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.

He also repeated his promise for immediate legislation on a referendum on the Lisbon Treaty if it had not been ratified by the whole of the EU by the time that the Conservatives took power. He said the chances of the Lisbon Treaty not being approved by next year, with difficulties in the Czech Republic and Poland and Ireland still to hold a second referendum, were 50-50.

Mr Hague said that, if the Treaty had been ratified before a Conservative victory, the party would, nevertheless, spell out in its manifesto what action it would take to reverse European integration. Pressed on whether in those circumstances a referendum could still be promised in a Conservative manifesto, he said: "We would not rule anything in or out."

When speaking about the Conservatives' policy towards the EU, he said that on issues such as climate change, energy liberalisation and the single market they were "great enthusiasts". "Our difference is that WE ARE NOT IN FAVOUR OF THE INSTITUTIONAL AGGRANDISEMENT OF BRUSSELS," he said.

Dutch media reported that the driver, a 38-year-old man, had been fired from his job and faced eviction from his home. He was slumped at the wheel when he was arrested. Police said that the man, who was in a critical condition, had no history of mental illness and had acted alone. No explosives were found in the vehicle.

The Royal Family had been visiting Apeldoorn, 60 miles (96 km) east of Amsterdam, as part of the festivities for the annual Queen's Day holiday. In a rare television address Queen Beatrix offered her condolences. "We are speechless that something so terrible could have happened," she said, looking shaken. "My family and I think everybody in the country sympathises with the victims, their families and friends. What began as a great day has ended in a terrible tragedy."

Ludo Goossens, a justice official, said: "At the moment of first contact with police on the ground, the man indicated that his action was aimed against the Royal Family." Jan Peter Balkenende, the Prime Minister, said: "I think that it has become clear that this happened with premeditation."

Globally, cases of swine flu have now been confirmed in 12 countries across three continents. In cases outside Mexico the virus does not appear to be severe, although one death has been confirmed in the US. The WHO has set its pandemic alert level at five - but says it has no immediate plans to move to the highest level of six.

The shut-down in Mexico covers two public holidays and a weekend. Some factories will stop production and schools are already closed. Residents have been urged to stay at home. But some people say they will ignore it because they cannot afford not to work.

There is also growing concern at the effect the virus could have on Mexico's already-struggling economy. The number of confirmed cases of swine flu infection in Mexico now stands at about 300, officials say. Twelve people are known to have died from the virus and it is suspected in more than 160 other deaths.

"BANKERS HAVE MADE AN ASTONISHING MESS OF THE FINANCIAL SYSTEM," said committee chairman John McFall. The MPs supported the various attempts of the government to bail out the banks and to shore up the banking system. But they criticised banks for increasing their charges and fees to small business borrowers.

"The culture within parts of British banking has increasingly been one of risk-taking, leading to the meltdown that we have witnessed," said Mr McFall. The MPs said they favoured greater regulation to protect bank depositors. And they called for further consideration of the idea of separating High Street retail banking from the more commercially risky investment banking.

But the MPs said that the details of the bank investments being guaranteed under the recently launched asset protection scheme should be disclosed, with the public being told what the assets are, how much they are worth and how much value they might eventually lose. "THE REPERCUSSIONS OF THIS BANKING CRISIS ARE BEING FELT, AND WILL CONTINUE TO BE FELT, BY ORDINARY PEOPLE FOR MANY GENERATIONS," Mr McFall said.

Monsanto blames the failure of the three varieties of corn planted on these farms, in three South African provinces, on alleged "UNDERFERTILISATION PROCESSES IN THE LABORATORY". Some 280 of the 1,000 farmers who planted the three varieties of Monsanto corn this year, have reported extensive seedless corn problems. However environmental activist Marian Mayet, director of the Africa-centre for bio-security in Johannesburg, demands an urgent government investigation and an immediate ban on all GM-foods, blaming the crop failure on Monsanto's genetically-manipulated technology.

Mayet says Monsanto was grossly understating the problem. According to her own information, SOME FARMS HAVE SUFFERED UP TO 80% CROP FAILURES. The centre is strongly opposed to GM-food and biologically-manipulated technology in general. "Monsanto says they just made a mistake in the laboratory, however we say that biotechnology is a failure. You cannot make a 'mistake' with three different varieties of corn." Farmers told Rapport that Monsanto was "bending over backwards to try and accommodate them in solving the problem."

"It's a very good gesture to immediately offer to compensate the farmers for losses they suffered," said Kobus van Coller, one of the Free State farmers who discovered that his maize cobs were practically seedless this week. "One can't see from the outside whether a plant is unseeded. One must open up the cob leaves to establish the problem," he said. The seedless cobs show no sign of disease or any kind of fungus. They just have very few seeds, often none at all.

The South African government does not require any labelling of GM-foods. Corn is the main staple food for South Africa's 48-million people. The three maize varieties which failed to produce seeds were designed with a built-in resistance to weed-killers, and manipulated to increase yields per hectare, Rapport writes.

Still suffering the effects of last year's post-election bloodshed, ordinary Kenyans have watched with disgust as politicians have squabbled over the spoils of the country's power-sharing accord. Raila Odinga, the prime minister, has repeatedly accused President Mwai Kibaki of failing to honour promises made when the joint government was formed last year.

Mr Kibaki's side, in turn, has accused Mr Odinga of trying to foment a "civilian coup". DURING A RECENT ATTEMPT TO BROKER CONSENSUS, NEITHER SIDE COULD EVEN AGREE ON AN AGENDA FOR THE MEETING, WHICH BROKE UP BEFORE IT STARTED. More than 1,500 people died and 300,000 were forced from their homes as mobs allied to opposing political parties rampaged through parts of the country early last year.

Some foreigners have said recently that they are being advised to stockpile drinking water, fuel and tinned food in case of further fighting. Fresh corruption scandals involving maize exports, fuel contracts and tourism junkets have further dented the government's already rock-bottom popularity. "THE POPULACE IS GETTING FED UP AT A FASTER RATE THAN IMAGINED," said Wanyoni Wambilyanga, a political commentator.

"If the president and the prime minister do not do something drastic and fast, then the consequences are unimaginable." In a recent interview with the Financial Times, Kofi Annan, the former UN secretary general who brokered Kenya's power-sharing agreement, warned of worse to come in the run up to the next election in three years' time.

The number of people who police in England and Wales stop and search under anti-terrorism laws has trebled in just a year, but only a handful result in arrests. There was also a sharp rise in the number of times the public had to justify their activities to police in so-called "stop and account" incidents.

Members of the public were stopped and questioned by officers more than 2.3 million times last year after a rise of 26 per cent. It is the equivalent of one in every 20 people being stopped, although that proportion plummets to one in ten for the black population.

Chris Grayling, the shadow home secretary, said: "People will be highly suspicious about the scale of stop and search under terror laws. This will only serve to reinforce the view that MANY ANTI-TERROR POWERS ARE BEING USED FOR UNRELATED PURPOSES."

Some Chrysler dealerships will close over time but no jobs will be lost in the short term, President Obama said. The move came after talks had broken down with Chrysler's lenders late on Wednesday, the White House said.

Chrysler will receive a further $8bn (£5.4bn) in government loans, up from the $6bn the Treasury had promised it if it had successfully restructured the business by midnight. The White House described the move as a "surgical short bankruptcy" which should last between 30 and 60 days. President Obama said the "necessary steps" had been taken to give Chrysler "a new lease of life". He added that he had "every hope" that Chrysler will become "stronger and more competitive".

Speaking at a White House news conference late Wednesday night, Mr Obama said while he was "gravely concerned" about the overall situation in Pakistan, he added that Pakistan's military recognised the hazard of the country's nuclear weapons "falling in to the wrong hands".

The US has "huge national security interests in making sure that Pakistan is stable and that you don't end up having a nuclear-armed militant state", Mr Obama said. Pakistan is currently locked in a struggle with Taliban militants who last week advanced to within 100km of the capital Islamabad. Pakistan is secretive about its nuclear programme, developed outside the nuclear non-proliferation treaty in an arms race with India.

Worries over the security of Pakistan's nuclear weapons date back to 2004 when the proliferation network of Abdul Qadeer Khan, founder of the nuclear programme, came to light. One of the dangers identified by the international community was that one of AQ Khan's scientists might help extremists gain a "dirty bomb". Since then, the Pakistani military has tightened monitoring of individual scientists and introduced new inventory systems to track individual components of the bombs. Some analysts say the greatest threat to nuclear security is from within the army itself.

In London, Prime Minister Gordon Brown said a new chapter in relations between the two countries had begun. Earlier, a memorial service attended by Defence Secretary John Hutton took place in Basra for the 179 UK personnel who have died during the conflict. The focus was a memorial wall featuring the names of the 234 UK and foreign troops who lost their lives while serving under British command in Iraq. The end of combat operations came a month ahead of schedule.

Mr Brown, who held talks with Iraqi counterpart Nouri Maliki at Downing Street, said: "Today Iraq is a success story. We owe much of that to the efforts of British troops. Our mission has not always been an easy one, many have said that we would fail. Britain can be proud of our legacy that we leave there."

Obama's ratings must be pleasing to his eye. Voters like him and his wife immensely and approve of his activism in the face of the economic crisis. But beneath this superficial support, Obama's specific policies run afoul of the very deeply felt convictions of American voters. For example, the most recent Rasmussen Poll asked voters if they wanted an economic system of complete free enterprise or preferred more government involvement in managing the economy. By 77-19, they voted against a government role, up seven points from last month.

And in the Fox News poll — the very same survey that gave Obama a 62 percent approval rating and reported that 68 percent of voters are "satisfied" with his first hundred days — voters, by 50-38, supported a smaller government that offered fewer services over a larger government that provided more.

For Americans to conclude that they disapprove of their president in the midst of an earth-shaking crisis is very difficult. But as Obama's daily line moves from "I inherited this mess" to "There are faint signs of light," the clock starts ticking. If there is no recovery for the next six months — and I don't think there will be — Obama will inevitably become part of the problem, not part of the solution. Obama's very activism these days arrogates to himself the blame for the success or failure of his policies. Their outcome will determine his outcome, and there is no way it will be positive. Why?

• You can't borrow as much as he will need to without raising interest rates that hurt the economy;

• The massive amount of spending will trigger runaway inflation once the economy starts to recover;

• His overhaul of the tax code (still in the planning phases) and his intervention in corporate management will create such business uncertainty that nobody will invest in anything until they see the lay of the land;

• His bank program is designed to help banks, but not to catalyze consumer lending. And his proposal for securitization of consumer loans won't work and is just what got us into this situation.

So Mr. Obama should enjoy his poll numbers while he may.

And as a presidential candidate and president-elect, he backed the twilight Bush-era stimulus plan that made the deficit deeper, all before he took over and promoted spending plans that have made it much deeper still. Obama met citizens at an Arnold, Missouri, high school Wednesday in advance of his prime-time news conference. Both forums were a platform to review his progress at the 100-day mark and look ahead.

At various times, he brought an air of certainty to ambitions that are far from cast in stone. His assertion that his proposed budget "will cut the deficit in half by the end of my first term" is an eyeball-roller among many economists, given the uncharted terrain of trillion-dollar deficits and economic calamity that the government is negotiating. He promised vast savings from increased spending on preventive health care in the face of doubts that such an effort, however laudable it might be for public welfare, can pay for itself, let alone yield huge savings.

Congress controls the purse strings, not the president, and it was under Democratic control for Obama's last two years as Illinois senator. Obama supported the emergency bailout package in President George W. Bush's final months - a package Democratic leaders wanted to make bigger. The economy has worsened under Obama, though from forces surely in play before he became president, and he can credibly claim to have inherited a grim situation.

"We have begun to pick ourselves up and dust ourselves off," Obama said. "I'm pleased with the progress we've made, but I'm not satisfied. I'm confident in the future, but I'm not content with the present." Obama said he wants Congress to approve legislation revamping U.S. financial regulation by the end of this year, expressed hope for a potential auto deal to save Chrysler LLC from bankruptcy and reiterated a pledge to cut the budget deficit in half during his first term.

Over the next 100 days the president will be dealing with a host of thorny issues, including getting his proposals on the budget, health and energy pushed through Congress and dealing with the war in Afghanistan. The Democratic majorities in the House and Senate and continued high approval ratings give him a strong hand.

Obama said environmental measures, such as his plan for a cap on carbon emissions, don't require a choice between jobs and protecting the planet. "There's a balance that can be struck, and the key principle is sustainability," he said. The 100-day milestone only represents the "beginning of another long journey" with many challenges ahead, Obama said.