FOR MUCH OF THE WORLD, THE UNITED STATES IS NOW ON SALE AT DISCOUNT PRICES. With credit tight, unemployment growing and worries mounting about a potential recession, American business and government leaders are courting foreign money to keep the economy growing. Foreign investors are buying aggressively, taking advantage of American duress and a weak dollar to snap up what many see as bargains, while making inroads to the world's largest market. Last year, foreign investors poured a record $414 billion into securing stakes in American companies, factories and other properties through private deals and purchases of publicly traded stock, according to Thomson Financial, a research firm.

During the first two weeks of this year, foreign businesses agreed to invest another $22.6 billion for stakes in American companies - more than half the value of all announced deals. If a recession now unfolds and the dollar drops further, THE PACE COULD ACCELERATE, economists say. The surge of foreign money has injected FRESH TENSION INTO A RUNNING DEBATE ABOUT AMERICA'S PLACE IN THE GLOBAL ECONOMY. It has supplied state governors with a new development strategy - attracting foreign money. AND IT HAS REINVIGORATED SOMETIMES JINGOISTIC WORRIES ABOUT FOREIGNERS SECURING CONTROL OF AMERICA'S FORTUNES, a narrative last heard in the 1980s as Americans bought up Hondas and Rockefeller Center landed in Japanese hands.

Some labor unions see the acceleration of foreign takeovers as the latest indignity wrought by globalization. "It's the culmination of a series of fool's errands," said Leo W. Gerard, international president of the United Steelworkers. "We've hollowed out our industrial base and run up this massive trade deficit, and now the countries that have built the deficits are coming back to buy up our assets. It's like spitting in your face."

But even if political tension increases, so will the flow of foreign money, some analysts say, for the simple reason that businesses need it. "The forces sucking in this capital are much bigger than the political forces," said Mr. Garten, the Yale trade expert. "IF THERE IS A BIG CONTROVERSY, IT WILL BE BETWEEN WASHINGTON ON THE ONE HAND AND CORPORATE AMERICA ON THE OTHER. IN THAT CONTEST, THE FINANCIERS AND THE BUSINESSMEN ARE GOING TO WIN, AS THEY ALWAYS DO.

Indeed, it is said that the rest of the Church never allowed a Jesuit to be elected to the real papacy for fear of concentrating too much power in the hands of the order. On Saturday, Jan. 19, the Society of Jesus - the order's formal name - elected a new "black pope." The gathering of 217 Jesuit leaders in Rome chose little-known Father Adolfo Nicolas, 71, as their new "Superior General", a position which has historically been a lifetime posting. THE LEADER OF THE JESUITS HAS SWAY OVER A NETWORK OF PRIESTS, UNIVERSITIES, HOSPITALS AND OTHER MISSIONARY INSTITUTIONS AROUND THE GLOBE.

Following four years of study at the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome, he then returned to the Far East, with subsequent stints in the Philippines and Japan. Nicolas had spent the last three years running Jesuit operations in East Asia and Oceania, an administrative experience that will serve him in HIS NEW JOB OF MANAGING 20,000 PRIESTS ACROSS THE GLOBE.

But Nicolas' biography shares a striking parallel with another of his more recent predecessors. Pedro Arrupe, the charismatic and controversial Superior General from 1965 until 1983, was another Spaniard who rose up through the ranks in Japan before being chosen to lead the Jesuits. Arrupe's reign was marked by progressive challenges to the Church establishment, including clashes with both Pope Paul VI and Pope John Paul II. THE JESUITS WERE ECLIPSED BY THE STAUNCHLY TRADITIONALIST OPUS DEI.

His successor, a low-key Dutch priest named Peter-Hans Kolvenbach, was credited with re-establishing a serene rapport with top Vatican officials. Last year, Pope Benedict XVI accepted Kolvenbach's unprecedented request to retire from what had always been a lifetime posting. The new black pope may find himself clashing with the regular Pope, WHO HAS REAFFIRMED THAT ULTIMATE AUTHORITY LIES WITH THE VATICAN.

Benedict implored the order to hold firm in Catholic tradition on matters of morality and sexuality. "It could prove extremely useful that the general congregation reaffirm, in the spirit of St. Ignatius, ITS OWN TOTAL ADHESION TO CATHOLIC DOCTRINE, in particular on those neuralgic points which today are strongly attacked by secular culture," the Pope said.

Historically, the Jesuits were THE SHOCK-TROOPS OF THE CHURCH AS IT FOUGHT THE REFORMATION, TERRORIZING PROTESTANT REGIMES from England to the Netherlands to Sweden.

Zimbabwe has been in economic decline for the past eight years, with annual inflation widely thought to be in excess of 50,000%. The highest value note that will go into circulation on Friday is worth 10m Zimbabwean dollars. But that is worth less than US$3.90 (£2; 2.60 euros) on the black market. The introduction of the new banknotes, or "bearer cheques" as they are officially called, is a further attempt to stabilise the Zimbabwean economy.

There have been long queues every day at banks as people have struggled to withdraw cash. The government's only response is to print more money - and that is seen as the main reason for the hyperinflation. There have been no official inflation figures published for the past three or four months. Zimbabwe's Reserve Bank governor, Gideon Gono, has called on the business community not to increase prices every time new measures are taken to adjust the currency.

The new higher denomination bank notes are certain to cause more confusion and they may only bring short term relief. In the meantime, many people have become dependent upon imported goods, there are still severe shortages of fuel and power supplies remain erratic.

Spanish Interior Minister Alfredo Perez Rubalcaba said the suspects included 12 from Pakistan and two from India. Local media reports that the Spanish intelligence agency had warned France, the UK and Portugal that a terror cell was preparing an imminent attack. This coincides with a European tour by Pakistan's President Pervez Musharraf.

The Civil Guard detained the suspects in Barcelona as part of a joint operation with Spain's National Intelligence Centre (CNI). Several premises were searched and officers seized computers and materials to produce explosives. The operation is ongoing and more arrests have not been ruled out. Mr Rubalcaba said the evidence suggested that they were faced with "a radical Islamist group with a significant level of organisation which seems to have taken a step beyond ideological radicalisation".

The BBC's Steve Kingstone, in Madrid, says domestic security will be a key issue in the run-up to Spain's general election, in two months time. The governing Socialist Party says that, during its four-year term of office, 300 Islamist militants have been arrested.

"We have no plans to attack anyone, but we consider it necessary for all our partners in the world community to clearly understand - that to defend the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Russia and its allies, military forces will be used, including preventively, including with the use of nuclear weapons," Gen. Yuri Baluyevsky said. The comments from the hawkish Baluyevsky did not appear to mark a policy shift for Russia, whose leaders have stressed the need to maintain a powerful nuclear deterrent and reserved the right to carry out preventive strikes.

Moscow-based military analyst Alexander Golts said that when Russia broke with Soviet-era policy in 2000 and declared it could use nuclear weapons first against an aggressor, it reflected the decline of Russia's conventional forces in the decade following the 1991 Soviet collapse breakup. "Baluyevsky's statement means that, as before, we cannot count on our conventional forces to counter aggression," Golts told Ekho Moskvy radio. "It means that as before, the main factor in containing aggression against Russia is nuclear weapons."

A week of gut-wrenching losses in the stock market ended on Friday with the Dow Jones industrial average falling 59.91 points, to 12,099.30. That modest decline capped a four-day 678-point plunge that left Wall Street traders and everyday investors wondering if the worst was over - or yet to come.

David W. Tice, a renowned bear, said Friday that the Dow would sink to 6,000 by the end of the year as the country slides into a recession. But Abby Joseph Cohen, the superbull at Goldman Sachs, maintained that the Dow would roar back to finish 2008 at a level 22 percent higher - 14,750 is the number - as the economy perks up later in the year.

While their views diverge, both strategists agreed on one point: The wild ride is far from over. In whiplash trading, the Dow has fallen 14 percent from its peak in October. While the market has taken deeper dives in the past - it plummeted 37.8 percent from January 2000 to October 2002, for example - volatility is approaching its highest levels in several years.

Moves by Congress and the Federal Reserve over the next few weeks could very well determine whether the economy slides into a full-blown recession and the markets continue to be pummeled by bad news, said Mr. Davis of Vanguard. "There are a lot of wild cards out there right now, including rate cuts by the Federal Reserve and what a tax stimulus package could look like," Mr. Davis said. "I do not think it is too late to prevent a recession, but we are at a critical juncture."

There was also a marked increase in the number of floods in 2007, a trend the Centre for Research on Epidemiology of Disasters said reflected the threat posed by global warming. Eight of the worst 10 disasters last year struck Asia. Cyclone Sidr in Bangladesh in November claimed the highest toll of 4,234 lives, according to the Belgium-based centre. "There were no real mega-disasters in 2007, which is the good news, but economic losses were higher than the year before," Debarati Guha-Sapir, centre director, told a news conference in Geneva. "We see more extreme events overall, not geological ones like earthquakes and volcano eruptions, but very many more windstorms and floods," she said.

She said there was already a "significant increase" in floods in 2007, creating unsanitary conditions in which diseases such as malaria, dengue fever and cholera flourish. The 206 recorded floods last year accounted for more than half of the world's 399 natural disasters. This compared with an annual average of 172 floods between 2000-2006. Nearly 200 million people worldwide were affected by disasters last year, half of them in China, which suffered heavy floods last June-July, it said.

Losses from natural disasters amounted to $62.5 billion in 2007, up from $34 billion in 2006, Guha-Sapir said, partly due to rich countries suffering damage to costly insured structures. An earthquake in Japan last July cost $12.5 billion and Europe's winter storm Kyrill caused $10 billion in damage, it said. Summer floods in Britain caused $8 billion in damage, while huge wildfires in California cost $2.5 billion. In 2005, global economic losses from natural disasters soared to a record $225 billion, half of it stemming from damage from Hurricane Katrina in the United States.

During the flood all 5,000 residents were evacuated to the local airport, and about 30 homes and nearly 20 businesses were swamped with water, local media reported. Residents from the town's nursing home were evacuated by plane to the state capital Brisbane.

The week of prayer begins Friday and ends Jan. 25, feast of the conversion of St. Paul. The 2008 celebration of the week marks the 100th anniversary of the inauguration of the "Church Unity Octave." An explanation of the evolution of the week of prayer is explained at THE VATICAN'S WEB SITE. "One hundred years ago, Father Paul Wattson, Episcopal -- Anglican -- priest and co-founder of the Society of the Atonement at Graymoor introduced a Prayer Octave for Christian Unity that was first celebrated from Jan. 18 to 25, 1908," the site explains. "Exactly 60 years later, in 1968, churches and parishes around the world received for the first time material for THE WEEK OF PRAYER FOR CHRISTIAN UNITY, which had been jointly prepared by Faith and Order of the World Council of Churches and the Secretariat for Promoting Christian Unity -- Catholic Church."

Now, the COOPERATION BETWEEN PROTESTANT COMMUNITIES AND THE ORTHODOX AND CATHOLIC CHURCHES "HAS BECOME A FAMILIAR PRACTICE," the text continues. "This simple fact is in itself a strong evidence for the effectiveness of prayer for unity. It gives us every right to speak about the history of the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity as one of success, and a reason for great joy and gratitude."

The event organizers note that prayer for Christian unity really began with Christ's petition at the Last Supper. "Christians have made this prayer their own in a myriad of ways ever since," the site explains. "In the midst of our divisions, Christians of all traditions have prayed with an awareness of their union with the prayer of Christ for the unity of all his disciples. The ancient daily liturgy of the Orthodox Churches, for example, invites the faithful TO PRAY FOR PEACE AND FOR THE UNITY OF ALL."

"It was on Jan. 25, 1959, at the conclusion of the prayer for unity octave, that Pope John XXIII called for the Second Vatican Council, which brought the Catholic Church energetically into the ecumenical movement. Prayer that joins Jesus' prayer for unity has come to be referred to by some churches as an expression of 'spiritual ecumenism.' This prayer is most intense during the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity but needs to flow out of this observance into our daily lives. We realize that Christian unity cannot be solely the fruit of human efforts, but is always the work of the Holy Spirit. We cannot as humans make or organize it," the site acknowledges. "We can only receive it as a gift of the Spirit when we ourselves are prepared to receive it."

The processions were marred by violence with a deadly bombing in northern Iraq and clashes south of Baghdad. The street battles between members of a messianic cult and Iraqi troops raged for a second day as the death toll from the fighting in two predominantly Shiite southern cities rose to at least 68. Iraqi authorities said at least 36 people were reported killed in Basra, Iraq's second largest city, and at least 32 in Nasiriyah, including Iraqi security forces, civilians and gunmen.

Video footage broadcast on Iraqi state TV showed several dead or injured men lying on bloodstained streets in Basra, where officials said the situation was under control. An Iraqi soldier held the yellow bandanna of one man, apparently signifying that he was a member of the Soldiers of Heaven cult. There were conflicting accounts about how the clashes erupted, but all signs pointed to the radical Shiite group, which last year mounted a ferocious attack after Iraqi security forces raided its stronghold near the holy city of Najaf to foil an alleged plot to slaughter pilgrims and leading clerics during Ashoura.

The group's bloody aims are seen as a bid to bring the return of the "HIDDEN IMAM" - ALSO KNOWN AS THE MAHDI - a descendant of the Prophet Muhammad who disappeared as a child in the ninth century. SHIITES BELIEVE HE WILL RETURN ONE DAY TO BRING JUSTICE TO EARTH.

Nicolas, 71, has run Jesuit operations in east Asia and Oceania since 2004 and spent most of his career in the Far East after being ordained in Tokyo in 1967. The order said in a statement that Nicolas had been elected to succeed Father Peter-Hans Kolvenbach, who received permission from Pope Benedict to retire as head of the order formally known as the Society of Jesus at the age of 79.

Jesuit superior generals are known as "black popes" because, like the pontiff, they wield worldwide influence and usually keep their position for life -- and because their simple cassock is black, in contrast to the pope who dresses in white.

Northern Rock teeters on the brink of nationalisation; confidence in the UK housing market drops to its lowest level since the recession of the early 1990s; share prices bludgeoned; sterling in free-fall; corporate profit warnings at a six-year high; retail investors dash to withdraw their money from collapsing commercial property funds; credit insurers downgraded, threatening multiple defaults in debt markets.

Yes, indeed. This was the week when any lingering hope that the US and UK might somehow muddle through the crisis that has engulfed the international capital markets without undue damage to the underlying economy finally seemed to evaporate. In economics, it rarely pays to be alarmist. In the panic of a crisis, things always look grim but the long-term reality frequently turns out to be not so bad. Nobody can know the future and the book is still very much open on how these present dislocations might play out.

Can we still hope for just a mild downturn, or will it be one of the big, searing ones like those of the 1970s and early 1990s? One thing seems certain: outright recession - with job losses, bankruptcies and home repossessions surging - looks a lot more probable this weekend than it did just seven days ago.

He said the growth package would have to be big enough to make a difference to the "large and dynamic" US economy. Mr Bush said it had to include tax incentives for US business and direct tax relief for the American people. The package should total at least 1% of gross domestic product, or about $145bn (£74bn), the White House said.

President Bush said the package should be "a shot in the arm to keep a fundamentally strong economy healthy. To keep our economy going and creating jobs, Congress and our administration need to work together to enact an economic growth package as soon as possible," he said. The president said he expected the economy to continue to grow, but at a slower rate than in previous years.

The BBC's Mark Gregory says the impact of the stimulus package would be more political than economic. A stimulus package worth perhaps $140bn dollars will have little real impact on a total US economy worth a gargantuan $14,000bn a year, our correspondent says. If nothing else it'll make the politicians feel they are doing something and cheer up the voters - and who knows it may even do some good, he says.

Judge Ian Trigger spoke out amid a wave of anger over the murder of devoted family man Garry Newlove in a vicious gang attack. He also attacked the policy of releasing violent offenders on bail - the case with the ringleader of the gang who kicked 47-year-old Mr Newlove to death outside his Warrington home.

Cheshire Chief Constable Peter Fahy, whose force patrols Warrington, said a tide of drunkenness, coupled with extended opening hours, had left police struggling to cope with violent youths. He said even middle-class children from "decent" families were being sucked into "extremes of violence" by alcohol. Judge Trigger went further, warning of a generation apparently out of control.

His attack came at Liverpool Crown Court, as he sentenced a teenager who smashed a woman over the head with an iron bar while he was out on bail for a knife attack. The judge said: "It is the fault of politicians that bail is so readily granted, rather than judges or magistrates. PARLIAMENT AND ITS WOEFUL AND INDEED DREADFUL CONCENTRATION ON RIGHTS FORGETS DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES. It has meant people like you have the right to bail in these circumstances. We are living in a society which is bedevilled by wild feral youths such as you.

"Before we plunge into even greater violence at the hands of lawless and irresponsible youths IT IS TIME FOR US TO ADDRESS THE PROBLEM.

"IT IS TIME FOR PARENTS TO RESUME CONTROL OVER THEIR OFFSPRING. It is time for parents to teach values and respect to their children, value and respect for other people and not allow their offspring to engage in selfish and irresponsible behaviour.

"IT IS TIME FOR THE POLICE TO BE RELEASED FROM ADMINISTRATIVE TASKS and red tape and be once more a visible 24-hour presence on our streets, particularly in our violent hotspots.

"IT IS TIME FOR THE PUBLIC NOT TO CRITICISE THE POLICE but support them so that wild youths like you are brought to justice.

"AND IT IS TIME FOR LEFT-WING INTELLECTUALS AND WELL-MEANING DO-GOODERS to abandon their obsession and concentrate on the obligations and responsibilities which we all owe each other.

"IT IS TIME FOR COMMUNITY AND FAITH LEADERS TO CONDEMN THE PREVALENT VIOLENCE on our streets rather than excuse or condone it and it is time for sentences to send a clear warning that violence will not be tolerated."

Home Secretary Jacqui Smith said that extremists were behaving contrary to their faith, rather than acting in the name of Islam. Security officials believe that directly linking terrorism to Islam is inflammatory, and risks alienating mainstream Muslim opinion. In her first major speech on radicalisation, Miss Smith repeatedly used the phrase "anti-Islamic".

In one passage she said: "As so many Muslims in the UK and across the world have pointed out, there is nothing Islamic about the wish to terrorise, nothing Islamic about plotting murder, pain and grief. Indeed, if anything, these actions are anti-Islamic". Another section referred to enlisting the Muslim community against "anti-Islamic activity".

Her words were chosen to reflect new Government strategy on labelling the terrorists and their recruiting agents. The shift follows a decision taken last year to stop using the phrase "war on terror", first adopted by U.S. President Bush. Officials were concerned it could act as a recruiting tool for Al Qaeda, which is determined to manufacture a battle between the values of Islam and the West. The strategy emerging across Government is to portray terrorists as nothing more than cold-blooded murderers who are not fighting for any religious cause.