Should policymakers focus on headline inflation rates or strip out volatile food and energy prices? Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke can expect questions on both topics when he delivers his twice-yearly testimony to Congress on Tuesday and Wednesday.

A day later, the ECB holds its policy-setting meeting and will have to judge whether oil prices pose an immediate threat when year-over-year inflation is already above its target. Economists widely expect the ECB to hold rates steady, but they will be hanging on President Jean-Claude Trichet's every word for clues on whether he is leaning toward a hike soon.

Nigel Gault, chief US economist with IHS Global Insight in Lexington, Massachusetts, said persistently high oil prices would curb consumer spending and drive up the still-lofty jobless rate - which would make the Fed less inclined to raise interest rates. "The inflation-phobic European Central Bank might react differently, which may explain why the euro has been rising in recent days," Gault said. Indeed, back in mid-2008, when oil prices briefly approached $150 a barrel, the ECB raised rates while the Fed held steady.

In his testimony, Bernanke will probably give Congress an economic assessment that sticks closely to his recent comments that the recovery is strengthening but still not enough to bring about a significant improvement in the job market. If the parties cannot agree on a spending bill by Friday, the federal government will run out of money for nonessential operations and be forced to close.

Farrakhan also called on President Barack Obama to allow protesters to march, urging the president not to attack innocent people when they do. The controversial minster spoke to a packed house at the Allstate Arena in Rosemont as part of the 81st annual celebration of Saviours' Day, which marks the birth of the faith's founder, W. Fard Muhammad.

The keynote address, titled "God will send saviours," capped a weekend of workshops focused on health, preparing for natural disasters and unidentified flying objects. The Nation of Islam believes in a UFO called "the wheel" or "the Mother Plane." Farrakhan has described a 1985 religious experience in which he ascended into a flying saucer and heard the voice of Elijah Muhammad predicting historical events that came to pass.

For about four hours, Farrakhan spoke and jumped from topic to topic, citing religious texts. He praised Scientology and its founder L. Ron Hubbard.

However, on Sunday, the Saudi stock market fell 5% after 119 academics, activists and businessmen wrote an open letter to the king demanding reform. The Tadawul all-share index has fallen a cumulative 10% in the last two weeks to its lowest level in six months, prompting some Saudi investors to call on the government to intervene to steady the market, or even to close it.

The news comes as the Egyptian stock exchange is set to reopen on Tuesday after a month-long closure due to the popular uprising there, although protestors continued to gather outside the stock exchange building intent on forcing another delay. The letter to the Saudi king complained about the prevalence of corruption and nepotism and a widening gap between state and society. Meanwhile a Facebook site calling for a "day of rage" in Saudi Arabia on 11 March has seen its number of subscribers increase from 400 to 12,000 in recent days.

Analysts fear the kingdom may face the same volatile generational schism that has affected Egypt and elsewhere. Two-thirds of the Saudi population is aged under 30. Youth unemployment is about three times the national average and there is an 18-year waiting list for government-provided housing. The threat of protests has already wrung concessions from the 87-year-old King Abdullah, who only recently returned from three months of medical treatment in the US.

"For confidentiality reasons, Health Canada cannot confirm whether or not a submission has been filed or any other information related to a submission," said Jenny Van Alstyne, spokeswoman for Health Minister Leona Aglukkaq. This week, media reports revealed that scientists in the department of fisheries and oceans raised doubts about approving genetically modified fish over concerns the fish could escape from fish farms and mate with natural Canadian fish stock.

AquaBounty, a firm with Canadian and US operations, made the application. AquaBounty's website claims the company is also working on developing hybrid salmon, trout and tilapia, which will also grow faster than traditional fish. The application for a genetically modified pig comes from the University of Guelph. Called Enviropig, researchers spliced DNA from mice into Yorkshire pigs to reduce the amount of phosphorous in swine's manure.

The researchers hope the reduced phosphorous will mean less pollution in rivers and streams near large-scale pig farms.

The officer was hit by a petrol bomb which set his uniform and motorcycle on fire. He was forced to remove his crash hemet and colleagues had to help extinguish the flames. Riot police used tear gas and flash grenades to try stop the violence. The Greek government is facing international pressure to make further cuts after its ailing economy was bailed out by the International Monetary Fund and the European Union.

It has already made drastic spending and pay cuts, as well as imposing a number of tax hikes in order to meet the conditions of the deal. Around 500 people gathered outside parliament following the main march. The group said they would not move until ministers agreed to make concessions.

The march was planned in an attempt to counter recent Muslim extremism in the area, which has been bolstered by support from the extreme Israeli left, activists said. Last month, Muslims and leftists marched in Yafo, and many chanted slogans against Israel. Activists Itamar Ben-Gvir and Baruch Marzel requested permission to march from police. Officers asked them to keep their plans under wraps, but they replied that they would not do so, and instead plan to publicize the event.

"The time has come to stand up to the Islamists who are calling for a revolution in central Israel like those in the Arab world," the two said. The march is geared to nip clashes between Jews and Arabs in the bud, not cause new ones, he added. "Elements in Yafo are trying to carry out a rebellion like the one in Tahrir Square in Egypt, and our job is not to stick our heads in the sand, and to take preventive measures," he explained.

The draft guidance from the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists is for all doctors, nurses and counsellors advising women contemplating terminations. Its first recommendation on "what women need to know" instructs health professionals: "Women should be advised that abortion is generally safer than continuing a pregnancy to term."

The guidance also says that women who are deciding whether to have an abortion must be told that most do not suffer any psychological harm. Until now, their advice has been that while rates of psychiatric illness and self-harm in women are higher among those who had an abortion, there was no evidence that termination itself was likely to trigger psychological problems.

While few dispute that terminations carry fewer physical risks to a woman than those of pregnancy, the impact of abortions on psychological health is highly contentious. Never before has official advice to doctors and nurses in Britain instructed them to use such comparisons to help pregnant women decide whether to keep a child.

Tensions on the Korean peninsula rose sharply last year over two deadly attacks - the sinking of a South Korean naval ship blamed on the North and a North Korean artillery barrage that killed four people on a front-line South Korean island. North Korea denies it was involved in the ship sinking, which killed 46 South Korean sailors. On Sunday, the North used harsh rhetoric against South Korea and the US, calling their joint drills a "dangerous military scheme".

"Our military and people will take stern military countermeasures against the American imperialists and the (South Korean) traitors' group, because they are challenging us with aggressive military action," the North's military said in a statement carried by the official Korean Central News Agency.

It accused South Korea and the US of plotting to launch "limited war" and topple Pyongyang's communist government. If provoked, the North will start a "full-scale" war and turn Seoul into a "sea of fire," the statement said.

Earlier Sunday, the North's military warned that it would fire directly at South Korean border towns and destroy them if Seoul continued to allow activists to launch propaganda leaflets toward the communist country.

The speaker on the audio tape is identified as Ibrahim al-Rubeish, a former detainee at the US-run Guantanamo Bay lockup. The tape was produced by al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula, a Yemen-based offshoot of the terror network, according to the SITE Intel group, a US-based group that monitors extremist websites.

In the 10-minute recording, Al-Rubeish criticized Saudi Arabia for providing a haven for deposed Tunisian President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali. He also said toppling longtime rulers is not enough and that new governments must be established based on Islamic religious law, or Shariah. "One tyrant goes, only to be replaced another who may fix for the people some of their worldly issues by offering job opportunities and increasing their income, but the greater problem remains," al-Rubeish said, according to a translation provided by SITE.

That in turn could lead to an over-provision of faith schools, the British Humanist Association argues. In the 2001 Census, more than 70% of people described themselves as Christian. The Pagan Federation insists druids, wiccans, witches and other pagans constitute a serious and growing religious group.

Ten years ago 42,000 people declared themselves as Pagans - the seventh highest number for any UK religion - but some experts believe the true figure was nearer 250,000 - and is significantly higher now. BBC Religious affairs correspondent Robert Pigott said the 42,000 figure was still only a fraction of those describing themselves as Jedi Knights.

Pagans do not worship one single god, but look for the spiritual in nature. Some groups concentrate on specific traditions, practices or elements such as ecology, witchcraft, Celtic traditions or certain gods. Wiccans, druids, shamans, sacred ecologists, odinists and heathens all make up parts of the Pagan community.

In October, the Charities Commission granted the Druid Network official status as a religion.

US President Barack Obama has said the Libyan leader should step down and leave the country immediately. He still controls Tripoli, but eastern Libya has fallen to the uprising. Discussions on forming an anti-Gaddafi transitional government are reportedly under way. Mustafa Abdel-Jalil - who resigned as justice minister in protest against the excessive use of force against demonstrators - said a body comprising military and civilian figures would prepare for elections within three months, Libya's privately-owned Quryna newspaper reported.

Libya's ambassadors to the United States and UN have both reportedly voiced their support for the plan, which was being discussed in the rebel-controlled eastern town of Benghazi. The UN estimates more than 1,000 people have died as Colonel Gadddafi's regime attempted to quell the 10-day-old revolt. Saturday night's vote was only the second time the Security Council has referred a country to the ICC, and the first time such a vote has been unanimous.

The Libyan delegation at the UN had sent a letter to the Council backing measures to hold to account those responsible for armed attacks on Libyan civilians, including action through the International Criminal Court - which had been one of the main points of contention in the resolution.

Mr Shalgam, an ally of Gaddafi since the pair were teenage radicals in the late 1950s, defended his support for Gaddafi over several decades and his decision to continue backing the Libyan leader throughout days of brutal crackdowns on protesters. "I couldn't imagine at the beginning the bloodshed of the victims," he claimed.

He recalled striking up a friendship with Gaddafi over a shared admiration of Gamal Abdel Nasser, the Egyptian president from 1956, as they grew up in the south of Libya. "I was one of his closest good friends, who worked with him from the beginning of the revolution," he said. "Unfortunately we started the revolution with freedom, at the end of it you are killing our people."

In an emotional speech to the UN Security Council in New York, Mr Shalgam, who had previously remained loyal, said: "Muammar Gaddafi is telling the Libyans 'either I rule you or I kill you'." He told the 15 members of the council, who are considering an Anglo-French plan for sanctions against the Gaddafi regime: "We need a courageous resolution from you".

Outside the chamber, he gave another speech in which he pleaded for the outside world to do something "within hours, not days" to stop the bloodshed in the country. Mr Shalgam said Gaddafi had lost the support of "90 per cent" of his diplomats and predicted further revolution in the middle-east. "Slavery and the rule of one person is finished - it's finished," he said.

Sadr has been in the neighboring Iran for more than three years for Shiite religious studies in the holy Iranian city of Qom. Last month, Sadr returned to Iraq for two weeks but he suddenly left to Iran to come back on Wednesday to the country again. Earlier in the day, Sadr's political office released a statement by Moqtada al-Sadr calling for holding a survey among Iraqis within a week in all Iraq's 18 provinces about their opinion over public services.

One of the survey's questions asking people whether they prefer peaceful demonstrations if the government fails to improve public services after more than six months. Observers here see Sadr's move as part of various measures by the Iraqi politicians to help soothe rising anger among Iraqis who accuse the politicians and the government officials of failure yet they get very high salaries while normal people are suffering poverty and poor public services.

Recently, several thousands of Iraqis sporadically took to the streets in several provinces across the country protesting unemployment and a sharp rise in the prices of food staples, as well as demanding better public services. Sadr, in his 30s, gained popularity among younger Shiite Iraqis by his anti-American rhetoric since the toppling of former president Saddam Hussein's government by the 2003 US led invasion of Iraq. His Mahdi Army militia has been fighting against US troops and was one of the major forces in the sectarian strife in Iraq that claimed the lives of hundreds of thousands of Iraqis.

Some residents, Democratic Governor Brian Schweitzer and even some Republican lawmakers say the bills are making Montana into a laughingstock. And, they say, the push to nullify federal laws could be dangerous. "We are the United States of America," said Schweitzer. "This talk of nullifying is pretty toxic talk. That led to the Civil War."

A tea party lawmaker said raising the specter of a civil war is plain old malarkey. "Nullification is not about splitting this union apart," freshman Republican Derek Skees said. "Nullification is just one more way for us to tell the federal government: 'That is not right.'" Some of their bills are moving through the legislature. Others appear doomed: an armed citizen militia, FBI agents under the thumb of the sheriff and a declaration that global warming is good for business.

Whatever their merits, the ideas are increasingly popping up in legislatures across the nation, as a wave of tea party-backed conservatives push their anti-spending, anti-federal government agenda.