The icy blast downed tree limbs and power lines, leaving more than 500,000 people without power in Oklahoma, where shelters opened throughout the region for those driven from cold and dark homes, and national guardsmen and volunteers were transporting food and water to hard-hit areas."This particular storm is now the worst in company history in terms of customers affected," said Brian Alford, spokesman for Oklahoma Gas and Electric.

Crews were sent from Texas, Louisiana, Indiana and Mississippi to help repair power lines, which snapped seemingly as quickly as they could be repaired. The storm also shut down electricity service to more than 102,000 people in Missouri, more than 11,000 people in Illinois and about 5,000 in Kansas. In all, ice storm warnings were issued from Texas up through Oklahoma and Kansas and east across Missouri into Illinois, with up to an inch of ice accumulation possible in some areas. Iowa and Arkansas were also affected.

Missouri Gov. Matt Blunt declared a state of emergency, calling out the state National Guard to aid communities hit by the storm. "We are only just beginning to see the devastation from this series of storms," he said.

The ravenous creatures - which are capable of stripping vegetation in minutes - are laying eggs in remote areas in the north-east of the country. The Ministry of Agriculture says it is spraying affected areas from the ground and from aircraft. The insects can eat their own weight in food every day, which means a single swarm can consume as much food as several thousand people.

Locust swarms have been spotted in many areas in the Horn of Africa, but it is the first time since the early 1960s that large concentrations have moved into Kenya, our reporter says. Africa experienced devastating swarms in 2004 when they swept across northern and western Africa, leaving 60% of Mauritania's population - 400,000 people - needing food aid.

Now comes the "FREEZE," the brainchild of TREASURY SECRETARY HENRY PAULSON. It sounds good: For five years, mortgage lenders will freeze interest rates on a limited number of "teaser" subprime loans. Other homeowners facing foreclosure will be offered assistance from the Federal Housing Administration.

But unfortunately, the "freeze" is just another fraud - and like the other bailout proposals, it has nothing to do with U.S. house prices, with "working families," keeping people in their homes or any of that nonsense. The sole goal of the freeze is to prevent owners of mortgage-backed securities, many of them foreigners, from sueing U.S. banks and forcing them to buy back worthless mortgage securities at face value.

The ticking time bomb in the U.S. banking system is not resetting subprime mortgage rates. THE REAL PROBLEM IS THE CONTRACTUAL ABILITY OF INVESTORS IN MORTGAGE BONDS TO REQUIRE BANKS TO BUY BACK THE LOANS AT FACE VALUE IF THERE WAS FRAUD IN THE ORIGINATION PROCESS.

And, to be sure, FRAUD IS EVERYWHERE. It's in the loan application documents, and it's in the appraisals. The problem isn't just subprime loans. It is the entire mortgage market. As home prices fall, defaults will rise sharply - period. THE GOAL OF THE FREEZE MAY BE TO DELAY or excuse once the foreclosure occurred. They could say, "Fraud? What fraud?! You knew the borrower's real income and asset information later when he refinanced!"

AS CHIEF OF GOLDMAN SACHS, PAULSON was involved, to degrees as yet unrevealed, in the mortgage securitization process during the halcyon days of mortgage fraud from 2004 to 2006. PAULSON BECAME THE U.S. TREASURY SECRETARY ON JULY 10, 2006, after the extent of the debacle was coming into focus for those in the know. GOLDMAN SACHS IS THE ONLY MAJOR INVESTMENT BANK IN THE UNITED STATES THAT HAS EMERGED AS YET UNSCATHED FROM THIS DEBACLE.

The success of its strategy must have resulted from fairly substantial bets against housing, mortgage banking and related industries, WHICH ALSO MEANS THAT GOLDMAN SACHS SAW THIS COMING AT THE SAME TIME THEY WERE BUNDLING AND SELLING THESE LOANS.

It is truly amazing that right now everyone in the country is deferring to Paulson and the heads of Countrywide, JPMorgan, Bank of America and others as the best group to work out a solution to this problem. NO ONE IS TALKING ABOUT THE FACT THAT THESE PEOPLE CREATED THE PROBLEM AND PROFITED TO THE TUNE OF HUNDREDS OF BILLIONS OF DOLLARS FROM IT.

WE ARE ON THE CUSP OF A MAMMOTH FINANCIAL CRISIS, and the Federal Reserve and the U.S. Treasury are trying to limit the liability of their banking friends under the guise of trying to help borrowers. AT STAKE IS NOTHING SHORT OF THE CONTINUED EXISTENCE OF THE U.S. BANKING SYSTEM.

At an event to commemorate the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UNDR), the Nobel Laureate said the detention of suspected al Qaeda and Taliban members at the U.S. naval base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, was a 'huge blot on a democracy'. "Whoever imagined that you would hear from the United States and from Britain the same arguments for detention without trial that were used by the apartheid government," Tutu told a news conference in Cape Town.

Tutu is chairman of the Elders, a group of prominent international statesmen that includes former U.S. President Jimmy Carter, anti-apartheid icon Nelson Mandela and his Mozambican-born wife Graca Machel. His remarks come amid a growing outcry over alleged abuses at Guantanamo, which in the aftermath of the September 11, 2001, attacks on the United States was used as a mass detention centre for suspected violent Islamic radicals.

"The Iranians continue their push for nuclear weapons in specific ways, including the acquisition and development of missiles," said a senior Israeli security official who has access to classified Israeli defense material and intelligence reports on Iran. "Iran hides its nuclear weapons program but it continues nonetheless," he told WND, indicating the U.S. estimate may have been "politically motivated."

The official said the U.S. estimate has "many holes in it." He said Israel is "gravely concerned" the report may remove the U.S. military option against Iran from the table, and is likely to be the foundation for Russian and Chinese vetoes against further sanctions on Iran scheduled to be discussed tomorrow at the United Nations. The official expressed skepticism about the findings in the NIE report. "We are skeptical about the report's findings. It's not as if the American intelligence are regarded as brilliant performers in that region," the official was quoted as telling the Telegraph.

Meanwhile, at today's Knesset session, lawmakers here blasted the report and questioned America's commitment to Israel and its front against Iran.

"It cannot be that Bush is committed to peace as was declared at Annapolis, and then the Americans propagate such an intelligence report which contradicts the information we have proving Iran intends to obtain nuclear weapons," stated Minister Yitzhak Cohen, a member of the Shas party, a key coalition partner in Olmert's government.

Cohen compared the NIE report to what he said were faulty reports released by the U.S. during the Holocaust that Jews were not being killed in spite of information possessed by American intelligence of the existence of concentration camps.

"In the middle of the previous century the Americans received intelligence reports from Auschwitz on the packed trains going to the extermination camps. They claimed then that the railways were industrial. Their attitude today to the information coming out of Iran on the Iranians' intention to produce a nuclear bomb reminds one of their attitude during the Holocaust," stated Cohen.

The survey is a blow to Gordon Brown's attempts to play down the significance of the constitutional agreement. It will also revive debate over the UK's role in Europe 72 hours before the reform treaty is signed in Lisbon. The negative mood is echoed across Europe. An EU-wide TNS poll in March showed 75 per cent of voters in the 27 member states want a referendum. In the UK the figure was 83 per cent.

John Redwood, the Tory party's competitiveness guru, said: "It is time he owned up to how much power this treaty is transferring and gave the British people a vote."

The survey will be seized on by campaigners who are gearing up for parliamentary warfare when the treaty reaches the Commons and Lords for formal ratification next year. EU leaders have admitted it is nearly identical to the earlier constitution which was rejected by Dutch and French voters. Mr Brown's euroscepticism did not stop him endorsing the new treaty or rejecting calls for the Government to honour Labour's 2005 manifesto commitment to put it to a referendum.

The Swiss investment bank had already said in October that the crisis had cost it about $3.5bn. The firm said these losses meant it might now make an overall loss in 2007. UBS also revealed that it had received a $9.7bn injection of funds from the Government of Singapore Investment Corporation. A Middle East investor - reported to be the Oman government - has put a further $1.7bn into the bank.

BBC business editor Robert Peston said that the fact UBS had felt the need to raise so much new capital was "all you need to know about the gravity of what has occurred, both for UBS and for the world financial system".

"It's further evidence of the transfer of financial power from the western economies to the great cash generating economies of Asia, Russia and the Middle East - which are able to dictate the terms on which they prop up our important institutions," he added.

One of the firms to have seen an explosion in the number of Polish recruits is JCB in Staffordshire. A worker at the company, who did not wish to be named, said: "To be fair, they (the Poles) are good workers and they do put in the effort and the hours. But you can't help feeling that these jobs could be going to local men who are crying out for work."

A spokesman for the company said employees were appointed on the basis of skills and ability.

John Sentamu pledged not to wear the symbol of the clergy until the Zimbabwean president steps down and urged others to "pray, march, protest and collect money" for the cause of his people. John Sentamu said Zimbabweans' identities have been cut to pieces

With Mr Mugabe enjoying the global limelight at the EU's Africa summit in Lisbon, the Archbishop spoke out against the destruction of Zimbabweans' identities. "Do you know what Mugabe has done? He has taken people's identity and literally - if you don't mind - cut it to pieces," Mr Sentamu told BBC1's Andrew Marr show. "As far as I am concerned, from now on I am not going to wear a dog collar until Mugabe is gone."

The move came after the failure of fresh efforts to bridge a rift between the US and Europe over farm subsidies and tariffs. Since then, the WTO has been at pains to deny that the talks have definitively collapsed, while the main participants have traded insults.

WTO DIRECTOR GENERAL PASCAL LAMY :- "We're in a serious situation and people need to reflect on that. It would be even more serious if they didn't come back to the negotiating table.

EU TRADE COMMISSIONER PETER MANDELSON:- "The United States have been asking too much from others in exchange for doing too little themselves. This is not my definition of leadership."

US TRADE REPRESENTATIVE SUSAN SCHWAB:- "Unless we figure out how to move forward from here, we will have missed a unique opportunity to help developing countries and to spur economic growth."

BRAZILIAN FOREIGN MINISTER CELSO AMORIM:- "There is no substitute for the WTO. There is no substitute for the multilateral trading system. For developing countries in particular, the WTO is irreplaceable."

INDIAN TRADE MINISTER KAMAL NATH:- "The round is not dead. I would say that it is definitely between intensive care and the crematorium. The US brought nothing to the table. They stuck to their old position."

AFTAB ALAM KHAN, ACTIONAID INTERNATIONAL:- "The US refusal to move has been a fatal blow for these talks, while the self-interest displayed by the EU and US during these negotiations puts the blame for this collapse squarely at their doors."

MARCUS WALLENBERG, INTERNATIONAL CHAMBER OF COMMERCE:- "The lack of political will on the part of WTO members to resolve differences on agricultural subsidies and market access has put the entire round and the multilateral trading system in peril."

More than 70 European and African leaders were also at odds on how to deal with Zimbabwe, which was singled out along with Sudan by German Chancellor Angela Merkel for not respecting human rights. The two-day summit ended with an ambitious action plan and a promise to meet again in 2010. But the world's largest trading bloc and its poorest continent were at loggerheads over trade, which would be the basis for future economies ties.

The EU is Africa's largest commercial partner, with trade totalling more than 215 billion euros ($315.2 billion) in 2006. But EU officials and businessmen fear growing Chinese investment in Africa could displace Europe from the top spot. Beijing held a summit for African leaders last year, wooing them with multibillion-dollar trade investment contracts.

ORIGINS:-- Ebola haemorrhagic fever (EHF) is a severe, often fatal disease in humans and non-human primates (monkeys, gorillas, and chimpanzees) that has appeared sporadically since its initial recognition in 1976. The disease is caused by infection with Ebola virus, named after a river in the Democratic Republic of Congo (formerly Zaire) in Africa, where it was first recognised. Three subtypes, occurring in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Sudan and the Ivory Coast, have been identified as causing illness in humans. EHF is a febrile haemorrhagic illness which causes death of between 50 and 90 percent of all clinically ill cases.

TRANSMISSION:-- The Ebola virus is transmitted by direct contact with the blood, secretions, organs or other bodily fluids of infected people. Burial ceremonies where mourners have direct contact with the body of the deceased person can play a significant role in the transmission of Ebola. Health care workers have frequently been infected while treating Ebola patients.

SYMPTOMS: -- Ebola is often characterised by the sudden onset of fever, intense weakness, muscle pain, headache and sore throat. This is often followed by vomiting, diarrhoea, rash, impaired kidney and liver function and, in some cases, both internal and external bleeding. The fever has an incubation period of two to 21 days. No specific treatment or vaccine is yet available.

On Friday, the government said suspected cases of Ebola -- most of them in western Bundibugyo district bordering the Democratic Republic of the Congo -- had risen to 101. They included two in Kampala, one of them a doctor who died.

Another 338 people were being monitored because they came into contact with those infected by the virulent haemorrhagic fever. Doctors say the virus can be passed through contact with an infected person. Uganda was last hit by an epidemic of Ebola in 2000, when 425 people were infected and just over half died.

This year, an outbreak in Congo -- where some of the first cases in 1976 gave the virus its name after the country's Ebola river -- infected up to 264 people, killing 187.

Experts say the sharp growth, if it continues, means several of THE WORLD'S MOST IMPORTANT SUPPLIERS MAY NEED TO START IMPORTING OIL WITHIN A DECADE to power all the new cars, houses and businesses they are buying and creating with their oil wealth.

INDONESIA has already made this flip. By some projections, the same thing could happen within five years to MEXICO, the No. 2 source of foreign oil for the United States, and soon after that to IRAN, the world's fourth-largest exporter. In some cases, the governments of these countries subsidize gasoline heavily for their citizens, selling it for as little as 7 cents a gallon, a practice that industry experts say fosters wasteful habits.

"It is a very serious threat that a lot of major exporters that we count on today for international oil supply are no longer going to be net exporters any more in 5 to 10 years," said Amy Myers Jaffe, an oil analyst at Rice University.

More than six out of 10 English voters say they feel "British", according to a new opinion poll. An even greater proportion - 69 per cent - want to keep the historic Union between England and Scotland, while only 24 per cent want the two countries to separate. Asked if they were aware that 2007 is the 300th anniversary of the Act of Union, 73 per cent said they were and 27 per cent said they were not.

However, the ICM survey for The Sunday Telegraph also reveals great concern about the future of the Union, and only 48 per cent believe it will survive a maximum of 25 years. Just over half (59 per cent) believe it will be gone in a maximum of 50 years, while only 18 per cent think it will survive indefinitely.