She was criticized for arriving in Haiti too late - more than six weeks after US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who has since been to Chile to survey the damage from a subsequent earthquake that struck there; for being tardy in Cordoba, after having missed a meeting with the EU defense ministers and the NATO secretary general on Mallorca a week earlier; and because, in the view of some of the attendees, she came to Cordoba equipped with shoddy material on the development of the European diplomatic service.

Her predecessor Javier Solana, known for his busy schedule, flew an average of about 6,000 kilometers (3,750 miles) a week. Ashton has recently been traveling three times as much, and yet, according to the BBC, the flying EU ambassador's reward for her efforts has been nothing but "flak" from the member states. As one top European diplomat said, a battle is underway "between political pygmies," one that is symptomatic of the EU's loss of significance on the global stage.

The explanation for how a Labour politician whose most distinctive traits are - in the words of former BBC editor Rod Liddle - "Stalinist political correctness" and the "charisma of a caravan site on the Isle of Sheppey" captured the top spot in EU diplomacy is as simple as it is grotesque. The appointment of the inexperienced Briton seemed to guarantee that no one would interfere with the national foreign policies of individual EU member states, particularly the powerful nations of France, Germany and Great Britain.

But now there are growing fears, even in Paris and Berlin, that Europe may have missed an historic opportunity by choosing Ashton.

"If we continue to borrow at very high rates ... twice, for example, the rates of Germany, that would be unsustainable within a common currency," he said, referring to the 16 nations that share the euro as a currency. Papandreou blamed speculators for Greece's woes, and warned that a fresh financial crisis could be triggered if their activities were not reined in. "An ongoing euro crisis could cause a domino effect, driving up borrowing costs for other countries with large deficits and causing volatility in bond and currency rates across the world," he said.

Greece's borrowing costs have skyrocketed in recent months, forcing the government to take tough measures to tighten its budget and pushing Papandreou to look to neighbors for help. "We're not asking for money. We're not asking for bailouts," Papandreou stressed on the first day of a four-day US visit. "What we're simply saying is we want to be equal partners as we've taken these measures ... to be able to get what others also can get, which is basically normal rates of borrowing." The Greek prime minister will take his case to President Barack Obama when the two meet on Tuesday.

In a speech earlier on Monday, Papandreou called for tougher rules for credit default swaps and said the G20 rich and emerging nations should take the lead in keeping speculators in line. Credit default swaps are sold to investors to protect them from the risks of a debt default; they are also used to bet on whether a company will default on its bonds. "We need clear rules on shorts, naked shorts and credit default swaps. I hope there will be a positive response from this side of the Atlantic to bring this initiative to the G20," Papandreou said.

Critics of credit default swaps charge that speculators use the contracts to bet against countries for profit, which can lead bond yields higher and make it prohibitively expensive for debt-strapped countries like Greece to refinance their debt. Hedge funds have been accused of aggravating the Greek debt crisis with "naked short selling" - betting on a default without owning the underlying bonds. Under current US law, regulators do not have authority to regulate the $31 trillion credit default swaps market or prohibit investors from using the swaps as a speculative tool.

The IMF's managing director, Dominique Strauss-Kahn, who is traveling this week in Africa, played down fears that Greece's problems would trigger crisis in other heavily indebted euro zone countries like Portugal, Ireland and Spain. "The euro zone has to deal with the Greek problem. They are doing this," Strauss-Kahn said. "No one knows what's going to happen tomorrow morning, but there's no reason why the spillover to Portugal or to Spain will take place," he said in an interview in Nairobi.

This week, the Arab emirate is hoping the world takes another look. The city-state, best known of late for bailing out its flashier neighbor Dubai, is bringing together some of the industry's biggest names for a summit that will temporarily shift much of the world's media and entertainment elite to a luxury hotel on the Persian Gulf. Headliners at the event starting Tuesday include News Corp's Rupert Murdoch and Google Inc chief Eric Schmidt.

The idea is to entice "the best and the brightest media minds," said Edward Borgerding, a former Walt Disney Co executive who is now CEO of the state-owned Abu Dhabi Media Co, the event's host. But the gathering is also a coming-out party for Abu Dhabi, which has seen its own star rise as nearby Dubai's fades, serving as a reflection of the emirate's growing weight in the media industry. Increasingly, though, the United Arab Emirates capital has been using its immense petroleum wealth to extend its media reach overseas, even as it shows little sign of easing restrictions on journalists or Internet users at home.

Neighboring Dubai built its reputation on being a carefree business haven. Despite its well-publicized economic slump, the port city continues to host regional offices for hundreds of media companies, ranging from small ad agencies to international broadcasters such as CNBC and Showtime. And Doha, the capital of nearby Qatar, is home to the best-known group of Arabic satellite TV channels, al-Jazeera.

It is difficult to gauge how much of its oil wealth Abu Dhabi is willing to lavish on the media business, which must compete with the government's plans to grow other sectors, such as technology, manufacturing, energy and tourism. Few details about the government's finances are made public, and none of the executives who agreed to speak with The Associated Press would discuss their companies' financial resources. Davidson estimates the state will spend at least $2 billion to $3 billion over five years just on physical infrastructure and seed money for the media sector. But there is always more should things really take off. "This is small change for Abu Dhabi," he said. "They can throw such massive resources at this."

By issuing the apostolic constitution Anglicanorum coetibus (on groups of Anglicans) the Pope was accused of attempting to poach Anglicans unhappy about decisions taken in their Church to ordain women and sexually-active homosexuals as priests and bishops. But the Vatican insisted that the move to create self-governing "personal ordinariates", which resemble dioceses in structure, came as a result of requests from at least 30 disaffected Anglican bishops around the world for "corporate reunion" with the Catholic Church.

The Anglican Church in America (ACA) will now enter the Catholic Church as a block, bringing in thousands of converts along with their own bishops, buildings and even a cathedral. They will worship according to Anglican rubrics, and use the Book of Common Prayer, but they will be in communion with the Pope, recognising him as their leader. The decision was taken by the House of Bishops of the ACA during a meeting in Orlando, Florida, earlier this week.

Its decision to rejoin the Catholic Church represents the second group of Anglican churches to take up the Pope's offer. The first was the Australian branch of Forward in Faith, a traditionalist group in communion with the Church of England and other mainstream Anglican churches, which last month directed its governing council to take the first steps needed for the mass conversion of 16 parishes to Catholicism. The UK branch of Forward in Faith is also considering mass conversion but has delayed a decision until July at the earliest - though its leaders are known to be holding secretive meetings with high-ranking Vatican officials.

An early conversion came last month, however, when it emerged that Paul Robinson, the former assistant Anglican Bishop of Newcastle (UK), converted just weeks after stepping down from his post. The 63-year-old was received into the Catholic Church in January and is now a regular worshipper at St George's Roman Catholic Cathedral in Southwark, following a move to London.

'It's really a journey I've been on for some time,' he said. 'It's just like coming home.' Last summer, Mr Robinson claimed that the dramatic fall in church marriages and baptisms was an indication that Britain was no longer a Christian nation.

Her Christian Democratic Union's general election victory last September was handsome, with a big enough vote to forge the centre-right coalition government she wanted to run Europe's biggest economy for another four years. When confirmed as chancellor at the end of the following month her personal popularity was riding high, she had a majority in both houses of parliament and she seemed set for a smooth ride.

Yet four months later, Ms Merkel is looking harassed and frustrated. Her three-party "black-and-yellow" coalition with the liberal Free Democratic party and Bavaria's Christian Social Union is riven by bickering. Attempts by the chancellor to calm the conflict have been ignored. The government's popularity is in steep decline, with 72 per cent of voters declaring themselves dissatisfied with its performance, according to an opinion poll. "The coalition is divided on a whole range of issues, from tax cuts to social policy and whether Turkey should join the European Union," says Jurgen Falter, professor of political science at Mainz university. "The coalition agreement was too vague. It was negotiated in a hurry. Everyone finds bits that say what they want them to, but they do not agree on what those mean. This all contributes to a miserable image."

On the international stage, Germany is under attack for failing to play its full part in reviving the global economy and reducing the trading imbalances that have contributed to the current instability. Instead of boosting domestic demand in what is the eurozone's engine of growth, she has presented herself as a stubborn defender of budget discipline and a stern opponent of any bail-out for Europe's weaker economies - notably crisis-struck Greece.

Yet for all the public differences, there is one thing on which the government is united - out of conviction, not out of weakness. The Greek crisis has underlined once again that for German voters, the stability of the euro is paramount. There will be no sharp increase in public spending to stimulate demand, which would risk inflation. That is fundamental. "It is part of the collective memory," says Prof Falter. "Germans are for stability and austerity, and not for deficit spending. We know what it is to tighten our belts. That is why the Greeks are expected to put their own house in order, without any bail-out."

The attacks are said to have been in revenge for the killing of several hundred people around Jos in January. Acting President Goodluck Jonathan has put security forces on alert to stop the flow of weapons to the area. The AFP news agency reports that troops have entered the villages, which are now said to be calm. Many of the dead in the villages of Zot and Dogo-Nahawa are reported to be women and children.

Elazig Governor Muammer Erol said the majority of deaths had occurred in the nearby villages of Okcular, Yukari Kanatli and Kayali. Rescue teams have been deployed to find survivors trapped under rubble. Mr Erol said many people in the affected villages lived in mud-brick homes built on hillsides, which were especially prone to collapse. "Villages consisting mainly of mud-brick houses have been damaged, but we have minimal damage such as cracks in buildings made of cement or stone," he told CNN Turk television.

Residents of the affected villages have been warned not to return to damaged homes while the area continues to be hit by aftershocks, the strongest of which has so far measured 5.5. Turkey is plagued by earthquakes - generally minor - because of its location on the North Anatolian fault line. A 7.4-magnitude tremor which hit the western city of Izmit in August 1999 killed more than 17,000 people.

"The weather system that brought the damage to Melbourne is known in meteorological terms as a supercell thunderstorm, an organised beast of a storm that once it gets going tends to last more than your average thunderstorm," he said. The fierce storm, which flooded city streets, saw some 26 millimetres (one inch) of rain fall on Melbourne within an hour Saturday while other areas recorded up to 70 millimetres.

In the city centre the National Gallery of Victoria suffered flooding, while the Docklands Stadium was among those buildings damaged during the storm, which washed out horse races. Bureau of Meteorology forecaster Wasyl Drosdowsky said the hail that hit in one suburban area was up to 10 centimetres (four inches) in diameter.

In the nearby tiny town of Nindigully, residents were marvelling at the amount of water surrounding the rural outpost. "Overall, we are happy to have experienced this flood because of the beauty of vast expanses of water through the bush that you never forget," Steve Burns, the owner of the 146-year-old Nindigully Pub told AAP.

In January hundreds of people were killed in riots in Jos, which lies between the mainly Muslim north and the more Christian south. Ethnic and religious riots also broke out in 2008, killing hundreds. The attack happened before dawn on Sunday morning when gangs of men descended on the village and attacked people with machetes, reports say.

A resident of Dogo-Nahawa said the attackers had fired guns as they entered the village. "The shooting was just meant to bring people from their houses and then when people came out they started cutting them with machetes," Peter Jang told Reuters. An unnamed government official told AFP at least 100 people had been killed - most of them women and children. Another eyewitness told the BBC he saw scores of dead bodies including those of children. A doctor at a hospital in Jos told Reuters news agency that victims had been cut by machetes and burnt.

Analysts say the attack seems to be in reprisal for the clashes between Christians and Muslims in January, which claimed the lives of at least 200 people and displaced thousands of others.

It is the latest in a series of incidents raising religious tensions in the Muslim-majority country. The journalists said they had attended the church service to check reports of the illegal conversion of Muslims, but found no evidence of it. While non-Catholics can attend Mass, the Church does not allow those who are not baptised to receive the communion wafer.

Protests against a court ruling in December that non-Muslims could use the word "Allah" led the government to appeal against the judgement. Arson attacks then followed, mainly targeting churches, and wild boar's heads were placed at mosques. Pigs are considered unclean by Muslims and their presence would be taken as an insult.

Malays, who are required to be Muslim in Malaysia, make up a majority of the country's population alongside substantial Chinese and Indian minorities. The Malaysian constitution gives primacy to Islam but allows the free practice of other faiths.

Many economists expect China to allow the yuan to appreciate slightly this year, but the cautious tone by Mr Zhou means that any change may not happen for some time. He said that the central bank would maintain the "basic stability" of the currency. So, despite the fact that the Chinese economy grew by 10.7pc in the fourth quarter of last year, the country's loose monetary policy looks set to continue.

"If we are to exit from irregular policies and return to ordinary economic policies, we must be extremely prudent about our choice of timing," Mr Zhou said. "This also includes the [yuan] exchange rate policy." China's currency policy has been the subject of fierce debate, particularly in the US and Europe, with the country's central bank accused of keeping the yuan artificially low to promote a domestic exports boom.

The relative value of the dollar is important to China, as the country is the world's largest holder of US government debt. According to data from the US Treasury Department, China held $894.8 billion (591 billion pounds) of US Treasury securities at the end of December. Roughly two-thirds of the country's reserves are believed to be in dollars and dollar-denominated assets such as gold. "The US dollar is still an extremely important currency, playing a key role in international trade, cross-border capital flows, direct investment as well as in determining whether we can smoothly overcome the global financial crisis," Mr Zhou said.

Basic supermarket groceries are currently immune from VAT, along with books, newspapers and children's clothes. However a VAT levy on food of between three and five per cent would raise billions of pounds in tax and help reduce Government borrowings, which are expected to hit 180 billion pounds this year. Food sales from supermarkets are estimated to total 120 billion pounds a year.

The tax would be controversial as it would disproportionately affect poorer families. Any move to impose it would be vehemently opposed by the UK's large food retailers, who argue that it would be a 'tax on living'. Justin King, the chief executive of J Sainsbury, said this weekend that a tax on groceries would be a "very bad idea". Another supermarket executive said last night that the tax would be "political dynamite".

The topic is being tentatively brought up in Whitehall as politicians, lobbyists and civil servants examine possible ways of raising revenues, according to multiple retail industry sources. An increase in headline VAT above its current 17.5 per cent level is also being mooted. A Treasury spokesman said that there was "absolutely no question" of the current Chancellor imposing VAT on groceries.

It came amid escalating tension in the long-running dispute between Iran and the West over Tehran's nuclear program, with the United States pushing for new UN sanctions against the major oil producer. Ahmadinejad described the destruction of the twin towers in New York on September 11, 2001 as a "complicated intelligence scenario and act," IRNA reported.

He added: "The September 11 incident was a big fabrication as a pretext for the campaign against terrorism and a prelude for staging an invasion against Afghanistan." He did not elaborate. In January, Ahmadinejad termed the September 11 attacks "suspicious" and accused the West of seeking to dominate the Middle East. Ahmadinejad, who has called for Israel to be wiped off the map, was re-elected in a disputed presidential vote last June that stirred the largest display of internal unrest in the country since the 1979 Islamic revolution.

The British and Dutch governments want reimbursement for the 3.8 billion euros (3.4 billion pounds; $5.2 billion) they paid out in compensation to customers in 2008.

Talks between Iceland, the UK and the Netherlands broke down on Friday without agreement. With a third of votes counted, 93% of Icelanders have voted "No", less than 2% back the deal, and the remaining votes are invalid. Britain and the Netherlands want the money as repayment for bailing out customers in the Icesave online bank, which folded in 2008 due to the global financial meltdown.

Many Icelanders believe the plan should be rejected because they feel they are being penalised for the mistakes of the banking industry. "I will vote 'No' simply because I disagree very strongly with us... having to shoulder this burden," Ingimar Gudmundsson, a lorry driver, told AFP news agency. "We want to pay our debts but we want to do it without going bankrupt," Steinunn Ragnarsdottir, a pianist who voted in Reykjavik City Hall, told Reuters.

There is also anger against the UK for using anti-terrorist legislation to freeze Icesave assets in the country. Arni Gunnarsson, a former Icelandic MP, told the BBC News website: "We have not forgotten how Britain used battleships against Iceland during the cod wars. We find this a very strange method of thanking the Icelandic people for sacrificing the lives of their seamen during World War II. The colonial attitude is still going strong. The UK should come to its senses."

Balducci has been a member since 1995 of "Gentlemen of His Holiness," an exclusive fraternity of ushers within the papal household who serve during state and special occasions. Members of the group bore Pope John Paul II's coffin in 2005. This latest Vatican embarrassment, coming not long after Irish priests were summoned to Rome to discuss decades of clerical sexual abuse in Ireland, surfaced inadvertently as a result of a probe into corruption involving public works contracts.

Balducci, who sits on the board of Italy's public works council and is a construction consultant to the Vatican, was one of four people arrested in February in connection with the corruption probe. He has not yet been charged in that case, which remains open. On Wednesday, La Repubblica published excerpts from the wiretaps and other police documents from the probe, which indicated Balducci was in regular contact with Ehiem, a member of the Vatican's Giulia Choir. Police identified him as part "of an organized network ... to abet male prostitution."

Among the men allegedly procured for Balducci, according to the transcripts, were "two black Cuban boys," a former male model from Naples and a rugby player from Rome.