"There is an agreement actually reached, reached between the two parties on a fixed date, which is the end of 2011, to end any foreign presence on Iraqi soil," Maliki said in a speech to tribal leaders in Baghdad's heavily fortified Green Zone. "An open time limit is not acceptable in any security deal that governs the presence of the international forces," he said.

Maliki's remarks were the most explicit statement yet that the increasingly assertive Iraqi government expects the U.S. presence to end in three years as part of a deal between Washington and Baghdad to allow them to stay beyond this year.

In Washington, State Department spokesman Robert Wood said a draft agreement had been prepared but it needed to "go through a number of levers in the Iraqi political system before we actually have an agreement from the Iraqi side."

In Britain alone, experts say landfill sites could offer up an estimated 200 million tonnes of old plastic - worth up to 60 billion pounds at current prices - to be recovered and recycled, or converted to liquid fuel. As many oil analysts predict oil prices will stay above $100 a barrel, waste experts in America, Europe and across Asia have been conducting pilot projects to recoup old plastic and other waste materials.

Prices for high quality plastics such as high-density polyethelenes (HDP) have more than doubled to between 200 and 300 pounds ($370-560) per tonne, from just above 100 pounds a year ago, according to experts in the waste industry. With this in mind, leaders of the world's waste management industry are planning to come together in London in October for what is being billed as the first "global landfill mining" conference.

Ahead of a key German survey of business sentiment due out later on Tuesday, the dollar strengthened to $1.4717 against the euro. Against the pound, the dollar was trading at $1.8468, just below a two-year high versus sterling. The latest German survey may show more signs of a possible European recession.

The US currency has benefited as the economic outlook has darkened in both mainland Europe and the UK. Investment guru Warren Buffett said last week that he had no bets against the dollar - underscoring the currency's strength. The fall in the euro and sterling could help European exporters whose goods will now be cheaper overseas.

But it will hurt holidaymakers who have benefited from a strong pound when travelling to countries which use the dollar.

He issued the threat at a Boy Scout ceremony as a response to Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's remark last week that "if Lebanon becomes a Hizbullah state, then we won't have any restrictions" in striking the country. The Prime Minister claimed that during the last war, Israel did not use all of its firepower because the enemy was Hizbullah and not its host country Lebanon.

The flurry of threats and warnings came two days after a report in the Italian newspaper Corriere Della Sera that three HIZBULLAH LEADERS VISITED RUSSIA in July to clinch a deal involving the purchase of ANTI-TANK MISSILES AND AIR-DEFENCE SYSTEMS. Israel disclosed evidence during the Second Lebanon War that Hizbullah used advanced Russian anti-tank missiles smuggled from Syria, in violation of previous international agreements.

The prospect of an Israeli attack on Iran's growing nuclear threat also played a hand in Hizbullah's latest threats. Mohammed Raad, the head of the terrorist party's political bloc in the Lebanese government, warned, "The first shot fired from the Zionist entity toward Iran will be met by a response of 11,000 rockets in the direction of the Zionist entity. This is what military leaders in the Islamic Republic [Iran] have confirmed." HIZBULLAH HAS BECOME A STRONGER POLITICAL FORCE IN LEBANON since the end of the war two summers ago, winning enough representation in the Cabinet to veto any major decisions.

Speaking at the Humbert Summer School in Co Mayo, the cleric said the EU's prevailing culture and social agenda seems to be DRIVEN BY THE SECULAR TRADITION "RATHER THAN BY THE CHRISTIAN MEMORY AND HERITAGE OF THE VAST MAJORITY OF MEMBER STATES," the Irish Times reported.

Cardinal Brady warned of "dangerous individualism that does not care about God or about what the future might have in store. As the recent referendum on the Lisbon treaty in Ireland suggests, at least some of those who were previously enthusiastic about the founding aims of the EU, both social and economic, are now expressing unease," he added. The cardinal referred to "a fairly widespread culture in European affairs WHICH RELEGATES MANIFESTATIONS OF ONE'S OWN RELIGIOUS CONVICTIONS TO THE PRIVATE AND SUBJECTIVE SPHERE."

"Successive decisions which have undermined the family BASED ON MARRIAGE, THE RIGHT TO LIFE FROM THE MOMENT OF CONCEPTION TO NATURAL DEATH, THE SACREDNESS OF THE SABBATH, THE RIGHT OF CHRISTIAN INSTITUTIONS TO MAINTAIN AND PROMOTE THEIR ETHOS, INCLUDING SCHOOLS - these and other decisions have made it more difficult for committed Christians to maintain their instinctive commitment to the European project. Without respect for its Christian memory and soul, I believe it is possible to anticipate continuing difficulties for the European project," Cardinal Brady warned.

According to a recent US Department of Agriculture report, Iran has bought about 1.18 million tonnes of US hard wheat since the beginning of the 2008-2009 crop season in June. The number, which has been growing steadily all summer, already represents nearly 5.0 percent of US annual exports forecast by the USDA. The last time Iran imported US wheat was in 1981-1982.

According to Nelson, Iran's wheat production has been hammered by several months of drought, with crop forecasts of roughly 10 million tonnes this year, about five million tonnes short of the country's needs. This is a serious setback for Iran from a domestic point of view because they made a big deal about self-sufficiency in grains.

Mr Sharif ended the country's shaky period of "reconciliation" exactly one week after the two main coalition partners achieved their common goal of forcing Pervez Musharraf to resign as president. Mr Sharif accused the Pakistan People's Party (PPP) of failing to honour pledges to reinstate judges sacked by Mr Musharraf. "We therefore feel that these repeated defaults and violations have forced us to withdraw our support from the ruling coalition and sit on the opposition benches," Mr Sharif told a news conference.

The PPP was reluctant to restore the judges partly because of concern THE DEPOSED CHIEF JUSTICE MIGHT RESCIND AN AMNESTY ON CORRUPTION CHARGES GRANTED TO ITS LEADERSHIP LAST YEAR. The withdrawal of the Pakistan Muslim League-N (PML-N) from the five- month old coalition - dubbed the "collision government" by the media - will not immediately force an election but Mr Sharif is expected to hobble the government by agitating for early elections.

Air force helicopters and troops were trying to get food to people in the stricken areas of Bihar state that were inundated by flood waters last week after torrential rains caused the Kosi river in neighboring Nepal to burst its banks. The Bihar state government issued a plea to relief agencies to step in and help get food and shelter to the residents. "It is not a normal flood, but a catastrophe," said Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar after making an aerial survey of the ravaged districts.

Kumar said more than 1 million people were cut off from the rest of the country because the floods had washed away roads and made railway lines impassable. India's monsoon season, which lasts from June to September, brings rain vital for the country's farmers but also massive destruction. Floods, mudslides, collapsing houses and lightning strikes kill hundreds of people every year.

This year's monsoon has killed more than 330 people in India so far. In 2007, monsoon floods killed more than 2,200 people across South Asia and left 31 million others homeless, short of food or with other problems. The United Nations called last year's floods the worst in living memory.

The vote by 130 members of the Kremlin-dominated Federation Council, the upper chamber of the Russian parliament, came after intense fighting between Russia and Georgia over the two separatist provinces of South Ossetia and Abkhazia. The vote was not legally binding and it was up to President Dmitry Medvedev to make the final call on diplomatic recognition. Experts say the move gives the Kremlin an extra bargaining chip in its dealings with the West as it tries to reassert influence in the former Soviet republics and resist Georgia's and Ukraine's drive to join NATO.

"Today we must fulfill what is I think our historic mission — to defend small countries from aggressors," Federation Council member Boris Spiegel told Associated Press Television before the vote. Currently, neither Russia nor any other member of the United Nations recognizes the two provinces' independence claims. Both won de-facto independence in the 1990s after wars with the Georgian government in Tbilisi, and have survived ever since with the financial and political support of the Kremlin.

WALL STREET HOPES - A strange thing is happening on Wall Street. As the first anniversary of the credit crunch approaches, investors have stopped battering financial stocks and started buying them again. The share price of Bank of America has nearly doubled in a matter of days.

EUROPE'S FEARS - It is becoming apparent that the effects of the credit crunch on Europe may be even more profound than on the US. The real fear is that is that if one major European bank goes under, others will follow.

JAPAN – NEW WORLD ORDER - When Mizuho Financial admitted it had lost more than $6bn on investments in the US mortgage market, the Japanese bank earned the title of Asia's biggest sub-prime loser. In fact, in the financial world, you could say the credit crunch has shaken up the old order in Asia's favour.

INDIA-INFLATION SOARS - India started the year with experts talking about how the country was "decoupled" from the global markets. But now, three-quarters into the year, it's clear that the problems are more complicated. The country has been hit by three main worries this year - the impact of the global credit crunch, high oil prices and, more locally, rising inflation rates.

BRAZIL – BUCKING THE TREND - Not for the first time when it comes to economic indicators around the world, Brazil as a developing country is bucking the trend for a gloomy outlook. Brazil has largely escaped the pain of the credit crunch. International investment agencies have been pointing investors towards Latin America's largest economy as a safe bet.

NIGERIA – BANKING BUBBLE - While the credit crunch has hit the European and US banking sector hard, in Nigeria the situation is exactly the reverse. Banks are falling over themselves to lend money to people in ways that they have never done before. Now there are fewer, stronger banks and they're expanding rapidly. Even in some of the most remote villages, there are now branches with cashpoint machines.

Charles Bean said the downturn was at least as bad as in the 1970s and that every time the markets began to look better, "another grenade" exploded. But he said growth should pick up and inflation fall next year, if oil prices and credit markets stabilised. Mr Bean described the crisis as a "transitory period" that would pass.

The deputy governor, who was speaking at the annual conference of the world's top central bankers in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, said those at last year's event believed the crisis would have been over by Christmas 2007. But instead, he said, it had carried on for a year and every time the markets looked like they were stabilising, "another grenade" exploded as bouts of FEAR OVER SUSTAINABILITY HIT FINANCIAL INSTITUTIONS. "It looks like it will drag on for some considerable time further yet."

He described the mood at the conference as one of "considerable caution for the next year". "We've got our fingers crossed that things will improve. But there is the recognition that there is still a long way to go yet," he said. Bank of England governor Mervyn King has already warned that the UK economy is in for a difficult and painful period due to a combination of high inflation and rapidly slowing growth.

It argues that "the notion that they would magically transform a deeply divided club into a single powerful force is belied not just by recent history (think of the wars in former Yugoslavia and Iraq) but by the Georgian crisis itself."

It argues that "the policy response from France, Germany and Italy has been diametrically opposite to that of Britain, Sweden and the east Europeans. The French and Germans, eager to preserve their links to Moscow, have tried to be neutral, while the Italians have blamed the entire war on Mr Saakashvili. The British, Swedes and most east Europeans have loudly condemned Russia's aggression. SO LONG AS EU MEMBERS HOLD SUCH DIVERGENT VIEWS, NO AMOUNT OF INSTITUTIONAL TINKERING CAN EVER CREATE A FORCEFUL COMMON FOREIGN POLICY."

BELGIAN FOREIGN MINISTER: A COMMON EU ENERGY POLICY IS "URGENT" - De Standaard - Belgian Foreign Minister Karel De Gucht says it is "5 minutes to midnight for a common EU energy policy, as the conflict in Georgia has made clear that the biggest challenge for Europe now is to set up an energy policy that has to reduce dependence to Russia, as for example Hungary is dependent on Russian energy for 100%."

LIBYA TO SIGN FREE TRADE AGREEMENT WITH EU - Reuters - Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi's influential son Saif al Islam told a youth rally yesterday that they are close to forming a free trade agreement with the EU, which would allow Libya to export goods to European markets without facing tariff barriers.

EUROFIGHTER SALE - Telegraph - The U.K. Ministry of Defence is said to be in talks with foreign countries to offload its Eurofighter orders after running up a £2 billion deficit.

ECB FACING "A CRUEL DILEMMA" - Irish Independent - Writing in the Irish Independent, Brian Keenan comments on the current problems of the ECB. He says that the Bank is facing a dilemma in choosing which fiscal crisis to confront first from the many that are occurring simultaneously. He says "the strains from these competing choices on the euro area - a monetary union with a collective central bank and no government, could be immense".

TALK OF AN ENERGY SUPPLY CRUNCH IS GOVERNMENT SCAREMONGERING – BBC - Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg has claimed that Britain can be energy independent by 2050 without new coal or nuclear plants. Clegg believes that 'green energy' and increased energy efficiency would allow the UK to return to its position as a net energy exporter.

Moscow has reacted with anger to Poland's deal with the US on missile defence. Last night the Russian foreign ministry said ITS RESPONSE TO THE SHIELD "WOULD GO BEYOND DIPLOMACY" and said the deal was creating a new arms race in the European "continent and beyond its borders." Moscow has announced it plans to freeze all military ties with NATO. Describing the Russian threats as "bizarre", US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice promised that the US would "guarantee" Poland's territory. Some 58 percent of Poles are now in favour of the missile shield, almost twice the number who supported the deal six months ago.

Russian suspicions of a new western-led arms race were exacerbated by the timing of the deal, which was struck last week as Russian forces entered Georgian territory in the Caucasus. Russian president Dmitry Medvedev said it was nothing but "fairy tales" to suggest the shield was only directed against "rogue states".

Poland's new Prime Minister Donald Tusk wanted American Patriot missile batteries, capable of destroying incoming short-range warheads, on Polish territory. Under the terms of the deal signed yesterday, a US patriot battery will be relocated to Poland by 2009. "The presence of the Patriot battery which will defend our territory and the US installation is a practical dimension of this watershed agreement," Mr Tusk said.

However, as the Irish Times notes, Moscow made clear yesterday that it had no intention of withdrawing to the positions its forces held before the invasion of Georgia - Russian troops will continue to occupy large buffer zones around the breakaway enclaves of South Ossetia and Abkazia.

The article notes that Russia's "line of responsibility" around the enclaves is consistent with the peace plan brokered by President Sarkozy - although "it is not clear whether western governments had bargained on such a large zone being occupied by Russian troops for the foreseeable future."