But critics argue it only prolongs the agony and can prevent people "growing out" of any feelings of confusion. The treatment can be prescribed for people diagnosed with Gender Identity Disorder (GID) - a rare psychiatric condition where a person is born one sex, but feels they are the other.

One of the main effects of the drugs is to stunt the development of sexual organs so less surgery will be required if someone chooses to permanently change their gender at a later date. However, bodily and hormonal changes will continue as normal if the medication is stopped. Until this month, British doctors were prevented from offering youngsters diagnosed with gender issues any medical intervention before the late stages of puberty usually at 16. But now the National Research Ethics Service has given approval to the UK's only specialist clinic for GID - the Tavistock and Portman NHS Trust in London - to prescribe the drugs to youngsters from 12 years old.

Researchers found nearly half of the meat and poultry samples, 47 percent, were contaminated with S-aureus, and more than half of those bacteria, 52 percent, were resistant to at least three classes of antibiotics. For the study, researchers looked at 136 samples involving 80 brands of beef, chicken, pork and turkey from 26 grocery stores in five cities including Los Angeles, Chicago, Fort Lauderdale (Florida), Flagstaff (Arizona), and Washington DC.

"For the first time, we know how much of our meat and poultry is contaminated with antibiotic-resistant Staph, and it is substantial," Dr Lance B Price, senior author of the study, said in a statement. "The fact that drug-resistant S-aureus was so prevalent, and likely came from the food animals themselves, is troubling, and demands attention to how antibiotics are used in food-animal production today." According to the findings published in the journal Clinical Infectious Disease, industrial farms, where food animals are steadily fed low doses of antibiotics, "are ideal breeding grounds for drug-resistant bacteria that move from animals to humans."

"Antibiotics are the most important drugs that we have to treat Staph infections; but when Staph are resistant to three, four, five or even nine different antibiotics - like we saw in this study - that leaves physicians few options," Price said. Experts say although Staph can be killed with proper cooking, it still may pose a risk to people who handle food improperly or who cross-contaminate various ingredients in the kitchen.

There were no injuries but the cause of the smoke at the plant in coastal Niigata prefecture was not clear, Kyodo news said, citing Tokyo Electric Power Co (TEPCO). The incident occurred in the evening during the checking of water purification equipment at the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear complex, the company was quoted as saying.

The beleaguered TEPCO has been fighting to prevent more radiation from leaking out of the Fukushima Daiichi plant in Japan's northeast after it was crippled by the devastating March 11 quake and tsunami.

He says there have been hundreds of earthquakes southwest of Hawthorne over the past few days. The largest - recorded at a 4.4 in size. "These are the biggest in a sequence we've seen at least in the last couple of years." Kent says unlike the 2008 quakes in Somersett that damaged so many homes, these earthquakes are fortunately not underneath a community.

Size is not the only reason Kent says they are watching the swarm of quakes closely. The location of these quakes is on top of a fault that has until now remained unknown or has not been active. Kent then made an eerie comparison, "Whats really interesting about most of these earthquakes we've experienced. Short of the Chilean and Japanese; Haiti, Baha, even Christchurch... were on unknown faults.

But Kent says just because those devastating quakes happened on un-named faults does not mean that the series of quakes near Hawthorne will lead to a big quake there. Reno, Carson City and the Las Vegas valley all lie on top of fault lines. And right now, there is no way to predict where the next big quake will occur. "That's yet another reason why you don't want to look at the map and go phew, I'm safe. We're in earthquake country and so we have to be prepared."

Another 10 per cent rise in food prices would push 10 million into extreme poverty, defined as an effective income of less than $1.25 a day. Already, the world's poor number 1.2 billion. Mr Zoellick said he saw no short term reversal in the damaging effect of food inflation, which is felt much more in the developing world as packaging and distribution accounts for a far larger proportion of the cost in the advanced economies.

Asked if he thought prices would remain high for a year, Mr Zoellick said: "The general trend lines are ones where we are in a danger zone... because prices have already gone up and stocks are relatively low." Rising prices have been driven by the changing diet of the ballooning middle classes in the emerging markets. "There is a demand change going on, with the higher incomes in developing countries. People will eat more meat products, for example, and that will use more grain."

"I am not suggesting that the improved diets in the developing world are the source of the problem but it means it takes longer to rebuild the stocks when you get a supply [shock]." The problem has been exacerbated by "weather problems in Russia, Ukraine, North America, China". Making matters worse has been rising fuel prices, which go into fertilisers and energy.

He also raised concerns about the food investment policies of some of the world's wealthier nations in poorer countries. China has been buying up huge tracts of Africa to grow enough food to feed its growing middle class. Using Saudi Arabia's decision to scrap wheat production and invest overseas for food instead as an example, he said: "This raises sensitivities about the purchasing and investment and the land."

Greece is implementing spending cuts but concerns have mounted in recent days because tax revenues have disappointed as the austerity programme squeezes the economy. Although it can tap the rescue package backed by Europe and the International Monetary Fund as the Mediterranean nation's debts come up for refinancing, traders reckon Greece will be unable to escape its vast borrowings. Market caution means it now costs 1.1 million euros to insure 10 million euros of Greek debt for five years.

Although Greece is not expected to default officially on the principal amount, holders of its debt may agree to reduce the interest rate and lengthen the terms of the loans. The effect would be largely similar to a default, as the value of the debt would fall. Any restructuring before 2013 would have to be on a voluntary basis, as new rules that would force private creditors to shoulder some of the burden do not come into effect until then.

On Friday, Greece will present new fiscal and privatisation plans in an attempt to convince investors it can meet its bail-out's terms. But its slumping economy and slow progress in tackling tax evasion have led to revenue shortfalls when Athens should be reaping the fruit of its reform.

It meant that just under seven million people living in Britain were immigrants - enough to fill a city the size of London. The rise was largely down to Labour's "open door" immigration policy, under which three million foreigners were added to the population during the party's 13 years in power. The figures, which were compiled by the Office for National Statistics, were disclosed amid a renewed debate on immigration.

David Cameron warned yesterday that uncontrolled immigration had undermined some British communities and led to "discomfort and disjointedness" in neighbourhoods. National statisticians estimated that, on current patterns, the population would pass the 70 million mark in less than two decades and two-thirds of that rise would be driven by immigration.

Gaddafi must "go and go for good" before rebuilding of the country could begin, they said - dismissing calls for an immediate ceasefire. The statement came after warplanes were again heard over Tripoli, accompanied by air raid sirens and loud explosions. Earlier a defiant Gaddafi was seen on Libyan state television being driven around Tripoli in an open-top 4x4.

The coalition leaders have demanded a genuine transition from "dictatorship to an inclusive constitutional process". However, as the military operation approaches the end of its first month there is little sign of a breakthrough on the ground, where rebels appear more than matched by the Government's forces. Nato secretary general Anders Fogh Rasmussen has also had to appeal for more planes to conduct air strikes, with many member states unwilling to join the front line.

Although the US have officially stepped back from an active combat role, President Obama's involvement in the latest statement may quell speculation about the strength of his commitment. In their piece - published in The Times, The Washington Post and Le Figaro - the leaders insisted: "It is unthinkable that someone who has tried to massacre his own people can play a part in their future Government."

The debt rollover requirements are most acute for Irish and German banks, with as much as half of their outstanding debt coming due over the next two years, the fund said. "These bank funding needs coincide with higher sovereign refinancing requirements, heightening competition for scarce funding resources," the IMF said.

The most pressing challenges in the coming months will be funding of banks and sovereigns, particularly in vulnerable euro area countries, it said. The IMF and European Union bailed out Greece and Ireland, and are in talks with Portugal on a lending program as sovereign borrowing costs surge. Many investors have questioned whether Spain can avoid a similar fate, but the IMF said Spanish authorities were taking the right steps to address the country's debt problems.

It said government debt was generally high and on a worrying upward path in many advanced economies. It repeated its warning that the United States and Japan faced particularly dangerous debt dynamics. Advanced economies were "living dangerously" with high debt burdens, and faced the difficult task of trying to pare deficits without choking off the economic recovery.

Meeting on the southern Chinese island of Hainan, they said the recent financial crisis had exposed the inadequacies of the current monetary order, which has the dollar as its linchpin. What was needed, they said in a statement, was "a broad-based international reserve currency system providing stability and certainty" - thinly veiled criticism of what the BRICS see as Washington's neglect of its global monetary responsibilities.

The BRICS are worried that America's large trade and budget deficits will eventually debase the dollar. They also begrudge the financial and political privileges that come with being the leading reserve currency. "The world economy is undergoing profound and complex changes," Chinese President Hu Jintao said. "The era demands that the BRICS countries strengthen dialogue and cooperation."

In another dig at the dollar, the development banks of the five BRICS nations agreed to establish mutual credit lines denominated in their local currencies, not the US currency. The call by the BRICS for a new monetary order are not new. But, coming hours before a meeting in Washington of finance ministers from the Group of Seven industrial nations, the traditional power brokers of the world economy, Thursday's communique showed the growing confidence of emerging markets.

These deeper structural problems are the reasons why the European project does not work and come from the lack of underlying competitiveness within the European Union and global lack of competiveness of the Union as a whole. These in turn come from the lack of intrinsic democracy in the differences between the Member States, the failure to respond to the need for reform, which neither the Lisbon agenda or the 2020 strategy will put right.

The fact that one size fits all approach and the uniformity demanded by the EU simply cannot work because of intrinsic political and cultural differences between the 27 member states. The economic power of Germany and its central position and the dependents of other countries upon her - both politically and economically - and the economic distortions created by the cohesion funds which take up a vast amount of the EU budget, the failures of the Common Agricultural Policy and the failure to show any real form of the overregulation within the EU as a whole (including the Working Time Directive and social and employment legislation) simply doesn't allow the oxygen for enterprise and small businesses which is needed for them to be successful.

Much of this was pointed out during the Maastricht debates but in the years since then, the European project has moved towards greater and greater integration but with huge internal contradictions between the internal context provided in the Treaties culminating in Lisbon on the one hand and the diversity of the Member States on the other - leading to riots, protests and the collapse of countries such as Greece, Portugal and Spain. In other words the problem is one of systemic failure which requires radical renegotiation.

Unfortunately, Portugal and the eurozone countries are contaminated by these problems. While Eurorealists have always argued that those problems exist, the European Union has by moving towards greater centralisation and by refusing the results of referendums and by undemocratic insistence on the European project has actually created this implosion. I am afraid Portugal and the eurozone countries have made their bed and now they will have to lie in it. Europe insisted that the eurozone arrangements entered into - starting with the Stability and Growth Pact - would take care of the eurozone countries but they abandoned the rules and built up huge debts which have led to their collapse.

(About the author - Bill Cash has been the Conservative Member of Parliament for Stone since 1997 and an MP since 1984. He is currently the Chair of the European Scrutiny Committee and the founder member of the European Foundation.)

The Prime Minister will blame a welfare system which has paid Britons to stay idle and foreign jobseekers 'not really wanting or even willing to integrate' for turning neighbourhoods into ghettos.

Immigration has been 'too high' for many years and has created 'discomfort and disjointedness' across the country, he will say.

In his first major speech on the issue since becoming Prime Minister, Mr Cameron will make the explosive claim that Labour is to blame for allowing extremist parties such as the BNP to flourish by dismissing legitimate concerns about mass immigration as 'racist'.

And he will insist that measures being implemented by the Coalition will cut immigration by up to 75 per cent from its peak. He will say annual net immigration levels will fall from around 200,000 in recent years to the 'tens of thousands' seen under the Thatcher and Major governments.

Mr Cameron will spell out a series of steps the Government is taking to bring down numbers of immigrants, including:

* A limit on the number of skilled workers coming from outside Europe of 27,000 this year;

* A minimum age of 21 for spouses coming to the UK;

* A crackdown on student visas to cut the number issued by 80,000 a year;

* Limits on 'health tourism' and illegal workers claiming benefits;

* Welfare reforms to end the option of a life on the dole for British workers.

His remarks will be the strongest on immigration by a Prime Minister for more than 20 years and could trigger a political furore. In the most provocative passage, the Prime Minister will say Labour must take responsibility for the rise of the BNP, the English Defence League and other far-Right organisations. There were Labour ministers who closed down discussion, giving the impression that concerns about immigration were somehow racist.