The top Republican leader in the House praised President Obama for making a "compelling" case that the nation can overcome its economic challenges and pledged to work with him when he reaches across the aisle.

He later clarified that Republicans will work with Obama on areas of agreement but would maintain their ideological differences and fight for them. Despite several personal entreaties from Obama to support the stimulus bill, House Republicans illustrated their solid opposition when not one Republican crossed the aisle to support it last week.

Boehner also implied that Obama's speech attempted to cast his policies as more conservative than they really are, even as government spending skyrockets with the last week's $787 billion stimulus bill and a $410 billion omnibus appropriations measure, which the House is considering Wednesday. "With few exceptions, it was a speech I could have given – it was a very conservative speech," Boehner said. "But actions speak louder than words."

Nearly 50 people are feared dead in Bangladesh after border guards staged an armed mutiny on Wednesday. The mutiny was said to be over pay conditions. The government has offered the troops a general amnesty.

The BBC's Mark Dummett in Dhaka says that reports are coming in that the mutiny, which erupted without warning on Wednesday morning at the headquarters of Bangladesh border force in Dhaka, has spread to other towns in the country. The Bangladesh Rifles or BDR has 45,000 men stationed at 64 camps across the country.
There are reports of incidents from at least eight districts across the country.

The obliteration of Israel is heralded in a torrent of words. "Zionist terrorists," the imam thunders from the glass-enclosed pulpit at the end of the mosque. "Animals in human form" have transformed the Gaza Strip into a "concentration camp," and this marks "the beginning of the end" for the Jewish pseudo-state.

Over 4,000 faithful are listening to the religious service in the King Fahd Mosque, named after the late Saudi Arabian monarch King Fahd Bin Abd al-Asis Al Saud. The women sit separately, screened off in the left wing of the building. It is the day of the Khutbah, the great Friday sermon, and the city where the imam has predicted Israel's demise lies some 2,000 kilometers (1,240 miles) northwest of Gaza. It is a city in the heart of Europe: Sarajevo.

The tone was set early by disappointment President Barack Obama shed little new light about how his administration would stabilize the economy in a major speech before Congress.

The Dow Jones industrial average fell 141.46 points, or 1.92 percent, to 7,209.48. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index lost 15.88 points, or 2.05 percent, to 757.26. The Nasdaq Composite Index was down 28.26 points, or 1.96 percent, at 1,413.57.

"We will rebuild, we will recover," Mr Obama said, adding: "Now is the time to act boldly and wisely." Republicans said Mr Obama's plans were "wasteful", saying they spent "money we do not have on things we do not need".

Mr Obama has seen Congress pass a $787bn (£545bn) economic stimulus plan and is preparing to announce a budget. Delivering a televised rebuttal shortly after Mr Obama spoke, Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal said Republicans opposed the view that the way to strengthen the country was to strengthen government.

Outlining what he saw as the roots of the economic crisis, Mr Obama told congressmen that short-term gains had been prized over long-term prosperity. "And all the while, critical debates and difficult decisions were put off for some other time on some other day," he said. "Well, that day of reckoning has arrived, and the time to take charge of our future is here."

It will be seen as a warning to Muslim groups that they will not be engaged with unless they end radical rhetoric. In the speech, at the London School of Economics, Ms Blears will argue that the government's engagement strategy must be part of its overall anti-extremism strategy.

She will call for the government to actively challenge the views and methods of those who go beyond core values. In order to do that, ministers will have to work in "difficult and contentious territory". She will say: "THERE IS A NEED FOR MORAL CLARITY, A DIVIDING LINE ROOTED IN OUR OVERRIDING SENSE OF WHAT IS RIGHT AND WRONG."

Hands up if you feel good about the future. Don't all rush at once. What, no takers? PERHAPS YOU'RE EXPERIENCING THE DIFFICULT BIRTH PANGS OF A NEW GLOBAL ORDER, AS GORDON BROWN PATRONISINGLY CALLED IT. Maybe you're wondering when your very own £500 billion bail-out will be arriving – that's on condition you don't do anything silly, like lend it out to kick-start the economy.

Or, more likely, you feel as though you are standing on the edge of an abyss, and waiting for your job, house, school fees and savings to be sucked into the black hole of the deepest recession in a century. That's if it hasn't happened already. "I've got chronic insomnia, and my stomach churns every morning when I go into work, in case I'm summoned into my boss's office and told to clear my desk," says one employee of a City bank.

In the current climate of fear and uncertainty, it's little wonder that hopes are on hold and dreams deferred; planning ahead is a luxury few can afford when simply making it through to the next salary slip is as much as many people can manage.

He said he had signed a certificate under section 53 of the FOI Act, "the effect of which is that these Cabinet minutes will not now be disclosed". Allowing publication to go ahead would cause "serious damage to Cabinet government, an essential principle of British democracy".

Mr Straw told the Commons he had consulted with the rest of the Cabinet before issuing the veto, and the decision had not been taken "lightly". It is the first time the ministerial veto has been used since the FOI Act came into force in 2005.

Liberal Democrat MP Sir Menzies Campbell said the decision was "profoundly disappointing. This is a Government which when introducing measures to limit personal freedom says THAT THOSE THAT HAVE NOTHING TO HIDE SHOULD HAVE NOTHING TO FEAR," he said. "If the process of reaching the decision to embark upon an illegal war against Iraq is still supported by the Government why haven't they the courage to let us see the minutes of the Cabinet?"

David Dooks of the BBA said the data suggested that many Britons are focusing on paying off debts rather than saving, as fears over the depth of the downturn intensify. 'People have an aversion to taking on more debt on cards and personal loans,' he said. 'This is the largest monthly fall that we have seen. Whether it is the emergence of a trend time will tell.'

Savers are currently getting paltry returns on deposits since the Bank of England cut its official rate to 1 per cent. This time last year it was 5.25 per cent. Banks have been quick to pass this cut on to savers, who have emerged as the 'silent victims' of the credit crisis. Some are having to put up with returns as low as 0.1 per cent.

It showed that in the middle of last year there were 6,486,000 people in Britain who were born abroad, with just over six million of them in England. The figures suggest the impact of immigration on numbers in England, already the most crowded country in Europe, may have been underestimated until now.

However although the figures from the Government's Office for National Statistics show an increase in numbers of foreign born people THEY STILL FAIL TO RECORD THE TRUE IMPACT OF IMMIGRATION because they record their children as British rather than second or third generation immigrants. The Labour Force Survey, from which the information has been obtained, also fails to include people who live in hotels, boarding houses, hostels or caravan sites, as large numbers of migrants do. Nor does it include students in halls of residence.

On the basis of official immigration figures, ministers say the total population will reach 70million by 2028. But if yesterday's new estimates are correct, the population may be closer to 75million by then. Sir Andrew Green of Migrationwatch said: 'These figures are a cause for real concern. They are much higher than official immigration figures have indicated. They may mean that we face a population explosion.'

The economic crisis in Hungary was bad enough. Now, rising ethnic tensions threaten to plunge the country into a social crisis as well. In the aftermath of what appears to be the racist-motivated murder of a Roma man and his five-year-old son, the country's ombudsman for minority affairs is calling on the political class to come up with an "ethnic peace plan."

A brutal arson attack in the early hours of Monday morning provided the most recent trigger for concern. In the village of Tatárszentgyörgy, about 40 kilometers (25 miles) from the capital Budapest, a Roma man and his five-year-old son were shot dead as they tried to escape their burning house. Two other children were left with serious burns.

The attack, though, was no exception. A series of violent crimes in Hungary have targeted Roma in recent months, including fire bombings of Roma homes. FURTHERMORE, THE ESCALATION OF ETHNIC TENSIONS COMES AS THE EXTREME RIGHT SEEKS TO EXPLOIT HUNGARY'S ECONOMIC PAIN FOR ITS POLITICAL GAIN.

Under the agreement, which the men and the governor signed with much ceremony, THE TALIBAN WILL BE PERMITTED TO IMPLEMENT THEIR INTERPRETATION OF ISLAMIC LAW, OR SHARIA, IN THE SWAT VALLEY and other adjacent districts at the foot of the Himalayas. "Today is a historic day," said Amir Haider Khan Hoti, the chief minister of the provincial government, clearly straining to put a positive spin on the Taliban's assumption of power. "An old demand of the people has been met. The new regulation will provide a more efficient legal system."

IT WAS A BLATANT LIE. MOST PAKISTANIS ARE SHOCKED BY THE PROSPECT THAT, IN THE SWAT VALLEY, THIEVES COULD HAVE THEIR HANDS CUT OFF AS THEIR PUNISHMENT IN THE FUTURE. The news of the radical Islamists' takeover of the Swat Valley was just as alarming to the rest of the world as it was to many in Pakistan. Richard Holbrooke, the US's new special envoy for the region, was in India, having just left Pakistan after completing his first official visit to the country, when he received the "horrifying" news.

According to Holbrooke, the Taliban victory shows that India, Pakistan and the United States face a common enemy "that poses direct threats to our leaderships, our capitals and our people." In the wake of its growing successes in putting pressure on American and NATO troops in Afghanistan, THE TALIBAN NOW APPEARS TO BE ON THE ROAD TO VICTORY IN PAKISTAN. IN EFFECT, PAKISTAN, A NUCLEAR POWER, HAS RELINQUISHED ITS SOVEREIGNTY OVER AN IMPORTANT PART OF THE COUNTRY.

The dramatic call comes as markets continue their plunge and the future of the media becomes increasingly muddled. "Many people will be under extreme pressure and many companies mortally wounded," Murdoch declares. "Our competitors will be sorely tempted to take the easy beat, to reduce quality in the search for immediate dividends."

He continued: "Let me be very clear about our company: where others might step back from their commitment to their viewers, their users, readers and customers – we will renew ours. The direction of the business now and over the next few years will define the character of our company for decades."

The money, which needs U.S. congressional approval, WILL BE DISTRIBUTED THROUGH U.N. AND OTHER BODIES AND NOT VIA THE MILITANT GROUP HAMAS, WHICH RULES GAZA, said one official. "This money is for Gaza and to help strengthen the Palestinian Authority. It is not going to go to Hamas," said the official, who asked not to be named as Secretary of State Hillary Clinton planned to announce the funding at a donors' conference in Egypt next week.

Neither the United States nor Israel have direct contact with the Islamist Hamas movement which runs Gaza and remains formally committed to the destruction of the Jewish state. The official said the pledge was a mix of money already earmarked for the Palestinians and some new funding. Clinton's bid to get "substantial" funds could face an uphill battle in Congress because Hamas continues to rule Gaza and the U.S. focus is on its own souring economy.

Thousands are losing their jobs through no fault of their own because bankers who made millions during the good times are calling in the loans which their employers need to stay afloat. Homes are being repossessed across the country, but not the penthouse flats and country piles of bank bosses who thought nothing of taking home vast seven-figure bonuses, and consider £1 million a year a modest income.

THAT THE PUBLIC IS BEING WATCHED BY BIG BROTHER AT EVERY TURN IS DEEPLY ALARMING. That the innocent were being tracked going about their every day lives while a blind eye was being turned to a financial sector apparently hell-bent on destruction is unforgivable. THUS, THE IDEA OF THE 'SUMMER OF RAGE' MAY NOT BE AS FAR-FETCHED AS IT FIRST APPEARS.

Superintendent Hartshorn, one of Britain's most senior police officers, talks of the banks, particularly those that still pay large bonuses despite receiving billions in taxpayer money, becoming 'viable targets'. Likewise, the headquarters of multinational companies and other financial institutions in the City which are being blamed for the financial crisis. It is to their eternal shame that our banks should find themselves in such a position, and that Labour - while eroding the civil liberties Britain has fought so hard to defend over the centuries - was prepared to sit back and allow it to happen.