Still suffering the effects of last year's post-election bloodshed, ordinary Kenyans have watched with disgust as politicians have squabbled over the spoils of the country's power-sharing accord. Raila Odinga, the prime minister, has repeatedly accused President Mwai Kibaki of failing to honour promises made when the joint government was formed last year.

Mr Kibaki's side, in turn, has accused Mr Odinga of trying to foment a "civilian coup". DURING A RECENT ATTEMPT TO BROKER CONSENSUS, NEITHER SIDE COULD EVEN AGREE ON AN AGENDA FOR THE MEETING, WHICH BROKE UP BEFORE IT STARTED. More than 1,500 people died and 300,000 were forced from their homes as mobs allied to opposing political parties rampaged through parts of the country early last year.

Some foreigners have said recently that they are being advised to stockpile drinking water, fuel and tinned food in case of further fighting. Fresh corruption scandals involving maize exports, fuel contracts and tourism junkets have further dented the government's already rock-bottom popularity. "THE POPULACE IS GETTING FED UP AT A FASTER RATE THAN IMAGINED," said Wanyoni Wambilyanga, a political commentator.

"If the president and the prime minister do not do something drastic and fast, then the consequences are unimaginable." In a recent interview with the Financial Times, Kofi Annan, the former UN secretary general who brokered Kenya's power-sharing agreement, warned of worse to come in the run up to the next election in three years' time.

The number of people who police in England and Wales stop and search under anti-terrorism laws has trebled in just a year, but only a handful result in arrests. There was also a sharp rise in the number of times the public had to justify their activities to police in so-called "stop and account" incidents.

Members of the public were stopped and questioned by officers more than 2.3 million times last year after a rise of 26 per cent. It is the equivalent of one in every 20 people being stopped, although that proportion plummets to one in ten for the black population.

Chris Grayling, the shadow home secretary, said: "People will be highly suspicious about the scale of stop and search under terror laws. This will only serve to reinforce the view that MANY ANTI-TERROR POWERS ARE BEING USED FOR UNRELATED PURPOSES."

Some Chrysler dealerships will close over time but no jobs will be lost in the short term, President Obama said. The move came after talks had broken down with Chrysler's lenders late on Wednesday, the White House said.

Chrysler will receive a further $8bn (£5.4bn) in government loans, up from the $6bn the Treasury had promised it if it had successfully restructured the business by midnight. The White House described the move as a "surgical short bankruptcy" which should last between 30 and 60 days. President Obama said the "necessary steps" had been taken to give Chrysler "a new lease of life". He added that he had "every hope" that Chrysler will become "stronger and more competitive".

Speaking at a White House news conference late Wednesday night, Mr Obama said while he was "gravely concerned" about the overall situation in Pakistan, he added that Pakistan's military recognised the hazard of the country's nuclear weapons "falling in to the wrong hands".

The US has "huge national security interests in making sure that Pakistan is stable and that you don't end up having a nuclear-armed militant state", Mr Obama said. Pakistan is currently locked in a struggle with Taliban militants who last week advanced to within 100km of the capital Islamabad. Pakistan is secretive about its nuclear programme, developed outside the nuclear non-proliferation treaty in an arms race with India.

Worries over the security of Pakistan's nuclear weapons date back to 2004 when the proliferation network of Abdul Qadeer Khan, founder of the nuclear programme, came to light. One of the dangers identified by the international community was that one of AQ Khan's scientists might help extremists gain a "dirty bomb". Since then, the Pakistani military has tightened monitoring of individual scientists and introduced new inventory systems to track individual components of the bombs. Some analysts say the greatest threat to nuclear security is from within the army itself.

In London, Prime Minister Gordon Brown said a new chapter in relations between the two countries had begun. Earlier, a memorial service attended by Defence Secretary John Hutton took place in Basra for the 179 UK personnel who have died during the conflict. The focus was a memorial wall featuring the names of the 234 UK and foreign troops who lost their lives while serving under British command in Iraq. The end of combat operations came a month ahead of schedule.

Mr Brown, who held talks with Iraqi counterpart Nouri Maliki at Downing Street, said: "Today Iraq is a success story. We owe much of that to the efforts of British troops. Our mission has not always been an easy one, many have said that we would fail. Britain can be proud of our legacy that we leave there."

Obama's ratings must be pleasing to his eye. Voters like him and his wife immensely and approve of his activism in the face of the economic crisis. But beneath this superficial support, Obama's specific policies run afoul of the very deeply felt convictions of American voters. For example, the most recent Rasmussen Poll asked voters if they wanted an economic system of complete free enterprise or preferred more government involvement in managing the economy. By 77-19, they voted against a government role, up seven points from last month.

And in the Fox News poll — the very same survey that gave Obama a 62 percent approval rating and reported that 68 percent of voters are "satisfied" with his first hundred days — voters, by 50-38, supported a smaller government that offered fewer services over a larger government that provided more.

For Americans to conclude that they disapprove of their president in the midst of an earth-shaking crisis is very difficult. But as Obama's daily line moves from "I inherited this mess" to "There are faint signs of light," the clock starts ticking. If there is no recovery for the next six months — and I don't think there will be — Obama will inevitably become part of the problem, not part of the solution. Obama's very activism these days arrogates to himself the blame for the success or failure of his policies. Their outcome will determine his outcome, and there is no way it will be positive. Why?

• You can't borrow as much as he will need to without raising interest rates that hurt the economy;

• The massive amount of spending will trigger runaway inflation once the economy starts to recover;

• His overhaul of the tax code (still in the planning phases) and his intervention in corporate management will create such business uncertainty that nobody will invest in anything until they see the lay of the land;

• His bank program is designed to help banks, but not to catalyze consumer lending. And his proposal for securitization of consumer loans won't work and is just what got us into this situation.

So Mr. Obama should enjoy his poll numbers while he may.

And as a presidential candidate and president-elect, he backed the twilight Bush-era stimulus plan that made the deficit deeper, all before he took over and promoted spending plans that have made it much deeper still. Obama met citizens at an Arnold, Missouri, high school Wednesday in advance of his prime-time news conference. Both forums were a platform to review his progress at the 100-day mark and look ahead.

At various times, he brought an air of certainty to ambitions that are far from cast in stone. His assertion that his proposed budget "will cut the deficit in half by the end of my first term" is an eyeball-roller among many economists, given the uncharted terrain of trillion-dollar deficits and economic calamity that the government is negotiating. He promised vast savings from increased spending on preventive health care in the face of doubts that such an effort, however laudable it might be for public welfare, can pay for itself, let alone yield huge savings.

Congress controls the purse strings, not the president, and it was under Democratic control for Obama's last two years as Illinois senator. Obama supported the emergency bailout package in President George W. Bush's final months - a package Democratic leaders wanted to make bigger. The economy has worsened under Obama, though from forces surely in play before he became president, and he can credibly claim to have inherited a grim situation.

"We have begun to pick ourselves up and dust ourselves off," Obama said. "I'm pleased with the progress we've made, but I'm not satisfied. I'm confident in the future, but I'm not content with the present." Obama said he wants Congress to approve legislation revamping U.S. financial regulation by the end of this year, expressed hope for a potential auto deal to save Chrysler LLC from bankruptcy and reiterated a pledge to cut the budget deficit in half during his first term.

Over the next 100 days the president will be dealing with a host of thorny issues, including getting his proposals on the budget, health and energy pushed through Congress and dealing with the war in Afghanistan. The Democratic majorities in the House and Senate and continued high approval ratings give him a strong hand.

Obama said environmental measures, such as his plan for a cap on carbon emissions, don't require a choice between jobs and protecting the planet. "There's a balance that can be struck, and the key principle is sustainability," he said. The 100-day milestone only represents the "beginning of another long journey" with many challenges ahead, Obama said.

The move comes after a 23-month-old Mexican child died in Texas - the first death from swine flu outside Mexico, where the outbreak originated. In Spain, officials confirmed the first case of swine flu in a person who had not travelled to Mexico.

Mexico's President Felipe Calderon addressed the nation late on Wednesday, announcing the partial suspension of non-essential work and services from 1 May to 5 May. The efforts of the government were concentrated on containing the virus, Mr Calderon said, urging people to stay at home with their families during the shutdown.

Announcing the latest alert level after an emergency WHO meeting in Geneva, Director General Margaret Chan urged all countries to activate their pandemic plans, including heightened surveillance and infection-control measures. She said action should be undertaken with "increased urgency". She added: "It really is the whole of humanity that is under threat in a pandemic."

"It has been decided to immediately start slaughtering all the pigs in Egypt using the full capacity of the country's slaughterhouses," Health Minister Hatem el-Gabaly told reporters after a Cabinet meeting with President Hosni Mubarak. Egypt's overwhelmingly Muslim population does not eat pork due to religious restrictions. But the animals are raised and consumed by the Christian minority, which some estimates put at 10 percent of the population.

Health Ministry spokesman Abdel Rahman estimated there were between 300,000-350,000 pigs in Egypt. Agriculture Minister Amin Abaza told reporters that farmers would be allowed to sell the pork meat so there would be no need for compensation.

Pigs can be found in many places around the Muslim world, often raised by religious minorities who can eat pork. But they are banned entirely in some Muslim countries including Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates and Libya. In Jordan, the government decided Wednesday to shut down the country's five pig farms, involving 800 animals, for violating public health safety regulations.

Vivienne Allan, from WHO's patient safety program, said the body had confirmed that worldwide there had been just seven deaths - all in Mexico - and 79 confirmed cases of the disease. "Unfortunately that [150-plus deaths] is incorrect information and it does happen, but that's not information that's come from the World Health Organisation," Ms Allan told ABC Radio today.

"That figure is not a figure that's come from the World Health Organisation and, I repeat, the death toll is seven and they are all from Mexico." Ms Allan said WHO had confirmed 40 cases of swine flu in the Americas, 26 in Mexico, six in Canada, two in Spain, two in Britain and three in New Zealand.

She said a real concern would be if the flu virus manifested in a country where a person had had no contact with Mexico, and authorities were watching all countries for signs of that. "There is no pattern that has emerged at this stage to be able to say that it is spreading in a particular way or it is spreading into a particular country... the situation is continuing to evolve," she said. "This virus is not airborne, it's caused by droplets... so it's not a time for worry. It's a time to be prepared," Ms Allan said.

The Catholic Church has long wanted control over part of the area – to turn it into an international religious centre for Catholics from all over the world, Diaspora Yeshiva officials say.

"We were forced to give over part of the compound to the Ministry of Religious Affairs," says Rabbi Mordechai Goldstein, founder and Dean of the Yeshiva, "which then gave it over to the Ministry of the Interior. Ever since then, the Church has been making demands and claims on the area, and has been making inroads. Their goal, ultimately, is to conduct religious services here, with hundreds of thousands of Christian tourists coming through.

"This area is very contested, by many different churches," Rabbi Goldstein told Israel National News. "Why should the Catholic Church claim be honoured more than that of others? Given such a situation, it is clear that the best solution is the status quo: Everyone is permitted to enter, but no religious services are allowed."

The Tourism Ministry has announced that it expects 15,000 to 20,000 Christians to visit Israel at the same time as the Pope, in mid-May, and a total of 1.2 million to visit during the course of 2009. The financial incentives to make the site "more Christian" are thus very great.

The news came as markets were already factoring in a rise in the World Health Organisation's pandemic alert to phase 4, indicating the risk of a deadly global outbreak. Mexican Labour Minister Javier Lozano said the country did not yet plan a mass closure of businesses to try to halt the spread of the disease that has killed up to 149 people. "Economic activity must continue," he said.

But markets were on edge. Most Asian stock markets slipped into negative territory after tentative early gains, and European stock futures prices pointed to a sharp decline when markets there open. The Mexican swine flu outbreak came just as many global policymakers were daring to proclaim the start of a tentative turnaround in the world economy after months of decline. Now, any recovery is in doubt.

"We almost have to wait to see not so much the contagion aspect but how deadly is this," said Alan Ruskin, chief international strategist at RBS Greenwich Capital in Connecticut. He said that while a mild strain would have only a limited global impact, "if you start getting a number of fatalities, then it ramps the issue up substantially at every level, from a human standpoint and from an economic standpoint."

The development marks the first time any plant has been engineered to make more than one vitamin. The creators argue the crop could help improve diets in poorer nations, but anti-GM campaigners are sceptical. The team, led by Dr Paul Christou from Spain's University of Lleida, transferred genes into immature embryos of a variety known as M37W.

The embryos were bombarded with metal particles coated with chunks of DNA that, if taken up by the embryo, would alter its internal biochemical processes to make it produce the vitamins. Subsequent analysis of sample plants grown from the genetically modified seeds showed that the corn was indeed successfully manipulated into producing the vitamins. The changes induced in the maize also persisted through a couple of generations of the plants, wrote the researchers.

The yield of vitamins "vastly exceeds" any produced by conventional plant breeding methods, wrote Dr Christou and his colleagues, from universities in Spain and in Germany, in their paper. Producing a plant that contains three vitamins could help those in poorer nations who subsist on one food and rarely eat a balanced diet, the scientists said.

The review was ordered in October after ministers announced that sex and relationships education (SRE) lessons should be made compulsory to help primary and secondary pupils to "NAVIGATE THE COMPLEXITIES OF MODERN LIFE" and to ensure that children learnt their sex education from the classroom, not the playground.

The changes to personal, social, health and economic education (PSHE) classes mark the culmination of decades of campaigning by sexual health organisations, who believe that the patchy nature of sex education in schools is helping to fuel a record level of teenage pregnancy and STIs in England.

Simon Blake, national director of the sexual health charity Brook, said: "Young people need to understand the law – that YOU CAN GET CONTRACEPTION, that YOU CAN HAVE AN ABORTION – and understand THE HEALTH BENEFITS OF PRACTISING SAFER SEX. It would not be right for anyone to tell them that this is wrong, but IT IS OK FOR THEM TO BE TOLD THAT SOME PEOPLE BELIEVE IT IS WRONG."

The Catholic Education Service for England and Wales welcomed the opt-out. "This is a crucial right in a community where parents are the first educators of their children, because PARENTS ARE RESPONSIBLE FOR BRINGING UP THEIR CHILDREN, AND NOT THE STATE," it said.