The former England opener, now an ICC match referee, returned home yesterday after being hailed a hero for his actions when gunmen opened fire on a convey of cars before day three of the second Test between Pakistan and Sri Lanka. At a hastily arranged press conference in Manchester, Broad said: "We were promised high-level security and IN OUR HOUR OF NEED THAT SECURITY VANISHED AND THEY LEFT US TO BE SITTING DUCKS."

His shock allegation came as it was revealed the hero driver of the Sri Lanka cricketeers' bus had a jihadist brother. Mehar Mohammed Khalil averted a massacre by driving the team to safety under a hail of bullets. But his younger brother Shakil was an extremist who died fighting for a jihadist militant group in Indian-controlled Kashmir in 1995.

Yesterday the top American diplomat in Kabul warned that Pakistan is now a bigger threat than Afghanistan. "It is certainly one of those nuclear-armed countries the instability of which is a bigger problem for the globe. Pakistan is a bigger place, has a larger population, it's nuclear-armed. IT HAS CERTAINLY MADE RADICAL ISLAM A PART OF ITS POLITICAL LIFE, and it now seems to be a deeply ingrained element of its political culture. It makes things there very hard."

GM had warned last month that its auditors, Deloitte & Touche, could raise those concerns, but the announcement underscored the stakes for the company, the No. 1 US automaker, as it sought up to $30 billion in US government aid to restructure without resorting to bankruptcy.

"Our recurring losses from operations, stockholders' deficit and inability to generate sufficient cash flow to meet our obligations and sustain our operations RAISE SUBSTANTIAL DOUBT ABOUT OUR ABILITY TO CONTINUE AS A GOING CONCERN," GM said in the report, which was filed with the US Securities and Exchange Commission.

GM shares had plunged almost 18 percent by Thursday afternoon, helping to drag down the broader market. GM said it could be forced to file for bankruptcy protection in a number of situations, including failure to receive more government aid, failure to exact concessions from bondholders and the United Automobile Workers union, and further deterioration of an already dismal new-vehicle market in the United States.

An additional 2.2 million borrowers will be underwater if home prices decline another 5 percent, First American, a Santa Ana, California-based seller of mortgage and economic data, said in a report today. Households with negative equity or near it account for a quarter of all mortgage holders.

"We have way too much supply and not enough demand," Sam Khater, senior economist for First American, said in an interview. "People aren't going to purchase a home as long as prices keep falling, and someone who is worried about their job isn't going to purchase a home either."

US foreclosure filings exceeded 250,000 for the 10th straight month in January, RealtyTrac Inc reported, and payrolls plunged by 598,000, pushing the unemployment rate to the highest since 1992, according to the Labor Department.

The report also says Israel's time frame for action is growing shorter, not only because of Iranian advances, but because Teheran might soon acquire upgraded air defenses and disperse its nuclear program to additional locations.

The report, "Preventing a Cascade of Instability," was put out by the Washington Institute for Near East Policy (WINEP). It also argues that international sanctions against Iran need to be intensified urgently for the engagement the Obama administration is planning with Teheran to be effective.

"Even without testing a nuclear weapon or declaring the ability to do so, Iran's progress toward nuclear weapons capability is already having a substantial impact on the Middle East," the report says. "Time is short if diplomatic engagement is to have a chance of success."

The Fed refused yesterday to disclose the names of the borrowers and the loans, ALLEGING THAT IT WOULD CAST "A STIGMA" ON RECIPIENTS of more than $1.9 trillion of emergency credit from US taxpayers and the assets the central bank is accepting as collateral. Fed secrecy was the focus of a Senate Banking Committee hearing today in which the panel's top two members said the central bank's reluctance to identify companies benefiting from the American International Group Inc bailout risks undermining public confidence in the government.

"If the American taxpayer's money is at stake, and it is, big time, I believe the American taxpayers, the people, and this committee, need to know who benefited, where this money went," said Senator Richard Shelby of Alabama, the committee's top Republican. "There is no transparency here. We are going to find out." Shelby told the Fed vice chairman that "YOUR ANSWER HERE IS VERY DISTURBING. PEOPLE WANT TO KNOW WHAT YOU'VE DONE WITH THIS MONEY."

He said the approach would "eventually work" but ADMITTED IT WAS UNKNOWN HOW LONG IT WOULD TAKE to have an effect. The approach, untried in the UK, was unveiled as the Bank cut interest rates from 1% to 0.5% - a fresh all-time low. Interest rates have now been reduced six times since October, and the latest cut was expected.

Mr King insisted that increasing the amount of money in circulation was not an "experiment". "Nothing in life is ever certain, but THESE MEASURES WE THINK WILL WORK IN THE LONG-TERM," Mr King said. "I don't know how long it will take, much depends on the situation in the rest of the world. But if countries work together, these measures will I believe eventually work."

Chancellor Alistair Darling said that increasing the supply of money was "absolutely essential" in order for the UK to recover from the recession. He acknowledged that the latest rate cut would be a blow to savers who faced another drop in the return on their money but said "the key thing for each and every one of us is to ensure we get the economy moving to help people and to help businesses grow".

The Daily Telegraph reports:- Mr King said the Bank will create up to £150 billion of cash to spend on the scheme, with the first £75 billion to be spent in the next three months, starting next Wednesday. The total is equivalent to just under £5,800 for every household in Britain. However, should the scheme fail to spark any growth in the economy, the amount it will spend is likely to soar even higher.

Some fear that this extra infusion of cash will GENERATE A TIDAL WAVE OF INFLATION some years in the future, consigning Britain to many years of either high inflation or perhaps even ZIMBABWE-STYLE HYPERINFLATION IF LEFT UNCHECKED.

"But the solution exists... we are equipped intellectually, politically, and economically to face this crisis scenario."

It goes on to report that "Later in the day a commission spokesperson referred to the balance of payments facility that has been used to support both Latvia and Hungary", which was set up in 2002 to allow the commission to make loans to non-euro area countries experiencing difficulties meeting debt obligations.
EurActiv reports that Almunia has said that it is "possible and reasonable" to issue joint EU bonds to raise money for troubled member states, but that "it is up to member states to decide, and many of them oppose the idea".

Writing in the Telegraph, Simon Heffer argues that GERMANY SHOULD REFUSE TO BAILOUT OTHER COUNTRIES saying, "why should they pay for the unregenerate behaviour of others? If Mrs Merkel wants to stay in power, and German workers wish to keep the fruits of their own labours, THEY MUST HARDEN THEIR HEARTS."

Clinton met with Prime Minister-designate Binyamin Netanyahu, Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni and Defence Minister Ehud Barak on Tuesday. Both Netanyahu and Livni expressed satisfaction with the meetings, and said Clinton showed an understanding of Israel and America's "common goals." Clinton met with President Shimon Peres as well. The meetings were her first with Israeli officials since she was sworn in as Secretary of State.

Netanyahu did not reveal the content of his discussion with Clinton other than to say that the two had spoken about "the Iranian issue and the Palestinian issue" and had agreed to meet again once a new government has been formed. Netanyahu described the talks as "deep, important and good." Livni praised Clinton, saying the latter had "shown a deep understanding of the needs of Israel."

Israel's ties with America "transcend parties and governments," she added. The meeting between Clinton and Barak took place in a Jerusalem hotel and was attended by officials and advisors from both sides. However, at the end of the session Barak and Clinton also held a one-on-one talk with no one else present. Clinton arrived in Israel after visiting Egypt, where she attended a donor conference that raised funds for the Palestinian Authority and Gaza. Clinton confirmed that the US plans to give $900 million to the cause.

Preparations for the visit began this week with the first of a series of conferences to discuss activities to promote Christian tourism to Israel. Among the participants were incoming tour operators specializing in the Christian market, the Israel Hotel Association and representatives of the municipalities that will be included in the Catholic leader's itinerary. Three million tourists visited the State of Israel in 2008, noted the ministry in its statement to the media. Of those, two million were Christians, half of whom were pilgrims. Most of the tourists visited Christian and Jewish sites in Jerusalem, Galilee and Bethlehem.

Marketing activities are expected to include preparation of promotional material to be distributed to journalists accompanying the Pope, who is the spiritual leader of the worldwide Roman Catholic Church. The ministry will also arrange tours and visits to tourist sites for the papal delegation and the media.

"The Pope's visit to the Holy Land is an important and very significant visit that represents a strategic anchor for pilgrimage tourism to Israel in the coming years," noted Tourism Minister Ruchama Avraham-Balila. She added that the visit would also strengthen Israel's image as a central point for pilgrimages and tourism, "especially in this period when the tourism industry is dealing with the ramifications of the global economic crisis."

In the world of American government, the trillion is the new billion. There was a time when only astro-physicists and accountants practising in Zimbabwe had any use for a word which - in the US at least - means a million millions.

Barack Obama is not the only extraordinary phenomenon to rise to prominence in this country in the last year or so - the trillion is right up with him. Suddenly it is popping up in newspaper headlines with extraordinary frequency, even though it is surely a number so far beyond our everyday conceptual grasp that it conveys practically nothing.

Take Mr Obama's stimulus package for example, which ended up at $787bn (or just over three-quarters of a trillion if you prefer). That is the equivalent of spending $1m a day every day starting from the birth of Christ and going on through the present day. Still, since we have only just started on the trillion scale a bit of a breathing space should now follow. IT IS THE QUADRILLION NEXT BY THE WAY.

Now that really IS a lot of money.

Mr Chavez said the mill, owned by a subsidiary of US food giant Cargill, was not distributing rice at government-set prices. He also threatened to nationalise the country's largest food processor and private company, Polar. Venezuela has already set quotas and prices for 12 basic foods. Under the measure, 80% of all rice produced must be basic white rice. The measure also includes 95% of all cooking oil, coffee and sugar. Producers of items such as powdered milk, cheese and tomato sauce are also affected. Last week President Chavez ordered troops to rice processing plants after accusing producers of sidestepping the law on controlled prices by producing a higher grade of rice.

Cargill, which operates one rice-processing plant in Venezuela, said the mill does not produce the plain rice that is under regulation. "Prepare the decree, we are going to expropriate Cargill. We are not going to tolerate this," Mr Chavez said. Mr Chavez is attempting to reduce the cost of the basic shopping basket of ordinary Venezuelans at a time of soaring inflation, says the BBC's Will Grant in Caracas.

But business leaders and food producers are furious at what they see as a further attack on their ability to turn a profit, our correspondent says. The move against Cargill is unlikely to be viewed favourably in Washington either, which angered Venezuela last month by criticising its human rights record, our correspondent adds.

The new idea is for the Bank to buy government debt, bringing down the cost of borrowing over the long term and also providing extra money for banks to lend on to consumers and stimulate economic growth. WE ARE IN NEW TERRITORY because as it approaches zero, the interest rate that the Bank normally uses to control monetary policy becomes useless.

Chancellor Alistair Darling is expected to set out in a letter to Bank Governor Mervyn King the maximum amount of government debt the Bank will be allowed to buy, possibly as much as £100bn, although it could initially be as low as £25bn. Simply, no-one has any idea exactly what the Bank and the Treasury will do and how much it will cost, because IT'S NEVER BEEN DONE BEFORE.

"IT'S NOT KNOWABLE," says Goldman Sachs economist Ben Broadbent. "For it to work, at least very effectively, you need banks to lend the money on. AND THAT'S NOT ASSURED."

Instead, the news agenda has been dominated by Obama's latest domestic policies, the Pakistan terror attack and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's visit to the Middle East. The Washington Post and New York Times ran pieces on Mr Brown's visit but neither gave him prominent billing. Both noted that the Prime Minister and Obama had pledged co-operation to tackle the economic crisis. Meanwhile, The Wall Street Journal ran an article under the headline 'Brown Urges Faith In Free Markets'.

On The New York Post website, the prime minister appeared to be an afterthought in a piece about Obama's reaction to terrorists attacking the Sri Lanka cricket team. USA Today covered Brown's meeting with Obama, once again lining on the economy. Channels ABC and CNN have given Mr Brown's visit rather muted coverage. But the trip did not even merit a mention a link on seminal political site Drudge or on gossip site Gawker.

The beleaguered PM has also faced an assault by the French who claim he gloated at beating President Nicolas Sarkozy to meet Barack Obama. Despite having a military plane on 24 hour standby to fly to the U.S.A, the French president was trumped by his British counterpart to become 'leader' of Europe. It came as the French media suggested that Mr Sarkozy's diplomatic humiliation was caused by his arrogant mocking of Anglo-Saxon economic policies.

Iran's Shahab-3 missiles have a range of up to 1,250 miles, putting Israel within striking distance. Jafari was quoted as saying that Iran is now a mighty military power to be reckoned with. Meanwhile, Iranian Foreign Minister Manuchehr Mottaki said Wednesday that its Russian-built Bushehr nuclear power plant would definitely become active in the summer of 2009.

Speaking in parliament in Teheran, Mottaki said it was the government's duty to finish the project, which he said would be a significant political achievement, particularly considering the heavy international pressure imposed on the Islamic republic to curb its nuclear activities.

On Wednesday, Ahmadinejad urged the United States to change its "satanic" ways if it is serious about wanting change. "Change means giving up your satanic, coercive and aggressive ways and instead adopting more human morals. If you accept this invitation, it will be to the benefit of yourself and your nation," Ahmadinejad told a crowd in northwestern Iran. He did not mention Obama by name but was clearly referring to the new president's administration.

Panarin might be easy to ignore but for the fact that he is a dean at the Foreign Ministry's school for future diplomats and a regular on Russia's state-guided TV channels. And his predictions fit into the anti-American story line of the Kremlin leadership. "THERE IS A HIGH PROBABILITY THAT THE COLLAPSE OF THE UNITED STATES WILL OCCUR BY 2010," Panarin told dozens of students, professors and diplomats Tuesday at the Diplomatic Academy — a lecture the ministry pointedly invited The Associated Press and other foreign media to attend.

Panarin didn't give many specifics on what underlies his analysis, mostly citing newspapers, magazines and other open sources. He also noted he had been predicting the demise of the world's wealthiest country for more than a decade now. But he said the recent economic turmoil in the US and other "social and cultural phenomena" led him to nail down a specific timeframe for "The End" — WHEN THE UNITED STATES WILL BREAK UP INTO SIX AUTONOMOUS REGIONS AND ALASKA WILL REVERT TO RUSSIAN CONTROL.

One instructor asked Panarin whether his predictions more accurately describe Russia, which is undergoing its worst economic crisis in a decade as well as a demographic collapse that has led some scholars to predict the country's demise. Panarin dismissed that idea: "The collapse of Russia will not occur." But Alexei Malashenko, a scholar-in-residence at the Carnegie Moscow Center who did not attend the lecture, sided with the skeptical instructor, saying Russia is the country that is on the verge of disintegration. "I CAN'T IMAGINE AT ALL HOW THE UNITED STATES COULD EVER FALL APART," Malashenko told the AP.