"It is certainly disheartening news about the economy," said David Resler, chief economist at Nomura Securities International in New York. "It is not persuasive evidence that we have dipped into recession again but it's certainly suggestive of a more serious deterioration than we had factored into our forecasts." Financial markets were rattled by the data and investors sold stocks in favor of safe-haven government debt.

As the soft economic data piles up, some analysts also worry the domestic slowdown that started in the second quarter risks pushing the global economy close to renewed recession. "If the (US) economy is going down, there's no way the euro zone can withstand the slowdown," said Win Thin, senior currency strategist at Brown Brothers Harriman in New York.

The burdens facing the economy were further underlined by a report from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, which forecast the national budget deficit would hit $1.342 trillion this year, a touch below the $1.368 trillion it forecast in March. Even more disturbing in the claims report, the four-week average of new jobless claims, considered a better measure of underlying labor market trends, rose to its highest since early December.

"There hasn't been any real improvement in the labor market. It seems companies are in a holding pattern when it comes to hiring and that has created a stagnant job market," said Stephen Bronars, senior economist at Welch Consulting in Washington. "It's not clear what it's going to take to turn the corner."

Called the Assault Intervention Device, it uses millimeter waves to heat the top layer of skin, causing an intense burning sensation that forces the person being targeted to move away immediately. The weapon being installed in the jail is a smaller version of a technology originally developed by the military for use on the battlefield. The military's weapon, called the Active Denial System, can be put on a Humvee or truck, and researchers are also working on a aircraft-mounted version.

The smaller version of the weapon being installed in the jail creates pain on a single part of the body, rather than all-over heat like the military version. A local news video showing the device being tested features a laughing test subject clutching a single part of the body where he has been hit, and then moving out of the way.

The device's use at the Pitchess Detention Center is part of a six-month evaluation being conducted by the National Institute of Justice to look at possible widespread use of the technology in jails.

The drivers have complained that locals were over-charging them for food and drink while they were stuck. The situation has now "basically returned to normal," state television said on Monday.

There has been a boom in road building in China in recent years but vehicle use has soared at the same time. The stalled traffic stretched between Jining in Inner Mongolia and Huai'an in Hebei province, north-west of Beijing, said the Global Times. The road works which were obstructing traffic are necessary to repair damage caused by an increase in cargo lorries using the highway, the state-run newspaper said.

They are not expected to be finished until mid-September. The motorway, part of the Beijing-Tibet expressway, is heavily used by lorries carrying coal from Inner Mongolia.

Oxfam says the situation is stretching resources to the limit as it also tries to respond to the food shortages. The agency urged donors to help Niger face what it calls a second emergency. Oxfam issued its warning as nearly eight million people, or half the population, are already facing hunger because of failed harvests.

Now more than 100,000 people have been left homeless after heavy rains washed away their homes earlier this month, according to the United Nations. Floods have destroyed crops, and thousands of animals have drowned. Oxfam warned that flooding is also hindering the delivery of aid in remote areas.

Floods will increase the risk of diseases, especially among young children suffering from acute malnutrition. The World Food Programme recently acknowledged that it was forced to limit its food distribution to only 40% of those in need because of a funding shortfall.

Palestinian leadership announced Saturday that it accepts the United States' invitation to enter into direct talks with Israel, however PA senior officials conditioned talks with a continued freeze in settlement construction. Meanwhile, Israeli state officials stressed that a freeze continuation was not an option.

Also on Saturday, Arab media reported that the Palestinians had set conditions for direct talks which the US accepted and provided guarantees for.

Palestinian sources told the London-based al-Hayat newspaper that Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas accepted American guarantees since Washington "already knows where talks should proceed and how they should end." This suggests an independent Palestinian state on the 1967 borders. The sources added that the US administration would push for a continuation of the freeze in settlement construction.

They mean that a suspect arrested in Britain who is wanted in another European country has no right to ask a British judge to test the merits of the case against them. But a series of worrying cases has led to concern that the warrants can lead to injustice for people wanted on spurious charges in countries with less sophisticated justice systems.

Former Home Secretary David Blunkett, who was in charge of the Home Office when it brought in the warrants in 2004, admitted his own reservations yesterday. He said: 'I was right in the post 9/11 era to agree to the European Arrest Warrant, but I was insufficiently sensitive to how it might be used.' This month the warrants were used to deport five young men to Greece on flimsy-looking assault charges dating back to a holiday two years ago. The men faced up to 18 months in a Greek jail awaiting trial.

European Arrest Warrants have also added to the controversy in the case of Daniel Ubani, the German doctor who killed 70-year-old patient David Gray with a massive overdose of painkiller during a shift of out-of-hours cover in Britain. British authorities issued a warrant demanding Ubani's extradition to face trial for manslaughter. But, in contrast with the Greek case, a German court opted to deal with the case itself. Ubani was fined and put on probation for nine months.

Brooklyn plumber Steve Ayling says the people who want to build the project are the same ones who 'took down the twin towers.' Nearby, several hundred people who support the mosque chanted: 'Muslims are welcome here. We say no to racist fear. The proposed 70 million pounds mosque has ignited furious debate.

The growing movement against the building of the mosque gained another prominent supporter last week: the first Muslim Miss USA.

Rima Fakih, 24, the daughter of Lebanese immigrants and a Muslim, criticised the location of the planned mosque. 'It shouldn't be so close to the World Trade Center,' Fakih, 24, told Inside Edition during a break from the Miss Universe pageant preparations in Las Vegas. 'We should be more concerned with the tragedy than religion.'

Meanwhile growing numbers of New York construction workers are vowing not to work on the mosque planned near Ground Zero, according to the New York Daily News. 'It's a very touchy thing because they want to do this on sacred ground,' said Dave Kaiser, 38, a blaster who is working to rebuild the World Trade Center site. Construction is due to begin on September 11 next year - the 10th anniversary of the terrorist attack.

Andrew Lilico, of the Policy Exchange think tank, said: 'To keep inflation (as measured by the retail prices index) down to only 10 per cent for one year, the economy will have to be able to tolerate interest rates of perhaps 8 per cent.' His warning echoes that of former Bank of England deputy governor Sir John Gieve, who last month said he expects rates to start rising 'faster than the market currently expects'.

Sir John believes the base rate will rise to 2.5 per cent within a year, from its current historic low of 0.5 per cent. This would mean a huge rise in the monthly mortgage payments of most ordinary Britons, forcing many families into financial difficulties.

But Mr Lilico is predicting an even more alarming scenario than that. The current historically low average mortgage rates of around 4 per cent mean millions of households have so far been shielded from the full effects of the economic downturn. But if base rates rose to 8 per cent, and lenders keep their current mark-up of 3.5 per cent on the deals they offer, then householders could face mortgage rates of 11.5 per cent, compared with the current 4 per cent average.

At that 4 per cent rate, the interest payable on an average 150,000 pounds home loan is around 6,000 pounds a year, or 500 pounds a month. But, if the base rate leaps to 8 per cent, the cost could soar to 17,250 pounds a year, or more than 1,400 pounds a month. And as that is just the interest part of the mortgage, once actual repayments are added in, many households could find their mortgage an insupportable burden on their income.

It said four people died, including a couple in their 70s and a mother and son, after their homes in Dandong were swept away by flash floods. Xinhua said 253,500 residents have been evacuated after the Yalu rose to its highest level in a decade. An official with the Water Resources Department in Liaoning province, where Dandong is located, confirmed that four people had died though he was unable to provide details. He refused to give his name because he was not authorized to speak with the media.

North Korea's official Korean Central News Agency said torrential rain and water from the overflowing Yalu - or Amnok as it is known in Korean - swamped houses, public buildings and farmland in more than five villages near Sinuiju, the city opposite Dandong. The report described Sinuiju and the surrounding area as having been "severely affected" by the flooding and said officials, the military and ordinary civilians were involved in rescue work. It said at least 5,150 people had been evacuated and residents were clambering on rooftops or taking shelter on hilltops.

Much of North Korea's trade with the world passes through the city, forming a vital lifeline for the isolated, economically struggling country. Flooding in previous years has destroyed crops and pushed North Korea deeper into poverty, increasing its dependence on international food aid.

Food and Drug Administration investigators have yet to determine the cause of the salmonella outbreaks at Wright County Egg and Hillandale Farms. The FDA investigation could take months, and sources of contamination are often difficult to find. The number of illnesses, which can be life-threatening, especially to those with weakened immune systems, is expected to increase. The most common symptoms are diarrhea, abdominal cramps and fever eight to 72 hours after eating a contaminated product.

The company Quality Egg supplies young chickens and feed to both Wright County Egg and Hillandale Farms. The two share other suppliers, said Jewanna Porter, a spokeswoman for the egg industry, but she did not name them. The egg industry has consolidated over recent years, placing fewer, larger businesses in control over much of the nation's egg supply to consumers. The salmonella outbreak has raised questions about federal inspections of egg farms. The FDA oversees inspections of shell eggs, while the Agriculture Department is in charge of inspecting other egg products.

William D Marler, a Seattle attorney for a person who filed suit alleging illness from tainted eggs in a salad at a restaurant in Kenosha, Wisconsin, said Sunday his firm has been retained by two dozen families and was representing a woman who was hospitalized in California. "The history of ignoring the law makes the sickening of 1,300 and THE FORCED RECALL OF 550 MILLION EGGS shockingly understandable," Marler said in an e-mail to The Associated Press. "You have to wonder where the USDA and FDA inspectors were."

In Damascus, Syrian prime minister Naji al-Otari gathered his ministers and heads of security and emergency services Thursday and ordered them to place all their services on immediate war readiness. And sources close to the Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas quoted him as saying that direct talks with Israel were not in the offing because "a big military surprise awaits the Middle East."

On Thursday, too, Tehran pitched its threat level high by warning that any attack on Iran's nuclear sites would be met by the IRGC "targeting the interests of the enemies in any part of the world." In the United States, respected commentators this week talked and wrote openly about a possible war over Iran's progress toward a nuclear bomb capability.

Former US ambassador to Israel, Martin Indyk, who has excellent connections in Washington and Jerusalem, wrote, "The United States is more likely than Israel to launch an attack on Iran." Lawrence Eagleburger, former US Secretary of State, had this to say about the activation of Iran's first reactor at Bushehr Saturday, August 21, "The world's going to war over this. If Iran gets the weapon it's going to use it." He urged an attack on Iran before it obtained a bomb.

The mostly Shi'ite nation of Iran is an enemy to Al-Qaida, and al-Shehri predicted that after Israel attacked Iranian nuclear installations, Iran would blame Saudi Arabia - which reports say may let Israel fly through its airspace to attack Iran - and use the opportunity to seize the holy cities of Mecca and Medina in Saudi Arabia.

Al-Shehri said Israel would then seize territory from surrounding Arab nations to establish "the greater state of Israel," and the Sunni Arab population of the Middle East would be trapped between the "Jews in the Middle East and Iran in the Peninsula," the Daily Beast reported.

According to the Daily Beast, Al-Qaida would benefit from an Israel-Iran war because if Israel attacked Iran's nuclear installations, Iran would use its proxies to lash back at Americans in the Gulf, Iraq, and Afghanistan.

The Daily Beast is a news aggregator and original content website owned by a former Wall Street Journal editor.

Mr Vahidi, who was speaking during Friday prayers in Tehran, did not say when the launch took place nor did he disclose the precise range of the missile. "The missile has new technical aspects and has a unique tactical capacity," he said on state television, adding that the device was of a "new class".

"Since the surface-to-surface missile has no wings, it has lot of tactical power, which also reduces the chances of it being intercepted," he said. On Tuesday, Mr Vahidi had said that Qiam was to be test fired during the annual government week, the period when Tehran touts its achievements in various fields. This year government week begins on Monday.

The third generation Fateh 110 (Conqueror) missile was also to be test fired during this period. Iran has previously paraded a version of Fateh 110 which has a travel range of 150 to 200 kilometres (90 to 125 miles). Also during government week, the production lines of two missile-carrying speedboats, Seraj (Lamp) and Zolfaqar (named after Shiite Imam Ali's sword) are due to be inaugurated, while a long-range drone, Karar, is expected to be unveiled.

The team said monitoring the free-floating plastic also provided an insight into the behaviour of ocean surface currents. They found plastic, most pieces measuring no more than a few millimetres, in more than 60% of 6,136 samples collected by dragging fine-meshed nets along the ocean's surface.

The researchers - from the US-based Sea Education Association (Sea), Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution and the University of Hawaii - described plastic as a "major contaminant". "Plastic marine pollution is a significant environmental concern, yet a quantitative description of the scope of this problem in the open ocean is lacking," they wrote.

"Their chemically engineered durability and slow rate of biodegradation allow these synthetic polymers to withstand the ocean environment for years to decades or longer."

The goal of the aircraft is to "keep the enemy paralyzed in its bases," he said, adding that the jet is for deterrence and defensive purposes.

The president championed the country's military self-sufficiency program, and said it will continue "until the enemies of humanity lose hope of ever attacking the Iranian nation."

The 4-meter-long unmanned plane, dubbed the Karrar or striker in Farsi, was inaugurated on the national day for the country's defense industry in a ceremony aired live on state TV. Referring to Israel's occasional threats against Iran's nuclear facilities, Ahmadinejad called any attack unlikely, but he said if Israel did, the reaction would be overwhelming.

"The scope of Iran's reaction will include the entire the earth," said Ahmadinejad. "We also tell you - the West - that all options are on the table." Ahmadinejad appeared to be consciously echoing the terminology used by the US and Israel in their statements not ruling out a military option against Iran's nuclear facilities.

On Friday, Iran also test-fired a new liquid fuel surface-to-surface missile, the Qiam-1, with advanced guidance systems. Since 1992, Iran has also produced its own tanks, armoured personnel carriers, missiles, torpedoes and a fighter plane. It frequently makes announcements about new advances in military technology that cannot be independently verified.