The Obama administration is hoping that if Gaddafi's government doesn't implode soon, a relentless campaign of airstrikes on his tanks, air defenses and most trusted army units will at least weaken his ability to survive a renewed uprising by a disjointed opposition. The rebels initially rattled Gaddafi but in recent days have given up most of their gains.

The bottom line, according to Admiral Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff: "He's still killing his people." So the mission remains incomplete, but the US is following through on a pledge to shift the main combat burden to Britain, France and other NATO allies. Starting Sunday, no US combat aircraft are to fly strike missions in Libya. NATO's on-scene commander can request American strikes in the days ahead, in which case they may have to be approved in Washington.

In a further indication that Gaddafi's resilience may be eroding, his government is trying to hold talks with the US, Britain and France in hopes of ending the air campaign, said Abdul-Ati al-Obeidi, a former Libyan prime minister who has served as a Gaddafi envoy during the crisis.

The scientists behind the research believe milk from herds of genetically modified cows could provide an alternative to human breast milk and formula milk for babies, which is often criticised as being an inferior substitute. They hope genetically modified dairy products from herds of similar cows could be sold in supermarkets. The research has the backing of a major biotechnology company.

The work is likely to inflame opposition to GM foods. Critics of the technology and animal welfare groups reacted angrily to the research, questioning the safety of milk from genetically modified animals and its effect on the cattle's health. But Professor Ning Li, the scientist who led the research and director of the State Key Laboratories for AgroBiotechnology at the China Agricultural University insisted that the GM milk would be as safe to drink as milk from ordinary dairy cows.

He said: "The milk tastes stronger than normal milk. We aim to commercialize some research in this area in the coming three years. For the 'human-like milk', 10 years or maybe more time will be required to finally pour this enhanced milk into the consumer's cup." China is now leading the way in research on genetically modified food and the rules on the technology are more relaxed than those in place in Europe.

Scientists insist genetically modified foods are unlikely to pose a threat to food safety and in the United States consumers have been eating genetically modified foods for more decades. However, during two experiments by the Chinese researchers, which resulted in 42 transgenic calves being born, just 26 of the animals survived after ten died shortly after birth, most with gastrointestinal disease, and a further six died within six months of birth.

Speaking from the pulpit of Chicago's Mosque Maryam, the Nation of Islam's international headquarters, purchased 40 years ago with a $3 million loan from Gaddafi, Farrakhan blamed demons for altering President Barack Obama's moral conscience and driving the assault on Gaddafi, who he calls a brother.

"It is a terrible thing for me to hear my brother called all these ugly and filthy names when I can't recognize him as that," Farrakhan said to the crowd assembled at the mosque on Chicago's South Side. "Even though the current tide is moving against him... how can I refuse to raise my voice in his defense? Why would I back down from those who have given so much?"

In 2006 Gaddafi addressed Nation of Islam members via satellite, lauding Farrakhan for being a "courageous freedom fighter" who galvanized African-Americans at the Million Man March in Washington, DC, and Muslims in nations around the world. During that speech, Gaddafi panned America for taxing poor people, who the Libyan leader said do not benefit from space exploration or support of "a Hebrew state. Consequently," he said, "the voice of Louis Farrakhan will be heard among the simple people louder than the president of the United States."

On Thursday, Farrakhan said scenes from an earthquake and tsunami ravaged Japan inspired him to warn the American people about an impending natural disaster that will punish them for their arrogance. "A major earthquake is on the way to you and me and us," he said. "Death and destruction is at the door of all of us, and we are worse prepared than the Japanese."

Four UN soldiers were seriously wounded by Mr Gbagbo's forces on Saturday. Further details have meanwhile emerged about the deaths of as many as 1,000 civilians in the west of the country. Catholic charity Caritas said they had been shot or hacked to death with machetes in a part of Duekoue, controlled by troops loyal to Mr Ouattara.

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon told the BBC: "At this time, I strongly urge Mr Gbagbo to step down and transfer power to the legitimately elected president... Mr Ouattara." Once Mr Gbagbo had gone, Mr Ban said he expected Mr Ouattara to begin the process of reconciliation and restore the rule of law. Mr Ouattara was internationally recognised as president after winning a run-off vote in November, but Mr Gbagbo also claimed victory and refused to leave office.

An attack on a UN base on Friday in the city of Mazar-e Sharif killed 14 people, seven of them UN staff. A top UN official has blamed the pastor who burnt the Koran for the violence. At least 10 people were killed and many more were injured in the southern Afghan city of Kandahar on Saturday in a second day of protests.

During a service at the Dove World Outreach Center in Florida on 20 March, Pastor Wayne Sapp soaked a Koran in kerosene, staged a "trial" during which the Islamic holy book was found guilty of "crimes against humanity", and then set it alight. The incident took place under the supervision of Pastor Terry Jones, who last year drew condemnation over his aborted plan to burn copies of the Koran on the anniversary of the 11 September 2001 attacks on the US.

In a statement published on Saturday evening, Mr Obama extended his condolences to the families of those killed by the protesters in Afghanistan. "The desecration of any holy text, including the Koran, is an act of extreme intolerance and bigotry," he said. "However, to attack and kill innocent people in response is outrageous, and an affront to human decency and dignity.

"No religion tolerates the slaughter and beheading of innocent people, and there is no justification for such a dishonourable and deplorable act." The president said it was the time to "draw upon the common humanity that we share, and that was so exemplified by the UN workers who lost their lives trying to help the people of Afghanistan".

Critics fear the change will promote a casual and irresponsible attitude to sex. They point out women will know that they can easily get hold of the pill within 72 hours of sex, when it is most effective at preventing pregnancy. There are also concerns that the rate of sexually transmitted infections will increase as couples are less inclined to use condoms.

Under the laws introduced yesterday, pharmacies will be able to hand out the pill to girls under 16, even though they are below the legal age of consent. Pharmacists have been instructed to make their own judgments when young girls request the pill and carry out a full consultation to establish that they know exactly what they are asking for.

Earlier this year researchers at Nottingham University found that areas where the morning-after pill was available for free had higher rates of STIs (sexually transmitted infections). They also claimed it had no effect on the rate of teenage pregnancy.

The quake's epicenter was 216 miles southeast of Athens at a depth of 48 miles, the US Geological Survey said. Police in the coastal village of Ierapetra on the island say the temblor, at 4:30 pm local time (9:29 am EDT), was strongly felt but no injuries or major damage have been reported.

According to an in-depth report by L Barkan, a research fellow at the Middle East Media Research Institute, which monitors and analyzes media reports throughout the Middle East, the idea being circulated is "for millions of Palestinian refugees to march en masse in return to the original homes of their families in Israel." The movement's plans call for this to be much more than just a visit, however.

Timetables to coordinate the events have been posted by administrators who explain it is the moral and legal right of refugees to return to their homes. One page, "The 2011 March of Return," said, "The goal of [the Facebook] group... is to organize a march of millions, who, on May 15, 2011, will realize the Right of Return to Palestine in deed as well as in word." It explains marchers will come from Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, Egypt, the Gaza Strip and the West Bank.

One of the Facebook pages soliciting participants in what apparently would be an invasion and attempted overthrow of the region's existing government has been removed by the Facebook administration, but not before collecting some 350,000 endorsements from readers. Other pages remain. According to MEMRI, some of the Facebook pages "stress that the activities are meant to be peaceful and unarmed, while others hint at violence and armed resistance."

"It also has gained the support of Palestinian officials, through the PLO Department of Expatriate Affairs... which has called on Palestinians living abroad to participate in the march and to publicize it among the Palestinian communities and organizations worldwide," the MEMRI report said. "It should be noted that, while urging the public to join the mass demonstrations on May 15, the page administrators also hinted at a coming war on the Jews and called on the readers to prepare for martyrdom," Barkan's report confirmed.

"For example, they posted a well-known hadith, which states that the Day of Judgment will only come after the Muslims fight the Jews and vanquish them: 'The hour [of Judgment] will not come before the Muslims fight the Jews and kill them.' Another site warned against using slogans such as 'Destroying the Zionist Entity' and instead talked about returning 'to the homes from which we were expelled, nothing more'. That is a human and moral slogan that can rally all the people of the world to our assistance."

WND columnist Nat Hentoff, a nationally known authority on the First Amendment and Bill of Rights, cited the long history of violent attacks on Jews such as the recent slaying of a family including a three-month-old baby. He said he fears that even a two-state solution would be fragile because of the Palestinians' "bottomless hatred of Jews."

More than 840,000 people have been affected in the eight southern provinces as 61 major highways have become submerged by the rising waters. Some 730 travellers, mostly foreigners, were forced to spend the night camped on mats on board the HTMS Chakri Naruebet, the Royal Thai Navy's sole aircraft carrier, after they were evacuated from the island of Koh Tao.

The navy said it had also rescued more than a hundred people from other islands including Koh Phangan, known for its all-night beach bash the Full Moon Party. Thai TV showed parents clutching babies on the aircraft carrier's deck and smiling backpackers giving a thumbs-up and taking pictures of their military rescue.

British, US, Australian, Russian and French citizens were among those rescued, according to the Tourism Ministry. They were being transported to destinations including Bangkok and Pattaya. Airlines have resumed flights to the resort island of Samui after its international airport was forced to close for several days. Thailand's weather bureau forecast the rain would stop this weekend, but warned of strong winds and 6ft waves that will make it unsafe for small boats.

Interest rates have been frozen at an all-time low of 0.5 per cent for two years, but are expected to be increased imminently. Nationwide, Britain's biggest building society, warned yesterday of its own fears about 'the squeeze on borrowers'. Its figures show the average homeowner has a mortgage of £78,000 which costs £455 a month at an interest rate of 2.71 per cent.

But if interest rates return to their pre-crisis levels, the monthly payment of £455 will balloon to £621. This is an increase of £166 a month, equal to nearly £2,000 over the whole year. Chris Leslie, Shadow Treasury Minister, said: 'People are beginning to find it more difficult to get by, not least because of George Osborne's decision to hike VAT in January.' Mr Leslie said the cut to tax credits and the three-year freeze in child benefit, which will be axed for higher rate taxpayers in 2013, will create more problems.

Out on the streets, Steve Owen is running the same race - physically pounding the pavements to draw attention to the problem of drug-resistant infections. Owen's father Donald died four years ago of multiple organ failure in a British hospital. He had checked in for a knee operation. But what he got was methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, commonly known as MRSA, a so-called "superbug" that all the drugs his doctors prescribed couldn't beat.

After almost 18 months of severe pain, the infection got into his blood, overpowered his vital organs and killed him. Owen and his wife Jules have pledged to run 12 big races in as many months, to raise funds for a charity that is working to fight MRSA. "It just shouldn't have happened," says Jules, as the pair nurse their own aching limbs after running a half-marathon. "It was his knee - that's not something he should have died from."

Welcome to a world where the drugs don't work.

After Alexander Fleming's 1928 discovery of the first antibiotic, penicillin, we quickly came to assume we had the chemicals to beat bacteria. Sure, bugs evolve to develop resistance. But for decades scientists have managed to develop new medicines to stay at least one step ahead of an ever-mutating enemy.

Now, though, we may be running out of road. MRSA alone is estimated to kill around 19,000 people every year in the United States - far more than HIV and AIDS - and a similar number in Europe. Other drug-resistant superbugs are spreading. Cases of often fatal "extensively drug resistant" tuberculosis have mushroomed over the past few years. A new wave of "super superbugs" with a mutation called NDM 1, which first emerged in India, has now turned up all over the world, from Britain to New Zealand.

Ireland's central bank said fresh stress tests showed the country's four remaining lenders needed to recapitalise to the tune of 24 billion euros, in line with expectations. That comes on top of the 46 billion euros taxpayers have already poured into the sector, giving a total bill equal to $100 billion. "The cost is huge," Finance Minister Michael Noonan told parliament. "(But) the price will be worth paying if we get a functioning banking system."

Under a restructuring of the sector, two "pillar" banks will be left, and all lenders will be either nationalised or majority owned by the state.

Investors are sceptical that Ireland, still struggling to emerge from the worst recession in the industrialised world and a recipient of an EU-IMF bailout last year, can handle one of the world's costliest banking crises.

S&P has already warned it could strip Ireland of its A- rating after the results of the bank recapitalisation plan. The agency downgraded Portugal to one notch above junk to BBB- this week and a cut to its banks followed on Thursday, raising the heat on Lisbon which is widely expected to follow Greece and Ireland into an EU aid programme.

Those writing it want Congress to authorize the involvement, but they acknowledge such a debate would open the door for opponents who think President Obama overstepped his bounds and want to rein him in. So far, those skeptics have targeted the funding for the military operation. Defense Secretary Robert Gates confirmed Thursday that the mission had run up a $550 million bill as of Monday, and would continue to cost about $40 million a month, now that NATO has taken the lead.

Representative Dennis Kucinich, Democrat for Ohio, delivering a lengthy speech Thursday on the House floor, said he wants to offer an amendment to ban funding for the Libya campaign outright. Representative Roscoe Bartlett, Republican for Maryland, just introduced a bill aimed at ensuring the Libya operation does not add to the deficit - at a time when lawmakers are wrangling over how much to cut from the rest of the 2011 budget and try to slow the pace at which the country adds to its $14 trillion debt.

Senator Richard Lugar, Republican for Indiana, ranking Republican on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, expressed concern Thursday that the conflict could inflame the deficit. "We find ourselves in a situation where Congress is debating cuts in domestic programs to make essential progress on the deficit, even as President Obama has initiated an expensive, open-ended military commitment in a country that his defense secretary says is not a vital interest," Lugar said in a statement.

"The bottom line is, the Japanese need this particular unit worse than we do, so we're giving it up," said Jerry Ashmore, whose company, Augusta-based Ashmore Concrete Contractors, Inc, is the concrete supplier for the MOX facility. The 190,000-pound pump, made by German-based Putzmeister has a 70-meter boom and can be controlled remotely, making it suitable for use in the unpredictable and highly radioactive environment of the doomed nuclear reactors in Japan, he said.

"There are only three of these pumps in the world, of which two are suited for this work, so we have to get it there as soon as we can," Ashmore said in an interview Thursday. "Time is very much a factor." If all goes well, the pump will be en route to Japan next week.

According to Putzmeister's website, four smaller pumps made by the company are already at work at Fukushima pumping water onto the overheated reactors. Initially, the pump from Savannah River Site, and another 70-meter Putzmeister now at a construction site in California, will be used to pump water - and later will be used to move concrete. "Our understanding is, they are preparing to go to next phase and it will require a lot of concrete," Ashmore said, noting that the 70-meter pump can move 210 cubic yards of concrete per hour.

In addition to the equipment now at Fukushima and the two 70-meter pumps being moved from the US, a contractor in Vietnam has given up a 58-meter pump so it can be diverted to Japan, and two 62-meter pumps in Germany were loaded on Wednesday for transport to Tokyo. Ashmore said officials have already notified Shaw AREVA MOX Services, which is building the MOX plant for the US Department of Energy's National Nuclear Security Administration, that the pump was being moved and will not be returned because it will become contaminated by radiation. "It will be too hot to come back," Ashmore said.

The MOX complex, scheduled to open in 2016, is designed to dispose of 32 metric tons of plutonium from dismantled nuclear bombs by blending small amounts of the material with uranium to make nuclear fuel for commercial power reactors. Its design calls for 170,000 cubic yards of concrete strengthened with 35,000 tons of reinforcing steel bars.

The census also reveals a continuing preference for boys - India's sex ratio is at its worst since independence. Female foeticide remains common in India, although sex-selective abortion based on ultrasound scans is illegal. Sons are still seen by many as wage-earners for the future. Statistics show fewer girls than boys are being born or surviving. The gender imbalance has widened every decade since independence in 1947.

According to the 2011 census, 914 girls were born for every 1,000 boys under the age of six, compared with 927 for every 1,000 boys in the 2001 census. "This is a matter of grave concern," Census Commissioner C Chandramauli told a press conference in the capital, Delhi. Government officials said they would review all their policies towards this issue, which they admitted were failing.