The Reverend Noble Samuel was driving to the studio when a car pulled over in front of him. A man got out and came over to ask him directions in Urdu. Mr Samuel, based at Heston United Reformed Church, West London, said: "He put his hand into my window, which was half open, and grabbed my hair and opened the door."

"He started slapping my face and punching my neck. He was trying to smash my head on the steering wheel. Then he grabbed my cross and pulled it off and it fell on the floor. He was swearing. The other two men came from the car and took my laptop and Bible." The Metropolitan Police are treating it as a 'faith hate' assault and are hunting three Asian men.

Pakistan-born Mr Samuel, 48, who was educated by Christian missionaries and moved to Britain 15 years ago, said that over the past few weeks he has received phone-in calls from people identifying themselves as Muslims who challenged his views. "They were having an argument with me," he said. "They were very aggressive in saying they did not agree with me. I said those are your views and these are my views. I am frightened and depressed," he said. "My show is not confrontational."

Three weeks later, prosecutors admitted the "beasts" could not be guilty - DNA tests had ruled them out - and Italians were left wondering whether growing anti-immigrant sentiment had played a role in a hurried investigation. "The discovery that these two Romanians accused of rape are not guilty is a real slap in the face for our national conscience," wrote commentator Lucia Annunziata in an editorial in La Stampa newspaper.

"The whole country was duped on a path of hasty and crude racism," she wrote. "We are a long way away from lynch mobs, but we are going in that direction. This could get serious." XENOPHOBIC FEELINGS HAVE BEEN BREWING IN POCKETS OF EUROPE IN RECENT MONTHS, fuelled by economic downturn as locals and immigrants compete for fewer jobs and ever lower wages.

There has been racist violence in the Czech Republic and Hungary, migrants who flocked to Russia looking for work in the boom have been threatened or abused, and tensions are mounting between immigrants and Spaniards competing for shelter and work.

Hundreds of protesters, including lawyers and members of the Jamaat-e-Islami religious party, hurled stones at police outside the High Court in Lahore after former prime minister and opposition leader Nawaz Sharif called supporters onto the streets. Police responded with tear gas and baton charges. "You have seen that the entire country has been turned into a police state."

The protest campaign by anti-government lawyers and opposition parties threatens to bring more turmoil to Pakistan as the government struggles to combat Islamist militants and revive a flagging economy. If the political crisis gets out of hand, the army could intervene though most analysts say a military coup is unlikely.

The United States is worried the crisis is a distraction from Pakistan's efforts to eliminate Taliban and al Qaeda enclaves on the Afghan border, vital to US plans to stabilise Afghanistan and defeat al Qaeda. An official in Zardari's party said on Saturday the president was refusing to cave in to pressure from Sharif, who was trying to overturn an election mandate by mob rule. In a step towards reconciliation with the opposition, the government said on Saturday it would seek a review of a Supreme Court ruling last month that barred Sharif and his brother from office.

Update:- ISLAMABAD - Pakistan's government agreed on Monday to reinstate Iftikhar Chaudhry as chief justice to defuse a political crisis and end a street agitation that was threatening to turn into violent confrontation. Chaudhry became a cause celebre after being dismissed in late 2007 by then-president and army chief General Pervez Musharraf. "I announce the restoration of all deposed judges including Mr. Iftikhar Chaudhry according to a promise made by the president of Pakistan and myself," Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani said.

That translates into 2,984 residents per every 100,000 over the age of 12 - or 15,120 - according to the 2008 epidemiology report by the District's HIV/AIDS office.

"Our rates are higher than West Africa," said Shannon L. Hader, director of the District's HIV/AIDS Administration, who once led the Federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's work in Zimbabwe. "They're on par with Uganda and some parts of Kenya."

"We have every mode of transmission" - men having sex with men, heterosexual and injected drug use - "going up, all on the rise, and we have to deal with them," Hader said. More than 4 percent of blacks in the city are known to have HIV, along with almost 2 percent of Latinos and 1.4 percent of whites. More than three-quarters - 76 percent - of the HIV infected are black, 70 percent are men and 70 percent are age 40 and older.

Gordon Brown's grand plan to save the global economy was in crisis last night when the German Chancellor, ANGELA MERKEL, REFUSED TO COMMIT TO A NEW GLOBAL FISCAL STIMULUS PACKAGE to steer the world out of recession. In a pointed warning to the Prime Minister, the German leader said it was too early to measure the effects of the first multibillion-dollar stimulus to give the go-ahead for any more state aid.

Mrs Merkel was backed up by Christine Lagarde, the French Finance Minister, who said nations needed to assess the impact of earlier measures before making any further tax and spend decisions. Mrs Merkel's remarks, made in a press conference alongside Mr Brown after talks in Downing Street, cast a shadow over yesterday's G20 meeting of finance ministers in Horsham, West Sussex, and Britain's attempts to secure a lasting rescue plan in the wake of the world's worst economic crisis since the 1930s.

FRANCE AND GERMANY, TWO OF EUROPE'S LARGEST ECONOMIES, ARE RELUCTANT TO BACK THE MOVES, instead calling for tougher financial regulation. The German Chancellor said it was for individual countries to decide on further tax and spend decisions, adding: "We will talk to our parliamentarians about that. Germans did not suffer the same problems with home loan and credit card debt that Americans had", she said, adding: "WE MUST RETURN TO A SOLID, SUSTAINABLE FISCAL POLICY AFTER THE CRISIS. So we have got to signal to markets that on the one hand we are tackling the crisis decisively and that, on the other, we will permanently avoid excessive global imbalances."

The Catholic Church in England and Wales will hope that such an event will capture the imagination of the country's four million Catholics, of whom only a quarter now regularly attend Mass. At the same time, the Government has embarked on a major diplomatic mission in an attempt to change the long-standing law banning Catholics from succeeding to the throne. Sources close to Gordon Brown said that CONTROVERSIAL PLANS TO REFORM THE 1701 ACT OF SETTLEMENT ARE "VERY MUCH ALIVE" - DESPITE OFFICIAL STATEMENTS TO THE CONTRARY.

Prince Charles is expected to add further momentum to Britain's bid to secure what would be only the second visit by a Pope since Henry VIII broke with Rome to establish the Church of England in 1534. Any change will be controversial. A petition lodged on the 10 Downing Street website has demanded that the government "keep the monarchy Protestant" rather than allowing Catholics to succeed.

In response a Number 10 spokesman said: "The government has no plans to change the constitutional position of the monarchy, which continues to personify both our national and Commonwealth unity as well as embodying the community cohesion and diversity of which the British people are rightly proud." This led campaigners against change to conclude they had won a victory. However, a source close to Mr Brown said: "This plan is still very much alive.

On Thursday, Liechtenstein and Andorra announced that they were loosening their strict bank secrecy laws. On Friday, the tiny countries were followed by Austria, Luxembourg and Switzerland. In the future, investigators looking into tax evasion will be able to ask their colleagues in these countries for help, provided they have probable cause. "The decision will permit the exchange of information with other countries in individual cases where a specific and justified request has been made," the Swiss government said in a statement.

The changes come after years of pressure, much of it coming recently from Germany and France, to accept OECD rules. Germany, France, Great Britain and the US signalled that they would not merely be content with sending spineless warnings. They threatened that the G-20 would publish a black list of uncooperative countries when the G-20 meets in April in London.

It seems to have worked, and not just in Europe. Hong Kong and Singapore also decided they didn't want to be named in the same breath with tax havens like the Bahamas, Monaco and the Channel Islands -- and they recently changed their practices.

Ministers from the world's largest economies also pledged to regulate hedge funds and start closer checks on credit ratings agencies to prevent a repeat of a financial markets crisis that is crippling businesses and putting millions more out of work.

"We are committed to deliver the scale of sustained effort necessary to restore growth," the ministers said in a statement promising extra money for the International Monetary Fund and regional lenders such as the Asian Development Bank.

THE G20 ACCOUNTS FOR OVER 80 PERCENT OF THE WORLD'S OUTPUT, OR GROSS DOMESTIC PRODUCT, which is expected to shrink in 2009 by more than any year since the 1930s after the financial crisis that erupted in the United States in 2007 engulfed confidence, activity, trade and jobs worldwide. The United States has yet to detail how it plans to clean up banks' toxic assets, which many say is vital to get a sclerotic economy moving again, though a U.S. official said details could be expected in the coming week.

The comments were the latest signal that Moscow intends to project its military capability in far-flung corners of the globe despite a tight defence budget and hardware that experts consider in many respects outdated. Russia resumed patrols by its long-distance strategic bombers in August 2007 after a 15-year hiatus, noting at the time that it was mirroring the United States which never suspended its global bomber patrols after the Cold War.

Last year, Russia temporarily based a pair of Tu-160 bombers at an airbase in Venezuela in a carefully-choreographed display of force regarded as a warning message to the United States.

Last July however, a top US air force officer warned that Russia would cross "a red line" if it were to base nuclear capable bombers in Cuba. "If they did, I think we should stand strong and indicate that is something that crosses a threshold, crosses a red line for the United States of America," said General Norton Schwartz said on July 23.

Last September, Austria's far right gained massive political influence in an election that saw the FPO along with another far right party – Alliance For The Future (BZO) – GAIN 29 PER CENT OF THE VOTE, the same share as Austria's main party, the Social Democrats. THE ELECTION STIRRED UP TERRIFYING MEMORIES OF THE RISE OF THE NAZI PARTY IN THE THIRTIES.

THE FPO WANTS TO LEGALISE NAZI SYMBOLS, while its firebrand leader has been accused of having links to far right extremists. After the FPO's election victory, Nick Griffin, leader of the British Nationalist Party (BNP), sent a personal message to Strache. 'We in Britain are impressed to see that you have been able to combine principled nationalism with electoral success. We are sure that this gives you a good springboard for the European elections and we hope very much that WE WILL BE ABLE TO JOIN YOU IN A SUCCESSFUL NATIONALIST BLOCK IN BRUSSELS NEXT YEAR.'

Herbert Schweiger makes no attempt to hide his Nazi views. At his home in the Austrian mountains, the former SS officer gazes out of a window to a view of a misty alpine valley. Described to me as the 'Puppet Master' of the far right, Schweiger, 85, is a legendary figure for neo-Nazis across the world.
'OUR TIME IS COMING AGAIN AND SOON WE WILL HAVE ANOTHER LEADER LIKE HITLER,' he says.

'THE JEW ON WALL STREET IS RESPONSIBLE FOR THE WORLD'S CURRENT ECONOMIC CRISIS. IT IS THE SAME NOW AS IN 1929 WHEN 90 PER CENT OF MONEY WAS IN THE HANDS OF THE JEW. Hitler had the right solutions then,' he says, invoking the language of Goebbels. The open defiance of these men honouring their Nazi 'war hero', and the support they are gaining in these troubled economic times, SHOULD BE SETTING OFF ALARM BELLS IN EUROPE AND THE REST OF THE WORLD.

"Had you not been bad-tempered and blocked the way, the Iranian nation would not have been present in space, and would not have become a nuclear power," Fars news agency quoted Ahmadinejad as saying at the inauguration ceremony of a natural gas deposit in the Bushehr province.

Iran put its first communications satellite, Omid (Hope), into a near-Earth orbit on February 2. The research satellite was carried into orbit by a home-made launch vehicle, Safir (Messenger). Iranian Communications Minister Mohammad Soleimani earlier said that the country's scientists were working on the creation of four new satellites to be placed into near-Earth orbit.

Western powers led by the United States, along with Israel, have accused Tehran of attempting to develop nuclear weapons and ballistic missile technology for their delivery. Iran says it needs its nuclear program for electric power generation, and its missile program for space exploration.

The pilot stores, named Supermercado de Walmart, will open in Phoenix and Houston in remodelled 39,000 sq ft locations occupied previously by two of Wal-Mart's Neighborhood Market stores. The retailer said that the stores were in "strongly Hispanic neighbourhoods" and would feature a "new lay-out, signing and product assortment designed to make them even more relevant to local Hispanic customers". The staff will also be bilingual.

Several leading regional US supermarket chains already operate Hispanic store brands, including Publix in Florida, which operates three Publix Sabor markets, and HEB in Texas, which opened a Mi Tienda store in Houston in 2006.

Eduardo Castro-Wright, the head of Wal-Mart's US stores since 2005, has also been an advocate of testing new smaller, more focused formats, and raised the idea of turning the Neighbourhood Market into a Hispanic-style bodega concept several years ago. He has also developed Wal-Mart's efforts to customise its larger Supercenter stores, which have been grouped according to differing community profiles, such as urban, suburban, Hispanic and African-American, with customised merchandise.

The crisis was sparked when high seas whipped up by Cyclone Hamish toppled 31 containers of ammonium nitrate fertiliser from the deck of the Pacific Adventurer. As they fell, the containers punctured the hull and released the oil, also taking 620 TONNES OF THE CHEMICAL FERTILISER TO THE OCEAN FLOOR.

The BBC's Phil Mercer in Sydney says the environmental disaster has become a dominant issue ahead of a Queensland state election next weekend. "This has been a debacle of extraordinary magnitude," conservative opposition leader Lawrence Springborg said.

The ship's owner, Swire Shipping, faces fines of up to A$1.5m ($977,000; £703,000) if found guilty of environmental breaches, as well as clean-up costs of A$100,000 a day. Apart from the oil damage, experts fear the fertiliser could cause harmful algal blooms, suffocate fish and kill natural habitats.

BUT THEY WILL CONTINUE SELLING BOTTLES CONTAINING BPA IN THE UK, a decision which has angered campaigners. The Food Standards Agency insists BPA in UK plastic products is "well below the levels considered harmful". THE CHEMICAL IS WIDELY USED IN PLASTIC MANUFACTURE AND IS COMMONLY FOUND IN FOOD AND DRINK CONTAINERS.

There has been growing concern about the possible effects of BPA leaching into babies' feed when bottles are heated. The current advice for parents is not to pour boiling liquid directly into bottles, not to microwave them or use scratched or worn ones. Research carried out at Exeter University found that adults with high levels of BPA in their system were more prone to heart disease and diabetes.

In 2008, Canada formally declared BPA a hazardous substance and announced plans to ban the import or sale of bottles containing it. Now six of the leading manufacturers in the US have voluntarily withdrawn it, but only for domestic sales. Belinda Phipps, chief executive of the National Childbirth Trust, said: "It's time the companies in the UK followed suit with what the companies in America and Canada are doing. We shouldn't have bottles on the market that leach BPA. Parents would like to choose not have BPA in their babies' feeds and they don't find that choice easy right now."

Sanford, a Republican, has been an outspoken critic of the Obama administration's $800 billion stimulus plan. He said he'll turn down about a quarter of his state's $2.8 billion share unless Washington lets him use that money to pay down debt. "What you're doing is buying into the notion that if we just print some more money that we don't have and send it to different states, we'll create jobs," he said. "If that's the case, why isn't Zimbabwe a rich place?"

Zimbabwe has been in the throes of an economic meltdown ever since the southern African nation embarked on a chaotic land reform program. Its official inflation rate topped 11 million percent in 2008, with its treasury printing banknotes in the trillion-dollar range to keep up with the plummeting value of its currency. But with South Carolina's unemployment rate now the second-highest in the country, state lawmakers will attempt to override Sanford and take the $700 million if he turns it down, Lieutentant Governor Andre Bauer said.

"They will use the total economic stimulus to stimulate the economy, jump-start it, so we can get out of the ditch we are in as a state and as a nation," Bauer, a fellow Republican, said in a written statement Wednesday. But Sanford told reporters that taking the money now would leave the state in the lurch in two years, "when those funds dry up. Fundamentally, if you boil down what the stimulus means for South Carolina, it means we would go through the process of spending a bunch of money we don't have," he said.