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.

At the base of Nyiragongo sprawls Goma, a city of an estimated one million people, numbers swelling by the day as villagers from the countryside seek refuge from rebel and government forces. Twice in recent years Nyiragongo's eruptions have hit the city, destroying homes and sending residents fleeing. But now, seismologists believe, the risk is not just near the city, but directly beneath it.

For the past 20 years the region has suffered nearly constant warfare, including a spillover from the genocide in neighbouring Rwanda. A fragile, often broken peace is maintained by 20,000 United Nations troops, one of the largest peace-keeping missions in the world. Italian seismologist Dario Tedesco has spent the last 15 years studying Nyiragongo, with funding from the European Union. He has struggled to focus the scientific community's attention on the volcano, and he says, there is no question it will erupt again. 'Goma,' he told National Geographic magazine, 'is the most dangerous city in the world.'

History suggests he may be right. In 2002 350,000 fled after the volcano shot more than 15 million cubic yards of lava into downtown Goma, destroying 14,000 homes and burying buildings to the top of the first floor. In 1977 lava raced down the mountain at more than 60 miles an hour, the fastest ever observed. Several hundred people died, even though the flow had hardened before it reached the main part of the city.

But both eruptions were mere grumbles compared with the devastation seismologists believe it is ready to unleash. Nyiragongo has an intricate plumbing system, widespread as the roots of a tree. The recent eruptions hadn't been classic, spouting-out-the-top types, so-called Plinian eruptions, but rather fissure eruptions, like bursting pipes. In 2002 after the initial seam opened, pressure blew open vents systemwide, shooting out fountains of molten rock, including in the very center of Goma itself.

"Portugal needs to find financing in the coming weeks in some way," they said, suggesting credit lines or some sort of bridge loan. "In our opinion, Portugal is likely to find financing, but it is not in a comfortable position." Portugal denied that it could not afford to pay off its debt.

Carlos Costa Pina, the country's treasury secretary, told Bloomberg: "Portugal has conditions to face up to the debt redemption commitments scheduled for 2011, especially the redemptions of long-term debt that will take place in April and June." However, Portugal's 10-year bonds are trading with yields at euro-era highs of over 8 per cent, as investors demand more reward for taking on the risk.

Still, inflation is "going to be serious," Wal-Mart US CEO Bill Simon said during a meeting with USA TODAY's editorial board. "We're seeing cost increases starting to come through at a pretty rapid rate." Along with steep increases in raw material costs, John Long, a retail strategist at Kurt Salmon, says labor costs in China and fuel costs for transportation are weighing heavily on retailers. He predicts prices will start increasing at all retailers in June.

"Every single retailer has and is paying more for the items they sell, and retailers will be passing some of these costs along," Long says. "Except for fuel costs, US consumers haven't seen much in the way of inflation for almost a decade, so a broad-based increase in prices will be unprecedented in recent memory." Consumer prices - or the consumer price index - rose 0.5% in February, the most since mid-2009, largely because of surging food and gasoline prices. Core inflation, which excludes volatile food and energy costs, rose a more modest 0.2%, though that still exceeded estimates.

The scenario hits Wal-Mart as it is trying to return to the low across-the-board prices it became famous for. Some prices rose as the company paid for costly store renovations. Major retailers such as Wal-Mart are the best positioned to mitigate some cost increases, Long says. Wal-Mart, for example, could have "access to any factory in any country around the globe" to mitigate the effect of inflation in the US, Long says. Still, "it's certainly going to have an impact," Long says. "No retailer is going to be able to wish this new cost reality away. They're not going to be able to insulate the consumer 100%."

But al-Awlaki, who has been linked to a series of terrorist plots, said the removal of anti-Islamist autocrats meant Islamic fighters and scholars were now freer to discuss and organise. "Our mujahideen brothers in Tunisia, Egypt, Libya and the rest of the Muslim world will get a chance to breathe again after three decades of suffocation," he wrote, using a term that refers generally to Islamic guerrilla groups or holy warriors.

"For the scholars and activists of Egypt to be able to speak again freely, it would represent a great leap forward for the mujahideen", wrote Awlaki, who is believed to be hiding in Southern Yemen. Al- Awlaki made his remarks in the fifth edition of Inspire, an online al-Qaeda magazine aimed at Muslims in the West.

The rebels have now lost the key oil port of Ras Lanuf and the nearby town of Bin Jawad, and are also in full retreat from Brega. In the west, the rebel-held town of Misrata is still reportedly coming under attack from pro-Gaddafi troops, reports say.

A British Foreign Office spokesperson said: "We can confirm that Moussa Koussa arrived at Farnborough Airport on 30 March from Tunisia. He has told us that he is resigning his post. We are discussing this with him and we will release further detail in due course. Moussa Koussa is one of the most senior figures in Gaddafi's government and his role was to represent the regime internationally - something that he is no longer willing to do."

"We encourage those around Gaddafi to abandon him and embrace a better future for Libya that allows political transition and real reform that meets the aspirations of the Libyan people." The Foreign Office in London called on other members of the Libyan government to abandon Colonel Gaddafi. UK intelligence officials hope that his deep knowledge of the Libyan regime will help bring about its early end, says the BBC's diplomatic correspondent Humphrey Hawksley.

The UN, which recognises Mr Ouattara as winner of November's poll, has voted to impose sanctions on Mr Gbagbo's circle. They add to economic measures already taken by the EU and African groups. The UN resolution, drafted by France and Nigeria, imposes a travel ban and assets freeze on Mr Gbagbo, his wife Simone and three of his closest associates. One million people have fled the violence - mostly from the main city Abidjan - and at least 462 people have been killed since December, according to the UN.

Key details:

462 killed, one million fled since disputed election

9,000 UN peacekeepers monitor 2003 ceasefire

World's largest cocoa producer

Once was haven of peace and prosperity in West Africa

Alassane Ouattara recognised as president-elect

International sanctions imposed to force Laurent Gbagbo to go

The situation at the plant remains critical, with the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency yesterday saying that radioactive iodine-131 at more than 3,350 times permitted levels has been found in a sample of seawater taken from near the facility. The water is the most highly contaminated sample taken from the sea and indicates that radiation from the core of one or more of the reactors, where fuel rods have partly melted, is leaking into the Pacific Ocean.

A spokesman for the agency said the radioactivity poses no immediate threat to human health because fishing has been banned close to the plant and iodine will have been "significantly diluted" before it comes into contact with marine species and then enters the food chain for humans.

The girl, from Groningen in the north of the Netherlands, was on a day out on Tuesday last week with her classmates where she began to feel violent stomach pains, the spokesman said. A supervisor thought the pains suspicious and alerted the emergency services. When ambulance staff arrived they saw the girl was on the point of giving birth and rushed her to a nearby building where she had her baby. Both "are doing well" in the maternity ward of a Groningen hospital, the spokesman said.

Attorney Tracy Rizzo was alarmed. A number of days ago, an envelope, with a Chicago postmark and a hand-written address to her private investigations firm, came in the mail. The letter inside said, "The Al-Qaeda organization has planted 160 nuclear bombs throughout the US in schools, stadiums, churches, stores, financial institutions and government buildings." It also said, "This is a suicide mission for us."

The writer, who claims to be Osama Bin Laden, tells the reader the nukes are remotely controlled. "It was clear the writer wanted to scare me," said Rizzo, "Yes, it frightened me." Rizzo was one of eight people in the Chicago area to contact the FBI. Agencies in Oregon, California, Texas and Florida also got the letter with the Chicago postmark.

"There are items in the letter that lead us to believe it is a hoax," said Zavala. "There are several demands documented that aren't fully coherent." He said much of what's in the message doesn't add up, but in a post 9-11 world, the FBI can't let it go - even if it does appear to be a hoax.

Lloyd's said its businesses were capitalised to withstand a Japan quake loss of up to $64 billion (39 billion pounds), compared with the estimated $20 billion to $30 billion impact of the March 11 disaster. The insurance market plans to give an estimate next month of losses from the Japan quake. "As part of our market oversight we have a realistic disaster scenario which looks at a $64 billion earthquake centred on Tokyo," Lloyd's finance chief Luke Savage told Reuters.

"We think that this loss which we have seen will come well within that (scenario). Lloyd's, which traces its origins back 323 years to a London coffee house where wealthy merchants met to insure ships, said its 2010 pretax profit fell 43 percent to 2.2 billion pounds, weighed by claims from catastrophes including earthquakes in Chile and New Zealand and floods in Australia.

The market, made up of over 70 competing insurance and reinsurance syndicates who provide cover against large-scale, complex risks, was also hit last year by a 29 percent drop in investment income amid weaker financial markets and persistently low interest rates.