Greek Orthodox and Armenian Apostolic priests were sweeping up at the church following the Christmas rites of the Western churches earlier in the week. Reports say some Orthodox faithful encroached on the Armenian section, prompting pitched battles with brooms.

Intense rivalries at the jointly-run church can set off vicious feuds. The basilica, built over the grotto in the West Bank town that is the reputed birthplace of Jesus Christ is shared by Roman Catholic, Greek Orthodox and Armenian religious authorities.

Palestinian police formed a human cordon to separate the battling dark-robed and bearded priests and deacons, said to number about 80, so that cleaning could continue.

A PPP spokesman has told the BBC that Ms Bhutto was injured. It is not clear how badly. She had just addressed the rally in the town of Rawalpindi. National and provincial assembly elections are due on 8 January.

In October some 130 people were killed in an attack on Ms Bhutto's cavalcade when she returned to the country. It was one of the worst incidents of violence in a year of deteriorating security in Pakistan.

Update: BBC:- "Benazir Bhutto's husband is quoted as saying his wife's condition is serious.

Update: Reuters are reporting that Benazir Bhutto has died.

"We, believers from three religions, have been placed in this land -- Jews, Christians and Muslims. It is our responsibility to find the right way to live together in peace rather than to fight and kill one another," the council members said in a communiqué. Ten members of the council met with American religious and government leaders. "Each religious community should treat the Holy Sites of other faiths in a manner that respects their integrity and independence and avoids any act of desecration, aggression or harm," the council communiqué said.

The group included Chief Rabbi David Rosen, president of the International Jewish Committee for Interreligious Consultations; His Beatitude Michel Sabbah, the Latin patriarch of Jerusalem; and Sheikh Tayser Rajab al-Tamimi, the supreme judge of Sharia Courts in Palestine.

In a separate action on Monday, senior Palestinian religious leaders agreed to establish a Palestinian branch of the Religions for Peace Interreligious Council.

The proposals come in the wake of criticism that the Church is top heavy and the bishops too costly, while congregations are shrinking and parishes are strapped for cash. But they are likely to anger some bishops, who feel they are already overstretched and undervalued. All of the Church's 113 bishops are currently paid for centrally by the Commissioners, last year to the tune of nearly £25 million.

The cost includes housing for 44 senior diocesan bishops, some of whom live in historic palaces and castles. But under the proposals being discussed by the Archbishops and other leaders, the Commissioners would reduce their support to no more than two bishops per diocese. According to confidential Church papers, any diocese with more than two bishops - nearly half have between three and six - would have to fund the extra posts themselves or scrap them. While a few wealthy dioceses may be able to raise enough from donations, most would be forced to shed posts.

Critics of the hierarchy point out that in 1900 there were 57 bishops - 31 diocesan and 26 suffragan - and about 24,000 clergy. While there are now 113 bishops - 44 diocesan and 69 suffragan - and only 9,000 full-time parish clergy, supplemented by a similar number of part-time clergy and licensed lay people.

One Synod member said yesterday: "Frankly, half the bishops could go and they wouldn't be missed. Those that are left should be out and about taking the Gospel to the country rather than sitting in meetings all day."

Diocesan bishops are paid £35,890 a year while suffragans, who are generally provided with accommodation by their diocese, get £29,560.

The number of young people prosecuted for being drunk and disorderly has soared by nearly a third in two years. A culture of 24-hour binge-drinking has been partly blamed for the rise of more than 1,000 offences since 2004.

The figures increase pressure on the Government to end all-day drinking and strengthen calls by police and health groups to make the legal drinking age 21. According to Government figures revealed in a written Parliamentary answer, 4,649 under-18s were taken to court or given fixed-penalty notices for being drunk and disorderly in 2006.

Bush is due in the region Jan. 9 as part of a follow-up to last month's U.S.-led Israeli-Palestinian Annapolis summit. During his trip, the American president is scheduled to hold talks with Israeli leaders in Jerusalem, and meet quickly with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas in the West Bank city of Ramallah.

According to Israeli security officials coordinating deployments of forces with the PA for Bush's Ramallah visit, members of the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, Fatah's declared military wing, have been called upon by the PA to participate in the protection of Bush's convoy and in securing the parameter during the meeting with Abbas.

The Brigades is listed as a terror organization by the U.S. State Department. The group took credit along with the Islamic Jihad terror organization for every suicide bombing in Israel between 2005 and 2006, and is responsible for thousands of shootings and rocket firings. Statistically, the Al Aqsa Brigades perpetuated more terrorism from the West Bank than Hamas, according to the Israeli Defense Forces.

During their investigation, Rugby police provided her with a crime-fighting booklet that discusses home security. But she told the Advertiser when she asked about putting in a new security fence and upgrading its capabilities, she was told THE LAWS ON LIABILITY MEANT SHE RISKED A POLICE INVESTIGATION HERSELF IF ANY TRESPASSERS HURT THEMSELVES CLIMBING IT.

She had wanted to add barbed wire to the fence in order to reduce the ease with which the robbers apparently gained access to her home. But the Warwickshire Police "Operation Impact" booklet, which gives victims information on crime-fighting, suggested SHE COULD RISK A PROSECUTION HERSELF IF SOMEONE WOULD BE HURT.

"I respect that if the postman or the gas man calls, they don't expect to hurt themselves. But I was speechless - you couldn't make it up. I THINK THESE LAWS SHOW WE HAVE GONE SOFT IN THE HEAD," SHE TOLD THE NEWSPAPER.

Yasuo Fukuda's two-day stay follows a series of conciliatory gestures on both sides. Signs of improving relations have been gathering pace, helping to push aside long-standing disputes over territory, wartime history and a regional rivalry.

"Both sides want better ties, but they can't change the fact their relations are fraught with problems," said Hisashi Takahashi, international relations professor at Sophia University in Tokyo. "The question is, whether they can keep on talking, because the problems are going to take a long time to tackle."

China is Japan's No. 1 trade partner; Japan is a top investor in China.

The pound bought just one euro 37.6 cents in quiet Christmas Eve trading. "There are increasing signs that the British economy has hit a brick wall triggered by the decline in the housing market," said analysts at BNP Paribas. The European Central Bank (ECB) president Jean-Claude Trichet's recent comments have also boosted the euro.

Britain's record trade deficit has also helped push down the value of sterling.

Kathleen Casey-Kirschling, born on January 1, 1946, is acknowledged as the nation's first baby boomer and the first to apply for social security benefits, for which she will be eligible in 2008. The New Jersey grandmother is the first of an estimated 80 million Americans born between 1946 and 1964, a GENERATION THAT LED A SOCIAL REVOLUTION IN THE 1960S AND CHANGED THE FABRIC OF MOST FACETS OF SOCIETY.

The cost for government-funded social security and medical care for the boomers leaves a FUNDING GAP OF BETWEEN 40 AND 76 TRILLION DOLLARS FOR NEXT 75 YEARS, according to various estimates. "America is facing a demographic juggernaut," says Brent Green, a marketing consultant and author, in his "Boomers" blog. "An unprecedented number will soon be entering the retirement stage of life. One-third of the population will be over 50 by 2010. One in five will be over 65 by 2010."

On the economic side, some fear the "SILVER TSUNAMI" WILL DRAIN THE COUNTRY OF ITS WEALTH. The problems are even more acute in some European countries and Japan which face a similar demographic time bomb.

Authorities in the remote district where the churches were attacked, most nothing more than mud and thatch houses, have deployed 450 police to quell the violence, which had tapered off by Wednesday, said Bahugrahi Mahapatra a government official. There were conflicting reports of what sparked the unrest in Orissa, a state in eastern India with a history of violence against the area's tiny Christian minority. Mahapatra called the violence a "sensitive matter" and refused to discuss how it began.

Some reports said that Christians had attacked a hardline Hindu leader, Laxmanananda Saraswati of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad group, who had been leading an anti-conversion movement. But the New Delhi-based Catholic Bishops Conference of India said the fighting began when Hindu extremists objected to a Christmas Eve show, believing the display was designed to encourage Hindus at the bottom of the religion's rigid caste hierarchy to convert to Christianity.

An argument over the Christmas show got out of hand and some of the Hindus opened fire on the Christians, injuring three of them, said John Dayal, a spokesman for the Bishops Conference. The Hindus then went on a rampage on Christmas Day, chasing people out of six churches and setting the buildings ablaze, he said.

The warplanes struck in an "effective pinpoint operation" targeting eight caves and other hideouts being used by the separatist rebels of the Kurdistan Workers' Party, or PKK, the military said in a statement posted on its website. On Tuesday, Turkey's military claimed that more than 200 Kurdish rebel targets in northern Iraq have been hit since Dec. 16, killing hundreds of rebels. Wednesday's strikes were the third aerial operation confirmed by the military since Dec. 16. The military also has confirmed that it sent ground troops to hunt down the rebels on Dec. 18.

The PKK has waged a war for autonomy in parts of Turkey for more than two decades. The fighting has cost tens of thousands of lives. The U.S., the European Union and Turkey consider the PKK a terrorist organization, but the U.S. in particular has been concerned that Turkish operations affecting northern Iraq could destabilize one of the war-torn country's most stable areas.

Ankara has said it would not tolerate more PKK attacks, after a string of deadly ambushes killed dozens of troops in the past months. In October, the parliament allowed the government to send troops into Iraq to hit rebel bases there.

Officers from the Secret Intelligence Service staged discussions, known as "jirgas", with senior insurgents on several occasions over the summer. An intelligence source said: "The SIS officers were understood to have sought peace directly with the Taliban with them coming across as some sort of armed militia. The British would also provide 'mentoring' for the Taliban."

The disclosure comes only a fortnight after the Prime Minister told the House of Commons: "We will not enter into any negotiations with these people." Opposition leaders said that Mr Brown had "some explaining to do".

Dozens of people packed out a council meeting to express their concerns over the plans for a two-minute long call to prayer to be issued three times a day, saying that it could drown out the traditional sound of church bells. But a spokesman for the Central Mosque said that Muslim's also have the right to summon worshippers.

After the meeting, Sardar Rana, a spokesman for the Central Mosque, said he would be happy to clarify any issues and invited anyone to come to the mosque so he could satisfy their concerns. He said: "The call is going on in so many places in the UK, and we must get the same right as everybody else. When they ring the bells in church, we respect it but that is also a call to prayer. We don't want to do anything that will disturb the people or upset the people."

Israeli restrictions forbid Jewish prayer on the Temple Mount and only allow Jews to ascend for certain hours on some days while the Mount is open to Muslims yearlong. Muslim prayer services take place throughout the day in the many mosques and Islamic religious schools situated on the holy site.

"WE DEMAND THE GOVERNMENT OF ISRAEL ALLOW THE JEWISH PEOPLE TO HAVE FREEDOM OF RELIGIOUS EXPRESSION ON THE TEMPLE MOUNT. This will serve as a preliminary step in confirming the Jewish people's inexorable connection with the Temple Mount, location of the Holy Temple, under the sovereignty of the people of Israel," states a letter to Prime Minister Ehud Olmert signed by the leaders of the New Jewish Congress, the Sanhedrin and the Holy Temple and Temple Mount movements.

The Congress is a group of religious Zionist leaders here while the Sanhedrin consists of prominent rabbinic leaders who in 2004 reformed the ancient group of Jewish judges that previously constituted the legislative body of Israel. The reformed Sanhedrin has been a subject of debate within some Jewish communities. The rabbinic leaders and activists demanded the Israeli government move toward allowing non-Muslim worship by initially establishing special days for Jewish communal prayer in fixed locations on the Temple Mount.

THEY DEMANDED OLMERT ALLOW PRAYER ON THE MOUNT ON IMPORTANT JEWISH HOLIDAYS, INCLUDING PASSOVER, SHAVUOT, SUKKOT, ROSH HASHANA, YOM KIPPUR, THE FIRST DAY OF HANUKKAH AND ON THE ISRAELI NATIONAL HOLIDAYS OF JERUSALEM DAY AND ISRAELI INDEPENDENCE DAY.

Last Wednesday, (19th Dec) Jews commemorated the Jewish fast day of the Tenth of Tevet, mourning the First Temple's destruction and the siege placed on Jerusalem leading up to Temple's destruction during the reign of the Babylonian ruler Nebuchadnezzar.

Jewish organizations and Temple Mount activist groups here were planning visits to the Temple Mount in observance of last Wednesday's Jewish day of mourning. Rabbi Chaim Richman, director of the international department at Israel's Temple Institute, a Mount activist group which planned to lead a tour of the site this week, said Israeli police informed his group earlier this week that they had decided the Mount would be closed the rest of the week to non-Muslims FOR FEAR OF OFFENDING MUSLIMS ON THE ISLAMIC HOLIDAY.

The letter to Olmert called the Temple Mount "'THE HOLIEST PLACE IN THE WORLD FOR THE JEWISH PEOPLE,' yet Jews are denied the right to pray in groups, and even as individuals ... they are granted no opportunity for any religious expression whatsoever on the Temple Mount. However, let it be known that the Jewish people will never accept the total refusal of Jewish communal prayer on the Mountain," the letter states.