In the letter, obtained by Reuters, Ackman said bond insurers in recent years have become a means for banks to avoid reporting their full credit exposure and make their capital ratios appear stronger, but that banks should be forced to own up to their full credit risk.

"We understand that the banking industry counterparties to the bond insurers would prefer to avoid taking these risks back on balance sheet -- particularly at a time when their balance sheets are strained by subprime and other losses that have not been hedged," Ackman wrote, adding that "there are no such free lunches available in the capital markets."

In a speech to The Guardian Public Services Summit in St Albans, Hertfordshire, Mr Clegg will say: "Britain has become the true Prozac Nation. I believe this trend has gone too far. "We must cut the number of anti-depressants prescribed by doctors. Pills must not be a crutch for the wider issues in our society which cause mental health problems."

More than 31 million prescriptions for drugs such as Prozac were issued in England in 2006 after an almost continuous rise over the last 10 years.

Dr Rowan Williams said the UK had to "face up to the fact" some citizens did not relate to the British legal system. Culture Secretary Andy Burnham said such moves would create "social chaos." The Muslim Council of Britain said it was a complex issue in need of debate, but stressed it would only involve a "small aspect" of the law.

Gordon Brown's spokesman said the prime minister "believes that British laws should be based on British values". He added that Mr Brown had a good relationship with the archbishop, who was perfectly entitled to express his views. Home Office Minister Tony McNulty said: "To ask us to fundamentally change the rule of law and to adopt Sharia law, I think, is fundamentally wrong."

Ibrahim Mogra, of the Muslim Council of Britain, said: "We're looking at a very small aspect of Sharia for Muslim families when they choose to be governed with regards to their marriage, divorce, inheritance, custody of children and so forth. "Let's debate this issue. It is very complex. It is not as straight forward as saying that we will have a system here."

"We had decided that money is money and we'll take it and just do the exchange whenever we can with our bank," Robert Chu, owner of East Village Wines, told Reuters television.The increasingly weak U.S. dollar, once considered the king among currencies, has brought waves of European tourists to New York with money to burn and looking to take advantage of hugely favorable exchange rates.

"We didn't realize we would take so much in and there were that many people traveling or having euros to bring in. But some days, you'd be surprised at how many euros you get," Chu said."Now we have to get familiar with other currencies and the (British) pound and the Canadian dollars we take," he said.

While shops in many U.S. towns on the Canadian border have long accepted Canadian currency and some stores on the Texas-Mexico border take pesos, the acceptance of foreign money in Manhattan was unheard of until recently.

The Muslim Council of Britain (MCB) said that it deplored the decision and accused the government of caving in to "unreasonable demands spearheaded by the Tory leader". Muhammad Abdul Bari, the secretary-general of the MCB, said that Dr al-Qaradawi enjoyed respect as a scholar throughout the Muslim world. "I am afraid this decision will send the wrong message to Muslims everywhere about the state of British society and culture," he said

"Britain has had a long and established tradition of free speech, debate and intellectual pursuit. These principles are worth defending, especially if we would like to see them spread throughout the world." The British Muslim Initiative (BMI) described the decision to bar al-Qaradawi, an "eminent scholar", as "an unwarranted insult to British Muslims" Muhammad Sawalha, the BMI president, said: "We would have to go as far back as the medieval age when scholars were hounded and vilified in order to find a similar retrograde decision."

The cleric last visited the UK in 2004, where he was welcomed by Ken Livingstone, the Mayor of London, and chaired the annual meeting of the European Council of Fatwa and Research at London's City Hall. His visit prompted protests from Jewish groups and gay people, who regard him as anti-Semitic and homophobic. He has called for the death penalty for homosexuality and the destruction of the state of Israel.

In the same year, the cleric defended suicide attacks on Israelis during a BBC interview, saying: "It's not suicide, it is martyrdom in the name of God." He added that it did not matter if women and children were the victims of such attacks. The cleric is also said to preach that husbands should beat disobedient wives.

Analysts had widely predicted the move, which followed recent cuts in the US where the Federal Reserve had slashed its borrowing costs to 3% from 4.25%. However, the Bank of England signalled it was unlikely to be as aggressive because of fears over rising prices. The Bank said it needed to ensure that growth and inflation were balanced.

"Inflation at 2.1% in December was close to the 2% target, but higher energy and food prices are expected to raise inflation, possibly quite sharply, in the coming months," the Bank's statement said. "The Committee needs to balance the risk that a sharp slowing in activity pulls inflation below target in the medium-term against the risk that elevated inflation expectations keep inflation above target," it added.

British Chambers of Commerce economic adviser David Kern said, "Threats to growth are much more acute now than risks of higher inflation, and we would have welcomed a bold UK move to 5% today,"

Dr Williams told BBC Radio 4's World at One that the UK has to "face up to the fact" that some of its citizens do not relate to the British legal system. He says Muslims should not have to choose between "the stark alternatives of cultural loyalty or state loyalty". Dr Williams argues that establishing Sharia law in some circumstances would help maintain social cohesion. He proposes that Muslims be able to choose whether to have issues like marital disputes or financial matters dealt with in Sharia-compliant proceedings or the existing legal system.

Last month, one of Dr William's colleagues, the Bishop of Rochester, said that non-Muslims may find it hard to live or work in some areas of the UK. The Right Reverend Dr Michael Nazir-Ali said there was "hostility" in some areas and described the government's multicultural policies as divisive. He said there had been a worldwide resurgence of Islamic extremism, leading to young people growing up alienated from the country they lived in. He has since received death threats and has been placed under police protection.

While a cut today should bring some respite for struggling home owners, analysis by The Daily Telegraph shows how banks have not only failed to pass on the previous cut, they have actually raised the average mortgage rate.

Moreover, financial experts warned that even if rates continued to fall this year, the majority of the 11.8 million mortgage holders in Britain were unlikely to see much benefit. In the past few weeks 10 mortgage lenders, including the Royal Bank of Scotland, Alliance & Leicester and the country's biggest building society, the Nationwide, have increased some of their rates, despite the Bank cutting rates from 5.75 per cent to 5.5 in December.

The Financial Services Authority, the City's watchdog, points out that even if banks do cut their mortgage rates, 1.4 million people face a £200 increase in their monthly mortgage bill because fixed-rate deals taken out two or three years ago are coming to an end. Since the December lowering of rates by the Bank of England, 10 lenders have increased some of their rates and 19 have failed to cut the rates on their fixed mortgages, according to MoneyFacts, the financial research house.

Coming amid anxiety about the U.S. economy and concerns that demand for oil and gasoline is falling, the inventory report reinforced a growing view that oil and petroleum product supplies are adequate. Light, sweet crude for March delivery fell 15 cents to $86.99 a barrel in Asian electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange by midmorning in Singapore. The contract fell $1.27 to settle at $87.14 a barrel in Wednesday's floor session.

As stocks grew last week, demand for gasoline fell 2.4 percent compared with the same week last year. Analysts see the decline as a sign that high prices are hurting demand. March Brent crude fell 3 cents to $87.75 a barrel on the ICE Futures exchange in London.

Some 1,000 villagers from the western flanks of the 16,575-foot volcano fled their homes for shelters at dawn, said Mauro Rodriguez, director of Civil Defense. He said 11 families who refused to leave, fearing looters, were removed by force. "We've taken all of the precautions possible," President Rafael Correa told reporters on Wednesday, adding that a state of emergency already in place in the area will be extended for 60 days.

Experts at the Geophysics Institute warn that the intense activity shows no sign of slowing down, and compared it to the massive 2006 Tungurahua eruptions that buried entire villages, leaving at least four dead and thousands homeless. "The volcano has entered a new explosive eruption cycle, a process which does not seem to be slowing down," said Hugo Yepez, director of the Geophysics Institute. The institute said Wednesday's eruptions shot ash 6 miles into the air. Tungurahua, located 95 miles southeast of the capital of Quito, has been active since 1999.

Such economic matters joined terrorism, nuclear proliferation and computer-network vulnerabilities as top U.S. security threats described by National Director of Intelligence Michael McConnell in an annual assessment. McConnell said U.S. intelligence agencies had "concerns about the financial capabilities of Russia, China and OPEC countries and the potential use of their market access to exert financial leverage to political ends."

Russia, bolstered in part by oil revenues, was positioning itself to control an energy supply and transportation network from Europe to East Asia, and the Russian military had begun to reverse a long decline, he told the Senate Intelligence Committee.

China has pursued a policy of global engagement out of a desire to expand its growing economy and obtain access markets, resources, technology and expertise, McConnell said. It seeks a constructive relationship with the United States and other countries, but as its influence grows "Beijing probably will increasingly expect its interests to be respected by other countries," he said.

While rat has long been eaten in Thailand's poorer northern regions, a growing number of the country's roadside vendors are now serving it up. The rats are drowned and sold uncooked or ready to eat, with happy customers purchasing rat meat for as much as 150 baht ($4.82; £2.30) a kilogram. "It's better than chicken," one customer told the AP news agency.

Mr Prompim said he only used rats caught from rice fields, and not those found in towns or cities. "They are definitely clean," he said. The animals are killed by drowning, before being skinned ready for cooking - poached, fried, grilled or baked. Mr Prompim says he sells as much as 100kg of rat meat on some days.

"My cup is half full as opposed to half empty," said Archbishop of the West Indies Drexel Gomez, heading a group of clerics who hope they can end the bitter battle of words with a formula aimed at placating both sides. But he conceded that he did not expect 100 percent attendance at the Lambeth Conference -- the summit of Anglican leaders that is held every ten years in Britain.

The consecration of openly gay U.S. bishop Gene Robinson in 2003 has pushed liberals and traditionalists -- many in developing countries -- close to breaking point. Several Conservative U.S. parishes have switched loyalty to Third World Archbishops who, spearheaded by Nigeria's Peter Akinola, are to stage their own summit in Jerusalem in June, just six weeks before the Lambeth Conference. That could irretrievably fracture the 400-year-old church which, unlike the regimented hierarchy of the Roman Catholic Church, is run by broad consensus with Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams as first among equals.

Angeline Fuller was found hanged at her home in Commercial Street in the Nantymoel area of Bridgend by her boyfriend at about 1am on Monday. Her death comes just weeks after that of 17-year-old Natasha Randall, and follows the cases of 12 other young people in Bridgend county who have killed themselves since January 2007: Dale Crole, 18; David Dilling, 19; Thomas Davies, 20; Zachary Barnes, 17; Gareth Morgan, 27; James Knight, 26; Jason Williams, 21; Andrew O'Neill, 19; Leigh Jenkins, 22; Liam Clarke, 20; Alan Price, 21; and Luke Goodridge, 20.

Of those 13, seven were linked in some way, although they did not all know each other personally. They were also all thought to have used the social networking website Bebo - leading to fears their deaths were linked to an internet suicide pact. A task force has already been set up to tackle the spiralling rate of suicide in the area and some schools in Bridgend have offered pupils counselling after they approached teachers for help following the recent spate of hangings.

The situation will be discussed by MPs tomorrow after the MP for Bridgend, Madeleine Moon, secured a debate in Parliament. She said: "I am very concerned about the issue, especially given the figures. The suicide rate for young males in Wales is nearly 35 per cent higher than that compared to England, and there were 40 deaths in Bridgend since 2006 with open verdicts. It is vital therefore that this issue is now addressed and a successful holistic strategy needs to be developed."

The 225-issue Nikkei Stock Average plunged 646.26 points, or 4.70 percent, from Tuesday to 13,099.24, extending its sharp losses for the second straight trading session. The broader Topix index of all First Section issues on the Tokyo Stock Exchange was down 57.07 points, or 4.21 percent, to 1,298.41. Stocks fell across all 33 sectors on the TSE.

Brokers said sentiment on the Tokyo market was badly bruised by an overnight equity plunge on Wall Street following the release of dismal January U.S. service industry data, which fueled speculation that Japan's key export market was sliding into a recession. Financial and insurance issues also plummeted under heavy selling pressure after Orix Corp., a leasing and financial services firm, slashed its net profit forecast Tuesday for fiscal year 2007 ending March by 16 percent to 170 billion yen, citing uncertainty over the U.S. subprime loan crisis.