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.

"There were very many documented large tsunamis in that area but the point is... even one would have been enough to warrant precaution in designing nuclear power plants," Geller, of the Graduate School of Science at the University of Tokyo, said in a telephone interview. Tokyo Electric Power's troubled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant, which has been spewing radioactive substances for more than a month, was designed to handle water of only up to 6 meters (20 feet) - way below not only the 14-meter tsunami of March 11, but these other documented giants of the past.

"It's known to have happened before and it's well documented and so when they built a nuclear plower plant they should have provided for a tsunami of the same size," Geller said. "But they planned for a tsunami to be 5.6 meters and the actual tsunami was about 15 meters, so it completely overwhelmed the defenses." Geller said all nuclear plants in Japan should be reviewed to ensure they are tsunami-resistant. "They definitely should, they are almost all on the oceanfront. You need a lot of water to cool them," he said.

In his article, Geller refers to Japan's elaborate plan to predict the next major quake in the central Tokai region, which suffered major earthquakes in 1498, 1605, 1707 and 1854. The country fears that such a disaster will kill thousands of people, damage millions of buildings and concerns have also arisen over the Hamaoka nuclear power plant in the area. But just as the March 11 earthquake could not have been predicted, neither could the next Tokai quake, Geller said.

At the same time, communications intercepted by US spy agencies show Tehran is actively exploring ways to aid some Shiite hardliners in Bahrain and Yemen and destabilize longstanding US allies there, say US officials familiar with the intelligence. Such moves could challenge interests of the US and Saudi Arabia and inflame sectarian tensions across the Middle East, they say.

"We believe that Iran is materially assisting the Syrian government in its efforts to suppress their own people," said an Obama administration official. US officials say they don't see Iran as the driving force behind popular revolts against longtime US allies in the Mideast, and caution they have no concrete evidence that Iran is providing or preparing large-scale financial or military support to opposition elements in Bahrain or Yemen.

Rather, the White House has worried that protracted political turmoil could provide an opening for additional influence by Tehran, whose nuclear ambitions are a concern to the US and its allies in Europe and the Middle East. So far, an administration official said, Iranian "aspirations far outpace their ability to project their influence into these places."

"All the signs of progress we have seen in recent months will only be meaningful if more leaders in more places move faster and further to embrace this spirit of reform," she said. Before an audience that included representatives of more than 30 Muslim nations, the top US diplomat said in the wake of historic unrest in the region that "for the first time in decades there is a real opportunity for change." Arab youth, she added, will no longer "accept the status quo" and "know a better life is within reach - and they are willing to reach for it."

Officials from Muslim majority nations including Jordan, Turkey, Indonesia, Pakistan and Afghanistan are in Washington for the annual meeting, which aims to build greater understanding between the United States and Muslim countries. In its eighth year, the forum is being held at a time of unprecedented change in the Arab world, with uprisings against autocratic leaders across the Middle East and North Africa, officials said. "There is no reason why this region cannot be among the most prosperous in the world," Clinton told the forum.

US Senator John Kerry called at the three-day forum for "anyone here who can intervene and play a role to do so" in reviving the peace talks between Palestinians and Israelis. Muslim officials insisted, however, that the Israeli-Palestinian conflict remains at the heart of relations between the United States and the Islamic world.

"We have distributed the plan to the donors and they have welcomed it," Palestinian Planning Minister Ali al-Jarbawi said. The plan will be presented formally to donor countries at a pledging conference in June, he said. Palestinian leaders plan to ask the United Nations General Assembly in September to recognize a Palestinian state in all the lands Israel occupied in 1967.

Israel has warned that unilateral moves cannot replace a negotiated peace agreement, but the Palestinians say nearly two decades of talks have failed to give them a state. The United Nations, the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund have praised Fayyad's drive over the past two years to establish the institutions and attributes of a modern state in time for the General Assembly meeting in September.

"The journey has been long and arduous, but the end is now in sight. We are now on the home stretch to freedom," Fayyad says in the introduction to the plan. "Now it is time for us to be the masters of our own destiny in a state of our own." The plan says "the next three years will witness a transformation in the nature of external aid from 'life support' to real investment in the future of Palestine".

Israel has said that only a negotiated treaty to establish a Palestinian state living in peace with Israelis can resolve the Middle East conflict. However, talks hit a standstill in September after Israel resumed building in the West Bank after a 9 month settlement freeze.

Obama's launch of direct Israeli-Palestinian peace talks last year went nowhere and he is under pressure to make a new initiative or face the prospect of the Palestinians seeking the UN General Assembly's blessing for a Palestinian state."The president will be speaking in greater detail about America's policy in the Middle East and North Africa in the coming weeks," Clinton said at the US-Islamic World Forum, a gathering sponsored by Qatar and the Brookings Institution, a Washington think tank.

"America's core interests and values have not changed, including our commitment to promote human rights, resolve long-standing conflicts, counter Iran's threats and defeat al Qaeda and its extremist allies," she added. "This includes renewed pursuit of comprehensive Arab-Israeli peace." Clinton spoke against the backdrop of the popular revolts that have toppled long-time authoritarian leaders in Tunisia and Egypt this year and spurred public protests in much of the Arab world, including Libya, Bahrain, Syria and Yemen.

"The status quo between Palestinians and Israelis is no more sustainable than the political systems that have crumbled in recent months," she said, saying the only way to meet both people's aspirations was through a two-state solution. "And while it is a truism that only the parties themselves can make the hard choices for peace, there is no substitute for continued, active American leadership - and the president and I are committed to that," she added.

"At the end of the week I had an idea to fill little plastic eggs with treats and jelly beans and other candy, but I was kind of unsure how the teacher would feel about that," Jessica said. She was concerned how the teacher might react to the eggs after a meeting earlier in the week where she learned about "their abstract behavior rules."

"I went to the teacher to get her approval and she wanted to ask the administration to see if it was okay," Jessica explained. "She said that I could do it as long as I called this treat 'spring spheres.' I couldn't call them Easter eggs." Rather than question the decision, Jessica opted to "roll with it." But the third graders had other ideas.

"When I took them out of the bag, the teacher said, 'Oh look, spring spheres' and all the kids were like 'Wow, Easter eggs.' So they knew," Jessica said. The Seattle elementary school isn't the only government organization using spring over Easter. The city's parks department has removed Easter from all of its advertised egg hunts.

The new study is set to be published in Geophysical Research Letters journal. In 2009, researchers used seismic waves from earthquakes to build up an image of the hotspot beneath Yellowstone, which straddles the US states of Wyoming, Montana and Idaho. The authors of the latest work used variations in the electrical conductivity of rocks to produce a new picture of the plume. This conductivity is a property of the molten silicate rocks and the hot briny water that is naturally present in them.

"It's like comparing ultrasound and MRI in the human body; they are different imaging technologies," says co-author Michael Zhdanov, a professor of geophysics at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City. The 2009 images, using seismic waves, showed the plume of hot and molten rock dipping downward from Yellowstone at an angle of 60 degrees. This plume extended 240km (150miles) west-northwest to a point at least 660km (410miles) under the Montana-Idaho border.

The new study, using electrical conductivity, can only see about 320km (200miles) below ground. But it shows the conductive part of the plume dipping more gently, at an angle of perhaps 40 degrees to the west, and extending perhaps 640 km (400 miles) from east to west. There have been three huge eruptions of the Yellowstone supervolcano: 2.1 million years ago, 1.3 million years ago and 640,000 years ago. Two of these eruptions blanketed a large area of North America with volcanic ash.

The most recent full-scale eruption of the Yellowstone supervolcano ejected some 1,000 cubic km (240 cubic miles) of hot ash and rock into the atmosphere. There have been smaller eruptions in between the largest outpourings; the most recent of these occurred 70,000 years ago.

Want to buy a loaf of bread at the store? Bring a bucket load of cash, because by the time you get there to buy it, the price may have doubled yet again, Zimbabwe-style. Such absurdities are now headed our way, and they will arrive sooner that you've been led to believe. As if to underscore the chilling degree of derangement in Washington DC, the IMF has issued one of the strongest statements yet about US debt spending, declaring that the USA lacked a "credible strategy" to stabilize its debt. Furthermore, it warns that runaway debt spending from Washington threatens to cause a global financial crisis.

So far, all we've seen from Washington is financial sleight of hand and trickery. Most of the recent $38.5 billion in cuts - which were already puny compared to the total debt spending - were achieved by using accounting tricks and claiming to have cut programs that were already slated to be cut anyway. Even then, Democrats screamed as if they were having their fingernails plucked out. If they can't stomach a miniscule $38.5 billion in cuts, how on Earth are they going to find a way to stomach the trillions of dollars in spending cuts that must be made to keep the government solvent?

Almost as if to underscore the insanity of the situation, recently-released figures from the US Treasury reveal that the budget deficit has shot up 15.7% in just one year. The deficit for just the October-March period (half a year) was $829 billion. What we're seeing here is the US government burning through nearly a trillion dollars in new debt every six months. This is beyond the bounds of everyday, crazy-dude-on-the-street insanity. It is very rapidly approaching a level of economic terrorism on the part of our national leaders.

To continue to drive America's finances into such unbearable depths of debt is very nearly an act of economic warfare against America - a "financial dirty bomb," if you will. A bomb that, when it goes off, will sadly injure America's economy in a way that will absolutely dwarf the economic fallout of 9/11.

If ratified by the union's annual conference starting on May 18, a ballot would be held the following week and the first strike might take place in June. The PCS said it was talking to other unions about coordinating ballots, creating the prospect of widespread industrial action, as predicted by many commentators in the wake of the government's austerity plans. Ministers are pursuing a policy of massive spending cuts to address Britain's budget deficit, currently running at about 10 percent of national output, which will lead to the loss of hundreds of thousands of public sector jobs.

Last month, more than 250,000 people took part in a march in London to protest at the measures, the biggest demonstration in the capital since protests against war in Iraq in 2003. "At least half a million people marched for the alternative on 26 March, and now we are saying we must be prepared to strike for the alternative," said PCS General Secretary Mark Serwotka.

"We are talking to other unions and will seek to ensure that any action we take has the widest possible support to put the maximum pressure on the government to end its ideological attacks on people who everyone acknowledges did nothing to cause the recession." The Trades Union Congress, the umbrella union body representing some 6 million union members, has played down suggestions of a general strike, not least because such action would probably be illegal.

It is little wonder then that the so called Brics want a greater say in global affairs. The organisation was formed as a counterweight to Western powers. And ever since the global financial crisis, the influence of the Brics - particularly of China - has grown. This summit is set to focus on economic issues such as rules governing international trade.

While the Bric nations have been driving global economic growth it is still unclear whether the organisation itself will become truly influential. All the countries broadly support free trade and oppose protectionism. Where they have similar interests - such as climate change - they have taken a united position. But on many other issues the countries have found little to agree upon.

Israel called the use of the of the advanced weaponry a "red line," now putting in danger the tens of thousands of Israelis who drive on roads with a line of sight view from the Gaza Strip. Until now, drivers only had to worry about highly inaccurate mortar fire that had to be launched from relatively open areas.

"We are talking about sophisticated anti-aircraft weaponry, sophisticated anti-tank weaponry and long-range rockets that can hit even north to Tel-Aviv. Now Hamas was restrained so far not to use many of them in order not to force Israel with its back to the wall to initiate another huge military ground operation against Hamas," said Ronen Bergman, an Israeli security expert who has written extensively on the Jewish state, its security services and its relationship to the Islamic world.

Now that Hamas has shown a willingness to use a next-generation weapon against a civilian target, experts say Israel will have to re-evaluate how it looks at the hot truce that exists on the border. Currently, there is a tit-for-tat relationship between Hamas mortar and rocket attacks answered by Israeli air strikes taking out various militant targets, depots and the occasional target assassination of a cell leader.

Human rights monitors named Mourad Hejjo, a conscript from Madaya village, as one of those shot by security snipers. "His family and town are saying he refused to shoot at his people," said Wassim Tarif, a local human rights monitor.

Footage on YouTube shows an injured soldier saying he was shot in the back by security forces, while another video shows the funeral of Muhammad Awad Qunbar, who sources said was killed for refusing to fire on protesters. Signs of defections will be worrying to Syria's regime. State media reported a different version of events, claiming nine soldiers had been killed in an ambush by an armed group in Banias.

Activists said not all soldiers reported dead or injured were shot after refusing to fire. "We are investigating reports that some people have personal weapons and used them in self-defence," said Tarif. On Tuesday Human Rights Watch condemned security forces for barring access to medical care. UK citizens were warned against "all but essential" travel to Syria and all travel to Banias, where residents are now holding a three-day strike.