Police fired rubber bullets at demonstrators, who then set on fire several government buildings, including a police station. In response, Oman's Sultan Qaboos bin Said ordered the creation of 50,000 jobs and a grant of nearly $400 a month for every person who seeks employment. However, violence has escalated as demonstrators demand government reform in the country, where political parties are banned. They torched an official government residence, homes and a supermarket.

Oman, located on the Arabian Peninsula, shares with Iran control of the Strait of Hormuz, at the mouth of the Persian Gulf, where nearly half of the world's oil tankers sail. Unrest is rare in Oman, which is considered one of the more tranquil Moslem countries. Journalist Jackie Spinner, who was in the city of Sohar where the protests broke out, told Al Jazeera, "Most of the Omanis that I've talked to have said they haven't seen anything like this in the last four decades ... they have not seen this level of anger, or any widespread demonstrations against the government, in the past 40 years."

Middle East observers - and investors - are keeping a sharp eye on Saudi Arabia, where "Day of Rage" protests are scheduled on March 11 and March 20 to demand reforms.

Instability in the already volatile oil-producing Middle East could produce a feedback loop where unrest pushes up energy prices, fuelling inflation and deepening discontent both in the region and around the world. In most countries, the so-called "misery index" - an aggregation of unemployment and inflation long seen as a warning of protest and instability - is pushing higher.

"After an extended period of economic growth and political apathy across the developed and emerging worlds, we may have reached a new political cycle - one where populations take out their grievances on their leaders and their associates," wrote Citi political analyst Tina Fordham. "This won't be limited to the emerging world." In democracies, elections provide a release valve - Ireland has seen some of the worst post-crisis economic pain but minimal unrest in part because voters knew they could oust the government they blame for the crisis in elections this weekend.

But Greece, Britain and others have seen anger expressed in the streets as their governments push through austerity measures, arguing they have little choice but to rein in unsustainable deficits even if it means cutting services, pay and benefits. Most analysts agree North Africa's demographic "youth bulge", relatively high unemployment, long-serving leaders and recent Internet penetration made it particularly volatile. But strains are clearly visible elsewhere.

Almost without exception, authoritarian states around the world appear to have seen at least a modest uptick in protest following the ousting of presidents in Egypt and Tunisia. Even China, whose breakneck growth has long been seen as limiting discontent, has blocked terms such as "Egypt" on social networking sites and stepped-up arrests at small demonstrations. "Two crises are happening at the same time - which is unprecedented I think," said Joel Hirst, International affairs fellow at the US-based Council for Foreign Relations. "An economic disaster and 'readjustment' of the developed world while the developing world fights for their freedoms. Add in there the oil/energy price, which could be seen as the link between the two, and it makes for a perfect storm."

"This is indeed a Year of Living Dangerously," said Citi's Fordham.

The metal is being taken to feed a global market where demand in developing countries such as China and India has sent prices soaring to record levels. It is used in a vast number of areas, including telecoms, power generation, computers and household goods. The cost of the disruption to the UK economy has more than doubled to 770 million pounds in the past year.

A record 325 thefts were reported last month and even if this rate remained stable, there would be a total of 3,900 cable snatches in 2011 compared to 2,770 last year - an increase of more than 40 per cent. There has already been a 65 per cent increase from 2009 to 2010. Chief superintendent Eamonn Carroll, of British Transport Police, said: 'Cable theft is the next biggest priority after the terrorist threat. The disruption and the problems it can cause are immense.' The thefts are often carried out by organised gangs who use power tools to cut out sections of the valuable metal.

Copper prices have risen 41 per cent in the past 12 months and a ton now costs a record 6,328 pounds on the London Metal Exchange. It is expected to hit more than 6,800 pounds by the end of the year.

This is partly down to a steep rise in the cost of chicken feed. It is 70 per cent wheat and about 12.5 per cent soya and makes up 60 per cent of the cost of producing eggs. Prices rose by 70 per cent last year after Russia introduced an export ban on homegrown wheat after a series of droughts.

Poultry farmers are also being forced to end the practice of rearing hens in battery cages, ahead of an EU ban that comes into force in 2012, and are required to use only non-GM feed by supermarkets. These factors mean producing eggs costs more. Supermarkets are now passing the rising prices on to customers and many own-brand eggs cost 30p each.

The increased prices come at a time when consumers are facing the biggest squeeze on living standards in 90 years, caused in part by the VAT rise which was introduced last month. A study by the British Retail Consortium found that the rise in food prices between December 2010 and January this year was the biggest monthly increase in two years.

And the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation has said that global food price rises are running at a record high, partly due to growing demand for meat from Asia and the Middle East.

Here in a nutshell are some of the reasons why people are beginning to wake up to the horrific downside of the wind business. And since I began writing about wind turbines nine years ago, I have come to see how the case for them rests on THREE GREAT LIES.

THE FIRST is the pretence that turbines are anything other than ludicrously inefficient. The most glaring dishonesty peddled by the wind industry - and echoed by gullible politicians - is vastly to exaggerate the output of turbines by deliberately talking about them only in terms of their 'capacity', as if this was what they actually produce. Rather, it is the total amount of power they have the capability of producing.The point about wind, of course, is that it is constantly varying in speed, so that the output of turbines averages out at barely a quarter of their capacity. This means that the 1,000 megawatts all those 3,500 turbines sited around the country feed on average into the grid is derisory: no more than the output of a single, medium-sized conventional power station.

THE SECOND GREAT LIE about wind power is the pretence that it is not a preposterously expensive way to produce electricity. No one would dream of building wind turbines unless they were guaranteed a huge government subsidy. What other industry gets a public subsidy equivalent to 100 or even 200 per cent of the value of what it produces?

THE THIRD GREAT LIE of the wind propagandists is that this industry is somehow making a vital contribution to 'saving the planet' by cutting our emissions of CO2. Even if you believe that curbing our use of fossil fuels could change the Earth's climate, the CO2 reduction achieved by wind turbines is so insignificant that one large windfarm saves considerably less in a year than is given off over the same period by a single jumbo jet flying daily between Britain and America.

This guidance, intended for all doctors, nurses and counsellors advising women contemplating having an abortion, said such women should be told that terminating a pregnancy was safer than having a baby. To which one can only ask: safer for whom, precisely? NOT FOR THE BABY, CERTAINLY.

This is not meant to be a flip comment. For the point is that these doctors seemed to have totally lost sight of some basic humanity here. It is dismaying indeed - even if not altogether surprising - that even doctors specialising in bringing babies into the world have succumbed to this savage reductionism.

Abortion is - or should be seen as - at best, a necessary evil. Some religious people, of course, do not accept even that. They regard abortion simply as the killing of the unborn and a crime against humanity and the Almighty. This is by no stretch of the imagination a medical agenda but an ideological one - and a terrifyingly inhuman one at that. It appears that, taken aback by the ferocity of the reaction to this guidance, the Royal College is now having second thoughts about the wording.

But the question remains how doctors can have lost their ethical compass so badly that they dehumanise life in this way, and dress up as 'treatment' the manipulation of fragile patients. The answer is that medicine itself has been progressively brutalised under the impact of abortion.

In 1948, in the wake of the atrocities of the Nazi period, doctors subscribed to a professional oath enshrined in the Declaration of Geneva which contained this clause: 'I will have the utmost respect for human life, FROM THE TIME OF CONCEPTION. By 1984, however, the last five words had been altered to read 'FROM ITS BEGINNING' - and, in 2005, THEY WERE DELETED ALTOGETHER. The beginning of life had been written out of the world's medical ethical script as just too inconvenient.

Should policymakers focus on headline inflation rates or strip out volatile food and energy prices? Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke can expect questions on both topics when he delivers his twice-yearly testimony to Congress on Tuesday and Wednesday.

A day later, the ECB holds its policy-setting meeting and will have to judge whether oil prices pose an immediate threat when year-over-year inflation is already above its target. Economists widely expect the ECB to hold rates steady, but they will be hanging on President Jean-Claude Trichet's every word for clues on whether he is leaning toward a hike soon.

Nigel Gault, chief US economist with IHS Global Insight in Lexington, Massachusetts, said persistently high oil prices would curb consumer spending and drive up the still-lofty jobless rate - which would make the Fed less inclined to raise interest rates. "The inflation-phobic European Central Bank might react differently, which may explain why the euro has been rising in recent days," Gault said. Indeed, back in mid-2008, when oil prices briefly approached $150 a barrel, the ECB raised rates while the Fed held steady.

In his testimony, Bernanke will probably give Congress an economic assessment that sticks closely to his recent comments that the recovery is strengthening but still not enough to bring about a significant improvement in the job market. If the parties cannot agree on a spending bill by Friday, the federal government will run out of money for nonessential operations and be forced to close.

Farrakhan also called on President Barack Obama to allow protesters to march, urging the president not to attack innocent people when they do. The controversial minster spoke to a packed house at the Allstate Arena in Rosemont as part of the 81st annual celebration of Saviours' Day, which marks the birth of the faith's founder, W. Fard Muhammad.

The keynote address, titled "God will send saviours," capped a weekend of workshops focused on health, preparing for natural disasters and unidentified flying objects. The Nation of Islam believes in a UFO called "the wheel" or "the Mother Plane." Farrakhan has described a 1985 religious experience in which he ascended into a flying saucer and heard the voice of Elijah Muhammad predicting historical events that came to pass.

For about four hours, Farrakhan spoke and jumped from topic to topic, citing religious texts. He praised Scientology and its founder L. Ron Hubbard.

However, on Sunday, the Saudi stock market fell 5% after 119 academics, activists and businessmen wrote an open letter to the king demanding reform. The Tadawul all-share index has fallen a cumulative 10% in the last two weeks to its lowest level in six months, prompting some Saudi investors to call on the government to intervene to steady the market, or even to close it.

The news comes as the Egyptian stock exchange is set to reopen on Tuesday after a month-long closure due to the popular uprising there, although protestors continued to gather outside the stock exchange building intent on forcing another delay. The letter to the Saudi king complained about the prevalence of corruption and nepotism and a widening gap between state and society. Meanwhile a Facebook site calling for a "day of rage" in Saudi Arabia on 11 March has seen its number of subscribers increase from 400 to 12,000 in recent days.

Analysts fear the kingdom may face the same volatile generational schism that has affected Egypt and elsewhere. Two-thirds of the Saudi population is aged under 30. Youth unemployment is about three times the national average and there is an 18-year waiting list for government-provided housing. The threat of protests has already wrung concessions from the 87-year-old King Abdullah, who only recently returned from three months of medical treatment in the US.

"For confidentiality reasons, Health Canada cannot confirm whether or not a submission has been filed or any other information related to a submission," said Jenny Van Alstyne, spokeswoman for Health Minister Leona Aglukkaq. This week, media reports revealed that scientists in the department of fisheries and oceans raised doubts about approving genetically modified fish over concerns the fish could escape from fish farms and mate with natural Canadian fish stock.

AquaBounty, a firm with Canadian and US operations, made the application. AquaBounty's website claims the company is also working on developing hybrid salmon, trout and tilapia, which will also grow faster than traditional fish. The application for a genetically modified pig comes from the University of Guelph. Called Enviropig, researchers spliced DNA from mice into Yorkshire pigs to reduce the amount of phosphorous in swine's manure.

The researchers hope the reduced phosphorous will mean less pollution in rivers and streams near large-scale pig farms.

The officer was hit by a petrol bomb which set his uniform and motorcycle on fire. He was forced to remove his crash hemet and colleagues had to help extinguish the flames. Riot police used tear gas and flash grenades to try stop the violence. The Greek government is facing international pressure to make further cuts after its ailing economy was bailed out by the International Monetary Fund and the European Union.

It has already made drastic spending and pay cuts, as well as imposing a number of tax hikes in order to meet the conditions of the deal. Around 500 people gathered outside parliament following the main march. The group said they would not move until ministers agreed to make concessions.

The march was planned in an attempt to counter recent Muslim extremism in the area, which has been bolstered by support from the extreme Israeli left, activists said. Last month, Muslims and leftists marched in Yafo, and many chanted slogans against Israel. Activists Itamar Ben-Gvir and Baruch Marzel requested permission to march from police. Officers asked them to keep their plans under wraps, but they replied that they would not do so, and instead plan to publicize the event.

"The time has come to stand up to the Islamists who are calling for a revolution in central Israel like those in the Arab world," the two said. The march is geared to nip clashes between Jews and Arabs in the bud, not cause new ones, he added. "Elements in Yafo are trying to carry out a rebellion like the one in Tahrir Square in Egypt, and our job is not to stick our heads in the sand, and to take preventive measures," he explained.

The draft guidance from the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists is for all doctors, nurses and counsellors advising women contemplating terminations. Its first recommendation on "what women need to know" instructs health professionals: "Women should be advised that abortion is generally safer than continuing a pregnancy to term."

The guidance also says that women who are deciding whether to have an abortion must be told that most do not suffer any psychological harm. Until now, their advice has been that while rates of psychiatric illness and self-harm in women are higher among those who had an abortion, there was no evidence that termination itself was likely to trigger psychological problems.

While few dispute that terminations carry fewer physical risks to a woman than those of pregnancy, the impact of abortions on psychological health is highly contentious. Never before has official advice to doctors and nurses in Britain instructed them to use such comparisons to help pregnant women decide whether to keep a child.

Tensions on the Korean peninsula rose sharply last year over two deadly attacks - the sinking of a South Korean naval ship blamed on the North and a North Korean artillery barrage that killed four people on a front-line South Korean island. North Korea denies it was involved in the ship sinking, which killed 46 South Korean sailors. On Sunday, the North used harsh rhetoric against South Korea and the US, calling their joint drills a "dangerous military scheme".

"Our military and people will take stern military countermeasures against the American imperialists and the (South Korean) traitors' group, because they are challenging us with aggressive military action," the North's military said in a statement carried by the official Korean Central News Agency.

It accused South Korea and the US of plotting to launch "limited war" and topple Pyongyang's communist government. If provoked, the North will start a "full-scale" war and turn Seoul into a "sea of fire," the statement said.

Earlier Sunday, the North's military warned that it would fire directly at South Korean border towns and destroy them if Seoul continued to allow activists to launch propaganda leaflets toward the communist country.

The speaker on the audio tape is identified as Ibrahim al-Rubeish, a former detainee at the US-run Guantanamo Bay lockup. The tape was produced by al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula, a Yemen-based offshoot of the terror network, according to the SITE Intel group, a US-based group that monitors extremist websites.

In the 10-minute recording, Al-Rubeish criticized Saudi Arabia for providing a haven for deposed Tunisian President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali. He also said toppling longtime rulers is not enough and that new governments must be established based on Islamic religious law, or Shariah. "One tyrant goes, only to be replaced another who may fix for the people some of their worldly issues by offering job opportunities and increasing their income, but the greater problem remains," al-Rubeish said, according to a translation provided by SITE.