More than 20% of deaths among those assessed were caused by the naturally occurring poisonous element, it found. The World Health Organization said the exposure was "the largest mass poisoning of a population in history". It began after hand-pumped wells were installed in the 1970s to tap groundwater.

Scientists say even small amounts of arsenic over a long period can cause cancer of the bladder, kidney, lung or skin. Bangladesh was chosen for the study because nearly 90% of the population uses groundwater as its primary source of fresh water.

"Our country's outstanding public debt is huge. Our public finances have become the worst of any developed country. We cannot sustain public finance that overly relies on issuing bonds. As we can see from the eurozone confusion that started in Greece, there is a risk of default if growing public debt is neglected and trust lost in the bond market."

No one knows if he can pull off the mythical trick of reducing government spending while stimulating private sector spending. Kan may be overplaying the similarity to Greece to get people behind fiscal reform, a Credit Suisse Japan analyst tells The Guardian.

We are the next Greece has been the signal phrase for fiscal reform in California, Hungary, and America.

He said Spain's economy was solid and solvent, and the visit by Dominique Strauss-Kahn is a scheduled one. His government has just introduced a package of spending cuts and a reform of the labour market in an attempt to persuade nervous financial markets that Spain's finances are under control. That's a difficult task.

This meeting between Mr Zapatero and Mr Strauss-Kahn was scheduled before rumours of an imminent bail-out for Spain began to circulate. So both the government here, and the IMF, insist it doesn't mean Spain's seeking access to a multi-billion euro credit line for its struggling economy. But after the crisis with Greece the financial markets are nervous.

That means Spain is having to pay record rates to sell its debt now and this week a senior banker revealed that Spanish financial institutions are struggling to get funding on international markets. The country is still reeling from the collapse of the construction sector, with a budget deficit of 11% - one in five workers is unemployed.

The cost of the BP oil spill in environmental and economic damage could hit $100 billion (67.5 billion pounds), according to new predictions as concern mounts over the company's liabilities. Despite an agreement to set aside $20 billion (13.5 billion pounds) in a special compensation fund, investors are worried that the London-based firm's liabilities could stretch well beyond that figure.

Standard and Poors yesterday cut the company's credit rating, and warned that further downgrades may follow as up to 60,000 barrels of oil a day leak from a pipe ruptured in an explosion on the Deepwater Horizon drillling rig. The accident left 11 people dead. BP's costs to date are $1.8 billion, including the cost of the spill response, containment, relief well drilling, grants to the Gulf states, claims paid, and federal costs. Repeated attempts to cap the leak have failed.

David Wilton, a Partner at restructuring firm BTG Mesirow, predicted BP's liabilities could reach 63 billion pounds, but played down fears that the company could collapse, observing that the payments will be spread over a long period of time. US politicians have shown no signs of letting up an onslaught against the company, following the lead set by Barack Obama who has compared the disaster to the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

On Wednesday BP announced that it had buckled to demands by President Barack Obama's administration to set up a $20 billion escrow account to fund compensation claims from thousands of fishermen and businessmen whose livelihoods have been affected by up to 60,000 barrels of oil leaking into the sea every day. It also agreed to suspend dividend payments to shareholders for the rest of the year, though they account for 1 pound in every 6 pounds paid out in dividends to British pension holders.

Speaking under oath, with the strong possibility of criminal prosecutions further on, Mr Hayward repeatedly said that he had not been present when decisions were made about the construction of the well, prompting accusations of "stonewalling" and obstruction. Mr Hayward remained impassive as committee members spent an hour and a half - about double the normal time - on mostly hostile opening statements, meeting forecasts that the high-profile hearing would be designed more to grab attention than unearth new facts.

The parents at the center of Thursday's drama, followers of Rabbi Shmuel Berzovsky who leads the tiny Slonimer Hasidic sect, chose two weeks in jail rather than sending their daughters to the Beis Yaakov school near their homes in the religious West Bank settlement of Emanuel. Their reason? At the school, the Ashkenazi kids would mingle with religious Mizrahi kids, some of whom come from more secular extended families and therefore, say the Slonimers, could expose their sheltered daughters to unwanted influences from the wider world.

And their imprisonment was the culmination of a two-year battle between the ultra-orthodox sect, which effectively controls the school, and Israel's secular Supreme Court. Before the Beis Yaakov controversy, few people had heard of the Slonimer, named for the town in Belarus where their first rabbi lived 200 years ago, and the sect's internal power struggle between rival leaders in Jerusalem and Bnei Brak. But the fight over the schoolgirls has united the tiny group and transformed it into the latest torchbearers of a festering feud between the ultra-orthodox and the secular establishment.

Thursday's demonstration was the largest in Jerusalem since ultra-orthodox protesters gathered in similar numbers in 1999 in a show of strength against the supposed antireligious bias of Israel's Supreme Court. A decade on, the gap between the two entities is wider than ever, with running debates over such issues as the power of religious courts, state subsidies for religious students, religious exemption from military service and access to public roads on the Sabbath.

"People of Arab origin face new forms of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related forms of intolerance and experience discrimination and marginalization," an Egyptian delegate said, according to a UN summary. And Pakistan, speaking for the 57-nation Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC), said the council's special investigator into religious freedom should look into such racism "especially in Western societies."

Diplomats say the resolution, which also tells the investigator to make recommendations to the Human Rights Council on how its strictures might be implemented, is bound to pass given the majority the OIC and its allies have in the body. The countries of the majority group, which also include India and Brazil, ensure that its members and their friends outside the council - such as Sri Lanka and Iran - are shielded from any serious criticism of their rights record. The group ensures that council fire is largely aimed at Israel over its occupation of Palestinian territories and treatment of people living there as well as on the Israeli blockade of Hamas-ruled Gaza.

Yet a Christian church in Saudi Arabia is forbidden and fundamentalist Islamists routinely launch violent attacks against Christians throughout the Middle East. Just one more reason for all functioning democracies and Republics to withdraw from the United Nations.

"I am warning the US and certain adventurous countries that in case they plan to inspect the cargo of Iranian ships and planes, they should rest assured that we will do the same in the Persian Gulf and the Sea of Oman (with their ships)," Larijani was quoted as saying. "This retaliation would be part of our policy to protect our national interests," Larijani added.

The new round of the UN Security Council sanctions resolution, adopted against Iran last Wednesday over its controversial nuclear program, aims to restrict the country's shipping and air cargo operations.

After a face-to-face showdown with the President at the White House, BP chairman Carl-Henric Svanberg revealed the payment meant the oil giant would be forced to suspend dividends to its shareholders until at least next year. BP's backdown came as David Cameron finally broke his controversial silence over Mr Obama's attacks on the company. The Prime Minister revealed he told President Obama not to 'go after' BP 'for the sake of it'.

Yesterday's dramatic capitulation came as US officials and lawmakers escalated the ugly rhetoric over the disaster.

Vietnamese-born Congressman Joseph Cao went so far as to suggest that the only honourable way for BP bosses to atone for the environmental crisis was to commit suicide. 'In the Asian culture we do things differently,' he said. 'During the samurai days, we'd just give you a knife and ask you to commit hara-kiri.'

Yesterday's four-hour meeting ended with the company capitulating to Mr Obama's rescue-fund ultimatum and offering an apology to the American people.

Germany and France want to give the EU new powers to curb member states' budget deficits as European economies suffer because of market fears over high levels of government debt. Plans supported by Angela Merkel and Nicolas Sarkozy involve sanctions such as fines and a possible loss of EU voting rights for countries that break the rules and spend too much.

Downing Street has said that the Prime Minister would resist any change in EU rules that would involve a loss of national sovereignty. The new proposal, tabled after talks between France and Germany this week, would require the Commons to pass legislation enshrining the EU's Stability and Growth Pact, which limits national deficits, into British law.

Summit documents, seen by The Daily Telegraph, demand "adoption by all member states of national budgetary rules and medium budgetary frameworks in line" with the pact. Germany has already incorporated the EU budget rules into its constitution and France has pledged to follow suit later this year. But Mr Cameron will insist the demand is dropped at what is expected by diplomats to be "difficult" lunchtime discussion on economic governance.

British diplomats say that if implemented, the proposal would reduce UK sovereignty because it would be Brussels that would set a limit on the public finances and not British politicians.

He believes financial turmoil could be the trigger for the crisis, and that the reactions of American leaders will be crucial to its outcome. He also thinks new global organizations will be key to securing stability rather than nation-states. Professor Boyle argues that 2014 will be important because the previous five centuries have also hinged on events that took place in the middle of their second decade.

In 1517 Martin Luther nailed his theses to the door of Wittenburg church, sparking the Reformation and the rise of Protestantism.

A century later 1618 marked the start of the 30 Years War and decades of religious conflict in Western Europe, which ended with the establishment of the Hanoverians in 1715.

The enlightened Congress of Vienna took place in 1815 following the defeat of Napoleon, heralding a century of relative stability across Europe.

But in 1914 the First World War broke out, a catastrophic conflict that would claim millions of lives and set the tone for international discord throughout the 21st century.

Prof Boyle, whose book '2014 - How to survive the next world crisis' is published on Thursday, said: "The character of a century becomes very apparent in that second decade, so why should ours be any different?"

The statistics, compiled by SNL Financial from US Treasury data, showed 91 banks and thrifts skipped the May dividend payment under the Troubled Asset Relief Program, or TARP. It was the first missed payment for 23 of the banks; for the others, it was at least their second miss.

The number of banks missing their TARP payments rose for the third straight quarter. In February, 74 banks deferred their payments; 55 deferred last November. SNL Financial's analysis found 20 banks have missed four or more payments since the program began in 2008, while eight banks have missed five payments.

Under the TARP program, the US Treasury invested in preferred shares issued banks looking for funds. The banks were to make regular dividend payments to the Treasury, and have the right to repurchase the shares at some point in the future. While many of the largest US banks easily repaid billions in TARP aid, more than 600 smaller banks still hold $130 billion from the program, created at the height of the financial crisis. The next quarterly TARP payments to the US Treasury are due by August 16.

Lieberman has been pushing for government regulation of the Internet for years under the guise of cybersecurity, but this new bill goes even further in handing emergency powers over to the feds which could be used to silence free speech under the pretext of a national emergency.

"The legislation says that companies such as broadband providers, search engines or software firms that the US Government selects shall immediately comply with any emergency measure or action developed by the Department of Homeland Security. Anyone failing to comply would be fined," reports ZDNet's Declan McCullagh.

The 197-page bill (PDF) is entitled Protecting Cyberspace as a National Asset Act, or PCNAA. Technology lobbying group TechAmerica warned that the legislation created "the potential for absolute power," while the Center for Democracy and Technology worried that the bill's emergency powers "include authority to shut down or limit internet traffic on private systems."

The bill has the vehement support of Senator Jay Rockefeller, who last year asked during a congressional hearing, "Would it have been better if we'd have never invented the Internet?" while fearmongering about cyber-terrorists preparing attacks. The Lieberman bill needs to be met with fierce opposition at every level and from across the political spectrum. Regulation of the Internet would not only represent a massive assault on free speech, it would also create new roadblocks for e-commerce and as a consequence further devastate the economy

A NYSE Euronext official, Mr Pellecchia, said that trading in Post Co stock was halted at 3:07 pm after three apparently erroneous trades went through NYSE Arca, an all-electronic trading platform. Two of the trades were for $919.18 per share, and another went through at $929.18 per share.

The company's shares had been trading at roughly $455 before the three transactions. Trading in Post Co stock resumed five minutes later, at $453.25 a share. It is still unclear exactly how the error occurred. NYSE Euronext officials say that millions of transactions take place daily and that a small fraction mistakenly take place at a price that neither the seller nor buyer intended.

The circuit breakers, which went into effect on the New York Stock Exchange on Friday, apply only to the Standard & Poor's 500-stock index. The curbs pause trading in a stock that falls or rises more than 10 percent in a five-minute span. "It did what it was supposed to do, but it was triggered by an erroneous trade in this instance," Pellecchia said.

Mr Assad also rejected claims he was arming Hezbollah in Lebanon. He said that the Middle East was going through a period of momentous change. He has the air of a man who thinks matters are going his way, even though he shares the common Middle Eastern view that the region is getting more dangerous.

Mr Assad said the Israeli attack on the Free Gaza flotilla that killed nine Turkish activists was having serious consequences. "It has destroyed any chance for peace in the near future," he told the BBC's Middle East editor Jeremy Bowen. Mr Assad denied that he was sending weapons to the Hezbollah movement in Lebanon.

Our Middle East editor says Israel, the US and Britain are convinced not only that he is, but they say he is also sending bigger, better and more accurate ones than before. He seems in no mood to respond to American attempts to woo him away from Syria's long term strategic alliance with Iran. He said he is happy to do business with the United States. But Iran would stay an ally.

But come September, when the weather warms up and the first shoots of spring emerge, the locusts will hatch, potentially wiping A$2 billion (1.2 billion pounds) of profit off the country's agriculture industry. Several parts of Australia were hit by locust swarms earlier this year, but scientists have warned that the worst is still to come.

The next generation of locusts could create the worst plague in Australia since 1973, affecting an area almost as large as Wales, according to the Australian Plague Locust Commission, though the severity of the infestation will depend on weather conditions. The problem is expected to be so bad that the Victorian premier John Brumby last week announced a $43 million "war on locusts" fund to fight the plague, which he warned could reach "biblical proportions".

Russell Amery, president of the Victorian Farmers Federation's grain group, predicted that "all hell will break loose" in early spring. "They need to eat three times their own body weight every day, so they can take a paddock from green to bare dust in a matter of hours, it's incredible." Mr Amery said locusts would devour "anything green", decimating crops including canola, wheat and vegetables. The insects also posed a threat to race tracks, golf courses and even the young leaves on grape vines.

Farmers faced losing 90 per cent of their income for the year if the plague was allowed to take hold, he warned. The only hope was spraying the locusts during a small window just after they hatch and when they are still too young to fly.