"Holy Land Pilgrimage: A Bridge for Peace" is the official slogan used on the ministry's official webpage of the Pope's May 11-15 visit to Israel and the Palestinian territories. The site is presented in seven languages, and does not include information on the Pontiff's May 8-11 visit to Jordan.

"His Holiness, Pope Benedict XVI's pilgrimage to the Holy Land is A MISSION OF PEACE AND RECONCILIATION," the site explains. "The Pontiff's visit to Yad Vashem (The Holocaust Martyrs' and Heroes' Remembrance Authority) in Jerusalem is another expression of his solidarity with the Jewish people and his acknowledgement of the horrors of the Holocaust."

The statement explained that this agreement, which came into effect with the signatures of the two parties, "further consolidates the bonds of cooperation that exist between the Holy See and the League of Arab States, especially on the political and cultural levels, in favor of peace, security, and regional and international stability. Moreover it proposes instruments of consultation between the two parties, giving attention also to initiatives of interreligious dialogue."

Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, the Pope's Secretary of State was present to represent the Holy See, along with other Vatican officials, including Monsignor Fortunatus Nwachukwu, Monsignor Alberto Ortega; Monsignor Christophe El-Kassis, Monsignor Nicolas Thevenin and Monsignor Lech Piechota. A delegation from the League of Arab States was headed by Walid Al Gargani. Some member countries of the League were also represented by their Ambassadors to the Holy See.

The League of Arab States, seated in Cairo, was started in 1945, and is comprised of 22 countries, including: Egypt, Jordan, Iraq, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Syria, Sudan, Morocco, Tunisia, Algeria and Kuwait. Pope John Paul II sent the first apostolic delegate to the League in 2000. Currently, this position is held by Archbishop Michael Fitzgerald, who is also the apostolic nuncio in Egypt.

THE UNITED STATES WILL BE KEY TO PEACE between Israel and the Palestinians, and both sides are already testing President Obama's resolve, he said. "I cannot emphasize enough how important US partnership is to help Israel accept the opening the Arab world has offered," the King said.

Abdullah, who talked Mideast peace with Obama at the White House earlier in the week, said the United States should have a peace plan "for 2009 and beyond," in which negotiations produce clear and quick results. "NOW IS THE TIME FOR THE UNITED STATES TO LEAD," Abdullah said. He warned that time is running out to establish a viable independent Palestinian state alongside Israel. That is the goal all sides have embraced and the outline of a deal is clear, but it will take determination and a push from Washington to make it happen, Abdullah said.

"The status quo is simply untenable," Abdullah said in an address at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. Jordan is one of only two Arab states to formally make peace with Israel.

However, members of the church said that she was not to be converted and was merely invited to attend an event. "We had invited her to grace our meeting in Kisumu which was to mark the end of a three-week convention, but although she had prepared, she did not attend," Lewis Ondiek, a senior church figure, told Ecumenical News International.

It was claimed that family members stopped Mrs Obama from attending the service led by an Australian evangelist, John Jeremic, because they feared the church was trying to convert her from Islam but the family said she did not attend because she had a knee complication and could not go.

Sheikh Mohamed Khalifa, the Council of Imams and Preachers of Kenya secretary, said: "MAMA SARAH SHOULD NOT BE FORCED BY ANYBODY TO JOIN CHRISTIANITY SINCE SHE IS A MUSLIM. Muslims will not sit and watch one of their own being coerced by some religious leaders to convert to Christianity." Muslims held protests in Kenya about Mrs Obama's alleged conversion and warned of conflict between the faiths over it. Muslim leaders have claimed that Christians now wished to convert her because of her fame.

Police and soldiers were deployed at what the government called "strategic" locations across the Caribbean island to quell any violent protests. Finance and Planning Minister Audley Shaw was expected to announce the tax increases during a budget debate later on Thursday.

Prime Minister Bruce Golding told the nation during a national broadcast Wednesday night that Jamaicans should brace for tougher times because THE ISLAND COULD NOT CONTINUE TO BORROW MONEY TO FILL HOLES IN THE BUDGET.

"There is speculation about the likelihood of tax increases and that there could be disturbances. But what purpose would that serve? Would it close the budget gap. Jamaica can no longer borrow to fill the gap in the budget," Golding said. Nine people were killed during riots that broke out when a gasoline tax increase was announced in April 1999.

Michael Sommer, leader of the DGB trade union federation, called the latest wave of sackings a "declaration of war" against Germany's workers. "SOCIAL UNREST CAN NO LONGER BE RULED OUT," he said. Gesine Swann, presidential candidate for the Social Democrats, said "THE MOOD COULD TURN EXPLOSIVE" over the next three months unless the government takes drastic action.

Swiss risk advisers Independent Credit View said a "SECOND WAVE" of debt stress is LIKELY TO HIT THE UK AND EUROPE THIS YEAR as the turmoil moves from mortgage securities to old-fashioned bank loans. A detailed "stress test" of 17 lenders worldwide found that European banks have much lower reserve cushions than US banks, leaving them acutely vulnerable to the coming phase of rising defaults. "THE BIGGEST RISK IS IN EUROPE," said Peter Jeggli, Credit View's founder.

Europe's banks are exposed to a hydra-headed set of bubbles. They not only face heavy losses from US property, they also face collapsing credit booms in their own backyard and fallout from high levels of corporate debt in the eurozone. It takes longer for damage to surface with Europe's traditional bank loans, which buckle later in the cycle as defaults rise. THE FEROCITY OF EUROPE'S RECESSION LEAVES NO DOUBT THAT LOSSES WILL BE HUGE THIS TIME.

The information is likely to have a major impact on livestock breeding. The study, published in the journal Science, was a six-year effort by more than 300 scientists in 25 countries. Cattle now join an elite group of animals to have had their genome sequenced - a group that includes humans, other primates and rodents.

"We chose to study the cow genome because these animals are of such immense importance to humans," explained Richard Gibbs from Baylor College of Medicine's Human Genome Sequencing Center, a leading contributor to the project. By comparing the results to other sequenced genomes, including that of humans, the researchers discovered how cows could help inform research into human health and disease. "We found that cows are much more similar to us than rodents are," said Professor Gibbs. "THIS IS BECAUSE RODENTS ARE EVOLVING MUCH FASTER. And it tells us aspects of human biology that we could actually study in cows."

Of the 22,000 genes in the cow genome, 14,000 are common to all mammalian species. "These 14,000 are the common engine room of mammals," said Ross Tellam, a scientist from the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) in Australia and one of the authors of the Science paper. "The remaining genes are unique to each species. Genetic tools are already being developed and proving useful to the dairy industry, and we predict they will be applied to improve the beef industry."

Health experts say tests so far seem to link it with a new swine flu virus that sickened eight in the southern US. US experts said they were taking the virus seriously and working to learn as much as possible about it. In Geneva, the WHO said an emergency committee would likely convene over the weekend. It said it had prepared "rapid containment measures" in case they were needed. "We are very, very concerned," said WHO spokesman Thomas Abraham. "WE HAVE WHAT APPEARS TO BE A NOVEL VIRUS AND IT HAS SPREAD FROM HUMAN TO HUMAN. It's all hands on deck at the moment."

Mexican authorities suspect the virus may have been involved in the deaths of about 60 people, mostly in and around Mexico City, since mid-March. Health Minister Jose Angel Cordova said that 20 of those deaths were confirmed to be from the new swine flu strain and the rest were being analysed. More than 900 other people are thought to have been infected. Officials said MOST OF THOSE KILLED SO FAR WERE YOUNG ADULTS - rather than more vulnerable children and the elderly.

Dr Richard Besser, acting director of the CDC said more information was needed to determine the extent of the threat posed by the virus but that "concern has grown" since Thursday as more information has come to light. He said it was not yet known whether swine flu would lead to a major pandemic but that scientists around the world were monitoring developments and taking the threat seriously.
SWINE FLU IS A RESPIRATORY DISEASE WHICH INFECTS PIGS. It does not normally infect humans, although sporadic cases do occur usually in people who have had close contact with pigs.

The decline in gross domestic product was sharper than the 1.6pc seen in the final three months of 2008, when Britain officially entered recession. Economists had expected a fall of 1.5pc. The figure will embarrass Alistair Darling, who predicted in his Budget statement on Wednesday that in the first quarter the economy contracted "by a similar amount" to the fourth quarter of 2008. It also casts doubt over his prediction that the economy will shrink by a total of 3.5pc this year, which now looks too optimistic. The IMF said that it believed the British economy would shrink by 4.1pc this year and another 0.4pc next year.

Although the economy is expected to fall at a slower pace in the months ahead, economists have warned it will not seem better for many as hundreds of thousands more jobs go. "Although one or two positive signs have started to appear, WE FACE ANOTHER 12-18 MONTHS OF SERIOUS GRIEF," said Peter Spencer, chief economic adviser to the Ernst & Young ITEM Club.

On Wednesday official data showed that unemployment reached 2.1m in February, the highest level since Labour came to power in 1997. The ITEM Club predicts that a total of around 900,000 jobs will be lost this year and a further 500,000 next year.

The news spreads like wildfire and hope starts to bloom. One after the other, six US banks - including the largest, Bank of America - have submitted performance figures for the first quarter of 2009 that are far better than experts had predicted. Banks like Wells Fargo and JPMorgan Chase have posted profits reaching into the billions. Goldman Sachs has even announced that it plans to pay back the billions in emergency bailout funds it received from the US government. And analysts are also expecting to see positive first-quarter earnings from German banks.

But some experts think such conclusions are dangerously misguided. "We're far from being out of the woods," says Dirk Schiereck, a professor of banking at Darmstadt Technical University. "THE BANKS ARE STILL EXTREMELY VULNERABLE." And Hans-Peter Burghof, an expert on finance at Hohenheim University, even goes so far as to speak of an "expansion of the crisis, which might soon even get new banks into serious trouble."

In fact, the economic situation is anything but secure. Experts argue over whether the economy in 2009 will decline by 4, 5 or 6 percent and whether the turnaround will take place in the summer, fall or winter. But there is one point on which the majority of experts agree. "The economy is unlikely to grow as quickly as it shrank," says Jörg Hinze, an economic analyst at the Hamburg Institute of International Economics (HWWI). "It might stagnate for a long time at a very low level or only gradually start climbing again."

But a slow rebound will not stop the crisis. If the economy improves too slowly, the pressure on companies will mount, and HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS OF WORKERS IN GERMANY currently on short time MIGHT FIND THEMSELVES OUT OF A JOB IN THE FALL.

Gold prices jumped on the news and were up 1 percent on the day at $910.80 an ounce at 0540 GMT. By a Reuters calculation, CHINA'S HOLDING OF GOLD WOULD BE WORTH $30.9 BILLION AT CURRENT PRICES. China's reserves were now the fifth biggest in the world, with only six countries holding more than 1,000 tons, she said.
Hou Huimin, vice general secretary of the China Gold Association, said China should build its reserves to 5,000 tons.

"It's not a matter of a few hundred, or 1,000 tons. China should hold more because of its new international status, and because of the financial crisis," he said. "The financial crisis means the U.S. dollar value is changing fast, and it may retreat from being the international reserve currency. If that happens, whoever holds gold will be at an advantage."

On Wednesday a local Taliban militia crossed from the Swat Valley — where a February cease-fire allowed the implementation of strict Islamic, or Shari'a, law — into the neighboring Buner district, which is just a few hours drive from Islamabad - 65 miles, separated by a mountain range, as the crow flies. Residents streaming from Buner, home to nearly a million people, told local newspapers that armed militants are patrolling the streets. Pakistani television stations aired footage of Taliban soldiers looting government offices and capturing vehicles belonging to aid organizations and development projects. The police, say residents, are nowhere to be seen.

Meanwhile courts throughout the Malakand division, of which Swat and Buner are a part, have closed in deference to the new agreement calling for the implementation Shari'a, law. "IF THE TALIBAN CONTINUE TO MOVE AT THIS PACE THEY WILL SOON BE KNOCKING AT THE DOORS OF ISLAMABAD," Maulana Fazlur Rehman, head of one of the country's Islamic political parties, warned in Parliament Wednesday. Rehman said the Margalla Hills, a small mountain range north of the capital that separates it from Buner, appears to be "the only hurdle in their march toward the federal capital," The only solution, he said, was for the entire nation to accept Shari'a law in order to deprive the Taliban of their principal cause.

The fall of Buner is raising international alarm. Speaking before the House Foreign Affairs Committee in Washington Wednesday, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton characterized the situation was a danger to Pakistan, the U.S. and the world. "We cannot underscore the seriousness of the existential threat posed to the state of Pakistan by continuing advances, now within hours of Islamabad, that are being made by a loosely confederated group of terrorists and others WHO ARE SEEKING THE OVERTHROW OF THE PAKISTANI STATE," Clinton said. She also accused Pakistan's leaders of "basically abdicating to the Taliban and the extremists" by signing the cease-fire agreement.

It's been a bad week for German Chancellor Angela Merkel. At the start of the week, she tried to cheer up her compatriots, saying the economy showed signs it may be bottoming out. Since then, though, it's been one negative economic development after the next. THE GERMAN ECONOMY IS IN A NOSE DIVE and is already in its worst slump in almost 80 years. Indeed Hans-Werner Sinn, the head of the respected Munich-based Ifo Institute economic think tank, is describing the current crisis as the "worst depression" since the global economic downturn of the 1930s.

On Thursday, Germany's leading economic think tanks concurred in a report that the economy would likely shrink in 2009 by 6 percent of gross domestic product. The International Monetary Fund is estimating a downturn of 5.6 percent.

With the situation looking dire, on Thursday the center-left Social Democrats' candidate for the largely symbolic office of German president, Gesine Schwan, warned that SOCIAL UNREST, some of which has already been seen in other parts of Europe, could soon be lurking around the corner in Germany. "I can imagine that in two to three months the people's anger could increase markedly," Schwan told the Münchener Merkur newspaper. IF PEOPLE HAVE NO HOPE FOR AN IMPROVED SITUATION, SHE WARNED, IT COULD GET EXPLOSIVE. With no end in sight for the crisis, it's getting increasingly difficult for the German government to buoy spirits.

In their wake hundreds of houses and a handful of businesses in Montigny-lès-Cormeilles are left without electricity for much of the morning. Redundancy plans have caused violent protests in private sector companies, left-wing students have blocked universities and unions are planning a demonstration on Labour Day. "THERE IS A RISK OF REVOLUTION," Dominique de Villepin, the former prime minister, said.

For Stéphane Miliadis, a representative of the Confédération Générale du Travail union at the EdF plant in Saint-Ouen-l'Aumône, near Montigny-lès-Cormeilles, it offers a golden opportunity. "THE GOVERNMENT IS LOSING CONTROL," he said. "So now is the moment to push back the capitalist logic which has crept into the company."

Last Thursday 66,500 EdF customers lost their electricity supply, some for several hours. In Douai, northern France, two patients in intensive care had to be moved when a hospital lost power for 40 minutes. Earlier this week the activists sought to win public support by switching 350,000 customers from peak to off-peak tariffs — a 50 per cent saving. They also restored power to hundreds of households that were cut off by EdF because they had failed to pay their bills.

Signaling U.S. impatience with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's reticence over peace talks, Clinton said Arab nations had made clear to her that Israel must be committed to the Palestinian peace process if it wants help countering Iran. "For Israel to get the kind of strong support it is looking for vis-à-vis Iran, it can't stay on the sidelines with respect to the Palestinians and the peace efforts. They go hand in hand," she told the House of Representatives Appropriations Committee. Israel sees a nuclear-armed threat as a mortal threat.

"They (Arab countries) believe that Israel's willingness to re-enter into discussions with the Palestinian Authority strengthens them in being able to deal with Iran," she added. Since coming into power last month, Netanyahu and his right-leaning coalition have avoided recognizing the Palestinians' right to an independent state as his predecessor Ehud Olmert did.

THE UNITED STATES IS COMMITTED TO PUSHING FOR A TWO-STATE SOLUTION, with Israelis and Palestinians living side by side, and would like to revive stalled talks. Netanyahu is set to visit Washington early next month. Clinton said she was not going to prejudge the Israeli position until there had been face-to-face talks with him.