However, the government of Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda has said it would try to pass new legislation to allow a more limited mission. Japan has refuelled coalition warships in the Indian Ocean since 2001. "The government will make its utmost effort to resume an important mission in the Indian Ocean," chief Cabinet spokesman Nobutaka Machimura said.

The US ambassador to Japan, Thomas Schieffer, said a permanent withdrawal would send a very bad message to the international community and terrorists.

The ships involved - a destroyer and a refueller, with 340 troops - are to head for Japan later on Thursday. They last refuelled a ship on Monday. Japan's mission has been dogged by allegations that Japan supplied far more fuel to US forces than officially recorded - encouraging speculation that Tokyo might have helped supply the US war in Iraq, not just its operations in Afghanistan.

Japan's constitution forbids it from fighting other nations, but the government has recently tried to revise it to allow for a more robust defence policy.

Members of the church - based in Topeka, Kansas - have denounced homosexuality for years, initially targeting the funerals of Aids victims. But they later extended their pickets to the funerals of soldiers, who they say are being punished by God because of the US' tolerance of homosexuality .

US light crude rose as high as $96.24 in Asian trading on Thursday morning before falling back to $96.05. Traders were concerned by a second weekly fall in US crude stockpiles ahead of the intensive winter period. The US Federal Reserve's decision to cut interest rates to 4.5% also helped to drive prices higher.

An array of factors has been driving oil prices higher. Oil prices have risen as the sliding greenback makes oil, which is priced in dollars, cheaper to buy outside the US. The dollar hit its weakest levels against the pound since 1981 on Wednesday. At the same time, oil investors have been casting a nervous eye on Turkey's threats to carry out a major military incursion into northern Iraq to attack Kurdish rebels.

In past months, there have also been concerns about the stop-start violence in Nigeria's main oil producing region, the international community's unresolved nuclear dispute with Iran and heating supplies for the US winter. Mexico was forced to halt one-fifth of oil production at the start of the week by a tropical storm hitting its Caribbean coast, sparking further supply fears, but it now expects to resume full production by Wednesday. Some analysts expect crude prices to hit $100 a barrel before the end of the year.

The parties have agreed to settlement terms. Morgan Stanley will pay several million dollars and promises to revise their precious metals storage processes. However, there is no admission of any wrongdoing.

THE ISSUE SPECIFICALLY CONCERNS WHETHER MORGAN STANLEY AND MANY OTHER LARGE FINANCIAL ORGANIZATIONS WHO CLAIM TO HOLD AND STORE SILVER FOR THEIR CUSTOMERS, ACTUALLY POSSESS THE SILVER. By not actually buying and storing the real metal to back the customers' purchase, financial firms can greatly enhance their bottom line profits through the free use of the customers' funds.

I have long maintained and written that there are two types of silver when it comes to professional storage, real SILVER AND PAPER SILVER; cold hard metal versus imaginary or make-believe silver.

Most stored silver is in 1000-ounce bars, and they are always identified with SERIAL NUMBERS and a specific weight. If an investor was concerned, all he or she had to do was request the serial numbers and specific weights of the bars they owned.

A reader, who held silver in 1000 oz bars, requested Morgan Stanley provide him with the serial numbers and weights of his bars, on which he had paid storage and insurance fees for many years. He was given the run-around and not the serial numbers and weights. I am aware of this through e-mail exchanges with him. I told him that the only plausible reason they wouldn't give him the information was because the bars did not exist. He contacted a lawyer and that ultimately resulted in the class-action settlement, after years of legal wrangling.

I FOUND IT APPALLING THAT MORGAN STANLEY WOULD CLAIM TO STORE SILVER THAT DIDN'T EXIST AND EVEN HAVE THE CHUTZPAH TO CHARGE FOR THE STORAGE. THAT WOULD APPEAR TO BE A CLEAR CASE OF FRAUD. I am even more appalled that the judge in the case, or any government regulator, would look the other way.

Morgan Stanley's actions were not in any way unique in this practice. In fact, in the court documents summarizing the proposed settlement, one of Morgan Stanley's defenses was that they were not doing anything unusual by charging storage on metal that didn't exist, as THIS IS A WIDESPREAD INDUSTRY PRACTICE.

IF YOU OR I ARRANGED TO DO WHAT HUNDREDS OF WORLD FINANCIAL INSTITUTIONS HAVE DONE, WE WOULD QUICKLY BE PUT IN JAIL, AS IT IS FRAUD, PURE AND SIMPLE.

They say that unless the technology advances much faster than the market is managing on its own, solar cells will play only a marginal role in limiting the buildup of "greenhouse" gases in the atmosphere from the burning of fossil fuels.

The greatest growth in emissions of carbon dioxide, the principal greenhouse gas linked to recent global warming, is coming from China's rapidly growing use of coal to power the very industrial economy that is churning out the solar panels to sell overseas.

By comparison, the steady decrease in mountain snowpack -- the loss of the deep accumulation of high-altitude winter snow that melts each spring to provide the American West with most of its water -- seems to be a more modest worry.

But not all researchers agree with this ranking of dangers. Last May, for instance, Steven Chu, a Nobel laureate and the director of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, one of the United States government's pre-eminent research facilities, remarked that diminished supplies of fresh water might prove a far more serious problem than slowly rising seas. When I met with Chu last summer in Berkeley, the snowpack in the Sierra Nevada, which provides most of the water for Northern California, was at its lowest level in 20 years.

Chu noted that even the most optimistic climate models for the second half of this century suggest that 30 to 70 percent of the snowpack will disappear. "There's a two-thirds chance there will be a disaster," Chu said, "and that's in the best scenario."

Channel 2 and Channel 10 TV showed the world map, sketching the basic alignment of the two opposing axes in a coming world war, in a manner evoking associations of the Gog and Magog prophecy for many viewers. The prophecy of Gog and Magog refers to a great world war centered on the Holy Land and Jerusalem and first appears in the book of Yechezkel (Ezekiel).

On one side were Israel, the United States, Britain, France and Germany. On the other were Iran, Russia, China, Syria and North Korea.

US President Bush said Wednesday during a press conference that Iran attaining nuclear weapons raises the risk of World War III. "If Iran had a nuclear weapon, it'd be a dangerous threat to world peace," Bush said. "So I told people that if you're interested in avoiding World War III, it seems like you ought to be interested [in preventing a nuclear Iran]?I take the threat of Iran with a nuclear weapon very seriously."

The unusually stark warning by Fatih Birol, chief economist of the International Energy Agency, about the impact of Asia's emerging giants comes as the agency prepares to issue its influential annual report next week, which will focus on China and India. In preparing the report, Birol said he had experienced "an earthquake" in his thinking.

"China plus India are going to dominate growth in the oil markets," Birol said during an interview at an oil industry conference. During the past 18 months, he noted, more than two-thirds of the growth in global oil demand came from China and India alone.

Demand for oil in China, he added, would eventually equal the entire supply from Saudi Arabia.

Partly as a result, he added, the annual report would predict that oil prices, now at about $93 a barrel, could remain at levels much higher than thought possible in the past. This, he said, heightened the risk of a serious global economic slowdown.

"We may see very high prices that will come to a level where the wheels may fall off," Birol said. "I definitely believe that if prices stay at these levels, there will be a slowdown of the global economy."

Labour's favourite think tank says that because it would be hard to 'expunge' Christmas from the national calendar, 'even-handedness' means public organisations must start giving other religions equal footing.

Other controversial measures it proposes include:

- New 'birth ceremonies', at which the state and parents agree to 'work in partnership' to bring up newborns
- Action to 'ensure access' for ethnic minorities to the 'largely white' British countryside
- An overhaul of Britain's 'imperial' honours system
- Bishops being thrown out of the House of Lords
- An end to 'sectarian' religious education in schools
- Encouraging people to fly flags other than the Union Jack

The report robustly defends the doctrine of multiculturalism - the idea that different communities should not be forced to integrate but should be allowed to maintain their own culture and identities - which has been widely criticised in recent months.

It insists there is no 'evidence to support the claim that multiculturalist policies lead to fragmented communities. We can no longer define ourselves as a Christian nation, nor an especially religious one in any sense. The empire is gone, church attendance is at historically low levels, and the Second World War is inexorably slipping from memory.'

Shadow Minister for Community Cohesion Sayeeda Warsi said: 'Gordon Brown's favoured think tank's advisers have clearly lost the plot. Their comments betray a breathtaking misunderstanding of what it is to be British. These proposals could actually damage community cohesion.'

But an IPPR spokesman insisted: 'Sayeeda Warsi clearly doesn't understand the point we are making. IPPR's report recommends that Christmas should be celebrated by all who want to but that society should respect the religious festivals of all faiths in Britain.'

The Fed lowered its federal funds rate to 4.50 percent, as the markets widely anticipated. Lower interest rates tend to undermine the dollar and raise the allure of precious metals as an investment alternative. The dollar stumbled to another low against the euro ahead of the Fed's decision on Wednesday, helping drive gold higher.

Although the regular trading sessions of most commodities markets were closed before the Fed released its decision, gold prices continued to climb in aftermarket trading. An ounce of gold gained and settled at $795.30 an ounce on the New York Mercantile Exchange, then rose to a high of $800.80 ounce in later electronic activity.

GOLD last topped $800 an ounce in 1980, when prices reached as high as $875 an ounce in January. ADJUSTED FOR INFLATION, AN $800 OUNCE OF GOLD IN 1980 WOULD BE WORTH MORE THAN $2,000 TODAY.

THE EURO, which hit a high for the fourth straight trading day, reached a record at over $1.45 in afternoon trading.

In the energy market, LIGHT SWEET CRUDE FOR DECEMBER DELIVERY GAINED $4.13 TO $94.51 in electronic trading on the Nymex

The four-day meeting will examine solutions and technologies that can be used to provide a basic need for nearly half the world's population. According to estimates, 2.6bn people around the world lack access to a hygienic toilet. In India alone, more than 700 million people have no access to toilets which have proper waste disposal systems.

Thirty were killed in the Dominican Republic in the east of the island, the country's National Emergencies Centre said, and 25,000 have been evacuated. Another 18 were killed and thousands evacuated in Haiti to the west, which was hit by flash floods and landslides. Haiti is especially vulnerable to flash floods and mudslides because most of its trees have been felled to make charcoal. In Cuba, where at least 3,000 people have been evacuated, about 1,000 homes have been damaged and floods have cut off several areas.

"The situation is still dangerous and the number of deaths could rise," said Luis Luna Palino, a spokesman for the Dominican Republic's National Emergencies Centre. "Rescuing people is becoming difficult because the rains are continuing."

Emigdio Sosa, director of the Dominican Republic presidential office's social assistance plan, said that so far 145,000 families had been given emergency aid in the form of food, blankets, mattresses and mosquito nets. "We project that we will be helping more than 300,000 families," Mr Sosa said. In Haiti, around 3,400 people are being housed in emergency shelters and some 400 homes have been destroyed.

The outgoing IMF managing director said the depreciation of the dollar had been orderly, but cautioned there was a risk of a runaway sell-off that would hit growth in major economies.

The risks of a disorderly fall in the US currency appeared to increase over the weekend after the IMF failed to agree internal reforms that would have set the stage for it to take on a greater role managing global economic imbalances.

"Up to now, movements in exchange rates have been orderly and in line with fundamentals. But there are risks that an abrupt fall in the dollar could either be triggered by, or itself trigger, a loss of confidence in dollar assets," Mr Rato said. Hank Paulson, US Treasury secretary, said the IMF needed to press on with efforts to make its surveillance of member country exchange rate policies more effective, adding it was a "defining issue" for the fund.

"IMF staff need to roll up their sleeves, undertake thorough analysis and put forward their judgments. Without meaningful exchange rate surveillance, governance and management, reform will ring hollow," he said.

The fastest-growing major economy for two decades straight, China looks resilient enough to withstand a serious U.S. slowdown and still expand at close to 10 percent a year. "What China has already contributed to global growth and whether China could offer extra momentum are two separate issues," said Dong Tao, chief China economist at Credit Suisse in Hong Kong. "The question is, will China offer the additional orders in case U.S. consumption sees incremental decline? I doubt that."

The International Monetary Fund says 2007 will mark the first year that China contributes more to global growth than any other country, measured according to market GDP weights. And it forecasts that China will steam further ahead as the main engine for expansion next year. Tellingly, however, the fund projects a dip in Chinese growth to 10.0 percent in 2008 from a 13-year high of 11.5 percent this year.

Australia's wheat crop is now forecast to produce 12.1m tonnes, down from 15.5m tonnes expected last month and nearly half the 22.5m tonnes that was projected in June.

The price of wheat hit a record of $9.6175 a bushel in late September as bad weather damaged crops in Europe, Canada and Australia. Wheat stocks are already near their lowest since 1979, according to the International Grain Council, an intergovernmental body.

Australia's wheat production fell to 9.8m tonnes last year, one of the worst crops on record. It typically averages about 25m tonnes. Wheat prices have risen sharply this year on a combination of reduced supply and strong demand from developing countries such as China and India. Consumers are demanding more meat and poultry, forcing up cereal demand for livestock.