The aide, who asked not to be identified, said the legislation would include a middle-class tax cut, billions of dollars for road, bridge and mass transit construction, expanded aid to states and investments in renewable energy. Speaking to reporters earlier, Pelosi said she hoped the job-creating legislation, which she did not detail, would be ready for President-elect Barack Obama to sign when he takes office on January 20.

"We'd like to have it ready for the president-elect," Pelosi told reporters before meeting Govs. Ed Rendell, a Pennsylvania Democrat, and Jim Douglas, a Vermont Republican. "I think we will be coming to some agreements today." At $500 billion, the measure would dwarf the $168 billion economic stimulus that was enacted last February, which consisted mostly of tax rebates for families and small business tax benefits.

The new emergency spending would add to spiraling government spending WHICH SENT THE BUDGET DEFICIT TO A RECORD $455 BILLION IN THE FISCAL YEAR THAT ENDED SEPTEMBER 30. Obama has said that his first priority when taking office would be signing an economic stimulus bill into law.

Not only did stocks end their five-day winning streak, they erased more than half the gains. The Standard & Poor's 500 stock index, one of the broadest market gauges, lost nearly 9 percent. Erasing any lingering doubts, THERE WAS ALSO FINALLY AN OFFICIALLY DECLARED RECESSION - in progress in the United States since December 2007, according to the National Bureau of Economic Research, the nonprofit group of economists that classifies business cycles.

"This is just another episode in a long story and the story is all about recession and the question is how long and how deep," said Chuck Widger, chief executive and chairman of investment management firm Brinker Capital. "We're going to have continuing volatility until investors have better visibility." The Dow lost 679.95 points to close at about 8,149. There have only been three days in market history with bigger point losses for the Dow - the Monday after the Sept. 11 attacks, and Sept. 29 and Oct. 15 of this year.

Japan's Nikkei stock average fell 1.35 percent. Britain's FTSE 100 was down 5.19 percent, Germany's DAX index was down 5.88 percent, and France's CAC-40 fell 5.59 percent.

A SECOND GOVERNMENT SOURCE SAYS SPECIFIC LOCATIONS, INCLUDING THE TAJ HOTEL, WERE LISTED IN THE U.S. WARNING. One month later, Nov. 18, Indian intelligence also intercepted a satellite phone call to a number in Pakistan known to be used by a leader of the terror group, Lashkar e Taiba, believed responsible for the weekend attack, Indian intelligence officials say.

The Indian intercept also revealed a possible sea-borne attack, the officials say. The chairman of the company that owns the hotel, Ratan Tata, told CNN that security was temporarily increased following a warning. Since Friday, U.S. intelligence agencies have been tracking the phones and SIM cards recovered by Indian authorities from the Mumbai terrorists leading to a "treasure trove" of leads in Pakistan and several possible connections to the United States, officials say.

Officials say one of the cell phone SIM cards may have been purchased in the United States but would not provide any more details because of the ongoing nature of the investigation. NSA, THE NATIONAL SECURITY AGENCY, HAS THE TECHNICAL MEANS TO RETRIEVE ALL CALLS MADE FROM SATELLITE AND CELL PHONES IN THE SOUTH ASIA REGION.

The figures were given to members of the House of Commons Health Committee as part of its inquiry into the safety of patients. NHS managers have already drawn up a list of serious mistakes which doctors and nurses are required to report in order to build a more accurate picture of the numbers who die as a result of mistakes by hospitals.

The blunders include carrying out the wrong operation on patients, administering the wrong drugs, leaving instruments inside patients after operations and failing to put up bars to stop patients falling out of bed. Professor Richard Thomson, from Newcastle University's institute of health and society, said the most reliable evidence showed AROUND 10 PER CENT OF PATIENTS ADMITTED TO HOSPITAL SUFFERED "HARM" BECAUSE OF TREATMENT. He told the committee that the number of overall deaths caused by medical care going wrong was far from clear but that some estimates put it at up to 40,000 a year. "A definitive study is needed to address the size of this problem and to identify priorities for action," he said.

Official figures from the National Patient Safety Agency (NPSA) suggest that around 2,000 NHS patients die each year as a direct result of errors in treatment - half of which could have been avoided. An estimated 5,000 die from superbug infections. Around 25,000 people die every year from venous thromboembolisms [blood clots] following operations.

There are critics of the change, in the military and among civil liberties groups and libertarians who express concern that the new homeland emphasis threatens to strain the military and possibly undermine the Posse Comitatus Act, A 130-YEAR-OLD FEDERAL LAW RESTRICTING THE MILITARY'S ROLE IN DOMESTIC LAW ENFORCEMENT. But the Bush administration and some in Congress have pushed for a heightened homeland military role since the middle of this decade, saying the GREATEST DOMESTIC THREAT is terrorists exploiting the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction.

The American Civil Liberties Union and the libertarian Cato Institute are troubled by WHAT THEY CONSIDER AN EXPANSION OF EXECUTIVE AUTHORITY. Domestic emergency deployment may be "just the FIRST EXAMPLE OF A SERIES OF EXPANSIONS IN PRESIDENTIAL AND MILITARY AUTHORITY," or even an increase in domestic surveillance, said Anna Christensen of the ACLU's National Security Project. And Cato Vice President Gene Healy warned of "a creeping militarization" of homeland security.

"There's a notion that whenever there's an important problem, that the thing to do is to call in the boys in green," Healy said, "and that's at odds with OUR LONG-STANDING TRADITION OF BEING WARY OF THE USE OF STANDING ARMIES TO KEEP THE PEACE."

There are also many mistakes, especially in the administration of the structural funds. Out of the 42 billion euros in the structural fund budget, SOME 11 PER CENT SHOULD NOT HAVE BEEN PAID OUT (4.62 billion). Some of the mistakes are relatively harmless – people who have received EU subsidies without having filled in the forms properly.

Others are more structural and therefore more serious: where the agricultural budget is concerned (51 billion euros a year) the Court of Accounts has again said that there is a "SUBSTANTIAL LEVEL OF MISTAKES". Unreliable data about olive groves are one of the key areas which lead to excess payments.

"We know that China is extremely sensitive when it comes to Tibet and relations with the Dalai Lama. But frankly there was no reason for this decision [to cancel the summit]," European Commission head Jose Manuel Barroso said on France's RTL radio on Sunday. "He [the Dalai Lama] has the right to meet whoever he wants." The EU's top diplomat, Javier Solana, on Friday also rebuked Beijing for executing 59-year old biochemist Wo Weihan - whose daughters are Austrian citizens - on charges of passing secrets to Taiwan.

Mr Weihan was killed with a shot to the head the same day the EU had urged China to reconsider his case at an EU-China human rights council in the Chinese capital. "This execution seriously UNDERMINES THE SPIRIT OF TRUST AND MUTUAL RESPECT REQUIRED FOR THIS EU-CHINA DIALOGUE ON HUMAN RIGHTS," Mr Solana's office said.

The latest summit and death penalty row could play into the hands of EUROPEAN LEADERS KEEN TO RESTRICT THE FLOW OF CHINESE IMPORTS DURING THE EU'S ECONOMIC DOWNTURN, experts warn. "PROTECTIONIST SENTIMENT toward China in Europe has been growing for a while," Center for European Reform analyst Katinka Barysch wrote in the Wall Street Journal. "ANTI-CHINA SENTIMENT IS ON THE RISE IN GERMANY ...Even in traditionally liberal Britain, people who see China as an economic threat outnumber those who see it as an opportunity by four to one."

By 2010 the US will have invested $4 billion in a research programme into "autonomous systems", the military jargon for robots, on the basis that they would not succumb to fear or the desire for vengeance that afflicts frontline soldiers.

A British robotics expert has been recruited by the US Navy to advise them on BUILDING ROBOTS THAT DO NOT VIOLATE THE GENEVA CONVENTIONS. Colin Allen, a scientific philosopher at Indiana University has just published a book summarising his views entitled Moral Machines: Teaching Robots Right From Wrong.

He told The Daily Telegraph: "The question they want answered is whether we can build automated weapons that would conform to the laws of war. CAN WE USE ETHICAL THEORY TO HELP DESIGN THESE MACHINES?" Airborne drones are already used in Iraq and Afghanistan to launch air strikes against militant targets and robotic vehicles are used to disable roadside bombs and other improvised explosive devices.

The mood was a festive one on Wednesday in Washington D.C. Just like every year before Thanksgiving, US President George W. Bush "pardoned" a turkey - this year's version was named Pumpkin. President-elect Barack Obama and his wife Michelle, for their part, joined TV legend Barbara Walters for a chat. The atmosphere was relaxed - they talked, for example, about how the Obama daughters would be in charge of making their own beds when they moved into the White House in January.

But then the images from the terror attacks in Mumbai began flickering across the television screen. And suddenly, the pre-holiday calm in Washington and Chicago, where Obama's transition team is headquartered, came to an abrupt end. Bush and Obama quickly issued statements. "President Bush offers his condolences to the Indian people and the families of the innocent civilians killed and injured in the attacks in Mumbai," the White House statement said. "The US government continues to monitor the situation… and stands by ready to assist and support the Indian government."

The Obama statement was in a similar vein. "These coordinated attacks on innocent civilians demonstrate the grave and urgent threat of terrorism," Obama spokesman Brooke Anderson said. "The United States must continue to strengthen our partnerships with India and nations around the world to root out and destroy terrorist networks."

The crisis could be Obama's first big foreign policy test. The world is going to dissect his response. The president-elect has already been in the spotlight for days because of the worsening financial crisis. Given the extent of the economic catastrophe, the January 20th inauguration date seems too far in the future for an ever-growing number of Americans. For three straight days, Obama has held press conferences in order to introduce economics experts who will advise him and stimulus programs that should help the country out of the crisis. His message was clear: "Help is on the way."

AIDS IS A TERRIBLE HUMANITARIAN TRAGEDY, BUT IT'S JUST ONE OF MANY TERRIBLE HUMANITARIAN TRAGEDIES," said Jeremy Shiffman, who studies health spending at Syracuse University. Roger England of Health Systems Workshop, a think tank based in the Caribbean island of Grenada, goes further. He argues that UNAIDS, THE U.N. AGENCY LEADING THE FIGHT AGAINST THE DISEASE, HAS OUTLIVED ITS PURPOSE AND SHOULD BE DISBANDED.

"THE GLOBAL HIV INDUSTRY IS TOO BIG AND OUT OF CONTROL. We have created a monster with too many vested interests and reputations at stake, … too many relatively well paid HIV staff in affected countries, and too many rock stars with AIDS support as a fashion accessory," he wrote in the British Medical Journal in May. He argues that closing UNAIDS would free up its $200 million annual budget for other health problems such as pneumonia, which kills more children every year than AIDS, malaria and measles combined.

"By putting more money into AIDS, we are implicitly saying it's OK for more kids to die of pneumonia," he said. His comments touch on the bigger complaint: that AIDS HOGS MONEY AND MAY DAMAGE OTHER HEALTH PROGRAMS. BY 2006, AIDS FUNDING ACCOUNTED FOR 80 PERCENT OF ALL AMERICAN AID FOR HEALTH AND POPULATION ISSUES, according to the Global Health Council.

Inside the attaché, known as "the football," are THE CODES TO IDENTIFY AND AUTHENTICATE A PRESIDENTIAL ORDER THAT COULD LAUNCH NUCLEAR WEAPONS and ignite a global holocaust. Routine to us, perhaps astonishing to much of the world, this peaceful passing of "the football" will propel Obama into a maelstrom.

What awaits the new commander in chief is the weighty responsibility of defending the United States - and a nasty brew of nuclear weapons problems that range from the threat of terrorist attacks to potential new regional and superpower arms races. Iran and North Korea are rushing headlong toward building nuclear arsenals. And the main arms reduction treaty with Russia expires next year.

THOSE KNOWN CHALLENGES ARISE FROM AN UNRULY WORLD THROWN INTO DEEPER TURMOIL BY THE GLOBAL FINANCIAL CRISIS, a world in which nuclear technology spreads like wildfire and almost 10,000 nuclear weapons could be on alert at any given time. The risk of nuclear war will grow during the next 20 years, U.S. intelligence officers concluded last week. Surprise, in this realm, is almost a given. "It is immensely sobering when you are actually confronted with all the responsibility related to nuclear weapons," said Matthew Bunn, a former White House nuclear weapons adviser now at Harvard's Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs.

A new long-range forecast from America's top spy agencies said THE POSSIBILITY OF A NEW NUCLEAR ARMS RACE IN THE MIDDLE EAST, ignited by Iran's race to build a nuclear weapons arsenal, PROMISES NEW INSTABILITIES "potentially more dangerous than the Cold War" between the United States and the Soviet Union.

Joe and Chris Miller's fields were picked so clean Saturday that a second day of GLEANING - THE ANCIENT PRACTICE OF PICKING UP LEFTOVER FOOD IN FARM FIELDS - was canceled Sunday. "Overwhelmed is putting it mildly," Chris Miller said. "People obviously need food." She said she expected 5,000 to 10,000 people would show up Saturday to collect free potatoes, carrots and leeks. Instead, an estimated 11,000 vehicles snaked around cornfields and backed up more than two miles. About 30 acres of the 600-acre farm 37 miles north of Denver became a parking lot.

Some people parked their cars along two nearby highways to take to the field with sacks, wagons and barrels. "EVERYBODY IS SO DEPRESSED ABOUT THE ECONOMY," said Sandra Justice of Greeley, who works at a technology company. "This was a pure party. EVERYBODY HAVING A A GREAT TIME GETTING SOMETHING FOR FREE." Justice and her mother and son picked 10 bags of vegetables.

Miller said they opened the farm to the free public harvest for the first time this year after hearing REPORTS OF FOOD BEING STOLEN FROM CHURCHES. It was meant as a thank you for customers.

"We are now closer than ever before. I'm not going to break the confidentiality of certain conversations, but some British politicians have already told me: 'If we had the euro, we would have been better off'," Barroso told a weekly French news programme, referring to the fall in the pound's value since markets and liquidity meltdown earlier this year.

"The British have an enormous quality, one of many, that is they are pragmatic," he said on the panel of a joint RTL-LCI radio and television broadcast. "This crisis has emphasised the importance of the euro, and also of Britain," he added.

"I don't mean this will happen tomorrow, I know that the majority (of British people) are still opposed, but there is a period of consideration underway and the people which matter in Britain are currently thinking about it," the former Portuguese prime minister said.

Sir Gulam Noon, known as the "curry king" because of his ready-meals firm, said a ban was required to prevent extremists such as the British National Party exploiting tensions. "I strongly feel that whoever are the immigrants here, we better give them jobs and give them dignity to live here before we import some more," he told BBC1's Andrew Marr Show.

"I do not want a situation whereby a party like the BNP say 'listen, all your jobs are being taken away by immigrants'. We have to be extremely careful. Some sort of a ban should be there." The suggestion that the ban could last up to a decade comes from a forthcoming autobiography, the Mail on Sunday reported. It said that Mr Noon writes in the book: "We should wait for five or ten years, until all the newcomers have been properly integrated and assimilated into the country. Until then we should just shut the door."

ISLAMISTS SEE THE "INVASION OF BOMBAY" AS THEIR VICTORY. In their websites yesterday, many called it "Clear Victory" (Fath al-mobeen), a term used to designate the Prophet's earliest victories. The Jihadists have reason to feel triumphant.

THEY SHOWED THAT THEY WERE STILL CAPABLE OF HITTING HARD AND ON A GRAND SCALE, continuing the chain of their "triumphs" in New York, Madrid and London. They showed that they are able to change tactics and adapt to new circumstances. THEY MADE A MOCKERY OF THE MUCH ADVERTISED "COUNTER-TERRORISM COOPERATION" BETWEEN WASHINGTON AND NEW DELHI by showing that Indians were not any safer as a result of their government's alliance with the American "Great Satan".

The utter confusion of Indian counter-terrorist units, rushing about like headless chickens, seen live on TV by millions, must have been greeted by Jihadists with their usual war cry of "Allah Akbar!" (Allah is the Greatest). If the attacks succeed in wrecking Zardari's efforts at peacemaking while derailing rapprochement between Washington and New Delhi, the "invasion" could also produce an unexpected diplomatic fruit for the Jihadis. This was a bad week for opponents of Islamic terror. India, Pakistan and other governments concerned should do nothing to make it worse.