Last month, ash clouds from the same volcano grounded flights for six days. The situation in the skies has been changing hour by hour and the no-fly zone will be re-assessed by the CAA at 1900 BST. Forecasts show the 60-nautical-mile buffer zone imposed around high concentrations of ash is close to some airports in northern England.

However, the latest advice issued by the CAA said airports in north-west England could safely stay open on Wednesday. It added that south-east England was unlikely to be affected. The fresh disruption on Tuesday came as European Union transport ministers met in Brussels to agree measures they hoped would help prevent further disruption to air travel as a result of volcanic ash.

The steps include speeding up current plans to integrate Europe's airspace, creating a "single European regulator for a single European sky". The meeting came after criticism from the airline industry that governments took an over-cautious approach to April's ash cloud crisis and grounded flights unnecessarily.

It came as Greece was paralysed by a nationwide general strike on Wednesday - the first major test of the socialist government's resolve to push through unprecedented austerity cuts needed to avert a fiscal meltdown. The euro continued to weaken against the dollar in Asian trading, hitting $1.2958, as investors doubted whether 110 billion euros (95 billion pounds) of loans from the European Union and the International Monetary Fund could stop contagion to other vulnerable countries such as Spain and Portugal.

Investors are worried that these countries may need even larger debt bailouts. Hong Kong's Hang Seng fell 2pc, while China's benchmark index in Shanghai dropped 2.1pc. Australia skidded 1.9pc, Indonesia slid 1.5pc and Singapore sank 1.2pc. Markets in Japan, South Korea and Thailand were closed for holidays. Earlier, Wall Street's Dow Jones index fell 2pc, dropping beneath the critical 11,000 point mark to close at 10.927.

The falls were even sharper in Europe, where Madrid's key stock market index was down 5.4pc, Lisbon's down 4.2pc, Paris's CAC fell 3.6pc, London's FTSE 100 skidded 2.6pc and shares in Frankfurt gave up 2.6pc. The falls, which could continue today, more than reversed the rallies on Monday after the eurozone leaders and IMF confirmed their bail-out of the Greek economy. They are a sign, according to analysts, of more deep-seated concerns about peripheral eurozone economies.

Britain's role as a bridge between the United States and European Union has diminished and that trend will accelerate if the May 6 vote is inconclusive, with Washington looking more and more to the European Union as a whole as a global partner.

Opinion polls point to a hung parliament where no single party has a clear majority, the first since 1974. Post World War Two politics have been dominated almost without interruption by left-leaning Labour and right-leaning Conservatives.

While Britain and the United States remain close on issues such as intelligence, the war in Afghanistan, how to handle Iran, free trade and economic issues, experts say both countries appear to be altering overall expectations of their alliance. The term "special relationship" was coined in a 1946 speech by Winston Churchill to describe ties binding two countries that battled side by side to liberate Europe in World War Two. "There's a sense that the UK doesn't enjoy the pride of place it used to in Washington," said Charles Kupchan, international affairs professor at Georgetown University.

"The biggest concern in Washington would be that the UK ends up with a dysfunctional government. The general view from Washington is that the US needs a strong European partner, and that a strong European partner depends in part on a strong British government." Even leaving the election to one side, relations between the United States and Britain have lost some of their luster. Former Labour Prime Minister Tony Blair was scorned in Britain as President George W Bush's "lap dog" for sending British troops to fight in the US-led war in Iraq.

"Relations are rather 'unspecial' at the moment."

The opening of the World Expo in Shanghai last week is "not a particularly good omen," he said, citing a property bust and depression that followed the 1873 World Exhibition in Vienna. "The market is telling you that something is not quite right," Faber, the publisher of the Gloom, Boom & Doom report, said in a Bloomberg Television interview in Hong Kong today. "The Chinese economy is going to slow down regardless. It is more likely that we will even have a crash sometime in the next nine to 12 months."

An index tracking Chinese stocks traded in Hong Kong dropped 1.8 percent today, the most in two weeks, after the central bank raised reserve requirements for the third time this year. The Shanghai Composite has slumped 12 percent this year, Asia's worst performer, as policymakers seek to rein in a lending boom that's spurred record gains in property prices. China's markets are shut for a holiday today.

Faber joins hedge fund manager Jim Chanos and Harvard University's Kenneth Rogoff in warning of a crash in China. China is "on a treadmill to hell" because it's hooked on property development for driving growth, Chanos said in an interview last month. As much as 60 percent of the country's gross domestic product relies on construction, he said. Rogoff said in February a debt-fueled bubble in China may trigger a regional recession within a decade.

The government has banned loans for third homes and raised mortgage rates and down-payment requirements for second-home purchases. Prices rose 11.7 percent across 70 cities in March from a year earlier, the most since data began in 2005.

Faisal Shahzad, a naturalized US citizen born in Pakistan, was arrested late on Monday at John F Kennedy International Airport in New York after being removed from a plane as it was about to take off for Dubai, officials said. Shahzad, 30, was due to appear in federal court later on Tuesday to face charges of "driving a car bomb into Times Square on the evening of May 1," officials said. Had the bomb detonated, many people could have died, experts said.

"He's admitted to buying the truck, putting the devices together, putting them in the truck, leaving the truck there and leaving the scene," the law enforcement source told Reuters, speaking on condition of anonymity. "He's claimed to have acted alone. He did admit to all the charges, so to speak," the source said, adding that investigators were still looking into his activities during a recent trip to Pakistan.

President Barack Obama said the investigation would seek to determine if the suspect in custody had any connection with foreign extremist groups. If links were found between the failed bombing and Pakistan's Taliban, which claimed responsibility for it, Pakistan could come under renewed US pressure to open risky new fronts against Islamic militants.

Shahzad had boarded the Emirates airline flight for Dubai before being detained, the airline said. ABC News, citing unidentified federal officials, said the plane had begun to taxi for take-off when FBI agents ordered it to return to the gate.

Figures reveal that 29 'floating fortresses' have been sold to foreign navies keen to bolster their own defences, with the Government pocketing 580 million pounds from the deals. Opposition parties and naval commanders last night criticised the loss of so many vessels.

Surgeon Rear Admiral Ralph Curr, the UK National Defence Association's south-west president, said: 'The Navy has got down to a critical mass, the bare minimum.'

'You can't expect the Government to make more cuts and still expect the Navy to conduct the same number of operations at the same intensity.'

'The Navy's ships are like fire extinguishers: You never know when you are going to need them and it's too late to order them after a fire has started. If Britain is to play a proper part in the world, we can't afford not to build up our naval capacity.'

Tory defence spokesman Liam Fox said: 'Britain is a maritime nation and 92 per cent of our trade goes by sea, so an effective Navy should be a priority for the defence of the UK.' Parliamentary written answers revealed that ships have been sold to the Philippines, Canada, Greece, Trinidad and Tobago, Guyana, Bangladesh, Romania, Chile, Estonia and Brazil since 1997.

Last November, minesweepers HMS Cottesmore and HMS Dulverton were given to Lithuania for free. The Ministry of Defence refused to say why no money changed hands, insisting the arrangement was 'commercially sensitive'. The sales of HMS London and HMS Coventry to Romania are particularly controversial because it was revealed that of the 116 million pounds paid for the Type 22 frigates, the British taxpayer received only 200,000 pounds.

Sources close to Defence Secretary Bob Ainsworth said: 'Selling these ships is the best value for money and a good way of building diplomatic relationships with other nations, which is an invaluable tool in the defence of our nation.'

Christian groups have branded the move an attack by "aggressive atheists." The majority of councils currently opt to start meetings with a Christian prayer, while a handful open with prayers from other faiths. The NSS has hired Beachcroft, the leading legal firm, to launch the judicial review against Bideford Town Council, which has begun its meetings with prayers since the reign of Queen Elizabeth I.

The atheist group argues that the prayers breach Article 9 of the Human Rights Act, which guarantees freedom of thought, conscience and religion for non-believers. Keith Porteous Wood, executive director of the NSS, said: "If members of councils wish to pray before their meeting they can do it, preferably in another room. We've no problem with that. We're not infringing anyone's right to worship."

Andrea Williams, of the Christian Legal Centre, said: "Religious freedom should be respected. In a free and civilised society, councils and public bodies should be free to open meetings with prayer."

The Livestock and Veterinary Science Institute had raised 1,549 beef cattle and hogs for research and breeding. These were culled to contain the disease. The outbreak there was the 10th since April 9 and was close to Seosan and Yesan counties which have major cattle farms. Agriculture Minister Chang Tae-Pyong visited the institute Sunday and called for intensive efforts to contain the outbreak.

Foot-and-mouth disease affects cloven-hoofed animals including cows, sheep, goats and deer. It is rarely transmitted to humans but spreads easily between animals. Since the first outbreak was reported on an island west of Seoul, the disease has spread from there to North and South Chungcheong provinces. Quarantine officials helped by police and troops have culled some 49,000 animals. Foot-and-mouth outbreaks in 2000 and 2002 cost South Korea an estimated 450 billion won, including compensation.

States and other providers should hang on to the vaccine and continue to offer them to people until drug companies can start distributing seasonal vaccine for the coming influenza season in the autumn, said Health and Human Services Department spokesman Bill Hall. Senator Chuck Grassley, the ranking Republican on the Senate Finance committee, released a letter on Monday that he sent to HHS secretary Kathleen Sebelius asking her how much vaccine was left over and when it would expire.

Health experts consider swine flu likely to join the mix of seasonal flu viruses and it will be included in the seasonal flu vaccine for 2010-2011, which will also contain two other flu strains. When the the H1N1 virus started spreading in April, HHS and its agencies, along with commercial flu vaccine makers, rushed to formulate and make a vaccine. Influenza vaccines are made using old and unwieldy methods that require incubating the virus in chicken eggs, and the process always takes months.

"Depending on the vaccine manufacturer, the shelf life of the H1N1 vaccines range from 18 weeks to 18 months, with some due to expire on June 30, 2010," Grassley wrote in his letter to Sebelius. "I understand that it is not uncommon for some seasonal flu vaccines to be discarded each year, but the H1N1 vaccines were paid for with taxpayer dollars," he added, asking: "How many doses of vaccine are due to expire on June 30, 2010?"

They have been introduced in return for a 110 billion euro (95 billion pounds) world rescue package agreed for the country. The measures aim to achieve fresh budget cuts of 30 billion euros over three years, with the goal of cutting Greece's public deficit to less than 3% of GDP by 2014. It currently stands at 13.6%. Union leaders say the cuts target low-income Greeks. "There are other things the [government] can do, before taking money from a pensioner who earns 500 euros (430 pounds) a month," Spyros Papaspyros, leader of the public servants' union ADEDY, told Greek private television.

The EU has agreed to provide 80 billion euros (69 billion pounds) in funding, while the rest will come from the International Monetary Fund (IMF). The deal is designed to prevent Greece from defaulting on its massive debt. However, it must first be approved by some parliaments in the 15 other eurozone countries.

In return for the loans, Greece will make major austerity cuts which Prime Minister George Papandreou said involved "great sacrifices".

Measures include:

- Scrapping bonus payments for public sector workers

- Capping annual holiday bonuses and axing them for higher earners

- Banning increases in public sector salaries and pensions for at least three years

- Increasing VAT from 21% to 23%

- Raising taxes on fuel, alcohol and tobacco by 10%

- Taxing illegal construction

The Irish Aviation Authority (IAA) said information from the Volcanic Ash Advice Centre (VAAC) suggests a 'no-fly zone' may have to be imposed over Ireland tomorrow that may affect Dublin, Shannon and some regional airports. Irish-based airlines have already been informed that a volcanic ash cloud, currently heading towards Donegal in the north-west of the country, could move across the country with north-easterly winds.

Hundreds of thousands of travellers were left stranded when European airspace was closed for almost a week after eruptions from Icelandic volcano Eyjafjallajokull. Eamon Brennan, IAA chief executive, said winds had already pushed the volcanic ash cloud down over part of the centre of Ireland.

Mr Brennan said even though emissions from the volcano have been low over the last number of days, the cloud which has drifted south could impact on Ireland and the western part of the Scottish Isles. He revealed the plume was sitting 20,000 feet over parts of the country, adding that weather conditions were not favourable. 'We expect all flights this evening to continue as normal except we expect Donegal airport to close early,' Mr Brennan said. All other airports in the Republic will operate as normal right in to tonight.

Savvas Robolis is one of Greece's most distinguished economics professors. His opposite number, Poul Thomsen, the Danish chief negotiator for the International Monetary Fund (IMF), is currently something of a chief debt inspector in the virtually bankrupt Mediterranean country. He recently took three-quarters of an hour to meet with Robolis and Giannis Panagopoulos, the president of the powerful trade union confederation GSEE. At 9 am on Tuesday of last week, the men met behind closed doors in a conference room in the basement of the Grande Bretagne, a luxury hotel in Athens. The mood, says Robolis, was "icy."

Robolis told the IMF negotiator that radical wage cuts would be toxic for Greece's already comatose economy. He said that the Greeks, given their weak competitive position, primarily needed innovation and investment, and that a one-sided fixation on cleaning up the national budget would destroy the last vestiges of economic strength in Greece. The IMF, according to Robolis, could not make the same mistake as it did in Argentina in the early 1990s. "Don't put Greece on ice!" the professor warned.

But the tall Dane was not very impressed. He has negotiated aid packages with Iceland, Ukraine and Romania in the past, and when he and his 20-member delegation landed in Athens on April 18, they had come to impose a rigorous austerity program on the Greeks, not to devise long-term growth programs. Thomsen's mandate is to save the euro zone. And any Greek resistance is futile.

However, one key element is still missing: The economy has to grow, so that the government can collect enough tax revenue and thus reduce its debt. The trick, in other words, will be to save money while at the same time expanding aggregate output. This is the dilemma that governments face: debt and cutbacks curb growth, but debt reduction cannot succeed without growth. Whether there is in fact a way out of this quandary will soon become apparent - in the case of Greece.

UK experts said parents could allow young children to watch "some" high quality TV. On average, the two-year-olds watched just under nine hours of TV per week, while for four-year-olds the average was just under 15 hours. But 11% of the two-year-olds and 23% of four-year-olds watched more than the recommended maximum of two hours of TV a day.

When the children were revisited at the age of 10, teachers were asked to assess the children's academic performance, behaviour and health, while body mass index (BMI) was measured at 10 years old. Higher levels of TV viewing at two was linked to a lower level of engagement in the classroom and poor achievement in maths. Researchers also found a decrease in general physical activity but an increase in the consumption of soft drinks and in BMI (body mass index).

Dr Linda Pagani, of the University of Montreal, who led the research which was published in the journal Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine, said: "Early childhood is a critical period for brain development and formation of behaviour". High levels of TV consumption during this period can lead to future unhealthy habits. It said that until research demonstrated that children under two might benefit from TV, parents should, "limit exposure and encourage other one-to-one language-enhancing activities that centre on talk at mealtime, bath time, shared reading and imaginative play". But it added: "Encourage exposure to some high-quality, age-appropriate educational television for children aged two to five."

British Psychological Society member Dr Aric Sigman has carried out his own research, which highlighted concerns over young children watching too much TV. "This is yet another study reinforcing the need for our society to finally accept that quite aside from good or bad parenting, children's daily screen time is a major independent health issue."

The accident took place when the rig was drilling a well 1,525 metres (approx 5000 feet) below the surface of the ocean and about 40 miles from land. This is exceptionally difficult work - although far from unprecedented. Last year, the Deepwater Horizon drilled the deepest-ever well. THE RIG WAS BUILT TO BORE INTO THE FRONTIERS OF WHAT IS POSSIBLE.

The explosion, however, seems to have been caused by an old-fashioned danger: a blowout. Gases appear to have forced their way up through the well and ignited. All rigs are fitted with equipment to prevent such accidents. But the Deepwater Horizon's failed - perhaps because of the extra pressure involved at such depths.

So the well has been releasing 5,000 barrels of oil into the gulf every day from a hole in the seabed that is too deep for divers to reach. Only robots can survive such depths. AN ENVIRONMENTAL CATASTROPHE IS UNAVOIDABLE. BP was confident the rig's distance from land would make any spills manageable. That now looks like hubris.

The government would be wise to pause on new permissions to drill in deep water while an investigation is conducted. There are lessons to be learnt. But offshore exploration should not stop. PRESIDENT OBAMA RECENTLY ENDED A 20-YEAR MORATORIUM ON OFFSHORE DRILLING. US energy security demands that exploration continue at sea.

Further deepwater drilling will, however, only be acceptable - politically and environmentally - if it can be made safer. That does not mean trying to prevent each and every spill: there are already strong incentives for companies to have good safety records. Government action should focus on containing the cost of accidents to the rest of society.

In the future, it should not be enough to be able to extract oil from thousands of metres below the sea and miles from land. Oil companies should also demonstrate their ability to fix leaks, fight fires and plug holes at those crushing depths and enormous distances. They should be expected to plan to stop oil spills from their rigs.

Pesticides are believed to be a key cause of a crisis known as Colony Collapse Disorder (CDD), damaging bee health and making them more susceptible to disease. But scientists do not know for certain and are at a loss how to prevent the disaster. Other potential factors include bloodsucking parasites and infections. Some experts believe bees are heading for extinction.

The number of managed honeybee colonies in the US fell by 34 per cent last winter, according to a survey by the country's Agricultural Research Service, and some commercial beekeepers have reported losses of more than 60 per cent over a year. In Britain, the latest report into the fate of the estimated 250,000 honeybee colonies is expected this month after losses of up to a third in the last two winters.

Bees are a critical part of the food chain because flowering plants depend on insects for pollination and the honeybee is the most effective. It pollinates 90 commercial crops worldwide, including most fruit and vegetables - from apples to carrots - alfalfa for cattle feed, nuts, oil-seed rape and cotton.

A world without honeybees would mean a largely meatless diet of rice and cereals, no cotton for textiles, no orchards or wildflowers and decimation among wild birds and animals in the bee food chain. Bees are worth 26 billion pounds to the global economy, and 200 million pounds in Britain.

'Bees contribute to global food security and their extinction would represent a terrible biological disaster,' said Bernard Vallat of the World Organisation for Animal Health.