European regulators are investigating the "sudden and unexpected" deaths of the women who received Gardasil, one of two jabs to protect against cervical cancer licensed for use in the UK. The European Medicines Agency (EMEA) said one of the young women who received Gardasil died in Germany while the other was in Austria. It has not released their ages.

It follows the deaths of three young women aged 12, 19 and 22 who were reported to have died in the U.S. days after Gardasil was administered, with 1,700 patients suffering "adverse reactions". There were no previous recorded deaths in Europe. Gardasil, made by Merck, is one of the jabs to be used initially. The other is Cervarix, made by Glaxo-SmithKline.

Dr Nicholas Kitchin, medical director at Sanofi Pasteur MSD, which markets Gardasil, said: "The authorities in the two countries have looked intensively at these two cases and have not established a causal link, and this has been endorsed by the EMEA. The fact that the EMEA is not taking any action on the back of this should be seen as reassuring that the product remains safe."

A monoline insurer is in the business of insuring bonds, offering investors a way of recouping their cash should their bonds turn sour. For most of the past 30 years, that's meant backing relatively safe bets: rock solid bonds, for example, issued by municipal governments in the U.S. to help put up new schools or hospitals. But recently, the monolines have upped the ante. Lured by the prospect of greater rewards (though surely not the greater risk), they've taken to guaranteeing debt backed up by fancy new financial products engineered on Wall Street, not Main Street. Caught up in the collapse of the sub-prime market, the value of many of those products has dived. So for the investors left exposed, monolines are the backstop.

Right now, that's an expensive place to be. New York-based Ambac and MBIA, the two largest monoline insurers, each cover roughly $60 billion worth of investments backed by assets caught up in the sub-prime snafu. That's only about a tenth of their individual portfolios, but enough to give credit rating agencies a clear case of the jitters. Concern that Ambac didn't have enough capital to protect it against losses prompted Fitch, one such agency, to last week downgrade Ambac's rating from AAA to AA. Rival agencies Moody's and Standard & Poor's have put both Ambac and MBIA on watch.

For financial markets already in a tailspin, that's a worry. A bond's rating is linked to that of the guarantor so a downgrade at Ambac gets passed along to all the debt it's underwriting. That could force many investors ? the kind, such as pension funds, restricted to only bonds with the top-notch AAA rating ? to dump them on the market, pushing down their price and subsequently cranking up those investors' losses. That'll add insult to injury: the sub-prime collapse has already triggered bumper write-downs of some $130 billion. Keen to avoid even more market mayhem, regulators are urging Wall Street to bail out the bond insurers.

Pakistan is a staunch ally in the U.S.-led war on terrorism but deteriorating security and political turmoil has raised international concern about the safety of its nuclear weapons. General Ashfaq Kayani, who became army chief in November when Pervez Musharraf stepped down to become a civilian president, rejected the worry as "unrealistic".

Speaking at the test-firing of a medium-range Shaheen-1 (Hatf-IV) ballistic missile, he said such concerns were based on a "lack of understanding of Pakistan's command and control mechanisms". He said the Pakistani armed forces were a highly professional, motivated and well-trained force and were capable of safeguarding and securing nuclear assets against all categories of threat, the military said in a statement.

Pakistan carried out nuclear tests in May 1998, days after its old rival India conducted tests. Kayani said Pakistan had developed a strong nuclear deterrence capability but it did not harbor aggressive designs against anyone. "Pakistan's nuclear capability was solely for the purpose of deterring all types of aggression," he was cited as saying.

Speaking at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Mr Brown said bodies like the World Bank were set up decades ago, and not designed for the problems of 2008. He added that more transparency was needed to ensure market stability. But he said "heavy-handed regulation" and protectionism were not the solution to recent market volatility.

"There is a recognition that we need global institutions where we have global capital," said Mr Brown. In fact, he said, there was a need for more globalisation not less, to reflect the changes in the way the world financial markets operate. While the economy has become largely global, many regulatory bodies remain national - and are therefore not suited to solving world financial matters.

To avoid a repeat of the recent credit crunch there needed to be an early warning mechanism to highlight problems, he argued. He also said that, as financial markets are increasingly interlinked, there was a need for effective crisis management between nations. Mr Brown reiterated his support of free trade adding: "The challenge is to show we can make the world trade talks move forward."

Violence also flared in the occupied West Bank where two Palestinians and an Israeli border policeman were shot dead on Thursday. Israel's deputy defense minister said the Jewish state wanted to cut its links with the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip after militants blasted open the territory's border fence with Egypt. U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said it was up to Egypt to ensure the security of its border with Gaza. "It's a difficult situation for them, but it is an international border. It needs to be protected and I believe that Egypt understands the importance of doing that," she said.

Washington said it was willing to work with Egyptian authorities to restore order but did not give details. Early on Friday, two separate Israeli air strikes on cars killed at least four Palestinian militants in Rafah, Gaza security officials and medical staff said. Jewish settlers shot dead two Palestinians and gunmen killed an Israeli border policeman in two separate incidents in the occupied West Bank on Thursday night in areas which have remained relatively calm for a month.

The group hopes eventually to use engineered genomes to make organisms that can produce clean fuels and take carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere. Publication of the research gives others the chance to scrutinise it. Some have ethical concerns. These critics have been calling for several years now for a debate on the risks of creating "artificial life" in a test tube.

But Dr Hamilton Smith, who was part of the Science study, said the team regarded its lab-made genome - a laboratory copy of the DNA used by the bacterium Mycoplasma genitalium - as a step towards synthetic, rather than artificial, life. He told BBC News: "We like to distinguish synthetic life from artificial life. "With synthetic life, we're re-designing the cell chromosomes; we're not creating a whole new artificial life system."

Dr Simon Woods, a bio-ethicist at the Policy, Ethics and Life Sciences Research Centre at the University of Newcastle, UK, said scientists were acting in a regulatory vacuum. "On the one hand it's an amazing piece of science but the real concern is that it's another example of science delving into matters that have potentially dangerous consequences," he said. "It's not necessarily going to stay in the hands of well-intentioned scientists."

The talks in Nairobi were mediated by former UN chief Kofi Annan, who said some first steps had been taken towards a peaceful solution to the crisis. Weeks of violence followed the election results, which Mr Odinga has rejected. After the talks, his party condemned a statement by Mr Kibaki in which he said he was the "duly elected president".

Meanwhile, Human Rights Watch issued a report accusing opposition officials of helping to organise ethnic violence in the Rift Valley region, in which hundreds of Mr Kibaki's Kikuyu community were deliberately targeted and killed. The unrest triggered by the election on 27 December has left more than 650 people dead and driven 250,000 from their homes.

Both men shook hands with broad smiles and expressed their commitment to peace and asked their supporters to maintain calm as they continued the newly established dialogue. "We have taken the first vital steps in resolving electoral disputes," Mr Odinga said. "I pledge to all Kenyans that my team and I will spare no effort to resolve this crisis," he added. "We are ready to walk the extra mile if that will enable Kenyans to get peace." Mr Kibaki also welcomed the talks and insisted he was committed to dialogue.

Scientists say they have been amazed by the ferocity of the gigantic flares exploding on the solar surface. The past 24 hours have seen three major events erupt over our star, hurling billions of tonnes of superhot gas into space - some of it directed at Earth. Researchers are once more predicting colourful displays of aurorae - polar lights - when the charged particles from the Sun crash into our atmosphere.

The Earth's changing magnetic field in such a storm can cause power grid and satellite problems. Japanese engineers believe that one of their satellites failed last week because of one such storm. Some experts are saying that the Sun is more active than it has been in living memory.

Dr Paal Brekke, deputy project scientist for the Solar Heliospheric Observatory (Soho) Sun-monitoring satellite, told BBC News Online: "It is quite amazing that the flaring regions continue releasing such strong flares. I think the last week will go into the history books as one of the most dramatic solar activity periods we have seen in modern times. As far as I know there has been nothing like this before." Skywatchers will be looking out for spectacular lights in the night sky.

In his message for the Catholic Church's World Communications Day, Benedict said that while the media did much good, it was also often used for ideological reasons and tried to create reality rather than report it. "When communication loses its ethical underpinning and eludes society's control, it ends up no longer taking into account the centrality and inviolable dignity of the human person," he said in the three-page message.

"For this reason it is essential that social communications should assiduously defend the person and fully respect human dignity. Many people now think there is a need, in this sphere, for 'info-ethics', just as we have bioethics in the field of medicine and in scientific research linked to life," he said. The media, he said, often risked being transformed into what he called "systems aimed at subjecting humanity to agendas dictated by the dominant interests of the day".

Under Benedict and his predecessor John Paul, the Vatican has often accused the media of promoting consumerism and elements of lifestyles that it considers unethical, such as pre-marital sex and homosexuality.
"While claiming to represent reality, it can tend to legitimise or impose distorted models of personal, family or social life," Benedict said. "Moreover, in order to attract listeners and increase the size of audiences, it does not hesitate at times to have recourse to vulgarity and violence, and to overstep the mark," he said. Proper use of the media, including the Internet, was emerging as a key challenge of the third millennium, he said.

Mr Prodi, who had led his centre-left coalition for 20 months, was defeated by five votes, despite the support of several unelected lifetime senators. President Giorgio Napolitano must now choose whether to call a snap election or appoint an interim government. Mr Prodi has been asked to continue in a caretaker capacity until then. Correspondents say the centre-right opposition alliance led by the former Prime Minister, Silvio Berlusconi, is regarded as well placed to win an early election.

La Stampa, a newspaper, said that the Holy See was trying to meddle in Italian politics. "Prodi's government dared to challenge the ecclesiastical hierarchy for the second time and this time it has had its hands burned," it said. Franco Giordano, a Communist MP, said that Mr Mastella was merely a "loudspeaker" for the Vatican, and that he had switched sides because he was told to. As Mr Mastella announced his defection on Monday, Cardinal Angelo Bagnasco, the head of the Italian Bishops Conference, attacked Mr Prodi. "The country is in pieces," he said. "There is lazy administration and a shirking of responsibility."

The bank said the fraud was based on simple transactions, but concealed by "sophisticated and varied techniques". It also announced fresh losses of 2.05bn euros related to the sub-prime mortgage crisis in the US. The losses are four times greater than those made by Nick Leeson, the rogue trader who brought down Barings Bank. Leeson was sentenced to six-and-a-half years in jail.

The bank, one of France's largest, will need to seek 5.5bn euros in new capital to offset the losses. But it said it would still make a profit of 600m to 800m euros for 2007, despite the blow to its balance sheet.

House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Congress would act on the deal "at the earliest date, so those rebate cheques will be in the mail". Some 117 million US homes will receive a rebate of up to $600 for individuals and up to $1,200 for married couples. Washington is moving fast to try to avoid the US falling into a recession. Couples with children will also get an extra $300 per child. The tax rebates for households should total $100bn, while businesses will benefit from up to $50bn of tax cuts.

The agreement comes two days after the Federal Reserve slashed US interest rates to 3.5% from 4.25%, its biggest cut in 25 years. Economists say the package needs to be put into action as soon as possible, before it is too late to help the economy. "I can't say that I'm totally pleased with the package, but I do know that it will help stimulate the economy," said the Democratic Party's Ms Pelosi. "But if it does not, then there will be more to come."

Some politicians are worried about the damage the plan will do to government finances. It could potentially double last year's budget deficit of $163bn. "I am concerned that in our rush to help, we talk ourselves into a quick, feel-good hit today that will leave us with a bigger budgetary hangover tomorrow," said Rep Paul Ryan of Wisconsin, the senior Republican on the House Budget Committee.

Branson, who has ambitious plans to begin carrying tourists on short flights into space by 2010, revealed models and photographs of the newest version of SpaceShipTwo and also the twin-fuselage WhiteKnightTwo which will ferry SpaceShipTwo into the atmosphere for a midair launch. Construction of the two should be completed by this year.

"2008 is really going to be the year of the spaceship," Branson, president of the Virgin Atlantic airline and a key backer of the private space flight effort, told a press conference. "The designs of both the mothership and the new spaceship are absolutely beautiful and surpass any expectations for the future of commercial spaceflight that we had when first registering the name Virgin Galactic in 1999," he said.

Branson said more than 200 passengers have confirmed their plans for the flight, which will cost 200,000 dollars each, and that some 85,000 have expressed interest. With its numerous round windows providing views on all sides, SpaceShipTwo will carry two crew and six passengers, who will experience five minutes of zero gravity once in space. The first flight is expected in 2009.

A gut-wrenching slide on global financial markets this week once again exposed centuries-old divisions between European and U.S. philosophies when it comes to coping with economic crises. European officials have taken a more patient approach so far, resisting mounting pressure to follow the U.S. Federal Reserve's aggressive lead in trying to revive the sagging economy.

In part, it reflects different economic realities of the two regions. But it also points to strong cultural differences: In the United States, there is a sense of limitless economic possibilities. In Europe, there is a stronger belief in the recurring cycle of bigger events outside anyone's control. "Americans tend to be more optimistic - everybody's got the American dream," said Jeffrey Frankel, a professor at Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government. "Europeans are more fatalistic."

While the U.S. Fed made the biggest rate cut on record, the European Central Bank stood pat. As the tighter credit conditions curbed spending in both regions, the Fed responded with an emergency interest rate cut on Tuesday, its deepest in more than two decades. The ECB still insists that euro zone growth will remain near potential, and inflation poses the greatest risk to the economy. Fed critics contend that the U.S. central bank is blissfully ignoring THE RISK THAT ITS RATE CUTS WILL REWARD WALL STREET FOR LAX LENDING, AND INEVITABLY INFLATE ANOTHER ASSET BUBBLE THAT WILL SOME DAY BURST.

Hundreds of Egyptian security personnel have moved into the area but are so far making no attempt to stem the traffic. Thousands of people streamed across the border on Wednesday to buy food and supplies after militants destroyed long stretches of the border fence. In recent days Israel had tightened its blockade on Gaza, which is run by the Islamist Hamas movement.

On Wednesday, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said he would not let the blockade turn into a humanitarian crisis. But he said he could not allow Gazans to live normal lives while people in southern Israel were under rocket fire. Israel closed most crossing points into Gaza in June after Hamas seized control. Israel tightened the measures last week, complaining about rockets being fired from Gaza into Israeli territory.

On Wednesday, at least 50,000 Gazans packed into cars and donkey carts or crossed the Egyptian border to buy supplies, seek medical attention, or to meet family members. The BBC's Tim Franks, reporting from the region, says that within hours of the border being blasted open, the price of cigarettes had halved. Correspondents say the big question now is what happens next.