What made the situation that much more tense was sightings of gangs of young men with machetes. On Wednesday they were seen getting into stores and taking all the supplies they could carry. The armed men were seen marching up and down the streets with machetes raised and the competition among the gangs turned quite fierce. Fights between gangs were seen on the streets. Machetes were flailing and it was impossible to predict what would happen next. There was no sign of police or any kind of law and order.

Haiti is the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere. Food is often scarce. Now, with this tragedy, desperate people are doing whatever they have to do to eat. People were seen going into stores and rubble and taking anything they could find with them for their trip back to wherever they were camping out. There was not a single sign of relief on Wednesday. No workers, packages or bottles of water have arrived from relief agencies. There was just nothing.

And with no running water or electricity, people are getting hungry and thirsty. The situation is dire.

Witnesses described gutters running with blood and children sleeping among heaps of dead bodies after becoming separated from their parents. There are growing fears that lack of basic sanitation and disease could claim thousands more lives.

Many rescuers were forced to dig with their hands to free survivors trapped under tons of rubble. There were reports of looting and members of the UN peacekeeping force, whose own headquarters has been destroyed, attempted to keep order. Laura Bickle, an American working at an orphanage in Port-au-Prince, told the BBC: 'All the parks are filled with people - they either have no home to go to or they are too scared to go home. They are pulling people out of the rubble, literally with blood running in the gutter like water.'

Gareth Owen, Save the Children's director of emergencies, believes that up to two million children have been affected by the earthquake. Many were in school when it struck. 'This is an unbelievably traumatic experience for children in Haiti. We believe up to two million could be affected, and the emotional damage of what they're going through could last their entire lives. Thousands more will have lost all contact with their families and friends and are now struggling to survive alone in the rubble.'

'There's no water. There's nothing. Thirsty people are going to die.' Estimates for the number of fatalities vary but the Haitian Red Cross today said at least 50,000 are likely to have died. The Red Cross estimates three million people - a third of the population - may need emergency relief.

The Bulletin of Atomic Scientists, which maintains the clock and puts an illustration of it on its cover, attributed the move to efforts by world leaders to reduce their countries' nuclear arsenals and collaborate on climate stabilization. The group, which includes 19 Nobel laureates, said a key to the "new era of cooperation is a change in the US government's orientation toward international affairs brought about in part by the election of (US President Barack) Obama."

Nuclear physicist Pervez Hoodbhoy at a news conference held at the New York Academy of Sciences overlooking the World Trade Center site, said there had been "a shift in world opinion" recognizing that nuclear weapons are "no longer useful to fight wars and are not effective as deterrence." BAS board member Lowell Sachnoff added, "Global warming is more of a threat than nuclear war."

When the clock was created in 1947, it was set at 7 minutes to midnight. It has been adjusted only 18 times before Thursday's move. The last was in 2007, when the BAS moved it forward by two minutes citing North Korea's test of a nuclear weapon, Iran's nuclear ambitions and a renewed US emphasis on the military utility of nuclear weapons.

Red Cross officials said 10 people were missing, believed buried by a landslide at the popular La Paz waterfall. Rescue workers fear more victims will be found as relief operations widen. The bodies of several men were recovered from a buried van in the area late on Friday, bringing the death toll to 13, Red Cross spokesman Freddy Roman said.

"We are working on removing corpses, taking picks and shovels on all-terrain vehicles to reach areas where people may be buried," said Victor Falla, National Emergency Commission official. The Costa Rican government declared a state of emergency in San Jose and surrounding areas, including Cartago, Alajuela and Heredia.

The US Geological Survey said the tremor was centred some 35km (22 miles) north-west of San Jose. Costa Rica is located on the Pacific Ring, which forms a belt of seismic activity along the edge of the Pacific Ocean.

"It has got to be done. It will be done some day. It may be done with enormous pain. Or it may be done more rationally," said Rudolph Penner, a former head of the nonpartisan Congressional Budget office who co-chaired the 24-strong Committee on the Fiscal Future of the United States.

The two-year study by the panel, assembled by the highly respected National Research Council and the National Academy of Public Administration, said that the White House had some time on its side to restore growth, but must then act.

"In the next year or two, large deficits and more borrowing are unavoidable given the severity of the economic downturn. However, action ought to begin soon thereafter," they said. "If action is taken soon, the country has a wide choice of options to help achieve fiscal sustainability. All are difficult; but if action is postponed, the options will be fewer and the choices even more difficult," they said.

"China's Internet is open and the Chinese government encourages development of the Internet," Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu told Reuters. "China welcomes international Internet businesses developing services in China according to the law," she said. "Chinese law proscribes any form of hacking activity."

On Wednesday, as Chinese citizens laid flowers at Google's Beijing office, US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton issued a statement expressing "serious concerns" about the massive, China-based cyber-attack at the root of the controversy, and demanded answers from China's leaders. "We look to the Chinese government for an explanation," Clinton said. "The ability to operate with confidence in cyberspace is critical in a modern society and economy." On Tuesday, Google revealed it had been the victim of a massive cyber attack that compromised its corporate security. Even worse, the company said an investigation showed the targets of the attack were Chinese human rights activists, whose Gmail accounts were hacked.

"In a world in which we are so used to the public relations massaging of messages, this stands out as a direct declaration," Jonathan Zittrain, professor of Internet law at Harvard Law School and co-director of Harvard's Berkman Center for Internet & Society, said in comments reported by the San Jose Mercury News, Google's local newspaper. "It's amazing," he said.

In fact, Google's move is nothing short of an invitation to other companies to stand up to China's communist rulers. Which Western company will be next to stand up to this gang of authoritarian cadres who hold dominion over 1.3 billion people? Will Microsoft, Yahoo and other companies operating in China match Google's human-rights stance?

Philip Angelides, the commission chairman, spent the opening 15 minutes of his questioning directed solely at Lloyd Blankfein, CEO of Goldman. The two clashed openly, interrupting each other's statements in a testy session. Angelides, who kept returning with additional questions for Blankfein, didn't buy many of his arguments and was particularly hard when asking whether Goldman deliberately sold debt products tied to mortgages that it knew were declining in value.

"It sounds to me like selling a car with faulty brakes, and then buying an insurance policy on the buyer of those cars," said Angelides.

Blankfein, who admitted in his opening statement that during good times the need to expand market share can be "blinding," said his firm was only fulfilling its role in the financial markets. "We were doing what capital markets do - which is making markets," he said. Angelides responded that he found it "troublesome" that Goldman never took the responsibility to ensure the products it was selling were good.

"We, sadly, face a series of threats, the nature of which will require the projection of power beyond our borders to protect our national security," he said. "My great fear is that we as a nation will become so risk-averse, cynical and introverted that we will find ourselves in inglorious and impotent isolation by default."

His speech to the Institute of Public Policy Research, in London, reflects a growing frustration within the Government and Armed Forces that public tolerance for military operations and media-led cynicism at the motives for British military action are undermining the current effort in Afghanistan. The minister traced several trends in society that he said were "positive", but which made it increasingly difficult for governments to deploy troops in support of Britain's interests.

"First, the decline of deference and the growth in mistrust of those in authority, which challenge government and military decision-making. Second, the 24/7 media and the new information age, which brings with it the demand for a different kind of communication between the Government and the public about military operations. Third, a freedom-of-information culture, which asserts that everything known to the State should be in the public domain without considering the impact of this on government's ability to act in our best interest."

He said he has contacted the city's returning officer. ''I have withheld the opening of my occult centres and am focusing on the general election,'' said Mr Shadee. ''I shall hope to stand as an independent. My manifesto will be very forward, and if accepted, will change many directions for the better - for the human race.''

He added: "This is an opportunity to change people's lives for the better. I also hope to have candidates in six or seven other high-profile seats. I want to tackle the problems in education, health and crime and turn Britain into a truly secular society by banning faith schools and the teaching of religious education."

The submarine to be leased is the Nerpa, which had an accident in the Sea of Japan in November 2008 in which 20 people were killed. The Russian military had previously denied media reports that the submarine was to be leased to India. "The lease of the Nerpa nuclear submarine to India for 10 years... will take place this summer or autumn," the unidentified official told the agency.

The Nerpa, armed with conventional weapons, was laid down in 1993 but was launched and started sea trials only in 2008 due to the piecemeal funding of its construction. The submarine "successfully concluded sea trials last December", the Defence Ministry official told Itar-Tass.

The extra $33 billion in 2010 would mostly go toward the expansion of the war in Afghanistan. Obama ordered an extra 30,000 troops for that war as part of an overhaul of the war strategy late last year. Military officials have suggested that the 2011 request would top $700 billion for the first time, but the precise figure has not been made public.

The administration also plans to tell Congress next month that its central military objectives for the next four years will include winning the current wars while preventing new ones and that its core missions will include both counterinsurgency and counterterrorism operations.

The People's Bank of China raised the reserves requirement for local banks by 0.5pc to 15pc of their deposits, only hours after raising the interest rates on its one-year bills in a connected attempt to cool economic activity.

China's policymakers hope to slow spending amid worries that the economy is overheating as money pours in from around the world. The increase in reserve requirements, which comes earlier than most economists had expected, is likely to be followed by an increase in the country's benchmark interest rates, experts said.

Reader Comment:- "The Chinese economy, and the financial system that supports it, is jerry-built. It has grown too much, too fast to be stable. A spectacular crash is guaranteed. But will the West know what is actually going on, with Stalinist censorship and cooking of the books in China?"

"Congress, the administration and states must recognize that our weak economy simply could not sustain all the new taxes, regulations and mandates now under consideration. It's a sure-fire recipe for a double-dip recession, or worse," Donohue said in a speech providing the Chamber's outlook for 2010. If the tax cuts are allowed to expire, "we will likely end up with even bigger deficits and greater economic misery," Donohue said.

Turkey's continuing warming of relations with Iran, Syria and Lebanon comes as leading Israeli media have criticized Israeli Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon for disparaging the Turkish ambassador to Israel. Ayalon voiced anger at the envoy on Monday over a Turkish soap opera that spread a blood libel against Israel by depicting Israel Security Agency (Shin Bet) agents as kidnappers of babies.

Foreign Ministry bureaucrats suggested that Ayalon and Minister Avigdor Lieberman are trying to create a crisis in order to torpedo a planned visit by Defence Minister Ehud Barak to Turkey. At a joint press conference with Erdogan, Lebanese Prime Minister Hariri declared that Israel is an enemy of Lebanon. Turkey's closer military ties with Lebanon follow two months defence pacts signed with Syria and Iran. Erdogan last October stated that cooperation with Syria and Iran is important for peace in the Middle East.

During a visit by Erdogan to Iran, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad praised the Turkish Prime Minister for his "clear stance against the Zionist regime." Turkey also has signed military pacts with Syria and held a joint military drill with its army shortly after cancelling the annual military exercise in which Israel participated.

Any review of the credit crisis or a look into Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke's reappointment hearings, will note the number of people who believed that residential real estate issues were limited to a fraction of the population falling in the category of "subprime" borrowers. So it seems thus far with sovereign debt issues, with only Iceland and Dubai (a part of the United Arab Emirates) making headlines; Dubai received a bailout from neighboring Abu Dhabi, while Iceland was not so fortunate and is moving toward holding a national referendum to decide whether to bail out foreign bank depositors (indications from the President of Iceland suggest they will not, saving the country significant debt in the process).

Sovereign debt issues so far pale in comparison to problems with the US financial system, but as the Burj Khalifa serves to remind, many countries took on debt for various purposes and not all the uses of those cash borrowings were economic. Ominously, just as with subprime mortgage debt, some investors are warning that the problems right now are merely the calm before the storm.

Goldman Sachs (GS), in a year-end client note, advised buying credit default swaps on Spanish government debt as one of the firm's top macroeconomic trades for 2010. Credit default swap buyers, in exchange for periodic payments similar to insurance premiums, receive a payout if the debt they are related to defaults. Goldman says that Spain has high levels of debt in both the public and private spheres, a lack of political resolve to bring spending in-line with revenues, and a financial system that seems to be hiding its problems (as previously noted by DailyFinance). Spain is a part of the "PIIGS" acronym, a kind of recession-counterpart to the "BRIC" emerging markets that also encompasses Portugal, Italy, Ireland, and Greece, a collection of countries that investors worry may not be able to repay all of their debts.