His exhortation came as he enraged other Republicans by reversing George W Bush's ban on funding international aid to charities that perform or provide information about abortions. After less than a week in office, Mr Obama's presidency is already encountering the very partisan bickering he had pledged to stamp out during his first 100 days.

He faces mounting criticism over his $825 billion economic stimulus plan, from Republican leaders who say the legislation has been drawn up without the input which Mr Obama had promised to allow them. The president responded with a clear signal that he is prepared to ram the bill through without the bipartisan consensus he promised to construct, telling Republican leaders from the House of Representatives: "I WON. I'M THE PRESIDENT."

Mr Obama has pledged to end the culture wars on social issues that have riven American politics for a generation and did not allow television cameras to film him signing the executive order reversing the Bush abortion funding ban on aid agencies abroad, in order not to provoke pro-life groups. When he finally did sign the order he issued a statement in a bid to placate abortion critics by promising to "reach out to those on all sides of this issue to achieve the goal of reducing unintended pregnancies." He added: "It is time that we end the politicisation of this issue."

But despite his efforts, the reaction was brutal. Family groups accused him of plotting the "infanticide" of African children. Former presidential candidate Gary Bauer, president of the American Values pressure group, said: "It is both sad and infuriating that in the same week President Obama extended NEW RIGHTS TO PRISONERS AT GUANTANAMO BAY AND BEGAN PLANNING TO RELEASE MEN WHOM WE KNOW HAVE MURDERED AMERICANS, HE IS PREPARING TO SENTENCE INNOCENT CHILDREN TO DEATH THROUGH ABORTION." Meanwhile the decision by the Food and Drug Administration to approve the first human trials of embryonic stem cells, anathema to the Christian right, has intensified the bubbling culture war.

"The group of vigilante men came to report that while they were on patrol they saw some hoodlums attempting to rob a car. They pursued them. However one of them escaped while the other turned into a goat," Kwara state police spokesman Tunde Mohammed told Reuters by telephone.

"We cannot confirm the story, but the goat is in our custody. We cannot base our information on something mystical. It is something that has to be proved scientifically, that a human being turned into a goat," he said. Belief in witchcraft is widespread in parts of Nigeria, Africa's most populous nation. Residents came to the police station to see the goat, photographed in one national newspaper on its knees next to a pile of straw.

According to the RAK Government, temperatures on Jebel Jais dropped to -3°C on Friday night. On Saturday, the area had reached 1°C. Major Saeed Rashid al Yamahi, a helicopter pilot and the manager of the Air Wing of RAK Police, said the snow covered an area of five kilometres and was 10cm deep.

Aisha al Hebsy, a woman in her 50s who has lived in the mountains near Jebel Jais all her life, said snowfall in the area was so unheard of the local dialect does not even have a word for it. Hail is known as bared, which literally translates as cold. "Twenty years ago we had lots of hail," said Ms al Hebsy. "Last night was like this. At four in the morning we came out and the ground was white."

M Varghese, an observer at the RAK Airport Meteorological Office, told of the storms that hit the emirate on Friday night. "We had thunderstorms with rain for more than 12 hours and we had around 18mm rain," Mr Varghese said. "The rain, along with the cold easterly winds and low-lying clouds, could have bought the temperatures further down on the mountains."

Up to now, Egypt has refused to relinquish its sovereignty and allow German "advisors" to be involved in its border controls. The German Foreign Ministry's more far-reaching demand for a German military mission in Gaza, has also not been approved by the local authorities. But because of the struggle with Iran over hegemony, the German government is very attentive to questions of reconstruction.

In the aftermath of the Israeli aggression on Lebanon in 2006, Tehran rendered tangible support to the local reconstruction effort and thereby, won sympathy. This runs contrary to Western Middle East policy and, if Berlin has its way, will not be repeated in the Gaza Strip. Government advisors are working out strategies for prohibiting the rise of Iran to become a leading Middle Eastern power, even beyond the current crisis.

The aim is to limit Iran's influence, BECAUSE IRAN, AS A PREDOMINATING POWER AT THE PERSIAN GULF, WOULD BE ABLE TO TIGHTEN CONTROLS OVER THE AREA'S RESOURCES AND MAKE WESTERN ACCESS MORE DIFFICULT. At the same time, Tehran should not be alienated, because it has its own wealth of resources. "The clever linkage of a course of containment with repeated offers of cooperation," writes the SWP, "could be the basis of a common Iran strategy for Americans, Europeans and pro-Western Arab states."

The remarks by Osama Hamdan are bound to complicate Arab efforts to reconcile Hamas, which controls Gaza, and the Fatah-dominated Palestinian Authority in the West Bank. Hamdan is Hamas's representative in Lebanon and is close to top Damascus-based leader Khaled Mashaal.

Speaking at a rally in Beirut Sunday, Hamdan said Hamas welcomed Palestinian dialogue, but any reconciliation should be based on "A RESISTANCE PROGRAM TO LIBERATE TERRITORY AND REGAIN RIGHTS. We say clearly that we welcome a national Palestinian dialogue but this dialogue must include those who really belong to Palestine and to the Palestinian cause," he said. HE MAINTAINED THAT THE ISRAELI-PALESTINIAN PEACE PROCESS HAD ENDED.

Top Hamas leaders remained in hiding, but lower-level Hamas officials could be seen back to work on Sunday, sometimes operating outside from a table set next to the rubble of their destroyed offices. Early in the morning, the Hamas national security chief, Hussein Abu Athra, was signing orders on the hood of his car next to the pummeled historic building that had served as security headquarters.

The discovery of the natural gas field 90 km offshore from Haifa, known as Tamar, was made by a US-Israel consortium including the Delek Group, through its subsidiaries Delek Drilling and Avner Oil Exploration, Isramco Negev 2, Dor Gas Exploration and US oil operator Noble Energy Inc. Preliminary estimates indicate that the Tamar field might contain over 88 billion cubic meters of gas.

"If the Tamar site opposite the Haifa coast succeeds in producing the significant quantities of natural gas predicted, we are talking about a revolution which will have an impact on the Israeli economy for the coming generations," said Dan Halman, CEO of Halman-Aldubi Group. "The vast reservoir is poised to bring down electricity prices, reduce the country's dependence on gas from foreign countries, in particular from Egypt, AND THEREBY TURN ISRAEL FROM A GAS IMPORTER INTO A GAS EXPORTER."

Zimbabwe has little hope of easing the cholera epidemic, which has killed nearly 2,800 people, and averting economic collapse without a power-sharing deal between President Robert Mugabe and the opposition. Both Mr Mugabe and his rival Morgan Tsvangirai, leader of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), have shown no sign of compromise ahead of next week's regional summit aimed at breaking the deadlock in negotiations.

Zimbabwe's cholera epidemic is "far from under control" and could exceed 60,000 cases over next week, the Red Cross said in Geneva on Friday. Mr Mugabe, in power since independence from Britain in 1980, has come under pressure from Western powers, who want him to step down and are pushing for a democratic government to embrace economic reforms before millions of pounds in aid is offered.

The European Union announced on Friday that it is broadening its sanctions against supporters of Mr Mugabe by adding over 25 individuals and 36 companies with suspected links to human rights abuses to a list of those banned from the 27-member bloc. The sanctions list will for the first time include companies registered in the bloc, including in Britain, two EU diplomats said, without naming the firms.

Asked whether Europe shared these views, the European Commission's economic and monetary affairs spokesperson told this website on Friday: "Commissioner Almunia's position, which is the same as the Eurogroup's long-standing position, is that exchange rates should reflect economic fundamentals. That's all we wish to say."

A spokesperson for the EU's trade department also refused to comment. Such cagey responses highlight the extremely sensitive nature of international exchange rate policies and make Mr Geithner's comments all the more remarkable.

Former US treasury secretary Henry Paulson shared the concern of his replacement that US businesses were suffering from an artificially low yuan and repeatedly called for the currency to float freely against the dollar. However, he shied away from calling China a currency manipulator – a statement unlikely to go down well in Beijing. China's central bank, the People's Bank of China, responded by saying it had noted the comments.

In a Wednesday interview with the BBC, the head of the International Monetary Fund, Dominique Strauss-Kahn, predicted that the economic downturn will cause more unrest. "It could happen almost everywhere, in Europe certainly, and also in emerging countries," he said. "You've had some strikes that look like normal, usual strikes, but it may worsen in the coming months."

Asked which countries were most at risk, Mr Strauss-Kahn mentioned Hungary, Ukraine, Latvia and Belarus. "It can be my own country [France], the UK, it can be eastern Europe," he said. "THE SITUATION IS REALLY, REALLY SERIOUS," he added.

She notes that "Now any worker who is on extended sick leave - even for years - is entitled to holiday pay when he returns to his job, or even if he leaves his job and never returns to work." Open Europe is quoted saying the ruling "shows how once Britain has lost control over a policy area to the EU, the European court can really go to town with it."

The piece goes on to explore the role and powers of EU judges - noting that the President of the ECJ, Vassilios Skouris, is an academic WHO NEVER WORKED AS A JUDGE UNTIL HE WAS APPOINTED TO THE ECJ IN 1999. After just four years experience, he was made president of the court. Synon cites FOUR OTHER JUDGES WHO WERE ALSO NEVER JUDGES BEFORE THEY WERE APPOINTED TO THE ECJ, and says, "what is even more striking is that, in going over the qualifications and experience of each of the judges, it appears NOT ONE OF THE 27 HAS EVER RUN A BUSINESS OR WORKED IN INDUSTRY."

She notes: "It is typical of the way in which ALL DISSENTING OPINION IS SUPPRESSED IN EU institutions that we are not allowed to know whether yesterday's judgement was a split decision or unanimous."

More than 3,000 British organisations – including hospitals, the Ministry of Defence, councils, and what are described as "well-known firms" – have been hit. They and the hundreds of thousands of other victim organisations in countries such as the US, Russia, China and India are now bracing themselves for the virus to be triggered and do whatever malicious work it has been designed to do.

Conficker's origin is thought to be in Ukraine, mainly because the first thing the worm does is check if a computer has a Ukrainian-configured keyboard. If it does, the worm leaves it unmolested. Former Soviet states are where so-called "computer warfare" (the hacking of target networks, or hijacking of websites) has been most common. It was prevalent during last year's Georgia-Russia conflict.

The worm, which does not affect Apple Macs, exploits a vulnerability in Windows, for which Microsoft provided a security patch as long ago as October. But the failure of many users to apply the patch (some say nearly one in three Windows users have ignored it), or to install anti-virus software, has allowed Conficker to proliferate.

Lefebvre founded his movement in 1970 in an effort TO OPPOSE THE REFORMS OF THE SECOND VATICAN COUNCIL, which had introduced the mass in local languages, encouraged dialogue with other religions and generally attempted to reconcile the Church with modernity. In 1988, Lefebvre consecrated four bishops in defiance of the orders of Pope John Paul II, and was automatically ex-communicated along with the new bishops he'd chosen as future leaders of his movement.

But Saturday's announcement that the Vatican will undo the 20-year schism between the Vatican and the so-called Lefebvrian movement is all the more sensitive because it comes only days after the broadcast of an interview in which British-born Bishop Richard Williamson, one of those Benedict is bringing back into the fold, denies that the Nazi Holocaust ever happened.

"I believe there were no gas chambers," Williamson said. The bishop, who has been accused of anti-Semitism in the past, declared that the historical evidence was "hugely against" the accepted belief that close to 6 million Jews were systematically exterminated as part of Adolf Hitler's Final Solution. Williamson claims that no more than 300,000 Jews died during World War II.

Earlier this week, Jewish leaders warned that relations between the Holy See and Judaism would deteriorate if the controversial prelates were brought back into mainstream Catholicism. Papal spokesman Father Federico Lombardi said THE DECREE IN NO WAY MEANS THE POPE, A GERMAN, SHARES WILLIAMSON'S VIEWS ON THE HOLOCAUST.

Some will hail Benedict as a bold defender of the rights of traditionalist Catholics and a man of conviction unbent by the winds of controversy; but others, both inside and outside the Church, will take his embrace of the Lefebvre followers as the final proof that Benedict, deep down, is determined TO MAKE THE CHURCH FAR MORE TRADITIONAL THAN IT IS TODAY.

The US Geological Survey said the quake's epicenter was 161 miles southwest of Anchorage. There was no tsunami warning in effect, according to the West Coast and Alaska Tsunami Warning Center website. Magnitude 5 quakes can cause considerable damage, but there were no immediate reports of injury or damage.

Meanwhile, the LA Times website reports that a study finds "troubling" the pattern of Southern California quakes. The southern stretch of the San Andreas fault has had a major temblor about every 137 years, according to new research. The latest looks to be overdue.

The sports hall partially collapsed in the town of Sant Boi de Llobregat, Catalonia, with between 20 and 30 youngsters inside, officials said. The youngsters had gathered to play baseball but the fierce winds drove them to take shelter in a small covered area for spectators, made of concrete, with a corrugated iron roof. "It seems that the roof shifted and brought down part of the wall," a regional government spokeswoman said. Local people and fire-fighters helped free the survivors from the rubble but three children aged between nine and 12 died at the scene, and a fourth child died later in hospital. More than a dozen others received treatment for injures

Torrential rains and winds of up to 184km/h (114mph) were reported. It is now tracking across central Italy, bringing rain and winds of 80-95km/h (50-60mph), forecasters say. Some 1.3 million homes in France suffered power cuts while road and rail links were blocked and airports closed.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy will visit the region on Sunday. The impact of the storm was felt from the Channel Isles to Barcelona, but the strongest winds and heaviest rain were concentrated on south-western France.

Monsignor Rino Fisichella, who heads the Vatican's Pontifical Academy for Life, urged Obama to listen to all voices in America without "THE ARROGANCE OF THOSE WHO, BEING IN POWER, BELIEVE THEY CAN DECIDE ON LIFE AND DEATH." Fisichella said in an interview published Saturday in Corriere della Sera that "if this is one of President Obama's first acts, I have to say, in all due respect, that we're heading quickly toward disappointment."

Obama signed an executive order that ended the ban on Friday, reversing the policy of the Bush administration. "This deals a harsh blow not only to us Catholics but to all the people across the world who fight against THE SLAUGHTER OF INNOCENTS THAT IS CARRIED OUT WITH THE ABORTION," another top official with the Academy for Life, Monsignor Elio Sgreccia, told the ANSA news agency.