The full toll of the tragedy unleashed by floods that have ravaged Mexico's swampy state of Tabasco will not be clear for some days. One resident has already been found dead and rescue teams fear more corpses may be hidden in the black waters.

About 150 of the state's hospitals and clinics were out of commission due to the flooding.

The flooding has been heaviest in this sprawling oil city of Villahermosa, where the rivers and lagoons broke their banks after a week of pouring rains reclaiming large swaths of the urban area. The scenes of submerged neighbourhoods and boats rescuing residents from their roofs were reminiscent of the flooding of New Orleans two years ago.

Citigroup is seen as a bellwether for the health of the financial system but has been rocked in recent days over concerns that its exposure to America's sub-prime mortgage crisis is bigger than previously thought. News of the board meeting came after the US stock market closed so investors could not react immediately.

The emergency at Citigroup follows the run on the British bank Northern Rock which fell victim to the global credit crunch in September. Just over a week ago, the Bank of England warned that the crunch was far from over and that the UK stock market was "particularly vulnerable" to a downturn.

Citigroup, which globally has more than a billion customers, has operated in the UK since 1902 and employs more than 12,000 people here. As well as banking, in the UK it also provides a range of commercial investment services to corporate, financial institutions and public sector clients.

Citigroup's shares have already slumped 25 per cent over the past three weeks after the bank wrote off $5·9 billion (£2·8 billion) worth of bad debts. Markets will be concerned that Citigroup's growing problems will spread into the economy at large as it, and other large banks, curtail lending which could prompt a slowdown in activity.

British banks are also under pressure and the three leading institutions have seen their share price value plunge by almost £14 billion in two days. Barclays' market value has dropped by a total of 11 per cent amid rumours that it had approached the Bank of England for an emergency loan.

Royal Bank of Scotland shares fell by eight per cent over the two days while those of HSBC, Britain's biggest bank, dropped 4·7 per cent.

Al Khalifa said that at the very least, Iran is attempting to gain the ability to produce nuclear weaponry. The statement would make Bahrain the first Arab nation in the Persian Gulf to claim that Iran is attempting to deceive world leaders in relation to its nuclear aspirations.

Al Khalifa warned that the crisis could worsen and draw the region into military conflict. For this reason, he said, it must be resolved by diplomatic means. Meanwhile, German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier on Thursday tried dispelling fears that Germany is reluctant to back new sanctions against Iran because of its strong commercial ties with Teheran. Steinmeier made it clear that Germany is in sync with other Western powers.

Speaking at a news conference in Tel Aviv after talks with Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, Steinmeier stressed that Germany would not stand in the way of tougher sanctions. "Germany's position does not differ from that of the United States or some other European countries. If Iran refuses to provide answers, we should think about the possibility of European sanctions," he said.

The Web site quoted Israeli and Arab sources as saying that two strategic US jets armed with tactical nuclear weapons carried out an attack on a nuclear site under construction. The sources were quoted as saying that Israeli F-15 and F-16 jets provided cover for the US planes.

The sources added that each US plane carried one tactical nuclear weapon and that the site was hit by one bomb and was totally destroyed. At the beginning of October, Israel's military censor began to allow the local media to report on the raid without attributing their report to foreign sources. Nevertheless, details of the strike have remained clouded in mystery.

The mouse has incredible stamina, running up to 20 yards a minute for five hours or more without stopping. It also has an envious metabolism, eating 60 per cent more food than an ordinary mouse but not putting on weight. Add to that a longer life expectancy than usual and an ability to breed for three times as long as a standard mouse. The technology used to develop the rodent may lead to new drugs or treatments that could "enhance" the natural powers of athletes.

The animal was developed by genetically modifying a single metabolism gene that is shared with humans. The changes made to the mouse gene appeared to have helped the animals turn body fat into energy more easily.

It also stopped them suffering from the burning sensation in their muscles during exercise when lactic acid builds up.

Professor Hanson said: "We humans have exactly the same gene. But this is not something that you'd do to a human. We do not think that this mouse model is an appropriate form for human gene therapy.

However, the scientists have accepted that it may be possible to use the findings to develop new drugs or treatments that could one day be used to "enhance" the natural abilities of athletes. It is also thought that their development could improve understanding about the importance of human diet and exercise.

With a twist of the wrist, he releases the tank's meager water supply, and suddenly this sleepy town is alive with activity. Washing machines whir, kitchen sinks fill and showers run. About three hours later, Reames will return and reverse the process, cutting off water to the town's 145 residents.

The severe drought tightening like a vise across the Southeast has threatened the water supply of cities large and small, sending politicians scrambling for solutions. But Orme, about 40 miles west of Chattanooga and 150 miles northwest of Atlanta, is a town where the worst-case scenario has already come to pass: The water has run out. The mighty waterfall that fed the mountain hamlet has been reduced to a trickle, and now the creek running through the center of town is dry.

Three days a week, the volunteer fire chief hops in a 1961 fire truck at 5:30 a.m. - before the school bus blocks the narrow road - and drives a few miles to an Alabama fire hydrant. He meets with another truck from nearby New Hope, Ala. The two drivers make about a dozen runs back and forth, hauling about 20,000 gallons of water from the hydrant

"The greatest moral issue of our time isn't abortion, it's robbing our next generation of opportunity," Coburn told reporters at a breakfast meeting Thursday at the National Press Club. "You're going to save a child from being aborted so they can be born into a debtor's prison?"

The state's governor has called on anyone who owns a seafaring vessel to help free the 300,000 people believed to be trapped in their homes. "We have lost 100% of our crops and 70% of the state is under water," he said.

Rescuers have also been using helicopters to try to reach people stranded on rooftops. The heavy rains began at the weekend, forcing rivers to burst their banks in the largely low-lying state. "We are just like New Orleans," Tabasco governor Andres Granier said. "All the water that comes in has to be pumped out."

Flooding has also affected the southern state of Chiapas, where several thousand people have been moved to safety, Mexico's El Universal newspaper reported.

The action comes one day after Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke and all but one of his central bank colleagues voted to slice a key interest rate for the second time in six weeks to protect the economy from the ill effects of collapse in the housing market, aggravated by the credit troubles.

The cash injection also came as Wall Street took a nosedive Thursday. The Dow Jones industrials were down more than 260 points in afternoon trading.

The Fed on Wednesday ordered its key rate, called the federal funds rate, to be lowered by one-quarter percentage point to 4.50 percent. That followed up on a bolder, half-percentage point cut in September. Those two rate reductions might be sufficient to help the economy make its way safely through trouble spots, Fed policymakers indicated.

Up to 10,000 hourly jobs will be cut next year while at least 1,000 salaried positions are also expected to be lost. The layoffs come on top of 13,000 jobs that Chrysler - bought by Cerberus in August - is already shedding.
Chrysler said market conditions had worsened since the buyout and it needed to reduce costs more aggressively.

The firm is scrapping all overtime for hourly and salaried workers while the number of contract workers will be reduced by more than a third. Chrysler said it expected sales this year to be "significantly lower" than previously thought and that this slump would continue in 2008.

Halloween is being forced underground because it "includes religious elements, the cult of death, the mockery of death," a spokesman for the city's education department Alexander Gavrilov said on Wednesday.
"It's not an attempt to block the celebration of this holiday completely, just in schools and colleges," he added.

Pumpkins and images of witches are widespread across Russia, with many bars organizing special fancy dress parties, despite the efforts of the Kremlin and especially the Russian Orthodox Church to curb enthusiasm for non-native festivities.

"This is destructive for the minds and the spiritual and moral health of pupils," said Gavrilov, saying the ban had been recommended by psychiatrists.

The World Cancer Research Fund says the evidence is now strong enough for it to recommend that people stop eating all processed meats, whether they have been smoked, cured, salted or preserved with chemicals. The report, which looks at thousands of scientific papers and has taken five years to compile, provides an exhaustive guide to trying to reduce your risks of getting cancer.

The report, Food, Nutrition, Physical Activity, and the Prevention of Cancer, says processed meats are a convincing cause of colorectal cancer and there is no level of intake that can "confidently" be shown not to raise the cancer risk. Processed meats are also thought to bring about an increased risk of cancers of the oesophagus, lung, stomach and prostate.

As well as bacon and ham, the report mentions pastrami, salami, sausages and hotdogs in its definition of processed meats.

Australia is in its sixth year of severe drought and most towns and cities have imposed strict limits on household water use, prompting a rise in suburban arguments and neighbors informing authorities about those who waste water.

In the latest incident, police said 66-year-old Ken Proctor was using a hose to water the front lawn of his suburban Sydney home when a man walking past made a remark about water waste. Proctor then turned the hose on the passer by, prompting a fight. He was knocked the ground and was punched and kicked. He was treated by ambulance officers, but died later in hospital.

Authorities said Proctor was not in breach of water restrictions, as he was using a hand-held hose and was watering his lawn on his allocated day. A 36-year-old man charged with Proctor's murder appeared briefly in a Sydney court on Thursday. He was denied bail and will remain in jail until his next court appearance on November 15.

Most of Australia, apart from parts of the island state of Tasmania and towns in the tropical north, have banned garden sprinklers, made it illegal to hose down cars and pavements, and allow gardens only to be watered on set days.

The new technology uses cameras and projectors to beam images of the surrounding landscape onto a tank. The result is that anyone looking in the direction of the vehicle only sees what is beyond it and not the tank itself.

A soldier, who was at the trials, said: "This technology is incredible. If I hadn't been present I wouldn't have believed it. I looked across the fields and just saw grass and trees - but in reality I was staring down the barrel of a tank gun."

With the U.S. Federal Reserve expected to deliver its second official interest rate cut in less than six weeks on Wednesday -- less than three months after it declared inflation to be its predominant concern -- financial markets are growing sceptical. And questions about how much sway the world's most influential central bank may be losing over its banking system are infecting its leading counterparts across the globe too.

Thomas Mayer, chief European economist at Deutsche Bank, says "Even if you believe the leading central banks are still in charge the dilemma they face is - THERE IS NO NICE, MIDDLE WAY." Central banks have to choose between tolerating higher inflation in return for helping debtor's honour nominal debts or forcing creditors into write-offs that would see asset prices slump and recession ensue. As they seem to be choosing the former, markets are wary.

Helping debtors repay is one thing, but if inflation erodes the value of those repayments, creditors will demand a price that will lead to higher borrowing costs. "If financial markets wake up to rising inflation -- then we have a problem," said Mayer.