That is nearly 120 million pounds a day and more than the government spends on defence. It comes after unprecedented levels of borrowing by Labour to pay for lavish state spending and the bailout of the banking system. The national debt stood at just over 300 billion pounds a decade ago and was less than 500 billion pounds five years ago. But it exploded while Gordon Brown was in power and boom turned to bust. Treasury sources said it underlined how important it was to press ahead with the Chancellor's austerity measures.

George Osborne plans to slash annual borrowing of 156 billion pounds under Labour to 35 billion pounds by 2014-15 through 81 billion pounds of spending cuts and 30 billion pounds of tax rises. The 1 trillion pounds debt figure was recorded at 5.15pm on the UK National Debt Clock, an online British version of the billboard-sized running total of US debt in New York.

But it does not include items such as the cost of public sector pensions and private finance initiatives - or people's own mortgages, credit cards, overdrafts and personal loans. The TaxPayers' Alliance said the real national debt was close to 8 trillion pounds - or more than 300,000 pounds per household.

Emma Boon, campaign director at the Alliance, said: 'This is a terrifying new landmark in the nightmare of our national debt and it is ordinary taxpayers that will be footing the bill.'

But on his first visit to the Israeli-occupied West Bank as Russian head of state, Medvedev stopped short of making a ringing declaration of recognition of Palestinian statehood by the Russian Federation that he represents.

Israel has been alarmed in the past two months by a string of recognitions by Latin American states including Brazil and Argentina which some analysts say could be a precursor to a move by the Palestinians to seek full United Nations membership.

At a news conference with Medvedev in Jericho, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said: "We remember that Russia was one of the first states in the world to recognize the state of Palestine in 1988."

Medvedev responded, saying: "Russia made its choice a long time ago ...we supported and will support the inalienable right of the Palestinian people to an independent state with its capital in East Jerusalem."

Iran and Russia must always be "friends and colleagues," state television quoted Ahmadinejad as telling Medvedev. "The Islamic republic of Iran welcomes an increase of ties in all areas between the two countries." Its website said Medvedev echoed the Iranian hardliner's views.

Medvedev, according to the report which did not give a date for the call, said the two long-standing allies could boost ties in energy, fuel, transportation and other commercial areas. "Russia is ready for all cooperation with the Islamic Republic of Iran," Medvedev was quoted as saying. On Saturday and Sunday, Iran opened up two atomic installations to a group of foreign envoys, including some representatives of the UN atomic watchdog.

It had invited Russia and China to participate in the visit to its main uranium enrichment facility at Natanz and the heavy water facility in Arak. But both Russia and China, considered close to Iran, turned down the invitation. Russia and China backed a fourth set of UN sanctions against Iran approved in June 2009. The sanctions were imposed to stop Iran's nuclear programme, which the West suspects is masking a weapons drive, a charge Tehran denies.

"One consequence is that asset sales and privatisation will pick up. The very unfortunate consequence is that various safety nets for the most vulnerable citizens will be cut back." said an influential figure in the Democratic party and member of the investment council that oversees the New Jersey pension fund, who has been an outspoken critic of public pension accounting, which allows for the averaging of investment gains and losses over a number of years through a process called "smoothing".

Using data from the states, the Pew Center on the States, a research group, has estimated a funding gap for pension, healthcare and other non-pension benefits, such as life assurance, of at least $1,000 billion as of the end of fiscal year 2008. Chris Christie, the Republican governor of New Jersey, said in his state of the state speech last week that, without reform, the unfunded liability of the state's pension system would rise from $54 billion now to $183 billion within 30 years.

"It is the largest order in the history of the power sector," proclaimed Mr Ambani, "and the largest single business relationship between India and China." The size of the deal was not its only notable aspect. Shanghai Electric was offering its equipment at about 30-40 per cent below the cost of an equivalent turbine from General Electric of the US. With the generous financing deal offered by China Development Bank and a group of other Chinese banks, the discount was in fact closer to 60 per cent.

Welcome to a new era of globalisation, China-style. As the financial crisis recedes, one of the big fears is that the process of increasingly closer links among big economies worldwide will go into reverse as governments and countries look inward. The message coming from the world's second-largest economy for the past year has been clear: China wants to accelerate the integration of the global economy, but on its own terms.

Over the past few decades, China has benefited hugely by hitching itself to a process of globalisation where the rules were written in Washington and the American consumer was the buyer of last resort. China prospered by making first the socks, then the washing machines and finally the iPods sold at Walmart.

Coming out of the crisis, China wants to forge a new phase of globalisation where many of the roads - financial, commercial and perhaps eventually political - converge on Beijing. China is not seeking a rupture with the international economic system (although some foreign companies are fearful of a technology grab). But it is looking to mould more of the rules, institutions and economic relationships that are at the core of the global economy. It is trying to forge post-American globalisation.

A series of killings and bomb attacks over Christmas and New Year are thought to have resulted in more than 100 deaths so far in the central city. Jos is a flashpoint of tension between Hausa Muslims and Berom Christians. It sits on the faultline between Nigeria's north and south.

Captain Ekeocha publicly warned community leaders that the military would fire on anybody burning homes, churches and mosques or carrying out lynchings and attacking civilians. An election official was killed and his body set on fire by an angry mob - one of three people killed in a riot on Monday - as people tried to register to vote.

The rise will put further pressure on the Bank of England to lift interest rates to curb rising inflation. The recent VAT rise from 17.5% to 20% could further fuel inflation, which has now remained above the 2% target by one percentage point or more for 13 months. The Office for National Statistics said the biggest drivers of inflation were air transport, fuel, utility bills and food costs. Fuel prices increased at their fastest annual rate since July, while the cost of food showed its biggest annual rise since May 2009.

The latest increase was more than economists had expected and above the Bank of England's own forecasts.

According to court papers, the non-profit Western Watersheds Project alleged US regulators approved Brightsource Energy's 370-megawatt Ivanpah solar energy plant without conducting adequate environmental reviews, and asked the court to order the defendants to withdraw their approvals. The complaint names the US Department of the Interior, the Bureau of Land Management and the Fish and Wildlife Service, as well as the agencies' heads and other staffers, as defendants. None was immediately available for comment.

"In an ill-conceived rush to accommodate massive renewable energy projects... the federal defendants precipitously approved unnecessarily destructive energy development of the California Desert Conservation Area without first conducting adequate environmental reviews." The complaint said the project's approval process failed to analyze and mitigate the Ivanpah plant's impact on migratory birds, the desert tortoise, which is a threatened species under federal law, desert bighorn sheep, groundwater resources and rare plants.

Conflicts between solar proponents and foes are taking on growing importance as the renewable energy industry experiences a boom, particularly in California. The conflicts have the potential to set back the development of solar energy and derail state and federal commitments to lessening dependence on fossil fuels.

The book "is a vehicle for putting across lightweight speculation that anybody could imagine," asserts MIT-educated physicist Thomas P Sheahen in a paper provided to WND. Hawking and co-author Leonard Mlodinow, a Caltech physicist, claim there was no need for a creator, as the law of gravity assures that the "universe can, and will, create itself from nothing."

"If the author names were reversed, Mlodinow first, everyone would ignore this book," Sheahen writes in 'A Physicist Looks at The Grand Design.' "Only Hawking's fame boosts it to totally undeserved prominence. The folly of Hawkings' claim is pretty obvious," E Calvin Beisner, national spokesman for the Cornwall Alliance for the Stewardship of Creation in suburban Washington, DC, told WND. "The law of gravity is, of course, not nothing, and consequently the universe's spontaneous self-creation wouldn't be a creation from nothing anyway."

Beisner argued further that "the law of gravity is a law of physics, affecting the interaction of physical, material things. There is no law of gravity where there are no physical things," he reasoned. The authors rely on the concept of a "multiverse" - that there are many universes in existence, and the universe in which Earth resides is a statistical accident that survived while others did not.

"Just as Darwin and Alfred Wallace explained how the apparently miraculous design of living forms could appear without intervention by a supreme being, the multiverse concept can explain the fine tuning of physical law without the need for a benevolent creator who made the Universe for our benefit," the authors contend.

What began as the desperate act of one frustrated man back in mid December has had huge repercussions and caused shock waves across the Arab world.

The Tunisian President Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali was forced to flee the country last Friday in the light of a popular revolt against his regime. The hurried departure of the man who had ruled the North African country for 23 years followed weeks of protests across the country, sparked by the suicide of Mohamed Bouazizi in the city of Sidi Bouzid. The 26-year-old graduate who ran a fruit and vegetable stall set himself on fire on December 17 after police confiscated his cart. He eventually died on January 4 and became a martyr, emblematic of Tunisian youths' frustrations with unemployment and a repressive state.

Once the protests reached the capital, the president seemed to waiver and offered to step down after elections in 2014. That was not enough for the demonstrators and by Friday, Ben Ali, knowing the game was up, fled the country with his wife. Observers are waiting to see if the events in Tunisia could lead to further popular revolts in the region. At least four Algerians have set themselves on fire over the past five days and on Monday an Egyptian man also set himself alight outside the parliament building in Cairo. Opposition and independent media in Egypt are already drawing parallels between President Hosnai Mubarak, who has ruled the country for nearly 30 years, and Ben Ali.

"The events in Tunisia should give those in the West who have backed authoritarian Arab regimes pause for thought. Diplomats were fully aware of Ben Ali's failings -- US diplomats even warned about the growing social dissatisfaction. However, the Americans and the Europeans were too quick to assume that the only alternative to the authoritarian rulers would be Islamist theocracies."

"Ben Ali profited, for example, from the civil war in neighboring Algeria in the 1990s. As long as the Tunisian president prevented the spread of Islamists to his country, then he could do what he liked. The rest of the world left him alone because they misinterpreted repression as stability."

The remarks to two US newspapers come ahead of a state visit by the Chinese leader to Washington this week. They reflect continuing tensions over currency issues between the two powers. In a rare interview published in the Washington Post and Wall Street Journal, Mr Hu also reiterated criticism of a decision by the US Federal Reserve to inject $600 billion into the economy, which some argue will weaken the dollar at the expense of other countries' exports.

"The monetary policy of the United States has a major impact on global liquidity and capital flows and therefore, the liquidity of the US dollar should be kept at a reasonable and stable level," President Hu said. He meanwhile disagreed with suggestions that letting the yuan appreciate in value would help China to combat inflation.

Beijing has previously come under pressure over its currency from the US, which has accused China of allegedly manipulating the yuan to help boost Chinese exports. Despite criticism of the current system, Mr Hu said he believed it would be a long time before the yuan - or renminbi (RMB) - was accepted as a global currency. "China has made important contribution to the world economy in terms of total economic output and trade, and the RMB has played a role in the world economic development," he said.

Mr Nasrallah also said Hezbollah would defend itself against any indictments by a UN tribunal over the killing of Rafiq Hariri. "The opposition unanimously will not name Hariri tomorrow," Mr Nasrallah said in a televised address. He did not say who Hezbollah would support.

Mr Hariri's government fell over a dispute about how to respond if, as expected, a UN tribunal accuses Hezbollah members of being behind the murder in 2005 of his father, Rafiq Hariri, who was prime minister at the time. Hezbollah - the powerful Shia social, political and militant group - had asked the government to disassociate itself from the tribunal and to state it would not arrest those it indicted. When agreement proved impossible, Mr Nasrallah said on Sunday, Hezbollah decided to bring down the government using democratic means and had not taken to the streets.

The names of those indicted will remain secret, but press leaks suggest they will include members of Hezbollah, who came under suspicion because of mobile phone evidence, our correspondent says. Rafiq Hariri and 22 others were killed in February 2005 when a huge bomb exploded next to his motorcade in Beirut.

Syria was initially blamed for the assassination, and eventually forced in its wake to withdraw its troops from Lebanon after 29 years. In the past year, however, members of Hezbollah have emerged as prime suspects. On Sunday, Mr Nasrallah repeated his claim that Rafiq Hariri's murder was carried out by Israel.

They were only going to tell Micah about it when they took him to the airport on February 19 for the flight to the US. They had already spent more than 1,500 pounds on plane tickets and had been organising the trip for months. But this week US Embassy officials denied the schoolboy a visa to enter the US. They said there was a risk he would not leave the US at the end of his holiday and refused his application under Section 214 (b) of the Immigration and Nationality Act.

A letter from Micah's primary school was included in his visa application confirming he attended the school. But the US Embassy's rejection letter to Micah said: "Because you either did not demonstrate strong ties outside the United States or were not able to demonstrate that your intended activities in the US would be consistent with the visa status, you are ineligible." His grandmother Kathy, from Brixton, South London, said: "It was going to be a total surprise. He would have loved it. We feel so deflated by the whole experience."

The family have written to US President Barack Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to ask for an explanation of the decision. A US Embassy spokesman said it was "not policy" to comment on individual immigration cases.

In the volume, which covers the first two years of Mr Blair's premiership and will be published later this month, Mr Campbell tells how he warned the ex-prime minister about Cherie's 'madder stuff', such as her support for alternative therapies.

It also reveals Mr Blair consulted the Bible before making key decisions, reading a passage about John the Baptist hours before ordering a bombing raid on Iraq in 1998. And Mr Campbell was forced to advise him just weeks after he took office not to suffer from 'world leader-itis', that is preferring life on the international stage to dealing with problems in the UK.

In a section on Cherie, Mr Campbell discussed a report in a newspaper about a 'bioelectric shield' pendant 'that was supposed to ward off evil spirits and harmful rays' she had been pictured wearing. He writes: 'I said to Fiona (Millar, Campbell's partner and an adviser to Cherie), she had to get a hold of all this madder stuff but she said Cherie never raised it with her because she knew she would disapprove.' Mr Campbell also discussed Cherie's interest in alternative therapies with her husband. 'Tony Blair said they had to be slightly mad to cope,' he wrote.

Germany faces mounting pressure from the European Commission and its euro zone partners to strengthen a rescue fund for troubled member states, the European Financial Stability Facility (EFSF). "If the discussion is about a further package of measures, it is above all important that we develop a complete strategy that must absolutely include closer economic coordination," Merkel told a news conference in Mainz after a meeting with other senior members of her ruling Christian Democrats. "You cannot simply raise another particular aspect each day," she added.

Berlin insists it sees no need to commit more funds to the 440 billion euro ($591.7 billion) EFSF, which has so far been tapped only by Ireland. Instead, the German government is open to a discussion about ways to enable the existing fund to be used in full. Senior European sources told Reuters, however, that the sense of urgency in Berlin for boosting the fund had diminished after successful bond auctions this week in Spain and Portugal, the two countries seen most at risk of a bailout following rescues of Greece and Ireland last year. Instead Germany is pushing for broader anti-crisis measures to be agreed at a summit of European Union leaders in March.