Earlier, he met politicians in Washington to discuss ways to boost the economy and create new jobs. US media reports say he is planning a stimulus package worth more than $800bn (£551bn), including $300bn of tax cuts.

Mr Obama has said he wants a plan that will create 3m jobs by 2011. The president-elect hopes to be able to enact the package shortly after his inauguration on 20 January. "The economy is very sick," he said. "We have to act and act now to break the momentum of this recession."

The US Labor department will release its December employment report on Friday and many economists are expecting the jobless figure to rise by 500,000, bringing the total US job losses for 2008 to about 2.5 million.

Mr Singh also accused Pakistan of "whipping up war hysteria" in what correspondents say may be the toughest comments yet by a senior Indian figure. On Monday, India said it had handed to Islamabad evidence that linked the attacks to "elements" in Pakistan.

Speaking to a meeting of the chief ministers of Indian states in Delhi, Mr Singh said that because of the "sophistication and military precision of the attack it must have had the support of some official agencies in Pakistan". He added: "Today, even as Pakistan engages in whipping up war hysteria, our nation remains steadfastly united and, if anything, the process of national consolidation is becoming stronger."

Mr Singh again criticised Pakistan's policies on tackling terrorism, saying it had "given sanctuary to terrorists and other forces who are antagonistic to India". He added: "The more fragile a government, the more it tends to act in an irresponsible fashion."

Gazprom said it was reducing supplies to compensate for the amount it says Ukraine has been siphoning off. Russia stopped supplying gas to Ukraine last week in a row over unpaid bills. A statement on Naftogaz's website lists nine countries, including Germany, Poland, and Hungary which, it says, will receive reduced supplies.

"Naftogaz of Ukraine considers that in such a case if European users receive less volumes of natural gas, all claims of the noted countries must be directed to Gazprom," says the statement. Moments later, Bulgaria's energy minister said Russian gas supplies to Bulgaria, Greece, Turkey and Macedonia had already been cut.

Pipes across Ukraine carry about one-fifth of the European Union's gas needs.

At Change.gov, under the heading "civil rights," Obama promises legal protection for "gender identity" and "gender expression"; expansion of "hate crime" statutes and homosexual adoption rights, repeal of the federal Defense of Marriage Act, and repeal of the "don't ask, don't tell" rule for military service.

Labeling homosexual behavior a civil right apparently trumps majority rule at the ballot box too. For example, in the November election, voters in California adopted Proposition 8, a state constitutional amendment which defines "marriage" as the traditional union of one man and one woman. However, after the voters had spoken, homosexual activists started a statewide witch hunt, targeting the Mormon church, getting prominent supporters of traditional marriage fired and boycotting businesses whose owners had contributed to the "YES on 8" campaign. A skillful media campaign painted the voting majority bigots and the homosexual campaign to suppress democracy a defense of basic civil rights.

Labeling homosexuality a "civil right" also seems to trump everyone else's civil rights. Just as illegal aliens seem to have more "rights" than citizens do, HOMOSEXUALS CLAIM THEIR "CIVIL RIGHTS" PREVAIL OVER EVERYONE ELSE'S CIVIL RIGHTS.

You don't need a weather man to know which way this wind is blowing. CURRENT POLITICAL COMMENTARY IS LARGELY FOCUSED ON THE TRANSITION FROM A MARKET ECONOMY TO SOCIALISM. The transition from civil rights for all to privileged rights for the small but politically powerful homosexual left is just as important a "change you can believe in."

"The Lord said the economy of your nation will recover," Robertson told a group assembled at Founders Inn on the campus of Regent University in Virginia Beach, a university Robertson founded. Robertson said God also declared, "The steps taken will lead to a dramatic increase in the power of government. The people will welcome socialism in order to relieve their pain. Nothing will stand in the way of a plan by Obama to restructure the economy in the same fashion as the New Deal in the '30s."

In a follow-up interview he granted to Terry Meeuwsen, his co-host on CBN's The 700 Club, Robertson added, "It will be the largest transfer of power to Washington since the '30s. But people are willing to accept it because the pain has been so bad."

Not all of Robertson's predictions, however, are quite so rosy. Socialist policies and massive government spending, Robertson told Meeuwsen, could lead to heavy hyperinflation, sending prices through the roof and the value of the dollar through the floor. "The Lord said the dollar is going to go down dramatically," Robertson said in the interview. "If I'm hearing him right, gold will go to about $1900 dollars an ounce and oil to $300 a barrel." As a result, Robertson warned, "People are not going to trust the United States any longer as the leader in financial matters."

The book, "The hard sell: EU communication policy and the campaign for hearts and minds" shows how EU information policy is geared not towards providing neutral, balanced information, but towards trying to convince people to support EU integration.

As well as a sophisticated information and communication strategy designed to 'sell' the EU and its political message, the EU also spends billions of euros a year on efforts to engender a common European culture and citizenship, with the explicit aim of increasing people's attachment to the EU project. The EU pours hundreds of millions of euros a year into think-tanks and lobby groups which promote its policies and campaign for further EU integration, and many of its efforts are directed very deliberately at young people.

Open Europe Director Lorraine Mullally was quoted saying, "Taxpayers should not be footing the bill for vain PR exercises to make us love the EU. The EU needs urgent and radical reform, not expensive campaigns to improve its image. People certainly need to know more about the EU, but the EU has proved unable and unwilling to provide neutral, factual information. This senseless spending on dubious PR projects has got to stop."

A worldwide study found pesticide levels in orange and lemon drinks sold under the Fanta brand, which is popular with children, WERE AT THEIR HIGHEST IN THE UK. The research team called on the Government, the industry and the company to act to remove the chemicals and called for new safety standards to regulate the soft drinks market. The industry denies children are at risk and insists that the levels found by researchers based at the University of Jaen in southern Spain are not harmful.

The researchers tested 102 cans and bottles of soft drinks, bought from 15 countries, for the presence of 100 pesticides. The UK products were bought in London, Cambridge, Edinburgh, St Andrews and at Gatwick Airport. The experts said the levels found were low under the maximum residue levels allowed for fruit, but they were 'very high' and 'up to 300 times' the figure permitted for bottled or tap water. The chemicals detected included carbendazim, thiabendazole, imazalil, prochloraz, malathion and iprodione. They are mainly applied to fruit after harvest to stop it developing fungal infections and rotting.

A total of 19 products were bought in the UK, all made by Coca-Cola. Two orange drinks bought in the UK contained imazalil at 300 times the limit permitted for a single pesticide in drinking water. Two similar products contained 98 times the legal drinking water limit for thiabendazole.

The company, whose brands include Royal Doulton, announced this morning that the Irish-listed company had been placed into receivership and that the bulk of its 10 UK subsidiaries would go into administration later today. The collapse leaves Sir Anthony O'Reilly, the media tycoon and the company's non-executive chairman, facing millions of pounds worth of losses.

Waterford Wedgwood has been forced to appoint a receiver, which it named as David Carson from Deloitte, the accountancy firm, after it missed a January 2 deadline to meet loan repayments. The company, which has net debts of €449 million, had been unable to raise €150 million of new equity it had sought in August.

It will also appoint administrators to the UK business later today, including Neville Kahn, the Deloitte partner charged with finding a buyer for Woolworths, which will see its remaining 200 stores close tomorrow after nearly 100 years of trading.

Parents complained after spotting that the doll was noticeably lighter than the on-screen Upsy Daisy, and blogs have appeared on the internet criticising the decision. Melanie, a 43-year-old mother of one, wrote on her blog 'Melanie's Daily Blurb': "When I saw the doll I was shocked. Upsy Daisy is a black doll in the show, but the doll available for sale is not. I thought kudos to the BBC and Ragdoll Worldwide for their positive reflection of a multicultural society. Sadly that positively did not extend to their merchandising."

An online petition also called for parents to boycott the dolls saying: "Upsy Daisy is black! Kids don't want a watered down white version, they want the real thing."

Ragdoll was co-founded in 1984 by Anne Wood, a former teacher and magazine publisher. It has made a string of hits for children including Rosie and Jim, Pobs Programme and Teletubbies. Teletubbies also courted controversy for Ragdoll productions with educationalists criticising the programme for encouraging young children to mimic the infantile sounds of its characters. Christian leaders also claimed TINKY WINKY WAS GAY BECAUSE HE CARRIED A HANDBAG.

These practices helped inflate their gains, as well as hedge fund managers' salaries and bonuses, in the past, but subsequently helped bring about the recent failure of many major hedge funds. At the heart of this is the distinction between realized gains and unrealized gains. Gains are realized when assets are liquidated into cash. For instance, if you buy a stock for $100 and it is currently trading at $200, you have made $100 in unrealized gains. If you sell it at $200, you have made $100 in realized gains. Most hedge funds do not regularly liquidate their entire portfolio, so THEY ALWAYS REPORT UNREALIZED GAINS TO THEIR INVESTORS AND TO THE PUBLIC.

Now comes the murkier part: Many assets — particularly those that unregulated hedge funds can trade — are not as liquid as stocks, and so they do not always have a definite price on the market. Since a fund reports unrealized gains, it could easily get away with inflating profits. More specifically, the fund could use the most optimistic models to price its illiquid assets, which include mortgage-backed securities and other swaps. After all, economists disagree about how to value these assets, so the fund is not necessarily dishonest in its assessment.

BY DESIGN, HEDGE FUNDS MOST BENEFIT MANAGERS, rather than investors. Since the liquidation of assets always results in slippage — the more that is sold, the worse the price — MANAGERS FOR EVERY HEDGE FUND ALWAYS GET THE "BEST" 20% OF THE PROFIT.

Israeli troops pushed deeper into Gaza, with reports by unnamed Palestinian sources of Israeli tanks moving towards the southern town of Khan Younis. The Israeli military said it carried out 30 air strikes overnight. Targets included a mosque, smuggling tunnels and the homes of Hamas leaders.

The Palestinians said there had also been clashes in the east, near the Israeli border. Earlier, Israeli forces took up positions in the north on either side of Gaza City. The BBC's Tim Franks on the Israeli-Gaza border says that tens of thousands of Israeli reservists, and hundreds more tanks, are assembled on the border with Gaza. Israel says its intentions are to suppress Palestinian militant rocket attacks, which have killed five Israelis since the start of the campaign. Our correspondent says militant rocket fire has dwindled, for the time being, with just five missiles launched overnight.

Mr Sarkozy's Foreign Minister, Bernard Kouchner, is part of an EU delegation, which has already been in Cairo. It is headed by the Czech Foreign Minister, Karel Schwartzenberg, whose country holds the rotating EU presidency, and includes EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana. After talks with Egypt's foreign minister, the EU appealed for an end to both Israel's shelling of Gaza and Palestinian militant rocket attacks on Israel.

They include Poland, Hungary, Bulgaria and Romania, where supplies are reported to have dropped by 30%. Russian gas giant Gazprom accuses Kiev of stealing gas meant for EU customers. Gazprom says it can no longer count on Ukraine as a transit route to EU countries and is seeking alternatives. The Ukrainians say the pipeline network is not working properly after Moscow cut supplies.

The Czech Republic, which holds the rotating EU presidency, is to convene Monday's meeting of envoys in Brussels to discuss the row. The meeting will discuss the impact on gas supplies, but the bloc is divided on how to respond to both Russia and Ukraine. While both sides have been lobbying European states for their support, there is a marked reluctance on the part of the EU to get involved, says the BBC's Dominic Hughes in Brussels.

Therefore its response will probably be limited to an appeal for a swift end to the dispute, our correspondent adds. Pipes across Ukraine carry about a fifth of the EU's gas needs. A similar row between Gazprom and Ukraine at the beginning of 2006 led to gas shortages in several EU countries.

IRNA said commander Bagherzadeh described oil as "one of the powerful elements of pressure" on the Jewish state's Western backers in the "unequal war" faced by Palestinians in the coastal strip. "POINTING AT WESTERNERS' DEPENDENCE ON THE ISLAMIC COUNTRIES' OIL AND ENERGY RESOURCES, he (Bagherzadeh) called for cutting the export of crude oil to the Zionist regime's supporters the world over," IRNA said, referring to Israel.

IRNA gave only the commander's last name but it may have been referring to Mirfeysal Bagherzadeh, a brigadier-general of Iran's elite Revolutionary Guards. There was no immediate comment from other Iranian officials.

After meeting with the Israeli consul general in Los Angeles, Yaakov Dayan, Schwarzenegger declared that "every nation has the right to defend itself against terrorism and cold-blooded attacks on its people. Israel is no different and is right to defend itself against the unceasing violence of rocket attacks launched by Hamas."

It was followed by another big quake and a string of aftershocks. Witnesses said the tremors triggered mass panic in Manokwari, where several buildings were flattened. A tsunami alert was issued by Indonesian authorities following the earthquakes, but withdrawn within an hour. An official with the World Vision aid organisation said 10 buildings had been totally destroyed, including several hotels and the house of a government official.

Electricity was also cut off in the city with a population of some 160,000 people. Japan's Meteorological Agency told Reuters news agency the earthquakes also triggered a small tsunami which hit the Japanese coast, but did not cause any damage. A huge quake off western Indonesia on 26 December 2004 caused a massive tsunami that killed around 230,000 people around the region.