An activist in contact with people in Dara'a said police shot another three people protesting in its Roman-era city center after dusk. Six more bodies were found later in the day, the activist said. Inspired by the wave of pro-democracy protests around the region, the uprising in Dara'a and at least four nearby villages has become the biggest domestic challenge since the 1970s to the Syrian government, one of the most repressive in the Middle East. Security forces have responded with water cannon, tear gas, rubber bullets and live ammunition. The total death toll now stands at 22.

As the casualties mounted, people from the nearby villages of Inkhil, Jasim, Khirbet Ghazaleh and al-Harrah tried to march on Dara'a Wednesday night but security forces opened fire as they approached, the activist said. It was not immediately clear if there were more deaths or injuries. Democracy activists used social-networking sites to call for massive demonstrations across the country on Friday, a day they dubbed "Dignity Friday."

US State Department spokesman Mark Toner said Washington was alarmed by the violence and "deeply concerned by the Syrian government's use of violence, intimidation and arbitrary arrests to hinder the ability of its people to freely exercise their universal rights."

And while the quake triggered a tsunami that scourged coastal communities, damage in Tokyo and its surrounding areas was slight. Yet the unfolding disaster in the north-east and a parallel crisis at a quake-crippled nuclear power plant offer the starkest of reminders of the need for the capital to do more to ensure it is prepared for any similar seismic assault.

The human and economic cost of a Tokyo earthquake could well exceed the ferocious toll taken by this month's earthquake and tsunami, which is feared to have killed more than 22,000 people, with about 270,000 still in refuge centres on Tuesday. The north-eastern prefectures hit hardest this time are relatively lightly populated and casualties have been largely limited to the seaside settlements within reach of the tsunami.

But the population of greater Tokyo, including three neighbouring prefectures, is an extraordinary 35 million - more than a quarter of Japan's population. A government-commissioned study a few years ago concluded that a Tokyo earthquake of magnitude 7.3 - far less powerful than the March 11 tremor - could kill some 11,000 people and destroy about 850,000 buildings.

"The short-term negotiations are very important, I look at this as a tipping point. I think we are at the beginning of the process and it's going to be very painful," he added. Fisher earlier said the US economic recovery is gathering momentum, adding that he personally was extremely vigilant on inflation pressures.

"We are all mindful of this phenomenon. Speaking personally, I am concerned and I am going to be extremely vigilant on that front," Fisher said in an interview with CNBC. Fisher added that the US Federal Reserve had ways to tighten its monetary policy other than interest rates, including by selling Treasurys, changing reserves levels and using time deposits.

He added that he does not support the Fed embarking on an additional round of quantitative easing. "Barring some extraordinary circumstance I cannot forsee... I would vote against a QE3," Fisher told CNBC. "I don't think it's necessary. Again, we have a self-sustaining recovery."

Brendan Barber, TUC's general secretary, said he expected it to be the largest demonstration since up to a million people took to the streets on the capital in 2003 to oppose the planned invasion of Iraq. "I suspect this will be the biggest since then," Barber told reporters. "There'll be a lot of people coming from every part of the country. It's going to be a very big event."

The protest will also be the largest seen in London since a demonstration in December by students angry at a proposed rise in university tuition fees erupted into the worst rioting seen in the capital for decades. Government buildings were vandalised, there were running battles between protesters and police, and the limousine carrying Prince Charles and his wife Camilla was attacked.

While the TUC is planning a family-friendly, peaceful event, internet websites and chatrooms have indicated that some groups are looking to take direct action, such as occupying part of London's Hyde Park. "Take over, strike, occupy, release all hell," said one such website. Police have warned they will not tolerate any disorder and 4,500 officers will be on duty while hundreds of trained TUC stewards will be helping to organise the march.

Several crates containing weapons and ammunition were removed from the aircraft. Turkish media reported that the plane was forced to land in a military airfield at the United Nations' request following information indicating it was carrying nuclear materials.

It was further reported that rocket launchers, mortars, rifles and explosive materials were found in one of the main cabinets on the plane. Turkish newspapers stated this was the first time that a plane was forced to land in such circumstances since 2006.

Addressing the Times CEO Summit Africa, in London, Mr Hague dwelt on the wider pattern of uprisings in Africa and the Middle East, which has recently resulted in regime changes in Egypt and Tunisia. He said: "Just imagine for a moment the magnitude of this... this is something clearly affecting a wide area of the Middle East and North Africa and it will affect more countries yet. This is in its early stages."

"If these countries turn into stable democracies, open economies, imagine the benefits that will bring to the stability of the world. But imagine if it went wrong. Imagine if, actually, extremism, terrorism were promoted. Imagine the financial consequences as well as the human and moral consequences of this going wrong."

"This going wrong in the Middle East, the area that produces so much of the world's oil and gas, that contains so many tensions in the world, would have financial consequences that would make the last three years seem the mere prelude to much greater difficulties. That is why the stakes are so high."

The mosque has been the focus of anti-government demonstrations since Friday. At least 10 people have now been killed in clashes with police and soldiers. UN Human Rights Commissioner Navi Pillay earlier urged the Syrian government to carry out a transparent investigation into the violence. "We are greatly concerned by the recent killings of protesters in Syria and reiterate the need to put an immediate halt to the excessive use of force against peaceful protesters, especially the use of live ammunition."

"People have the legitimate right to express their grievances and demands to their government, and we urge the Syrian government to enter into a broad, meaningful dialogue with the protesters." The EU has also strongly condemned the "unacceptable" crackdown.

Although the demonstrators have not demanded the resignation of President Assad, the unrest is the most serious challenge to his rule since he succeeded his father, Hafez, 11 years ago. Syria has been ruled under emergency laws since 1963, and the Baath Party is known for brutally suppressing dissent.

The first day of Operation Odyssey Dawn had a price tag that was well over $100 million for the US in missiles alone. And the US military, which remains in the lead now in its third day, has pumped millions more into air and sea launched strikes targeting air-defense sites and ground-force positions along Libya's coastline.

The ultimate total that the United States spends will hinge on the length and scope of the strikes as well as on the contributions of its coalition allies. But Todd Harrison, a senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments, said on Monday that the US costs could "easily pass the $1 billion mark on this operation, regardless of how well things go."

On the first day of strikes alone, US-led forces launched 112 long-range Tomahawk cruise missiles, which cost about $1 million to $1.5 million apiece, from ships stationed off the Libyan coast. That totaled $112 million to $168 million. Since those first strikes, US and British forces have launched at least another 12 Tomahawk missiles.

Meanwhile, it generally costs $10,000 per hour, including maintenance and fuel, to operate F-15s and F-16s. Those costs do not include the payloads dropped from the aircraft. The B-2s dropped 45 Joint Direct Attack Munitions, or JDAMS, which are 2,000-pound bombs that cost between $30,000 and $40,000 apiece to replace.

Zack Cooper, a senior analyst at the think tank who coauthored the study with Harrison, acknowledged that the operation's costs are still too difficult to estimate because of lingering questions following the weekend strikes. "Since we don't yet know the length, magnitude, or degree of US involvement, any cost projections are going to be very rough estimates at this point," Cooper said.

A little background, first. Since the fall of Saddam Hussein, the Iraqi holy city of Najaf has reemerged as center of the Shi'ite world, reclaiming that position from the Iranian seminary town of Qom. Freed from Saddam's straitjacket, Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani, the most powerful figure in Iraqi Shi'ism has vastly expanded his international appeal. His piety and (for the most part) apolitical outlook makes him a much more appealing figure for Shi'ites than the very political Iranian ayatollahs. His following has grown dramatically in Iran, and in Bahrain.

And those Shi'ites seeking a more activist hero can now turn to another Iraqi, Moqtada al-Sadr, who combines the religious legacy of his Grand Ayatollah father and uncle with the political force of his Mahdi Army militia. So Bahraini Shi'ites seeking succor - spiritual or temporal - are as likely to look to the north, toward Iraq, as to Iran in the east. A steady stream of Bahraini Shi'ite political leaders have visited Iraq since the fall of Saddam, there to build contacts with Iraqi political parties and pay homage to Sistani.

Now both Sistani and Sadr have spoken forcefully about the brutal crackdown in Bahrain by the Sunni royal family. Sistani, who rarely comments about matters outside Iran, has called on the Khalifas to stop killing innocents. And Sadr's Iraqi supporters, at his instructions, have demonstrated in the streets to protest the Bahraini crackdown. Not to be left out, Iraqi's Shi'ite Prime Minister, Nouri al-Maliki, has weighed in on the side of the Bahraini Shi'ites.

That the Iraqi Shi'ite leadership is growing more vocal about global Shi'ite affairs is bad news for Tehran. Iran's ayatollahs have as much to fear from Sistani's growing clout as they do Saudi Arabia. The Najaf 'hawza' (seminary) was for decades suppressed by Saddam, allowing Qom, a relatively minor outpost in the Shi'ite world, to become an alternate power center. Now Najaf is reclaiming its primacy: many non-Iranian religious scholars have moved from Qom to Najaf, attracted by the city's historic importance (it contains the sect's holiest shrine and its most important cemetery) as well as Sistani's prestige.

This isn't just about Iran vs Saudi, people. It's just as much about Najaf vs Qom.

What is worse, increasing amounts of our food comes from countries where water is scarce, meaning the food we discard has a huge hidden impact on the depletion of valuable water resources across the world. According to the first comprehensive study into the impact of the "embedded water" in the UK's food waste on world water supplies, more than a 5% of the water used by the UK is thrown away in the form of uneaten food.

The water used to produce food thrown away by households in the UK amounts to about 6.2 billion cubic metres a year. That represents 6% of the UK's total water footprint, which includes water used in industry and agriculture. About a quarter of the water used to grow and process the wasted food originates in the UK, but much of it comes from countries that are already experiencing water stress.

Green campaigners have for years called for more attention to be paid to "hidden" or "embedded" water - water that is used in the production of all sorts of goods, from food and clothing to cars and furniture, and which represents a hidden cost on exports. As more countries suffer from water scarcity, these exports can further deplete natural resources and cause environmental problems such as salination - which can render land unfit for growing crops - and higher prices for water to poorer consumers.

The remarks follow a letter to the education secretary from the British Centre for Science Education (BCSE) suggesting that creationists planned to use government legislation on free schools to mount a "concerted attack" on science education. Free schools can be set up by charities, universities, businesses, educational groups, teachers and groups of parents. They will have more freedom over the contents of their curriculum, leading to fears that science teaching in the schools may not be as rigorous. Teachers working at free schools will also not need to have formal teaching qualifications.

The Everyday Champions Church, in Newark, Nottinghamshire, submitted its proposal for a 652-place school in January, shortly before the DfE held its first free school conference where Gove said he would consider applications from creationist groups on a case-by-case basis. On its website the church says it has "660 children 'definitely' signed up to the school and 185 considering". It spent January and February carrying out public presentations and found parental response "overwhelmingly positive".

"Creationism will be embodied as a belief at Everyday Champions Academy, but will not be taught in the sciences," said its leader Gareth Morgan. "Similarly, evolution will be taught as a theory. We believe children should have a broad knowledge of all theories in order that they can make informed choice." The DfE spokesman said groups setting up new free schools in the UK will be vetted to ensure that they have "strong education aims" and "high curriculum standards". He said: "The education secretary is crystal clear that teaching creationism is at odds with scientific fact."

"The armed forces will stay faithful to the oath they gave before God, the nation and political leadership under the brother president, Ali Abdullah Saleh," said Mohammed Nasser Ahmed, the defence minister. "We will not allow under any circumstances an attempt at a coup against democracy and constitutional legitimacy, or violation of the security of the nation and citizens."

Explosions and shooting heard briefly on Monday evening near a presidential compound in the eastern port of Mukalla added to the sense of tension, as did a raid on al-Jazeera's offices in Sana'a by gunmen who seized broadcasting equipment.

Yemen's president, Ali Abdullah Saleh, suffered a significant blow when General Ali Mohsen al-Ahmar, his longtime confidante and head of the Yemeni army in the north-west, announced that he would support "the peaceful revolution" by sending soldiers under his command to protect the thousands gathered in the capital to demand that Saleh step down. "According to what I'm feeling, and according to the feelings of my partner commanders and soldiers... I announce our support and our peaceful backing to the youth revolution," Ali Mohsen said.

But the reactor buildings at the plant held the equivalent of almost six years of the highly radioactive uranium fuel rods produced by the plant when disaster struck. Officials within the Japanese government, the power company and the nuclear watchdog are now likely to face tough questions about why the spent fuel rods were stored inside the building.

A much safer but more costly option would have been to build far stronger separate buildings designed specifically for nuclear storage but the plant has been subject to a cost-cutting drive under its chief executive Masataka Shimizu. The crisis, which has seen more than 45,000 residents evacuated and a country filled with the fear of a nuclear Armageddon, has focused attention on the plant's safety procedures and its history of failed checks.

David Lochbaum, a nuclear engineer with the US-based Union of Concerned Scientists, said the spent fuel was vulnerable because it was protected only by the relatively 'flimsy' outer shell of the reactors and reliant on a single, pump-driven cooling system. 'It's a recipe for disaster and that disaster is now unfolding in Japan,' Lochbaum said.

A number of Libyans, all of them implacably opposed to Colonel Muammar Gaddafi, have played a senior role in the terrorist group but sources said the "narrative" of action in Libya could be twisted into propaganda. "No one could have guessed what has happened in the last few months in the Middle East and no one is sure what to expect next," said one source. "There are huge areas of uncertainty."

Reports in Libya suggested that some Islamists had sided with the rebels. "The al-Qaeda narrative is that the leadership of countries such as Libya has been guilty of apostasy and there is every danger that they will see whatever replaces them, especially if it is democratic, as equally guilty," the source said.

The current security level is "severe," meaning an attack is "highly likely," and that has not gone up, but Security Service analysts were thought to have been on alert for increased "chatter" in the extremist community and on websites and chat rooms. MI5 was less concerned about the threat of state-sponsored terrorism from Libya. "Gaddafi would have to go from a standing start within the space of a week and his attention right now is probably on staying alive," one analyst said.

Nevertheless, the Security Service was taking Colonel Gaddafi's threats to attack the West seriously and was examining both possible threats from within the Libyan embassy. David Cameron told the Commons: "If Gaddafi's attacks on his own people succeed, Libya will become once again a pariah state festering on Europe's border, a source of instability, exporting terror beyond her borders."

Amr Mussa, the secretary-general of the Arab League, said at the weekend that he wanted "protection of civilians in Libya, not bombing other civilians". Yesterday, following the intervention of David Cameron and Ban Ki-Moon, the UN secretary-general, Mr Mussa insisted he had been misquoted and publicly backed the operation in Libya. However, Arab countries had yet to use their extensive military assets to help enforce the no-fly zone and many appeared more concerned with suppressing unrest in their own countries.

Colonel Tim Collins, who participated in the Army's early campaign in Iraq, said: "Their support is crucial, otherwise it looks like yet another attack by the West on Arab nations. We should include Arab nations in the command and control of the operation, to ensure they are involved. They have the gear, there are missed opportunities here."

General Sir Mike Jackson, the former head of the Army, said: "The continuing support of Arab nations is vital, the leaders of the coalition are going to have to work that Arab sensitivity really quite hard. They are reluctant to see non-Arab nations taking action within the territory of the Arab League."