It emerged this weekend that in 1985 when he was in charge of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, which deals with sex abuse cases, the pope signed a letter arguing that the "good of the universal church" should be considered against the defrocking of an American priest who committed sex offences against two boys.

Dawkin and Hitchens believe he should face criminal proceedings because his "first instinct" was to protect the church rather than the children in its care. They are hoping to exploit the same legal principle used to arrest Augusto Pinochet, the late Chilean dictator, on a Spanish warrant when he visited Britain in 1998. The Pope will be visiting London, Glasgow and Coventry, during his time in the UK between September 16 and 19.

"This is a man whose first instinct when his priests are caught with their pants down is to cover up the scandal and damn the young victims to silence," Dawkins, who wrote The God Delusion, said. "This man is not above or outside the law. The institutionalised concealment of child rape is a crime under any law and demands not private ceremonies of repentance or church-funded payoffs, but justice and punishment," Hitchens, author of God Is Not Great, said.

According to this report, Sarkozy was "appalled" at Obama's "vision" of what the World should be under his "guidance" and "amazed" at the American President's unwillingness to listen to either "reason" or "logic". Sarkozy's meeting where these impressions of Obama were formed took place nearly a fortnight ago at the White House in Washington DC, and upon his leaving he "scolded" Obama and the US for not listening closely enough to what the rest of the World has to say.

Apparently, as this report details, the animosity between Sarkozy and Obama arose out of how best the West can deal with the growing threat posed by rising Islamic fundamentalism. Both Sarkozy and his European neighbors had previously been supported in their efforts by the United States in forming an alliance to strengthen the integration of Muslim peoples into their societies, and has included France and Belgium moving to ban the wearing of burqa's.

European fears over their growing Muslim populations appear to be valid as the growing immigration and birth rates of these Islamic peoples are warned is causing the "Eurabiazation" of the Continent and within a few generations will see them become the majority of nearly all of the EU Nations.

The greatest threat to these Western Nations posed by the Muslim peoples becoming the majority of their populations lies in their likelihood of destroying the Global Banking System which according to their faith is firmly rooted in "satanic" evil and "must" be replaced by an Islamic one.

The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center says a destructive wave is not expected. The Solomon Islands is a country of nearly 1,000 islands in the Pacific Ocean, east of Papua New Guinea.

Thanks to a state policy which has limited many families to one child since 1979, combined with an ancient and ruthless prejudice in favour of sons, the world's new superpower is beginning the century of its supremacy with an alarming surplus of males. By the year 2020, there will be 30 million more men than women of marriageable age in this giant empire, so large and so different (its current population is 1,336,410,000) that it often feels more like a separate planet than just another country. Nothing like this has ever happened to any civilisation before.

The nearest we can come to it is the sad shortage of men after the First World War in Britain, France, Russia and Germany, and the many women denied the chance of family life and motherhood as a result.

It is possible that the effects of that imbalance are still with us, in the shape of the radical feminist movement which found ready recruits among the husbandless teachers and other professionals of the Twenties and Thirties. But men without women are altogether more troublesome than women without men, especially when they are young. All kinds of speculation is now seething about what might happen; a war to cull the surplus males, a rise in crime, a huge expansion in the prostitution that is already a major industry in every Chinese city, a rise in homosexuality.

Fidesz, the mainstream center-right party led by former Prime Minister Viktor Orban, was widely expected to gain a commanding lead in the first round of the vote - as much as 57 percent, according to polls released after most voting stations closed Sunday evening.

That left the real contest for second place. With Hungary among European nations hardest hit by the world recession, the far-right Jobbik party has capitalized on rising nationalism and a resurgence of anti-Semitism and anti-Gypsy sentiment linked to the downturn.

Exit polls showed Jobbik at 15 to 17 percent, just behind the 19 to 20 percent obtained by the governing Socialists overwhelmingly blamed for the economic hardships. For the Socialists, it would be a stunning setback from the 43 percent support they received in 2006.

Russian officials say the pilots were warned that they were flying too low. Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin earlier attended a memorial service for the victims at the crash site, near the city of Smolensk. He has said he would personally oversee the investigation into the disaster, promising to find out what happened as soon as possible.

The president had been flying to Russia along with his wife, the heads of the army and navy, MPs and senior historians to mark 70 years since Soviet forces massacred more than 20,000 Poles near Katyn. Experts have also suggested that the age and condition of the Polish president's Soviet-era Tupolev 154 plane could have played a part in the accident. Correspondents say the plane was flying too low and clipped some trees as it approached the runway in thick fog, before it came down in a forest.

* Government bond spreads jump to 463 basis points, new euro record

* Bank stocks down over 7 per cent, shed 50 per cent in debt crisis

* Fitch says time for government to ask for EU/IMF help

* Germany says safety net still last resort (Adds euro zone leaders expected to discuss lifeline)

The government struggled to reassure markets it can stay solvent after the premium investors demanded to buy Greek rather than the benchmark German government debt surged for the third day in a row to a record high since Greece joined the euro.

But scepticism at a dearth of details surrounding a proposed European Union and International Monetary Fund lifeline continued to pile pressure on a country already struggling to cover its wide fiscal gap and huge public debt load.

Chris Pryce, senior Greece analyst for rating agency Fitch, said Athens' only choice now was to ask for help.

The latest surge seems to have been prompted by rising confidence in a global economic recovery, even if most traders and bankers are still cautious about supply and demand fundamentals.

Worries about the Greek economy have pegged prices back over the last couple of days but the more bullish Wall Street banks see prices climbing further, with Barclays Capital forecasting $97, Goldman Sachs $110 and Morgan Stanley $100 next year.

But the higher prices go, the deeper the concerns that they will stifle global growth. Jeff Rubin, a former CIBC chief economist and author of a book on oil and globalisation, says: "Triple-digit oil prices are going to threaten a world recovery." Pricier oil and other key commodities, notably iron ore and copper, could ripple through the economy and financial markets, potentially triggering inflation and forcing central banks to lift interest rates from ultra-low levels. This could force bond yields higher, but lower the attractions of equities.

First European Citizens' initiative for a work-free Sunday in Europe

We need a work-free Sunday in all of Europe,

- because children need a family day, which is protected as a day off work

- because this brings Europe forward on it's way to become the most child-friendly region in the world

- because according to EU legislation, Sunday is the weekly rest day for children and adolescents

- because schools and public institutions never used to work on Sundays and do not intend to do so in the future - despite various religious, cultural and ethnical backgrounds

- because studies prove the positive health effects of the work-free free Sunday

- because every person needs spare time - to relax, to be active in civil society, for hobbies and for religion

- because the work-free SUNDAY IS AN ESSENTIAL PILLAR OF THE EUROPEAN SOCIAL MODEL AND A PART OF THE EUROPEAN CULTURAL HERITAGE

"Card companies don't really care about divorce in and of itself - they care whether you're going to pay your card off," explains one law professor. People who buy cheap motor oil or drink in certain bars are considered risky borrowers, whereas people who buy carbon monoxide detectors and premium birdseed tend to pay on time.

When American Express offered some customers $300 to close their accounts last year, it used this kind of data to pick its targets. And if the company predicts a major life change, like a move or divorce, it alerts marketing partners, so they can sell you things like furniture and home refurbishing services.

Shadow immigration minister Damian Green revealed unpublished figures showing there are almost 730,000 fewer British-born workers in the private sector than in 1997. Mr Brown rejected the idea of an immigration quota, which he said would do 'great damage to British business'. But Mr Green said the official figures were 'the final proof that Gordon Brown was misleading the public when he promised British jobs for British workers'.

He added: 'Instead he has presided over boom and bust and left British workers in a worse position than when he took office 13 years ago. British workers have been betrayed. A Conservative government would introduce a genuine limit which would help us properly control immigration.'

The ONS figures show the total number of people in work in both the private and the public sector has risen from around 25.7 million in 1997 to 27.4 million at the end of last year, an increase of 1.67 million. But the number of workers born abroad has increased dramatically by 1.64 million, from 1.9 million to 3.5 million.

Arguably, the most damaging charge of them all. New Labour's election manifestos made little or no mention of immigration policy. But according to a draft report by the Cabinet Office, written in 2000, ministers had a secret plan to 'maximise the contribution' of migrants to the Government's 'social objectives'. Former Labour advisor Andrew Neather, who worked on the report, said the aim was to 'rub the Right's nose in diversity and render their arguments out of date.'

The counter-attack marked an escalation of the anger and indignation felt by many in the Catholic hierarchy, who say that the Pope is being unfairly blamed for the sex abuse crisis. "The Pope embodies moral truths that aren't accepted, and the shortcomings and errors of priests are being used as weapons against the church," Angelo Sodano, the dean of the College of Cardinals, told the Vatican's official newspaper, L'Osservatore Romano.

"It's not a bishop's fault if one of his priests is stained by grave wrongdoing. And certainly the pontiff is not responsible." Cardinal Sodano provoked outrage from victims of clerical sex abuse when he said during a mass at the Vatican on Easter Sunday that Catholics should not be distracted by "petty gossip" over how Benedict dealt with child sex-abuse allegations in his five years as Pope, his 20 years as head of the Vatican's Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith and when he was archbishop of Munich in the 1980s.

Another cardinal, Julian Herranz of Spain, said that the Pope's opposition to gay marriage and abortion put him at odds with "powerful lobbies (which) would like to impose a completely different" agenda on the Church.

The protesters are angry at rising prices and accuse President Kurmanbek Bakiyev of failing to curb corruption. A key opposition leader has said the government has now resigned but there is no official confirmation. The leader, Temir Sariyev, said Prime Minister Daniyar Usenov had agreed to tender the government's resignation and that Mr Bakiyev had left Bishkek.

Mr Sariyev said a new "people's government" had been formed, headed by a former foreign minister, Roza Otunbayeva. The Agence France-Presse news agency quoted an airport employee as saying that Mr Bakiyev had flown out of Bishkek aboard a small plane. A senior opposition figure, Galina Skripkina, told Reuters news agency the president had flown to the southern city of Osh.

The US embassy in Bishkek and Russia have both expressed concern and called for restraint.

News of four major quakes in as many months, in Haiti, Chile, Mexico and Indonesia, has prompted a tinge of panic in some who would otherwise consider these events pure coincidence. "I received a call from a psychiatrist who is getting an influx of patients who are really concerned about the end of days," says Koontz, "and he wanted us to pinpoint science and provide him with links to science that would help allay the fears of some of his patients. He needed some hard facts and he said that that actually helped."

Koontz explained to the doctor what seismologist Harley Benz explained to Fox News. That seismically speaking, this is all pretty normal.

"You can expect earthquakes in locations where we are known to have earthquakes," explains Benz. "And in this case, in Sumatra, it's one of the most seismically active areas in the world. Likewise Chile is one of the most seismically active areas in the world."

According to the USGS Earthquake Center website, earthquakes can also occur in clusters, which may explain why this year has been front loaded with so much activity. Statistically, the globe is on track, so far this year, to be relatively average in terms of the number of larger quakes that hit annually. An average year will produce 17 quakes with a magnitude 7.0 or greater. What is different about the last four months is the number of deaths caused by quakes. According to USGS records, 223,140 have been killed worldwide from seismic activity. Almost all of those deaths occurred in Haiti when residents were crushed by poorly designed and constructed homes and structures.

In the last 20 years the number of seismographs around the globe has increased dramatically. Right now, four thousand monitors measure the Earth's movements. Since the USGS scientists can track more quakes and get the information out there faster, that too can add to the perception the world has become less stable, even if that isn't the case.

The surge in Greek bond yields, which reached 7.1 per cent, prompted the Finance Minister to warn that the present interest rate burden was unsustainable. The renewed fears about the Greek finances hit the euro, which fell against the dollar.

The rush to sell Greek debt was sparked by rumours that Athens was seeking to renegotiate a proposed rescue package involving loans from eurozone states and the IMF. At the same time, it emerged that Greece was trying to rebrand itself among investors as an emerging market bond issuer.