The survey of more than 100 foods marketed for babies and toddlers found that many are high in saturated fat, salt and sugar. Critics say this sets children up for a lifetime of demanding food that is unhealthy and laden with calories. The Children's Food Campaign lobby group says Farley's Original Rusks from Heinz contain more sugar per gram than McVities Dark Chocolate Digestives. Toddler's Own Mini Cheese Biscuits from Heinz had more saturated fat per gram than a McDonald's quarter pounder with cheese. And Cow & Gate Baby Balance Bear Biscuits contained trans-fats, which are linked to high cholesterol and clogged arteries.

Christine Haigh, of the Children's Food Campaign, said: "Many foods marketed for babies and young children are often advertised as 'healthy'. IN REALITY, IN TERMS OF SUGAR AND SATURATED FAT CONTENT, SOME ARE WORSE THAN JUNK FOOD. In particular, failing to correctly label products that contain dangerous trans fats is outrageous."

SHE SAID THE MANUFACTURERS WERE SOMETIMES SECRETIVE ABOUT THEIR INGREDIENTS. For example, Cow & Gate failed to provide a requested summary of the nutritional information for all its foods marketed for babies and young children. She called for the Department of Health to obtain a commitment from companies to reformulate their products to remove transfats and reduce the amount of saturated fat, salt and sugar.

Presuming each of the 29.3 million taxpayers in the country works an eight-hour day, and takes the standard four weeks off plus bank holidays, they contributed on average £7.27 for every hour that they worked. In the previous year, 31.6 million taxpayers contributed £6.63 an hour. Matthew Elliott, chief executive at the TaxPayers' Alliance said: "This is a shocking increase and shows that taxpayers face a heavier burden than ever this year. We can't have fewer and fewer productive taxpayers paying for an increasingly bloated and inefficient public sector."

The main reason for the alarming jump of 9.7 per cent is that, not only has THE TOTAL TAX BILL INCREASED SLIGHTLY, BUT THE NUMBER OF TAXPAYERS HAS DROPPED SHARPLY as the recession has caused unemployment to rise. HM Revenue and Customs last week revealed the number of total taxpayers in the country has fallen below 30 million for the first time in six years.

The main taxes that have increased over the last year are beer duties, despite signs that consumption of beer has fallen sharply, council tax and vehicle excise duty BECAUSE THEY ALL INCREASED BY MUCH MORE THAN INFLATION. The concern is that the Treasury itself estimates that its TOTAL TAX TAKE WILL FALL VERY SHARPLY NEXT YEAR, as stamp duty all but dries up because of the collapse in the housing market. Income tax is also expected to fall significantly.

Mr Marchionne wants Italy's largest industrial group to separate Fiat Auto from its other divisions, join them with Opel / Vauxhall, Saab, and GM's other European operations, and Fiat's stake in Chrysler to create a company with about €80bn ($106bn) of revenues and sales of 6m-7m vehicles a year – second to Toyota, more than Renault / Nissan or Ford Motor, or GM itself, and roughly as many as Volkswagen.

In an interview with the Financial Times, Mr Marchionne said: "From an engineering and industrial point of view, this is a marriage made in heaven". He hopes to complete the transaction by the end of May, and list shares of the new company, tentatively called Fiat/Opel, by the end of the summer.

If it clears antitrust, political, and other hurdles, the new group would marry GM Europe's 10 plants, mostly in northern Europe, to Fiat's 11 – mostly in Italy – to create a pan-continental powerhouse that, with Chrysler, would be a big force in Europe, North America, and Latin America.

In her first extensive media interview since alerting the world to a potential flu pandemic nine days ago, Margaret Chan, the agency's director-general, told the Financial Times that the end of the flu season in the northern hemisphere meant an initial outbreak could be milder but then a second wave more lethal, as happened in 1918.

Fresh data from Mexico suggested the impact of the flu could be less than initially thought. José Angel Cordova, health minister said the flu virus epidemic had passed its peak and was declining. "The evolution of the epidemic is now in its phase of descent," he said. The Mexican government, which had already SCALED BACK ITS ORIGINAL ESTIMATE OF 176 DEATHS, SAID 19 OF THE SUSPECTED 100 DEATHS from the H1N1 virus had been confirmed.

But Ms Chan warned that an apparent decline in mortality rates outside and within Mexico did not mean the pandemic was ending. "We hope the virus fizzles out, because if it doesn't we are heading for a big outbreak." But she said: "I'm not predicting the pandemic will blow up, but if I miss it and we don't prepare, I fail. I'd rather over-prepare than not prepare."

Over the past few months, SAUDI ARABIAN investors have paid $100m for an Ethiopian farm where they hope to grow wheat and barley, adding to the millions of acres they already own in the war-ravaged country, as well as in neighbouring Sudan. The Saudis also have land in Indonesia and Thailand for growing rice. CHINA owns vast tracts of overseas land, mainly in Algeria and Zimbabwe, and one estimate suggests that more than a million ethnic Chinese farm workers will be living on the continent this year. Kenya and Tanzania have leased land while the Ugandans have been big sellers, allocating two million acres of land to Egypt for wheat and corn.

Further afield, the Saudi government and other Gulf States are negotiating with Pakistan to buy another million acres. THE DEAL INCLUDES THE SERVICES OF A 100,000-MAN PRIVATE ARMY TO PROTECT THE FOOD BEING EXPORTED. Buyers or lease-holders have have also been promised legal cover in case a future government in Islamabad is less welcoming.

Soaring wheat and rice prices over the past two years – which have caused riots in more than 30 countries from India to Haiti – were the catalyst for the latest dash for land. But the rush really took off at the end of last year when many big food-exporting nations introduced export controls. David Hallam, the deputy director of the trade and markets division at the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) said, "There is a danger that host countries, particularly the more politically sensitive and food-insecure, WILL LOSE CONTROL OVER THEIR OWN FOOD SUPPLIES when they need it most."

Imagine, he says, empty trucks being driven into, say, Ethiopia, at a time of food shortages caused by war or drought, and being driven out again full of grain to feed people overseas. "Can you imagine the political consequences? That's why proper legal structures need to be put into place to protect land rights, and why we should look at some form of international code of conduct."

With a huge migrant population, poverty and unemployment among locals, and with the high oil prices that fuelled the economic boom of the past few years a fast-receding memory, many feel THE TIME FOR RUSSIA'S NATIONALISTS TO TAKE THE POLITICAL INITIATIVE IS COMING SOON.

Then there's Alexander Belov, Moscow's answer to the BNP's Nick Griffin. Dressed in a sharp black suit, the light of a Bluetooth receptor constantly winking over his left ear, he fingers a set of Orthodox Christian prayer beads and sips a freshly squeezed orange juice, looking like one of the thousands of well-to-do businessmen who have made decent money as Russia boomed over the past decade. But as well as being successful in the construction industry, Mr Belov is also Russia's most famous racist.

He believes that the time for the nationalists to take the limelight is coming soon. "What I want is very simple," he says, in a quiet and measured voice. "I don't want parts of Moscow to be ghettos. This city is already full of places where Russians aren't welcome, and it's unacceptable. This is a Russian city and should remain that way. "

RUSSIA HAS MORE THAN 10 MILLION IMMIGRANTS by some estimates, giving it the second-largest immigrant population in the world, after the United States. With the financial crisis bringing Russia's economic boom to a grinding halt, hundreds of thousands of migrant labourers who were the engine behind the construction frenzy that overtook Moscow and other Russian cities find themselves out of work. At the same time, UNEMPLOYMENT AND ANGER ARE ON THE RISE AMONG ETHNIC RUSSIANS. Analysts say it could be a dangerous combination, and people such as Mr Belov believe their moment is nigh.

The first case of pigs being infected with the new virus emerged last night when officials in the Canadian province of Alberta said some animals were thought to have been infected by a farm worker who had recently visited Mexico and became ill on his return. THIS IS THIS WEEK EXPECTED TO ESCALATE THE OUTBREAK TO A FULL PANDEMIC — level six on its six-point scale — because of the continuing spread of swine flu among people who haven't been to Mexico. There is concern that the virus may become resistant to drugs.

Dr Michael Ryan, WHO director of global alert and response, yesterday said there was no evidence yet of a sustained spread of the virus outside North America. HE ADDED, HOWEVER, THAT A PANDEMIC REMAINED IMMINENT. So far, 17 countries have reported 653 cases of H1N1 and 17 Mexicans have died. Outside Mexico the virus does not appear to be severe, despite a warning last week from Dr Margaret Chan, director-general of the WHO, that a swine flu pandemic would pose a "threat against humanity".

A senior consultant who has been treating swine flu victims said: "THE WAY THEY ARE TALKING YOU WOULD THINK OUR CULTURE IS COLLAPSING. This time last week we were all incredibly worried because the reports from Mexico were that hospitals were full and people were dying all over the place. Actually it doesn't seem to be that severe. The symptoms are unpleasant — fevers, shivering, aches — but no worse than normal seasonal flu. Our patient made a full recovery."

The new system, Wolfram Alpha, showcased at Harvard University in the US last week, takes the first step towards what many consider to be the internet's Holy Grail – a global store of information that understands and responds to ordinary language in the same way a person does. Although the system is still new, it has already produced massive interest and excitement among technology pundits and internet watchers.

Wolfram Alpha will not only give a straight answer to questions such as "how high is Mount Everest?", but it will also produce a neat page of related information – all properly sourced – such as geographical location and nearby towns, and other mountains, complete with graphs and charts.

The real innovation, however, is in its ability to work things out "on the fly", according to its British inventor, Dr Stephen Wolfram. If you ask it to compare the height of Mount Everest to the length of the Golden Gate Bridge, it will tell you. Or ask what the weather was like in London on the day John F Kennedy was assassinated, it will cross-check and provide the answer. Ask it about D sharp major, it will play the scale. Type in "10 flips for four heads" and it will guess that you need to know the probability of coin-tossing. If you want to know when the next solar eclipse over Chicago is, or the exact current location of the International Space Station, it can work it out.

The engine, which will be free to use, works by drawing on the knowledge on the internet, as well as private databases. Dr Wolfram said he expected that about 1,000 people would be needed to keep its databases updated with the latest discoveries and information. He also added that he would not go down the road of storing information on ordinary people, although he was aware that others might use the technology to do so.

Instead of grim warnings about global warming, the firm advises, talk about "our deteriorating atmosphere." Drop discussions of carbon dioxide and bring up "moving away from the dirty fuels of the past." Don't confuse people with cap and trade; use terms like "cap and cash back" or "pollution reduction refund."

EcoAmerica has been conducting research for the last several years to find new ways to frame environmental issues and SO BUILD PUBLIC SUPPORT FOR CLIMATE CHANGE LEGISLATION AND OTHER INITIATIVES. A summary of the group's latest findings and recommendations was accidentally sent by e-mail to a number of news organizations by someone who sat in this week on a briefing intended for government officials and environmental leaders.

"When someone thinks of global warming, they think of a politicized, polarized argument. When you say 'global warming,' a certain group of Americans think that's a code word for progressive liberals, gay marriage and other such issues." The answer, Mr. Perkowitz said in his presentation at the briefing, is to reframe the issue using different language. "Energy efficiency" makes people think of shivering in the dark. Instead, it is more effective to speak of "saving money for a more prosperous future." In fact, the group's surveys and focus groups found, it is time to drop the term "the environment" and talk about "the air we breathe, the water our children drink."

Fewer patients with severe flu symptoms were also checking into hospitals, suggesting the infection rate of a flu that has spread to Europe and Asia was declining. South Korea confirmed its first H1N1 case on Saturday, a 51-year-old woman who returned from Mexico in mid-April. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention agreed THE OUTBREAK MAY NOT BE AS SEVERE AS IT LOOKED A FEW DAYS AGO, citing many mild cases that were not immediately noticed.

Health Minister Jose Angel Cordova acknowledged the numbers were encouraging but cautioned it was too early to say Mexico had control of a flu that has infected people in 15 countries. "For now it's unpredictable," Cordova said late on Friday, noting epidemics can peak again after an initial spurt in infections drops off. "We need more days to see how it behaves and whether there is really a sustained decline so we can conclude that it's going down," he said.

The new virus is only the third infectious disease experts regard as having pandemic potential in the past 10 years.

TURKEY - Turkish riot police fired water cannon and tear gas, firing shots and pepper spray to disperse masked protesters. Young men hurled stones and Molotov cocktails, smashing bank and shop windows in side streets. Turkey's government had declared May Day, traditionally marked across Europe and beyond by rallies by labour unions, a public holiday this year under pressure from the unions.

"Those who are here are unemployed and need work," said Mehmet Guleryuz, a film director. "These are students who cannot pay tuition fees. Things are bad everywhere but it hits Turkey hard." ALMOST ONE IN THREE YOUNG PEOPLE IN TURKEY IS WITHOUT A JOB and the government fears social unrest and increased ethnic tension because of the downturn. Labour unions, traditionally weak, have become increasingly vocal.

GERMANY - In Berlin and Hamburg, scattered violence erupted in the early hours of the May Day holiday injuring more than 50 riot police, authorities said. Some 200 demonstrators chanting anti-capitalism slogans threw bottles and stones at riot police in Berlin, police said, torching five cars. GERMANY IS FACING ITS WORST ECONOMIC CRISIS SINCE WORLD WAR TWO. German police were braced for further violence later when members of far right parties, labour unions and Leftists march.

FRANCE - French unions organised nearly 300 marches targeting President Nicolas Sarkozy's social policies and crisis management, with the opposition Socialist party calling on its members to join the protests for the first time since 2002. France's headline jobless total rose to almost 2.5 million in March, 2.7 percent up on the previous month. The number of jobseekers under 25 increased 36 percent year on year.

In a sign of how far disillusion has spread, even staff in management positions are expected to take part in the marches. "It is absolutely not in our tradition to protest on May 1, but given the economic context in France and crisis we decided to join in," said Carole Couvert, a leader of the CFE-CGC union for executives.

GREECE - In Athens, nearly 6,000 protesters, mostly members of a communist trade union, gathered under the watchful eyes of 4,000 police. Many were angry at bank bailouts. "WE WON'T PAY FOR THEIR CRISIS," read banners from the country's main trade union GSEE.

The old man was so distressed that doctors had to sedate him with morphine, said Ray Hopper, the local member of parliament. "The top of his ears were severely chewed and he had bites to his head and neck," Hopper told the Australian Associated Press.

"His hands were covered in blood because he was trying to get the mice off him. We are talking about a health facility overrun by vermin. It's atrocious," he added. Ageing Minister Justine Elliot said she understood there had been a second attack, and had asked accreditation authorities to investigate the staff response to the rodent plague.

Queensland Health spokesman Stewart Gordon said authorities were doing everything in their power to get rid of the mice, including boosting nursing staff numbers and increasing cleaning staff. The home, Karingal, is home to 70 high-dependency residents, including 22 who are over 90 years old.

Now, with the coming retirement of a Supreme Court justice clearing the way for him to appoint a successor, Obama already is assured a legacy at the top of all three branches of government - executive, legislative and judicial. On the corporate front, the federal government's pumping of billions of dollars in bailout money into banks and auto companies has given Obama the power to force an overhaul in those industries, a remarkable intervention in capitalist industries by the state.

Americans are giving him leeway as well. His job approval ratings are well over 60 percent, giving him political capital to undertake big challenges. His political opponents, the Republicans, are in disarray, reduced in numbers and engaged in an internal struggle over how to recover from devastating election losses in 2006 and last year.

Experts speak of Obama in the same league as such transformational presidents as Democrat Franklin Roosevelt, who led the United States through the Great Depression and World War Two, and Republican Ronald Reagan, who led the country to victory in the Cold War. "I CANNOT IN MY MEMORY REMEMBER A TIME WHEN A PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES HAS HAD MORE INFLUENCE," said Democratic strategist Doug Schoen, who worked in the Clinton White House. "Not only is it his moment, it is a level of influence and power for a president that is literally unprecedented from any time since the New Deal and Franklin Roosevelt."

From May 8 to 15 the Pope will visit the Holy Land, Jordan, Israel and the Palestinian territories, in a visit described by the government of Israel as a "BRIDGE FOR PEACE." The Rabbi message, titled "UNITED IN OUR AGE," is inspired by "Nostra Aetate," the statement that the Second Vatican Council issued on October 28, 1965, which motivated closer relations between Jews and Catholics.

In particular, the message cites the document that states: "Since the spiritual patrimony common to Christians and Jews is thus so great, this sacred synod wants to foster and recommend that mutual understanding and respect which is the fruit, above all, of biblical and theological studies as well as of fraternal dialogues."

Addressing the Pontiff, the message affirms: "In this spirit, we - rabbis and Jewish leaders - WARMLY WELCOME YOU AND YOUR MISSION OF PEACE TO ISRAEL."

A report in World Tribune quoted an Israeli source familiar with the intelligence assessment who said that "OBAMA WANTS TO MAKE FRIENDS WITH OUR WORST ENEMIES and those who were until now the worst enemies of the United States. Under this policy," the source added, "we are more than irrelevant. WE HAVE BECOME AN OBSTACLE."

"Obama will want to show Iran, Syria and radical Muslims that the United States could pressure Israel on a strategic level," the source said. "The pressure has already begun and will intensify throughout the next year or two."

At the same time, the intelligence officials estimated that Obama would restrict U.S. arms exports to Israel in an effort to deny it systems that it could use in a raid on Iran or Syria. The intelligence sources said this policy was begun during the last year of the Bush administration and predicted that it would intensify under Obama.