The first officer to help the elder victim said he was reduced to tears after finding him in a blood-soaked condition. Sergeant Richard Vernon said: "I can honestly say in the 22 years I've been in the job it's the most distressing thing I've ever dealt with. The lad was covered in blood. You couldn't see his face. He was drifting in and out of consciousness."

The brothers showed no emotion as they were detained indefinitely by a judge at Sheffield Crown Court after admitting causing grievous bodily harm. Detective Superintendent Mick Mason said the traumatic nature of the incident had affected many of the officers who worked on the case, but it had seemingly provoked little reaction from the brothers themselves.

"You think of the severity of the attack, it must have sunk in and they must be realising what they have done. I'm not sure about that. From what I'm told, they didn't show any remorse during interview." Children's Secretary Ed Balls, who said his response was the same as many families across Britain, described it as a "horrific" case. He said: "These are children who, to be honest, have been deeply damaged by years of abuse - physical abuse, seeing their mother being struck by their father, but also abuse against them. But that's no excuse for what they did."

"What we've now got to do is make sure that in custody they get the support to try and turn things round for them. And we also learn lessons in Doncaster so that in future we don't have a repeat of such a terrible, unusual and horrific case."

Andrew Flanagan, chief executive of the NSPCC, said England had "not seen such acts of schoolboy savagery for many years". He said: "The case raises serious questions about how children can be left to drift in homes seriously damaged by violence and neglect. Where families cannot give their children a decent start in life, the authorities need to act swiftly and robustly - both for their sake and the rest of society."

Authorities are worried about sanitation and disease outbreaks in makeshift settlements like the one on the city's central Champs de Mars plaza, said Fritz Longchamp, chief of staff to President Rene Preval. He said buses would start moving the displaced people within a week to 10 days, once new camps are ready. Brazilian UN peacekeepers were already leveling land in the suburb of Croix des Bouquets for a new tent city, the Geneva-based intergovernmental International Organization for Migration reported Thursday.

Joe Downey, a fire battalion chief from an 80-member New York City police and firefighter unit, said this was the worst destruction his rescue team had ever seen. "Katrina was bad," he said of the 2005 hurricane. "But this was a magnitude at least 100 times worse."

All 136 commission delegations were renamed "EU delegations" on 1 January. But only the 54 placements were at the same time quietly given fresh powers in line with their new names. The super-delegations have taken on the role previously carried out by the national embassies of the member state holding the six-month EU presidency at any given time.

As such, they now co-ordinate the work of the member states' bilateral missions to the countries in question. The heads of the 54 delegations are also empowered to speak on behalf of the EU as a whole. But their statements have to be pre-approved by the 27 EU countries during meetings in Brussels. "They are going to be a bit more political. They will provide the same function that was provided by the given [EU presidency] member state before," an EU official said.

Traders watching on TV thought they had heard it before but there was something about the President and "tall man" Paul Volcker who stood behind him, and they kept watching. Then came the President's blows and they started selling, fast. Two minutes later nearly $30bn was wiped off the value of America's top shares as traders reeled at Mr Obama's proposal to split up Wall Street's banks.

Goldman Sachs, famously labelled the "vampire squid wrapped around the face of humanity", appeared to have lost its grip as its shares plunged 5.3pc at one point. Wall Street rivals JP Morgan, Bank of America and Morgan Stanley fell 5pc each and the Dow Jones index of US shares was soon off by 2pc.

In Britain, the markets had just shut but the shock waves reverberated around the City and Canary Wharf. For weeks bankers have tried to keep their spirits up amid a maelstrom of political, public and regulatory pressures. But for many the President's speech signalled the end of the road. One senior banker said: "This is as bad as it gets. He's out to crush the banks - and he's got the mandate to do it."

Senior staff at the investment banks themselves were determined to play down the significance of the speech. "What you are witnessing is a political panic," said one. "Obama lost a crucial vote and is now trying to win back political ground by some serious bank bashing. This has to go through a long and complicated political process before it gets anywhere near being law." Another said: "This has been coming from the start of the financial crisis. We've all thought about it and we've worked out the impact already. If it's necessary, we'll sell off the prop divisions, or any others. We're ready."

Last night, David Viniar, Goldman's chief financial officer, showed the first sign that President Obama faces a fight. "To put rules in place that roll back the financial system by 10 years is going to be a very, very hard thing to do," he said.

"By refusing to hear Mrs Busch's case, the US Supreme Court has endorsed the kind of hostility toward religion that should never be found in an American public school," said John W Whitehead, president of the Rutherford Institute, which took on the Newtown Square, Pennsylvania, case.

As WND reported, Donna Busch accepted an invitation to visit her son Wesley's kindergarten classroom at Culbertson Elementary School to read a passage of Wesley's favorite book to his classmates in October 2004. Wesley's teacher had invited Busch because the boy was the featured student of "All About Me," a school event to feature a particular student and emphasize the student's personal characteristics, preferences and personality in classroom activities.

During the "All About Me" activity, a child's parent may read aloud from the student's favorite book. In this case, Wesley, a Christian, chose the Bible. His mother planned to read from Psalm 118. But when Donna Busch prepared to read from the Bible, Wesley's teacher instructed her not to do so until Principal Thomas Cook could determine whether it would be acceptable.

According to the Rutherford Institute, the principal "informed Mrs Busch that she could not read from the Bible in the classroom because it was against the law and that the reading would violate the 'separation of church and state.'" Then school administrators offered Wesley's mother an opportunity to read from a book about witches, witchcraft and Halloween. She declined the invitation.

Nations agreed then to declare their emissions reduction targets by the end of this month. Developed countries would state their intended cuts by 2020: developing countries would outline how they would curb emissions growth. But Yvo de Boer, the UN's senior climate change official, admitted that the deadline had in effect been shelved.

"By [the end of] January, countries will have the opportunity to ...indicate if they want to be associated with the accord," he said. "[Governments could] indicate by the deadline, or they can also indicate later. You could describe it as a soft deadline," Mr de Boer said. "There is nothing deadly about it. If [countries] fail to meet it, they can still associate with the Copenhagen accord afterwards."

Countries pushing for a new legally binding treaty on climate change will be disappointed, as the waiving of the deadline sets a bad precedent for efforts to finalise a deal this year. The next scheduled meeting is not until late May, in Germany, with another in late November, in Mexico but many officials say more will be needed.

Adam Cole at RBC Capital Markets said if taken in isolation, Russia's announcement that it was buying Canadian dollars was not significant, but if it was part of a broader trend, then it was an important step. "If it is a barometer for the activity of other central banks, then it is structurally positive for the currencies of countries like Canada and Australia that have a commodity bias in their economies," he said.

Although not officially confirmed, traders said that other emerging market central banks, including some in Asia which hold large foreign exchange reserves, have also been active in the foreign exchange market in recent weeks buying both Canadian dollars and Australian dollars.

Ahead of Wednesday's announcement, Russia's foreign exchange reserves were evenly split between dollar and euros. Alarmed at the plummeting value of the dollars in its holdings, Russia has been at the vanguard of countries calling for the US authorities to stem the fall of its currency. Last year, along with China, Russia urged the creation of a new supra-national currency to replace the dollar as the world's reserve currency.

The unpopular legislation is needed to allow the federal government to issue bonds to fund programs and prevent a first-time default on obligations. It promises to be a challenging debate for Democrats, who, as the party in power, hold the responsibility for passing the legislation.

It's hardly the debate Democrats want or need in the wake of Senator-elect Scott Brown's victory in Massachusetts. Arguing over the debt limit provides a forum for Republicans to blame Democrats for rising deficits and spiraling debt, even though responsibility for the government's financial straits can be shared by both political parties.

The measure came to the floor under rules requiring 60 votes to pass. That's an unprecedented step that could mean that every Democrat, no matter how politically endangered, may have to vote for it next week before Brown takes office and Democrats lose their 60-vote majority.

The US Geological Survey said Wednesday's tremor was centred 35 miles (56km) north-west of the capital. It struck at a depth of 6.2 miles (9.9km), but was too far inland to generate any tsunamis in the Caribbean. Some buildings already weakened by last week's quake collapsed and wails of terror filled the air as frightened survivors poured out of unstable buildings, a BBC correspondent in the region said.

Cattleman Ridge Shinn has the answer. On a wintry Saturday at his farm in Hardwick, Massachusetts, he is out in his pastures encouraging a herd of plump Devon cows to move to a grassy new paddock. Over the course of a year, his 100 cattle will rotate across 175 acres four or five times. "Conventional cattle raising is like mining," he says. "It's unsustainable, because you're just taking without putting anything back. But when you rotate cattle on grass, you change the equation. You put back more than you take."

It works like this: grass is a perennial. Rotate cattle and other ruminants across pastures full of it, and the animals' grazing will cut the blades - which spurs new growth - while their trampling helps work manure and other decaying organic matter into the soil, turning it into rich humus. The plant's roots also help maintain soil health by retaining water and microbes. And healthy soil keeps carbon dioxide underground and out of the atmosphere.

Compare that with the estimated 99% of US beef cattle that live out their last months on feedlots, where they are stuffed with corn and soybeans. In the past few decades, the growth of these concentrated animal-feeding operations has resulted in millions of acres of grassland being abandoned or converted - along with vast swaths of forest - into profitable cropland for livestock feed.

"Much of the carbon footprint of beef comes from growing grain to feed the animals, which requires fossil-fuel-based fertilizers, pesticides, transportation," says Michael Pollan, author of The Omnivore's Dilemma. "Grass-fed beef has a much lighter carbon footprint." Indeed, although grass-fed cattle may produce more methane than conventional ones (high-fiber plants are harder to digest than cereals, as anyone who has felt the gastric effects of eating broccoli or cabbage can attest), their net emissions are lower because they help the soil sequester carbon.

He said "a key element in raising the national saving rate is the elimination over time of the structural deficit in the public finances". Mr King also warned that inflation was "likely to pick up markedly in the first half of this year". Referring to the public deficit, he said: "Of course, there is a perfectly sensible debate about the appropriate timing of the withdrawal of the temporary fiscal stimulus as the economy recovers."

"Some has in fact already been withdrawn with the return of the standard rate of VAT to 17.5% at the beginning of the month. But uncertainty about how and when fiscal policy will respond has a direct bearing on monetary policy. And markets can be unforgiving."

During his speech Mr King quoted the US Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke. Speaking about the fiscal position in the United States, Mr Bernanke said "near-term challenges must not be allowed to hinder timely consideration of the steps needed to address fiscal imbalances. Unless we demonstrate a strong commitment to fiscal sustainability in the longer term, we will have neither financial stability nor healthy economic growth".

Democrat Martha Coakley conceded she had lost the race after early results gave Mr Brown a healthy lead. The Republican win has robbed the Democrats of their filibuster-proof 60-seat majority in the Senate. This will make it much harder for Mr Obama to pass a healthcare reform bill - the most important domestic policy objective of his first year as president.

The BBC's Paul Adams, in Boston, says Ms Coakley's defeat is a humiliating blow for the Democrats and their agenda, and a deeply unwelcome anniversary present for President Obama a year after his inauguration. He adds that it is one of the biggest political upsets in years, and a devastating blow for the Democrats in a seat held for almost half a century by Edward Kennedy, a colossus of the party.

In a celebratory speech, Mr Brown said that the voters of Massachusetts had "delivered a great victory". He said: "Tonight, the independent voice of Massachusetts has spoken. The voters of this commonwealth defied the odds and the experts." Analysts say the race should have been an easy win for Ms Coakley in a state which traditionally has voted for Democratic candidates for the US Senate.

The Pope promoted the week, which runs from January 18-25, saying that it annually renews the opportunity for us "to revive the ecumenical spirit, to come together, to get to know each other, pray and reflect together."

The Pontifical Council for Christian Unity and the Commission on Faith and Order of the World Council of Churches jointly prepared and published a brochure outlining that the 2010 theme of the prayer for unity would be "kergyma,"or "preaching" in Greek, and that Chapter 24 of the Gospel of St Luke is the biblical text for meditation.

In closing his appeal for the week of prayer, the Pope said, "Our announcement of the Gospel of Christ will be so much more credible and effective when we are united in his love, as true brothers. I invite, therefore, the parishes, religious communities, associations and ecclesial movements to pray incessantly, in particular during the eucharistic celebrations, for the full unity of Christians."

Women are encouraged to have regular mammograms in middle age on the basis that the checks save 1,400 lives every year. But researchers now believe there is 'no convincing evidence' it has saved so many lives. According to the team from the Nordic Cochrane Centre in Copenhagen, as many as 7,000 women are put through treatment they do not need every year such as surgery, radiotherapy or chemotherapy.

The independent scientific review of the NHS breast screening programme has accused the Government of providing misleading propaganda to persuade women of the benefits of screening, without mentioning the drawbacks. More than 21,000 women aged 50 to 69 were diagnosed with breast cancer in Britain in 2007. All women aged 50 to 70 are offered breast cancer screening with more than 1.7million taking up the offer each year.

The Cochrane Centre scientists claim improvements in breast cancer survival are more to do with better treatment, rather than detection through screening.

There were no immediate reports of injuries in the three-island chain in the Caribbean. The British territory of the Cayman Islands is about 600 miles (1,000 kilometers) west of Port-au-Prince, Haiti, which was devastated last week by a 7.0-magnitude earthquake. Tuesday's quake struck about 32 miles (52 kilometers) east-southeast of Bodden Town in the center of the southern coast of Grand Cayman Island.

The Caymans are about 167 (268 kilometers) miles northwest of Jamaica and about 140 miles (240 kilometers) south of Cuba, according to the CIA World Fact Book.