Dominique Strauss-Kahn, the head of the International Monetary Fund, is worried enough to ditch a half-century of IMF orthodoxy, calling for a fiscal boost worth 2pc of world GDP to "prevent global depression". "If we are not able to do that, THEN SOCIAL UNREST MAY HAPPEN IN MANY COUNTRIES, INCLUDING ADVANCED ECONOMIES. We are facing an unprecedented decline in output. All around the planet, the people have reacted with feelings going FROM SURPRISE TO ANGER, AND FROM ANGER TO FEAR," he said.

RUSSIA HAS BEGUN TO SHUT DOWN TRADE as it adjusts to the shock of Urals oil below $40 a barrel. It has imposed import tariffs of 30pc on cars, 15pc on farm kit, and 95pc on poultry (above quota levels). "It is possible during the financial crisis to support domestic producers by raising customs duties," said Premier Vladimir Putin. Russia is not alone. India and Vietnam have imposed steel tariffs. Indonesia is resorting to special "licences" to choke off imports.

The Kremlin is alarmed by a 13pc fall in industrial output over the last five months. THERE HAVE BEEN STREET PROTESTS IN MOSCOW, ST PETERSBURG, KALININGRAD, VLADIVOSTOK AND BARNAUL. Police crushed "Dissent Marchers" holding copies of Russia's constitution above their heads in Moscow's Triumfalnaya Square. "Russia has not seen anything like these nationwide protests before," said Boris Kagarlitsky from Moscow's Globalization Institute.

The omens are not good in China either. Exports fell 2.2pc in November. Toy, textile, footwear, and furniture plants are being closed across Guangdong, now the riot hub of South China. Some 40m Chinese workers are expected to lose their jobs. PARTY OFFICIALS HAVE WARNED OF "MASS-SCALE SOCIAL TURMOIL".

This crisis has already brought us a monetary revolution as interest rates approach zero across the G10. It may overturn the "New World Order" as well, unless we move with great care in grim months ahead. THIS IS WHERE EVENTS TURN DANGEROUS. THE LAST GREAT ERA OF GLOBALISATION PEAKED JUST BEFORE 1914. YOU KNOW THE REST OF THE STORY.

The Telegraph reports that Employment Secretary General Maravillas Rojo said similar levels hadn't been seen since the recession of 1987 while a rise to 4 million this year cannot be ruled out. The article goes on to say that "ten years after it was launched, THE EURO IS PROPELLING SPAIN TOWARDS DISASTER. In giving up control of domestic interest rates to the European Central Bank, Madrid handed over a vital instrument of macroeconomic management. It is learning to regret that."

"The Spanish economy is weak; it needs lower interest rates and a softer currency. SUCH A PROSPECT, HOWEVER, DOESN'T SUIT GERMANY, THE EUROZONE'S DOMINANT FORCE, so Madrid has to sit and suffer while its people cry for help."

The Swiss bank decided in July last year to stop offering offshore accounts to U.S. citizens after it was targeted by a U.S. tax investigation which challenges Switzerland's famous banking secrecy laws. U.S. prosecutors have alleged UBS helped clients hide $18 billion of untaxed American money in undeclared accounts. This amounts to around $300 million of annual unpaid taxes, the newspaper said.

UBS spokesman Serge Steiner said the decision to close offshore accounts for U.S. domiciled clients was taken in November 2007. The bank started last year to close cash accounts of U.S. clients holding less than 50,000 Swiss francs ($45,660), he added. "This is an ongoing process. It started last year and accelerated since last summer," Steiner said, confirming a New York Times report.

The long-held assumption that US assets - particularly government bonds - are a safe haven will soon be overturned as investors lose their patience with the world's biggest economy, according to Willem Buiter. Professor Buiter, a former Monetary Policy Committee member who is now at the London School of Economics, said this increasing disenchantment would result in an exodus of foreign cash from the US.

The warning comes despite the dollar having strengthened significantly against other major currencies, including sterling and the euro, after hitting historic lows last year. It will reignite fears about the currency's prospects, as well as sparking fears about the sustainability of President-Elect Barack Obama's mooted plans for a Keynesian-style increase in public spending to pull the US out of recession.

Prof Buiter said: "There will, before long (my best guess is between two and five years from now) be A GLOBAL DUMPING OF US DOLLAR ASSETS, INCLUDING US GOVERNMENT ASSETS. Old habits die hard. The US dollar and US Treasury bills and bonds are still viewed as a safe haven by many. But learning takes place."

He said that the dollar had been kept elevated in recent years by what some called "dark matter" or "American alpha" - an assumption that the US could earn more on its overseas investments than foreign investors could make on their American assets. However, this notion had been gradually dismantled in recent years, before being dealt a fatal blow by the current financial crisis, he said.

"The past eight years of imperial overstretch, hubris and domestic and international abuse of power on the part of the Bush administration has left the US materially weakened financially, economically, politically and morally," he said. "Even the most hard-nosed, Guantanamo Bay-indifferent potential foreign investor in THE US MUST RECOGNISE THAT ITS FINANCIAL SYSTEM HAS COLLAPSED."

Economists expect a report due later today to show that the world's biggest economy is expected to have lost 525,000 jobs alone in December, bringing the total for the year to just under 2.4 million. That would eclipse the losses through every US recession since 1945.

The report comes as President-Elect Barack Obama vowed yesterday to reform America's "weak and outdated" system of financial regulation after hitting out at "Wall Street wrongdoers" who made "imprudent and dangerous decisions" in creating the financial crisis.

America's economy has been assailed by the near-collapse of its banking system triggered by the sharp falls in US house prices. The news from the labour market continues to deteriorate, with Walgreen, its second largest pharmacy chain, axing 1,000 staff. Oilfield services provider Schlumberger also said it was on the verge of trimming 1,000 jobs.

The black delta-wing craft, called Taranis, is understood to have been making test runs on the coastal bombing ranges at Donna Nook and North Coates, which are right next to the site of the wrecked wind turbine. Taranis is about the same size as the Hawk jet trainers used by the Red Arrows at nearby RAF Scrampton - it is being developed by Bae Systems to deliver bombs in battlefields.

Some witnesses have said an octopus-shaped UFO was seen flying through the air hours before the turbine was destroyed. One woman said she saw an object fly towards the wind farm, while others described the lights as being linked by "tentacles", leading locals to dub it the octopus UFO. A Ministry of Defence insider said: "We have to log all reports of UFOs. But in virtually all the cases there is a simple explanation - and test flights are a common one."

Nearly four years and 10 trips later, the visit was finally confirmed last month, even though some prickly bilateral issues between the Holy See and the Israeli government remained unresolved. But as Israel's assault on Gaza reaches the two-week mark, Vatican diplomats now say the long anticipated voyage (with planned stops in Israel, the West Bank and Jordan) is increasingly at risk of being cancelled.

If the violence does end soon enough, and the papal trip can be salvaged, Benedict's arrival in the region would inevitably be MUCH MORE POLITICAL than he may have initially hoped. "He wanted to make a voyage of faith. But the context has changed," says the Vatican source. "NOW THE FOCUS WOULD BE ON PEACE. IT COULD GIVE HIM THE CHANCE TO LEAVE A LEGACY THERE."

The move to open contacts with Hamas, which could be initiated through the US intelligence services, would represent a definitive break with the Bush presidency's ostracising of the group. The state department has designated Hamas a terrorist organisation, and in 2006 ­Congress passed a law banning US financial aid to the group.

The Guardian has spoken to three ­people with knowledge of the discussions in the Obama camp. There is no talk of Obama approving direct diplomatic negotiations with Hamas early on, but he is being urged by advisers to initiate low-level or clandestine approaches, and there is growing recognition in Washington that the policy of ostracising Hamas is counter-productive. A tested course would be to start contacts through Hamas and the US intelligence services, similar to the secret process through which the US engaged with the PLO in the 1970s. Israel did not become aware of the contacts until much later.

Obama has said repeatedly that ­restoring America's image in the world would rank among the top priorities of his administration, and there has been widespread praise for his choice of Clinton as secretary of state and Jim Jones, the former Marine Corps commandant, as his national security adviser.

Under the new law, children's products with more than 600 ppm total lead cannot lawfully be sold in the United States on or after February 10, 2009, even if they were manufactured before that date. The total lead limit drops to 300 ppm on August 14, 2009.

The new law requires that domestic manufacturers and importers certify that children's products made after February 10 meet all the new safety standards and the lead ban. Sellers of used children's products, such as THRIFT STORES AND CONSIGNMENT STORES, ARE NOT REQUIRED TO CERTIFY THAT THOSE PRODUCTS meet the new lead limits, phthalates standard or new toy standards.

The US business magazine Forbes estimates that the 25 richest Russians alone have lost nearly €180 billion during the current global economic crisis. Abramovich, who invested his money primarily in the holding company Evraz, lost a staggering amount of money on the London Stock Exchange within just six months as Evraz's value plummeted from €28 billion to just €3.2 billion.

Russian steel baron Alexei Mordashov, who has a stake in the German travel giant TUI, lost €18 billion. Aluminum czar Oleg Deripaska, who was once the richest of them all with an estimated pre-crunch net worth of €23 billion, would be teetering on the brink of bankruptcy if the state had not granted him a €3.5 billion loan.

An internal intelligence assessment, obtained by The Associated Press on Wednesday, says the high visibility of the event, the presence of dignitaries and the significance of swearing in the country's first black president make the inauguration vulnerable to attacks.

What concerns analysts most, the report says, is the potential use of improvised explosive devices, a hostage situation or suicide bombers. While security will be tight around the U.S. Capitol, the joint FBI and Homeland Security assessment says nearby hotels, public gatherings, restaurants and roads could be vulnerable to some kind of attack.

Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said security concerns during inaugurations have been elevated since the 2001 terror attacks. "I think it will be the most security, as far as I'm aware, that any inauguration has had," Chertoff said in an interview with the AP. Chertoff also said there is no specific intelligence pointing to terrorist plots during the event.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy, leading a two-day conference with former British Prime Minister Tony Blair on the future of capitalism, said the crisis has shown that no country can go it alone on economic policy. "In the 21st century, there it is no longer a single nation who can say what we should do or what we should think," he said.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel said the system "cannot continue as it is" and called for better-regulated financial markets. European leaders will meet in Berlin before the G-20 summit in London to decide a common approach as global leaders gear up for a second meeting on the global financial crisis, Sarkozy said.

Measures will be taken at the G-20 meeting in London on April 2, Sarkozy promised, saying "we cannot accept the status quo." He called for closer cooperation on economic policy, saying: "We should discuss how each of us is managing his currency, his interest rates."

But organisation Christian Voice has complained to the Advertising Standards Authority saying they break rules on substantiation and truthfulness. The adverts contain the slogan: "THERE'S PROBABLY NO GOD. NOW STOP WORRYING AND ENJOY YOUR LIFE."

But Stephen Green, national director of Christian Voice, said: "There is plenty of evidence for God, from people's personal experience, to the complexity, interdependence, beauty and design of the natural world. But there is scant evidence on the other side, so I think the advertisers are really going to struggle to show their claim is not an exaggeration or inaccurate, as the ASA code puts it."

Hanne Stinson, chief executive of the British Humanist Association, said: "I've sought advice from some of our key people here, but I'm afraid all I've got out of them so far is peals of laughter. I am sure that Stephen Green really does think there is a great deal of evidence for a God (though presumably only the one that he believes in), but I pity the ASA if they are going to be expected to rule on the probability of God's existence."

The stringent regulations has caused a stir among retailers, especially used clothes stores, because it may result in thousands of children's clothes being declared unsafe and having to be thrown away, warned Adele Meyer, executive director of the National Association of Resale and Thrift Shops.

Among the possible sources of lead are buttons and charms on clothes and appliqués added to the cloth, pointed out Charles Margulis, communications director of the Center for Environmental Health in Oakland. He cited an incident in Minnesota where a child died after swallowing a lead charm on his sneaker.

Store owners from children's clothing to handmade toys warned that if the law will be strictly implemented they might have to close their business and file for bankruptcy. The Consumer Product Safety Commission, which will enforce the law, said Monday it will consider exempting clothing and toys made of natural materials such as wool or wood.

Clothing and thrift trade groups say the law is flawed because it was rammed through Congress too quickly. By deeming that any product not tested for lead content by February 10 be considered hazardous waste, they contend, stores will have to tell customers that clothing they were allowed to sell February 9 became banned substances overnight.

Germany's failure to sell all of its debt is significant for all EU governments and the eurozone in particular because German government bonds are seen by investors as the "benchmark of the area", the WSJ notes.