The bomb is the latest in a series of new Russian weapons and policy moves as President Vladimir Putin tries to reassert Moscow's role on the international stage. "Test results of the new airborne weapon have shown that its efficiency and power is commensurate with a nuclear weapon," Alexander Rukshin, Russian deputy armed forces chief of staff, told Russia's state ORT First Channel television. The same report was later shown on the state-sponsored Vesti channel. "You will now see it in action, the bomb which has no match in the world is being tested at a military site."

It showed a Tupolev Tu-160 strategic bomber dropping the bomb over a testing ground. A large explosion followed. Pictures showed what looked like a flattened multi-storey block of flats surrounded by scorched soil and boulders. "The soil looks like a lunar landscape," the report said.

Such devices generally detonate in two stages. First a small blast disperses a main load of explosive material into a cloud, which then either spontaneously ignites in air or is set off by a second charge. This explosion generates a pressure wave that reaches much further than that from a conventional explosive. The consumption of gases in the blast also generates a partial vacuum that can compound damage and injuries caused by the explosion itself.

"The main destruction is inflicted by an ultrasonic shockwave and an incredibly high temperature," the reports said. "All that is alive merely evaporates." Rukshin said: "At the same time, I want to stress that the action of this weapon does not contaminate the environment, in contrast to a nuclear one."

Muslim terrorist leaders threatened to kill Madonna and Britney Spears for "spreading Satanic culture" in a new book released today.

The threats, recorded on audio, come as Madonna is due to arrive in Israel Wednesday to celebrate the Jewish new year with fellow Kabbalah practitioners.

"If I meet these whores I will have the honor - I repeat, I will have the honor - to be the first one to cut the heads off Madonna and Britney Spears if they will keep spreading their satanic culture against Islam," said Muhammad Abdel-Al, spokesman and senior leader of the Popular Resistance Committees terror organization.

The Committees' Abdel-Al accused Madonna and Spears of "spreading this culture by the Americans as part of the war against Islam."

"If these two prostitutes [Madonna and Spears] keep doing what they are doing, we of course will punish them. First we will call them to join Islam. But if they keep what they are doing ... we can stone them or even we can kill them if they keep ... tempting men in order to put them far from Islam. ... A prostitute woman must be stoned or must be eighty times hit with a belt."

The US dollar dropped to $1.388 per euro, passing the previous record of $1.3852 that was set on 24 July. Many analysts are predicting that the Fed will cut interest rates next week as it looks to reassure markets and consumers amid a global credit crunch. The dollar has weakened against the euro for six sessions in a row.

On Tuesday, Jean-Claude Trichet, the president of the European Central Bank, said once again that the European economy was healthy. However, he warned that market volatility could continue. "We have seen a distinct possibility that the ongoing deterioration of credit worthiness of borrowers in the US sub-prime mortgage market could be a trigger for a more broad-based market correction," he said.

John Kanzius happened upon the discovery accidentally when he tried to desalinate seawater with a radio-frequency generator he developed to treat cancer. He discovered that as long as the salt water was exposed to the radio frequencies, it would burn. The discovery has scientists excited by the prospect of using salt water, the most abundant resource on earth, as a fuel.

Rustum Roy, a Penn State University chemist, has held demonstrations at his State College lab to confirm his own observations. The radio frequencies act to weaken the bonds between the elements that make up salt water, releasing the hydrogen, Roy said. Once ignited, the hydrogen will burn as long as it is exposed to the frequencies, he said.

The discovery is "the most remarkable in water science in 100 years," Roy said. "This is the most abundant element in the world. It is everywhere," Roy said. "Seeing it burn gives me the chills." Roy will meet this week with officials from the Department of Energy and the Department of Defense to try to obtain research funding.

The scientists want to find out whether the energy output from the burning hydrogen - which reached a heat of more than 3,000 degrees Fahrenheit - would be enough to power a car or other heavy machinery.

"We will get our ideas together and check this out and see where it leads," Roy said. "The potential is huge."

Archbishop Loris Capovilla, 91, said there was no truth in the rumour that the Vatican was suppressing a vision of the end of the world. The vision said to have been revealed 90 years ago by the Virgin Mary to three shepherd children on a hillside at Fatima in Portugal.

The three "Secrets of Fatima" were written down by one of the children, Lucia Dos Santos, who later became a nun. Two of the secrets were revealed by the nun in 1941. The first was a vision of hell, while the second apparently predicted the two world wars and the return of Russia from communism to Christianity. The third secret, which was sent to Pope John XXIII in a sealed envelope in 1959, was only revealed by Pope John Paul II in 2000.

The Vatican said it referred to an assassination attempt on the pope in 1981 by a Turkish gunman, Mehmet Ali Agca. However, many Catholics suspected that parts of the secret were not disclosed in order to avoid panic about the apocalypse.

The rumours swelled when the then Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, now Pope Benedict, gave an interview in 1984 suggesting that the secret concerned "the dangers threatening the faith and life of Christianity, and therefore the world. And also the importance of our ultimate days". He added that the "things contained in this third secret correspond to what is announced in the Scripture".

Antonio Socci, a journalist and author of The Fourth Secret of Fatima, said when he attempted to investigate the issue, he was denied access by the Vatican.

In a letter sent out to generate donations, the society used a number of shocking examples of cruelty to young people. These featured a young girl who rang the service and talked of a baby-sitter "doing things to her she didn't like". Another described a boy's drunk and abusive father "punching" his step-mother. The distressing letter, sent to 200,000 supporters, looked like a genuine call transcript between operators and desperate children.

But it has now emerged that the examples, used to raise cash donations for the telephone counselling service ChildLine, were made-up after several recipients complained to watchdogs about the "upsetting" content. The Advertising Standards Authority slammed the NSPCC for its actions.

In a damning summary, it upheld the claims of three recipients who complained the letter looked like a genuine example taken from a case of a child who had been abused, which could cause distress to young children who might have picked them up.

The official, who spoke anonymously, said he did not know the target of the alleged strike on Thursday. But he said he believed it was a warning to Syria not to re-arm Hezbollah in Lebanon, the AFP news agency reported.
Damascus said it fired on Israeli jets after they entered northern Syria. Israel has not commented on the claims.

"The Israelis are trying to tell the Syrians: 'Don't support a resurgence of Hezbollah in Lebanon,'" the US official said. Some media reports said the target was a shipment of Iranian weapons being transferred through Syria to Hezbollah in Lebanon.

German commentators on Monday say managers were looking for an easy buck at the taxpayers' expense.DPA German banks have not proven immune to the global finance crisis. The German bank Sachsen LB is in trouble. On Friday, it announced that a group of publicly owned banks was bailing it out to the tune of €17.3 billion ($23.3 billion) after it proved unable to provide the credit it had pledged.

The guilty party turned out to be an affiliate in Ireland called Ormond Quay. The affiliate, known in the finance world as a conduit, did not appear on Sachsen LB's balance sheet and specialized in issuing short-term debts backed up by securities. Ormond Quay, it turned out, was heavily exposed on the US sub-prime mortgage market and nervous investors had turned away from the credits it offered. The result? Serious liquidity problems.

The announcement came just days after German banks had reassured the public that they weren't overly affected by the problems in the US mortgage market. And it was the second such liquidity crisis to hit a bank in Germany in weeks.

Is the German banking sector facing a crisis?

But that is exactly what needs to happen: All bank boards, all controllers, auditors, analysts and control committees have to finally take a close look at the true state of risk in all their divisions and come up with a concrete plan of action.

The time of minimizing the dangers and sitting around doing nothing has to come to an end. Risk management is the core duty of every banker. Traditionally, banks earn their money by evaluating risk. In recent years, many German bankers have taken unusually high risks because in times of low interest rates, they could hardly survive on the interest differentials between outlay and income, and between short and long-term investments.

Those elevated risks included loans to finance investors and hedge funds, that promise unusually high returns. There is hardly a bank in Germany that hasn't succumbed to the temptation of improving its bottom line through such investments. Which is why all of them need to examine just how deeply they are involved.

The left-leaning paper Die Tageszeitung writes: "Too big to fail. German banks apparently rely completely on this status. Higher profits are possible with risky speculations than with classic bank deals and conservative investments. But so too are much larger losses. But who cares? When something goes wrong, the state and the other banks will jump in to help."

"Their interest in avoiding a financial crisis that will harm everyone is much too great. Such is the logic -- and it is a way of thinking which results in the general public being taken hostage by the gambling bankers. The state would be well advised to think long and hard about how to rein in the apparently out-of-control financial institutions so that their losses aren't one day so large that the public hand won't be able to ward off a financial crisis."

Many institutions now attempt to improve their bottom lines with very risky deals that, if they succeed, also promise high profits. Their desperation apparently leads them to take such irresponsibly high risks that a worldwide credit crisis -- as we are now seeing -- can break their necks. One worries that more crises loom. Action must be taken. Those institutions that are completely or partly state owned should be privatized. It is irresponsible when the taxpayer has to vouch for the overly risky business practices followed by individual banks."

Two Huntsville emergency management officials will meet with Rep. Charles Dent, R-Pa, the Huntsville Times reported. WND also has learned the briefing will include Sen. Arlen Specter R-Pa., and Homeland Security staffers for Rep. Dave Reichert R-Wash., Sen. Richard Shelby, R-Ala., and possibly others.

The Huntsville paper said the briefing will highlight the city's revitalization of its fallout shelter system, the training of responders on radiological safety and its use of radiological monitoring and detection equipment, including government vehicles equipped with detection devices.

The Wall Street Journal republished an article Friday from the Washington Monthly titled "U.S. Unprepared for an Urban Nuclear Attack." The article cited former Clinton administration officials who advised that "the federal government should revive the Cold War fallout shelter program, identifying places where people could safely wait."

"More than five countries have the capability to inflict an EMP attack. Rogue regimes and terrorists know all about EMP and are working to acquire this weapon. We know the odds of our house burning down in any given year are very low, but that doesn't mean we will cancel our fire insurance," said U.S. Rep. Roscoe Bartlett, R-Md. "If America doesn't develop insurance against EMP, we will increase the odds of inviting this type of unimaginable attack in the future."

The report was produced by Sage Policy Group of Baltimore and commissioned by Instant Access Networks, which is leading a pilot project with Frostburg State University and Public Technology Institute to analyze dangers from EMP. Experts have predicted the EMP attack essentially would destroy any electronics within range of its impact, leaving technology comparable to that available in the 1800s.

EMP attacks are generated when a nuclear weapon is detonated anywhere from 10 miles above the Earth's surface to hundreds of miles. The explosion, of even a small nuclear warhead, would produce a set of electromagnetic pulses that interact with the Earth's atmosphere and the Earth's magnetic field. The study said the detonation would deliver a burst of energy to any metallic surface in direct line of the explosion, particularly those exceeding one meter in length.

"These metal objects act like antennae and conduct a surge of energy along their span," the study said.

"[Targets] include not only the obvious - computers and telephones - but also the electronic devices that are embedded in virtually every aspect of a productive economy," the study said, listing cars, power transmission lines, pipelines that deliver fuel, ATMs, heating and air conditioning systems and elevators.

Such a weapon would move so fast ordinary surge protectors would be useless, and the attack would leave communications, broadcast, computer, weapons, public safety and emergency response systems as well as automobiles, utilities, water lines and other essential services virtually useless.

IAN's chief executive officer, Chuck Manto, said EMP "appears to be one of the least expensive ways to disable mission critical infrastructure on a broad scale." And the attack even could affect more than just the United States.

"For example, a nuclear weapon detonated at an altitude of 400 kilometers over the central United States would cover, with its primary electromagnetic pulse, the entire continent of the United States and parts of Canada and Mexico," Wood has noted.

Just today the Economic Policy Institute reported that real wages for American workers are declining: From 2003-2007 the median U.S. hourly wage dropped more than 1%. The average American in 2005 had a -1% savings rate - the lowest since the great depression - America and its people are living beyond their means and in debt.

How did this happen? Two causes stand out: low international wage rates in countries like China and Mexico that America will not and can not compete with, and America's abandonment of capital and knowledge intensive industries.

American workers can not and should not have to compete with third world wage rates. Some Chinese manufacturers are paid 33 cents an hour according to a 2005 AFLCIO report. This cents-an-hour pay in many countries around the world has caused American companies and entire industries to move abroad. It also lead Princeton economist Alan Blinder to estimate 42-56 million jobs could potentially be sent overseas.

Japan has successfully navigated the problem of China's low wage rates. China is one of Japan's biggest trading partners and yet Japan maintains a trade surplus with them. The labor in Japan is leveraged; one person operates equipment that can do the work of 100 ordinary laborers. America used to manufacture this way but now produces little by comparison and increasingly depends on imports at a net cost of $1.5 million per minute ($765 billion per year) to maintain our standards of living.

Meanwhile, the U.S. has resigned itself to live on increasing debts. Since 1987 home mortgages have gone from $1.8 trillion to $8.2 trillion, consumer debt from $2.7 trillion to $11 trillion and household debt has quadrupled. Add to that a national debt approaching $9 trillion and you do not have to be an economist to realize the economy may not be as rosy as America's GDP ranking.

Increasing debt, decreasing savings and exporting America's biggest asset - wealth producing companies abroad - is not sustainable or responsible long-term economic policy.

Years ago, the world's corporate elite lusted over the wealth generated by the American economy. So, they devised the concept of globalization and created multi-national 'free-trade' pacts such as NAFTA, WTO and GATS, which allowed them access to our markets to partake of our wealth.

Originally, it was done under the guise of restoring war-torn Europe and Asia, but these countries are now more than able to compete on their own without our help or subsidies. Yet these pacts are still in play today, growing in number and power to the detriment of the American people.

The WTO (World Trade Organization) has now become the world's super government. Congress is prohibited from passing legislation that violates its bylaws. In other words, our agreement with the WTO curtails what laws Congress is allowed to pass concerning US industrial policies. The WTO is fixed so that each member country has only one vote with no veto powers for anyone. Even though the United States is the benefactor, it only has equal footing with every developing country with cheap goods to dump on our markets.

China is a special case in point. Its unchecked flooding of our markets with cheaply made goods has created around a quarter of the $765 billion U.S. trade deficit. The Economic Policy Institute reported that, between 1997 and 2006, the massive U.S.-China trade imbalance took 2,166,000 US jobs, the bulk of which (1.8 million) were lost after China joined the WTO in 2001. Proponents of this affiliation wrongly predicted that China's trade surplus would decline and U.S. employment would bounce back.

The WTO and other "free-trade" pacts are developing into a virtual shadow, one-world dictatorship with the authority to override the sovereignty and laws of the U.S. These are intolerable conditions that most people are not aware of.

Ministers have promised to remove "unnecessary barriers" for religious groups that want to provide state education and are preparing the ground for a dramatic expansion. While there were 376,000 Muslim children aged between five and 15 at the last census, there are only 1,770 pupils in the seven state-funded Muslim schools in England.

But there are 115 independent Muslim schools, where families have to pay fees.