The biotech start-up's ingestible chips are activated by stomach acid and send information to a small patch worn on the patient's skin, which can transmit data to a smartphone or send it over the Internet to a doctor. Mundel said the initial project was focused on ensuring that patients took drugs at the right time and got the dose they needed - a key issue for people after kidney and other transplant operations, when treatment frequently needs adjustment.

Longer-term, he hopes to expand the "smart pill" concept to other types of medicine and use the wealth of biometric information the Proteus chip can collect, from heart rate and temperature to body movement, to check that drugs are working properly. Because the tiny chips are added to existing drugs, Novartis does not expect to have to conduct full-scale clinical trials to prove the new products work. Instead, it aims to do so-called bioequivalence tests to show they are the same as the original.

A bigger issue may be what checks should be put in place to protect patients' personal medical data as it is transmitted from inside their bodies by wireless and Bluetooth. "The regulators all like the concept and have been very encouraging. But... they want to understand how we are going to solve the data privacy issues," Mundel said.

He said: 'If Costa Coffee, every time you went to a branch, did something different and you didn't know what the product was, they would go out of business. We have got to the stage now in the Church of England where there are so many different products that you don't know what you're going to get.'

Mr Newton, Bishop of Richborough, said his difficulties with the CofE went further than the ordination of women.

'There has been a more lax attitude towards moral issues. The whole question of blessing gay marriage - there is a lot of pressure for that to happen in the Church of England - abortion, and life and death issues.'

The collisions, officially started at 10.20am today, were produced by firing lead ions - atoms stripped of their electrons - at 0.9999 the speed of light - 670 million miles per hour - in opposite directions around the LHC's underground tunnel at CERN, the European Organization for Nuclear Research, near Geneva.

Flying in opposite directions, the particles were focused into a narrow beam and forced to collide inside the massive ALICE (A Large Ion Collider Experiment) detector. The impacts threw off thousands of particles and generated temperatures of 10 trillion degrees centigrade, as close as we have ever been to reproducing conditions not seen since the Big Bang 13.75 billion years ago. They were 13 times more powerful than the previous record for ion collisions.

Scientists hope the quark-gluon plasma will allow them to learn more about the Strong Force, one of the four fundamental forces of nature. "The Strong Force not only binds the nuclei of atoms together but is responsible for 98 per cent of their mass," said Dr Evans. "I now look forward to studying a tiny piece of what the Universe was made of just a millionth of a second after the Big Bang."

If you think this a stretch, just take a look at the equivalent figure for the world economy as a whole. According to the Bank of England's last Financial Stability Report, there is approximately $5 trillion (3 trillion pounds) of refinancing to be done by major banks around the world over the next three years.

Banks in Greece, Portugal and Ireland again find markets for all but very short term funding effectively closed to them. What chance do UK banks have of raising the necessary amid such humongous global competition? Currency wars will dominate debate when political leaders meet for the G20 summit in Seoul at the weekend, but this fast approaching funding gap is in fact of much more immediate threat to the financial system than the re-emergence of global trade imbalances.

Property-related borrowing and lending between financial institutions helped the collected debt of households, businesses and government balloon from roughly twice gross domestic product (GDP) in 1987 to around 5.4 times by 2009, when total debt stood at 7.5 trillion pounds, according to the report.

Despite government austerity measures, the firm's latest economic outlook sees the UK's debt to GDP ratio sticking near historic highs as borrowing hits 10.2 trillion pounds by 2015. But if the economy does not perform as well as expected, one plausible alternative scenario could still see the debt burden soar as high as 5.8 times of GDP, the report said.

Deleveraging will go well beyond the immediate challenge of getting public finances under control, PwC warned. The increased burden has so far been supported by low interest rates, but these are likely to rise "significantly" over the next five years, said PwC. The firm believes interest rates on mortgages may end up higher than before the recession, as tougher regulation pushes up lenders' costs.

The projections will stoke fears for households kept afloat by near-zero rates. "The UK's addiction to debt has reached alarming levels during the past decade," said John Hawksworth, chief economist at PwC. He added: "Either way, deleveraging will be a painful process for the UK."

A combination of issues have created fresh worry among investors: Ireland's debt difficulties and two key global summits where leaders of major industrial and developing nations are discussing currencies, free trade and ways to help the world economy.

Also in the back of investors' minds is the prospect of inflation stemming the Federal Reserve's multi-billion bond-buying program. "People are really concerned again and so I think we're seeing safe-haven buying," IG Markets Inc CEO Dan Cook said.

Oil prices settled at a high for the year while most of the other energy contracts also rose. Benchmark oil for December delivery settled up 21 cents at $87.06 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Analysts think oil prices could climb to $90 a barrel by the end of the year.

Grains and beans were mixed ahead of Tuesday's US Agriculture Department report updating global supply and demand estimates of major crops. December wheat added 7.5 cents to settle $7.3625 a bushel, December corn gained 11.5 cents to $5.9925 a bushel.

Speaking at a town hall meeting in Mumbai, he said, "I do think that one of the challenges that we are going face in the US, at a time when we are still recovering from the financial crisis is, how do we respond to some of the challenges of globalisation?"

The US leader disagreed with those who saw globalisation as unmitigated evil. But while acknowledging that the Chindia factor had made the world flatter, he said protectionist impulses in US will get stronger if people don't see trade bringing in gains for them.

"If the American people feel that trade is just a one-way street where everybody is selling to the enormous US market but we can never sell what we make anywhere else, then the people of the US will start thinking that this is a bad deal for us and it could end up leading to a more protectionist instinct in both parties, not just among Democrats but also Republicans. So, that we have to guard against," he said.

He pointed out that America, which once traded without bothering about barriers put up by partners, could not promote trade at its own expense at a time when India and China were rising. "There has to be reciprocity in our trading relationships and if we can have those kind of conversations - fruitful, constructive conversation about how we produce win-win situations, then I think we will be fine."

Obama's remarks at the town hall meeting exposed his tremendous anxiety over the failure of his policies to spur the US economy fast enough and create jobs for Americans facing nearly 10% unemployment rate.

The scheme will eventually be extended to cover all people in work, allowing HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) to reduce the massive errors seen in the tax system in recent years. The move is likely to raise concerns about both privacy and data security, but Whitehall sources insisted last night that all the information involved is already supposed to be passed to the Government.

One said: 'About 94 percent of employees and 97 percent of benefit recipients get their earnings or benefits through the banking system - it contains all the data we need.' Treasury Chief Secretary Danny Alexander said the proposals represented a 'quiet revolution' in the way government works.

More than 40 executives from Britain's biggest companies, including Alliance Boots, Virgin, Shell and Barclays will accompany the ministers in the hope of leveraging high-level political backing to increase their presence in China. Although China is the world's second largest economy with an enviable 10 percent economic growth rate, its trade with Britain remains disappointingly small, with UK exports to China totalling just 7.7 billion pounds in 2009.

Mr Cable said that Britain was determined to improve on the lacklustre figures, capitalising further on business opportunities thrown up by China's massive program of urbanisation and infrastructure investment as well its growing consumer and services sectors. "China represents the biggest source of demand in the world for many of the products that we in the UK have to offer," Mr Cable said.

"This brings a huge increase in opportunities for UK firms given that they are globally competitive in services, advanced manufacturing and engineering, life sciences and creative industries." Sources in Beijing said the three days of official meetings would focus primarily on trade issues, including breaking down China's trade barriers, however Mr Cameron will also have to decide how to address growing international concerns over China's human rights record.

A mass burial late Sunday for many of the 141 people killed in the last two weeks served as a reminder of the mountain's devastating power that culminated in its deadliest blast in 80 years that sent hot clouds of gas, rocks and debris avalanching down its slopes.

The biggest threat to the city, experts say, is not searing gas clouds, but the Code River, which flows right into the city's heart from the 9,700-foot (3,000-meter) mountain. It could act as a conduit for deadly volcanic mudflows that form in heavy rains, racing at speeds of up to 60 mph (100 kph) and destroying everything in their path. A thick, black volcanic sludge has already inundated one city neighborhood that starts at the river bank and climbs a hillside.

Nearly 280,000 people - many of whom normally live on the fertile slopes of the volcano - have jammed into emergency shelters. Many have complained of poor sanitation, saying there were not enough toilets or clean drinking water.

Here are snippets from Palin's prepared remarks obtained by National Review Online:

"I'm deeply concerned about the Federal Reserve's plans to buy up anywhere from $600 billion to as much as $1 trillion of government securities. The technical term for it is "quantitative easing." It means our government is pumping money into the banking system by buying up treasury bonds. And where, you may ask, are we getting the money to pay for all this? We're printing it out of thin air."

"The Fed hopes doing this may buy us a little temporary economic growth by supplying banks with extra cash which they could then lend out to businesses. But it's far from certain this will even work. After all, the problem isn't that banks don't have enough cash on hand - it's that they don't want to lend it out, because they don't trust the current economic climate."

"And if it doesn't work, what do we do then? Print even more money? What's the end game here? Where will all this money printing on an unprecedented scale take us? Do we have any guarantees that QE2 won't be followed by QE3, 4, and 5, until eventually - inevitably - no one will want to buy our debt anymore? What happens if the Fed becomes not just the buyer of last resort, but the buyer of only resort?"

The Republicans increased their seats in the House of Representatives by the biggest margin since 1948, with a significantly bigger win than 1994, gaining 61 seats. They surely would have taken the Senate as well, had all of the seats been up for re-election, instead of just 37. At the gubernatorial level the GOP now controls 29 governorships compared to just 19 for the Democrats. Republicans also picked up 680 seats in state legislatures, the highest figure in the modern era according to figures provided by the National Conference of State Legislatures.

The midterms were largely a referendum on Barack Obama's policies and his leadership, and represented a remarkable reversal of fortune for a president who just 21 months ago seemed unassailable. His party's heavy defeat at the polls represented an overwhelming rejection of the Obama agenda as well as the liberal ideology that drives it.

The Obama White House has been strikingly contemptuous of public opinion, deriding fellow Americans as "enemies", and aggressively waging campaigns against its critics, including even the British press. Even now, the president refuses to acknowledge the failure of his own policies despite the massive "shellacking" he received at the polls.

The continued borrowing means federal unemployment insurance taxes are going to increase, upping the annual payroll costs $21 a year per worker. California tops the list of 32 states that have borrowed a total of $41 billion to pay claims. The state took out its first loan from the federal government early last year, to deal with rising payment of benefits and number of claims.

Mr Zoellick, a former US Treasury official, calls for a system that "is likely to need to involve the dollar, the euro, the yen, the pound and a renminbi that moves towards internationalisation and then an open capital account". He adds: "The system should also consider employing gold as an international reference point of market expectations about inflation, deflation and future currency values."

His views reflect disquiet with the international system, where persistent Chinese intervention to hold down the renminbi is blamed by the US and others for contributing to global current account imbalances and creating capital markets distortions.

This week's meeting of government heads in South Korea is likely to see yet more exchange rate conflict. A US plan for countries to sign up to current account targets has run into widespread opposition.

Next year, fifteen major developed-country governments, including the US, Japan, the UK, Spain and Greece, will have to raise some $10.2 trillion to repay maturing bonds and finance their budget deficits, according to estimates from the International Monetary Fund. That's up 7% from this year, and equals 27% of their combined annual economic output.

Aside from Japan, which has a huge debt hangover from decades of anemic growth, the US is the most extreme case. Next year, the US government will have to find $4.2 trillion. That's 27.8% of its annual economic output, up from 26.5% this year. By comparison, crisis-addled Greece needs $69 billion, or 23.8% of its annual GDP.

So far, with the notable exception of Greece, major advanced nations haven't had too much trouble raising the money they need. Japan's domestic investors have consistently bought its government bonds despite their low yield. Foreign investors have been snapping up US Treasury bonds, which remain the world's premier safe-haven investment.

But as the IMF warned in a report this week, THE CHANCES THAT INVESTORS WILL BALK AT LENDING TO GOVERNMENTS "REMAINS HIGH FOR ADVANCED ECONOMIES." That's a highly undesirable outcome — picture a financial crisis in which governments can't step in to help, because government finances are the problem. We can't know how close we are to such an outcome, and the need to keep the recovery going would make cutting back now a risky move. Ultimately, though, we're heading in the wrong direction.