The CBI has estimated that the Directive, if passed, would cost the UK 250,000 jobs. According to the article, defeat for the UK has been looking increasingly likely since last autumn. The Government is holding secret talks with the European Commission this week. Gordon Brown is trying to persuade the EU to allow the UK to "apply the Directive flexibly".

However, it is far from clear that British trade unions would agree to such a plan if it has the effect of mitigating the cost to Britain of the Directive. The unions argue that the Government is already effectively defeated on the Directive, so they would have no incentive to sign up to Brown's proposed forum negotiation, the intention of which would almost certainly be to lessen the impact of the Directive.

France is likely to push for the Directive to be passed during its EU Presidency, which begins in July. The article notes that Paris has for a long time been "hostile to British foot-dragging on EU social legislation."

"They ratcheted up the currency rhetoric a notch or so," said Marc Chandler, global head of currency strategy at Brown Brothers Harriman & Co. in New York. "THEY'RE TRYING TO BUY SOME TIME FOR THE DOLLAR." Composed of the U.S., Japan, Germany, France, Italy, the U.K. and Canada, the G-7 oversees two-thirds of the world economy.

"THEY'RE TRYING TO DISCREETLY THROW A LIFELINE TO THE DOLLAR," said Sophia Drossos, a currency strategist at Morgan Stanley in New York, who used to help manage the Federal Reserve's foreign-exchange holdings. "HAD THEY NOT SAID ANYTHING, THE DOLLAR WOULD HAVE RESUMED ITS SELL-OFF. THIS ACKNOWLEDGES THERE HAS BEEN INCREASED VOLATILITY." The G-7 may fail to reverse the dollar's slump because there's no sign it's willing to intervene and the U.S. economy is weaker than its counterparts, said Samarjit Shankar, director of global strategy for the foreign exchange group at Bank of New York Mellon in Boston.

President Nicolas Sarkozy's government recently stepped up complaints that the euro's appreciation against the dollar is pushing France-based companies, including planemaker European Aeronautic, Defence & Space Co., to cut jobs at home and relocate some activities abroad.

Ms Smith is facing a Labour rebellion over plans to extend the time suspects can be held without charge to 42 days. In the News of the World interview, Ms Smith said security services were investigating up to 30 terror plots. She said: "We now face a threat level that is severe. It's not getting any less, it's actually growing."

"There are 2,000 individuals they are monitoring. There are 200 networks. There are 30 active plots. That has increased over the past two years. Since the beginning of 2007, 57 people have been convicted on terrorist plots. Nearly half of those pleaded guilty so this is not some figment of the imagination. It is a real risk and a real issue we need to respond to."

"We can't wait for an attack to succeed and then rush in new powers. We've got to stay ahead." Under the proposals the home secretary would be able to immediately extend the detention limit of a suspect to 42 days, so long as it was supported by a joint report by a chief constable and the director of public prosecutions.

Sixteen of 17 senators who attended a special session of the chamber voted against Prime Minister Jacques Edouard Alexis, a Preval ally inaugurated in June 2006 as head of a coalition Cabinet meant to unite the fractious nation.

The move by opposition senators was seen as a serious but not crushing blow to Preval, whose 2006 election brought a measure of calm to the poorest country in the Americas as it searched for political stability after decades of dictatorship, military rule and economic mayhem. The quest for a permanent peace has been derailed in the past 10 days by riots over the rising cost of living.

Sen. Youri Latortue, a nephew of a former prime minister and leader of the vote against Alexis, said the ousted prime minister had failed to ramp up national food production, failed to protect people against crime and failed to heed calls to establish a new national security force.

In the jingoistic triumphalism of the late 19th century, when waving the Union Jack was a simple pleasure, people sang: "Rule Britannia! BRITANNIA, RULE THE WAVES" without any irony. IT WAS A STATEMENT OF FACT. A quarter of mankind lived under the British flag in the largest empire the world had ever known. And many of those parts that weren't under Britain's rule - such as the U.S. - had been created by Britain.

Britain was the workshop of the world, dominating science, manufacturing and trade. To many Victorians, unquestioning of the ideology that underpinned much imperialism, British supremacy was a simple matter of racial supremacy - Europeans, and the English in particular, were fated to be the masters. THE TRUTH IS THAT WE ARE MASTERS OF THE WORLD NO MORE. The global power shift from the West to the East is no longer just a matter of debate confined to learned journals and newspaper columns - IT IS A REALITY THAT IS BEGINNING TO HAVE A HUGE IMPACT ON OUR DAILY LIVES.

What would those Victorian masters of old have made of the fact that Chinese security men were on the streets of London this week, ordering our own police about and fighting running battles with British protesters while bewildered athletes carried the Olympic torch on its relay through the capital? It was a brazen display of how confident China has become of its new place in the world, JUST AS THE BRITISH GOVERNMENT'S FAILURE TO TAKE A FIRM STAND ON CHINESE ABUSES OF HUMAN RIGHTS SHOWS HOW CRAVEN WE HAVE BECOME.

Napoleon III compared China to a sleeping giant and warned: "WHEN CHINA AWAKES, SHE WILL SHAKE THE WORLD." After a long hibernation, China, and her 1.3 billion people - twice the population of the U.S. and EU combined - is awaking almost overnight. AND NOT JUST CHINA. THE WORLD'S SECOND MOST POPULOUS COUNTRY, INDIA, IS INDUSTRIALISING AT A HISTORICALLY UNPRECEDENTED PACE.

WESTERN ATTITUDES will change as well, WITH A LIKELY SHIFT TO THE POLITICAL RIGHT. White liberal guilt, the driving force behind political correctness, will subside as Westerners feel threatened by the global order changing, and their supremacy slipping away. ANTI-AMERICANISM WILL DISAPPEAR as Europeans realise how much better it was to have a world super power that was a democracy (however flawed) not a dictatorship.

R K Krishna Kumar, a senior Tata executive, thundered that "Indian companies ... will take their rightful place in the international arena. Enterprises and individuals must recognise and adapt to these fundamental economic changes. We believe that those with a fossilised frame of mind risk being marginalised." In a world in which we are no longer masters, it is a warning that we ignore at our peril.

Organisers of the event say that the Arrows military background might be "offensive" to other countries taking part in the Games. The display team have performed at more than 4000 events worldwide, but the Department of Culture, Media and Sport have deemed the display team "too militaristically British".

HOW EVER - HERE IS THE COMMENT FROM THE OFFICIAL RAF WEBSITE:-

Don't believe everything you read in the newspapers!

"There has been a lot of speculation recently both in the media and online regarding whether we have been banned from displaying at the 2012 Olympics, and we are getting an increasingly large amount of enquiries from people wondering whether or not to sign online petitions. We are very happy to tell you that the story is complete rubbish!

It's far too early for either us or the organising committee of London 2012 to discuss any participation by the Red Arrows in the celebrations. We plan our display season one year in advance and so we're currently busy trying to organise our 2008 display season. We would like to thank everyone for their support - but hope that the truth behind this story will put everyone's concerns to rest."

The "violent terrorist gang" was based in the western Xinjiang region and headed by a man identified as Abdulrahman Tuersun, Public Security Ministry spokesman Wu Heping said at a news conference. Wu said 35 people, including Tuersun and another man, Kuerban Mutalifu, were arrested between March 26 and April 6 for plotting to kidnap athletes, foreign journalists and other visitors to August's Olympics. Sections of Xinjiang's Muslim Turkic Uighur ethnic group have staged a struggle for a breakaway state.

"They wanted to make a global impact to sabotage the Beijing Olympics," Wu said, adding: "We face a real terrorist threat." Wu urged residents to raise their alertness and contact police about suspicious people or incidents.

China has tried to portray the insurgency in Xinjiang as linked to terrorist organizations in Central Asia and the Middle East. EVIDENCE HAS OFTEN BEEN SCANT, THOUGH, AND SOME TERROR EXPERTS AND OVERSEAS LAW ENFORCEMENT OFFICIALS HAVE QUESTIONED WHETHER SUCH TIES EXIST.

But four days after the launch another intriguing feature of the test became apparent: analysis of photographs taken by the Digital Globe QuickBird satellite indicated that the launch site of Kavoshgar 1, as the Shihab missile was dubbed by the Iranians, is also the site where IRAN IS BUSY DEVELOPING BALLISTIC MISSILES WITH A RANGE OF ABOUT 6,000 KM.

The site, about 230 km southeast of Teheran, was previously unknown and its link with the Iranian weapons program was revealed by Jane's Intelligence Review after the images were studied by a former Iraq weapons inspector. Using a space program as a façade for a weapons program was the path chosen by Korea until it declared it had passed the nuclear weapon threshold.

Missiles with a range of 6,000 km, launched from Teheran's environs, can hit not only any Middle Eastern countries, but also any target in Europe, including targets in Britain; almost any target in China and Russia, and most of India. President Shimon Peres had posited several times in the last few months that THERE WAS "NO LOGIC" IN WORKING DILIGENTLY TOWARDS PRODUCING LONG-RANGE BALLISTIC MISSILES UNLESS IT PLANNED TO COUPLE SUCH MISSILES WITH NUCLEAR WARHEADS.

The FAA official who ordered the audits last month, Nicholas Sabatini, faced tough questions from a Senate subcommittee about the agency's lax oversight of airlines and his own accountability for recent breakdowns. The FAA noted that airlines had 18 months to complete the work on the MD-80s since the initial order was issued in September 2006.

"The carrier was not in compliance with an airworthiness directive," Sabatini told Congress, "we brought that to their attention and they made the right decision." American, a unit of Fort Worth, Texas-based AMR Corp., had canceled nearly 3,000 flights this week as of Thursday due to the safety inspections of its MD-80 aircraft following an FAA warning, and said an unspecified number of additional cancellations were expected through Saturday. The cancellations come at a time of high fuel prices and mixed success among the major air carriers at getting domestic fare increases to stick. The fact that airplanes are flying very full is making it difficult for airlines that cancel flights to find empty seats on other carriers to rebook their passengers.

"This disruption is severe," said Webster O'Brien, an industry expert with aviation consulting firm Simat, Helliesen & Eichner. "People are going to be unhappy. There isn't going to be an easy way to walk everybody out of it." No one knows for sure how much money the mess will cost the airlines, particularly American, which couldn't provide an exact estimate Thursday. Analysts say the toll at American could easily be tens of millions of dollars, perhaps much more.

Matters of security on Japanese soil will be handled by the domestic police alone, and that principle will not be compromised just because it is the Olympics, said the Chairman of the National Public Safety Commission in Tokyo. "I do not personally accept the idea that they will run in Japan as they ran in other countries," said Shinya Izumi.

He was discussing arrangements for the Nagano leg of the torch relay later this month. Mr Izumi, reflecting the revelation that the blue-tracksuited Chinese runners are in fact paramiltary-trained police, said that any security role they played - including pushing protesters off the road as they have done elsewhere - would be an infringement of Japan's sovereignty.

Mr Izumi said that Japan "would not welcome" the sort of behaviour by the undercover police that caused Lord Coe, the organiser of the 2012 games, to describe them as "thugs" in an unguarded moment. The Beijing organisers tried to reassure the IOC today about security around the remainder of the Olympic torch relay, which today moves on to Buenos Aires. Argentine authorities were expected to deploy 1,300 federal police, 1,500 naval police and some 3,000 traffic police and volunteers to try to ensure security around the torch.

Even disinfecting the vegetables with chemical agents was not completely effective, according to a report from a team in the U.S. Although washing fresh produce before eating is known to reduce the risk of food poisoning, there have long been doubts about its total effectiveness. Microbes such as salmonella and E.coli may elude water and chemicals by burrowing into leaves.

When food is irradiated it is blasted by beams of electrons, X-rays or Gamma rays which kill bacteria, parasites and insects. The amount of energy emitted is low compared to cooking and does not warm the food, unlike microwave radiation. Fresh fruits and vegetables grown in open fields carry a potential risk of contamination by bugs from the soil, irrigation water, manure or wildlife. Under certain circumstances, such bugs can penetrate the flesh of fruits or vegetable leaves.

The research was presented yesterday at the annual meeting of the American Chemical Society in New Orleans. Irradiation is a controversial process with some consumer groups concerned about safety issues involved in exposing food to radiation.

JACQUES ROGGE, THE PRESIDENT OF THE INTERNATIONAL OLYMPIC COMMITTEE (IOC), said that competitors were free to express their political views but faced sanctions if they indulged in propaganda. He accompanied those comments with an admission that the Games were in "crisis" after pro-Tibet protests engulfed the Olympic torch relay. MR ROGGE'S CALL FOR BEIJING TO ABIDE BY ITS PROMISE TO ADDRESS HUMAN RIGHTS WAS GIVEN SHORT SHRIFT BY BEIJING, WHICH BLUNTLY TOLD HIM TO KEEP POLITICS OUT OF THE GAMES.

The Nazis' appropriation of the 1936 Berlin Games for the purposes of propaganda also included THE INTRODUCTION OF A GRAND TORCH RELAY TO THE GAMES - the very same that is causing trouble today.

BRITISH ATHLETES - ORIGINALLY TOLD THAT THEY COULD NOT COMMENT ON "POLITICALLY SENSITIVE ISSUES" before the edict was hastily retracted by British Olympic chiefs accused of gagging free speech - have asked for further clarification. "There is a difference between propaganda and opinion and I would expect most of our athletes to know it. Wearing a Free Tibet T-shirt is going to be seen as propaganda."

"But if athletes are asked a direct question, there should be no problem in them answering it," said Pete Gardner, the BAC's chief executive. "We want the IOC to clarify that." Mr Rogge will write to the 205 national Olympic committees with guidelines to "prevent further politicisation" of the Games. Most athletes will have no interest in anything other than their sporting performance but some want to be free to make political statements.

China will host the Summer Olympics and world leaders are facing pressure from human rights activists to boycott the opening ceremony in Beijing. The U.N. spokeswoman said Ban told China some months ago he might not be able to accept the invitation because of "scheduling matters."

"The secretary-general has conveyed to the government (of China) some months ago that he may not be in a position to accept the invitation to attend this important event due to scheduling issues," U.N. spokeswoman Marie Okabe told a regular news conference. She later explained that he would definitely not attend the ceremony, but would make an official visit to China at another time. She declined to give any details about the scheduling conflict.

China has come under harsh criticism from Western governments for a bloody crackdown in Tibet and has been accused by human rights groups of not doing enough to pressure Sudan's government to end the bloodshed in its Darfur region. U.S. President George W. Bush is facing pressure from the three presidential candidates to boycott the ceremony. Bush said this week he plans to attend the opening ceremony and to speak out on religious freedoms. Separately, THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT URGED EUROPEAN UNION LEADERS ON THURSDAY TO BOYCOTT THE OPENING CEREMONY AT THE BEIJING Olympics unless China starts talks with the Dalai Lama over the situation in Tibet.

ALARMED BY THE UNFOLDING CRISIS IN THE FINANCIAL MARKETS, he once again began trading for his giant hedge fund - and won big while so many others lost. "I CONSIDER THIS THE BIGGEST FINANCIAL CRISIS OF MY LIFETIME," Mr. Soros said during an interview Monday in his office overlooking Central Park. "A 'superbubble' that has been swelling for a quarter of a century is finally bursting", he said.

Mr. Soros began meeting with hedge fund managers like John Paulson, who was early to predict a crisis in the housing market. He interrogated his portfolio managers and external hedge funds that manage his fund's money, and he took on new positions to hedge where they might have gone wrong. HIS LAST-MINUTE STRATEGIES CONTRIBUTED TO A 32 PERCENT RETURN - OR ROUGHLY $4 BILLION FOR THE YEAR.

The more Mr. Soros learned about the crisis, the more certain he became that he should rebroadcast his theories. In the book, Mr. Soros, a fierce critic of the Bush administration, faults regulators for allowing the buildup of the housing and mortgage bubbles. He envisions a time, not so distant, WHEN THE DOLLAR IS NO LONGER THE WORLD'S MAIN CURRENCY and people will have a harder time borrowing money.

THE NEW YORK CITY POLICE DEPARTMENT is pulling out all the stops to protect Pope Benedict XVI during his visit to New York next week. From ROOFTOP SNIPERS TO HOVERING HELICOPTERS, it will all resemble the security operations used to protect the president. It's an operation that will involve virtually the entire NYPD. And if you're trying to move around Manhattan when the pope is here, it will affect you, too.

It begins for us next Friday with the papal arrival and a speech at the United Nations right at the start of the business day. As a city, this is when we'll feel the biggest traffic impact because the pope will leave the U.N. and visit both the Park East Synagogue on 67th Street and Fifth Avenue, and St. Joseph's Church on East 87th before retiring to the papal residence on 72nd Street. It will be like several things we've seen before.

"The closer you are to those locations, the more you are going to feel the effects of it," NYPD Commissioner Ray Kelly said. When asked if will be like a U.N. general assembly followed by a parade followed by a presidential visit, Kelly said, "yes" to laughter. The NYPD, Secret Service and the Vatican Swiss Guard will all be on security duty when Pope Benedict is in town. Sunday will be the highlight when he goes down to ground zero and up to Yankee Stadium and officials warn the best way to get around will be mass transit.