There have been many boycotts before, but with its dominance in manufacturing, those vowing not to buy Chinese face an especially tough challenge. Sitting on the bus wending your way to work and wherever you are, you probably have a bit of China with you. Listening to your iPod. Made in China. Fiddling with your key ring. Made in China. Label on the inside of your underpants irritating you a little bit. It more than likely says "Made in China".

When there was a boycott of South African products during the Apartheid era or of France by irritated Americans in the run-up to the Iraq war, those were political statements that might have meant a little privation for those involved. But they weren't on the same scale as China.

A boycott of Chinese products really meets its match in the field of consumer electronics. There is some production still in Europe, particularly of expensive equipment, says Rob Follis, a public relations consultant for consumer electronics firms, but it is dwindling in the face of outsourcing to China.

Alan Milne, of Equitoy, the Association for Toy Importers, says it is impossible to put a precise figure on the level of Chinese toys imported, with EU trade rules complicating the matter. But it was estimated last year that of all the toys sold in the UK, 85% are made in China. Recent years have seen a steady stream of big names taking their production to China. British firm Hornby and the Swedish wooden train set maker Brio are among the recent departures.

Avoiding China is hard in the globalised world trade system. Something of Shanghai or Shenzen is in so much of what we own. Even the most hardened boycotter may inadvertently be buying the "wrong" thing.

The president made this affirmation Friday when he answered the last question posed him during an interview with Eternal Word Television Network (EWTN) anchor Raymond Arroyo. Arroyo noted that Bush is planning an all-out welcome for the Pope, who arrives in the United States on Tuesday for a five-day visit. Most notably, Bush will go to the airport to receive the [Pontiff], a courtesy he has never extended to any visiting leader.

The president says he plans to do this "because [the Pope] is a really important figure in a lot of ways. One, he speaks for millions. Two, he doesn't come as a politician; he comes as a man of faith. And, three, that I so subscribe to his notion that... there's right and wrong in life, that moral relativism has a danger of undermining the capacity to have more hopeful and free societies, that I want to honor his convictions, as well."

The [Pope], Bush said, "represents and stands for some values that I think are important for the health of the country, and when he comes to America, millions of my fellow citizens will be hanging on his every word. And that's why it's important."

The exiled Tibetan spiritual leader denied Chinese claims that he has called for Tibet to be split from China and that he is behind recent turmoil, saying instead that he is committed to pursuing Tibet's right to autonomy.
"The whole world knows that the Dalai Lama is not seeking independence, nor separation," he said at a news conference. Recent protests in Tibet against five decades of Chinese rule have been the largest and most sustained in almost two decades and have fueled protests that have disrupted the global torch relay for this summer's Olympic Games in Beijing.

"Our struggle is with a few in the leadership of the People's Republic of China and not with the Chinese people," the Dalai Lama said in a statement released after the news conference. "If the present situation in Tibet continues, I am very much concerned that the Chinese government will unleash more force and increase the suppression of Tibetan people." He said that if the Chinese stop such suppression and withdraw armed police and troops, he would advise all Tibetans to stop their protests.

Faced with having to ration domestic water supplies during the coming months, the regional government of Catalonia, of which Barcelona is the capital, plans to import drinking water by ship from as far afield as southern France and from desalination plants in southern Spain. Officials said they were even considering buying water from other parts of the country and carrying it to Barcelona by train.

With water levels in some Catalan reservoirs at 20 percent of capacity, the regional government has banned Catalans from filling large swimming pools or watering their gardens and has switched off city fountains. At a national level, Spain's reservoirs are half empty, according to data published by the Environment Ministry last week.

This synchronized global slowdown, which has become increasingly stark in recent months, is hobbling economic growth worldwide, affecting not just homes, but also jobs. In Ireland, Spain, Britain and elsewhere, housing markets that soared over the past decade are falling back to earth. Experts predict that some countries, like Ireland, will face an even more wrenching adjustment than the United States, with the possibility that the downturn could turn into wholesale collapse.

To some extent, the world's problems are a result of American contagion. As home financing and credit tighten in response to the crisis that began in the U.S. subprime market, analysts worry that other countries could suffer the mortgage defaults and foreclosures that have afflicted California, Florida and other states. Citing the far-flung reverberations from the American housing bust and credit squeeze, the International Monetary Fund cut its forecast Wednesday for global economic growth this year and warned that the malaise could extend into 2009.

"The problems in the U.S. are being transmitted to Europe," said Michael Ball, professor of urban and property economics at the University of Reading in England, who studies housing prices. "What's happening now is an awful lot more grief than we expected."

Siew held a historic meeting with China President Hu Jintao during an economic forum in China over the weekend, where the two agreed to restart talks that have been frozen since 1999, Siew told reporters after his return. China has claimed self-ruled Taiwan as its territory since the end of the Chinese civil war in 1949 and pledged to bring the island under its rule, by force if necessary.

Siew said it was too early to comment on a timetable, but that both sides wanted to start talks as soon as possible. The last eight years have seen relations across the Taiwan Strait sour under the administration of outgoing President Chen Shui-bian, whose Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) favors formal independence from China.

But last month, voters overwhelmingly picked the main opposition candidate, Ma Ying-jeou, and running mate Siew, of the Nationalist Party (KMT), to become Taiwan's next president and vice president, partly on the promise of better China ties.

His warning follows that from the leader of the International Monetary Fund, who said hundreds of thousands of people were at risk of starvation. Mr Zoellick proposed an action plan to boost long-run agricultural production.
There have been food riots recently in a number of countries, including Haiti, the Philippines and Egypt.

"Based on a rough analysis, we estimate that a doubling of food prices over the last three years could potentially push 100 million people in low-income countries deeper into poverty," Mr Zoellick said. His proposal for a "new deal" to tackle the international food crisis was endorsed by the World Bank's steering committee of finance and development ministers at a meeting in Washington.

Food prices have risen sharply in recent months, driven by increased demand, poor weather in some countries that has ruined crops and an increase in the use of land to grow crops for transport fuels.

Restrictions on rice exports have been put in place in major producing countries such as India, China, Vietnam and Egypt. Importers such as Bangladesh, the Philippines and Afghanistan have been hit hard. "We have to put our money where our mouth is now so that we can put food into hungry mouths," Mr Zoellick said. "It's as stark as that."

Chinese President Hu Jintao and Taiwan Vice President-elect Vincent Siew shook hands and talked one-on-one for about 20 minutes on Saturday, in what many analysts saw as a breakthrough that could thaw their icy relations and pave the way for closer trade and transit links. Siew, who attended the meeting in a private capacity, met Chinese Commerce Minister Chen Deming on Sunday. Each led a delegation of industrialists, academics and officials to discuss details of how to step up cooperation.

They first met behind closed doors and then held an hour-long seminar, with executives from technology, shipping and other companies from both sides swapping views on the specific market opening and cooperation they hoped to see in their fields. China's Chen called normalizing trade and economic ties between the two sides an urgent matter. "This urgency results especially from the current global uncertainties that we both face," Chen said, pointing to the economic slowdown in the United States and other Western countries as well as soaring prices for natural resources.

"In such times, when we see such a good chance to bring our two sides' economic and trade ties forward towards normalization, ... by working together, we can reduce the negative impact on us from the slowing of growth in Western countries," he said.

The groups named Jerusalem District Police Commander Aharon Franco, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, Public Security Minister Avi Dichter, the state of Israel, and the Muslim Waqf in a suit alleging racist discrimination.

The organizations are demanding that those named in their suit stop preventing Jews from accessing the Temple Mount, refrain from bothering Jews who attempt to enter the area, and prevent inappropriate behavior. The groups mentioned a recent incident in which Muslim youths played soccer on the Temple Mount as an example of such behavior.

The groups said allowing them to access the Temple Mount would be a victory for freedom of religion. Forbidding Jews from holding their religious ceremonies on the Temple Mount is racism, they said.

The Pope arrives to the US capital Tuesday, for his first visit to the country since elected Pontiff, and will most likely see some of the other banners posted by the Archdiocese of Washington when he travels through the city Thursday in the popemobile. "These ads are a visible expression of our great affection for the [Pope]and our excitement for his upcoming visit," said Susan Gibbs, director of communications for the Archdiocese of Washington.

The text "One who has hope lives differently," taken from Benedict XVI's encyclical "Spe Salvi," runs across the center of the ad. The Pope will visit the White House on Wednesday, and later the same day he will participate in a prayer service and meeting with the nation's 350 bishops.

On Thursday morning he will celebrate Mass at the new Nationals Park in Washington, meet with the heads of more than 200 Catholic colleges and universities at the Catholic University of America, and then meet with interreligious leaders at the Pope John Paul II Cultural Center.

Fu Ying also said that a young Chinese woman asked her: "Where is the gentlemanship?" after the protests during the Olympic torch run in London. Many of the visitors from China who were in London last week felt that Britain was against them, she added. Ms Fu said in the Sunday Telegraph that Tibet is "loved" by the Chinese. The ambassador wrote: "I am concerned that mutual perceptions between the people of China and the West are quickly drifting in opposite directions."

"Of those who protested loudly, many probably have not seen Tibet. For the Chinese people, Tibet is a loved land and information about it is ample. There may be complicated problems of religion mixing with politics, but people are well-fed, well-clothed and well-housed. That has been the main objective of China for centuries. Tibet may not grow into an industrial place like the eastern cities in China, but it will move on like other parts of China."

According to BBC political correspondent, Laura Kuenssberg, officials from the British Foreign Office suggest that one way to settle disputes about biased reporting would be for China to allow the international press free access to Tibet. But Ms Fu says that Western media has to earn China's "respect".

Hu's comments to visiting Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd marked his first public comments on anti-government protests that broke out in the Tibetan capital of Lhasa last month. "Our conflict with the Dalai clique is not an ethnic problem, not a religious problem, nor a human rights problem," the official Xinhua News Agency quoted Hu as saying, referring to supporters of Tibet's exiled Buddhist leader, the Dalai Lama, who Beijing blames for fomenting the unrest.

"It is a problem either to safeguard national unification or to split the motherland," Hu told Rudd at a meeting on the sidelines of a regional economic forum in China's southern province of Hainan. As Tibet's former Communist Party boss, Hu enforced a harsh crackdown against the last major anti-government protests there in 1989 and has tightened Chinese rule over the Himalayan region since taking over as president in 2003.

Under Hu, the party has increased controls over Tibetan Buddhism and increasingly opened the region to travel and migration from other parts of China. Hu's remarks come a day after China ratcheted up its attacks on overseas critics, blasting a US congressional resolution on Tibet as "crude interference" and labeling a leading Tibetan exile group a terrorist organization.

The supermarket chain's partnership with Dunnhumby, the market research specialist, is being rolled out to nine countries where Tesco operates, including Thailand, South Korea and China but not, as yet, the United States. Dunnhumby has worked with Tesco in the UK since Clubcard was introduced in 1995. Analysts claim that its vast database of shopping preferences has been one of the supermarket's biggest competitive advantages over the past decade.

Every day Dunnhumby crunches data taken from Tesco's tills to generate a picture of what its 13.5 million Clubcard holders are buying and why they may be switching products. Discount coupons and promotions are targeted at individuals based on extensive records of their past purchases.

The new agreement is almost certain to spark yet more controversy over Tesco's power. It already claims nearly £1 of every £7 spent on the high street and is set to report pretax profits of nearly £3 billion on Tuesday. It will now have the potential to map every tendency of a customer base equal in size to the population of the United Kingdom. Dunnhumby, which is majority owned by Tesco, generates most of its revenue by selling on the data in an anonymous form to some of the world's biggest companies, such as Coca-Cola and Unilever, to help them to devise marketing campaigns.

"I don't see any chance of us being able to implement an agreement in the near term," the Prime Minister said, addressing a pre-Passover holiday toast at Kadima party headquarters in Petach Tikva. Prime Minister Olmert angrily dismissed criticism that he and Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni are compromising on Jerusalem.

"We will insist on all the terms of the Road Map, first and foremost among them a cessation of terrorism, as a precondition for implementation of any understanding. But the first step creating a horizon of hope for us and for the Palestinians can be taken, it must be taken, and we will make every effort in order to successfully do so this year."

The Prime Minister promised that "the response to Hamas will be such that it will be unable to act against the citizens of Israel as it currently is." Olmert concluded his pre-Passover remarks to his party loyalists by saying, "Ahead of the 60th Independence Day, we can stand tall and tell ourselves: we have a wondrous country, we have achievements, we have power, we have security - and with them we will march forward."

Ambrose Evans Pritchard has a comment piece in the Telegraph discussing the refusal of the ECB to cut interest rates yesterday. Jean-Claude Trichet, the ECB's President, claimed that Europe remains insulated from the unfolding slump in the US and would stick to its sole duty of combating inflation, now at a record 3.5pc. However, the ECB is at odds with the conclusions of the IMF, which urged a rate cut. Evans Pritchard notes that "house prices are more overvalued in Ireland (32pc), Holland (29pc), France (22pc), Belgium (18pc), Spain (17pc), and Italy (12.4pc), than in the United States (12pc), and may be subject to a nasty correction". Irish house prices fell 7.3pc last year.

Hans Redeker, currency chief at BNP Paribas, said the ECB had its head in the sand. "They are not looking at the tidal wave that is about to roll straight over them. Balance-sheet stress in Europe is just as bad as it is in the US. The reporting periods are different, so the bad news has not yet come out," he said. The head of Italy's business federation, Emma Marcegaglia, said the soaring euro was having "a very negative effect on our economy. The ECB should be cutting rates," she said. Meanwhile, deficits have reached 12.5pc of GDP in Greece, and 9.2pc in Spain.