The Fed auction marked the ninth in a series that began in December that so far have pumped $310 billion in short-term loans into the nation's banking system. Meanwhile, the 185-nation IMF delivered its most detailed review yet of the global credit crisis that hit last August. It said Tuesday that governments must be prepared to do more to support the global financial system if conditions worsen.

"Markets remain under considerable strain" from a variety of forces such as weakened balance sheets from increased bad loans, the IMF said in a report prepared for meetings this week in Washington of the IMF and its sister lending institution, the World Bank. The global credit crisis is expected to be a top agenda item at those discussions. The IMF report urged policymakers in the United States and other nations to consider what else needs to be done.

"The critical challenge now facing policymakers is to take immediate steps to mitigate the risks of an even more wrenching adjustment, including by preparing contingency and other remediation plans, while also addressing the seeds of the present turmoil," the IMF said.

Rice, the staple food for half the world, gained 2.4 percent to $21.50 per 100 pounds in Chicago, double the price a year ago. Philippine President Gloria Arroyo announced two rice tenders today and pledged to crack down on hoarding. Anyone found guilty of "stealing rice from the people" will be jailed, she said.

"We're in for a tough time," Roland Jansen, chief executive officer of Pfaffikon, Switzerland-based Mother Earth Investments AG, said in an interview with Bloomberg Television from Zurich today. Unless prices decline "you will have huge problems of daily nutrition for half the planet." Mother Earth holds about 4 percent of its $100 million funds in the grain.

China, Egypt, Vietnam and India, accounting for more than a third of global rice exports, curbed sales this year to protect domestic stockpiles. The World Bank in Washington says 33 nations from Mexico to Yemen may face "social unrest" after food and energy costs increased for six consecutive years.

The Philippines, which imports about 15 percent of its rice, is tightening controls over domestic sales and buying more overseas. The government's rice tenders are in April and May.

New York's main oil contract, light sweet crude for delivery in May, touched 109.64 dollars per barrel early Tuesday. The contract later stood at 108.65 dollars, down 43 cents from the close on Monday. New York crude had forged a historic peak of 111.80 dollars on March 17 owing to a weak dollar, tightening global supplies and choppy world financial markets.

London's Brent North Sea crude for May dropped 48 cents to 106.66 dollars after earlier touching 107.78 dollars. That was close to a record high 108.02 reached in March. Oil prices were "still supported by renewed supply concerns after a fire at a Finnish refinery last Friday," said Sucden analyst Andrey Kryuchenkov on Tuesday. Prices surged higher after the fire at a 200,000 barrels-per-day refinery in Porvoo, Finland, he added.

Over the weekend, the OPEC secretary general, Abdullah al-Badri, rejected calls for an increase in the cartel's crude output, saying non-fundamental factors were to blame for current high prices. "At the moment there is enough oil in the market and no need to change OPEC's output," he said in Tehran late Saturday. The OPEC cartel defiantly maintained its output at 29.67 million barrels per day at its last meeting in March.

The head of London's 2012 Games described as "horrible" the burly henchmen who barged their way through the capital, shoving the public and even police out of the way. His trenchant remarks followed those of former Blue Peter presenter and torchbearer Konnie Huq, who revealed the Chinese minders barked orders at her and pushed her arm up to hold the flame higher. Sunday's scenes, which were repeated in France yesterday, brought accusations that Britain had imported Chinese police state tactics to control the supposedly showcase relay.

Referring to the Chinese security guards, who were in France yesterday with the torch on the next leg of its world tour, he said: "One thing in Paris is to get rid of those guys. They tried to push me out of the way three times. They are horrible. They did not speak English. They were thugs." Wearing blue tracksuits, the 14 minders surrounded the symbolic flame, pushing anyone who tried to get near, as it was relayed 31 miles across London.

Miss Huq, one of 80 torchbearers said: "The men in blue perplexed everyone. Nobody seemed to know who they were officially or what their title was. They were very robotic, very full on, and I noticed them having skirmishes with our own police and the Olympic authorities before our leg of the relay, which was confusing. They were barking orders at me, like 'Run! Stop!' and I was like, 'Oh my gosh, who are these people?' They kept pushing my hand up higher when I was holding the torch, so they were... interesting." Miss Huq was nearly knocked to the ground by a protester as thousands of campaigners disrupted the procession to demonstrate against China's human rights abuses and brutality in Tibet.

Some residents in Oakland, which is located south of Apopka, are outraged over the proposed limit on water and said the rapid growth in the area must stop until there is no longer a shortage. "I don't understand why they are allowing them to still build if the water supply is not there," Oakland resident "Susan" said. "And, why should we be cut?"

Mayor Rich Crotty said that if the county does not have a 40 percent reduction in water use, the aquifer will not have enough water to sustain the county. Similar to surrounding cities, water bills in Oakland order "no watering on any day between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m. or face a $500 fine."

Local 6 reported that an average resident can use up to 90 gallons of water before leaving the house for the day. "If the growth stops today and we don't build another house, you're still going to have a water problem," Commissioner Willie Welch said. "People are going to have to learn to save (water)."

William Gray, the well-known Colorado State University hurricane forecaster, routinely uses the annual National Hurricane Conference as a platform to bash global warming. In a statement to Florida Today, Gray argued that the scientific consensus on global warming is bogus - and "a mild form of McCarthyism has developed toward those scientists who do not agree" that mankind is in danger.

"We are also brainwashing our children on the warming topic," Gray wrote. Some scientists believe global warming will actually decrease - not increase - the number of hurricanes that form over the Atlantic Ocean each year.

Knutson and Chris Landsea, science and operations officer with the National Hurricane Center in Miami, said historic observation data and computer models debunk doomsday scenarios that foresee armadas of deadly hurricanes, slamming into the Southeast. "Any hurricane trend we're seeing due to global warming really has very limited impact, very tiny changes," Landsea said.

The world will experience global cooling this year, according a leading climate scientist. The prediction - which follows a bitterly cold winter in China and the Arctic - is prompting some sceptics to question the theory of climate change.

However, the World Meteorological Organisation insists that this year's cooling has nothing to do with global climate change. In fact, this year's temperatures could still be way above the average - and it is possible that 2008 will exceed the record year of 1998 because of global warming induced by greenhouse gases.

The Met Office predicts that 2008 will be around 0.4C warmer than the average for 1961-1990. It said temperatures are influenced by a range of variables - including changes in the sun's output, pollution and weather cycles such as La Nina. But most scientists argue that the long-term temperature rises since 1880 can only be explained by carbon dioxide from human activity.

New crime statistics released by the South African Police Service (SAPS) make grim reading: 19,202 murders; 52, 617 rapes; 12,761 home invasions; 13,599 carjackings; 92,021 aggravated robberies - and all of that just in the past year. And writers trying to make sense of that violent social landscape are turning increasingly to the crime genre. During the apartheid years, most would have found it unconscionable to write from a pro-police point of view, but the demise of apartheid has changed the equation. One of the new crime authors, Andrew Brown, whose Coldsleep Lullabye won the 2006 Sunday Times Literary Award for Fiction, was repeatedly arrested during the 1980s as a militant anti-apartheid activist. Twenty years on, he is a police reserve officer.

"Crime has become de-politicized," says Kunzmann, because unlike in the apartheid era where the law served the ends of racial domination, there is now a social consensus over what constitutes a crime. "Police officers [today] are officers of a law we all recognize."

Other crime writers concur: "It's now OK to write crime novels featuring the very cops who before had been seen as the soldiers of an invading army," says Mike Nicol, co-author with Joanne Hichens of Out to Score. "Crime writing is first and foremost about the two great human issues: mortality and morality. If you write about those two subjects you get to the heart and soul of a country, and so local crime writing is trying to make sense of this particularly vicious period of our history."

The rain clouds that had threatened all week were nowhere to be seen, and the Black Sea, usually choppy at this time of year was preternaturally still, providing the perfect backdrop for the two leaders to be photographed walking off into the sunset.

The chemistry between Bush and Putin was warm and sentimental - clearly, the continuing coolness in the relationship between Washington and Moscow is nothing personal. "I want to repeat and confirm that working with the U.S. President has always been pleasant and interesting for me," said Putin, praising his American counterpart's integrity and reliability. For his part, Bush did not spare words to heap up praise on the man whose soul he claimed to have glimpsed back in 2001, when they first met in the Slovenian capital of Ljubljana, and decided he could trust.

And what of politics? Consumed with his global war on terrorism, Bush has tended to look the other way as Putin has curtailed whatever feeble political freedoms Russia enjoyed eight years ago. President Bush only laughed when an American correspondent asked who would now represent Russia at international forums and Putin answered that it would be his successor, Dmitri Medvedev, who once he becomes President, will, "under the Russian Constitution define foreign policies." Bush may have had reason to laugh: he knows as well as anyone who will hold the hand of the new Russian President once Medvedev is inaugurated next month.

The jury, which had spent almost six months listening to more than 250 witnesses from around the world, reached their decision on Monday after deliberating for four days in a case that had sparked worldwide media interest. A decade after the death of the world's most photographed woman at 36, Britain's former police chief John Stevens said he hoped this would bring closure to the tragedy and lay to rest conspiracy theories swirling around the case.

On the evening they died, Diana and Dodi fled from the back entrance of the Ritz Hotel in Paris in a futile effort to avoid swarms of paparazzi photographers. They pursued the couple on high-powered motorbikes into the Alma tunnel and took pictures of the dying princess in the wrecked Mercedes after it smashed into pillar 13. Dodi's father, luxury store owner Mohamed al-Fayed, had accused Queen Elizabeth's husband Prince Philip, Diana's former father-in-law, of ordering British security services to kill her and stop her marrying a Muslim and having his baby.

It was delayed for 10 years because Britain had to wait for the French legal process and then the British police investigation to run their course before it could begin. Both police inquiries concluded the crash was a tragic accident caused by Paul being drunk and driving too fast.

The news came after Shi'ite Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, who launched a crackdown on Sadr's Mehdi Army late last month, ordered the cleric to disband his militia or face exclusion from the Iraqi political process. Black-masked Mehdi Army fighters have been principal actors in Iraq's five-year-old war and the main foes of U.S. and Iraqi forces in widespread battles over recent weeks.

Senior Sadr aide Hassan Zargani said Sadr would seek rulings from Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, Iraq's most senior Shi'ite cleric, and senior Shi'ite clergy based in Iran, on whether to dissolve the Mehdi Army, and would obey their orders. "If they order the Mehdi Army to disband, Moqtada al-Sadr and the Sadr movement will obey the orders of the religious leaders," Zargani told Reuters from neighboring Iran, where U.S. officials say Sadr has spent most of the past year.

However, Sadr's spokesman in the holy Shi'ite city of Najaf, Salah al-Ubaidi, said the idea of disbanding the militia was not new and there was no plan to seek a ruling from top clerics. "Sadr is willing to dissolve the Mehdi Army if the higher religious authorities order him to do so. (But) this is an old idea and didn't come in response to Maliki's orders," he said.

Criminals are also targeting social networking sites, according to a web security firm report into online crime. Symantec says EU identities sell for more than American ones because they can be used across the EU.
Investigators say criminals are turning from online banking to social networks because their users are less careful.

According Symantec's latest twice-yearly Internet Security Threat Report, UK bank account details were the most advertised items on black-market forums used to trade stolen information. The most frequently targeted accounts belonged to high-value businesses, as the details could be sold for more than those of accounts with lower balances belonging to consumers.

Symantec also saw bulk-buying of personal details which had been packaged up in bargain bundles. In the final half of 2007, the security firm saw 50 credit card numbers for sale at £20 (£0.40 each), and 500 credit card numbers for £100 (£0.20 each). After credit cards, full identities were the third most common item advertised for sale - making up 9% of all advertised goods, an increase from 6% in the first half of 2007.

Seven Pro-Tibet demonstrators were arrested in San Francisco after tying anti-Chinese banners to the cables of the Golden Gate Bridge. The flame is due to arrive in the city shortly following a troubled relay through Paris and London. The torch was put out three times in Paris because of pro-Tibetan protests. But the flame itself was kept alight in a safety lantern.

The flame was lit in Olympia, Greece, on 24 March and is being relayed through 20 countries before being carried into the opening ceremony at the Beijing Games on 8 August. Demonstrators are protesting at China's security crackdown in Tibet after recent unrest against Chinese rule. Tibetan exile groups say Chinese security forces killed dozens of protesters. Beijing says about 19 people were killed in rioting.

Condemning the disruption to the relay in Paris and London, Beijing Olympic organising committee spokesman Sun Weide told reporters the torch relay would continue as planned. "No force can stop the torch relay of the Beijing Games," he said in Beijing. Chinese state TV said the protesters in London and Paris were a "handful of Tibetan separatists".

Not long after making the prophetic proclamation above, Marcus Tulius Cicero, a Roman senator, was assassinated. It's not always easy telling the hard truths. It's not always safe. It's not always profitable. But tell them we must. They say those who don't learn from history are doomed to repeat it. I believe the U.S. is slouching toward Rome - and a Cicero is nowhere to be found.

WHERE ARE WE TODAY COMPARED TO THE EMPIRE THAT LASTED 500 YEARS?
- National debt: $10 trillion
- U.S. federal budget over $3 trillion. That's 50 percent higher than it was in 2000.
- Trade deficit: $58 billion
- No meaningful borders, with record immigration levels and no chance for assimilation
- Total breakdown of education system
- No common faith or unifying moral principles that bind the nation together
- Even age-old institutions like marriage and parenthood are being redefined
- In a time of relative peace, our military forces are stationed in more than 100 foreign nations

And now America finds itself in an election year in which there are plenty of Mark Antonys but no Ciceros - no wise old voices of reason, common sense and good judgment. THE POWER OF THE STATE IS ON THE RISE, AND THE POWER OF THE PEOPLE IS ON THE DECLINE.

We have our own versions of the Colosseum, albeit somewhat more humane. The American people are kept distracted by bread and circuses - NASCAR, the NFL, "American Idol." Votes are being purchased by foolish promises of free health care and nebulous pledges of "change" and "hope." THERE ISN'T MUCH TO BELIEVE IN ANY MORE, so politicians invent new religions - like "global warming." If only we pay our tithes in "carbon credits," the gods of climate change will be merciful to us, we are assured. But if we do not reach deep into our pockets now and make sacrificial offerings, doom will be upon us all in the coming decades.

This was the nation that gave the world the concepts of self-government, removing the shackles from the people and placing them on the government, individual rights as unalienable gifts from God. This was the nation that welcomed and rewarded personal achievement - recognizing that it was a blessing not just to the one honored, but to all. TODAY THE HIGHEST VIRTUES ARE LITTLE MORE THAN MEANINGLESS, EMPTY WORDS - "TOLERANCE," "DIVERSITY," "PLURALISM," "MULTICULTURALISM." There is no right and no wrong. Up is down, black is white, left is right. It's a mixed-up, muddled-up, shook-up world - except for Jesus. WHO WOULD HAVE BELIEVED THE GREATEST AND LONGEST-LASTING EXPERIMENT IN FREEDOM AND SELF-GOVERNMENT WOULD END LIKE THIS?

WHO WOULD HAVE BELIEVED A NATION THAT RAISED UP SO MANY GREAT MINDS OF POLITICS, SCIENCE, BUSINESS AND PHILOSOPHY COULD BE SO EASILY LED ASTRAY? Who would have believed a nation built of sacrifice and honor would give up its birthright for a mess of pottage? Do I sound a tad pessimistic? I believe I have every reason to play that note. Yet, because I am an American, I remain hopeful our nation's better angels will yet prevail. THERE'S A REMNANT OUT THERE WHO WILL UNDERSTAND EVERY WORD I WRITE. IT IS IN THEM MY HOPE IS KINDLED. IT IS IN THEM - AND THE ONE THEY SERVE.

A record number of far-right attacks were perpetrated in Germany last year, according to a former government spokesman turned campaigner. Uwe-Karsten Heye, the founder of pressure group Gesicht Zeigen! (Show your Faces), said about 600 people were attacked by neo-Nazis last year.

Speaking in Berlin Monday, Heye warned about a rise in right-wing extremism, particularly in eastern Germany. According to Heye, there were 11 attacks on businesses run by immigrants in the eastern state of Brandenburg in 2007. "Behind the attacks is a strategy by neo-Nazis to destroy livelihoods and drive out immigrants," he said.