The latest advertising campaign by Absolut Vodka for Mexico, created by Teran|TBWA, is causing controversy online. The creative for the campaign returns the lay of the land in the Americas to what it once was. The map depicts the whole of California as still part of Mexican territory, sporting its former name of Alta California - higher California. Although the campaign caused no ripples south of the border, many in el Norte have found it offensive.

Alta California (Upper California) was formed in 1804 when the province of California, then a part of the Spanish Viceroyalty of New Spain, was divided in two along the line separating the Franciscan missions in the north from the Dominican missions in the south. The southern part became the territory of Baja California (Lower California). The two territories were also alternatively called Nueva California (New California; Upper California) and Vieja California (Old California; Lower California).

Mexico lost control of the territory as a result of the Mexican-American War. Absolut said the ad was designed for a Mexican audience and intended to recall "a time which the population of Mexico might feel was more ideal. As a global company, we recognize that people in different parts of the world may lend different perspectives or interpret our ads in a different way than was intended in that market, and for that we apologize."

With the latest spin-off from Cern, the particle physics centre that created the web, the grid could also provide the kind of power needed to transmit holographic images; allow instant online gaming with hundreds of thousands of players; and offer high-definition video telephony for the price of a local call.

Cern, based near Geneva, started the grid computing project seven years ago when researchers realised the LHC would generate annual data equivalent to 56m CDs - enough to make a stack 40 miles high. This meant that scientists at Cern - where Sir Tim Berners-Lee invented the web in 1989 - would no longer be able to use his creation for fear of causing a global collapse. This is because the internet has evolved by linking together a hotchpotch of cables and routing equipment, much of which was originally designed for telephone calls and therefore lacks the capacity for high-speed data transmission.

By contrast, the grid has been built with dedicated fibre optic cables and modern routing centres, meaning there are no outdated components to slow the deluge of data. The 55,000 servers already installed are expected to rise to 200,000 within the next two years. Professor Tony Doyle, technical director of the grid project, said: "We need so much processing power, there would even be an issue about getting enough electricity to run the computers if they were all at Cern. The only answer was a new network powerful enough to send the data instantly to research centres in other countries."

By December the Swiss bank was writing off another $10 BILLION and selling a 10% stake of itself to investors in Singapore and the Middle East in order to raise much-needed capital. Then on Tuesday, UBS outdid itself once again, TAKING A $19 BILLION HIT to its balance sheet, and showing chairman Marcel Ospel the door.

UBS, of course, is hardly alone. It may be the current banking leader of the write-down scorecard, but the implosion of the U.S. subprime mortgage market and general deflating of home prices has hit Wall Street all around. Merrill Lynch, which ousted CEO Stan O'Neal in October, has written down some $25 BILLION worth of assets. Citigroup, which booted CEO Chuck Prince in November, is approaching $24 BILLION. On April 1, the same day as UBS, Deutsche Bank declared another $4 BILLION write-down. ACROSS THE BOARD, BANKS ARE OUT SOME $200 BILLION SINCE THE BEGINNING OF 2007.

And despite the stock market's most fervent hopes, there are few signs that the write-downs are anywhere near finished. In a March 25 research note, Oppenheimer analyst Meredith Whitney predicted an additional $13 BILLION for Citigroup in the first quarter, $4 BILLION for Bank of America, nearly $3 BILLION for JP Morgan, and $1.5 BILLION for Wachovia. An April 1 report from Morgan Stanley and the consultancy OLIVER WYMAN ESTIMATED THAT INVESTMENT BANKS ALONE HAVE $60 TO $100 BILLION MORE TO GO IN 2008.

All of which raises the question: WHY IS THIS TAKING SO LONG AND WHEN WILL IT STOP?

If a congregation chooses to leave the US Episcopal organization, do they have to vacate the property and the physical church building they have been occupying? That high-stakes question will surely take many more legal battles to resolve, but the first round has been won by the secessionists, in a high-profile fight involving a famous old church.

A Virginia County Circuit Court Judge has ruled that at least according to a state statute, The Falls Church, where George Washington was once a vestryman - and which gave its name to the surrounding community - is covered under a state definition that would allow its conservative congregation to take the property into a non-Episcopal group supervised by the conservative Anglican Archbishop of Nigeria. The same goes for ten other churches in Virginia.

Their monetary value has been estimated at over $20 million, but their symbolic value is considerably greater. The most immediate part of the ruling by Judge Randy Bellows late Thursday night states that the evidence is "overwhelming" that the Episcopal Diocese of Virginia is currently in a state of "division" and that, therefore, under a Civil War era state law, control of its property sits with their congregations, not their previous mother church.

The Virginia case is one of the two most closely-watched property disputes in the bitter break-up sparked by disagreement over gay clergy (one which has affected the global Anglican communion). The other, in Long Beach, California, was originally decided in favor of the seceding group but overturned on appeal, and is headed for the California State Supreme Court. As a sizeable minority of conservative congregations leaves Episcopalianism, the struggle over who gets hundreds of millions of dollars of church property is becoming more and more intense. Passions range so high that the Most Rev. Katharine Jefferts-Schori, the head of the national Episcopal body, in effect indicated during discovery in the Virginia case that she would rather see the churches sold and deconsecrated for secular purposes than passed on to the departing congregations.

Said Jim Oaks, Vice Chairman of the Anglican District of Virginia, a group of secessionist congregations, "I don't want to use the term 'joy' about this. At the risk of sounding Christianesque, we have believed very strongly and soberly that we were [seceding] in obedience to God, and we believe that He is being faithful."

The United Nations said protesters rioted in the town of Les Cayes on Thursday, burning shops, shooting at peacekeepers and looting containers at a U.N. compound. "At least four people have been killed and about 20 others wounded," said Gabriel Fortune, a senator from the southern region, who condemned the violent behavior of the demonstrators.

Food prices in Haiti, the poorest country in the Americas, have soared in recent months, stoking anger against the government of President Rene Preval. Preval's election in 2006 raised expectations that the country would finally start on the path to stability after decades of turbulence, culminating in the February 2004 ouster of former president Jean-Bertrand Aristide.

"This hunger is unbearable and the government has to act now, otherwise we will burn down and destroy everything," a demonstrator shouted into a local reporter's microphone.

As expected, NO MAJOR ADVANCES WERE ACHIEVED AT THE MEETING, which was mainly intended to flesh out a roadmap from a breakthrough agreement in Bali last year to kick off the talks through to a culmination in Copenhagen at the end of 2009. The next meeting, to be held in Germany in June, will address the issue of funding and technology to mitigate climate change, a key demand of developing nations who argue that rich countries should foot much of the bill.

A suggestion pushed by Japan in Bangkok to take a sectoral, rather than purely national, approach to emissions cuts was deferred to the third round of talks. United Nations climate experts want the new treaty that emerges from Copenhagen to go beyond Kyoto by getting all countries to agree to curbs on emissions of the greenhouse gases that are fuelling global warming. Under Kyoto, only 37 rich nations are bound to cut emissions by an average of five percent from 1990 levels by 2012.

A U.N. climate panel agreed last year that the world needs to halve its greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 in order to stave off POTENTIALLY CATASTROPHIC CHANGES to the weather system, THAT WILL BRING MORE STORMS, DROUGHTS AND HIGHER SEA LEVELS.

Speaking at the start of the PROGRESSIVE GOVERNANCE CONFERENCE of centre-left leaders and politicians, Mr Brown said that the old institutions established in the aftermath of World War II are now unable to cope. "We now have to reshape OUR GLOBAL RULES AND GLOBAL INSTITUTIONS for this new era," he said. "We are facing a GLOBAL FINANCIAL CRISIS which is probably the first truly GLOBAL FINANCIAL CRISIS of the modern world.

"We have to reform OUR GLOBAL FINANCIAL INSTITUTIONS. It is absolutely clear that the national supervision that we have is inadequate and we need A GLOBAL AGREEMENT." The prime minister said the INTERNATIONAL MONETARY FUND (IMF) needed complete re-structuring so it could act as an "early warning system" for THE INTERNATIONAL ECONOMY. He said the WORLD BANK should help developing nations move towards cleaner economic development.

In a speech, Mr Justice Coleridge, 58, a Family Division judge for England and Wales, will say "WHOLESALE COLLAPSE" IS PUSHING CHILDREN INTO DRUGS AND CRIME. He will say urban family life is "in meltdown" and the government is doing too little to address the problem. In a speech in Brighton to lawyers from Resolution, formerly the Solicitors' Family Law Association, the judge will warn of A "CANCEROUS" INCREASE IN BROKEN FAMILIES and say the government must take "comprehensive action".

He is expected to say the collapse is at a scale and severity that would have been unimaginable even 10 years ago. "WHAT IS CERTAIN IS THAT ALMOST ALL OF SOCIETY'S SOCIAL ILLS CAN BE TRACED DIRECTLY TO THE COLLAPSE OF THE FAMILY LIFE," he will say. "I am not saying every broken family produces dysfunctional children but I am saying that ALMOST EVERY DYSFUNCTIONAL CHILD IS THE PRODUCT OF A BROKEN FAMILY.

"And what is government doing to recognise and face up to the emerging situation? The answer is: very little and nothing like enough. "It is fiddling whilst Rome burns."

Last year, 332 MILLION EUROS WERE SPENT ON TRANSLATION ALONE, i.e. about 1 million euros a day. The general director of the EU's translation service has said that it is getting out of control. "IF YOU CAN'T SAY WHAT YOU NEED TO SAY ON 15 PAGES," SAYS JUHANI LÖNNROTH, "THEN IT IS PERHAPS BETTER NOT SAID AT ALL".

His criticism comes as no surprise. There are 23 official languages in the EU now, which makes 506 possible translation combinations, including many absurd ones like from Slovene into Gaelic. THERE ARE 2,500 TRANSLATORS AND THEY PRODUCE SOME 2 MILLION PAGES PER YEAR, costing on average 166 euros per day. Often the texts are very complicated and deal with technical matters which must be very carefully translated. The rate of growth of translation work is growing by 5 per cent a year although the translation budget remains fixed (admittedly at 1.1 billion euros for the period to 2013).

By 2013, Croatia and Macedonia will probably join the EU and conference translators are being trained in those countries already. Further down the line, there will be arguments over whether Serbian and Croatian are the same or different languages, and whether the Albanian spoken in Kosovo is the same as the Albanian in Albania.

"We have to go into this fight as if we are going into combat in order to minimize the population's suffering," said Maj. Roberto Tury, a field hospital commander. The disease has killed 67 people this year in Brazil's Rio de Janeiro state, the state's Ministry of Health reported, and 58 other deaths are under investigation. Almost half of those who died were children under the age of 13, the ministry said.

Dengue, or dengue fever, is common in Brazil and other tropical countries. Yet this outbreak is one of the worst in the region in recent memory, with an average of 1.4 new cases a minute, authorities said. Brazilian authorities call it an epidemic.

Contents of the video - one of six made by the alleged plotters that were discovered by police - were read out and played to the jury in the trial of eight men accused of the planning to kill thousands in a series of simultaneous attacks in late 2006.

Sitting in front of a black flag and wearing a chequered headscarf, Umar Islam's taped statement - discovered during a search of his car by police in 2006 - says that he intended to carry out mass-murder to take "revenge for the acts of the USA in the Muslim lands and their accomplices, such as the British and the Jews".

He said that innocent people deserved to die, because they had not tried enough to get rid of their leaders. He claimed most Britons were "too busy, you know, watching Home and Away or Eastenders" or "complaining about the World Cup" or drinking alcohol. The gang was arrested, said Peter Wright, QC, for the prosecution, as they were in the final stages of planning their operation.

Tanvir Hussain's video was also played to the jury said: "I JUST WISH I COULD COME BACK AND DO THIS AGAIN AND AGAIN AND AGAIN UNTIL PEOPLE REALISE THAT THEY SHOULD NOT MESS WITH THE MUSLIMS". Yesterday, opening his case, Mr Wright said that the eight defendants shared a common interest in "inflicting heavy casualties upon an innocent civilian population, all in the name of Islam". He added that the attacks on seven aircraft, had they taken place, would have had "a truly global impact".

The World Meteorological Organization's secretary-general, Michel Jarraud, told the BBC it was likely that La Nina would continue into the summer. This would mean global temperatures have not risen since 1998, prompting some to question climate change theory.

LA NINA KEY FACTS
La Nina translates from the Spanish as "The Child Girl"
Refers to the extensive cooling of the central and eastern Pacific
Increased sea temperatures on the western side of the Pacific mean the atmosphere has more energy and frequency of heavy rain and thunderstorms is increased
Typically lasts for up to 12 months and generally less damaging event than the stronger El Nino

The poll found that 81 percent of respondents felt "THINGS HAVE PRETTY SERIOUSLY GOTTEN OFF ON THE WRONG TRACK." That was up from 69 percent last year and 35 percent in early 2003. Only 4 percent of survey respondents said the country was better off than it was five years ago, while 78 percent said it was worse, the newspaper said. The Times said Americans were more unhappy with the country's direction than at any time since the survey started in the early 1990s.

The economy has emerged as the biggest issue in this year's U.S. presidential campaign. The country is struggling with a mortgage crisis and many economists forecast a recession this year. Most of those surveyed said they were keeping their heads above water financially, but Americans were concerned about the country's financial footing. According to The Times, only 21 percent of respondents said the overall economy was in good condition, the lowest number since late 1992, when the recession that began in the summer of 1990 had already been over for more than a year. In the poll, nearly two out of three people said they believed the economy was in recession.

When questioned about the mortgage crisis, Americans blamed government officials more than banks or home buyers and other borrowers for the turmoil, the newspaper said. Forty percent of respondents said regulators were mostly to blame, while 28 percent named lenders and 14 percent named borrowers, according to the poll. THOSE SURVEYED SAID INDIVIDUALS, NOT FINANCIAL INSTITUTIONS, SHOULD GET GOVERNMENT HELP. The paper said a clear majority told pollsters they did not want the government to lend a hand to banks, even if the measures would help limit the severity of a recession.

"THE SOVEREIGN CLAIM TO THE MALVINAS ISLANDS IS INALIENABLE," she said in a speech marking the 26th anniversary of Argentina's ill-fated invasion of the islands, located 480 kilometers (300 miles) off shore. The April 2, 1982 invasion prompted then British prime minister Margaret Thatcher to deploy naval forces to retake the Falklands, known as the Malvinas in Spanish. The short, bloody conflict led to Argentina's surrender on June 14, 1982 after the death of 649 Argentines and 255 Britons.

HISTORIANS SAW THE INVASION AS AN ATTEMPT BY ARGENTINA'S RULING MILITARY JUNTA, WHICH WAS THEN IN POWER, TO DIVERT ATTENTION AWAY FROM DOMESTIC PROBLEMS. In her speech Kirchner called for Argentina to strengthen its representation in international bodies to denounce "this shameful colonial enclave in the 21st century." And Vice President Julio Cobos said in the southern city of Rio Grande that "WE MUST RECOVER THIS TERRITORY THAT IS OURS, THAT BELONGS TO US."

THE COMMENTS CAME AS KIRCHNER FACES HER OWN WOES, battling against farmers who have barricaded roads in a protest against a stiff tax hike on soybean exports.

A question-and-answer session with IMAM ABDUL MAKIN in an East London mosque asks why Allah would tell Muslims to kill and rape innocent non-Muslims, including their wives and daughters, according to Islam Watch.

"BECAUSE NON-MUSLIMS ARE NEVER INNOCENT, THEY ARE GUILTY OF DENYING ALLAH AND HIS PROPHET," the Imam says, according to the report. "If you don't believe me, here is the legal authority, the top Muslim lawyer of Britain." The lawyer, Anjem Choudary, backs up the Imam's position, saying that all Muslims are innocent. You are innocent if you are a Muslim," Choudary tells the BBC. "Then you are innocent in the eyes of God. IF YOU ARE NOT A MUSLIM, THEN YOU ARE GUILTY OF NOT BELIEVING IN GOD."

Choudary said he would not condemn a Muslim for any action. As a Muslim, I must support my Muslim brothers and sisters," Choudary said. "I MUST HAVE HATRED TO EVERYTHING THAT IS NOT MUSLIM."