Following Ireland's request for billions in aid from the European Union rescue fund, calls for the stricken EU member state to raise its corporate tax rate are increasing in Germany. In continental Europe, many countries have long been miffed by Ireland's 12.5 percent corporate tax rate, which is less than half that levied by many other EU countries, including Germany. They argue that it leads to an exodus of jobs to Ireland and represents unfair competition. In an interview with Germany's tabloid daily Bild published on Tuesday, however, Irish Finance Minister Brian Lenihan rejected those demands.

Lenihan also disputed arguments that Ireland had been the subject of "direct or indirect" pressure from the EU over his country's low corporate tax rate. He said his country was competing with the Far East rather than other EU countries for much of its foreign direct investment. In Brussels, officials assume that, in addition to making painful cuts in its budget, Ireland will also be unable to avoid raising taxes. "It is probable that Ireland will not continue to be a low-tax country," a spokesman for EU Economics Commissioner Olli Rehn said.

Given that Germany will have to provide a considerable part of Ireland's credit guarantees, criticism amongst politicians in the country over the Irish taxation system is growing. "It cannot be that the companies and residents in Ireland pay lower taxes than companies and residents in the countries that are providing the aid," Hartmut Mollring, the finance minister for the state of Lower Saxony, a member of Chancellor Angela Merkel's conservative Christian Democratic Union party, told the Braunschwieger Zeitung newspaper. "Irish taxes must at least be average or a little bit above."

"The current annoyance by the Americans and the French at the success of German exports is just a foretaste of the hostilities towards Germany that would be unleashed. One against the rest: That's something that this country cannot sustain - neither economically, not to mention politically."

Nine years after the arrival of foreign forces, the Pentagon said all types of violent incidents in Afghanistan had increased from April through the end of September, up 300 percent from 2007, except for the use of roadside bombs. The White House will reveal in coming weeks its review of the war a year after President Barack Obama unveiled a new strategy for the flagging, unpopular campaign in Afghanistan.

Even as the Pentagon's latest congressionally mandated report painted a grim picture of the situation in Afghanistan, where corruption undermines the fight against the Taliban and only halting, uneven improvements to Afghans' lives have been achieved, US officials said there were signs of progress. Increased troop levels have bolstered security in some areas in the past six weeks, a period not captured in the twice-annual report, officials said, and foreign troops have managed to push Taliban violence back from cities and towns.

"But this progress is fragile - this is a very tough fight," a senior State Department official told reporters on condition of anonymity. Yet some onlookers are skeptical even a far-off goal of putting Afghan forces in the lead in 2014 can be reached, as foreign forces struggle to train and fortify local police and soldiers and bring about a modicum of self-governance and growth in one of the world's poorest countries.

If talks remain at an impasse, the budget will remain frozen at current levels, something that many MEPs say could call into question future funding for organisations such as the External Action Service and the ITER nuclear reactor. Leader of the Social-democrat group Martin Schultz said the breakdown in talks were "turning democracy on its head", saying it was not for national governments to block the will of parliament.

Parliament negotiators have said they are willing to accept the EU governments' wish for a 2.9% budget increase - lower than the 6% that the parliament had voted for. But MEPs want their role in setting future EU budgets to be clarified. The European Commission drafts the budget, but that is only the first stage in a long negotiating process. The Commission, like the parliament, wanted the budget increase to be 6%.

The attack near a disputed sea border was also denounced by Russia, Japan and the European Union. South Korea returned fire and threatened missile strikes if there were "further provocations". President Obama described South Korea as an important ally and "a cornerstone of US security in the Pacific region". He said: "We strongly affirm our commitment to defend South Korea as part of that alliance.

"We want to make sure all the parties in the region recognise that this is a serious and ongoing threat that needs to be dealt with." He called on North Korea's ally China to communicate to Pyongyang "that there are a set of international rules they need to abide by". In a telephone conversation, Mr Obama and South Korean President Lee Myung-bak agreed to hold combined military exercises in the days ahead to underscore the strength of their alliance, the White House said in a statement. The US has 28,000 troops stationed in the South.

Russia's foreign minister warned of a "colossal danger", and said those behind the attack carried a huge responsibility. Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan said he had ordered ministers to "make preparations so that we can react firmly, should any unexpected event occur". The EU and the UK also condemned the North, but China - the North's main ally - refused to apportion blame.

The budget aims to quell international ease over Portugal's public spending and deficit. For the first time in 20 years, the country's main unions UGT and CGTP have united in a call for a national day of industrial action. They expect workers from the private and public sector to take part in the strike, the head of the CGTP, Manuel Carvalho da Silva, said. "The mobilisation of workers is enormous," he added.

The strike will hit banks, media and petrol supplies, the unions say. They also aim to paralyse the country's ports, and hundreds of flights are set to be cancelled. Many Portuguese have been angered by the government's plans to cut wages for public sector workers, freeze pensions and increase taxes.

However, analysts say the walkout is unlikely to stop the passage of the austerity budget, given that the opposition Social Democratic Party (PSD) has said that in order to not jeopardise the country's fragile finances it will abstain from the vote on Friday rather than vote against the measures. With 80% of its public debt held abroad, the country now finds itself at the mercy of bond traders and wants to convince the markets that it will be able to meet its commitments, our correspondent says.

The Greeks, the Irish, the Portuguese, maybe even the Spanish, have pushed those limits to breaking point through reckless spending, feckless policy-making and then asking the Germans to write them a large cheque. Germany's economy has surged ahead, but Merkel's chances of a third term may be melting in the heat of the euro crisis.

Problems with the single currency have wrought mayhem. Governments have fallen. Europe's age of austerity has left hundreds of thousands jobless, public services ruined. But a few months before the election, the chancellor triumphs. Top tabloid Bildzeitung dubs it "Merkel's miracle": the Lisbon treaty has been rewritten; a stiff new regime is in place for the single currency, which is stabilising. The bankers are bleating about the "haircuts" being forced on them.

With Europe currently in a rolling crisis and the second eurozone member being bailed out in seven months, that scenario may appear improbable. But that is what is being plotted right now in Berlin.

"The euro is the biggest crisis facing Europe and it could carry on for another five years," said Charles Grant, director of the Centre for European reform. "The French are fearful of German euroscepticism, of German economic success, of the Germans going it alone on Russia and China, so they will go with Berlin. The Germans are back in the driving seat."

It was prepared on the orders of King James I to correct flaws and political problems left by existing translations and provide one that would unite religious factions. And it provided the language with hundreds of now well-known phrases such as 'let there be light' and 'eat, drink and be merry'. A spokesman for the King James Bible Trust, which commissioned the poll, said: 'There has been a dramatic drop in knowledge in a generation.

'Yet this is a work which was far more influential than Shakespeare in the development and spread of English.' He said the book should be taught by schools in English, history and religious education classes. Labour MP Frank Field said: 'It is not possible to comprehend fully Britain's historical, linguistic or religious development without an understanding of this great translation.' The King James translation has dropped out of fashion in recent years as clergy have turned to more modern translations.

This sticky, gloopy substance, known as a quark-gluon plasma, behaved like a hot liquid, according to their results. This provided the perfect environment for the first particles and atoms to form, which later led to the stars and galaxies that surround us today. The findings have surprised physicists as they contradict the accepted view of what happened in the immediate aftermath of the creation of the universe - that the Big Bang threw out a superheated gas that clumped together to form matter.

"In the very first instances of the universe, it was actually behaving like a very dense liquid," explained Dr David Evans, a particle physicist at the University of Birmingham who is the UK's lead investigator in the experiment. "These results are telling us about the evolution of the early universe, which inevitably will have had implications for how the universe looks today."

"We have got to do a lot more analysis and put a lot more thought into understanding this, but it is a really fascinating result."

The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of JCS rules, had no other details. The firing comes amid tension over North Korea's claim that it has a new uranium enrichment facility. The countries' western maritime boundary has long been a flash point between the two Koreas. The North does not recognize the border that was unilaterally drawn by the United Nations at the close of the 1950-53 Korean War.

North and South Korea have fought three bloody skirmishes near the maritime border in recent years, most recently in November 2009.

"I think it means Portugal is next (to request help)," said Filipe Garcia, economist at Informacao de Mercados Financeiros Consultants in the Portuguese city of Porto. "I don't know if it will happen before the end of the year or after, but it's almost inevitable now," he said. "I think we've probably passed the tipping point of what is sustainable in terms of paying interest rates on debt."

If markets turn on Portugal, Spain may be next after that. "If Portugal is forced to take a bailout then they'll turn their attention to Spain and I don't know what the government will do," said Edro Schwartz, economist at San Pablo University in Madrid. The underlying problem for market mistrust of debt of some euro zone countries may only be solved with a quick and detailed solution for all euro zone countries, rather than a piecemeal approach, economists said.

* Osborne confirms UK contribution of around 7 billion pounds.

* British MPs call for vote on Ireland rescue package.

* Irish PM refuses to stand down but WILL call New Year election.

* FTSE falls nearly 1 per cent on Irish coalition crisis.

* Banking shares crashed.

* The euro sank as the bailout failed to ease fears about the debt contagion.

* Demonstrators took to the streets of Dublin and Ireland's coalition government appeared to be imploding.

Experts warned that the joint European and International Monetary Fund bailout package might have to be postponed, threatening the stability of the entire eurozone, after a snap general election was called in Ireland. Prime minister Brian Cowen, who at one stage had appeared on the brink of quitting, was instead forced to announce a poll early next year after his Green Party coalition partners effectively pulled the plug on the government. The Taoiseach now faces the nightmarish task of trying to push through the country's most controversial austerity package for a generation as a 'lame-duck' leader.

European leaders have been open about their desire to prop up the Irish to save the euro. The Dublin bailout follows the 94 billion pounds rescue of Greece over the summer - to which Britain did not contribute. Leading Eurosceptic and former Tory cabinet minister John Redwood also said Britain had no responsibility to contribute to the fund. He said: 'I don't think it's Britain's problem, I think it is a euro area problem. Why should Britain have to do it when we are not part of the euro area?'

L-3 Communications, which has sold $39.7 million worth of the machines to the federal government, spent $4.3 million trying to influence Congress and federal agencies during the first nine months of this year, up from $2.1 million in 2005, lobbying data compiled by the Center for Responsive Politics show. Its lobbyists include Linda Daschle, a former Federal Aviation Administration official.

Rapiscan Systems, meanwhile, has spent $271,500 on lobbying so far this year, compared with $80,000 five years earlier. It has faced criticism for hiring Michael Chertoff, the former Homeland Security secretary, last year. Chertoff has been a prominent proponent of using scanners to foil terrorism. The government has spent $41.2 million with Rapiscan.

"The revolving door provides corporations like these with a short cut to lawmakers" and other decision-makers, said Sheila Krumholz, of the Center for Responsive Politics. The use of body-scanning machines has ignited controversy over privacy and health concerns.

"It's not complicated. Instead of going on the streets and driving kilometres by car you simply go to the bank in your country and withdraw your money, and if there are a lot of people withdrawing their money the system collapses. No weapons, no blood, or anything like that."

So how effective would this form of protest be? In the very unlikely circumstance of everyone heeding Cantona's call, there are obvious practical hurdles preventing that number of people getting to cashpoints or queueing up in branches to withdraw their savings.

But setting those aside, the banks would need to find more cash, because only about 5-10% of people's savings are kept in banks' tills. The rest is lent out or invested."Banks only keep a small fraction of their deposits as cash, so the cash machines would run out and cash in the branches would run out," says Richard Wellings, deputy editorial director of the Institute of Economic Affairs.

When there is a run on a single bank for reasons of confidence, then the government can step in, as it did for Northern Rock in 2007. But if there was ever a collective panic sparked by a mass withdrawal against all the banks, then the consequences are far more serious. In 2001 during the Argentinian economic crisis, large numbers of people began taking their cash out of the banks, so all bank accounts were frozen for months.

The US central bank, along with those in Japan and Europe, will keep interest rates at record lows in 2011 as they seek to boost economic growth, said Tohru Sasaki, head of Japanese rates and foreign-exchange research at the second-largest US bank by assets. US policy makers may take additional easing steps following the $600 billion bond-purchase program announced this month depending on inflation and the labor market, he said.

"The US has the world's largest current-account deficit but keeps interest rates at virtually zero," Sasaki said at a forum in Tokyo yesterday. "The dollar can't avoid the status as the weakest currency."

The Irish government appears to be moving towards break-up. In the last few minutes Ireland's Green Party, the junior partner in Brian Cowen's coalition government, announced that it has asked the Taoiseach to call a general election in the second half of January.

In a remarkably hard-hitting statement that leaves Cowen's government reeling on the ropes, the Green Party said that the current administration should be dissolved - once the IMF/EU rescue deal is concluded. My colleague Lisa O'Carroll points out that, given Cowen's wafer-thin majority in the Irish parliament, a general election now appears inevitable - as the Greens can simply walk away from the government if their demand for a vote in the new year is not met.

Details of the plan will be hammered out over the next few days. Many questions remain - including the precise size of the bailout, Britain's own involvement, and the political ramifications of the move. How will financial markets react? Will Taoiseach Brian Cowen be blamed for the "capitulation"? And is Portugal, the next weakest member of the Eurozone, about to come under more pressure?